Here is a round up of business news briefs from around Indian Country.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• New Mexico Community Capital partnered with the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University’s American Indian Business Enterprise to offer Financial Basic Business courses to eight people. The first round of courses started Jan. 27, with additional sessions planned in the spring. NMCC developed the program in 2018 to help Native families access tools to start and grow small businesses, and has been rolling out the courses backed by a multi-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Participants receive $1,200 for joining the 15-hour sessions, plus a startup kit and Chromebook computer. More information about the program can be found at this link.
FINANCE
• Cherry Hill, N.J.-based TD Bank awarded $269,500 in TD Ready Challenge grant funding to a collaborative that includes the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Tribes to provide financial coaching to low-income people. The effort, which includes Penquis, the Rural Maine Financial Coaching Collaborative, Eastern, Central, Mid-Coast, and DownEast Maine as well as the tribes, will help people position their families to weather financial difficulties, prioritize bills and budgeting, and to develop and negotiate payment plans. The funding came as part of a $2.8 million round of TD Ready Challenge grants. The bank received more than 1,300 applications for the funding round.
POLICY
• Heather Dawn Thompson (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) was appointed as Director of the Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reporting to the Secretary of Agriculture. A Harvard Law School graduate and an expert in American Indian law, tribal sovereignty, and rural tribal economic development, Thompson recently worked on federal Indian law and tribal agriculture matters at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. Thompson’s appointment drew praise from the Native American Agriculture Fund CEO Janie Hipp (Chickasaw), who formerly served in the OTR role. “Heather has a unique blend of experience and background that make her an excellent choice to lead OTR,” Hipp said. “NAAF will stand behind her and work with her and Secretary Vilsack to achieve the next level of success in Indian Country. We are thrilled she will embark on this new challenge and know that she will work tirelessly on behalf of all Native peoples throughout the U.S.”
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• The St. Paul, Minn.-based Center for Economic Inclusion has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Bank Foundation to boost efforts Black and Indigenous employment in the Twin Cities area in careers paying “family sustaining” wages. The Center has a goal to increase Black and Indigenous employment by 10 percent over the next five years. To accomplish that goal, the Center is creating a Regional Anti-Racism and Economic Justice Trust with employers and policymakers to set goals and provide benchmarking and assisting employers through various workshops and resources to dismantle institutional racism. As well, the Center will launch and scale its Good Jobs Campaign “to build a broadly accepted narrative for the urgent need and positive economic impact on the regional economy” for getting BIPOC people into sustaining careers. “We will measure success by the depth and sustainability of commitment we inspire employers and policy makers to make to new data informed, anti-racist policies and practices over the next two years, that will ensure that we move from recovering a racially exclusive economy, to reimagining and building an economy that works for all of us and leads to parity in employment, income and wealth between white residents and Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian residents,” said Center for Economic Inclusion CEO Tawanna Black.
TOURISM
• Sherry Rupert (Paiute/Washoe), CEO of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA), was appointed to a three-year term on the Business Advisory Council for the Office of National Marine Sanctuary System, which is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “I’m thrilled to be a member of this esteemed council,” Rupert said in a statement. “So many of our nation’s coastal regions and marine parks have deep ties to Native American and Native Hawaiian culture and heritage, and I look forward to working with NOAA to help elevate the voices of the native peoples connected to those coastal regions.” The council works to connect the agency with leaders in national hospitality and recreation organizations to promote responsible tourism to the nation’s underwater parks, which includes more than 600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters.
