Crossing the cultural divide: organizational support for Indians in business.

Our survival as American Indian people is determined in part by our tribal economic environments. We believe the stronger our tribal infrastructures, the stronger all American Indian people will be, socially, politically, and most of all culturally. We are committed to supporting and promoting the American Indian business student and/or entrepreneur, who will ultimately assist in eliminating our oppressed tribal economic environments by designing effective, culturally-appropriate American Indian businesses.

Statement of Commitment, AIBL 

Indian businesses have succeeded at only one-tenth the average rate for all new American business start-ups, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Why the discrepancy? Some observers suggest that different cultural values are the root cause. America's dominant business culture prizes competitiveness and assertiveness; it is achievement-oriented and driven toward material success. Indians, on the other hand, prize cooperation, are patient and tolerant, contentment-oriented, and materialism is less important (Robinson and Hogan). These cultural differences wreck havoc on business management practices. There is a way to work through this, though.

First, the mainstream society model (Anglo) is not one that can be simply implemented and successfully used within a tribal economic environment. The structure that seems to work best for Natives is the family business, where they can be exposed to the predominately Anglo business culture at their own pace, thus minimizing stress and strangeness, while maximizing opportunity. Staying within the family structure can allow Indians to be successful, while still honoring Indian language, history, and culture. Surprisingly, 95 percent of all American businesses are family owned and operated anyway (Danco).

Not all Natives go the family route, though. This spring in Spokane, Washington, about 300 Native Americans gathered at the Fourth Annual National Indian Business Association (NIBA) Conference to talk business. Attendees represented all sorts of professions - business owners, bankers, politicians, travel agents, sales directors, engineers, genetic researchers. They came from hundreds of different tribes and from all over the United States. Most wore business suits and carried briefcases - with an occasional long braid or feathered earring for cultural flavor - and they talked home pages and web sites, traded business cards, made contacts.

Typical business scenario. But for this group, it was anything but typical. In fact, until four years ago there wasn't a single business networking group for Native Americans.

Now, NIBA's membership includes more than 24,000 Native American businesses throughout the United States. Members share ideas, meet others in similar situations, and work together to improve the overall economic situation for Indian people. NIBA also links people who need products and services with those who can provide them. While it's always difficult to start a business or go off to corporate America, having contacts makes a world of difference. With a support group like NIBA, breaking into the business world is an entirely different story than it was five or ten years ago. A few years ago, Indians may have been too intimidated by the culture clash to make a go of it. Now, many are realizing that their peers are doing well in the business world and they are motivated to do the same.

AMERICAN INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS

One group attending the conference believes developing culturally-appropriate tribal business enterprises is the key to survival of American Indians. The economic situation on many Indian reservations is dismal: unemployment is high, incomes are low. Businesses fail because of inexperienced managers. The American Indian Business Leaders' (AIBL) goal is to stimulate student interest in developing reservation-based businesses for tribal economic development.

Organized two years ago at the University of Montana-Missoula, AIBL is the first Indian business networking group on university and college campuses. AIBL promotes education, experience, leadership, and helps students deal with culture clashes early on, before they go out into the business world.

AIBL evolved from a Tribal Leadership Conference held at UM in November of 1993. Throughout the conference, Montana tribal leaders from the state's seven reservations expressed a need for educated, experienced tribal members to come back to the reservations to work for tribal government and/or manage tribal business enterprises.

Michelle Henderson - an enrolled member of the Fort Belknap Assiniboine tribe and MBA graduate student at the time - decided to heed the tribal leaders' call. With the help of Larry Gianchetta, dean of the business school, the first AIBL group was formed. What started two years ago as a small group on the UM campus has grown into 14 chapters at 14 different schools. Now AIBL's national program director, Henderson hopes every university and tribal college across the nation will eventually have an AIBL chapter.

The idea behind AIBL is that students must complete a journey that begins and ends with the tribal community. The student grows up in the tribal community and then goes from high school to a tribal college and/or university. Through the institution's local AIBL chapter, the student can begin to develop leadership skills via networking and internships. A student's journey is complete when he/she returns to his/her tribal community as an educated professional who will help develop successful businesses to promote tribal economic development.

During college, AIBL students are involved in many activities which help them grow professionally. To complement academic studies, Indian students are encouraged to get practical work experience through internships with tribal governments, American Indian-owned businesses, corporate/private businesses, federal/state governments, and other non-profit agencies.

This summer, seven AIBL students are working in paid internships with the Montana Department of Transportation (DOT). Based on their home reservations, these interns serve as liaisons between Indian contractors and DOT. They are responsible for finding Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) that can be certified with DOT to do consulting, designing, and contracting. Because students know the Indian community, they often find business prospects that DOT may otherwise not have found.

"AIBL's overall program is designed to create an avenue through which students can obtain an education, acquire experience and leadership skills, maintain their cultural identity and be successful Indian business leaders within a tribal community and mainstream society," Henderson says.

AIBL plans to start chapters at all of the nation's 29 tribal colleges by Fall 1996. The group's long-term objectives include developing chapters at the elementary and high school levels to generate student interest in business.

While AIBL director Henderson has done an incredible job developing AIBL, she is quick to give credit to the dean of UM's business school and AIBL board member Larry Gianchetta, who the group has given the Indian name Elk Running.

"It wouldn't have happened without his support. He created opportunities with people who have been interested in Indian development and he spearheaded university involvement."

These days, Henderson (who got her MBA degree last spring) spends a lot of time on the road. She travels to campuses to meet with university administrators and students who want to start AIBL chapters, and to Washington D.C. to seek funding to keep the program going. In October 1995, AIBL received a $50,000 grant from the Administration for Native Americans and a $25,000 award from UM's Research Administration to build chapters at universities and tribal colleges nationwide.

Henderson plans to return to Fort Belknap someday, but not until her AIBL goals are accomplished. When she goes back to the reservation, she may open her own business or teach at a tribal college. At any rate, she plans to complete her journey and return home to her tribal community where her young daughter can grow into the Indian culture.

INDIAN ADVERTISER

Following are profiles of three Indian business people who attended the Fourth Annual National Indian Business Association Conference in Spokane, Washington this spring.

Michael Gray used to think that non-Indian companies had the edge in advertising and marketing. Now Gray & Gray - reportedly the only Indian advertising agency in the United States - is right out there competing with the top.

Some days Gray works putting Natives on the Net, some days he invents marketing campaigns for Indian clients, some days he makes plans for the '96 Reservation Get Out and Vote Campaign. Running an advertising agency is always a challenge for Gray, a member of the Blackfeet and Chippewa-Cree tribes who grew up in Browning, Montana.

After graduating from Oregon State in 1990 with an advertising degree, Gray decided he would start his own business. Over the years of attending conferences and trade shows, he had been surprised to find no Indian advertising businesses. He named his company Gray & Gray so his family could be involved and bought his first computers with money he had saved. The reaction from the Indian community was just what he expected - "It's about time, where have you been?"

Based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gray & Gray's business is growing rapidly. Clients range from the American Indian Higher Education Consortium in Alexandria, Virginia, to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Little Shell Tribe of Montana in Havre. Gray has recently linked his business with Advanced Tribal Integrated Information Networks, Inc. (ATIIN), which will give his clients opportunity to advertise their products and services where "millions will be looking" - on the Internet. The president of ATIIN, Laurence Brown (Navajo), hopes to wire Native establishments and individuals so that they can maintain a self-sufficient online presence. With Brown's technical expertise and marketing savvy, the two have started developing web sites for all types of Indian enterprises. "We Put Natives on the Net!" is their slogan. Some of the businesses on their web site "Native Cybertrade" (address: http://www.atiin.com.cybertrade) are the Turtle Island Traders, who sell arts and crafts; Russell Publications, a data resource company; Spiritware, a clothing company; and Indian Artist Magazine.

Native Cybertrade, which Gray calculates gets visited about 10,000 times per week, was mentioned in the December 1995 and February 1996 Wired magazine. One article, "Internet Indian Wars," (Martin) discussed the conflict between a self-proclaimed shaman named Blue Snake and a group of real Indians. Claiming to be a chief of the Eastern Shawnee, Blue Snake held online ceremonies about the mysteries of the American Indian. The problem was that he was "about as Indian as Barbara Bush." This infuriated many Indians, who believed that Anglos like Blue Snake had no right to "pedal Indian spirituality."

Gray says that he has to watch out for Indian wannabes all the time. "People call or e-mail us and say, 'hey, I really like your site, can you link my company to it?' They claim they are Indian businesses - one guy's e-mail address even said shaman. Finally, we had to put out a position paper on it because we were getting so many requests."

Gray & Gray and ATIIN have just been hired to develop web sites for two new tribal clients, the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation in Alaska and New Mexico's Tesque Pueblo Corporation. Gray's job figuring out a marketing strategy for the web site begins with a question: "What do you want to do with this? Provide free information or get clients?" The Net can be an effective way to advertise and bring in business, he says, but before a client jumps into cyberspace, a good focused plan is necessary.

Not all of Gray's clients want to be Natives on the Net. Gray has many different methods of advertising - brochures, newspaper and radio/TV ads, public service announcements, magazines. The way to design the best campaign for a client is to figure out who the audience is and then find the tools to communicate the message in the most useful way. "If it's a bus marquee driving down the road at 30 mph, it's going to be different than a brochure you can sit down and read."

Gray first considered going into the advertising business when he was in high school on the reservation in Browning, Montana.

A high school art teacher convinced him to use his talent for art to pursue an advertising and design degree in college. His interest in art started before that, though. In elementary school, art was a way to learn about Indian traditions. In class, they would make circles or hoops out of leather and paint them. "Here you were doing something that was done 500 years ago. There was more behind it than just finger painting."

Art has always been a major part of the Indian culture, but Gray says not many people know the extent of what you can do with art. That's why Gray is on the board of the World Studio Foundation in New York City, a group that provides scholarship money to minority students to study advertising. Gray also speaks to businesses, agencies, and universities around the U.S. about the role culture plays in advertising. These organizations often consult him about the way copy is written or images are portrayed. Lots of images used in advertising are offensive to Indians, Gray says. For example, Land-O-Lakes butter has a picture of an Indian when Indians have nothing to do with the product. Gray doesn't charge any fees for this consulting; he just wants people to know what's right and what's wrong.

Doing the right thing is important to Gray. One of his prospective clients is a woman in Colorado who is organizing a '96 Reservation Get Out and Vote Campaign. His role in the campaign would be to create public service announcements, design ads, flyers, and do whatever it takes to get Indians to vote even if that means driving up to every house in Browning or Lame Deer.

The most satisfaction Gray gets from his job is seeing Indian companies and organizations reach new levels in terms of advertising and marketing. "Now we can compete with everyone through brochures, advertising campaigns, web sites. We're right out there competing with the top. There shouldn't be any race barriers in advertising. By having top notch campaigns, nothing holds us back."

INDIAN BANKER

He comes from the land of the great Indian warrior Crazy Horse, the Pine Ridge reservation that stretches over 2.8 million acres in South Dakota. Pine Ridge is the largest Indian reservation in the United States, population 20,000 - and the poorest - but as Montana banker Gerald Sherman describes it, "poor in money, wealthy in spirit."

Growing up at Pine Ridge was tough for Sherman, enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and community development officer for First Interstate Bank in Billing. His family was very poor. When he was young, he felt part of the Indian society. When he was 8 years old, he moved off the reservation so his mother could go to college. It was then that he started to realize he was different.

"I stared at all the white faces and was scared to death."

His was the only Indian family in a small white town and he felt out of place. "There used to be this store owner who was always kind of drunk," Sherman says. "My brother and I went in that store and the owner said 'you God-damned Indians.' That stuck with me. I always felt there was something wrong with me."

To make things even more confusing, he was part white. At 13, Sherman moved back to the reservation and went through culture shock again, experiencing racism from his own people. He graduated from Pine Ridge Reservation High School and figures that out of his graduating class of 36, more than half are now dead from alcoholism.

It took Sherman many years, and his own battle with alcoholism, to find his place in society. "I didn't understand until years later how being a half-breed affected me. I couldn't function in society."

At his lowest point, Sherman contemplated suicide. Fear, despair, and depression were part of his daily life. Going through alcohol and drug treatment was the turning point for him. He decided to study business at the Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota. It was then that he learned about the history and development of the reservation.

"I kept wondering why the tribe didn't know this [history]. The tribe kept making the same mistakes - banging its head against the wall." The reservation had no private sector economy, no access to capital, and no technical assistance. Sherman understood then that he had to help the tribe with these problems.

Economic development and community organizing are now his primary tools. As community development officer for First Interstate, a newly-created position, Sherman looks for ways the bank can serve low-income people and Indian reservations. His work takes him to reservations all over the state two or three days of the week and includes anything that falls under economic development - strategic planning sessions, technical and business assistance, affordable housing projects.

First Interstate created this position because it wants to provide better service to reservations and look into hiring more minorities. In addition, the Northern Cheyenne tribe filed a legal challenge when First Interstate tried to merge its Montana and Wyoming banks. The tribe said that because First Interstate did not make loans in low-income sectors, it wasn't addressing the credit needs of the entire community. While the tribe and bank eventually came to an agreement, the problem is pervasive enough that Congress recently enacted a law requiring banks to show they are making loans in low income areas.

Part of Sherman's job is to be negotiator between the tribes and the banks. Having lived most of his life on the reservation, he is committed to helping the tribe as well as the bank.

Before coming to First Interstate in 1995, Sherman had a wide variety of experience: community organizing; non-profit lending; finance; and banking. He worked at two other banks: the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis and Norwest Bank in South Dakota where he managed a branch on the Lower Brule Reservation. His banking career began in 1985 while he was pursuing his business administration degree at the Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota.

The tribe at Pine Ridge Reservation had been trying for years to start businesses, but none of its economic development efforts seemed to work. With his business education, Sherman realized that microenterprise would work best on the reservation - small informal businesses like an arts and crafts shop in someone's garage or a taxi service providing rides to town. Sherman helped build the Lakota Fund, offering community development loans on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He became the executive director and founding chair of the fund, working with investors, funders, and clients. Convincing people to start their own business was hard work.

"It took a long time to create the interest and the entrepreneurial ability," Sherman said. We finally promoted it long enough and people started taking an interest."

Just as things were starting to take off for the project, another problem surfaced: people weren't repaying their loans. Sherman traveled to Bangladesh to study that country's very successful peer lending method, which eventually became a model for the Lakota Fund's microenterprise program and for community and economic development in low income areas and Indian reservations nationwide.

At the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the loan loss rate is an amazingly low 2 percent. The lending method is unique. Instead of using secured loans, the bank uses peer pressure to assure repayment. Here's how it works. People interested in getting a loan join a group of five. When one person gets a loan, he has to pay it off before the next person in the group gets a loan. If one person doesn't pay, no one else can get a loan.

"At the Lakota Fund, we started a loan program that was structured just like that, called the Circle Banking Project," Sherman says. "The Grameen Bank used this [group concept] for social changes too. With these groups, they could start organizing villages, improving villages, and get people involved politically. We started looking at doing these things too. We started giving training [on the reservation] for anything from alcohol and drug awareness to goal setting to developing business plans."

Sherman's hard work with the Lakota Fund has won him widespread recognition. In 1993 he was named Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year for South Dakota and the Small Business Administration's Region Eight. The governor nominated him for the award because of his work on the Lakota Fund and for his overall effort in Indian economic development.

Though he isn't involved in the Lakota Fund anymore, Sherman remains proud of it. The fund has now made $1 million in loans over the past ten years and has moved into a new $1.2 million building.

"It's amazing to go back and see the thing I've started has grown to monstrous proportions," Sherman says. "Everybody's really excited and upbeat, they have a vision and a purpose. The fund is still progressing, having successes. They're getting into financing houses now. They're building a retail business incubator that will provide space for new businesses."

Everything Sherman learned with the Lakota Fund, he uses for his job at First Interstate. A current project involves the tribal business information center at the Chamber of Commerce in Lame Deer. A collaborative effort of the BIA and SBA, the project hopes to install information centers on all Montana reservations. Another project focuses on developing tribal business codes that will stimulate business on reservations. Tribes have their own government and court system and bankers are often reluctant to make loans because they don't know how to deal with tribal systems if they are not repaid. With explicit business codes, bankers will know the rules for working within the tribal courts.

The hardest part about his job, Sherman says, is trying to be in so many places at once. He does a lot of business on his car phone traveling from one reservation to another. And, as First Interstate will be expanding with three more banks in Montana and three banks in Wyoming, he'll likely be doing even more traveling.

Meantime, Sherman says he has found himself as an Indian. "I'm comfortable where I am. I'm not a traditional Indian, but I will always feel Indian. I feel a connection to the reservation and to the land base." As a banker, he's not traditional either.

"It's still difficult to fit in. I'm in a nontraditional banking field. I don't make money, so I always have to justify my position. But the management sees the benefit."

INDIAN POLITICIAN

Being involved in Capital Hill politics is one way to help Native Americans battle against the dismal economic conditions on Indian reservations, according to Myrna Mooney, small business manager for the National Indian Health Service (IHS) located in Washington D.C.

Unemployment on Indian reservations is high and incomes are low. On the reservation where Mooney grew up - the Blackfeet in Browning, Montana - unemployment is 64 percent. The average unemployment rate for all Montana Indian reservations is 54 percent, compared to 5.5 percent for Montana as a whole. The median household income for Indians living on Montana reservations is $13,909, compared to $23,524 for the rest of Montana. The statistics are grim, but Mooney is doing everything she can to fight for the future of the American Indian.

From her office in Washington D.C., Mooney deals with Indian contractors, Indian business people, Indian students and anybody who wants to do work with Indians. She sees herself as the Indian voice on Capital Hill - someone to much base with on any type of Indian issue. The tribes' future, she says, depends on what happens in Washington D.C.

"The tribes should keep an eye on the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make sure their programs are covered for the future. Don't just look at short-term money, look at long-term money. Look at what's going to happen in the future of the American Indian children and the programs that will help them down the road - not just now."

Unfortunately, 90 percent of the people on the reservation don't know what's going on politically. "That's very dangerous," Mooney says. "If they do find out something, they're usually misinformed. There's a real lack of communication in getting back to the tribes."

Recently the BIA, along with many other federal programs, has suffered cutbacks - and more will probably come. Mooney says that if the BIA is eliminated altogether, no one will oversee social service or law enforcement and the tribes will have a real problem on their hands. The irony, she says, is that the BIA is being cut partly because the tribes have criticized it as ineffective. Mooney feels misinformation is the core problem, causing a general mistrust of all federal agencies among the Indian community. Instead of mistrusting the agencies, Mooney believes Indians should take advantage of their services.

Since many federal grants and set-asides are being cut, Indian entrepreneurs should also seek out financing from the private sector. As small business manager at IHS for the past four years, Mooney spends a lot of time matching Indian companies with big corporations like Ford Motor, Chrysler, Kodak, and Wal Mart. But matches are not limited to big corporations. She also matches tribes that want to work together or Indian companies that can do business together. Most of the Indian businesses she works with are in construction and the IHS mentor/protegee program is invaluable for firms just starting out - they learn about proposals, marketing, and the whole contracting atmosphere.

"It's harder for Indians to start businesses. The Indian community is different," Mooney says. "You have to embrace them, walk with them. They haven't been out there. Their culture is different, they're new to the market, and not as aggressive."

Culture has always been important to Mooney. Over the years, she returned to the Blackfeet reservation frequently to visit her family and let her three children learn about Indian tradition. She left the reservation to attend college at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1980. She worked for the General Service Administration as a contract specialist and then for the BIA as a contract manager. Four years ago, she started at the Indian Health Service.

Throughout her career, Mooney's main goal has been to help Indian people. "I see what happens to the tribe all the time - the misfortune and all the things that are done to them. I have an interest in helping businesses with economic development," she says.

Mooney shares some of the tribes' frustration with federal government, particularly in its contracting agreements. Public law says that if the federal government does business on or near an Indian reservation, it has to use Indian workers. "All federal agencies are suppose to use that and they really don't. They don't really try to help out like they should. I think a lot of it is discrimination. Discriminatory mindset."

Mooney spends a lot of time helping Indian construction firms work through the eligibility process. She has just finished putting together a nationwide bidders list, which includes all American Indians who are members of a federally recognized tribe and eligible to bid on federal contracts.

Though demanding, Mooney's job is very rewarding, she says. People call her regularly to thank her for helping them get a contract, or for setting them up with a federal agency.

"My work isn't like some big bang - it's every day. It's rewarding all the time, I help people with proposals, I help guide them through the process of doing contracts... I keep my eye on what's going on politically. I'm working on innovative ways for Indian businesses to have access to bonding, loans, grants...everything I can possibly do."

"I don't care if it's a mom and pop store or a big firm, I just want to help Indian people."

REFERENCES

Robinson, Steve and Hogan, Stephen (1993). "Family Business: Ideal Vehicle for Indian Business Success?," Montana Business Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 4, Winter 1993.

Danco, Leon (1982). Beyond Survival: A Business Owner's Guide for Success. Reston, Virginia: Reston Publishing Co., p. 15.

Fleury, Kathleen (1994). Profile of the Montana Native American. Office of Indian Affairs, Helena, Montana.

Special report by the School of Journalism, The University of Montana-Missoula (1995). Someplace to Call Home.

Special report by the School of Journalism, The University of Montana-Missoula (1996). Justice in Indian Country.

Native Cybertrade, address - http://wwwatiin.com.cybertrade.

Martin, Glen (1995). "Internet Indian Wars," Wired magazine, Dec. 1995, p. 108-117.

RELATED ARTICLE: RESERVATIONS FACE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Montana's seven reservations face serious economic challenges; they also face serious social problems. Indian mortality rates are considerably higher than the U.S. average, as are infant death rates, alcoholism, liver disease, cirrhosis, and suicide (Fleury, 1994).

Though the federal government has put millions of dollars into improving housing on the reservation, nearly one-third of the housing stock on Montana reservations is tagged substandard by the BIA; many houses are dilapidated beyond repair. Parents often share cramped quarters with children, grandchildren, aunts, and uncles. This overcrowding seems to increase violence, sexual abuse, and alcoholism, according to a 1995 report by the UM School of Journalism.

A 1996 followup by the UM journalism school reported that 90 percent of crimes on the Blackfeet reservation are related to alcohol. "Virtually every Native American has been incarcerated or has a close relative who has been," say the authors of the report. "American Indians are locked in a social crisis and the incarceration rate is but one symptom of the problems that threaten a proud culture."

Michael Gray, Gerald Sherman, and Myrna Mooney - who attended the NIBA conference and are profiled in the following pages - have all grown up on Montana reservations and see similar problems. In their own ways, these Native Americans are fighting to improve the situation for their people.

Mortality Rates, 1987-1989 Montana Indian Average vs. U.S Average(*) (Rates per 100,000)

Shannon H. Jahrig is publications director at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, The University of Montana-Missoula.