Nonprofit empowering hundreds of Native American entrepreneurs celebrates 20 years with expansion;

New Mexico Community Capital opens new community wing, seed exchange and wellness center

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — September 10, 2024 — They’ve empowered hundreds of Indigenous entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams, and now New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) is intensifying its support with a building expansion to aid in building community, marketing, health and mental wellness.

With a renewed mission and vision, NMCC has extended its office space in the historic Occidental Life Building in downtown Albuquerque. The new 4,000-square-foot space will allow the nonprofit to increase its business education courses and storefront marketplace. The addition also includes a meditation room, a sound room to record podcasts, and an Indigenous seed library. The Resilience Hub will also be available for public rental – the space is designed to foster collaboration and support Indigenous businesses.

“This is what people have been asking for,” NMCC Executive Director Elizabeth Gamboa said. “They want places to gather. They want a co-working space. They want a place to start collectives. This is really a landing space for those ideas, and it’s for all communities.”

NMCC was created in 2004 as a venture capital fund with a nonprofit to assist underrepresented New Mexico companies. The accompanying nonprofit later became a community lender to provide loans and lines of credit for small businesses. The organization, which began aiding Indigenous communities after investment from Sandia Pueblo about 13 years ago, discovered that many companies weren’t ready for venture capital funding or didn’t want to incur the debt. Discovering the need for business training among Native Americans, leaders dropped traditional lending practices and began focusing on community-based lending.

Since shifting its focus primarily to Indigenous entrepreneurs in 2013 and providing business basics, mentorship, financial and digital literacy, more than 500 Indigenous entrepreneurs have enrolled in NMCC’s educational programs. This shift has led to life-changing and wealth-building opportunities with the creation of dozens of Native-owned businesses and jobs in and around tribal communities in New Mexico and nationwide. Some NMCC graduates include the first Native woman-owned brewery in the U.S., and the first vegan Native woman-owned restaurant in New Mexico. Bow & Arrow Brewing Co. and Itality Plant-Based Foods are both based in Albuquerque.

NMCC is also redefining what capital means, especially in Indigenous communities.

“It’s knowledge. It’s listening; it’s providing real tools to help people,” Gamboa said.

NMCC will celebrate its 20th anniversary and the new addition during the first Friday ABQ Art Walk downtown from 6 – 9 p.m. on October 4. The event will showcase Indigenous artisans and other entrepreneurs on the expanded storefront, and a fashion show. Lyla June, Navajo musician, scholar and community organizer, will be the master of ceremonies for the evening.

Photos are available in the press kit. B-roll is available upon request.

Business not as usual: Future Is Indigenous Women

“The Future is Indigenous Women” collaborators stand in front of NMCCAP headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Photo courtesy of Kalika Tallou Davis)

By Lyla June Johnston  July 26, 2022

__

As I step out of the Albuquerque sun into the breezy, Indigenous-led offices on Gold and Third Street, I am met by Native women, their warm greetings, their laughter. Little did I know their financial revolution—rooted in Indigenous values and worldviews—would soon leave me awestruck and in tears.

I have come to learn about their gargantuan, multi-faceted project, sparked by an ecosystem of powerful Indigenous organizations: Native Women Lead, New Mexico Community Capital, and Roanhorse Consulting LLC. These three teams collectively won a $10 million award through the “Equality Can’t Wait Challenge” to honor and empower Indigenous women entrepreneurs. They call this program: “The Future is Indigenous Women”.

In the process, they are disrupting how money moves and who can access it. Conventional institutions lend to people based on the “Five C’s of Credit”: Character, Capacity, Capital, Conditions, and Collateral. But these Indigenous organizations lend based on the “Five R’s of Rematriation”: Revolutionary, Restorative, Regenerative, Relational, and Rooted.

As I enter the conference room, the delicious aroma of hand-made blue corn tacos fills the air. They have been prepared by Cleo Otero, a recipient of the Matriarch Creative Fund and recent graduate of the Circle of Support program, which brings leaders of the industry in as mentors. Otero, a formerly houseless Diné/Zuni woman, has humble business beginnings: a pop-up tent selling food at gatherings and roadsides. Today she has a full-fledged catering business, stocked with inventory and equipment, and is working towards a permanent establishment. She sources her foods from local Indigenous farmers and hunters to provide fresh food. Maybe this is why her tacos may be the best I’ve ever had. In her spare time, she and her husband take to the Albuquerque streets to feed other unsheltered people for free, knowing the challenges of that world all too well.

“To me my food is medicine. I won’t cook if I’m in an awkward mood because it reflects on the food. I heard about the Native Women Lead Summit, and I knew I had to go. How can I be self-sustaining? How can I grow? How can I know we won’t run out of money or…” — Otero pauses to shed some tears — “…be on the receiving end of feeds for unsheltered people. Now we are not. We are even able to give back consistently. We can go cook for others. This community base and strengthening of Indigenous women is big.”

Vanessa Roanhorse, Diné and co-founder of Native Women Lead and owner of Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, has dedicated much of her life to building financial power for Indigenous people. She grew up watching her mother and grandmother struggle to feed their children, systematically excluded from financial systems. “I watched those women do so much with so little,” she says. “Every time they did it, they did it from a place of community. I know in my heart that Indigenous women, when they’re back in control of resources, will do that not only for themselves but for everyone around them.”

Around the talking circle, story after story pours forth of how this community has picked them up from broken and lonely places — places Native women know disproportionately well. All of their businesses have common themes: a commitment to Mother Earth, to Indigenous traditions, to changing systems, and to honoring women.

Kalika Tallou Davis, Diné/Southern Ute and co-founder of Native Women Lead and Marketing Manager at New Mexico Community Capital, remembers the challenges of opening her beauty salon. “Of course I felt very alone,” she says. “I didn’t see many Indigenous women leading in the beauty industry yet. It was a leap of faith to even open my business at the time.” With help from this network, her salon thrived, using only non-toxic beauty products for the health of humans and environment.

The team of organizations just wrapped up a large wave of regenerative $10,000 loans and entrepreneurial technical assistance for twenty women through their “Matriarch Creative Fund”. The second wave, the “Matriarch Restorative Fund”, will launch this month to provide loans up to $50,000 to seven women, as well as continued technical training, virtual assistants, mentorship, and technology. The group aims to support 3,000 Indigenous women with culturally relevant technical assistance and innovative loan programs over the next 4 years.

I’ll be the first to admit, I am somewhat anti-business, anti-capitalistic, and anti-Western economy. But as we sit in this talking circle, I am continually moved to tears hearing all the ways this powerful engine has empowered Indigenous women to heal themselves and their communities. I realize this is not capitalism — this is service. Service to Earth and to people. Perhaps I should have expected nothing less from a team of Native women.

I also realize this rolling stone is just getting started. The coalition recently landed a slot at the annual Bioneers Conference in California to showcase their vision. They’ve recently partnered with Cahokia PHX — an Indigenous women-led art space — to provide financial courses to Phoenix-based Indigenous women entrepreneurs. They will launch more “Circle of Support” and “Deluxe Business & Marketing Essentials” programs later this month. Their new website launches late summer: www.TheFutureIsIndigenousWomen.com.

Our talking circle closes with Jaime Gloshay, Diné/White Mountain Apache/Kiowa and co-director of Native Women Lead: “The beauty and magic of Indigenous women…When that power is honored, when that power is shifted, when non-profits, philanthropy, and white institutions both cede and seed that power, it’s such a ripple effect. The work we do in this larger movement of Rematriation is the future. The world is calling us to do this now.”

To learn more about the Equality Can’t Wait awardees visit: https://www.equalitycantwaitchallenge.org/results

See also: https://nmccap.org, https://www.nativewomenlead.org, and https://roanhorseconsulting.com

Read More on Indian Country Today

How the Government Can End Poverty for Native American Women

By Arohi Pathak  October 22, 2021, 9:00 am

A mother and her 10-year-old son live without electricity or running water on a Navajo Nation reservation in Cameron, Arizona, during the coronavirus pandemic, March 2020.

Author’s note: “Native Americans,” as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes Indigenous tribes that are originally from the contiguous United States, along with Alaska Natives.1 The author uses “American Indian and Alaska Natives” interchangeably with “Native Americans” and “Native women” in this issue brief.

President Joe Biden proclaimed October 11 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, becoming the first U.S. president to formally recognize the day, celebrating the resilience, achievement, and contributions of Native Americans. Meanwhile, September 8 marked Native Women’s Equal Pay Day,2 which is designated to highlight the pay gap for Native women, underscored by a long history of racism, sexism, and pay discrimination that continues to devalue the contribution of Native women in the workforce.

Read More on Center for American Progress

Getty/Gina Ferazzi/Los AngelesTimes

KRQE – 2 Indigenous, women-led organizations awarded $10

BUSINESS

by: KRQE Staff

Posted: Aug 2, 2021 / 04:43 PM MDT / Updated: Aug 2, 2021 / 04:43 PM MDT

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Two organizations led by Indigenous women have been awarded $10 million from the National Equality Can’t Wait Challenge. The challenge asked for ideas to expand gender equality across the country. The group, Native Women Lead and New Mexico Community Capital worked together on a proposal, especially for indigenous women business owners.

Read more at KRQE

Native women entrepreneurs get a $10M boost

BY STEPHEN HAMWAY / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Published: Friday, August 6th, 2021 at 5:22pm

Updated: Monday, August 9th, 2021 at 10:45pm

Founders, staff and associates from Native Women Lead and New Mexico Community Capital celebrate the organization’s “The Future is Indigenous Womxn” project. The project received $10 million in funding from the nationwide Equality Can’t Wait Challenge. (Photo courtesy of New Mexico Community Capital).Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal

Two New Mexico organizations focused on helping Indigenous female entrepreneurs succeed have been awarded $10 million through a national competition.

Last week, Native Women Lead and New Mexico Community Capital announced that their project, “The Future is Indigenous Womxn,” was one of six winners of the nationwide Equality Can’t Wait Challenge.

Read more Albuquerque Journal

Forbes – Melinda French Gates And MacKenzie Scott Award $40 Million To The Winners Of The Equality Can’t Wait Challenge

Maggie McGrath – Forbes Staff

Forbes Women

I write about women who run companies, counties, and currencies

Last June, Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott launched the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, an intense contest to identify the best ideas for helping to expand women’s power and influence in the United States by 2030. One year later, the challenge is complete, and on Thursday, Gates’ incubation and investment firm Pivotal Ventures announced the four winners, each of which will receive a $10 million award to continue their work.

Read more on Forbes

U.S. Bank Foundation invests $1 million to support emerging leaders

New Mexico Community Capital receives $50,000 for the Native Entrepreneur in Residence 90-day program

NEWS PROVIDED BY

New Mexico Community Capital

Aug 06, 2021, 11:38 ET

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. Bank Foundation announced a $1 million investment to 20 nonprofit organizations, including New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) driven by a diverse group of exceptional emerging leaders who are focused on creating effective community-led solutions toward the increasing economic disparities.

Organizations are in both rural and metro communities and are focused on support for entrepreneurs and small business owners, workforce development programs and financial inclusion efforts for individuals and families as solutions to wealth building.

Read more at Cision PR Newswire

Native America Calling Podcast – Native women’s success in business

Wednesday, August 11, 2021 – Native women’s success in business

AUGUST 11, 2021 BY ART HUGHES

Women are statistically paid less in the workplace. And they face additional hurdles as entrepreneurs. A report by American Express found Native women make up just 1.4% of all women-owned businesses. The good news is, they are growing at almost twice the rate of women-owned business overall. Two of the world’s wealthiest women just awarded a Native women’s business group $10 million as part of their vision to improve the statistics for female entrepreneurs. We’ll look at the contributions Native women are making in the business world and how they cope with persistent obstacles they encounter.

Guests:

Alicia Ortega (Santa Clara and Pojoque Pueblo) – co-director and co-founder of Native Women Lead

Liz Gamboa (Apache descent) – executive director of New Mexico Community Capital

Tina Archuleta (Jemez Pueblo) – owner of Itality: Plant Based Wellness

Shayai Lucero (Acoma and Laguna Pueblo) – owner of Earth and Sky Floral Designs

Listen here at Native America Calling

Native Women Lead website

IN HER WORDS – Philanthropists Award $40 Million to Help Advance Gender Equity

The Equality Can’t Wait Challenge rewarded initiatives focused on individual empowerment and broad-scale policy change.

Anna Parini

By Emma Goldberg

“It’s the first competition centered on gender with an award of this magnitude.”

— Nicole Bates, director of strategic partnerships and initiatives at Pivotal Ventures

The groundbreaking competition for gender equality concluded on Thursday with $40 million awarded to four initiatives that advance the influence of women across the United States.

The Equality Can’t Wait Challenge — hosted by Pivotal Ventures (the investment company of Melinda French Gates) with support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies — gave $10 million to each of the four winners: a collaboration between New Mexico Community Capital and Native Women Lead; Girls Inc.’s Project Accelerate; Ada Developers Academy; and a coalition of partners formed by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations. The awardees were selected from a pool of more than 550 applications.

Read more at NY Times

The Future is Indigenous Womxn

Equality Can’t Wait Challenge

New Mexico Community Capital & Native Women Lead / Albuquerque, New Mexico / Visit Website

Native womxn interested in entrepreneurship do not enjoy equitable access to capital, business development resources, financial capability, or career opportunities. New Mexico Community Capital and Native Women Lead will catalyze the investability and economic liberation of Indigenous womxn by scaling impactful businesses owned by Native womxn. Their growth will increase power and influence within their families and unlock potential for wealth creation through community employment opportunities.

Read more

U.S. Bank Foundation invests $1 million to support emerging leaders and community-led solutions to address economic disparities

July 28, 2021 10:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–U.S. Bank Foundation today announced a $1 million investment to 20 nonprofit organizations driven by a diverse group of exceptional emerging leaders who are focused on creating effective community-led solutions to the increasing economic disparities.

“We are dedicated to empowering our communities by listening to those with lived experience and supporting their ideas on how to address racial and economic inequities and creating lasting change”

Organizations are in both rural and metro communities and are focused on support for entrepreneurs and small business owners, workforce development programs and financial inclusion efforts for individuals and families as solutions to wealth building.

“We are dedicated to empowering our communities by listening to those with lived experience and supporting their ideas on how to address racial and economic inequities and creating lasting change,” said Reba Dominski, executive vice president, head of social responsibility at U.S. Bank. “In addition to the funding, we are exploring ways to support these leaders and organizations by creating points of connection and access as well as opportunities to build their networks. We look forward to learning from these leaders as we continue to work to break down traditional power dynamics in philanthropy.”

Read more at Business Wire

10.Henry Jake Foreman, Program Director of New Mexico Community Capital (Albuquerque, New Mexico), provides business training that integrates Indigenous methodology.

This Program Supports The Ecosystem Supporting Founders Of Color

It’s pretty well known that founders of color receive a lot less startup funding than white peers. But organizations that support such entrepreneurs, especially those also led by people of color, also lack funding. And they raise a lot less money than similar organizations run by whites.

Read more at FORBES

Native-led organizations join forces to accelerate entrepreneurship in Indian Country

ImpactAlpha, July 21 – U.S. tribal lands are among the hardest places in the world to do business, with entrepreneurs struggling to access capital, land, infrastructure and reliable Internet connectivity. Four Native-led organizations are launching a joint organization to help businesses in tribal communities secure funding and resources.

“None of our organizations can effectively tackle the systemic challenges alone,” says Dave Castillo of Native Community Capital, itself the product of a 2019 merger of community development financial institutions in Arizona and New Mexico.

Read More at Impact Alpha

2 NM organizations among finalists in national competition

NEW MEXICO NEWS

by: KRQE Staff

Posted: Mar 8, 2021 / 07:37 PM MST / Updated: Mar 8, 2021 / 07:37 PM MST

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Two New Mexico organizations are among the ten finalists in a national competition, in a pool of over 550 national applicants, promoting equality. The Native Women Lead and New Mexico Community Capital teamed up to promote investment in Native-owned businesses.

“In August 2020, NWL in collaboration with NMCC entered our bold solution, The Future Is Indigenous Womxn, the only Indigenous-focused finalist in the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge. Our proposal is centered around investing and scaling high-performing Native-owned businesses to unlock potential for wealth creation, power, and influence. NWL and NMCC plan to create a waterway of investable womxn-owned companies that will be developed as well as new, non-harmful business financing mechanisms,” said Vanessa Roanhorse in a news release, NWL Co-Founder.

The top three finalists in the challenge will receive $10 million. Another $10 million will be divided among all the finalists. For more information, visitequalitycantwaitchallenge.org.

Copyright 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AWARDS $29 MILLION IN SPRINT CHALLENGE GRANTS TO RESPOND TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC THROUGH INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: EDA Public Affairs Department, (202) 482-4085
April 6, 2021

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo today announced that a total of $29 million would be awarded to 44 organizations as part of the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge.

Last year, the SPRINT Challenge was launched to harness America’s entrepreneurial potential to address the economic, health, and safety risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic through entrepreneurship and innovation.

“The Biden Administration applauds the SPRINT Challenge awardees’ efforts to pivot to help their communities through difficult times quickly,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “American entrepreneurship and innovation will help our country through this coronavirus pandemic and build back better, stronger, and more resilient.”

Awardees include nonprofits, higher education institutions, and entrepreneurship-focused organizations that demonstrated alignment with their region’s economic development priorities. Project scopes range widely and include efforts to scale biotechnology and health security efforts, re-open businesses safely, upskill workers, and boost entrepreneurship. Grant recipients received awards between $200,000 and $750,000.

“The SPRINT Challenge builds on EDA’s efforts to work with communities to build strong regional economies,” said Dennis Alvord, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “Our grantees’ projects are laser-focused on using innovation to help America overcome the economic, health and safety challenges brought on by the pandemic.”

Project highlights include the University of California, Los Angeles’ LA-R2C Accelerator, which aims to scale innovative bioscience technologies that foster COVID-19 prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and health equity; Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation’s project to accelerate digital health innovations for family caregivers and healthcare providers; the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Foundation’s efforts to safely re-open the tourism and performing arts industries in southeast Alaska and the Central Puget Sound region; the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET)’s project that will advance smart manufacturing technologies and promote cross-sector collaboration in Northeast Ohio; and the Greater New Orleans Development Foundation’s new program to help businesses transition from “P.P.E. to P.P.P.T.” (Personal Protective Equipment to Post-Pandemic Products and Technologies.)

The awardees, selected from a pool of 238 applicants, are located in 25 states and Puerto Rico and will leverage approximately $9 million in additional matching funds from various private and public sector sources.

The SPRINT Challenge grant recipients are:

• 401 Tech Bridge, Kingston, RI

• AgLaunch Initiative, Shelby, TN

• Champion Impact Capital, Irving, TX

• Chicostart, Chico, CA

• City University of New York, New York, NY

• Greater New Orleans Development Foundation, New Orleans, LA

• Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, ME

• Health Tech Alley, Columbia, MD

• Houston Community College, Houston, TX

• Launch NY, Buffalo, NY

• Lean Rocket Lab, Jackson, MI

• Magnet: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, Cleveland, OH

• Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, Worcester, MA

• Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation, Westborough, MA

• Medical Center of the Americas Foundation, El Paso, TX

• Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN

• New Mexico Community Capital, Albuquerque, NM

• New Mexico Trade Alliance, Albuquerque, NM

• NextCorps, Rochester, NY

• NOLA Business Alliance, New Orleans, LA

• North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Wausau, WI

• Northern Arizona Technology & Business Incubator, Flagstaff, AZ

• Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY

• Oregon Regional Accelerator & Innovation Network, Eugene, OR

• Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Foundation, Seattle, WA

• Parallax Advanced Research Corporation, Beavercreek, OH

• Port of Ridgefield, Ridgefield, WA

• Purdue University Northwest, West Lafayette, IN

• Secondmuse Foundation, Lake Oswego, OR

• Startup Tucson, Tucson, AZ

• St. Louis Development Corporation, St. Louis, MO

• The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

• University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA

• University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

• University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

• University of Delaware, Newark, DE

• University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

• University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

• University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

• University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, San Juan, PR

• Washington State University, Spokane, WA

• Wayne State University Research and Technology Park, Detroit, MI

• XLR8X, Honolulu, HI

For more information, visit EDA’s SPRINT Challenge webpage at https://eda.gov/oie/sprint/.

EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) administers the SPRINT Challenge, as authorized through the CARES Act.

This challenge builds on the momentum of EDA’s Build to Scale Program, which builds regional economies through scalable startups.

About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.

https://eda.gov/news/press-releases/2021/04/06/sprint-challenge-grants.htm?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

New Mexico Community Capital program boosts capacity, knowledge transfer for Native farmers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico Community Capital wants to help build capacity for Native farmers via a new training and resource sharing program.

The inaugural Native Farmers in Residence Program will provide training and support for a group of 10 Native American farmers based in New Mexico.

In addition to quarterly meetings, training, and resource sharing, the program will use grant funding from Fayetteville, Ark.-based Native American Agriculture Fund to provide a $3,000 stipend to each farmer over the course of their year-long tenure.

Hemp farmer and farm services provider Buck Johnston, co-owner of Taos, N.M.-based Turquoise Mountain Farms, used the $2,000 he received upfront to kickstart his newest, 9-acre farm, the first property he leased completely and solely under his name.

Buck paid the down payment on the land, his farm insurance, and a sole-owner hemp license using the support he received. Already, he said the program is working for him, but it was the cooperation and community with other farmers he really appreciates.

“It’s just good to have this connection with other Native farmers throughout the state,” Johnston told Tribal Business News. “We’ll visit each other’s farms and share techniques and resources. If someone needs a tractor, I can come out and work their land up for them. If I need something they can provide, they’ll get it to me.”

The program’s participants range from micro farmers like Johnston to farmers managing between 40 and 60 acres. The training curriculum includes budgeting, recordkeeping, accounting, finding new markets and building a business plan.

New Mexico Community Capital Program Director Henry Jake Foreman said the organization put specific emphasis on helping farmers come to grips with digital recordkeeping and the associated technology.

“We’re really helping with the business side of things, and really around the digital aspect. We wanted to help farmers learn to use digital tools to create their farm plan,” Foreman said.

Foreman listed the use of Google Earth to plan farm layouts and keeping a digital ledger and calendar as examples of technology the participants of the Native Farmers In Residence program would learn to use.

With technological resources, Foreman hopes the program will help farmers better understand their work and the work of others. That’s a central theme of the program: sharing knowledge within the cohort and with others beyond it, Foreman said.

“Farmers meet up twice quarterly as a group, and they’re expected to share something with this cohort, a farming technique, something that has worked for them in the past. That’s built into the program and stipend,” Foreman said. “They’re all expected to train at least one person, and that person gets another stipend. It’s expected that they share the knowledge they learned with someone else.”

By focusing on the business side of farming, the Farmers in Residence Program will enable Native agricultural producers to succeed in a market where profit margins are “razor thin,” Foreman said. He added that producers must be able to grow food both profitably and sustainably, because they become crucial providers for many of their communities.

By spreading understanding of how to sustain a farm both economically and ecologically, programs like the NMCC initiative can improve food sovereignty across Native communities, he said.

“To create the kind of food sovereignty that we need, there’s a lot of infrastructure that needs to be invested in and built,” Foreman said. “This group of farmers is not only being trained to be part of this program, but to be changemakers in their communities. This is contributing to the overall movement.”

Food sovereignty — the construction of self-sustaining, community-owned and maintained food systems — remains a major concern for many Native American agricultural efforts. It’s a crucial objective for the Native American Agriculture Fund, who supplied the grant that fuels New Mexico Community Capital’s Farmers in Residence Program.

In a prior conversation with Tribal Business News, Maria Givens, public relations and communications director at NAAF, said food sovereignty was an especially important concept for Native Americans given the centrality of sovereignty to their cultures.

“Ability to access our foods has been challenged, barriers have been systematically constructed, and a diet not consistent with our ancestors has been superimposed on our people, and poor health outcomes have been the result of that,” Givens said. “We talk a lot about self-determination, and food choices are self determination — being able to decide for yourself what the future is going to be.”

Foreman said working with NAAF and fellow grantees to create programs like the Farmers in Residence Program was “incredible.”

“We’ve been collaborating with other NAAF grantees here in New Mexico to support other farmers,” he said. “It’s great to collaborate (and) that’s the big difference with NAAF. They really value collaboration.”

Turquoise Mountain Farms’s Johnston also values collaboration. He already has plans for one of his first exchanges with fellow cohort members.

“I live in the northern part of New Mexico where we have a short growing season. There’s been other farmers in this program who I want to trade them Navajo blue corn for their sweet corn,” Johnston said. “I want more seed for my blue corn, so I’m going to have them grow it out in a warmer climate, and when they grow it out, they can give me some seed back. I’m going to grow some of their sweet corn up here where the growing season is shorter, and give them more seed than they gave me. We’re going to have a good harvest.”

Foreman said that exchange demonstrates in a nutshell what makes Native agriculture such an important part of Indigenous communities, whose traditional economies are based on exchanging food.

“This kind of blew my mind: Traditional Indigenous economies have been based on nutrient exchange. Traditionally, we’ve been able to trade and barter nutrients. It’s really going back to our traditional economies,” Foreman said. “It relates to health as well. Our health is our wealth, so this is an investment in our health and our lives. It’s literally increasing our overall vitality and health. More and more, I think indigenous people are recognizing that.”

https://tribalbusinessnews.com/sections/food-agriculture/13449-new-mexico-community-capital-program-boosts-capacity-knowledge-transfer-for-native-farmers

Today Marks Equal Pay Day — But Native American Women Still Earn 57 Cents on the Dollar

Equal Pay Day is observed April 2 this year. The date symbolizes how far into 2019 women must work to earn what men earned the previous year, 2018.

While a somewhat confusing way to wrap one’s head around the gender wage gap of 80 cents to the dollar relative to white, non-Hispanic men, it powerfully illustrates the injustice with time as the measuring stick.

The April 2 date reflects the average of all women’s earnings — white, black, Latina, Asian, Native American, etcetera. But averages can grossly misrepresent the situation for certain minority groups, particularly Native American women.

The smallest pay gap goes to Asian-American Pacific Islander women, who earn roughly 85 cents to the dollar. Their Equal Pay Day would technically be observed March 5.

For Native American women, however, Equal Pay Day would take place on September 23, 2019. Native American women earn about 57 cents on the dollar.

As Vanessa Roanhorse (Diné), co-founder of Native Women Lead and founder and CEO of Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, previously told Native Business Magazine: “As Native women, we have always had to work harder, stronger, faster and better.”

And work harder they do:

“Native American women are opening businesses twice as fast as our Native men; we’re two-thirds of the breadwinners,” Roanhorse said. “Knowing those statistics, how are Native women going to get ahead? Business development is a great way for Native women to have self-autonomy and self-determination of how they take care of their family.”

RELATED: Vanessa Roanhorse: Inspiring the Native Entrepreneurial Community to Rise

The State of Native Women in Business 

A recent report from Native Women Lead sheds light on the incredible ascent of Native women entrepreneurs and business leaders nationwide. It pulls data from national research and insight from the 2018 Native Women’s Business Summit. The consolidated information reinforces the need for continued support to American Indian women entrepreneurs, the co-founders of Native Women Lead stated, and it spotlights the need to foster a culturally focused empowerment program for Native women business leaders.

Last year, Native Americans and Alaska Natives owned 1.4 percent of all women-owned businesses (an estimated 161,500 businesses), employing 61,300 workers and generating $11 billion in revenues. Since 1997, women-owned businesses grew by 114 percent, while Native women-owned businesses grew by 201 percent.

“Far too often, the voices of Native American women are left at the edges of already marginalized communities,” said Native Women Lead co-founder Jaclyn Roessel, founder of Grownup Navajo, LLC. “Therefore, our goal was simple: to demonstrate that Native American women are community leaders, CEOs, mothers, wives, elders, and the critical drivers of Indigenous businesses that contribute $11 billion to the economy.”

RELATED: Jaclyn Roessel Talks Growing her Business: Grownup Navajo

Native Women Lead will host its second Native Women’s Business Summit on April 5-6, 2019 at Isleta Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two-day workshop will bring together 300 Native American women in business to share collective experiences, grow social capital and create a network that is reflective of indigenous cultures and communities. Register here.

“As Rep. Deb Haaland, D-New Mexico, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and supporter of Native Women Lead, campaigned: “Pay equality is essential to gender equality. I will support all efforts to close the national pay gap, with a special focus on closing the gap for black, Latina, indigenous, and disabled women as well as genderqueer and transgender people — all of whom deserve equal pay for equal work.”

Excel in Business & Life With This Financial Literacy Course

When you speak with the creators of the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course at New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC), it’s evident that their vision for financial education animates a somewhat daunting subject matter. Indigenous in nature, tech-driven and community-based, their approach is truly unique.

“We wanted it to be engaging, so we use an indigenous pedagogical practice—‘I do, you do, we do.’ I share a story about my business, and the participants apply it to their business or life,” explained Henry Jake Foreman (Absentee Shawnee), program manager of the recently launched Financial Literacy and Business Basics course.

The course works with Pueblos and families to assist them with financial basics and launching their businesses. Supported by a three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course includes 15 hours of small group workshops plus 5 hours of one-to-one coaching with mentors. Another perk is a $1,200 stipend for each participant, strategically allocated toward things like a household budget, savings/debt reduction plan, and a two-year money map. “Even a small amount of money is valuable for up-and-coming entrepreneurs and for people living in rural communities,” Foreman said.

In addition to his full-time job with NMCC, Foreman continues to own and operate his nonprofit Cycles of Life and his for-profit subsidiary Karuna Colectiva, which is opening a retail shop in downtown Albuquerque. Foreman recently graduated from the Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) Program, another powerful program offered through NMCC. (Read Native Business Magazine’s article “‘Native Entrepreneur in Residence’ Cultivates an Ecosystem of Thriving, Indigenous Business Owners.”)

Culturally Relevant Approach

In a somewhat unusual approach for a financial literacy course, Foreman begins each class with an indigenous-inspired meal, recognizing the connection between physical and economic health. One empowers the other. “We saw that health is a huge issue in our communities. We wanted to bring that into our coursework by offering indigenous gourmet food,” prepared with local farmers and entrepreneurs, said Foreman, adding that the course includes free childcare.

Kalika Tallou Davis, founder of Salon Tallou and Foreman’s wife, has assisted with the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course by securing guest speakers. “We’re centered around indigenous foods but also saving and budgeting,” Tallou Davis shared. (Read Native Business Magazine’s article “Kalika Tallou Davis Redefines Beauty and Holistic Business Success.”)

Over dinner, they engage participants in dialogue about uncomfortable topics like money, before immersing them in class, which features a culturally relevant guest speaker. “We call them story circles, where the guest speaker talks about financial literacy, accessing capital and credit,” Foreman shared.

Among the mentors invited to speak has been Dr. Greg Cajete, a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo and director of the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Cajete has served as a personal mentor to Foreman through the NEIR Program. “He shared about his seven stages of visioning as an alternative to creating a business plan. These stages of visioning can create your reality and you become that vision,” Foreman shared.

When you speak with the creators of the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course at New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC), it’s evident that their vision for financial education animates a somewhat daunting subject matter. Indigenous in nature, tech-driven and community-based, their approach is truly unique.

“We wanted it to be engaging, so we use an indigenous pedagogical practice—‘I do, you do, we do.’ I share a story about my business, and the participants apply it to their business or life,” explained Henry Jake Foreman (Absentee Shawnee), program manager of the recently launched Financial Literacy and Business Basics course.

The course works with Pueblos and families to assist them with financial basics and launching their businesses. Supported by a three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course includes 15 hours of small group workshops plus 5 hours of one-to-one coaching with mentors. Another perk is a $1,200 stipend for each participant, strategically allocated toward things like a household budget, savings/debt reduction plan, and a two-year money map. “Even a small amount of money is valuable for up-and-coming entrepreneurs and for people living in rural communities,” Foreman said.

In addition to his full-time job with NMCC, Foreman continues to own and operate his nonprofit Cycles of Life and his for-profit subsidiary Karuna Colectiva, which is opening a retail shop in downtown Albuquerque. Foreman recently graduated from the Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) Program, another powerful program offered through NMCC. (Read Native Business Magazine’s article “‘Native Entrepreneur in Residence’ Cultivates an Ecosystem of Thriving, Indigenous Business Owners.”)

Culturally Relevant Approach

In a somewhat unusual approach for a financial literacy course, Foreman begins each class with an indigenous-inspired meal, recognizing the connection between physical and economic health. One empowers the other. “We saw that health is a huge issue in our communities. We wanted to bring that into our coursework by offering indigenous gourmet food,” prepared with local farmers and entrepreneurs, said Foreman, adding that the course includes free childcare.

Kalika Tallou Davis, founder of Salon Tallou and Foreman’s wife, has assisted with the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course by securing guest speakers. “We’re centered around indigenous foods but also saving and budgeting,” Tallou Davis shared. (Read Native Business Magazine’s article “Kalika Tallou Davis Redefines Beauty and Holistic Business Success.”)

Over dinner, they engage participants in dialogue about uncomfortable topics like money, before immersing them in class, which features a culturally relevant guest speaker. “We call them story circles, where the guest speaker talks about financial literacy, accessing capital and credit,” Foreman shared.

Among the mentors invited to speak has been Dr. Greg Cajete, a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo and director of the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Cajete has served as a personal mentor to Foreman through the NEIR Program. “He shared about his seven stages of visioning as an alternative to creating a business plan. These stages of visioning can create your reality and you become that vision,” Foreman shared.

Tech-Driven Approach

Access to technology was a hinge point that made Foreman’s vision feasible.

Foreman—who is skilled at graphic design, planning and project management—calls technology his “bread and butter.” As an educator, he observed that students across New Mexico are trained on Google Chromebooks—which happen to cost roughly $200, a steal for a laptop. “That, in my view, is really incredible, because it allows people to work collaboratively on a document, and you don’t have to buy any new software,” Foreman said.

“The norm is to get workbooks and give them out to everyone,” Foreman said. But the norm wouldn’t cut it for his course. “We wanted to go with the Google Digital Suite, and it just so happened that Google put out a free curriculum called the Google Digital Skills Curriculum. It teaches you by video how to put together a budget, how to put together a business plan, how to put together a debt reduction calculator. I told Peter [Holter] that we have to include this in our program. After the program ends, our students will still have the computer and access to all of this information and knowledge for free,” Foreman said.

Community-Based Approach

About 8,000 Native-owned businesses operate in New Mexico. Five percent of those businesses have employees. The rest are sole proprietorship. NMCC courses offer a vital sense of interactivity, not to mention professional development. Google Chromebooks invite ongoing community interaction, allowing a community to build online in addition to locally, Holter said.

Participants are not joining the Financial Literacy and Business Basics course, or any NMCC programs, passively, Holter underscored. There are actively engaged and committed to the process of personal evolution and business development. “There is a real heavy engagement,” he said. “The [Kellogg] grant calls for 16 families of a certain income and other requirements. At this last version of the cohort, there were over 30 people in the room, and they were engaged. They were using the tools that we gave them very effectively and sharing in ways that were pretty unique. What we’re looking to do is help people identify a community project where they can get together and put these tools to work. There’s an important community thing that happens after we leave. It’s a process.”

“NMCC is currently weighing how to measure its true impact and value. “What we’ve noticed in Financial Literacy and Business Basics is that we’re starting to trigger more indigenous tribal economies,” Holter said. “We’re seeing bartering happen within our class. We’re looking at new ways to create these economies that may not just be based on cash or transactions but based on relationships and the building of these local tribal economies.”

Inspired by the collaborative nature cultivated through NMCC programs and courses, Native entrepreneurs “feed each other in all kinds of ways. It’s great to see how this thing is emerging,” Holter said. “People are coming together and realizing that they are not alone, and that they have a dream, and the dream can be fulfilled.”

Vanessa Roanhorse: Inspiring the Native Entrepreneurial Community to Rise

Roanhorse’s powerful yet subversive approach to business is evident in the way she created Roanhorse Consulting as well. Her forthcoming nature toward sharing her bumpy transition from the nonprofit sector to building a business shouldn’t come as a surprise. Authenticity is her brand.

After 15 years of working in the nonprofit sector in Chicago, Roanhorse returned to Albuquerque, anticipating she’d land a job quickly. “An absolute cornerstone during her tenure at Delta Institute,” as a former colleague in Chicago described, she previously managed the nonprofit’s on-the-ground energy efficiency programming, green infrastructure programming, and workforce development training, among other initiatives.

But her wealth of experience didn’t land her a job so easily back in Albuquerque. Ultimately, she had to create a job herself. “I am a reluctant entrepreneur,” she told Native Business Magazine. “I mean that in the sense that I got my chops working in the nonprofit sector. When I moved here, I wanted to do similar work to what I did in Chicago—only I wanted to do it with Native people. I could not find a job. With all of my experience, it was a huge challenge.”

“I started Roanhorse Consulting out of necessity. I was literally cobbling it together. My first job was working with the City of Albuquerque on their mass transit program. I worked with small businesses that were going to be impacted by this program—to help get loans for these small businesses to stay open. I wanted to incorporate to separate my family assets from everything else. That’s how all of this got started.”

“I want people to know the truth about how I got started,” Roanhorse continued. “I think we get stuck on this idea that there is one specific pathway for entrepreneurship, and I think that is wrong. There isn’t this stepping stone process. Being a business owner is this never-ending iteration and evolution of you, your business model, what you want to be, and what you want to do. This isn’t rocket science. The business basics are just tools. It’s your passion and vision that are really where the magic is at.”

Today she maintains consistent work with her first client, the City of Albuquerque. “I’m looking forward to this new administration in Albuquerque and how they focus on raising the voice of minority businesses, small businesses, and localizing economic development,” Roanhorse said.

Through another client, Roanhorse Consulting is helping Nusenda Credit Union test a product called Co-op Capital, “which is a lending model that doesn’t rely on collateral, credit or any of those things. We’re piloting them with three organizations—two of which are Native led and serving, and another which is not Native owned but they serve Native populations—to see if we can provide business loans to Native entrepreneurs. We know that Natives often face barriers of having no collateral or bad credit and [thus] can’t get funding. It’s a small pilot, but we’re hoping to make it statewide,” she said.

Throughout her storied career, she’s had the chance to work with incredible organizations such as Cultivating Coders, Changing Woman Initiative, ComEd, IDEO, 1871, Center for Neighborhood Technology, ReBuilding Exchange, Living Cities, ICLEI, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and the Cities of Albuquerque, Chicago, Miami, and the Navajo Nation.

Since launching Roanhorse Consulting in January 2016, she’s seen a steady influx of work opportunities and collaborations. “I’ve been very lucky that there is incredible, thoughtful, creative work out there that I have been able to participate in,” Roanhorse said.

“I think some of that has to do with the fact that we don’t see enough Native American women in power or leadership positions. Oftentimes, when people are having discussions about power structures or business opportunities, what’s often missing is that Native voice. One of things that I’m so proud and happy to do is to be at that table. I feel incredibly honored and grateful to speak for equity, to speak for culture and thoughtfulness, and to be a constant reminder that we all have to do well and put people at the center, and do it from a culturally relevant perspective. That means that we have to support everyone to do it in a way that makes sense to their communities. To me that has been and continues to be a very empowering thing that we have done with my consulting company,” Roanhorse said.”

Looking five years down the road, Roanhorse envisions Roanhorse Consulting expanding and creating more jobs and income for Native people, particularly Native women.

“I’d like to see this company grow; I’d like to see more Native women taking on more programmatic initiatives through Roanhorse Consulting,” she said.

“In five years I would like to see ten incredible indigenous women in non-binary roles with Roanhorse Consulting—out there on the ground speaking our truth and building initiatives that are based on sustainability, because we have to realize that money is part of the equation, but so is community and culture. We have to start to help people change the way they do business,” she added.

“I think if the company can grow into that space in the next five years we can serve not only the United States, but really the entire North American continent. We have to drive that conversation,” Roanhorse said. “If we’re talking about seven generations, then we really have to look at the indigenous model. It’s all about the planet, people, profits and prayer. If we can build something thoughtful around that, where we can see a true ROI [return on investment], then Roanhorse Consulting would like to help that become the way of future business.”

Kalika Tallou Davis Redefines Beauty and Holistic Business Success

“Hozhó is remembering that you are a part of the Earth’s brilliance. It is finally accepting that yes, you are a sacred song that brings the Diyin Dine’é, the holy people, to their knees in an almost unbearable happiness. Hozhó is remembering your own beauty.” -ASDZÁ NÍLCH’I’ BIK’IDÉEZ’ÍÍ

A prayer and a vision quest led Kalika Tallou Davis (Diné, Ute) to create Salon Tallou, a boutique salon for “holistic hair artistry” in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also credits her trusted mentors through New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) and the Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) Program with helping her devise and fine-tune her business strategy.

About five years ago, Tallou Davis founded her salon, which uses all biodegradable and organic haircare and coloring products.

“Her business model is exquisite,” attests Lyla June, Diné and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), an internationally renowned public speaker and entrepreneur in her own right. (Read more about June in “International Speaker Lyla June Talks Creating Businesses That Give & Heal.”) Tallou Davis subscribes to a “rebellious definition of beauty,” according to June, “that beauty comes from within, not without. Here she is, owning a beauty salon, and she’s committed to this idea that if we don’t take care of Mother Earth and take care of our bodies, what is beauty worth?” asks June, a longtime friend and soul sister who has facilitated Diné language classes at Salon Tallou with Tallou Davis.

The Impetus for Salon Tallou  

After graduating from beautician school, Tallou Davis spent many years as a mainstream beautician, using conventional hair products that contain chemicals that can contaminate sewage systems, ground water and nearby rivers and bodies of water.

“I started noticing the hazardous chemicals that we were being exposed to and building a personal resistance against it,” Tallou Davis says. So she began researching organic hair salons in her area to align herself and work with, but options proved very limited. “That’s when I decided to open my own organic hair salon,” she says.

Tallou Davis found mentors to work under—one who specializes in organic color and another with a focus on African-American and ethnic hair who does not use relaxers or offer any harsh chemical services. “It was more braids and twists and indigenous styles. She also came on board and worked in my space for a period of time,” Tallou Davis notes.

Salon Tallou utilizes an “ammonia-free hair color system that relies on botanical-based ingredients and coconut oil lipids to massage and let the color in,” says Tallou Davis, who is also in the process of creating her own haircare line using local herbs.

“I really value and center my business around being a social enterprise. I embrace the philosophy of keeping people and prayer at the heart of what we do, while also knowing that we need that abundance to have a good income, and we deserve that. We’re going to give that much more back, and spread that wealth and abundance around,” Tallou Davis says.

Beyond hair care, Salon Tallou treats people holistically, rather than strictly concentrating on external facets of beauty. The salon hosts gatherings, meditations and herb workshops. “We also decided to offer healing services at Salon Tallou, like massage and ayurvedic consulting, an ancient Indian philosophy and life-way that revolves around food as medicine,” says Tallou Davis, now an expecting mother, who is taking a short breather from the salon’s events as she prepares to give birth.

Tallou Davis considers the “deep connection” that she’s cultivated with her clients over many years of business as fundamental to her success. Her longtime client relationships have blossomed into friendships. “That anchors me and keeps me going on the holistic path that we walk,” she notes.

Tallou Davis’ husband [Henry] Jake Foreman, an educator and entrepreneur, emphasized the salon’s commitment to cultural sustainability as well. “Salon Tallou is a dynamic space that not only provides natural products and superb organic services but also supports indigenous culture through Diné language classes and mentorship for Native youth,” says Foreman, who serves as Program Manager of Financial Literacy/Business Basics through NEIR, a program established by NMCC, a private, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

Tallou Davis participated in the NEIR program, a six-month intensive accelerator including mentorship and a stipend, to launch her business and to take it to the next level. “The NEIR Program was extremely instrumental in the success and stability of my business, and purchasing the products that I needed, in addition to helping me to hire women and interns, training them and paying them a living wage. That was incredible and has continued to open up so many more doors for me. I’ve been able to connect with many more Native entrepreneurs and build a network here in the Southwest—particularly in Albuquerque,” Tallou Davis says.

Through NEIR, Tallou Davis co-curated the inaugural Native Women’s Business Summit, created and hosted by multiple female members of the NEIR Program (60 percent of NEIR graduates are women). The sold-out summit took place at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 13-14, 2018. “NEIR and the Native Women’s Business Summit offer that sustainability and network and membership to say that we’re here with you and that you’re not alone,” Tallou Davis states.

Tallou Davis assisted in the process of acquiring speakers for the Native Women’s Business Summit and helped to facilitate crowd-funding and social media strategy. “We had more than 19 dynamic speakers. We sold-out and had people wanting to get in, and people snuck in. It was really incredible to see that this was such a need,” she says.

While speaking with Native Business Magazine, Tallou Davis expressed her deep gratitude for NEIR, which empowered her to build and grow her business. “I was very scared to open my own business and felt like I was going out on a limb. Now I’m extremely grateful, because it’s opened up all these incredible doors that I wouldn’t have been able to walk through unless I was a business owner and entrepreneur,” says Tallou Davis, who now feels like she’s entered the “sharing and diffusing stage” of entrepreneurship to empower other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Tallou Davis’ advice to up-and-coming entrepreneurs is to “follow your passion and your joy compass. What really excites you and ignites you? That passion will keep you going through the more difficult times. I also found benefit in not being afraid to ask for help or connect with people in the community or with mentors. Reach out to them and ask them. Pick their brain or go to coffee. Don’t hold back, because I find that people want to share, and it’s not their knowledge to just keep. They want us to grow as a collective.”

She added, “When you rise, I rise, we all rise. Dreams do come true.”

Visit Salon Tallou at salontallou.com, 1022 Carlisle Blvd SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, (505) 507-2368.