Kalika Tallou Davis Redefines Beauty and Holistic Business Success by Native Business Magazine “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 […]

How Women Entrepreneurs Push Boundaries To Inspire The Next Generation People who inspire us have a spark. They have something within themselves that is bold and courageous. They push themselves to be uncomfortable. Shyla Sheppard, a native American from Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota, has shown this spark throughout her life. She is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. “It was evident that there was a lower expectation of us kids from the rez,”Sheppard said in her profile as a board member of First Nations Development Institute. […]

After A Janitor Walked In On Her Pumping, This Entrepreneur Created Private Lactation Stations Before Stephanie Conduff was an entrepreneur, she was a new mother juggling law school. Balancing baby and school required her to carefully plan each day, especially when it came to pumping breast milk. She thought she had a private pumping solution — she hid in library side rooms during all-night study sessions — until a janitor walked in on her. “I support women’s rights to breastfeed wherever they want — I breastfeed where I want. But when I’m pumping, I don’t love being in front of […]

The 2018 PE Intensive, taking place April 13 & 14, brings together the the top 200 female founders from the PE Venture Competition for hands-on workshops and mentorship in New York City. Among the 200 are 10 finalists who have been given the additional opportunity to participate in the pitch competition on Saturday, April 14 for a chance to receive a $10,000 grant and a spot in a five-week accelerator program hosted at Rent the Runway’s headquarters. In the week leading up to #PEIntensive18, we’re featuring the 10 pre-selected finalists (two additional wildcard companies to be chosen during the Intensive will also […]

April 30, 2018 The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) is celebrating financial literacy month by offering a glimpse into Native Americans’ capacity, based on knowledge, skills, and access, to manage financial resources effectively and what projects we’re funding to increase it. Our everyday lives are affected by our ability to handle our finances responsibly. Whether you’re budgeting for groceries for the week or saving up for college, you need to be financially literate. Unfortunately, Native American communities have a low financial literacy compared to the national average. Earlier this month, I was able to visit one of our grantees, New Mexico Community […]

Some of the organizers for the inaugural Native Women’s Business Summit, scheduled to start April 13 in Albuquerque (Photo: courtesy Stephine Poston). Tuesday, April 10, 2018 – Native business women gather strength APRIL 10, 2018 BY ART HUGHES Native women make up half of all business owners in Native America according to estimates in the most recent “State of Woman-Owned Business Report” by American Express. At the same time they represent one of the smallest fractions of business owners in the country. The organizers of the first ever Native Women’s Business Summit aim to capitalize on the intelligence, creativity and resourcefulness […]

Entrepreneurs plan summit for Native businesswomen By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer Friday, December 29th, 2017 at 2:31pm ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As a female business owner and Cochiti Pueblo member, Phoebe Suina says she often craves the camaraderie of other tribal businesswomen to manage the challenges of entrepreneurship. “As Native Americans and women, we often face a double whammy, given all of today’s issues about how women are treated in the workplace,” said Suina, an engineer and owner of the environmental consulting firm High Water Mark LLC. “There are few of us women in engineering, and especially native women, so […]

Kim Delfina Gleason, artistic director of Two Worlds Theatre. FEATURE | STAGING OUR NATIVE NATION MARCH 20, 2018 0 COMMENTS A fledgling theatre company in the Land of Enchantment tells Native American stories with both authenticity and imagination BY FRANCES MADESON Pregnant with hope, pregnant with possibility, and just plain pregnant, on Jan. 25, the very night before Two Worlds artistic director Kim Delfina Gleason was due to give birth to her first child, she hosted a monthly table reading at the 12-year-old Native American theatre company’s offices at New Mexico Community Capital in Albuquerque. While the baby rumbled his soliloquy of intention to join his parents and […]

Navajo Heather Fleming’s Catapult Design Improves Lives on Reservations, Worldwide Heather Fleming founded Catapult Design in late 2008 to provide design solutions to world problems. Catapult Design brings innovative tools to people who need it most Kristin Butler • March 7, 2017 Growing up, Heather Fleming, Diné, was intimately aware of the disparities experienced by people residing on the reservation, versus those outside its borders. The “invisible boundary” that seemed to influence socioeconomic factors like “access to education, or whether or not you had running water in your home, or electricity,” baffled her. “If you live on the reservation, you expect this kind […]

This NM nonprofit landed $1.2 million Kellogg funding to help Native Americans with workforce training Peter Holter is managing director of entrepreneurial services with NMCC. PHOTO COURTESY PETER HOLTER By Rachel Sapin  – Reporter, Albuquerque Business First Nov 15, 2017, 2:28pm Albuquerque-based nonprofit New Mexico Community Capital has landed a $1.2 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to expand its workforce training program to Native Americans in the state. The new Financial and Business Basics Program will be delivered in partnership with at least six tribes in central/northern New Mexico, according to Peter Holter, managing director of entrepreneurial services with NMCC. “Native Americans living on

Program lifts NM Native businesses By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer Friday, November 24th, 2017 at 2:08pm NMCC program graduate Lisa Foreman manages a health beverage stand for her startup Mahadevi, which also provides an online support network for new mothers. Photo courtesy of Mahadevi ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Dozens of New Mexico-based Native American businesses are getting a huge boost from a novel program that’s focused exclusively on building tribal entrepreneurship.New Mexico Community Capital, a nonprofit that started out as a local venture investment fund, has expanded and blossomed into a bustling center in Downtown Albuquerque for existing and aspiring

By  ERIN RUBIN | November 21, 2017 From the Native Entrepreneur in Residence program website. November 15, 2017; Albuquerque Business First Last week, New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) announced that a $1.2 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will allow it to expand workforce training for New Mexico’s Native American population, which has the highest poverty rate in the state, at 34.6 percent. The grant program is an expansion on NMCC’s Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) program, which started in 2014. Peter Holter, managing director of entrepreneurial services with NMCC, said that “24 graduates from that program have created 84 new jobs and $7.36 […]

MALTA –Misty Kuhl loves being in the outdoors. She runs, backpacks, cycles, climbs, paddles and snowboards among other activities. Kuhl, who grew up in Dodson and now lives in Malta, is excited to help other women get outside and try new things. That led her to design Girlzilla, an online business set to launch next summer. Kuhl knows that there can be barriers to getting involved in outdoor activities and one is cost.

“All of the four types of entrepreneurs, beneath their titles there are many people of many cultures. As a Native American woman, I’m concerned about having those people at the table to align and organize so we can get resources, tools and financing, and make the right next decisions.” – Vanessa Roanhorse, Principal, Roanhorse Consulting, LLC The time to create robust systems for Native American entrepreneurship is ripe according to Vanessa Roanhorse,

New Mexico in Focus continues a series of profiles of Native voters, funded by Vision Maker Media and focusing on issues important to Native Americans and their communities. Over four weeks, NMiFpresents a 5­-part series, Elections 2016: Voting For Future Generations. The topics include: Education (Sept. 30), Economic Development (Oct. 7), Environment ­2 parts (Oct 14), and Justice (Oct. 21).