Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
Of course, many of you will recognize this from the all too familiar Sesame Street skit. For me it brings to mind a recent conversation with my brother. We were sitting around reminiscing about growing up in Ketchikan, Alaska, and the topic of our respective paper routes came up. And after we got past the sibling rivalry of whose paper route was the more difficult, etc., we were both amazed that we could probably recreate our routes and customers from distant memory. But the ‘Aha!’ moment for me was when I realized that my route consisted of mostly Indian customers. It dawned on me that even in the early 1970’s, Ketchikan remained a very segregated community – my paper route was south of Ketchikan Creek, a part of town once known as Indian Town.
So you may ask, what does this have to do with business and entrepreneurship? Let me tell you. On my route and in my neighborhood were Indian homeowners and the emerging Indian middle class. More importantly, as I reflect today, there were a large number of Indian entrepreneurs who were taking risks, creating businesses, etc., in the hopes of creating wealth for their families and their community. There was Pete Johnson of Johnson’s Glass, the Dalton family and their expanding apartment and real estate holdings, and even folks like the James family who owned their own fishing boats, employed crews (mostly family and other folks from the Indian community). These folks and my daily interaction with them formed my early ideas of what was possible as an Indian person. But there is a part that saddens me a bit in all of this.
What saddens me is that we have been remiss to capture these stories of our Indian entrepreneurs. What was their motivation? How did their values and practices differ than other entrepreneurs in the community, etc.?
One of my favorite books about entrepreneurship is Lionel Sosa’s, “The Americano Dream: How Latinos Can Achieve Success in Business and in Life.” It is a no nonsense book about Latinos who aspire to success in business and in life. More importantly, he talks about ways in which Latino entrepreneurs can gain self-confidence and “transform your cultural heritage into an asset that can become a viable tool for success.”
Where is the “American Indian Dream” (Sueño de los Indios Americanos) book? If we really want to encourage folks to continue to take risks and start wealth-creating businesses in Native communities, we need to begin sharing their stories – their ambitions, their successes, and yes, even their set-backs and failures. Who are the entrepreneurs in your neighborhood and how can we get their stories about creating businesses and using their heritage and culture as an asset in business development?
