Limited Time Offer:
Managing Your Own Business on Pueblo/Reservation Land
Maree Sarracino
Pueblo of Acoma
Limited Time Offer:
Managing Your Own Business on Pueblo/Reservation Land
Maree Sarracino
Pueblo of Acoma
Sharing One Skin by Jeannette Armstrong
“Sharing One Skin,” by Jeannette Armstrong is about the connections between people and Earth. Native Americans have a different interpretation of the word “Earth,” while White Americans have one word or phrase. In this article it explains the way Native Americans see themselves, and the amount of work and responsibility it goes into being someone who knows who they are and who they represent. Armstrong states ¨ the four selves have equal importance in the way we function within and experience all things,” this is the hard work that goes into keeping our communities going and making sure those traditions are kept alive. She talks about the sacrifice and hardship it was for the Okanagan community to keep their community together just to show people that they can do so much and keep so much so they can pass it onto the next generation to come.
Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.
How Place Names Impact the Way We See Landscape by B. Toastie
B. Toastie talks about how settlers came onto Native American lands claiming what is theirs because for the most part they could. This talks about the different names that sacred places have because of settlers who named those places as their own. Place names and the stories behind them define how we perceive and connect to landscape. Native Americans have their own stories and own names for places all over the landscape and they don't want settlers to have the say what to call different places. Those stories that we are told growing up are telling us something important about ourselves and our past. We want to be able to pass those on to our kids and grandkids, we don't want to use the settler way.
Toastie, B. “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” High Country News: Know the
https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-place-names-impact-the-way-we-see-la
ndscape. Accessed 27 August 2022.
Research Log 2: History
The article, “U.S. Indian Policy: Self Determination,” was about revitalization. The self-determination helped Native Americans become more dependable upon themselves, they were able to have a variety of concepts like self-government, development of reservation resources, cultural renewal and self-sufficiency. This article talks about the amount of times Native Americans were put into different reform programs that helped some Native Americans gain their independence back because they were able to focus on the different acts that were being granted during 1961 to 1994. Many Native Americans have shaped the concept of self-determination mostly by going through all the economical development, cultural renewal and political and legal action, they were able to find themselves throughout all this hardship.
Waldman, Carl. “U.S. Indian Policy: Self-Determination.” Atlas of the North American Indian, Third Edition, Facts On File, 2009. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=190360. Accessed 22 Oct. 2022.
The Dawes Act and its Failure: 1887 to 1934 by Lawrence C. Kelly
The article, “The Dawes Act and its Failure: 1887 to 1934,” was about two main issues. One being land. The dawes act granted permission for the president to break apart the reservation into smaller portions to give to individual Native Americans that were living within the reservation. The second issue was Native American citizenship, which meant that those Native Americans who chose to live on non-native land were automatically U.S. citizens. But this caused a problem like taxes. As a citizen you had to pay taxes on that land that you had but this would cause many people to go bankrupt. The dawes act made sure that the allotments would be held by the federal government for 25 years to make sure that whites did not get their hands on that piece of land. The Dawes Act failed for many reasons like its failure to “transform Native Americans into civilized farmers,” this was because most Natives didn't want to take up farming and didn't really have to necessities to farm on their lands. It was also the end of Native American independence, when natives wanted to become citizens that made tribal governments lose control over their people and their lands. This act did not help improve Native Americans and their land because in the end they ended up losing most of their land to settlers and couldn't really take it back.
Kelly, Lawrence C. “The Dawes Act and Its Failure: 1887 to 1934.” Federal Indian Policy, Chelsea House, 2014. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=184986. Accessed 22 Oct. 2022.
The video, “3,000 Years of Business History in Two Minutes,” by James Allen was talking about the start of business and what people had to do to bring their ideas to the world. The video took us back all the way to the eighteenth century BC, where in India, early organizations were able to independently enter into contracts or own property, they were also able to sue or get sued by other organizations. The video also talked about the first US railroad company who were a modern management organization. Management became a career and during the 1970s companies wanted to trap investors and managers by making sure they had the same interests this allowed companies to get more money. “Technology will allow companies to achieve scale and retain customer intimacy. Power will shift from professional managers to the experts who deliver to those customers. Companies will own only those assets critical to their mission and rely on external ecosystems to manage the rest. Investors won't just invest in companies, they'll also invest in projects. And every company will have two engines, the one that powers today's profits, and the one that will generate the profits of tomorrow.” says Allen.
Allen, James, Et al., directors. Bain, 10 August 2018, https://www.bain.com/insights/3000-years-of-business-history-in-two-minutes-video/. Accessed 23 November 2022.
Research Log 3: Current State of the Issue
“Small business owners are optimistic, but still face challenges almost two years into the pandemic,” by Michelle Fox. There have been many things that most small business owners have gone through during this pandemic and it has cost them to almost lose their businesses. This article talks about the biggest challenges that small businesses are facing while coming out of COVID-19 pandemic. It talks about inflation costs, covid-19 safety protocols/compliances, supply chain issues, lack of applicants for job openings, employee well-being/morale and employee retention. “There were 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S. as of October, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, or 99.9% of all firms. Eighty-one percent of small businesses have no paid employees while 19% or 6 millions firms do” states Michelle Fox. During the pandemic inflation has increased for many small businesses, three in five small business owners have had to raise their prices and some have even let go of some of their staff to manage higher costs brought by inflation. Many small businesses think that some of the suppliers that are used for these small businesses are favoring the large businesses because of the larger volume of their orders. These are just some of the things that small business owners are going through and some have not been able to make it back since the rise of the pandemic.
Fox Michelle. “We made it through. Small Business Owners are Optimistic, but Still Face Challenges Almost Two Years Into the Pandemic.” CNBC, 1 February 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/01/small-business-owners-optimistic-but-still-face-challenges-amid-covid.html. Accessed 20 November 2022.
“Top Business Issues: Now and in the Future,” by Karen Greenbaum, AESC president and CEO, they pull the research together to explain the leadership challenges faced by a changing world. This article talks about looking for the next generation of digital, diverse leaders, mass demographic shift, technology increasing the pace of change and gender inequality. Many businesses are looking into how technology is changing their business. Many people are using technology to connect with other people such as customers and also to drive innovation. In this article it talks about the next generation and how they can become the new leaders of this world and how they can use technology to their advantage. It also talks about gender inequality that is going on in the business world. Many women are viewed as employees who can balance work and life at the same time, they are also viewed as people who are not qualified for the job. Greenbaum states that “At a time when there is a shortage of talent, half of the world is under-employed-women. The fact is that gender inequality is a reality around the world and its past time for this to change.”
Greenbaum Karen. “Top Business Issues: Now and in the Future.” AESC, 5 September 2022, https://www.aesc.org/insights/magazine/article/top-business-issues-now-and-future. Accessed 20 November 2022.
“Five biggest Challenges Facing Your small Business,” by Andrew Beattie. The video talked about many things like small businesses needing a large cash reserve, which is why some small business owners work a job and still grow their businesses at the same time. It also talks about some mental strains it puts on the mind, it can cause you to make rash decisions like abandoning or selling the small business. Many small businesses suffer from “founder dependence,” this means that the business owner gives up on the responsibilities as the business grows and puts the business in jeopardy. Finding balance is an important thing for establishing the business’ processes, so it can grow without hurting the quality of the business.
Beattie, Andrew, director. Investopedia, 30 October 2022, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/12/small-business-challenges.asp. Accessed 20 November 2022.
Research Log 4: Global Connections
“E-Commerce is Globalization's Shot at Equality” by Henadi Al-Saleh
Small businesses have been able to expand due to the amount of digital tools that allow most of them to ship, deliver, pay, collect and help with other operations. Globalization has been able to help in a way that no others can, it has been able to help reduce barriers to trade across borders. This article from the world economic forum says that despite having less access to technology, women are the ones to use digital platforms to their advantage. The World Economic Forum says that one in three middle east start up companies are mostly female-funded. It also states that a McKinsey study on Indonesia's e-commerce sector found that women are more involved in online commerce which is more than that contributed by those in traditional commerce. Globalization and commercialization has been able to help women become more independent and become more well known for the different types of small businesses they are running on the technology platform.
Al-Saleh, Henadi. “E-Commerce Is Globalization's Shot at Equality.” World Economic Forum, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/e-commerce-sme-globalization-equality-women/. Accessed 15 February 2023.
“For Indigenous Australians: Defining a Destiny Through Entrepreneurship” by Isabella Kwai
This article was about Indigenous Australians finding their path in the world through entrepreneurship. They talked about the troubles they had to go through to get to where they are and how some of them were discouraged because of who they were and where they came from. The article states that “The number of Indigenous Australians operating and owning businesses grew by an estimated 30 percent between 2011 and 2016, and given that the Indigenous population is younger than the countries over all with a median age of about 23.” Australia's government is also encouraging entrepreneurship. In 2015 the government introduced targets to awarding contracts to indigenous businesses. Last year it unveiled new financial support, on top of an Indigenous Entrepreneurs fund offering 90 million australians dollars, or about $65 million dollars in assistance. “Whether I succeed or not, it's entirely up to me. The market doesn't care if you're Indigenous or not,” said Morgan Coleman, an entrepreneur. There are many Indigenous Australians that are starting to become entrepreneurs and many people are trying to fight for them to keep their businesses up and running.
Kwai, Isabella. "For Indigenous Australians, Defining a Destiny Through Entrepreneurship." New York Times, 4 Feb. 2019, p. A8(L). Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A572357918/OVIC?u=nm_s_santafeis&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=6ebe25cf. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.
“Brazilian Startup Program Elevates Innovative Entrepreneurs and Forges Exciting Investment Opportunity with U.S. Venture Capitalists.”
This article was about the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, together they were able to start a start-up program to help Brazilian Entrepreneurs. This article states that “More than 22,300 startups have launched in Brazil since 2015, and 30 startups have earned “unicorn” status since 2018, which represents companies that are valued above USD $1 billion.” This is saying that Brazil has become the largest startup economy in America and attracted USD $9.43 billion in funding rounds in the year 2021 alone. Since the founding in 2017 the Startup Outreach Brasil Program has brought together 14 editors in nine different countries, which are directly supporting 216 unique startups.
"Brazilian Startup Program Elevates Innovative Entrepreneurs and Forges Exciting Investment Opportunities with U.S. Venture Capitalists." Plus Company Updates, 17 Dec. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A731218828/ITOF?u=nm_s_santafeis&sid=ebsco&xid=6aff634c. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.
Action Plan: Pueblo Entrepreneurship
For my first action plan I brought together information from both the Governor of Acoma Pueblo and a partner of a small business owner, Denissa Valdo. Due to COVID-19 policies set in our community and personal references I was not able to meet with them in person but got a lot of information.
Collecting Tribal tax on small business owners.
Generating revenue for funds to be put back into the community.
Land assignments (antelope clan)
Grazing Fee/Livestock owners
First starting out their business
Trying to get established
Paying pueblo taxes Renting the building complex
NMSU small business loans
Getting their own supplies
Other supporting income
For my second action plan, I talked to vendors who sell at the Acoma Pueblo Museum. I presented them with information about Partners For Success. It is a program that provides employment and training services to American Indian adults with disabilities who reside on Laguna or Acoma reservation, this also applies to other tribal members who reside in Albuquerque and Grants. They also assist individuals in identifying their needs and obtaining the proper assistive technology and ultimately, gain employment.
“I didn't know there was something like partners for success that could help me with this. I might look into it.” - Stephanie Patricio/Nez
Myra Chino and Eva Vallo sit on top of the mesa and wait for tourists to come but during that time they sit in their car and paint their pottery.
“I wanted to run a small business but I didn't know how, but my sister is the one that knows how to get her stuff out there. I also just got back into doing my pottery.” -Iris Patricio
“We don't charge our tribal members to sell at our location but for outsiders who do want to sell, we charge about $25 dollars including tax.” says Wesley Concho