Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: First of all, Gay White. Les, do you want to tell us her story a little bit, maybe? I mean, this is a big honor to be called the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, but she's been in business for 10 years, right? [LAUGHS] Who wants to take that?

SPEAKER 2: It's a real honor to be working with Gay White. Gay started in business in 1982. Being American Indian woman, she's encountered a lot of barriers, especially in the construction industry, and she's done an excellent job in overcoming those barriers and becoming very successful with her company.

She grew from a small company. She's a general contractor. She's worked various projects throughout the state of Minnesota. She has been instrumental in the establishment of our organization. So she's both successful in business and also successful in community service as well.

SPEAKER 1: As an American Indian, does that pose any particular barriers to being successful in business? Just that fact alone?

SPEAKER 3: Not really. I think it's up to the individual, just like any other form of business, an individual, whether he's American Indian or Jewish or whether he's Catholic or whether he or she is whatever. The idea being that one has to put their business plan to work and no matter what affiliation they are.

SPEAKER 1: So why an American Indian Chamber of Commerce?

SPEAKER 2: Well, the purpose of the Indian Chamber of Commerce is to achieve economic development in the Indian community. And we promote American Indian-owned businesses and professional associations. The Indian community as a whole in Minnesota has the highest unemployment rate and the lowest per capita income within all communities in Minnesota.

And it is part of our goal to combat community-destroying influences, such as poverty and racism, discrimination. And so those are some of the barriers that we do encounter within our community. However, the leaders such as Gay and the other business leaders within our organizations have been successful in overcoming those barriers, those problems, and in turn, our role models and leaders for our community.

SPEAKER 1: I think one of the biggest success stories in the Native American community has been the bingo parlors, the gambling establishments, really a leader in that whole industry now. Is that where your efforts are directed, or is it yours more the private business people?

SPEAKER 3: Well, that's really a recent success story, but the business of gaming is for sure in the news right now, but it's also a real opportunity for the Indian reservations to take that revenue and the profits from that and use it for other economic development projects. And that's what's being done.

The business of gaming is not what the Minnesota American Indian Chamber of Commerce is all about. It's one aspect of business, obviously, but most of the things and most of our members are in all kinds of other areas-- construction, sales, marketing, we have insurance, you name it. Every facet of business is involved in the Minnesota American Indian Chamber.

SPEAKER 1: Now, doesn't the state of Minnesota have some provision that says-- what is it, about 10% of their building projects have to go to minority-owned businesses?

SPEAKER 2: Well, there's no set percentage on any particular project. It's a complex process in which they work on. Each project is a little bit different. And it depends upon how many disadvantaged businesses are identified in that particular area type of business and location. And so it's very complex. And that's one of the issues that we work with to try to help improve opportunities for our membership.

SPEAKER 1: Has the recession, the economic downturn, had any impact on the growth of the businesses?

SPEAKER 3: Oh, I think it affects the Indian businesses as it would any other business. And again, whatever business sector they're in is some is worse than others. I know that in the gaming industry, for example, that doesn't seem to affect right now. The recession hasn't affected the gaming business around the state of Minnesota.

As a matter of fact, it's booming quite a bit, whether it's because of escape or what. But there are businesses and members of our chamber that have soft business conditions over the last two years just like anything else. And if you're in the home construction business, that's starting to come back a little bit. But we have people that have been in that field that have been somewhat sluggish the last couple of years.

SPEAKER 1: Now, some of the Native American educators that we've talked with are very frustrated with the high dropout rate of Native American students from the public school system or wherever it might be. Are you involved in efforts to keep kids in school to direct them into business endeavors?

SPEAKER 3: Well, we work very closely. As a matter of fact, Les and I both-- and there's about three or four others from our chamber involved in the Junior Achievement projects. Les and I work in the winter months with Junior Achievement, usually, either ninth-grade level or fifth and sixth-grade level. And we target our efforts at the Indian schools-- Heart of Earth Survival School in Minneapolis and Little Red Schoolhouse.

Those are two examples of where we spend our time on Junior Achievement. But yeah, our programs in the area of youth development are trying to keep the American Indian youth tuned into the idea that business is good and profit isn't a three or four-letter word. And we're trying to mentor them in those areas.

SPEAKER 1: Well, how does that jive with the revival, I guess, of the American Indian culture? How do you coordinate the need for profit and a strong bottom line with the spirituality and all of those kinds of issues? I mean, that's a huge question that we have about 30 seconds to answer.

[LAUGHTER]

SPEAKER 2: Well, in a nutshell, one of the major components of the business model is personal effectiveness and that would fall under spirituality or the well-being of an individual. And we're trying to promote that past teachings, values of the American Indian culture which were prevalent in the past and have persevered and survived and are very open and part of our successful Indian business people.

And we're trying to communicate that to Indian youth, other Indian entrepreneurs as well as the non-Indian community. There's a positive spirituality or positive being which makes up that personal effectiveness component of the business model.