She fueled growth amidst crisis on the Navajo Nation
“I just like to always say we’re capable of doing things, we’re capable of making good business decisions. I’m really grateful for where I’m at.”
Leveraging tech to link the next generation to Navajo heritage
“We’re incorporating our Navajo teachings into everything we do. Coding, programming, application, even customer service.”
One artist at a time…
“What I want to do is make it so much easier for artists to just focus on what they do best, which is make and create. Our platform will handle a lot of the backend.”
Change Labs co-founders beat the odds to establish historic E-ship Hub on the Navajo Nation
Change Labs co-founders, Heather Fleming and Jessica Stago, share their story of perseverance in their quest to create physical infrastructure on the Navajo Nation to support small business owners and artisans.
A Navajo designer’s reimagined sports uniforms spread across reservations nationwide
“We don’t know what the future holds and I might as well go for something. I just told myself I’d rather try it and fail than to not even do it at all and always wonder what would have been.”
Riding out a dream
“Other people have the faith and the belief that I can do this. So really the last thing was to convince myself and to believe that I can do it because there are so many other people that say ‘you got this.’”
Forging a way forward
“I did everything with the bare minimum. But now I have my own shop, a really nice grinders, a heat treat oven, anvil, a nice forge and all these nice things that I’ve been working my butt off for.”
Change Makers: Navajo women business owners take leadership to Navajo Nation Council
“If we use our camaraderie and women collaborate and if we can be cohesive, we can do a lot. We can really get a lot of work done.”
More than a salon
“I want it to be a place where people know they can come and feel welcomed and feel comfortable about being who they are.”
Finding opportunity in heartbreak and deficiency
“We were able to do a lot of work and fill the gaps that the Navajo Nation was struggling with. Ever since then, we’ve just been working on providing the services that were just so needed.”
Diné business owners celebrate history and culture through food
“We believe that there is a direct connection between nurturing the land and nurturing our children; by understanding how to grow traditional crops and preparing them for young children we are actively dismantling systems of oppression and rebuilding indigenous food ways.”
Preservation and education: A Diné woman starts her journey
“If you were to ask the average person what rangeland is or about natural resources, they probably really don’t have a clear idea,. So, there’s a need to be able to manage that because that’s what most of the land base is on the Navajo Nation specifically, but also what most of the land base is across the United States. As we deal with climate change and protecting and preserving those spaces, it’s going to be super important.”
A voice for underrepresented writers
In a downtown Phoenix office sits a Diné woman using her business to change how Indigenous writers are published and seen.
Riding for change: A Navajo woman brings cycling to her community
“No matter how many hills you climb or how many miles you go, there’s always that end result of accomplishment and success when you put your mind to it and just be patient.”
Collaborating to build a Native economy
“You’re looking at Navajo-owned businesses in rural parts of the Navajo Nation trying to support each other and help each other out.”
Inspiring understanding through art
“You can’t limit yourself.”
Finding answers through farming
"I think if you want to get into farming, it really would be about starting to build relationships and finding out who you want to work with. Hopefully people can start building relationships together again in a meaningful way."
Building homes by building confidence
“Everything in Navajo has a life to it. It has culture, it has feeling, it breathes. The way that the home is built, it goes through different phases, just as a human being would.”
Bright, bold and original, a Navajo artist’s journey through self-care
“I love to depict my version of what I believe a strong Navajo woman is in her soul.”
Powering up rural households
“We’re working on is incorporating traditional and cultural knowledge into our education and how we do things. I feel like I'm learning a lot, personally, from that.”