Tiwahe Foundation joins Mni Sota Fund in celebrating this year’s Ozhigin Fellows. The group is made up of eleven powerhouse Native business owners in Minnesota who are readying themselves for their next stage of growth.

The fellows represent a range of expertise and talent. Their businesses are from many different industries, like beauty and fashion, cultural art and medicines, construction, music, fitness and sports, and domestic services.

This cohort came to Ozhigin already empowered. Beginning the program back in October 2022, nearly all of the Fellows reported confidence in being able to achieve their personal and business goals and eagerness to develop skills to realize their goals. That mindset of growth and abundance for Native people is paramount for success—more so than the technical skills we can master. As Native peoples, we are stymied by the generational impacts of not seeing the possibilities before us because instead we have seen the intentional exclusion of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents from mainstream economic, social, and civic life.

Any time one of us takes a leap of faith, like entrepreneurship, the rest of us need to celebrate because they are creating vital pathways for others– especially our Native youth.

In 2022, Tiwahe Foundation joined Mni Sota Fund in a partnership to collaboratively meet the programmatic and financial needs of the Ozhigin Fellowship program. Over the last nine months, the Fellows have worked with Mni Sota Fund staff and consultants to further develop their financial and business management skills. Tiwahe’s value-add through relaunching the Oyate Leadership Network, is gained understanding of how cultural values and teachings can be shared and applied to the experiences of Native businessowners. Together we are learning how we can best support networking that fulfills more than just a professional connection.

Later this year, we’ll be coming back together with the Fellows to facilitate some of the deeper conversations around topics they shared with us this past spring. For example, a “truth telling” opportunity to share experiences as Native businessowners, inviting in other seasoned Native entrepreneurs to talk about how being Native in this space impacts them and how their Native identity and culture fit into the day-to-day reality of running a business. Another desired conversation is how to manage and supervise Native staff (and others), formed from a trust-based relationship.