An old friend of mine once joked: "What do you call a rez entrepreneur'?"
"I don't know," I replied, grinning. "Casino manager?"
"No," he said, laughing. "A drug dealer."
Though cryptically humorous (perhaps even racist), the joke left me to reflect about the current state of aboriginal business.
In the past, Indian reserves have been known mainly for their gas stations, billboards and casinos. Generally, people don't associate Indian reserves with successful businesses. But in the past decade that has been changing a lot.
We've seen Aboriginal tourism, especially here in B.C., expand tremendously. The $10 million Aboriginal Cultural Tourism Blueprint Strategya comprehensive plan designed by Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia and funded by the BC governmenthopes to increase provincial revenues in Aboriginal tourism by $20 million by 2010. And in the coming decade, I think we'll see many Indian bands launching themselves into the corporate world, and not just as......
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