The Office of Mayor Ted Wheeler, the Oregon Native American Chamber, and Prosper Portland invite Portland residents to participate in Buy Native Week this week through Dec. 6. The campaign encourages residents to discover and patronize small, local, Native-owned businesses.
The Portland area is home to over 50,000 Native American and Alaska Native people who descended from more than 380 tribes or bands. Many Native American Portlanders are entrepreneurs and business owners who are crucial to the local economy.
“Native American Portlanders are integral to the fabric of our city and have helped shape Portland’s community, culture and economy,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said. “We have the power to choose where we spend our money. Shopping at Native-owned local businesses is an important and simple way to support Indigenous Portlanders.”
The pandemic has made it hard for small, local businesses to survive and thrive, and those challenges are compounded for Indigenous business owners and other business owners of color, who often face greater barriers to success. It’s particularly important to support local businesses during the holiday shopping season, because it’s when many businesses make a large portion of their annual revenue.
In addition, choosing to patronize Native-owned businesses supports Portland as a whole.
"Native American–owned businesses help preserve the uniqueness of the community and a sense of place that gives us grounded context to which we can better understand the historical and contemporary complexities of Native Americans and tribal nations,” said James Alan Parker, Executive Director of the Oregon Native American Chamber.
“By supporting the 'Buy Native' movement, you are enhancing local democracy, as tribal citizen-owned businesses, with roots in the community, are involved in key development issues that shape the lives of our families and communities, and directly contribute to the protection of our land and environment and that benefits all of Portland, an economic hub for the state and region,” Parker said.
Participating in Buy Native Week is simple. Patronize local Native-owned shops, restaurants, and other businesses this week, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
One resource for finding Native-owned businesses is the Oregon Native American Chamber’s member list at http://chamber.onacc.org/list/. Another is Mercatus’s Buy Native Guide, located at https://mercatuspdx.com/directory/buy-native-guide/#!directory.
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