For these Indigenous women, becoming entrepreneurs was about business and breaking barriers

When Chelsee Pettit started her Indigenous streetwear brand, Aaniin Apparel, she used her credit cards to finance purchases because the bank wouldn’t give her a loan or line of credit. Many women Indigenous entrepreneurs have faced the same challenge.

When Victoria LaBillois started selling custom-made t-shirts at powwows in the early 1990s, she didn’t know what she was doing. “I put $500 on my credit card to buy an inventory of t-shirts, and I knew nothing about business. I learned everything the very hard way,” she says.

It was trial by fire, but Ms. LaBillois pushed on, continuing to go into business for herself in a wide range of ventures. After t-shirts came selling purses, founding a construction company, and attempting to set up an internet service provider in her community of Lis