$100,000 federal grant will help artisans in Whiteclay

LINCOLN — A new $100,000 federal grant will help entrepreneurs in impoverished Whiteclay, Nebraska, expand their markets for Native American crafts and works of art.

GROW Nebraska, which has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs across the state start small businesses, is working with the Whiteclay-based group, Lakota Hope, and a local extension agent with the University of Nebraska to help Lakota artisans tap into the Internet and set up booths at area events.

Janell Anderson Ehrke of GROW Nebraska cited the example of one Whiteclay artist who recently sold a traditional Native American “ledger” painting via Amazon for $120, several times the price he’d get on the streets of Whiteclay, an impoverished community just across the border from South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/federal-grant-will-help-artisans-in-whiteclay/article_edf80a45-2880-54c3-a4e0-125b6c0348ac.html