Native Grill
Navajo Nation
Impact
Along with encouraging more travellers to stop at roadside craft cooperatives and artisan markets, Planeterra has partnered with the Native Grill, a DinéHózhó-supported food truck owned and run by the Littleboy family, just outside of Cameron, Arizona. Planeterra has successfully integrated meals at Native Grill for tourism brands like G Adventures, Travelsphere, and Just You, providing a grant for the business to be ready for additional international customers. The Littleboy family and the surrounding community benefit from travellers stopping for a meal and perhaps purchasing handicrafts from local artisans, they can also provide insight into the Indigenous culture of the Dine, while educating travellers on what life is like in Navajo Nation today.
Critical Need
Besides income earned from natural resources in the region, the Diné (which means “the people”, and is the name Navajo tribes use to refer to themselves in their own language) are engaged in major development initiatives targeted toward health, education, economic development, and employment. Navajo Nation faces a 45% unemployment rate and while federal policies have promoted resource extractive industries, the small business sector remains underdeveloped. Many non-profit organizations, tribal programs, and government entities have made it their mission to change this statistic but even with government funding, technical support, impact assessments, feasibility studies, and financing, these efforts have made very little impact on the Navajo economy overall, and there remains a real need for small business incubation networks, which are appearing more and more.
DinéHózhó aims to integrate Diné/Navajo culture, sustainability, conservation, and local knowledge to realize a placed-based sustainable economy that upholds the Hózhó concept and Diné principles. They further strive to cultivate seeds of capacity building, regional empowerment, and economic livelihoods that transition toward sustainable communities and improves the Diné quality of life.
Our Involvement
Seeing the need for investment in the tourism industry of Navajo Nation, Planeterra reached out to DinéHózhó, a community-based low-profit limited liability company that works with Indigenous-owned businesses to assist in their development and connect them to the tourism industry.
One of the current DinéHózhó initiatives includes working towards the creation of a corridor of locally-owned Diné businesses on the route towards the Grand Canyon East Gate, one of the most travelled roads around this incredibly popular destination.
Planeterra partnered with them to promote travellers visiting their first Diné/Navajo experience on popular routes through the western US region. Planeterra also provided a grant for upgrades to the Native Grill Food Truck, providing extra solar panels, hospitality training, as well as seating and shade for additional guests.
