Native Alaskans design new ways to do business successfully: rural Alaska offers business opportunities to creative entrepreneurs.

• Author: Pielli, Brooke
• Position: Alaska Native: BUSINESS NEWS

Lindarae Shearer made a conscious decision about the kind of business she wanted to create. Her goals were not conventional. She wasn't interested in becoming a millionaire. She wanted to do what made her happy, to enjoy her work. She succeeded. What she may not have realized was that she was part of a change in the world of Native Alaskan businesses, a change in which entrepreneurs make their choices based on new parameters. For Shearer it has worked.

Shearer was born and raised in Metlakatla. A Native Alaskan of the Tsimpshian tribe, she worked in Seattle for 12 years before realizing that she really did not enjoy office work and she really did not want to live anywhere but Metlakatla.

Metlakatla is a community of Tsimpshian people. It is the only reservation in Alaska, recognized in 1891 by the United States Congress with the creation of the Annette Islands Reserve. While the majority of the population is Tsimpshian, a clause in the Metlakatlan charter allows other Native Alaskan people to become members of the Metlakatlan Community.

"I never wanted to leave," explains Shearer, owner of Laughing Berry.com. "I was just always very comfortable here. There is a natural beauty of the environment, what with the rain forest, the beaches, like a small paradise. It fits me and who I am."

Shearer's description of Metlakatla as a rainforest is not an exaggeration. The area, she explained, gets more than 150 inches of rain each year as compared to Seattle's 35 inches. It also has an abundance of natural resources, and a population with a diversity of skills. Shearer decided to add her skills to theirs.

BEING CREATIVE

"What is it that people want from Natives?" I asked myself. "What do I want to do?"

With a creative side that sought expression, Shearer began viewing the world as an artist for the first time. She also viewed the yard sale world for material and ideas, eventually finding them.

"I started making earrings and necklaces, and made the discovery that what I was selling, mostly to tourists, were not necessarily Native Alaskan items, but what I liked making. And, that customers wanted a high-end necklace that can be worn anywhere."

Shearer also made another, perhaps more important, discovery. She discovered that being a part of capitalism did not bother her, but neither was it something that consumed her.

"People get into business and everyone assumes they want to get bigger. I did not plan to have a store. I do what I do, and have fun doing it."

When she realized that tourists would appreciate an easy and reasonable car rental service, and a tour guide familiar with Metlakatla, she added those two businesses to the jewelry business and Laughing Berry was born, named after the berries that grow in her yard.

"I buy used cars so that I have no debt, and I like it that way," said Shearer. "It seems to me that my three...