Native American Art Program

Some people go to bed at night and simply saw logs but others, like Shane Martin of Belcourt go ...  More »

Some people go to bed at night and simply saw logs but others, like Shane Martin of Belcourt go to bed and start coming up with new ideas. Debbie Kuehn tells us about the latest one... See this? Shane Martin calls it eco-therapy. (Shane Martin, Turtle Mountain Community College) When you feel refreshed when you get there, where you feel good about going there. This is the setting for the Turtle Mountain Community College's Anishinabe Cultural Center. Anishinabe is an Ojibwa word meaning original people. And this center is truly an original idea. (Shane) We needed to get this place back to where we could host our culture and our heritage and be able to promote it. The idea is to invite local artists here to sell their artwork...while allowing business students at the college a chance to get some real-life experience. (Shane) The post trading post cafe could be an incubator for other businesses that could start out with students learning first and foremost...how to start their own business, the inner runnings of business and then the outlay of how to start the structure. In fact, state officials with the USDA were so impressed with the idea, they awarded the center a $100,000 grant to get it off the ground. (Clare Carlson, ND USDA) I do think it's a great project. You combine so many elements. We've talked about it...you combine student training, You provide a place for artists to sell their art at a price that's beneficial to them. (Shane) Hopefully people stop here to see the center and go to the casino and the local shops and that kind of thing. Call it economic development, call it ingenuity, call it...eco-therapy. (You seem like you're very excited.) (Shane) Yeah, I am. It's great, Whatever you call it, the Anisinabe Cultural Center is sure to go down as one original business. Near Belcourt, Debbie Kuehn KX News. The total cost of the center is right around 160-thousand dollars. The center is also getting financial help from a program through the Northwest Area Foundation called Pathways to Prosperity and the college itself.  « Less