LAKE COUNTY ? Wanda Quitiquit finds herself facing what she believes is a bitter irony. The tribal council that recommended her for the entrepreneur training program she completed last fall subsequently disenrolled her, leaving her jobless.
Quitiquit said she lost her public relations job in the Robinson Rancheria Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families office after she and all 35 members of her family were disenrolled from the tribe in November, following a tribal election.
“I was going to continue working and put money into the business,” Quitiquit said.
Quitiquit said she was in the middle of her four-month entrepreneur training course through the California Indian Manpower Consortium, Inc. (CIMC) when she was disenrolled. As part of the training, Quitiquit developed a business plan for her specialty greeting card business, Red Rose Designs.
“The preservation of Pomo design art is the heart of the thing,” Quitiquit said.
Quitiquit said she began by making designs on gourds and selling them, but realized she wanted to document the designs before they were gone and turn them into art.
During the training, Quitiquit identified her marketing niche: museum-goers and gift shop browsers across the nation. Her primary product will be greeting cards featuring true-to-life pictures of Pomo art, and she said she might branch out to include other printed merchandise such as T-shirts and coffee mugs.
Participants were selected through a competitive application process, according to a CIMC press release dated March 9. Quitiquit said Robinson Rancheria recommended her for the CIMC program, but now she”s on her own.
The purpose of the CIMC program, according to the press release, is to build healthy tribal communities by teaching Indian entrepreneurs how to thrive.
“You look to your tribe to provide resources, and Robinson does have resources, but now I don”t even have the opportunity or a chance to submit a proposal or ask for assistance,” Quitiquit said.
She is one of 44 disenrolled Robinson Rancheria members who are appealing the decision, according to Dale Risling of the Northern California regional office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Robinson Rancheria Tribal Chair Tracy Avilia refused comment regarding the disenrollment, and did not confirm how many members had been disenrolled.
Quitiquit said her vision for her company remains the same. She said she”s exploring the options available to her for getting her business off the ground and hoping for the best.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
