The “Native Business Top 50 Entrepreneurs” list serves to elevate awareness of the innovation, professionalism, competence and tenacity demonstrated by Native entrepreneurs across Indian Country. Native Business is rolling out profiles of these 50 Native entrepreneurs online, in no particular hierarchy, to document and memorialize their innovation and self-determination. The inaugural class of the Native Business Top 50 Entrepreneurs recognizes leaders across 13 business sectors, demonstrating the diversity of industries where Natives are making an impact. Among the entrepreneurs recognized in our Art & Tourism sector is Peter Boome of Araquin Designs.
In 2003, Peter Boome (Upper Skagit) was about to start law school and was looking to be more resilient regarding his family’s income. He’d been an artist for his entire life, selling pieces here and there or working on commission, but had never pursued it professionally.
“My father in law’s cousin is Andy Peterson, who is a pretty well-known Skokomish artist, and he had just started his own printmaking,” Boome told Native Business Magazine. “I took a bunch of paintings to Andy and asked if he’d print them up for me, and he said ‘no, but you can come print them yourself.’ That was the kindest thing that anybody could ever do.”
After printing a few pieces at Peterson’s studio, Boome was hooked. He and his wife took their tax return and life savings and sunk it into the equipment needed to start his own printmaking business in a backyard shed.
“My wife and I had a business plan where the goal was to pay ourselves off with the proceeds from the business within two years,” Boome said. “Four months later, it was paid off.”
After graduating from law school at the height of the recession, Boome found that the law jobs he was pursuing paid less than what he was making in the art business, for a heavier workload and time commitment. So art remained the core of his business.
Over the course of his career, Boome’s artistry has come in many forms. In addition to printmaking, he’s worked on apparel, dinnerware sets, wedding photography and logo design. He also teaches business, works as a public defender in a drug deferment court, and is about to start a Tribally-focused legal mediation business.
“It’s natural for us in Indian country to be entrepreneurs,” he said. “It’s a traditional type of behavior. We’ve been led to believe that we’re not businesspeople, and that’s simply not true. We’re naturally businesspeople, but we need a little bit more support from our own communities. And we need a little more recognition.”
