Chapter 13: USA: Lily Mendoza’s Book Business and Native American Activism

Lily Mendoza is a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe entrepreneur. She started her business out of necessity and later became a successful bookstore owner in downtown Rapid City. Her book business later grew as she ventured into book printing. Meanwhile, she also encourages women and advocates for women’s causes. She vividly promotes Native American books and authors.

She has lived in the Black Hills for 30 years and in her previous work in community relations, she learned about book business and marketing. She became aware of the need for access to literature on the reservations. As she realized she was skillful in marketing, she started to travel on her own, setting up Native American bookfairs in schools on the reservations. It is now a family business, and her children and (still) little grandchildren are learning book business skills. They are also well educated in literature. They started visiting schools and bookfairs all over the Northern Plains with thousands of books. The teachers could purchase resources for their classrooms.

However, since Covid-19, online book shopping has boomed. Teachers are ordering and getting books in the hands of families online. Lily still prints books on demand and sells them to small and large distributors. Besides her book business, Lily supports the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). This a forum for reporting and disseminating information about a serious indigenous problem. Lily is savvy at business, a strong political leader in her community, and an important culture carrier in her tribe.