Three years ago, Denella Belin wasn’t looking to be her boss. A Navajo cook from Tuba City, Arizona, had what many would consider solid job security.
He was working as a sous chef at a tribal casino in the Valley, a position he had spent years preparing for. She had five children, more than ten years of kitchen experience and a steady paycheck. Business was not part of his plan.
Then someone asked him a question he couldn’t shake.
Representatives from Project DreamCatcher attended a small food demonstration that Belin led. After that, they asked if he had ever thought of turning his job into a business.
His response was quick.
“I loved my job. I had a dedicated position,” he said. “I wasn’t looking for a business opportunity.”
But the question is too late.
“They told me there was a market for what I was doing,” Belin said. “When someone sees something in your work, I think about it, good or bad.
Three or four months after joining the weekly group in 2022, Belin made a decision he once believed was beyond his reach. He quit his casino position and used his last paycheck to start his own business.
“Project DreamCatcher gave me the foundation to believe that I can be someone I never imagined,” he said.
Today, he owns Nellas Innovative Kreations, a Phoenix-based catering company founded in 2023.
Belin’s story illustrates what Project DreamCatcher has cultivated for nearly a decade: trust rooted in culture and entrepreneurship grounded in self-governance.
For Zuzette Kisto of the Gila River Indian Community, that change did not mean quitting her job. It meant redefining retirement.
After 32 years working in marketing and public relations for his brand, Kisto left his full-time job with the desire to build something of his own.
“I have always had a desire to create a business,” he said. “I saw it as a great opportunity to immerse myself in everything it would take to become an entrepreneur.”
Encouraged by his friend April Tinhorn, a member of DreamCatcher’s founding team, Kisto joined in August 2025. He arrived with decades of technical knowledge and questions about how to make it into something intentional.
“I don’t want to be someone who just adds all the skills he has in one business,” he said. “I want to go into my business with a clear structure – a defined set of services. I don’t want my business to drive me.”
A program designed for indigenous women
For the past several years, the international headquarters of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus has become, for one week, a gathering place that feels both professional and festive. Women travel from tribal communities across Arizona and the Southwest carrying business plans, lived experience and ambition.
Project DreamCatcher is a free, community-based business education program developed by the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation in partnership with Thunderbird. Its mission is to build the capacity of women business owners from ethnic communities across Arizona.
“What makes this program different is that it is designed specifically for the Nations and tribes we serve,” said Mary Sully de Luque, executive director of Project DreamCatcher and professor of management at Thunderbird. “Actually their program, I always say that I am a guest in their program because I am a guest.”
Since its inception in 2015, Project DreamCatcher has graduated approximately 350 women and supported the creation or growth of approximately 120 local businesses in industries including food, healthcare, consulting, logistics, technology and cultural conservation.
“This was not a project they funded,” said Michelle Lyons-Mayer, Thunderbird’s global executive director. “This was the community they connected with.”
Ondrea Barber, manager of Native American affairs for Freeport-McMoRan, said the long-term investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to tribal communities.
“We’ve seen the benefits it has in tribal communities on the individual, the family, and the community as a whole,” Barber said. “It gives a glimpse of what’s possible and a way to become a business owner where many in the community may not have seen that as an option for them.”
Jacob Moore, vice president and advisor to the president for American Indian Affairs at ASU, said Project DreamCatcher demonstrates the university’s strong commitment to serving tribal communities.
“Project DreamCatcher is a great example of ASU’s ability to provide diverse and effective learning opportunities that meet the economic, social, health and overall well-being of the communities it serves,” Moore said. “Thunderbird School of Global Management didn’t just assume that an egalitarian business course would be enough. The Project DreamCatcher program emphasizes the wisdom, teachings and experiences that women bring and combines that knowledge with MBA-level business concepts.”
Cohort initiation and trust building
Long before Belin joined the DreamCatcher class, Tinhorn helped launch the first group.
Tinhorn, who is a registered Hualapai resident and is also Navajo in China, is the CEO and founder of Phoenix-based Tinhorn CX, a consulting firm he founded in 2010. His company focuses on business health through strategic planning, tribal relations and travel services, mainly serving government-run health organizations and health organizations.
In 2015, he received a call from Katherine Zuga, who was the program manager, who was working to recruit enough people to start the first DreamCatcher class. At the time, eligibility was limited to Arizona women entrepreneurs registered in the Hualapai, San Carlos Apache, Tohono O’odham and White Mountain Apache tribes.
“They wanted 20 applicants and they hadn’t been able to reach that number after three rounds,” Tinhorn said.
He helped search, using connections in those tribal communities.
“That’s how the first team was built,” he said.
His involvement continued beyond that first class. Tinhorn CX designed the DreamCatcher logo, conducted alumni surveys through the ASU Kauffman Inclusion Challenge grant, held workshops and recruited participants. Today, he returns to lead sessions on topics such as think money and marketing, and serves on panels.
For Kisto, Tinhorn’s participation influenced his own decision years later.
“He was the first team and he talked about it,” Kisto said. “I was always encouraged to see it on social media, hearing people’s stories.”
A week that changes trends
DreamCatcher is designed as an intensive, all-week, in-person experience. Each group includes up to 30 women from multi-ethnic communities. Accommodation, meals and transportation are covered so that participants can fully focus on their growth.
Participants complete master’s-level coursework in business, leadership, accounting and pitching. They visit Native businesses and build relationships that often extend beyond the classroom.
“If women come from areas where there may be less trade, business may feel easier,” de Luque said. “When they come here, they realize they are not alone.”
That realization surprised Kisto.
“First and foremost, it was a sister,” he said. “Being surrounded by other women who aspired to start businesses, or who already had businesses, was very encouraging.
“For me, knowing that there are other ethnic women out there who want to promote themselves, their communities and their businesses. It was encouraging to know that you are not alone.”
The course also left practical aspects, especially financial training.
“(The teacher) explained how to set prices and rates in a way that was easy to understand,” Kisto said. “He showed us how to do all the information needed when we provide services to potential customers.”
Graduation includes blessings and ceremonies led by students, with participants dressed in traditional clothing and carrying tribal flags.
“In some tribal cultures, there are beliefs around death, spirituality and generational wealth that affect how you talk about money or long-term planning,” said de Luque. “We create space for those conversations, and we pay close attention to what’s appropriate.”
“The connection continues after the cohort ends,” Barber said. “Women always come together, share resources and lift each other up.”
Businesses are rooted in the community
Many of DreamCatcher’s businesses grow out of cultural traditions and community needs. Others start by preparing a ceremony or beadwork. Others specialize in health care, trucking, consulting and digital education.
Through Kisto Consulting LLC, a company she founded 11 years ago for Native outreach work, Kisto is developing her focus on consulting in leadership and women’s empowerment, drawing on her experience as a caretaker.
“I want to have a business that I love,” he said. “Not a business based on the skills I have.”
Lyons-Mayer said many DreamCatcher ventures are inseparable from recognition.
“For many of them, the business is about preserving culture,” he said. “It is not separated from recognition.”
Kisto acknowledges that the women of the Nation often carry the leadership of businesses within their communities.
“I grew up where I had chosen for myself. “Looking at my aunts and my mother, I saw that the women of the world have a strong inner strength.
Tinhorn said supporting Native women entrepreneurs creates results.
“Native women bring in about two-thirds of the household income in tribal communities,” he said. “If someone wants to make a difference in tribal communities, support and buy from female business owners.
Belin sees the generational trend at home.
“I’ve worked in kitchens for 15 years,” he said. “For most of my children’s lives, I worked long hours.
Ten years after its inception, Project DreamCatcher has grown from a single group into a grassroots network of women entrepreneurs.
“Ten years ago, we were hoping to build a strong team,” Lyons-Mayer said. “What we are seeing now is the development of women who are teaching each other, engaging in work and showing that governance and business go hand in hand.”
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