Suzanne Trusler Founds Firm To Help American Indians
By LISA GENASCI

AP Business Writer

As a child, Suzanne Small Trusler frequently traveled with her father from their
 home on Montana's incredibly poor Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation to 
rodeos in nearby counties and states.

``I remember thinking even when I was little that the poverty of the reservation
 didn't seem right,'' Trusler said. ``The people elsewhere, in Wyoming, in South
 Dakota, they didn't live like we did.''

Years later, as co-founder with her husband of Morning Star Enterprises, a 
construction firm in Lame Deer, Mont., that tries to hire predominantly American
 Indian crews, Trusler is trying to bring about change.

Morning Star's offices are among the few commercial establishments on the 
near-empty main street of the reservation, home to 3,500 Northern Cheyenne. 
Besides Trusler's company, there are only a convenience store, snack bar, gas 
station, grocery store and the chamber of commerce she helped found.

Believed to be the first Northern Cheyenne woman to graduate from a four-year 
college, Trusler, 45, and her husband Tom run a company with revenues of $5 
million and employing close to 100 workers in peak season.

``She has had remarkable obstacles to overcome, not just as a woman in a 
business not traditionally friendly to women, but as a Native American,'' said 
Jo Alice Mospan, the Small Business Administration director for Montana.

Indeed, her accomplishments, friends say, are nothing short of remarkable among 
American Indian women.

``Suzanne is a great role model for young women on the reservation, for Native 
American women across the country,'' said the Northern Cheyenne tribal chairman,
 Llevando ``Cowboy'' Fisher.

Described by some as a ``contrary warrior'' of Northern Cheyenne folklore -- 
tribe members who must do things their own way -- Trusler says over the years 
she has hired about 2,000 people from the reservation. Her company has also 
spawned a small industry of subcontractors -- creating jobs desperately needed 
in a town with about 70 percent unemployment.

Born Suzanne Small on the reservation in 1949, she was the daughter of poor 
ranchers. Her father, also a rodeo cowboy, struggled to feed his three children 
and wife, who Trusler describes as ``a traditional Cheyenne lady.''

Trusler's grandmother on her father's side was a descendent of a Cheyenne chief.

Although her family had little, Trusler said, it seemed many people on the 
reservation existed on almost nothing.

``I always thought I was going to do something about that,'' Trusler said. ``I 
didn't know what it would be at the time.''

Education became a first goal. Trusler's grandmother and father helped, telling 
her that if she was to achieve anything in life a college degree was 
fundamental. But among the Northern Cheyenne, she said, her plans were nothing 
short of revolutionary.

``Few Cheyenne even thought about college and a lot of people thought I was 
being pretty high-handed even thinking about it,'' Trusler said. ``They thought 
I was acting like I was too good for the tribe.''

In the 1960s, she explained, ``survival was the main thought, how to get the 
next meal on the table. Going off to school was a flight of fancy.''

But with government loans and grant money, Trusler started at Montana State 
University, then transferred to the University of Montana, where she received a 
degree in business and economics. A fellowship from Montana State led to a 
master's in those subjects.

In 1968, while attending college, she married Tom Trusler, with whom she has had
 three children. Tom Trusler, a civil engineer, is not an American Indian, but 
did grow up in a town neighboring the reservation.

To support themselves and pay college bills, the Truslers worked in construction
 jobs and learned the business. After graduating, the couple returned to the 
reservation, where elders had asked Suzanne Trusler to advise them on such 
issues as how to develop the tribe's natural resources.

While working with the tribe, she heard complaints about shoddy construction 
done on the reservation by outside contractors. The new buildings were falling 
apart, the foundations cracking, and elders worried about wasting federal 
housing funds.

``We suddenly thought, why couldn't the tribe do the building itself?'' Trusler 
said. So the Truslers and the tribe started Morning Star, whose first project 
was a new reservation clinic. But the beginning was far from easy.

``There were few minority businesses in Montana in 1974,'' Trusler said. 
``Government agencies scoffed at us for even thinking we could start our own 
business and build on the reservation.''

The reception wasn't any friendlier from local construction companies worried 
about competition. Still, after about three years, the Truslers bought out the 
51 percent interest owned by the Northern Cheyenne after the tribe was told it 
would lose its special status if it stayed in the construction business. Today 
they own the entire firm.

In the early years of Morning Star, construction was limited to the reservation.
 But once several big projects were completed, the Truslers started to bid on 
jobs statewide.

Other contractors stonewalled their efforts, telling the couple to ``go back to 
the reservation,'' Trusler said. Several campaigned in Washington against 
Morning Star, charging the company was favored for government work because of 
its minority status.

Trusler, however, successfully defused much of the anger with a local media 
blitz to explain the thinking behind affirmative action.

``It helps to remove some of the discrimination. We're not on an equal footing 
to begin with,'' said Trusler, who said she had often been told she couldn't bid
 for jobs because minority firms were ``not trustworthy.''

``We tried to show that we were not here to take their (other contractors') 
bread and butter but that we were working to survive and to help the 
reservation,'' Trusler said.

Over the years, Morning Star has won large contracts, between $2 million and $4 
million each. The company also landed a $4 million contract to build the St. 
Labre Indian Mission athletic complex in Ashland, Mont., three years ago, and is
 currently rebuilding the Northern Cheyenne tribal building.

Despite the heavy work load, Trusler finds time for her three children -- a 
married son, and two younger daughters. She also travels the country lecturing 
and advises other tribe members on how to start a business.

``We cannot depend on government grants forever to maintain our survival, we 
have to do it for ourselves,'' Trusler said. ``Yes, we need to maintain our 
traditional values but now we also need to become business-oriented to 
survive.''

End adv for Sunday, July 16

AP-WS-07-12-95 1036EDT