The Hub Carter Yellowbird—Bringing industry and Indigenous communities together

Carter Yellowbird—Bringing industry and Indigenous communities together

Carter Yellowbird: Master of Business Administration, 2012
Based in: Maskwacis, Alta.

When Carter Yellowbird (Master of Business Administration ’12) was a teenager living in Maskwacis, Alta., he took a leap of faith. As a member of the Samson Cree Nation, in the community of Maskwacis, he saw too many of his friends fall victim to alcohol and drugs. Some even lost their lives.

Yellowbird knew he needed to forge his own path and that leaving home was the only way to go. “I’ve always been a go-getter,” says Yellowbird, a consultant who advises industry and Indigenous communities on development opportunities. “I needed to do something with myself. I needed to take chances.”

“I’ve always been a go-getter. I needed to do something with myself. I needed to take chances.”

– Carter Yellowbird (Master of Business Administration '12)

He quit school and with his father, Norman, a farmer and former Chief who’d personally lobbied former prime minister Pierre Trudeau for changes to the Indian Act, Yellowbird hit the road for Los Angeles, with visions in his mind of sun and palm trees like he’d seen on TV. Instead, the pair travelled as far as Riverside, Calif., just outside L.A.

“I went with no money in my pocket,” he says. “No credit card, no health insurance. But I had a dream to get away and make something of myself, right?”

Though he had grown up riding, it was only in California that he began to take rodeo seriously, specializing in the roping tricks his father had taught him. When he returned to Maskwacis 2 years later, he used his “18 money”—the portion of oil and gas royalties distributed to reserve members at the age of majority—to buy the truck and horses he knew he would need to compete in rodeo at the highest level. Soon he was working his way up the ranks, from amateur rodeoing meets to the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, N.M. In 1991, he became the first Cree to compete in calf roping at the Calgary Stampede, something he’d dreamed of all his life.

While travelling through Edmonton with one of his brothers, Yellowbird learned that Euro Disney, just outside of Paris, was auditioning Indigenous rodeo stunt men for its Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. “They asked me if I could ride,” he remembers. “I jumped on a horse bareback and rode around easy and they loved it.”

Carter Yellowbird, MBA' 12, with horses

He spent 3 years in Paris, and even performed the dangerous riding stunts at a special show mounted at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. But after an accident left him with a broken hip, he returned to Canada, where a second misadventure put him in hospital with a concussion. Things needed to change. “I always tell kids,” he says, “when your vehicle breaks down, when you get in an accident, the best thing to have is insurance—that will take care of you. In this case, the insurance I needed was my education.”

Yellowbird quit rodeoing, sold his truck and put his horse out to pasture. He earned a high school equivalency diploma, then enrolled at the University of Alberta, securing a bachelor in native studies and a minor in business. From there he became the business manager at Samson Oil and Gas and then began managing the $30-million Samson Education Trust Fund, which provides support for Samson Cree Nation community members studying at the post-secondary level.

His pivot from rodeo to community and business development leveraged Yellowbird’s longtime willingness to go outside his comfort zone and invest in himself—first through athleticism, then education.

He knew he wanted more, and turned to AU’s online MBA.

“I wanted to get my MBA because I wanted to focus on business. First Nations are lacking in science, law, and business.”

– Carter Yellowbird

“I wanted to get my MBA because I wanted to focus on business. First Nations are lacking in science, law, and business,” he says. “Essentially with my MBA, I could get out there and see more, spread my wings more, and most importantly, be able to help First Nations in any capacity.”

After graduating in 2012, Yellowbird worked for a time with the provincially funded Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, as an Aboriginal relations business partner, and helped implement programs that connected Indigenous land stewards with industry and government in support of environmental monitoring regimes.

“With my MBA I could get out there and see more, spread my wings more, and most importantly, be able to help First Nations in any capacity.”

– Carter Yellowbird

He now has his own consultancy, and is currently undertaking a feasibility study for on-reserve, for-profit seniors homes that would cater to Elders, with traditional singing and foods, but would still be connected to the off-reserve geriatric care industry.

The bulk of Yellowbird’s work is looking at different strategies that bring industry and First Nations People together and get them ready for the world at large. He sees education as fundamental to that goal, and each year, his Carter Yellowbird Indigenous Bursary awards an Indigenous student at AU with $1,500.

“You know, going to Paris as a kid was a big culture shock,” Yellowbird says. “Just think about a First Nations person at that time going off the reserve to work.” That experience has defined his work today: helping others jump into the unexpected.

Learn more about AU’s MBA program

Published:
  • September 1, 2019