Navajo students on Stock Exchange

Navajo Students Visit NativeOne at the New York Stock ExchangeMore than two dozen Navajo youth eagerly snapped photos of brokers bustling on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor the morning of June 10.

The current students and recent graduates of Saint Michael Indian School in Window Rock, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation attended the ringing of the bell at the exchange as the invited guests of NativeOne Institutional Trading, the first Native-owned company to become a member of the NYSE. “This is the heart of the food chain,” Patrick Forbes, the 22-year-seasoned trader who helps operate NativeOne’s trading desk, told Indian Country Today Media Network. “Native One is on Wall Street.”

Don Lyons, the firm’s chief executive and member of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, co-founded NativeOne with Dennis Smith, a Wall Street veteran since 1976. The firm, which officially debuted on Wall Street on Dec 28, 2010, gives a portion of its commissions back to the American Indian community in the form of scholarships, internships, job training and other charitable causes.Comment:  For more on the subject, see First Native Company on Stock Exchange.