Bird Cage Book Store & Mercantile has moved to a new location in the heart of downtown Rapid City, S.Dak., that "gives Lily Mendoza more space to support education, advocate for other women, and promote Native American books and authors," the Journal reported.
In October, Mendoza relocated to 524 7th St. after four years in the Racing Magpie, which houses multiple businesses. The new space is "a hub from which her family runs a wholesale book business, Dakota West Books LLC, and online resource Word Carrier Trading Post, along with the brick-and-mortar book store and mercantile."
"There aren't very many Lakota-owned bookstores in the state of South Dakota, especially woman-owned, so (this new location) gives me an opportunity to put it out there that we're here," she said. "We really are a family-owned business.... It has been a really good move for us."
Mendoza learned the book business working in community relations and marketing for Borders. "What I began to see was the need for access to literature on the reservations. I had enough training and skill to go out on my own, so I decided to do Native American book fairs in schools," Mendoza said about launching Word Carrier Trading Post and taking book fairs to reservations. "Ours was Native American literature. We would go in with thousands of books and teachers could purchase resources for their classrooms. We did that all over the Northern Plains."
Bird Cage Book Store and Mercantile's new space gives Mendoza a place to promote causes she's passionate about. She believes in supporting other women entrepreneurs and uses her shop for that, as well. "One of the things I've wanted to do is create a space for women's cottage industries, so the (downtown location) allowed me to purchase items from women at a good rate and resell those items in my store. I have ribbon skirts and shirts, beautiful decorations made by local women, and masks."