Paying the bills while doing what you love

When Tristan Ahtone got off the plane in New York City last fall, all he owned was his luggage and enough cash on him to cover rent for a few months. But he knew he needed lots of money while he searched for work as a reporter.

"I worked the entire summer, like every day of the week and just saved everything I could to get out here," said Ahtone, a Kiowa originally from Phoenix, Az.

Ahtone met his girlfriend at the airport and they both went to a friend's place to stay for a few days. "We ended up staying there for three weeks because finding apartments here is a lot harder than it seems," Ahtone, 26, recalled.

Ahtone eventually found a small bachelor apartment in Queens. But finding work as a reporter has proved to be more difficult than he expected.

He interned for free at a magazine for awhile before landing a job as a coordinator with Amerinda, an arts organization that promotes American Indian artists in New York City (see Arts).

"The best thing about my job is that it gives me free time to do my writing," Ahtone explained.

Meanwhile, Michael Azeez owns and operates a food cart, which he named "From Atlantis With Love," near the Bowery in Manhattan. The 45-year-old Mohawk likes being self-employed.

Azeez invested $15,000 to sell food that he describes as traditional to American Indians, since there are no restaurants in Manhattan that sell American Indian cuisine.

"I really wanted to do it in a cultural manner like deer and elk," Azeez explained. "A lot of meat that regular New Yorkers are not exposed to." While Azeez hasn't been able to offer game yet, he does cook up a variety of fresh vegetables and meats.