Credit union opens new doors at Pine Ridge

In only nine weeks since it opened, the Lakota Federal Credit Union has attracted 317 members, and $1.2 million in deposits. “We have already approved $100,000 in loans, and that has been by word of mouth. It’s been huge,” Tawney Brunsch, executive director for the Lakota Funds, announced. Brunsch said that she saw the need for a credit union almost as soon as she started at Lakota Funds. “I was surprised by the loan payments coming in as cash, and a big chunk of them were, because there were no other banks on the rez.” Without a reservation-based bank, people were forced into taking predatory loans through car title lenders and pay day loans that charged exorbitant rates. Brunsch said that most people in Pine Ridge were not brought up with banking and were unaware of the cheaper options available to them...