access to capital and credit

Bankshot Episode 46: Ignored by banks, Indigenous communities build their own financial system

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EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. — The Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation is big, but it isn’t as big as it used to be. As seen from the air, the land is an expansive, grayish-brown terrain cracked open by the winding
Missouri River with scattered clusters of black dots. On the ground, the dots become cows — so many cows — and the land becomes a roiling sea of prairie grass heaving under currents of wind you can see coming and going from miles in every direction. The reservation covers some 4,200 square miles in north-central South Dakota; it is the fourth-largest Indigenous reservation in the continental United States. Officially, it is home to some 8,000 people, though census figures systemically undercount Indigenous communities.

But there was a time not long ago when the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people whose descendants now populate Cheyenne River knew no boundaries — they went wherever the buffalo led them across the plains.The concept of territorial boundaries arrived with the first white settlers to the region and was first formalized in the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868, which created the Great Sioux Reservation, comprising roughly the western half of what’s now South Dakota and a slice of northern Nebraska. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 sparked a gold rush, and ultimately a military incursion into the territory that culminated with the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. The Black Hills was appropriated to the federal government with the passage of the Act of 1877, whittling the Great Sioux Reservation down by a third. Another third of the territory was taken back by Congress with the passage of the Sioux Act of 1889, creating the Cheyenne River Reservation...

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Resource Type
Citation

Pederson, Brendan. Bankshot Episode 46: Ignored by banks, Indigenous communities build their own financial system. American Banker. July 24, 2021. Podcast. Accessed July 16, 2021: https://www.americanbanker.com/news/ignored-by-banks-indigenous-communi…

Tribal Economic Development: Indian Country’s Policy Recommendations for the Federal Government

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Introduction: Across Indian Country, more and more tribal nations are forging impressive records of economic progress. From creating successful nation-owned enterprises to cultivating tribal citizen-owned businesses to preparing their people to take advantage of expanding job opportunities through workforce education and training, they are building sustainable tribal economies to revitalize their communities. Driving this remarkable yet uneven renaissance is tribal self-determination, specifically the responsibility each tribal nation exercises to create a robust economy based on its cultural values, distinct challenges, particular circumstances, and community development priorities. Yet key federal government actions must be taken to foster – and remove the barriers impeding – tribal nations’ efforts to create and sustain jobs and economic growth.

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Citation

Tribal Economic Development: Indian Country’s Policy Recommendations for the Federal Government. February 2019. In collaboration wtih the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, National Congress of American Indians, National Indian Gaming Association, Native American Contractors Association, Native American Finance Officers Association, and Native CDFI Network. Washington, D.C. Brief. http://www.ncai.org/ptg/EconDevBrief.pdf

Bankshot Episode 46 Report: Ignored by banks, Indigenous communities build their own financial system

Year

As seen from the air, the land is an expansive, grayish-brown terrain cracked open by the winding Missouri River with scattered clusters of black dots. On the ground, the dots become cows — so many cows — and the land becomes a roiling sea of prairie grass heaving under currents of wind you can see coming and going from miles in every direction. The reservation covers some 4,200 square miles in north-central South Dakota; it is the fourth-largest Indigenous reservation in the continental United States. Officially, it is home to some 8,000 people, though census figures systemically undercount Indigenous communities...

Resource Type
Citation

Pederson, Brendan. July 14, 2021. Ignored by banks, Indigenous communities build their own financial system. American Banker.

Tribal Leaders Handbook on Homeownership

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As Native populations grow rapidly, tribal leaders are challenged as never before to provide their members decent housing. Expanding homeownership is a huge part of the solution for reservations and Indian areas, but until recently lenders just didn't extend home loans in Indian Country. The Tribal Leaders Handbook on Homeownership is the essential guide to understanding a process that has so much potential but is still in its infancy. The handbook is your guide to the new mortgage programs (government and private), the new kinds of lenders (loan funds, Native CDFIs), and the new energies that are transforming Indian housing.

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Topics
Citation

Kunesh, Patrice H., ed. 2018. Tribal Leaders Handbook on Homeownership. Center for Indian Country Development of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Enterprise Community Partners. Minneapolis, MN: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Strengthening the role of Native CDFIs: A conversation with Gerald Sherman of the Native CDFI Network

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Roughly 8 percent of the 917 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in the U.S. are categorized as Native CDFIs (NCDFIs), which means they serve primarily American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian communities. Due to a mixture of historical, political, and geographical factors, these communities tend to face profound challenges: high rates of poverty and unemployment; lack of physical, legal, and telecommunications infrastructure; and limited access to affordable financial products and services, to name a few. NCDFIs are working to change the landscape by filling credit and capital gaps and providing Native consumers, entrepreneurs, and potential homebuyers with needed information and training to access traditional lenders...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Kokodoko, Michou. "Strengthening the role of Native CDFIs: A conversation with Gerald Sherman of the Native CDFI Network." Community Dividend. January 30, 2015. Blog. (https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2015/strengthening-the-role-of-native-cdfis-a-conversation-with-gerald-sherman-of-the-native-cdfi-network, accessed January 22, 2024)