Page 34 - 2022 July Report

July Report 2022
South Dakota trip report (2)
we learned that President Shortbull had not been a strong proponent of vocational education. However, people were optimistic that it would gain in support going forward.
Marilyn then took us to the library where we met with Sharon Janis, Librarian and her staff and Tawa Ducheneaux, Archivist. We learned that the library was not currently “open” in terms of what you would think for a library but their resources were still available through various means to the students – and the community. Tawa showed us the restricted area where they had many historic items including repatriated items. She referenced NAGPRA which is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 which provided for “the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.” Sharon Janis gifted JSF and Bobby with a painting in recognition of her Johnson Scholarship when she was a student at OLC.
We then headed to Pejuta Haka College Center in the town of Kyle – this is the largest of the district college centers on the reservation – where we met Stephanie Sorbel, the director of the center. This campus has multiple buildings, recently constructed along with residences and a childcare facility. Stephanie showed us the classrooms in the main building that are outfitted to do Zoom remote teaching. After a stop back at the OLC Heritage Center with a short debrief with President Shortbull and Marilyn, we headed back to Rapid City (90 miles).
On Friday we drove back to Kyle for our visits to the Lakota Funds, Lakota Federal Credit Union and the Oglala Lakota Artspace and then on to Pine Ridge to visit Red Cloud school. We visited for a short while with Tawney Brunsch who is the executive director of the Lakota Funds and is also the chair of the board of the Lakota Federal Credit Union. Tawney was the person who started the credit union. She also participated in the first convening I had in Scottsdale before the pandemic. The Lakota Funds was the first certified Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and was the first Native loan fund in the country started by First Nations Development Institute when I worked there from 1985 through 2005. Certification of CDFIs did not start until after the passage of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 started the CDFI Fund at Treasury. This 1994 Act called for a study of credit and banking financial services on reservations but this study was not completed until 2001 after which the Native programs at the CDFI Fund started.
The Lakota Funds started lending in 1986 and has deployed $22 million to date. This is pretty impressive given that for about at least the first decade, loans were capped at $25,000 and very few of that size were made in the early years. I wish there were a way to assess the impact of that $22 million in terms of wealth and jobs created. Now 60% of the portfolio are ag loans. The Lakota Funds has about $7 mil deployed with about $5 mil available – Native CDFIs could always use more low cost loan capital. Their main sources of capital are Treasury funds, program-related investments from foundations, grant capital from foundations and investment funds from religious orders and other mission investors. The Lakota Federal Credit Union is also a certified CDFI. The reservation also has a third certified Native CDFI – Mazaska – which does only housing.
A few years ago JSF did a grant with the SD Native Housing Coalition where the Lakota Funds is one of the partners. This was for the construction internship program. It is still going strong and has expanded to Cheyenne River, Rosebud and Sisseton Reservations across the state – and is sustaining itself. We got to see it up close and personal. Tawney took us to a site right across the road from the OLC Piya Wiconi HQ to a business called Lakota Cabins owned and run by Rusty Pucket and his daughter Tess. They also built the motel right next door that the tribe now owns and uses as a COVID quarantine unit. This construction firm has built on that location about 7 – 8 small cabins for rental plus they also build homes to be moved to other locations. There were also a few other buildings including barn, a rammed earth dwelling, greenhouses and garden and chicken coop. We also saw one of the interns who was working there. They do high quality work and are always busy.
We also visited the Lakota Federal Credit Union and the manager Shayna Fergueson. Their offices are downstairs from the Lakota Funds in the Lakota Trade center. The LFCU was founded in 2012 and will be having their 10 year anniversary this August. They provide consumer credit and also savings and checking
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