Kim Trujillo started Bow-K’s with the help of Lakota Funds and now provides sweet treats and floral arrangements to help the residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation celebrate special occasions.

Leading an Economic Resurgence

Lakota Funds is a community development financial institution (CDFI) leading an economic resurgence of the Oglala Lakota Oyate on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation through culturally appropriate strategies reigniting the traditional Lakota spirit of productivity, commerce, and trade. Lakota Funds’ immediate goal is to improve the quality of life on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by giving the Oglala Lakota Oyate more understanding of their finances, their options for saving, and for asset growth, and by placing capital with new and growing businesses on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Our uniquely designed products and services focus on overcoming the key roadblocks to economic development in Indian Country: access to capital, access to technical assistance, access to business networks, and infrastructure access.

From 1986 to 2011, Lakota Funds:

• made more than 660 micro- and small-business loans totaling over $5.8 million
• provided training to over 1,200 aspiring entrepreneurs
• created over 1,100 permanent jobs
• provided marketing services to more than 1,600 artists and craftsmen
• developed the first Native American-owned, tax credit-financed housing project in America (and now manages a small housing development of thirty homes near Wanblee)
• developed the Lakota Trade Center in 1997, a 12,000-square-foot small business incubator and Tribal Business Information Center and,
• co-founded the first Native American Chamber of Commerce on an Indian reservation in the United States

In addition, Lakota Funds is currently leading an effort to establish a reservation-wide credit union that will provide members with enhanced and more accessible financial services. This will be the first depository financial institution on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation since the Oglala Sioux Tribe accepted the Indian Recognition Act in 1935. Read more on the proposed Lakota Federal Credit Union.

Improving Reservation Life

Small Business Economics journal published a study by four university economists in April 2009 showing strong and consistent positive impact of Lakota Funds on the quality of Reservation life. They concluded:

The Lakota Funds succeeded in raising real per capita income of Shannon county residents consistently and significantly throughout the 1987–2006 study period…[thus showing how] a well designed and highly successful micro-enterprise financing structure can confer large and significant private and social benefits … sustained growth in real incomes … net wealth and further personal, household, and community successes in socio-economic, health …, educational …, and other dimensions of progressive quality living… Read the study.

Our True Success

Ultimately, Lakota Funds considers its success to be building up the world of creative entrepreneurship for Lakota’s following their dreams, goals, and opportunities while maintaining strong connections to their land and rich cultural heritage of productivity and trading. We believe our clients successes are the true gauge for our success. Over the years we have helped thousands of aspiring Lakota entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality and contribute to the transformation of our economic landscape. We encourage you to read some of these amazing and inspirational success stories.

More Challenges Remain!

Despite our many accomplishments, Lakota Funds has only begun our journey in developing our local economy. The private sector remains severely limited on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and Shannon County, where most of the reservation's residents live, is still one of the poorest counties in the United States.

One-half of all families live below the poverty level, compared to 9.2 percent of all South Dakota families. Unemployment exceeds 70 percent, and median household income is 58 percent lower than the rest of South Dakota and 52 percent lower than the national average. On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation there are 13 businesses per 1,000 people, while the state of South Dakota averages 83 businesses per 1,000 residents. Consequently, more than 80 percent of the money that comes into the reservation is spent in off-reservation communities. Due to a host of ills ranging from alcoholism and violence to astronomical rates of diabetes and heart disease, residents of Pine Ridge have the lowest life expectancy in the country, according to the U.S. Census. These statistics present the tremendous challenges and the tremendous opportunities for Lakota Funds, and you, to make improvements in the local reservation economy. You can make a difference on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by donating to our 1,000 Arrows Campaign.

Reasons for Hope

Incremental improvements to the health of the reservation's economy have been occurring through the efforts of Lakota Funds, the Pine Ridge Chamber of Commerce, and other interested public and private groups, foundations and investors. Taxable sales in Shannon County more than doubled from 1996 to 2006, according to the South Dakota Business Review, and since 1985 real per-capita personal income growth outpaced the South Dakota economy with a growth rate of 80 percent compared to 44 percent for the state. Our private sector is growing but is still small and fragile.

We have found the people have a strong will not only to survive, but to bring a better future for their children and grandchildren. Aspiring entrepreneurs become highly motivated when they find meaningful work that respects their culture and provides hope for the future. Lakota Funds' business development products and services provide a means to this end.

Since utilizing banks and other financial institutions is largely foreign to Lakota culture, Lakota Funds recognizes that limited financial expertise and inadequate financial education resources are huge impediments to the economic health of reservation residents. We offer a variety of personal growth and asset building programs designed to build the skills of our people.

Lakota Funds believes investing in our Lakota youth is one of the most important steps we can take in developing a thriving economy on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Our youth programs plant seeds of wise resource management in our younger generation to help build a brighter future for all of our people.