Lakota Funds was established twenty years ago by a group of visionary community leaders with assistance from Oglala Lakota College and the First Nations Development Institute.

The group realized that to break the cycle of poverty on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, they needed to go beyond charity focused on daily needs. They focused on the key roadblocks to economic development: access to capital, access to technical assistance, access to business networks, and access to infrastructure.

They also decided to build the first Native American Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in America, and Lakota Funds was born.

When Lakota Funds started twenty years ago, there were only two Native American owned businesses on the reservation. Eighty five percent of our borrowers had never had a checking or saving account; seventy five percent had never had a loan; ninety five percent had no business experience. Today there are over 328 licensed businesses.

Over the last twenty years Lakota Funds has:

• Lent out over $3.5 million dollars to over 600 borrowers.
• Provided training to more than one thousand entrepreneurs.
• Created over 750 permanent jobs.
• Provided marketing services to more than 1600 artists and craftsmen.
• Developed the first Native American–owned, tax credit-financed housing project in America.
• Developed the Lakota Trade Center, a 12,000 square foot small business incubator and Tribal Business Information Center.
• Co-founded the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce.
• Founded the Wawókiye Business Institute.
• Won the Great Strides Award for poverty reduction from the Northwest Area Foundation.
• Helped move the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from poorest county in the United States to 56th poorest.
• Created an entrepreneurial environment.

Our biggest accomplishment cannot be seen in just numbers. After decades of an exploited/exploiter relationship with the border-town business communities, Lakota Funds has opened up the world of creative entrepreneurship for Lakota people to follow our dreams, goals and opportunities, while maintaining our connection to our land and culture.