Twenty years ago I joined a group of people from across the reservation gathering to talk about how we could change the economic situation our people have lived in since our reservation was formed in the late 1800s.

You see, my home is the 7,000-square-mile Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which encompasses most of Shannon County in South Dakota. We had the distinction of being deemed the poorest county in America by the US Census.

But we did not need the US Census to tell us that. We knew our people did not have jobs and the poverty here was extreme and painful. We knew that on an average our people lived on less than $3,700 per year. We also knew that the unemployment rate has never been lower than 70%.

There were no businesses to supply our needs. In fact at the time, there were only two Native American owned businesses on the entire reservation - an area approximately the size of the state of Connecticut.

We could see that the failed government attempts at economic development were based on subsidized labor that exported profit off the reservation. The good-hearted charities that were “saving the Indians” added to our people’s dependencies. You can’t build an economy with used clothes!

You and I know that the root of this poverty rests on the hands of a tragic history that includes military oppression, treaty violations, forced assimilation and racism that did not end with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. You and I also know that we can’t change what has already happened!

It is a long-standing belief of the Lakota people that the actions we take today will affect our children’s children at least seven generations into the future.

This is what led us to create Lakota Funds twenty years ago. We started by working in our community to create a new economic vision for our people, one without the pain of poverty and dependency.

You see, our new vision is one of a flourishing tribal community with businesses owned by tribal members. One where we would not have to drive 50 to100 miles to buy the basic necessities, like healthy food or clothes, or even to get a tire fixed.

Our vision is one of businesses where we are treated as valuable customers and not followed in stores and treated as second-class people! Our vision is one of Indian-owned businesses employing our Indian people.

Clear and simple, we set out to create a private sector economy where our people could use the creative entrepreneurial spirit that has helped us survive for generations and pursue a Native American version of the American dream.

This may not sound like a radical or even innovative concept to you, but in 1986,
believe me, it was. Even today there are some members of the non-Indian business community who still view the idea of Indian people owning our own business as a threat or a joke.

But we focused on the goals and needs of our people. So we started with a Circle Banking project to help our local artists with loans up to $500 and taught them the basics of business.

The work was groundbreaking and hard. Eighty five percent of our borrowers had never had a checking or saving account, 75% had never had a loan, 95% had no business experience, or even a job.

We developed a ten-week basic business curriculum that gave people a look inside the challenges of running their own business. The program took off, and more and more people came with their business ideas, goals and needs.

We helped one young man start the first hair salon on the reservation, another invested in a buffalo herd, and another his own construction company.

We worked with Rosalie Spotted Eagle, an artist whose handmade star quilts are among the most beautiful you have ever seen. Over the last 20 years, with the help of Lakota Funds, she has built a successful business and paid back 16 small loans.

As more and more of our people sought business as a valid alternative to living in poverty, the demand for capital continued to grow. We increased our loan amount to first $25,000 and now $200,000.

This allowed us to help finance a convenience store in Oglala, a construction company in Kyle, several businesses that provide tire repair, restaurants and the first motel on the reservation.

As I look back over the last twenty years, I am amazed at how far we have come. We have learned that our task is not just economic or business development; it is about human development, empowering people to follow their own dreams.

I have learned that true poverty is the complete lack of opportunity or the perception that you have no alternative for yourself and your family to end the poverty you have always known.

The challenges for first generation entrepreneurs is much greater than just the lack of money and experience because we are changing the economic status quo in our own community after generations of dependency. Learning to be independent is not as easy as it sounds.

We are also challenging the larger community that surrounds the reservation to let go of their old economic paradigms and frontier mentally so they can work with us to overcome this historic poverty.

Progress is slow and steady. Our county has now climbed from the poorest in the country to the fifty-sixth poorest. More importantly, we have created an entrepreneurial culture within our community.

The doors of possibility have been opened in the eyes of our people, but the challenges ahead are formidable and we are going to need your help to succeed.

You see, we now know that the need to provide technical support to our entrepreneurs does not stop when they complete their business plan and get their loan. No, that is the day the real work begins.

This is why we created the Wawókiye Business Institute (WBI) as a model of entrepreneur development based on the Lakota philosophy of Wawókiye, meaning “to help someone with no expectation of rewards or payment”.

The Wawókiye Success Coaches work hands-on with our entrepreneurs on everything from business planning to operation. They focus on the needs of the business owners to access business networks, technical assistance, and capital.

Mostly, the Success Coaches work to help them overcome the many obstacles unique to first-generation entrepreneurs in one of the most impoverished and isolated Indian reservations in America.

I am proud to say that it is working! We have many first time businesses on our reservation that have been created and supported who would not have been able to survive without the help of Lakota Funds/Wawokiye Business Institute.

These projects are everyday examples of what can be accomplished when everyone works together to support Lakota entrepreneurs. This is why we have launched the 1,000 Arrows Campaign for Economic Opportunity.

One Arrow by itself is easily broken. One of our entrepreneurs standing alone with no help is destined to fail. But 1,000 Arrows tied together are unbreakable. A Lakota entrepreneur supported with technical assistance and access to markets and capital will succeed.

Our next challenge is to take the experience and knowledge that we have gained over the last twenty years to the next level of economic and business development. This will require a minimum investment of ten million dollars over the next two years.

The goal of the 1,000 Arrows Campaign for Economic Opportunity is to raise the needed ten million dollars.

back to top