April 29, 2025
Reflections on a Quarter Century of Creating Economic Opportunity
Twenty-five years ago, Four Bands Community Fund had just received its nonprofit status and was operating out of a small space located in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s Planning & Economic Development office. At the time, Four Bands was one of only a handful of these specialized community loan funds, also known as Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs), that existed in the nation. Virtually nobody on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation had ever heard of a Native CDFI, let alone knew anything about what they did.
Bonnie LeBeaux (Cheyenne River Sioux), an entrepreneur and quiltmaker who has been partnering with Four Bands for over two decades, recounts the organization’s humble and somewhat elusive beginnings, “It was all word of mouth back then. People were talking, wondering what they were doing in there, and then we found out they were helping businesses.”
In 2000, Cheyenne River was like most rural reservation communities – few local goods and services, high unemployment, and low wages. Less than 1% of the businesses were Native American-owned, even though 75% of the population was Native American. The idea of Four Bands was formed by a small group of community members who wanted to make a change. Instead of vacant buildings, they saw opportunities for new businesses to plug the leaky economy and create jobs. The vision, much as it remains today, was to build a thriving local economy. To turn that idea into a reality, they knew aspiring entrepreneurs would need access to a few critical things: loan capital and business training. That’s where the Native CDFI model came into play.
“The traditional banking system doesn’t align with the unique circumstances in Native communities, but Native CDFIs have more flexibility. As a Native CDFI, Four Bands is creating new financial systems that meet our community members where they’re at. The thing that sets Native CDFIs apart is that we provide training and coaching alongside lending products,” explains Lakota Vogel, Executive Director of Four Bands.
The first program Four Bands developed in its early days was CREATE (Cheyenne River Entrepreneurial Assistance Training and Education), a comprehensive business development class that guides aspiring entrepreneurs step-by-step through the process of starting a business in a reservation community. To date, over 600 entrepreneurs have graduated from CREATE. For many of the graduates, including LeBeaux, CREATE has set a foundation for entrepreneurial success by building knowledge and skills in planning, launching, and operating a business.
“While CREATE set the table for business development, our credit building classes were another essential step in helping people prepare for a successful lending experience,” says Vogel.
As a cornerstone program, Four Bands’ credit building classes and coaching focus on building personal financial capability in the way of savings, budgeting, and responsible use of credit. LeBeaux, who also completed this course, says she learned how to improve her credit and leverage it to achieve her financial goals. She is one of over 1,000 people who have gained personal financial management skills through Four Bands.
“They had so many resources. It was always so exciting,” says LeBeaux of Four Bands’ programming.
By 2002, Four Bands had grown its staff to a team of two, moved to their own office space, started securing grant funding, and approved its first microloan. Back then, Four Bands’ average loan size was about $1,000. A lot of the loans disbursed were for artists or other small businesses that were already operating on Cheyenne River. LeBeaux remembers a friend of hers, one of Four Bands’ first borrowers, secured a loan to replace the carpet in her daycare facility. The spirit of entrepreneurship quickly spread, and a shift in Cheyenne River’s lending market began to take shape. For the first few years of lending, 100% of loans approved were for tribal members. Nothing like this had been seen on Cheyenne River before. Even today, 94% of Four Bands’ borrowers are Native American.
“Twenty-plus years ago, the concept of borrowing money to start a business seemed out of reach to a lot of our community members. Because of historical exclusion from the mainstream financial system, it just wasn’t on their radar. A lot of the early work was about cultivating an ecosystem from the ground up and shifting the mindset around money,” says Vogel.
Over the next three years, Four Bands doubled its loan volume every year. By 2008, they were deploying half a million dollars per year, mostly to small businesses. Eventually, LeBeaux used a loan from Four Bands to purchase her first long arm quilting machine. Although she had a full-time job, the loan enabled her to monetize her craft of quilting and generate additional income to support her family. Over the years, LeBeaux has created and sold hundreds of custom designed star quilts to help others commemorate a variety of special occasions and milestones.
As its lending activity continued to increase, Four Bands expanded in other ways as well. New elements, such as credit builder loans, youth internships, matched savings programs, free tax preparation services, and public education campaigns were added to Four Bands’ suite of programs. Gaining traction, Four Bands began mobilizing groups of partners to deepen their reach into the community and maximize impact. Three campaigns – Make Money Matter, Shop Cheyenne River, and Making Waves – were initiatives designed to raise awareness of healthy financial habits across the general public on Cheyenne River. Banners we hung up and down Main Street, hundreds of people signed pledges to become responsible stewards of money, and schools began integrating financial education and entrepreneurship lessons into classrooms, exposing thousands of children to financial concepts. Nearly 300 youth completed work internships while achieving various asset-based savings goals. Some of those youth went on to become the next generation of leaders – managing a national organization, working in South Dakota’s Department of Tribal Relations, and even serving on tribal council.
“The programs that were launched during Four Bands’ first decade were heavily targeted at improving personal financial skills and building assets. In order to have a thriving local economy, we also need financially capable and engaged citizens. So those investments on the front end were really important,” says Vogel.
Another focus during that general time frame became data. Because mainstream data sources for reservation communities either do not exist or have large margins of error, Four Bands struggled to tell the story of Cheyenne River as well as its own story. In 2007, Four Bands undertook its first reservation wide research project and produced a report that examined the potential success of a wide range of business opportunities in the consumer marketplace. Later, Four Bands completed another research project examining the business-to-business marketplace on Cheyenne River. Four Bands also prioritized internal data collection procedures to operationalize its mission. Since then, the organization has undertaken many research projects to serve as a compass for new directions in business development, accurately assess the current state of small business health, shape new programming, or even gauge community opinion. Its emphasis on data has put Four Bands at the forefront of data sovereignty discussions taking place across the nation in more recent years.
“We strongly believe in the importance of data. Data does not make itself; it is created and shaped by the perceptions of the makers. How you perceive is how you proceed,” states Vogel.
As Four Bands gained recognition as a leading organization in the national Native economic development field, it began increasing engagement with regional coalitions and advocacy initiatives. For example, it served in a leadership role and fiscally sponsored the South Dakota Indian Business Alliance (SDIBA) for seven years. The SDIBA model was adapted by several other states and continues to support economic development in Native communities today. Four Bands also incubated the Native CDFI Network from start-up until the Network became an independent nonprofit; the Network has now grown into a national membership and advocacy powerhouse. More recently, Four Bands has been actively leading the Mountain | Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition, a group of nine Native CDFIs that were collectively awarded a $45 million Build Back Better grant from the Economic Development Administration in 2022. This was the largest single investment into the Native CDFI industry at the time. These contributions have catalyzed the adaptation of successful models and propelled the growth across the Native CDFI industry.
Four Bands’ second decade saw continued growth through the introduction of several new products – including the home improvement, home mortgage, and agricultural loans – and the launch of a business incubator space. These programming developments were strategically targeted at providing equitable economic opportunities. In 2015, only five mortgages were approved for Native Americans on the entire reservation. That’s a footprint the same size as Connecticut! Despite agriculture being a leading industry on the Reservation, less than a third of all agricultural operations were Native American-owned. Four Bands also discovered that due to additional barriers associated with reservation-based business development, Cheyenne River businesses required a six-year incubation phase, compared to three years in other communities. In 2019, Four Bands completed construction of a 6,400 square foot business incubator facility. It was one of the largest infusions of commercial real estate spaces on Cheyenne River, and now houses six start-up businesses. This year, Four Bands approved its 100th mortgage loan and currently manages a $6.5 million agriculture loan portfolio.
“We are continuously striving to meet the needs of our community. As new challenges are revealed, we adapt. We refine programs or enhance our product offering so that our economy can continue to grow,” says Vogel.
Part of Four Bands’ growth has been expanding its lending program to serve Native Americans across the state of South Dakota. Even though some tribal members were moving off the Reservation seeking opportunity, they were still experiencing barriers to accessing capital. The launch of the statewide lending program was initially a partnership with SDIBA, and it was the only one of its kind at the time. About 30% of Four Bands’ overall portfolio is now comprised of off-reservation loans. The geographic expansion ended up being a benefit for LeBeaux who moved to Rapid City four years ago.
Although LeBeaux has a long-standing reputation as a talented quilter, she just recently opened her first storefront with financing from Four Bands. Thriving as a full-time entrepreneur, Bonnie says she loves the freedom of being self-employed. She believes that the finance and business classes she took back on Cheyenne River years ago have played a role in her more recent successes.
“It sticks with you,” she affirms.
Her drive and her entrepreneurial spirit have gotten her to where she is today, but she believes there is something to say about Four Bands’ contributions on Cheyenne River and beyond. Even though there was a shroud of mystery surrounding the organization in the very beginning, Bonnie says it is compassionate leadership that has built trust in the community while still holding onto cultural values. LeBeaux and thousands of others over the past 25 years have felt the impacts of that.
LeBeaux adds, “They understood the economic challenges of reservations. The area was lacking regular salary jobs. So, what can you do about that? You have to create your own employment. There is opportunity there, and Four Bands sees it. They help people to create their own way – and learn how to do it successfully.”
Since its inception in 2000, Four Bands has helped over 3,500 people meet a range of financial goals, whether it is something as simple as creating a budget or a major milestone like buying a home. Four Bands has deployed a total of $53.1 million in loan capital, which has resulted in over 700 businesses starting or expanding, 1,440 jobs being created or retained, over 1,000 people improving their credit, and over 100 new homeowners. Many wonder how or if all of this translates to real economic growth. By many measurements, Cheyenne River’s economy is still struggling. However, there are indicators that the needle is moving in a positive way. In 2010, Ziebach County, which comprises the western half of Cheyenne River, made headlines for having the highest poverty rate in the nation – 62%. The latest Census data shows that has dropped to 38%, which is still much higher than the national average but a drastic improvement. Census data also indicates the employment rate rose from 49.2% in 2010 to 51.3% in 2023. The portion of self-employed workers in Cheyenne River’s workforce also increased – from 12.2% in 2010 to 19.4% in 2022. The number of Native American-owned agricultural operations rose 7% in the last five years. Furthermore, the percent of owner-occupied housing units increased slightly from 54.8% in 2010 to 57.7% in 2023.
Listen to This Story on SDPB“The numbers tell us one thing, but we can also feel the change in our community. People talk about money differently now. I can walk down Main Street and see how many new local businesses we have and how many are Native-owned. People know they have options, which gives them hope. We still have a long way to go, but these changes are promising. Four Bands will continue shifting paradigms to create more economic opportunities over the next 25 years and beyond,” says Vogel.