KYLE, S.D.–Lakota FCU here is reporting a mobile branch has helped reduce the number of people who are unbanked on the Pine Ridge Reservation here.
The $16.1-million Lakota FCU, which was chartered in 2012, has been taking its services to the community rather than waiting for the community to come to it for approximately a year, according to NextCity.org.
“It’s always been about accessibility, for us to be in communities that can’t up and just come to Kyle on a whim,” LFCU CEO Shayna Ferguson told NextCity.org. “We will come to you.”
Ferguson is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and many of her staff are from Pine Ridge themselves.
“We want to be able to serve you the best we can, and if that means us going to your community once a month, twice a month, three times a month, we’re going to be there,” Ferguson said in comments to NextCity.org.
More Than 4,000 Members
According to the report, Lakota FCU serves about 4,250 members across Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota Nation; the Rosebud Reservation; the tribal lands of all of Oglala Lakota; and Jackson, Bennett, Todd, Mellette, Trip and Gregory counties in South Dakota.
LFCU has a potential membership of 40,000 people. Residents of these communities face various obstacles to reaching a financial institution, so last year, the credit union launched a mobile banking bus unit to reach residents where they are.
The credit unions mobile branch visits each reservation and community twice a week, and offers all the CU’s product menu, including loans for single-family housing and recreational loans for trailers and motorcycles. Ferguson says community members are increasingly utilizing these services.
‘Starting to Pay Attention’
“We’ve only been out, not even quite a year, but people are starting to pay attention to the schedule and it’s definitely picking up,” she says. This along with the launch of their new website is helping with accessibility: “That definitely increased our membership with these remote places,” says Ferguson.
Ferguson, who told NextCity.org the credit union, while young, now has generational accounts, said housing remains the toughest issue for both the Native American communities and the credit union to address.
In 2021, Lakota FCU and the Lakota Funds started a homeownership initiative and collaborations targeting Native American homeownership. This made Lakota FCU the first Native CDFI to obtain approval from the USDA Rural Development’s Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program, NextCity.org reported.
‘Home Ownership is Possible’
“I think more and more people are realizing that home ownership is possible,” Ferguson told the publication. “It’s always been a need there, but now that there’s a possibility of making it happen I don’t ever see it slowing down.”
