WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department yesterday awarded a $149,560 grant through its Community Development Financial Institutions Program to finance the chartering of a credit union to serve the Lakota Indians, also known as the Sioux, at their Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, S.D.
The Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation covers 70,000 square miles and 40,000 Native American in the western third of South Dakota, but does not have a single bank or credit union.
The CDFI Fund awarded a total of $11.8 in funding this year to 35 Native American organizations, including three Hawaii credit unions: Ka’u FCU ($279,000); Aloha FCU ($150,000) and The Queens FCU ($24,950).
The biggest recipients of this year’s funding included the Cherokee Nation Economic Development Trust Authority, Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corp., Cook Inlet Lending Center, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Sequoyah Fund, all of which received $725,000.
This week’s grants follow last month’s awards of more than $28 million to 29 credit union organizations by the CDFI fund.
