���񱦵�

Creating financial opportunity and seeding financial wellbeing in Indian Country requires offerings from a variety of lenders, intermediaries and investors. Investors in particular have a critical and nuanced role in deepening the ecosystem of investment in Indian Country, and in expanding the ways integrated capital can meet the needs of Indigenous communities.

These were resounding messages delivered during Investment in Indian Country: Supporting Sovereignty, Seeding Solutions on February 17, 2022. Presented by the Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group, the webinar featured three finance leaders who have innovated community-driven pathways for capital flows to Native American and Indigenous communities, and who have facilitated investing success through a variety of platforms and projects.

Chrystel Cornelius is CEO and President of , a national Native CDFI intermediary predominantly serving Native communities across the United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, and whose investor club initiative invites both Native and non-Native investors to survey and support the wealth of emerging projects in Indian Country.

Over 23 years of operations, Oweesta has demonstrated continued success with Native CDFIs and other partners. Cornelius noted there is much opportunity for investors to learn in these spaces. Whether the questions are financial and market-based or cultural and community related, she recommended investors find individuals that work within these communities.

“We live and breathe what we work, we live and breathe our culture, we live and breathe our community, our seven generations. So I think there's so much more wealth we can give and knowledge in this regard if individuals and investors are willing to take that step,” she said. Oweesta’s investors club gives opportunity for outside investors to understand the diversity of Indian Country, the excitement surrounding major economic development that is ensuing through local financing institutions, and capacity to help foster direct capital into reservation communities and highly concentrated tribal populations throughout the United States.

As Co-Director of , Jaime Gloshay co-leads efforts in access to capital, fund design, partnership, advancement, and policy advocacy, while leading program design, international development, and data/evaluation oversight. She is currently testing the – a suite of high-impact, direct community investment projects for Native women in business and entrepreneurship. 

“[Matriarch Funds are] a scaffolded fund approach where we're working with our partner, Nusenda Credit Union here in New Mexico to design and test out relationship based lending, not contingent on the ‘5 Cs of Credit.’ So we're doing that within microfinance. We're showing Indigenous people aren't risky, Native women aren't risky, [and we’re] challenging traditional impact metrics, as well as ROI,” she said

Financial trauma and historical racism are significant institutional and structural barriers to overcome not only societally but at the individual and family levels, noted Gloshay. She recommended to  as an underwriting and due diligence standard, and suggested instead to consider a more values aligned “5 Rs of Rematriation” framework, which sees lending and ROI that is Relational, Rooted, Restorative, Regenerative, and Revolutionary.

With regards to best practices, Gloshay called on investors to think beyond expectations. For example, a 5%-7% annual return may not be possible for many in Indian Country, where lower rates over longer periods of time may be feasible. She also invited investors to look at more tangible impacts, such as the physical safety of women that receive access to capital, and the need for them to be able to protect their families. “We are in a system that has been highly extractive to people and planet, and we want to challenge that,” she said.

Through her roles as a Venture Partner with , and Director of , Jacqueline Jennings uses a trauma-informed approach to help guide the flow of venture capital to Indigenous and Native American entrepreneurs, which have been historically excluded from equity investing due to systemic oppression.

“We believe in moving at the speed of trust,” said Jennings, explaining the ethos of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. “With every investment that we make, we need to see the increased wellbeing for our people.” 

While a trauma-informed investment is new in financial spaces, Jennings sees it as an incredibly important framework, one where investors must start with deep personal work when they approach to invest in Indigenous spaces.

“Investors should explore their implicit bias, do some of the heavy lifting on the personal level before they come in as a helper. That deep personal learning is what creates an authentic connection to this work, and it will allow your contribution to be sustainable,” she said. 

Throughout the discussion, speakers refuted the view of investment in Native communities as risky and untested. This false narrative, they agreed, must be challenged by individual investors and financial institutions working to confront and disrupt systemic racism and biases. 

“Economic analyses show that capital flows to BIPOC communities create more financial wellbeing for all,” noted moderator Jennifer Astone, principal . “By not investing in Indigenous communities, we are undermining the wellbeing of all.” 

Through disparate projects, these Indigenous leaders support individuals, entrepreneurs, and communities alike, and help Tribes, Native entities, and others gain access to the financial resources necessary to thrive. All agreed that the conceptualization and creation of wealth must also facilitate safety and wellbeing for individuals and communities. To achieve this, investors may need to rethink their approaches to investment in Indian Country by asking hard questions of themselves, and then moving forward through informed and values-aligned collaboration.

Learn more about the Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group.