Onna LeBeau is the Executive Director of Black Hills Community Loan Fund located in downtown Rapid City. She has been helping Native and non-Native Americans with financial literacy and getting their credit scores up to secure home and business loans for the past four years. Photo by Richie Richards / Native Sun News Today
RAPID CITY – Discussing money and finances in homes has been a taboo for many generations. A program in Rapid City has been helping family members to understand financial literacy and bring credit scores to a place that makes them eligible for home and business loans.
Anna LeBeau (Omaha Nation) has been living in Rapid City for the past seven years. She has been the Executive Director of Black Hills Community Loan Fund since July, 2015. Formerly known as the Teton Coalition, Black Hills Community Loan Fund was established to help individuals prepare for home ownership.
“My guess is within that organization, they also saw a need for their clients to have access to credit, and access to mortgages,” said LeBeau. Teton Financial was established as part of Teton Coalition to help with the financial needs of clients.
“When you’re working with clients like we have, that are high risk, it required a little bit more attention. It’s that technical assistance, that coaching, that justifies that need for a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution),” she said. “It’s my understanding that Teton Financial would eventually branch off to become its own entity and ultimately that’s what happened. Instead of keeping the name Teton Financial, it became Black Hills Community Loan Fund.”
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Although BHCLF has been active in Rapid City for the past ten years, many families does not know of their existence and extensive help offered through their program.
“It’s difficult for us because there is a lot of competition in this market here in Rapid City. What makes us stand out is that we are a Native organization. We focus on the Native community members that are lower to middle income and that typically don’t have access to credit within commercial lenders at a regular bank.”
According to LeBeau, another thing that makes BHCLF stand out amongst its competitors is the financial education curriculum they offer clients. This curriculum is designed with Native American culture in mind. This financial literacy ties in culture from the past and the present to help clients understand their financial binds.
“The home buyers education curriculum that we use is also for the Native American community; Pathways to Home Ownership, that curriculum they discuss different programs that are for Native American families,” said LeBeau.
The entrepreneurship program they offer uses a business development course titled “Indianpreneurship.” This also ties in culture and traditional practices to help clients understand business.
She says, “It allows our clients to not have to think in a non-Indian way. Even though, that’s how we are living and functioning, it allows us to maintain our culture while practicing the non-Indian way.”
LeBeau says Native American culture has a tradition of not discussing finances and money or how bills get paid. She believes this has been intergenerational and continues to this day. She feels families benefit from openly discussing finances. This transparency prepares youth for a more realistic view of the financial world outside of the home. It affects everything from getting a loan to getting a job.
“When they created this organization, it was for home ownership. The first type of loan products they created were for home mortgages, down payments, and costs to buy a home; home rehab, home repair. Since then, we’ve added a home appliance loan,” she said.
