Inspiring change is one of the hardest things I feel called to do in this world. Seeing and understanding how to prioritize and choose where and how to make change is a daunting task, as it’s hard to figure out just where to start. For me, the strongest approach I see is to focus on education, and for my entire life I’ve always believed in exactly what our tagline says … “Education is the Answer.”

But sometimes, even with the focus of education, it’s hard to know where and how to invest our resources to make the biggest difference. As I’ve been reflecting on the things that are missing in our communities, one of the first things that comes to mind is financial resources – and with that, the knowledge and framework to build and manage those resources. During a time when many people would still like to erase us, is it wise to entrust those very people with helping us develop and grow our wealth?

While we have made a lot of progress, it is still not uncommon for Native nations to be taken advantage of by businesses with agendas not aligned with our own. It was a particularly painful experience for me when we recently completed a request for qualifications process for an investment partner. When we asked the larger companies to provide the number of Native Americans employed by their companies, they couldn’t answer, as Native Americans are not included in their employee data. It’s so discouraging to me to continue to be completely invisible when Native nations and businesses are contributing billions of dollars annually to their state and local economies.

This also speaks to the importance of education – particularly in finance and investment. And yet, very few Native people choose this specific career path. In keeping with the College Fund’s commitment to identifying needs and filling gaps, we are launching a new program/fellowship to provide opportunities for community leaders and members to learn more about finance and investment, including an Indigenous perspective. It is our intent to fund fellowships to inspire more Native people to invest in their financial/investment intelligence.

Specifically, we will be choosing up to four juniors or seniors who are currently working toward business or finance degrees and will fully fund their education through the completion of their MBA. In addition to scholarship funding, they will also receive support on their career journey to work in the field, incorporating their Indigenous knowledge in their work.

We will also be increasing our investment in broadbased scholarships for freshman and sophomores who are business and finance majors.
If there is ever to be a day when tribal nations are independent, thriving sovereign nations, managing our own financial resources is foundational. And because we live in a country that has an established monetary structure, we need to fully understand that structure and how we can best work within it, while also incorporating our Indigenous ways of knowing and being – and we need options that serve our communities and the specific needs of our people.

One of the biggest hurdles in achieving financial independence for individuals is grounded in historic poverty, including the shortage of stable, full-time jobs available in reservation communities. This leads to people working multiple part-time jobs at minimum wage. It is hard to secure credit (credit cards, car loans, etc.) without stable, fulltime employment; it is also challenging to establish credit without having credit, including owning a home. Many people are surprised to learn that a large percentage of tribal lands are held in trust by the U.S. Government, which means we are not allowed to actually own the land our homes are on, again making it difficult to establish a stable credit history and to build wealth through the appreciation of owned real estate.

I share these things to emphasize the importance of financial/investment knowledge growth for tribal nations and members to find ways to work within the existing system to achieve financial independence and achieve growth in accumulated wealth, both as nations and as individuals.

I would love to hear your thoughts about how the College Fund can support increasing financial/ investment intelligence in tribal communities. I invite you to send me your feedback and thoughts at prezcrazybull@collegefund.org. It will be helpful to hear from you as we begin building the fellowship program and engaging with students on this career path.