ABOUT US - history, mission, and values

History, Mission, & Values | Icahya Woecun | Staff | Board | US Treasury Certified CDFI

Four Bands' mission is to assist entrepreneurs of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation with training, business incubation, and access to capital, encouraging economic development and enhancing the quality of life for all communities and residents of the Reservation.

Four Bands uses an asset-based approach and provides training and loan funds to enable people to create their own futures. Four Bands is the leading organization on the Reservation in the areas of small business lending, incubation, and entrepreneurship education. We are also one of the leading organizations among our peer CDFI organizations that were founded to serve Native American communities.

If you take the perspective of a glass half empty, the Reservation is composed of a group of very rural towns located large distances from each other and face some of the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the country.

If you take an "asset-based" approached--a glass half full, our Reservation is composed of communities of people with a rich and unique culture, art, leadership, and history of interest to others from around the world. We are people who have survived because of our strong values and our strong commitment to self-determination and self-sufficiency.