For generations, our people have watched capital flow everywhere but home. Banks left. Payday lenders stayed. Families with good plans and strong hands were told no, or worse, were charged prices designed to keep them down.
Today we take a public step toward changing that. WITAYA Financial Solutions, an independent nonprofit lender formed on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, is now accepting pre-applications for its first loan programs.
A pre-application is a simple beginning. It takes about ten minutes. It pulls no credit, costs nothing, and commits you to nothing. It tells us who you are and what you are building, whether that is a small business, stronger credit, a working ranch, or a safer home. When you submit one, a Coach reads it personally and contacts you to walk the next steps together. When lending opens, pre-applicants are first in line.
We want to be straight with our community about where we stand, because honesty is the foundation of a lending institution. Our first loans are in final preparation. Our loan policies are board-approved, our products are designed, and we are completing legal review and seating our full board. We are an independent North Dakota nonprofit working toward certification as a Community Development Financial Institution by the U.S. Treasury. We are not there yet, and we will not claim to be. What we are is moving, carefully and in the right order, the way an institution should.
WITAYA is part of the Seven Stones Constellation, alongside Seven Stones Corporation and WITE Development. Three institutions, one purpose: cultural identity, financial access, and real ownership for our people.
Every dollar repaid at WITAYA is re-lent to the next family. That is the whole design. Your success funds your neighbor's beginning.
Start your pre-application or talk to us. We would be honored to walk with you.