Photo submitted by The Crafted Orchard Akiptan is extremely thankful for the clients we get to serve, and we are excited to feature their success in our December Success Story. Angela Litchy is an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe. She owns the Crafted Orchard & More LLC, which was established in 2022. This orchard sits on 35.16 acres of deeded land that she and her husband, Trevor, own. The Crafted Orchard & More LLC is a seasonal rural agritourism business lo

Akiptan is proud to introduce you to the team of people who are helping make a change in agriculture across Indian country. There are so many behind-the-scenes details that take place, and we are here to celebrate the team that does the work to make those processes happen. This month, we are highlighting our Administrative Officer, Patty Picotte.  Patty moved to South Dakota from Cody, Wyoming, where she raised her daughters and raised and trained American Quarter Horses. In

Akiptan is excited to bring you Part Two of our blog series of our 2025 Summer interns. This year Akiptan, partnered with three agricultural organizations from across the country where interns were able to gain hands-on skills with businesses working within food systems in their communities while also learning the key components of finance with our Senior Program Officer. The outcomes of this work have always been to work intentionally with the participants to deepen their un

As Akiptan’s Program team moves into the final stretch of the year, we spent a few moments reflecting with two interns from this year's 2025 Summer Internship and we are excited to feature them in this two part blog. Hear from the interns and what the impacts of their experiences were over the summer months with their organizations and businesses.  Not only does Akiptan host in house interns, but we also coordinate with other agriculture organizations to host externs (externa

Akiptan is excited to share the success of our first mortgage towards trust land! There is a myth out there that Native American landowners can’t mortgage trust land, and most of the time traditional banks won’t attempt it for various reasons. Because of that, typically producers across Indian Country aren’t able to leverage what should be their largest asset. However, we were able to close our first trust land mortgage with a producer! We knew that other Native CDFIs, like F

Photo submitted by Dylane Carlisle Dylane Carlisle, a Navajo Nation citizen from the state of New Mexico grew up ranching and has been a member of 4-H and FFA for years. She has placed in the Champion spaces for her bred livestock entries for several years. Currently she is pursuing an Ag Econ Business degree at NMSU - New Mexico State University. Dylane was encouraged to apply for a loan with Akiptan to complement her livestock show work. Dylane and her loan officer - Whitne

In the industry, there’s always buzz words. They are exciting, they get people worked up and then the words change. All. The. Time. Do you do non-extractive financing ? We focus on impact first lending . What does it mean to practice patient capital ?  I just said the same thing three different ways using various buzz words. One of the recent buzz phrases that’s entered our vernacular the last few years is: a strength based approach . What does that even mean? Here at Akiptan

Akiptan’s innovative lending model has been balancing lender security and producer prosperity since we began lending in 2019. Our...

Akiptan is proud to introduce you to the team at Akiptan who are helping make a change in agriculture finance across Indian country....

Akiptan and GROW South Dakota receive grants to expand economic opportunity for rural and tribal entrepreneurs statewide. Photograph...

Skya Ducheneaux, Akiptan’s Executive Director explains her perspective on how Akiptan is equally balancing lender security and borrower...

Akiptan is thrilled to announce our 2025 Okhíčhaŋye  Scholarship recipients for this year. The Okhíčhaŋye Scholarship is in its fourth...

Akiptan’s Yuwinyeya Grant was developed to help Akiptan’s clients to start, update, and/or expand their transition and succession plans....

Akiptan has had a busy start to the 2nd quarter in 2025! We have recently launched this section in our newsletter to share the efforts of...

Ty Thompson owns Thompson Ag services located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Ty and our Senior Program Officer sat down to visit about the success of his operation and where he would like to see his business go over the next few years. Akiptan is honored to be able to support Thompson Ag services with our lending products and technical assistance. Tell me about your history in agriculture?  I grew up around ranching, my family; mom and dad, and everyone was ranching

Akiptan worked with a total of five youth interns this summer; two with Akiptan and three with Native agriculture partner organizations...

Akiptan's Internship program has been operating for 3 years and during this time over 17 young adults have participated in extending...

Last week, Akiptan’s Executive Director, Skya Ducheneaux, was elected to Opportunity Finance Network’s (OFN’s) Board of Directors during...

Akiptan is pleased to announce that we were recently awarded a $3 million gift from Yield Giving, MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropic...

Every month Akiptan hosts webinars for Native Agriculture operations. These webinars are offered to assist producer’s success in their...