In the Field with Akiptan: Our team has been busy uplifting our commitment to producers!

dawn8743
May 8
3 min read

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 our team who travel nationwide to meet with producers, partners and funders to support the mission of delivering creative capital, leading paradigm changes and enhancing producer prosperity across Indian country. In the past two weeks, our team has been busy in the field. Our spring intern, Teddi Miner, tabled the Akiptan booth at the C-EB Career Fair, our Executive Director, Skya Ducheneaux and Program Officer, Justine Kougl attended the Mountain Plains Coalition Convening in Wind River, Wyoming and our Senior Program Officer, Dawn E. LeBeau joined a panel of leaders in the Native agriculture space at Regenerative NYC in Brooklyn, NY, and on top of that our team traveled to Rapid City, SD to meet with Sweet Grass Consulting to build our next strategic plan! These efforts are vital in helping to strengthen the goal of supporting our producers across Indian country!

Teddi Miner (Akiptan Spring Intern) set up the Akiptan booth on April 29th, 2025 at Cheyenne Eagle Butte Career Fair and visited with students from local schools. Teddi shared information on our services and programming; specifically around Akiptan’s youth loan, the Okhichanye scholarship, the Mahkhichanyanpi Youth Business Plan contest, and the summer youth internship program. This annual event has been influential in helping us to share the word about Akiptan to the future stewards of the agriculture.

Darrel Fish (NACDC), Shalyn Hawley (Four Bands Community Fund), Justine Kougl (Program Officer), Tommy Robinson (Four Bands Community Fund) attended the Mountain Plains Coalition Convening in Wind River Wyoming on April 22nd - 24th, 2025.

This convening brought funders, CDFI practitioners, business owners and community leaders together to share success and develop relationships to make the Mountain Plains Coalition stronger for the people served. During the event attendees were able to listen to local Native-owned business owners who shared how Native CDFI’s are supporting them and how they are in turn supporting their communities. One of these business owners was Akiptan’s previous employee, Craig Harry, and wife Mikala, describing how CDFIs have given them the opportunity to expand their agribusiness operation on Wind River. We want to thank the Wind River Development Fund for hosting the amazing event.

Dawn E. LeBeau (Akiptan), Chanel Ford (Native American Agriculture Fund), Wayne Ducheneaux (Intertribal Agriculture Council), Kelsey Scott (Intertribal Agriculture Council) attended the Regenerative NYC event on April 21st - 23rd, 2025.

This event was held in Brooklyn, New York and Akiptan was honored to sit besides colleagues in the agriculture space to lead a panel exploring the investment opportunities that align with ecological stewardship, successful funding models, and tangible solutions for supporting Native farmers and ranchers. The panel shared case studies, highlighted innovative collaborations, and offered a call to action for investors, philanthropists, and policymakers to drive meaningful change now.

Skya Ducheneaux (Executive Director), Patty Picotte (Administrative Officer), Melissa Curley (Director of Lending), Stephanie Janis (Finance Officer), Phannette Gray (Loan Officer), Justine Kougl (Program Officer), Jami Gropper (Loan Officer), Dawn E. LeBeau (Senior Program Officer), Whitney O’Rourke (Loan Officer), Kole Fitzpatrick (Loan Officer), Front Row: Sarah (Loan Officer), Garrett (Loan Officer). Not pictured: Teddi Miner (Spring Intern) and Tatum Ward (Office Assistant). Met with Sweet Grass Consulting in Rapid City, SD April 30th - May 1st, 2025.

Sweet Grass Consulting led the Akiptan team in a two day strategic planning convening to build the next few years of goals to meet producers with continued products and services that support the agriculture communities we live and work in. The team is looking forward to continuing our work towards providing access to patient capital and partnership based services to support agriculture across Indian country!

To learn more about our products and services visit our website at www.akiptan.org/loanproducts.