Working Together for Native Buffalo Ranchers: Tanka Fund and Akiptan
In early 2026 Tanka Fund, a non-profit working directly to provide animals, grants and technical assistance to Native American owned/operated or managed Buffalo ranches, reached out to Akiptan with a question: How can we help our Tanka Fund producer - buffalo ranchers - gain more education around their business finances? The Program team at Akiptan jumped on the opportunity to reach more agricultural producers in Indian Country and to provide specific information regarding buffalo ranching through a partnership with Tanka Fund.
Tanka Fund, based out of South Dakota, is a Native American led organization that has been working with buffalo ranchers across Indian Country since 2014.Tanka Fund’s ranching partners now represent more than 2,500 head of buffalo and over 100,000 acres of land! Akiptan is the Lakota word for together, in a joint effort, cooperatively and working together with Tanka Fund truly brings significance to life. Both organizations focus on individual agricultural producers within Indian Country with a focus on finding solutions to the challenges they face.
"We are grateful to have sat on Akiptan trainings alongside our Tanka Fund rancher partners and hear their needs, challenges, and listen to them chat with one another about their experiences. Having this opportunity to learn more about the financials, marketing, and planning around Buffalo has been a wonderful resource for them to improve their processes" - Tanka Fund.
During July 2026, thirteen Tanka Fund buffalo ranchers registered with the Buffalo Rancher Financial Cohort through Akiptan. This initiative was built to support Native Buffalo Ranchers working to start a new operation, to enhance an existing operation, or to strengthen their business practices. The ranchers participated in 5 online lunch and learn sessions tailored specifically for Buffalo Ranchers and received a physical copy of Akiptan’s Financial Management Guide for Cattle Rancher’s. Within those sessions everything from goal setting to financials and what they mean, to credit and marketing to support opportunities were covered. But most importantly, these meetings provided a space for mentorship and peer to peer learning.
Jessica Harjo, co-owner of Sovereign Ranch in Anadarko,Oklahoma explained that
“learning about all of the support Akiptan can provide was a missing piece for us and the booklets provided were great at making us sit down and put pen to paper to help us plan.”
With Akiptan’s Dawn E. Lebeau, Senior Program Officer and Justine Kougl, Program Officer leading the educational sessions, hearing that statement was affirming. “Akiptan’s Rancher financial cohorts have been built and adjusted over the past 2 years but until now they have only been offered to Akiptan clientele. This partnership has been the catalyst for growth and expanding the opportunity out to ALL ranch producers in Indian County,” says Justine.
The producers themselves demonstrated knowledge growth and confidence in business plan development, ranch management, marketing, financial understanding, and value added agriculture. The largest movement forward was in Ranch Business Planning, Izel Lopez, Buffalo Rancher with Texas Tribal Buffalo Project stated,
“This [cohort] was a great source of information and covers every aspect of the business of ranching. I truly enjoyed it and learned so much more. Going to dive deeper into the manual [financial management for cattle ranchers],”
The success of this initial partnership has led to additional Buffalo specific cohorts in the future as well as opening up our Rancher Cohort to help more Native American agricultural producers move forward in their financial and business education. Akiptan is excited to continue building these types of relationships for years to come.
Check out Akiptan’s financial literacy curriculum on our website at www.akiptan.org. To learn more about Akiptan’s cohorts please email Dawn E. LeBeau, Senior Program Officer at dawn@akiptan.org.
