The Treasurer Visits Blackfeet

U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach recently traveled to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, for his first trip to Montana since taking office — part of a broader swing through Indian Country that also included visits to the Flathead and Coeur d’Alene reservations.

In Episode 6 of Difference Makers 3.0, Brian Edwards and Native CDFI Network CEO Pete Upton sit down with Beach after a day of touring Native-owned businesses, meeting with tribal leaders and Native lenders, and attending a regional gathering hosted by Native CDFI Network and NACDC Financial Services.

The conversation explores infrastructure, banking access, broadband connectivity, private investment, federal contracting and the barriers tribes still face attracting outside capital.

Beach also discusses why he believes tribes possess major economic advantages many policymakers still underestimate — including sovereignty, entrepreneurial energy and cultural ties that encourage younger citizens to return home.

Along the way, the episode touches on Native CDFIs, financial literacy, diversification beyond gaming and the challenge of building long-term economic growth in rural reservation communities.

Show Notes:

Native CDFI Network
https://nativecdfi.net/

NACDC Financial Services
https://nacdcfinancialservices.com/

Tribal Business News
https://tribalbusinessnews.com/

U.S. Treasury Office of Tribal and Native Affairs
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/tribal-affairs

Difference Makers explores how Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are expanding economic opportunity across Indian Country. From small business lending and homeownership to consumer loans, financial education, and technical assistance, Native CDFIs provide the capital and support that help Native communities build stronger local economies.

Join the Native CDFI Network and Tribal Business News as they spotlight the people, partnerships, and ideas driving economic change in Native communities.

Transcript

Brian Edwards - Host: 0:03

One of the best things about being a journalist covering economic development in Indian Country is the opportunity to get out in community, meet with folks, see what's on their mind, and see what barriers they're running into. It's essential for a journalist. It's probably doubly essential if you're a federal official or a policymaker who spends most of your time in Washington, DC. I mean, I guess what I've learned is that spending a day or two on the reservation can teach you a lot about Indian Country. Well, last week, United States Treasurer Brandon Beach got that opportunity when he traveled to the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. His first trip to Montana since taking office, set along the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. The visit offered more than postcard scenery. It was pretty beautiful, though. It provided Treasure Beach a first-hand look at the realities and possibilities shaping economic development in Indian Country. Beach was in Browning for a regional gathering hosted by Native CDFI Network and NACDC Financial Services, one of the country's longtime Native community development financial institutions over the course of a day and a half, Beach toured Native-owned businesses, met with tribal leaders and Native lenders, delivered some remarks at the conference, and found a little bit of time later in the day to drive into Glacier's eastern boundary area. He also joined the entire group for dinner, was amazing. Chef from Indigi Kitchen. Then they brought in some traditional drums, pow wow dancers, and the entire group, including Treasurer Beach and his wife, joined together in a round dance. Feel like I really got my steps in that day. Anyway, the business tour that we did included some stops and conversations with leaders from Native American Bank, Jeff's Lube & Tube, an automotive and tire shop financed through Native lending programs, and Rockin' Outlaw, a Native-owned business that sells western clothing, livestock feed, and other goods serving the surrounding ranch and community. They're expanding with a loan from NACDC Financial Services. In this episode of Difference Makers 3.0 we bring you an extended conversation recorded just before dinner. After Treasurer Beach had spent the day listening, asking questions, and seeing economic development up close. I want to note he was accompanied throughout the visit by Fatima Abbas. She's an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian tribe, and also serves as the director of the Office of Tribal and Native Affairs at the Treasury. She's referenced several times during our conversation by the Treasurer. Rather than a heavily produced and edited episode, this is largely a straight conversation that Pete Upton and I had with Treasurer Beach, a chance to hear what one of the country's top federal officials took away from his visit. Here's our conversation.

Brian Edwards: 3:31

So, thank you. Thank you for taking time. So, this is your first visit to Montana and to the Blackfeet Nation, and what, what really stood out to today?

Treasurer Beach: 3:41

Well, let me tell you this. First off, this beautiful country. Now, I don't want to be here in the wintertime. I'm, I'm not going to lie, because somebody told me it gets to 40 below, you know, degrees. And, but I will tell you that what stood out to me is, again, every Indian community I go to - heritage, culture, tradition, family - it's just unbelievable, the things I see, the spirit, and look, they, they really believe in the entrepreneurial spirit, that again, they're salt earth people, and that's what I love about the Indian community, and I think we're going to continue to help them do what they need to do to be successful.

Brian Edwards: 4:22

What is like being on the ground here and doing a visit like this teach you about Indian Country that you can't get from one of your advisors?

Treasurer Beach: 4:31

Well, listen, I believe this: when you come and you touch something and you feel it and you break bread with people, then you really understand it. When I first got this job, I didn't know what it was about. Now I had great counsel with Faderman. She said,"Hey, this is what it's about. And I married a girl, a lady. She's a Cajun, and the Cajun culture is very similar. They love their culture, they love their family, they love their traditions, they're salted with people. And so when I immersed myself into the Indian community, I saw the. Spirit, you guys have, and I said we got to help them and make sure that we give them the tools. Now, you got to help yourself. We can give you the tools, but y'all have so much opportunity to really prosper and do economic development. And I can tell you, President Trump wants to make sure he gives you the tools in the toolbox to be successful.

Brian Edwards: 5:20

Yeah, I mean, I wrote down one of your quotes today. He said, 'I don't think you all realize the opportunities you have here. Tell me more about that.

Treasurer Beach: 5:27

Well, I really don't think you all do. I think you all are very.. you're entrepreneurial, but I don't think you realize you don't have to get a permit to do something that a city of.. I don't know what cities around here, but in Atlanta, if you had a tribe and you had a reservation, you can build a data center and not have to go through all the stuff that a city does in a municipality, and that's what y'all have those opportunities. I think what you got to do, though, is you got to get, you got to get private investment, and you got to get the issues done there from a legal standpoint to know that if people are going to invest in your reservation, that they're going to have some protections with the sovereign immunity, and so on, because I've talked to some private equity folks and they want to invest in Indian Nation, but they want to make sure that they're protected with their investment.

Brian Edwards: 6:17

I wanted to ask you about that, because I mean, you talked about infrastructure quite a bit today, and broadband and 21st century connectivity, you know, is really keys to economic growth, but I mean, tribes do face a lot of structural barriers when it comes to financing projects like that, you know, they're limited in what they can do, you know, from a tax base perspective, and investors are hesitant, as you, you rightly point out. So, where do you think the capital is going to come from to help tribes really build out there?

Treasurer Beach: 6:53

I think it's going to have to be a mixture of tribal money, private equity money, and our money, government money, and we all need to come together and help you do that. Listen, I'm a firm believer that when you build the infrastructure, the jobs will come. I saw it. I had a road in my Senate district, it was a road here called Highway 20 and a road here called Highway 140 less than half a mile. We built the road to connect them, Northside Hospital built a hospital, 1200 employees, and then the ancillary jobs around it, the halo effect of medical office, medical office, hotel, restaurants, all that developed, and it created 1000s of jobs, and those citizens now have a quality health care facility they didn't have. That all happened because we built a $9.5 million road connecting highway 20 and highway 140 You don't build that road, you don't build the hospital, so that's another example of infrastructure investment. I've seen it with in my district with interchanges, we build a new interchange and they built a new 100 and you know square foot building, and so on, so those investments pay off now on the 21st century infrastructure. You've got to do something, and here's the problem — they're not going to lay the fiber out here, so you have to do Starlink or some kind of satellite deal, but you have to have connectivity. If you're going to have telehealth, you have mobile banking or education through the internet, you're going to have to have that.

Brian Edwards: 8:25

Do you see kind of the challenges in tribal economic development in Indian Country as different than in rural America?

Treasurer Beach: 8:35

Well, in rural America, you know, you've got nobody wants to live there. What y'all have is you have people that want to come back because of the culture, the traditions, the family. They don't want to go back to South Georgia, for example, but they would come back here because of your traditions and culture. So, I think you got a really big heads up on that.

Brian Edwards: 8:58

You mentioned today, I think it was today that Native communities really delivered a lot of support for President Trump in the past, and that the administration president wants every zip code in America to participate in economic prosperity, but what does that, what does that look like?

Treasurer Beach: 9:17

Well, listen, he wants every zip code to have the ability to pursue the American dream. We're going to give you the tools in the toolbox, and y'all need to work hard, and and then create jobs and opportunities, but no, it's we want to help you make sure you have those tools in the toolbox, and we're doing that through the big beautiful bill. When you look at the tax cuts we've done the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, the $6,000 tax cut for seniors over 65 all that puts money back into the economy. I gave that example, the waiter at Joe's that didn't know what I was talking about, then when he did his tax returns, he. Got $7,100 that's$7,100 you know he's going to do with that, he's going to spend it, and it's going to circulate, and we'll see that money circulate six or seven times, and that's good for the economy. So I would just tell you that President Trump really does want economic prosperity, and he doesn't believe we create jobs as government, you all do, but we can give you the tools through low taxes, less regulation, and so on. If we do those things and get out of the way, you know, we will do this.

Brian Edwards: 10:29

Will you have an opportunity to talk to the President about this trip?

Treasurer Beach: 10:32

Yeah, I will. Now, he's in China right now, but I will tell him about, you know, what I saw out here, and the opportunities, and the land, and he wants to help y'all.

Brian Edwards: 10:44

You said you want to continue embracing kind of the work you're doing with tribes and Fatima and James. After this trip, what's the follow-up?

Treasurer Beach: 10:54

Well, we're going to continue to work on the 8(a) program. Number one, we're going to do some other tax stuff, and then we're going to work on trying to get more Indians banked. 40% of Indians are not banked, that's unacceptable. We got to, we got to get them to.. we talked about this when I met earlier with the other gentlemen, we got to get them to trust banks, whether it's Native American bank or whatnot. We got to get them in the banking system.

Brian Edwards: 11:22

Yeah, 42%

Pete Upton: 11:24

46% - it's a banking desert.

Treasurer Beach: 11:28

Yeah. So we've got to figure that out, you know. We're gonna end up going to where we're gonna not issue checks anymore. So there's going to come a point where we got to get you, get everybody in a bank, and I think that's part of the leadership of the Indian community to tell folks you can trust a bank, whether it's a Native American bank, a Wells Fargo, or whoever. I see Wells Fargo at a lot of your events, every event I've been at, they've been, and there's another bank that's very key bank, I think there's been at all your events, so we got to make sure that they feel they can trust banks and trust the financial system. I also think the Trump accounts are going to help them build a little trust when they see their money. If they participate in this, they'll see their money grow over the next few years, and then they'll see the compounding interest in the trust of the financial system.

Brian Edwards: 12:21

The last panel of the day, there were five kids that are doing financial literacy and saving accounts and stuff, and it was, I mean, it shook him (Pete) up.

Pete Upton: 12:36

It really was to see a first grader up there saying why he wanted to save, and then you had there were five of them up there, and one of them commented that she wanted to save because she wanted to help her parents, and it was so emotional. I mean, to see these kids now, the one had been in it since he was in fourth grade, and now he's off to college, and I forget what he's going to study, but it was probably the most impactful tear jerking thing I've seen. I mean, it really hit me hard

Treasurer Beach: 13:05

when we were at the bank.

Pete Upton: 13:06

Yeah,

Treasurer Beach: 13:06

they were telling us about a story, same thing, about a kid that ended up saving $20,000 by saving from this program y'all are doing with here with kids on financial literacy.

Brian Edwards: 13:19

Yeah, the first grader, he's gonna save his money, so he can buy a Ford pickup truck.

Treasurer Beach: 13:25

That's what I drive. I like it. I drive an f1 50. I like it.

Brian Edwards: 13:29

There you go.

Treasurer Beach: 13:30

But he better have more than $20,000 because those

Brian Edwards: 13:32

things have gotten expensive. I mean, he's a first grader. Yeah, probably by the time he gets his license, he might be able to

Pete Upton: 13:39

Yeah, with the CDFIs that you saw today, you know, or being here with NACDC, has did that impact or did that change your views of Native CDFIs? You know, number one, we're not DEI, we're not woke, I mean, any new sites, Listen, that's what I said earlier on the 8(a) program, and I've told Kelly Loeffler that, who runs our SBA program, she's administrator of SBA. I said, look, these 8(a) programs with the Indians, they create jobs, especially, you know, I met with the Alaskan folks, the corporations, and they use the ADA program a lot, but several y'all do, and it's a very good program, it's a tool in your toolbox to create jobs, and there has been some fraud and some woke stuff in the with other folks, but not in the Indian community, and that's what I preached to her. I said, we got to keep this for the Indian community. We're going to bat for you on that.

Brian Edwards: 14:34

It's, it's been a, it's been a tremendous growth engine. Most people that don't know Indian Country do think of gaming, which is appropriate, but federal contracting is $24 billion part of the economy.

Treasurer Beach: 14:47

In my year here, if I could give advice to anything, it can be diversified, diversify, diversify. Casinos are great, and I just left one just now. It's great. It was not a good crowd there, but you don't want all your eggs in that basket, you want to diversify. And I went down to Tunica Biloxi and saw Marshall, and he's now he's got his casino, and he's doing well, and his hotels doing well, but he's also in the textile business. He owned three, he opened three urgent care centers, he's going to have a mortgage business, they're really diversifying to where the casino is still going to be their bread and butter, but they want to have other opportunities, and I think the reason you need to do that too, and I was talking to Fatima about this, if you want your young people to come back here to the reservation, you got to give them other opportunities besides work in a casino, nothing against a casino job, blackjack dealers, great, and all that, but some of these young people want to be in health care, they want to be in IT, or some kind of technology business, and if you give them their opportunities, they'll come back to the reservation, if not, they may not, and you got to get your young people back here. We just did a deal with Tunica Biloxi for 50, we worked with HUD, and we're doing 50 tiny homes. They're made out of freight containers, and we did a deal with them to try to get young people to have affordable housing to come back. Now, they're small, but they're very well built and very nice, and we're going to see how that works.

Brian Edwards: 16:17

I hope they're air conditioned.

Treasurer Beach: 16:18

No, they're no, they're nice, but they are small, and whoever you're living with in there, you better like them, because it's small, you can't get away from them. So, but I will tell you that I think that those are the type of things we're going to do pilot programs with. I'm talking to Rodney Butler about a couple things up in Connecticut that we can create jobs and do some different things. Now, he's got a really good casino, obviously, but he's also wanted to diversify and do different entrepreneurial type investments.

Brian Edwards: 16:47

Are you looking forward to visiting other reservations?

Treasurer Beach: 16:49

Yeah, I'm going look, she's got me going everywhere, bottom has got me going everywhere, but no, listen, and I tell you, I have embraced this, and I didn't even know what this was about when I first got the job, but I've really loved being part of this, and seeing the growth, and seeing the change, just in the year that I've been here, you know, people, the reservations diversifying, and looking at other opportunities, and I got to give her a lot of credit, Fatima fought for years for those tax policy changes.

Brian Edwards: 17:21

Oh, I know.

Treasurer Beach: 17:22

And we got them over the finish line, and it was her hard work that did it, but the President said, "Do it, let's get it done. And one of the things I bring to the table is, to be honest with, is political. I mean, I'm very political, and having relationships in the White House and in the administration helps get things across the finish line, and we want to continue to do that, and she's helping me get it done right, and I just want to end on saying this. You got the best team in Treasury, you got her (Fatima Abbas), James (Colombe) and Jen(Parisien) and Jen, James, and her (Fatima) are all Native Americans, and they are passionate, passionate about what they do, and the programs that we're trying to do to help Indian community, and what we want to do is give you the tools, and then it's for you to then take off and have economic prosperity, and if we give you the tools and you then implement that, you should be successful.

Brian Edwards - Host: 18:19

That was United States Treasurer Brandon Beach speaking during his visit to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, part of a broader trip he took throughout Indian Country that also included visits with the Confederated Salish and Kootenay tribes on the Flathead Indian Reservation and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Idaho. During our conversation, Treasure Beach repeatedly returned to the idea that tribes already possess many of the ingredients for economic growth. They've got land, sovereignty, entrepreneurial energy, and strong cultural ties that bring people home, but there's always a but Treasure Beach acknowledges that access to outside capital remains one of the biggest barriers to larger scale development. He also acknowledged something Native leaders have long argued: private investors are interested in Indian Country, but often remain uncertain about tribal legal structures, sovereignty, and investment protections. You know, Beach, whose wife Shawntel is Cajun, also spoke several times about feeling a personal connection between Cajun culture and Native communities, particularly around family, tradition, cultural identity, and of course, food. While this was Treasure Beach's first trip to Montana's Native communities, I'm pretty sure this won't be his last. Next time on Difference Makers 3.0 we're gonna go further west, California. The Next Front for Native CDFI expansion. California has one of the largest Native populations in the country in a very mature financial ecosystem, but only a handful of Native CDFIs. We're going to look at what it takes to expand Native-led access to capital at that scale in California, and what changes if those institutions can connect to the broader system that's already moving money across the state. Difference Makers 3.0 is a co-production of the Native CDFI Network and Tribal Business News. Thanks to Pete Upton and his team at the Native CDFI Network: Kristen Wagner, Shauntel Hogan, Pamela Boivin, Jodi Fischer, and Stephanie Prater. Of course, thanks to the Native Story Lab team, especially Kristin Lilya, a proud citizen of the Boy Fort Band of Chippewa. She's our project manager, wrangler in chief, and recording expert. As always, thanks to Elyse Wild, who's working behind the mic this season as our sound editor and podcast maven. Shout out to Rich Tupica, keeps me sane with the post production removal of all my uhs and ums. Check the show notes for links and more about this episode. Thanks for listening. See you next time.