Earlier this year, Ducheneaux discussed strategies to address underinvestment and improve lending policies in Indian Country.
He shared his insights in “Reinventing the agricultural economy in Indian Country,” a conversation with Ben Horowitz, community development project manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Over three decades, Ducheneaux has held many roles—third-generation rancher on his family’s South Dakota ranch and board member of the Intertribal Agricultural Council (IAC), among others—that give him a big-picture view of how to overcome the barriers experienced by the Native American agricultural community.
The forward-looking strategies Ducheneaux describes echo NWAF’s focus on Enterprise Development, which funds entrepreneurship and empowers people who’ve historically been denied the opportunity to pursue their dream of opening their own business.
In the case of agriculture in Indian Country, he says, “It’s about maintaining the level of interest and effort in developing reservation agricultural economies. We’ve finally gotten to where it’s near a tipping point. We’re just about ready to make big things happen.”
