In Tulare County in the Central San Joaquin valley, above the almond blooms and rows of orange trees, sits the Tule River Reservation.
Last week, NeighborWorks network organizations, their tribal partners, and organizations interested in starting Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) joined together on the reservation as part of a Native Partnership Gathering. The gathering was hosted by NeighborWorks America and the Native CDFI Network (NCN) with local support from the Tule River Tribe and Self-Help Enterprises.
A hallmark of NeighborWorks’ Native strategy is a focus on partnering with Tribal communities to expand housing opportunities and the site-visits to tribal lands are opportunities that foster deeper learning. On the Tule River reservation, local leaders shared different housing developments and community facilities, both on the trust land and fee-land purchased by the tribe.
“One thing we try to institute at our partnership gatherings is understanding the place you’re at,” explained Mel Willie, NeighborWorks America’s senior director of Native Partnerships and Strategies. “Our water, our land, our sacred ways and our languages are all tied to that place. It’s important to think of community development in those terms.”
The reason for the most recent gathering of nearly 100 participants was to “create more Native CDFIs in the state of California,” said Pete Upton, director of the Native CDFI Network. Currently, California has only two Native CDFIs, despite 110 federally recognized tribes. The organizations provide ways for families and individuals to access credit, loans, financial assistance and more, when they might not qualify for opportunities from more traditional lending institutions or agencies.
As is customary in Tribal communities, the gathering opened with a song and a prayer by a representative of the Tule River tribe. Vickie Oldman of Seven Sisters Community Development Group reminded the participants, “Grounding with culture – the way we connect with each other – is important.” She shared that these protocols welcome participants to settle in a proper frame-of-mind to appropriately engage in activities.
The rocky lands of the Tule River Tribe cover 68,000 acres. “One road in, one road out,” said Sabino Martinez, tribal project manager. “We have challenges on our site. Utilities, terrain and topography are some of the biggest constraints.”
Even so, near the top of Cow Mountain, Tribal leaders showed off the first housing subdivision completed on the reservation. The neighborhood, which has a view of the reservation land and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, started with a vision of the tribal council, Martinez said, “from design to construction management.” In 2023, California’s atmospheric rivers washed out part of the construction before they were able to restore the site, but they persevered. The neighborhood is now home to 26 individuals and families.
As more than 500 tribal members wait for housing, the neighborhood “helped us reduce that challenge.”
The tour also included Nupchi Xo’ Oy, interpreted as, “Village of the Cousins,” a neighborhood built in cooperation with the Tule River Indian Housing Authority and Self-Help Enterprises, a NeighborWorks network organization. The neighborhood of affordable rental homes, which serves families at or below 60% area median income (AMI) also has a distinct neighborhood feel. There is solar on every roof, an effort to fight the high cost of electricity for families who struggle to make ends meet. The solar reduces utility bills by about 40%.
The neighborhood includes 40 homes, some of them single-family buildings, some of them townhomes and all with three to four bedrooms. Eight of the homes are restricted for Tribal members, though there’s a preference policy for Tribal members for the other rental units. The project opened in 2021.
Now, said Patrick Fisherwood of Self-Help, the community is full of families with kids. “It’s a neighborhood,” he emphasized. “There are no fences dividing the houses. There are common areas where kids play.” The community center on the site offers financial education classes and a space for tribal members to share culture and heritage.
The tour also included a visit to the Justice Center for the tribe. As NeighborWorks’ Mel Willie explained, research has shown that "for a tribe to have strong economic development, they must have a strong judiciary. Seeing the investment in tribal courts shows that Tule River will be able to adjudicate issues in their community and extend contracts. The investments are there.”
As tour participants filed through, they learned about the reach of the justice center, which hopes to become a center not just for Tule River, but for other tribes in the region. It is, one participant observed, “a real center for everything.”
NeighborWorks Regional Vice President for the Western Region Lisa Hasegawa expressed gratitude to the Tule River Tribe and to the families who opened their homes. “It’s an honor to be with everyone, to see the lands of the Tule River Tribe,” she said. "With this convening, our goal is to forge partnerships.” That also means walking alongside NeighborWorks network organizations and helping them be good partners, she added.
Interested in learning more about how to be a good partner in Indian Country? NeighborWorks will be offering a series of classes at the upcoming NeighborWorks Training Institute this August in New Orleans. Watch our website for more information.
Photos for this story, provided by the Native CDFI Network, were taken by Joshua J. Cordero of Remscape.
