 Hey, Oniya, Ijaja yumaha wii wuitei latawiso. Ijaja yuaha wii wuitei ana labo. I say to you all, greetings. It is so good to see all of you. And in my umaha language, I say my native name, my name that my grandfather gave to me when I was a little girl, latawiso, which he must have known something I didn't, because that name means a little bird that sits on top of the tree to speak. So here's my tree. I can't say my English name because neither name is English, Ana. My mother who told me was German, labo. It's my married name, which is French. It's my husband's, my late husband's name. I'm a mother of five boys, ranging from 19 to over 35. I'm blessed to have two beautiful grandchildren, a boy and a girl. And I'm blessed to be here in front of all of you. This is an amazing opportunity and I want to say thank you so much to Socap for inviting me and for allowing me to take a few moments on this stage. So I was pondering what to discuss, what to share with you, what to talk about. And I know throughout some of the conversations that we all heard this, these last few days, we've heard a little bit about the historical trauma and it's like, why should we continue to hear about that? But you know what? I'm going to keep talking about it. I'm going to keep talking about it and talking about it until we get the acknowledgement and we get to the point of being healed and get to the point of being equal. So yes, I am a survivor. And thankfully, my great-grandmother was so smart because she took my grandmother, who was one of 11 and for some reason chose her and hid her away when they came to get the rest. She was the only survivor. So she raised us, raised my mom and her siblings. She worked hard. Campbell's Soup Company, she would walk to work every day, work, work, work. She raised my mother to be a hard worker. My mother was an employee of the federal government for 40-plus years. So she, too, was a hard worker. And the thing that she brought to me, that she taught me was a level of integrity because that's where she was. She was the leader of the ethics office in our region. So about that trauma that we continue to see every day. As I stated, I am a survivor. And as we see throughout our generations, we are impacted by trauma in various ways through the alcoholism, the addiction, domestic abuse. So I'm a survivor of the physical and domestic abuse. To mention the other thing that kind of held me down as I was growing up was I'm a woman. And so in the world that I grew up in, that made it even more challenging. But in spite of all that, I continued to move forward, receive my education, listen to my mother as much as I could to continue and continue to fight the fight. And as I stand here and as I look at all of you out there, I ask a question. And this is a question I continue to ask my sons, is how are we honoring our ancestors? What are we doing for those who went before us? Whether you're a native or non-native, we all came from some place. What are you doing to continue to carry forward the good? And now to speak honestly, my ancestors might come from the descendency of Chief Blackbird of the Omaha tribe, who is described as being a very harsh individual, who is not nice at all. He commanded power and he commanded a lot of strength through that. So it's not painted in a great light. However, what I can do is I can still take what he was trying to bring to himself and utilize that for good. The Omaha tribe were small people, a tribe of about 6,000 people on the northeast corner of Nebraska. Less than 1,500 live on our reservation, but we have a legacy. We have a legacy that we hold true to. All of you have heard of the term the powwow. The hellushka is what we call it. My tribe originated it. We are the originators. We created the grass dance, we created the ward ants, and we shared that with everybody who we visited. And so the powwows that you go to, that you see, that you may witness, that came from us. We also had the first woman doctor, Native American woman doctor, Dr. Susan LaFleche-Picott. And I take great joy in seeing her house less than a block away from my mom's backyard. And that brings me a lot of pride in knowing what she did for our people to become educated, to do what she could to help our people heal. And it wasn't just her. Her father was an advocate. Her sister was a translator, translator for the Ponca tribe, and the non-natives. And her other sister, she was a businesswoman. So I like to think that all of those positive qualities I've been blessed with, I'm able to use that gift and continue to fight the good fight and continue to say in spite of the atrocities of the boarding schools, the removal, the continued addictions and the fight that we see every day. As a Native woman, as a woman of five strong Lakota boys, I'm able to say we are still here. And here's another cool thing. That agency that tried to take our people out, I got a really cool job at a higher level there. And so again, we're able to do what we can at that high level to make as much change as we possibly can. So for those of you that I've been able to visit this week and to talk about the positive changes that we're making, I get to be there for a few more years to continue to fight that fight and to continue to move forward and to make the change that continues to be a legacy for our people, for the 570 plus federally recognized tribes and hopefully the tribes that continue to get to that point to where they can also become federally recognized. Now, I'm the director of the Office of Indian Economic Development. I was newly hired about a year and a half ago and the thing that I continually say to my leadership when they ask me to come to a meeting is, okay, are you sure you want me there? Because I am going to say what I'm thinking. And so when I was asked to be up here on this stage, I was like, are you sure? I don't want to get in trouble. So this is my disclaimer. Anything I say past this isn't really me. As a DOI employee, this is me, Anna. But I'm going to ask of each of you that are investors, whether you are the ones that actually have the money that can invest in Indian Country or you are the ones that will provide assistance, technical assistance. I want you to hear this number. Try to process it. 0.04% of one-tenth of one percent. 0.04% of one-tenth of one percent. That's the amount of private capital that is given to Indian Country. I don't think we're at the level that we need to be at. And I want to know and I invite all of you to state what you are wanting to do, what you're willing to do to step outside your organization and your thought process to bring some of that capital, to bring some of that giving to Indian Country. Our people continue to work through our healing process. We continue to acknowledge that, yes, and the cool thing is, and maybe it's cool, I don't know, it's cool. Because we've gone through so many generations, my mother's generation was a type that tried to sweep it under the rug, not talk about it, try to move past it and just leave it back there. But our generation knew that there was something missing and that there was something wrong. And so we tried to talk about it. And then my kids, they really started pushing, what's going on, what's wrong with this, what's different about this, why are we here and talk about the history. We're actually at that generation to where we can talk about it out loud. And thankfully, the people that I work for, the Assistant Secretary and the Secretary of Interior, as leaders they took the helm and they said it out loud. Yes, there were atrocities. Yes, the federal government did this. And we apologize. And so that starts this healing process, right? Acknowledgement. And so now as a people, we too want to start that healing process. And we see it through each of our communities as they continue to build their communities for self-sustainability. There are 69 Native CDFIs out of 570 some nations, only 69 Native CDFIs. Those Native CDFIs, they're the ones that are on the ground doing work, helping the people, working, providing the assistance that they need to teach people what it is to be financially literate, to understand what it is to do what the colonizers want us to do, pay your bills on time so you can get a house, so you can get a car. And that's the world we live in. We have to care about a credit score. We have to care about those things. And so our Native CDFIs are doing the work to try and translate that into what it's really about for us Native people, which is about the families the communities, the place where we live. Because really, I don't think as Native people, we want to be rich, rich, rich. We don't want to be bill gates. We just want to have a safe space for our families to raise our kids, to raise our grandchildren, to have our celebrations, to have our ceremonies. But we still need the support to help those organizations that are helping those community members thrive. Banks. Where are the banks? Where are the big banks? There are very few banks on our reservations, which is why Native CDFIs were put on our reservations. But what we need is we need the banks to come to us with an open mind and understand who we are. And that although, yes, history was a few hundred, a couple hundred years ago, it's still here within us. We still carry it. We still hold it. And we're still recovering from it. We don't expect you to say, I'm sorry, my great-great-grandpa did that too. But at least understand. And a little empathy and to see that we are actually trying to do the hard work, the hard work to heal and to recover and to reach towards the ultimate goal of being happy. Rich in love and happiness. To be healthy and self-sustainable. So I ask all of you, what are you willing to do to support that? To get that number to be so much bigger than it really is. At the beginning of this conference, I heard one of the opening speakers talk about trust. I think we as a Native people have a really hard time trusting non-Native people. Because we've seen those come in that are out for themselves. But what I've witnessed this week is a lot of open hearts and a lot of open minds that aren't about themselves. Because we, as impact investors, that's not about how much money we're making. That's about the actual impact. That's what made me want to be here. Is the impact. Because that's what it ultimately leads. How many lives are you going to impact through what you're doing? So as you demonstrate to our people that that's what you care about, then I truly believe that that trust which was broken so many years ago can begin to be rebuilt. That's the non-synic in me. Remaining hopeful. And so I ask you to continue to remain patient, keep an open mind. Remember, we too are human. We just want equality when you want to be self-determined. And so with that, I say my self-determination brought me here to speak in front of all of you. And I want to say we blah-ha. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this opportunity and for listening to me. And I look forward to seeing all of you again next year.