By Bobby “Trae” Trousdale, CPCDC Grants and Finance Coordinator
CPN citizens and the Nation’s employees are well aware of the felt experiences and challenges of the hardening economic reality. A return to “normal” of pre-pandemic pricing, supply, and financial operations are mere fleeting memories of years gone by with shrinking viable pathways to return. The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation (CPCDC) is acutely aware of these challenges and stands ready to assist our citizens, and those working on their behalf, through a variety of consumer programs. These include Employee Auto Loans, Credit Builder Loans, and our robust Employee Loan Program. Underpinning each of these is our mission, our Community Development Financial Institution status, and our desire to provide the Nation with an alternative to predatory payday lenders.
Over the course of our two decades of operations, predatory lending has shifted and assumed various forms in an attempt to earn your business. While the Department of Treasury still reports that over 12% of Native American households remain unbanked, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently shared that total household debt hit $18.4 trillion in the second quarter of 2025. This was inclusive of an all-time consumer high of $1.21 trillion being reached using predatory credit card companies. These statistics enumerate the polar realities of the thresholds we operate between and show the resourcefulness that economic colonizers deploy to erode your fiscal stability and sovereignty.
A new tool to subvert your financial power has emerged by simply embracing a facelift to BNPL, or Buy Now Pay Later, schemes. You’ve most likely seen these integrated into online checkout processes under the banners of Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, or Uplift. These are just a few BNPL companies, but each primarily markets itself to you by breaking your transaction down into bite-size chunks charged over a certain number of months. Factored into these payments, however, could be an interest rate of up to 36%. While the average person might think of factoring this into larger transactions, these BNPL grifts don’t limit themselves to $1,000+ transactions. They are pervasive and readily available wherever you may be. From holiday shopping hauls and weekly grocery orders to next-day Amazon deliveries and all the way down to a single burrito purchased on a national chain’s app, BNPLs satiate instant gratification and trap consumers in expensive cycles that could continue long after the byproducts are gone. We exist in an oppressive society where you, and more likely your younger relatives, can (or are being encouraged to) finance a cheesy bean and rice burrito.
In addition to this accrued cost of convenience, companies like Affirm, the largest BNPL company, are shifting their reporting to include the credit bureaus starting this year as they are projected to amass 91.5 American users and $122.3 billion in transactions. While this isn’t expected to initially affect traditional credit scores, the evolution of aging credit scoring models may come to include them in the future. Now, more than ever, sustainable financial health and wellness is shifting from an expectation of aging and maturity to a far-fetched dream and something that is only available to the elders among us.
CPN’s Community Development Corporation is here to finance, promote, educate, and inspire your commercial and consumer dreams whatever your point of entry may be. We encourage you to explore and use the many financial tools available to our people and to remain aware of the intergenerational effects and unique implications that financial decisions carry. Know that our entire team is a resource to you and that we welcome the opportunity to serve you and your future ancestors. Please contact CPCDC by visiting cpcdc.org or by calling 405-878-4697.