Latest news with #nativeAmerican
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tribe to host convocation for tribal college students from
Shondiin SilversmithArizona Mirror Indigenous students graduating from a Maricopa County Community College will have a special convocation this year, just not one hosted by the district. Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community President Martin Harvier announced Wednesday that the tribal council will host a Native American Convocation for all Indigenous students graduating from a Maricopa County Community College this spring. The tribe is hosting the event in response to how the district canceled all convocations for specific student groups due to President Donald Trump's threat to defund colleges and universities that engage in DEI efforts. Harvier said the district's actions came quickly and without consultation with local tribes or other minority organizations. The cancellation of the convocation concerned the tribe because Scottsdale Community College is located within the boundaries of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and many tribal members have received their education from SCC. 'We knew we had to do something to address this issue,' Harvier said. The tribe met with the MCCD Governing Board, Harvier said, and the tribal council agreed to host the convocation for all 2025 Native American MCCD graduates in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. 'Why? Because honoring all Native American students for their accomplishments is the right thing to do,' Harvier said. The tribal council will cover all costs for the event that is being planned for early May. Details on the exact date and how students can participate were not shared. Mona Scott Figueroa, a faculty member at Mesa Community College, said she is 'elated' that the native American convocation will continue this year, even without it being hosted by the district. 'I love that Salt River made this generous offer,' Figueroa said. 'They are coming through for all 10 colleges.' When Figueroa heard of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community stepping up to host the convocation, she said it's a move that is 'consistent with who we are as Indigenous people.' 'We do what is right for the community,' she added. 'What matters is the students and our community members.' Figueroa said she was the name reader during the Native American convocations held at Mesa Community College, and she knows how beautiful the event is for the students and their families. 'For many, this is their first official graduation,' Figueroa said, adding that it's an authentic experience for the students and their families because it is full of Indigenous representation. 'I'm glad that it is going to happen,' she added. 'It's a beautiful event that I knew was going to happen in some form or fashion.' With the convocation being hosted within the Salt River community, Figueroa said she hopes that Scottsdale Community College will take it as a sign to invest and support Indigenous students. 'It does send a message,' she said, and she hopes that it will strengthen connections between tribes and MCCD.
CBS News
14-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Despite Colorado law, some online loans carry 500%+ interest rate: "They get away with lending murder"
When Tate Anderson's daughter needed a loan for a couple thousand dollars to help buy a car in February, the Englewood woman went online and stumbled on a loan that her father couldn't believe. It carried an interest rate of 581%. "I can't be everyone's dad, but this can't happen to people," said Anderson. "It's so awful." Anderson, who has been a mortgage broker for 30 years and is familiar with the lending world, thought it was illegal to charge that much interest in Colorado. His daughter signed up for a $2,000 loan with an online lender called WithU Loans. The payment schedule called for her to pay more than $800 per month for nine months amounting to $6,370.19 in interest and a 581% interest rate for her $2,000 loan, according to loan documents reviewed by CBS News Colorado. "I was shocked, needless to say", Anderson told CBS News Colorado. "They get away with lending murder," he said. Anderson told his daughter "to call them and tell them to pound sand." How could a loan like that be offered in Colorado, where state laws have capped interest rates at less than 40% for years? Anderson and his daughter didn't know that WithU Loans was an online lender owned and operated by the Otoe-Missouria tribe of Indians, and Indian tribes in the U.S. are generally exempt from state laws that prohibit exorbitant interest rates. What they are doing is perfectly legal. "This is something that is baked into our Constitutional system," explained Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. "If you are a tribe and acting as a tribal entity you aren't subject to the regulations of the state," said Weiser. Tribal loans, as they are called, are exempt from state laws as native American tribes have tribal sovereignty, legal standing that makes them immune from state statutes. "When tribes operate businesses," said Weiser, "they are operating outside of Colorado law because of their sovereignty." While Anderson's daughter only dealt with WithU Loans, tribal lenders have proliferated online, offering installment loans that one tribal lender calls "an expensive form of credit." A spokesperson for WithU loans provided a written statement about offering high interest loans in Colorado saying, "People turn to online lending when they can't find the financial options they need locally, or because they prefer to do business online. The internet connects them to services -- including those offered by Native American Tribes from Tribal Lands under Tribal law." He said, "Our terms are clear..." Dr. Katherine Spilde, a California-based professor who specializes in American Indian economic development, said tribal loans provide geographically isolated tribal nations with revenue needed for housing, education, health care and law enforcement. She said, "I do think it's a win-win, especially when you think what the tribes are using it for." Asked about the soaring interest rates, she said, "Online lending in general doesn't create financial fragility, it reveals it. These consumers need help, they need a partner they can count on," said Spilde. The online review platform Trustpilot said 71% of WithU Loans reviewers gave the service a five star review while 18% gave it one star. "The interest is so evil," wrote one reviewer this month. "You are flat out robbing people who need help. You should be absolutely ashamed of your greed." The Better Business Bureau in Oklahoma City has given WithU Loans an F grade, with the BBB saying it has received 343 complaints against the lender. In 2022, one Colorado resident filed a complaint with the federal Consumer Financial Protection bureau about an unnamed tribal lender. He said he took out a tribal loan that carried a 447% interest rate. "If this is not predatory lending then I don't know what is. Put a stop to this," said the resident. Weiser said consumers need to do their research. "With so many online lenders, it's tricky out there. It's easy to go into a product without understanding it," said Weiser. "Consumers have choices. They should think hard about what's best for them." Tate Anderson said he was able to quickly intervene in his daughter's case and cancel the loan. "Because I'm not going to let anyone rip my daughter off," said Anderson. He said after cancelling her loan, he lent his daughter the money for her new car. While Weiser indicated there is not much the state can do about tribal lenders themselves, in 2023, his office reached a settlement with a collection agency -- TrueAccord -- which was licensed in Colorado and had been collecting debt from Colorado consumers stemming from tribal loans they had defaulted on. The settlement agreement says from 2017 through 2022, TrueAccord collected or attempted to collect from 28,728 Colorado consumers who had defaulted on their tribal loans. Some of the loans had interest rates nearing 900%, according to the settlement agreement. TrueAccord denied any allegations of wrongdoing but stopped collecting on tribal loans in Colorado and agreed to pay the state $500,000.
