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- By Brian Edwards
- Finance
Eight Native community development financial institutions are joining Mission Driven Finance in a $9 million loan package to help build a regenerative flour mill on the Umatilla Indian Reservation — a first-of-its-kind deal that could reshape Indigenous economic development finance.
The Blue Mountain Mill, to be operated by Burlington, Wash.-based Cairnspring Mills, replaces lost processing capacity from a Pendleton mill destroyed by fire three years ago. The facility will create more than 20 jobs while supporting tribal economic development and food sovereignty goals. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also made a $5 million equity investment in Cairnspring Mills and entered into a 50-year land lease agreement for the project site.
Mission Driven Finance, a San Diego-based impact investment firm, structured the $9 million debt package to enable Native CDFIs to participate as partners in the overall capital stack. The participating Native financial institutions include Citizen Potawatomi CDC, Four Bands Community Fund, NACDC Financial Services, Native360 Loan Fund, Nimiipuu Fund, Nixyáawii Community Financial Services, Northwest Native Development Fund, and Oweesta Corporation.
“This financing shows what happens when Native lending institutions are empowered to lead,” Ted Piccolo, senior director of Indigenous Futures at Mission Driven Finance and a longtime Native CDFI executive, said. “It's strengthening local economies while reconnecting us to the spirit of trade and exchange that has always been central to Native communities.”
Native CDFIs and members of Cairnspring and MDF teams gather on the fields near the construction site of the mill. L–R: Bill Tovey, CTUIR Department of Economic & Community Development; Pete Upton, Native360 Loan Fund; Jamie Olson, Oweesta Corporation; Josey Steeples, Cairnspring Mills; Jordan Ruiz, Northwest Native Development Fund; Kevin Morse, Cairnspring Mills; Cassandra Waters, NNDF; Ted Piccolo, Mission Driven Finance; Dave Tovey, Nixyáawii Community Financial Services; Elizabeth Ferguson, NNDF; Jonelle Yearout, Nimiipuu Community Development Fund. (Photo courtesy of Mission Driven Finance)
Dave Tovey, executive director of the Umatilla Tribes' Nixyáawii Community Financial Services, a Native CDFI, said the collaborative approach made the investment possible. “This would not have been possible without the bold and creative approach of Mission Driven Finance, making it easy for us and other Native CDFIs to come together and invest in a project with such a transformative impact on Indian Country,” he said.
The transaction also serves as a learning opportunity for Native financial institutions, with some participating CDFIs taking on a deal of this complexity for the first time. Lauren Grattan, co-founder of Mission Driven Finance, said the experience builds what she calls “experiential capacity” — the institutional knowledge gained from participating in sophisticated financing structures.
The deal’s syndicated lending model — what Piccolo calls a “capital weave” — also allows smaller CDFIs to pool resources and tackle deals too large for any one lender.
“That’s what the Native CDFI industry needs — collaborative opportunities like this to build capacity and bring more deals and more capital to Native communities,” said Pete Upton, CEO of the Native CDFI Network, a national association that advocates and builds capacity for the Native lenders.
Upton is also CEO of the Native360, a Nebraska-based Native CDFI that participated in the Cairnspring financing. “We need to mimic this transaction in the future,” he said.
The mill addresses capacity constraints at Cairnspring Mills' existing Skagit Valley facility in Burlington, Wash., which will continue operations. The new Blue Mountain Mill will serve as a regional hub for regenerative agriculture and make identity-preserved flour more widely available. It will expand Cairnspring's production capacity twelvefold — from under 7 million pounds to 110 million pounds annually.
The facility represents a return to regional milling in an industry where 10 companies now control 90% of production, compared to more than 20,000 flour mills operating across the U.S. a century ago.
Cairnspring Mills plans to partner with Blue Mountain Community College to develop mill training programs for workforce development. The company's CEO Kevin Morse emphasized the community impact of the project.
“Rebuilding infrastructure is expensive, and tribal communities, more than anyone, understood the value of this project,” said Morse, who is not Native American. “This collaboration is a symbol of what we can do as a community to create something different that makes a big difference for our homes and our people and future generations.”
The total project financing combines equity, debt and New Markets Tax Credits. Leading equity investors include Peter and Jennifer Buffett's NoVo Foundation and Terra Regenerative Capital. The company is also crowdfunding growth capital via the WeFunder online platform.
