mr. tilsen. mr. olsson, you may proceed. >> chairman johnson, ranking member shelby, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to participate in this important hearing on economic to government in indian country. my name is martin olsen, i'm president of eagle bank. the confederate tribes recognize a need to support credit availability for their membership. over 40 years ago the tribal credit program was created with a modest investment to assist tribal members with a small bounce, short-term credit needs, not adequately addressed by banks. and over the years net revenues were retained to grow the fund. this program has grown into a $45 million fund, providing short-term unsecured, education, homeownership, and commercial loans, and as reserves have grown, the program has been able to return dividend to the tribes. tribes also have a smaller fund for small daughter loans and the grant program patterned after the montana department of commerce indian equity fund. the tribes are dedicated

mr. tilsen, your success in creating food products that promote a native american way of wellness that feeds mind, body and spirit is impressive and inspiring. but the difficulties you've had in securing support to keep your company alive and growing is sobering. the number of agencies in fact you've had to visit is daunting. if you were to give advice to a native american whose interests is in starting a business in indian country, what are important lessons you could provide based on your experiences? >> focus and flexibility. you know, we started out with a model of, we launched a natural food company in the middle of a food deserts on an isolated indian reservation because we wanted to figure out how we could create a product that would impact our growing rate of diabetes in the community. our original business model that we could distribute it nationally and make enough money to subsidize it, make it available and affordable rate within our school system. that business model has not succeeded at that goal. we still have this, we got a lot of young people involved and a lot of young peop

mr. mark tilsen, co-founder and president of native american natural foods located in south dakota and hybrid in the reservation. in 2006 headed by american national foods, a protein bar made of buffalo and cranberry. he makes other buffalo food products. thanks for being here today. i must say i enjoyed a few bars over the years. i am pleased my good friend senator tester suggested mr. martin olsson as a witness. martin olsson is president of legal bank located on the reservation in mantegna -- montana. the confederated -- the tribes -- is one of only a handful of native controlled banks in the country. i am delighted tanya fiddler leaders the executive director of the community bank fund, a native -- on the chin river indian reservation in south dakota today. it was created in 2000 and has become the leading organization on the reservation in the areas of small business training and financial education. thank you for your insights. mr. disidarro is an executive director of the native american science officers association. the association works to improve the quality of financial and busines