NCUA Grants Charter for The Morning Star Federal Credit Union

The NCUA said Monday it has granted a federal charter and Share Insurance Fund coverage to The Morning Star Federal Credit Union in Lame Deer, Mont.

The new financial cooperative, expected to open in 2023, was the fourth federal credit union chartered this year, which matched the number of charters the federal agency granted in 2021.

The credit union is supported by the People’s Partner for Community Development, a Native Community Development Financial Institution, focusing on personal lending and business development initiatives in local communities on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Southeastern Montana.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has approximately 11,266 enrolled tribal members. More than 5,000 tribal members live on the 440,000-acre reservation, according to the Montana Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs.

The Morning Star Federal Credit Union will be a low-income-designated credit union serving people who live, work, worship or attend school in the state’s Big Horn and Rosebud counties. The new financial cooperative will also serve those participating in programs to alleviate poverty or distress in the counties, the NCUA said.

“It’s fitting that, during National Native American Heritage Month, we are chartering a credit union that will increase access to safe, fair and affordable financial products in an underserved, primarily Native American community,” NCUA Chair Todd Harper said in a prepared statement. “With its charter now granted, The Morning Star Credit Union will help its members to build more secure financial futures. It gives me great satisfaction knowing the NCUA helped the organizers make this day possible.”

The NCUA lists 10 credit unions that primarily serve Native Americans. An additional 35 credit unions also serve Native Americans and other minority groups such as Asian, Black and Hispanic Americans.