About NAFS
Who We Are
The mission of Native Agriculture Financial Services (NAFS) is to be a reliable and trusted partner in providing capital for Native American farmers and ranchers.
What we do
Help that starts with a real conversation
NAFS helps Native farmers and ranchers manage risk, keep strong records, and get ready for the capital their operations need. Our team of former extension agents, ag lawyers, ag economists and ag lenders works one-on-one with producers, and teaches through free webinars, fact sheets and in-person workshops.
Call the NAFS Hotline at (479) 886-1067. You’ll get a real person who can help.
Technical assistance & education
Our Programs
- 01 Agriculture Finance, Tax and Asset Protection Program (AgFTAP) Cooperator Through a cooperative agreement with the 1890 Foundation and the University of Arkansas, NAFS has been tasked with providing one-on-one technical assistance for farmers, ranchers, foresters and veterans who are… Read the full program
- 02 Empowering Southern Producers and Tribal Members Under Resourced by Crop Insurance with Risk Management Education This project aims to increase understanding and participation in the federal crop insurance program and production business practices to manage farm risk and close the insurance risk gap for under-resourced… Read the full program
- 03 Enhancing Crop Insurance Participation and Tools for Beginning Farmers, Ranchers and Veterans in the South The Farmers First Agenda (Rollins, May 2025) supports small family farms by addressing access to federal resources, credit and simplifying risk management technical assistance. The USDA Plan to Fortify the… Read the full program
- 04 Farm Loan Program Technical Assistance for Native and Farmers and Ranchers in the South and West Regions Farmers and ranchers must have access to capital and technical assistance to remain sustainable. Efforts are underway across all USDA programs to increase farmers and ranchers’ access to capital. This… Read the full program
- 05 Reaching Farmers and Ranchers with Agriculture Financial Tax and Asset Protection Training and Resources As a subaward of the University of Arkansas, Native Agriculture Financial Services (NAFS) has been tasked with developing a critical risk management education workshop series using team expertise which consists… Read the full program
Meet the people
Our Team
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Sandy Martini
VP / COO
Sandy Martini, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is a trained agricultural economist and serves as Native Agriculture Financial Services (NAFS) VP/COO. She has spent most of her career educating farmers and ranchers on risk management including recordkeeping, financial management, and business planning. Before working for NAFS, Sandy served as associate CEO for the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF), the largest philanthropic private charitable trust dedicated to Native farmers and ranchers. While there she focused on the Native CDFI grants portfolio, feeding programs, and Native veterans in agriculture and co-authored published two reports “Reimagining Hunger Responses in Times of Crisis, Insights from Case Examples and a Survey of Native Communities Food Access During COVID 19” (2021), and “Cultivating Opportunities for Native Veterans Through Reimagining Native Food Economies” (2023). Prior to working for NAAF, she was the program administrator for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) where she was responsible for program and budget management for projects totaling $8 million.
Sandy began her career serving farmers and ranchers as the grants program coordinator for the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center at the University of Arkansas, where she managed over 112 grant projects totaling $4.5 million across the southern region. While there, she coordinated and conducted six BarCamp colloquia for 132 under resourced agricultural producers which was used in agriculture programming at the highest level.
Her first role as an agricultural economist consisted of research on the success rates of the Farm Service Agency Direct and Guaranteed Loan Program for farmers and ranchers. She co-authored a published report that received one of the most prestigious awards in her field. From 2004 through 2009, she also assisted with a Risk Management Agency-funded project, where she researched the economics of exporting poultry litter from the Illinois watershed area to the Arkansas Delta Region as a fertilizer.
She received her master’s degree in agricultural economics in 2002. Her thesis focused on the impact of food safety recalls for ready-to-eat meat sales during the rollout of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). Prior to that time, Sandy spent 10 years in western wear retail sales, managing 11 regional locations.
She and her family operate a 150-acre farm in Arkansas, where they produce beef and
rehabilitate former racehorses. -
Tomie Peterson
Chief Lending Officer
Tomie grew up and currently resides on, a cattle ranch near Parade, SD. Tomie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She is a Black Hills State University alumni who upon graduating started at Dacotah Bank in Mobridge as an Agriculture Banker developing a trained eye for Ag Lending and Finance. Later joined the Intertribal Agriculture Council in 2019. In her capacity with the IAC, she advocated on behalf of Tribal producers for fair and equitable financing, functional access to USDA programming, and innovative business structures. NAFS welcomed Tomie in the spring of 2024 as Chief of Lending. She enjoys working in the Ag industry helping producers succeed and looks forward to increasing the access to capital for producers all across Indian Country.
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Ty Ducheneaux
Chief Resiliency Officer
Ty Ducheneaux grew up, and currently resides, on his family’s cow-calf operation located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Leaving the family ranch wasn’t a thought early on in his life. It wasn’t until he started to get more familiar with the finances of the family operation that he fully understood the issues faced by Native producers. In hopes of being better equipped to provide solutions to the problems he knew were being faced by Native producers nationwide, he attended South Dakota State University. At SDSU, he received a Bachelor’s in Agriculture Economics and a Master’s in Economics. Ty credits his upbringing for instilling his inherent passion for Agriculture finance. At the end of his career, he hopes to say that his work played a role in alleviating the issues Native producers face. Ty currently serves as a Chief Resiliency Officer for Native Agriculture Financial Services.
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Ridge Howell, JD
Legal Counsel
Ridge Howell, JD, is a citizen of the Muscoee (Creek) Nation and currently serves as Legal Counsel of NAFS. Prior to joining NAFS, Ridge served as Counsel to the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC). While at IAC, he helped coordinate outreach and technical assistance to Native producers eligible to apply for the USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP), a program that Congress authorized in Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act for the purpose of providing financial assistance to ranchers, farmers, and forest landowners determined to have experienced discrimination in USDA lending programs. During his tenure at IAC, Ridge also oversaw in-house legal matters, educated policymakers on issue areas determined by the IAC Board of Directors, and collaborated with industry partners on various policy briefings related to tribal agriculture.
Before entering the non-profit sector, Ridge worked as an Associate Attorney for Pipestem Law, P.C., a private practice law firm specializing in representation of tribal governments, tribal enterprises, and Native organizations with an emphasis on litigation in tribal, state, and federal courts. Ridge joined Pipestem Law following his graduation from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. While in law school, Howell co-founded the Agriculture Law Association, served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Indian Law Review, and as the Vice-President of the Native American Law Student Association. In addition to scholarships and honors received during his academic career, Ridge was recognized by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change.
Ridge maintains his herd of cattle in Checotah, Oklahoma, a few miles south of where he grew up helping his family operate a commercial cattle ranch.
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Bailey Tom
Credit and Technical Assistance Officer
Bailey Tom is a member of the Navajo Nation and serves as an Agriculture Credit and Technical Assistance Officer for Native Agriculture Financial Services (NAFS). Supporting the Distressed Borrower Assistance Network (DBAN), Bailey works on the loan processing and underwriting side, assisting the Chief of Lending and the lending team by providing financial analysis tools and guidance to help producers navigate the complexities of agricultural finance. Her work is focused on building financial readiness and farm business planning, ensuring that farmers and ranchers have the technical support necessary to apply for USDA programs and maintain long-term operational resilience. By connecting producers to trusted legal and regional service providers, she helps strengthen the stability of rural and agricultural communities.
Bailey’s deep passion for agriculture is rooted in years of hands-on experience in the cow-calf and feedlot sectors. This background allows her to bridge the gap between technical loan processing and the daily realities faced by producers on the land. She earned a B.S. in Agriculture Business and Agricultural Economics from New Mexico State University and a Master of Agribusiness from Texas A&M University. Bailey is dedicated to using her technical expertise to help producers navigate financial challenges and ensure the long-term success of their operations.
Governance
Board of Directors
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Charlie Rawls
Member of the Board
Charles (Charlie) Rawls is an experienced leader in federal legal and policy matters focused on agriculture and agricultural credit. Most recently he completed 18 years of service as General Counsel of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), an independent federal financial regulator which ensures the safety and soundness, and mission service, of the Farm Credit System (FCS), The FCS, a network of farmer-owned cooperatives, provides credit and related financial services to eligible borrowers including many thousands of farmers and ranchers across the United States.
His prior federal experience includes significant leadership roles at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), including as chief of staff to Deputy Secretary Richard E. Rominger. He was nominated and confirmed as General Counsel of the Department (1998 to 2000), during which time he managed the staff and complex legal and regulatory affairs of the Department. His accomplishments include collaboration with the Department of Justice and Congress to settle the initial class action brought by African American farmers for violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. He also led an effort to resolve a complex dispute between a Native American Tribe and a large municipality over certain lands managed by the Forest Service.
Rawls has extensive legal and policy experience with federal agriculture and agricultural credit legislation, including Farm Bills, having served on the staff of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. Currently he serves on the USDA Equity Commission, which was appointed by the Secretary in 2022 to study and make recommendations to improve access and service to all USDA customers. Rawls earned a B.A. in Business Management from North Carolina State University, and a J.D. degree from the Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University. He has been a member of the state bar of North Carolina since 1982.
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Eddie Moore
Board Chair
Eddie Moore is a lifelong resident of Robeson County, NC, and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He has farmed for over 35 years and currently serves as president and co-owner of both Moore Brothers Ag, Inc., a diversified agricultural operation, and Moore Brothers Beef, Inc., a direct market all-natural beef business.
Mr. Moore has been an advocate for farmers at the state and national levels as a director of the North Carolina Small Grain Growers Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers. He is highly involved in his local community, having served as a trustee of Robeson Community College and as the chair of the Lumbee Tribe’s Agricultural Committee. Mr. Moore was named the Robeson County Farmer of the Year in 2007 and has placed in the top three in more than a dozen state yield contests for corn, soybeans, and wheat.
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Gary Matteson
Member of the Board
Gary Matteson works for Farm Credit’s trade association in Washington, DC as Senior Vice President, Beginning Farmer Programs and Outreach. This includes policy work on local foods, sustainable agriculture, and direct-to-consumer agriculture.
He is an advocate for young, beginning, small, and minority farmer outreach programs. This includes work on emerging opportunities in local foods, direct-to-consumer agriculture, and generational transition of farm businesses. He has researched, designed curricula, and taught financial and business planning skills for more than fifteen years to thousands of beginning farmers in conferences, seminars, webinars, and college classrooms. Mr. Matteson specializes in making basic business concepts approachable and relevant to beginning farmers.
For thirty years Gary was a small farmer raising greenhouse wholesale cut flowers marketed in the Northeast and beef cattle for local sales. He has served on numerous boards of directors including Farm Credit, Farmer Veteran Coalition, Farmers Market Coalition, and many other non-profits.
Mr. Matteson holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and biology from the University of Connecticut.
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