Can indigenous US tribes provide costly online loans across America outside of federal oversight? Newly-seated justice Neil Gorsuch could play an important part in determining.

Teepees nearby the Washington Monument at the beginning of a protest resistant to the Dakota Access pipeline and President Trump.

High interest loan providers owned by Native American tribes might take the federal government towards their dispute to your Supreme Court, in an instance that will pit tribal sovereignty against customer security rules.

The online lenders offer small loans at sky-high interest rates to people across the country from their offices in Native American lands. A $500 loan advertised by on the web lender Great Plains, owned by the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, includes yet another $686.66 in interest and fees become repaid, in addition to the $500 principal — add up to a 328% yearly rate of interest. (more…)