How Sovereign-Owned Cannabis Companies Like Little Beach Harvest Grow with Green Check

Little Beach Harvest is a cannabis dispensary in Southampton, N.Y., that opened its doors in November 2023. It’s owned and operated by the Shinnecock Nation, the oldest self-governing tribe in the State of New York, and operates on their sovereign land. 

Just like any other cannabis company, Little Beach Harvest needed banking and financial services to grow. However, there’s still an education gap that exists among financial institutions regarding the legal status of sovereign-owned businesses. Green Check is working to bridge this gap, connecting sovereign-owned dispensaries like Little Beach Harvest with the financial institutions that are ready, willing, and able to work with them.

About Little Beach Harvest

Little Beach Harvest is a vertically-integrated operation that includes cultivation, manufacturing, and retail components, including a consumption-friendly outdoor area. At Little Beach Harvest, consumers can find well-known brands like Cann, as well as Indigenous-owned brands that aren’t available anywhere else. 

“Cannabis has many different faces and this place is judgment-free, carefree, and offers love and support,” said Jay Wright, product marketing manager for Little Beach Harvest. “We made it for people to feel at home while they enjoy however they like to consume.”

Little Beach Harvest’s mission is to provide a meeting space for everyone in the community while normalizing cannabis as just another way people come together. It does so through extensive programming at its 5,000-square-foot building, complete with cozy outdoor patio space with fire pits and comfortable seating.

“People are always outside here and partaking,” Wright said, adding that Little Beach Harvest isn’t just a place to buy cannabis but also to spend a day relaxing. “People read books, bring their laptops, walk their dogs — we made this space for community building and outreach.”

Bringing their vision to life was not always easy, though. Not only does Little Beach Harvest deal with the same restrictions that all cannabis businesses do, there are additional obstacles facing them as a sovereign nation cannabis business.

Challenges and opportunities for sovereign nation-owned dispensaries

Cannabis businesses owned by sovereign nations face many of the same hurdles as companies licensed by states, including a dearth of cannabis-friendly banking and financial services. Without these resources, Wright said, it can be difficult to grow the business at the pace the Shinnecock Nation would like to. 

“The unfortunate part I’ve seen is not having some of the support financially that you need to run a business,” Wright said. Banking access is a major challenge, he added, and the opportunities to secure a loan or other form of financing are limited. 

“You need these resources to be a thriving business and to not just be a regular, open dispensary,” he said.

> Learn more about types of loans for cannabis businesses and where to find them.

While cannabis businesses already face challenges when it comes to banking and finance due to the ongoing federal prohibition, Indigenous-owned businesses may face additional review. Some financial institutions may be hesitant to work with these companies because of their autonomy from the U.S. government. Some don’t understand sovereign nations’ legal status or how to work with them in a compliant manner.

“There’s a lack of understanding that while [sovereign nations] are federally recognized, they’re not federal entities,” said Paul Dunford, co-founder and VP of Knowledge at Green Check. “We shouldn’t think of sovereign nations as being within a state, but instead that they border states. 

We encourage people to remove the distinction… Functionally, they’re the same thing with their own sets of rules for their cannabis programs.”

This distinction, as it applies to cannabis, comes from the 2014 Wilkinson Memo. This federal memorandum applied the 2013 Cole Memo, which deprioritized federal enforcement action against state-legal cannabis businesses, to sovereign nations. If a cannabis business in a sovereign nation abides by the rules set forth by tribal leadership, they would not be targeted by federal law enforcement — much like a state-licensed cannabis business.

Little Beach Harvest works within the framework set out by the Shinnecock Nation, not New York State. As a result, the dispensary doubles as an outdoor consumption lounge and event space, both of which are allowed by the tribe. Events include craft fairs, a cultural celebration day, art shows, car shows, and movie nights. 

According to Wright, there are anywhere from 30 to 50 tents at Little Beach Harvest’s biggest events, and the deck and patio are always open to visitors. All of this, along with public consumption, is permitted under the Shinnecock Nation’s cannabis regulations. 

In many respects, the Shinnecock Nation’s rules draw lessons from state cannabis programs. For example, Little Beach Harvest adheres to the same level of quality assurance that state-licensed cannabis dispensaries must abide by. All of Little Beach Harvest’s products are third-party laboratory tested and consumers have access to the results, just like they would anywhere else in New York. Additionally, all customers must be 21 years of age or older, and IDs are meticulously checked at the front door.

How Green Check supports businesses like Little Beach Harvest

Although most banks remain hesitant to work with Indigenous-owned cannabis businesses, there are certainly plenty out there — it’s just that finding them can be difficult. To help bridge the gap between the finance and cannabis worlds, Green Check built the Green Check Connect Marketplace, a meeting place for businesses in need of financial services and those willing to provide them. Through the Marketplace, institutions know they’re meeting with licensed and compliant cannabis businesses, while the companies gain access to the banking and financial services they need to grow their business. 

When it comes to improving banking access for sovereign nation-owned cannabis businesses specifically, Green Check launched a feature that facilitates banking for cannabis-related businesses operating in indigenous communities. Green Check’s efforts also involve educating financial institutions on the ins and outs of servicing CRBs based on sovereign land. By helping more financial institutions understand that working with Indigenous-owned cannabis businesses is no different than working with state-licensed cannabis businesses, we’re building those connections day by day. 

For financial institutions that want to work with businesses like Little Beach Harvest, Green Check is a great partner for taking the first steps.