Hundreds of thousands of small-dollar loans are issued each year in Gallup and other New Mexico towns that border Native American reservations, according to New Mexico state lending data... Most come with sky-high interest rates that can trap borrowers in an endless cycle of debt. Advocates including Human Rights Watch say that Native American communities appear to be more saddled with predatory loans than any other community in the United States...Arvind Ganesan...of Human Rights Watch...surveyed nearly 400 Native Americans...[and] found that half had used small-dollar, usually high-interest loans—the kind of financial products advocates call predatory. It’s a rate far above the national average...[Lenders] don’t operate on tribal lands, forcing residents to travel to border towns for loans. “The reservations are credit ghettos,” said Marvin Ginn, the director of Native Community Finance... “When we come off the reservation, the easiest and sometimes only way to get a loan is through a predatory lender.” ...Mary Shay...can’t count the number of cold nights she passed without firewood, which she couldn’t afford due to interest payments...Jean Philips, an attorney at New Mexico Legal Aid ..., says the consequences of small-dollar lending reaches far beyond debt... Her clients regularly lose their cars and mobile homes to repossession. “I’ve had clients who’ve gone hungry because they are paying back their loans,” she said. [refers to Cash Cow]