The U.S. government has tried to alleviate tribal poverty in South Dakota for decades.
It has not worked.
On the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Reservation in Todd County, for example, the per capita annual income is $12,562, only 45 percent of the adult population participates in the workforce, and 39 percent of its 9,199 residents live below the poverty line.
Today, tribal development groups can often be found taking on the responsibility of creating a robust economy on reservations. Rather than relying on federal programs administered by federal employees or tribal governments alone, they leverage federal funding sources to make long-term investments. The aim is to launch projects that will best serve the tribes and, in some cases, be sustainable without assistance.
The movement is especially visible in the work of Siċaŋġu Co on Rosebud.
Michael LaPointe, the organization’s top economic development official, said the goal is to enhance living standards on the reservation, a task he believes state and federal governments have failed at.
“They haven’t solved poverty here, ever,” he said.
LaPointe said that despite the presence of federal and state economic development programs, tribal governments don’t have the resources to address various day-to-day crises and also apply for grants and loans designed to help improve economic conditions.
“It’s a lot of work, and it takes a lot of staff time,” LaPointe said, underscoring the significance of the development group’s work. Siċaŋġu Co’s initiatives, he said, have directly led to the creation of 180 new jobs over the past three years.
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Categories: South Dakota, Business, Government & Policy, Sustainable Agriculture