The following story was written and reported by Brandon Ecoffey, Native Sun
News Managing Editor. All content © Native Sun News.
Sioux-Preme designs and builds its own caskets from South Dakota and Nebraska native woods.
Wounded Knee CDC
By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor
MANDERSON — Creating sustainable and productive businesses on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an arduous and time consuming task. The challenge of creating businesses on the reservation is being met head on however by the Wounded Knee Community Development Corporation.
A community development corporation is a not-for-profit organization that is created to provide services and promote activities that contribute to the development of a community. More often than not CDCs operate and focus on lower income areas like those on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Based out of a small office just south of the town of Manderson, the Wounded Knee CDC is working on multiple projects including a gas station, a shopping center, and the already functioning Siouxpreme Wood products casket making company that employs multiple tribal members.
Almost two years ago the Wounded Knee CDC purchased 560 acres of deeded land to develop sustainable businesses on. Unlike tribal trust land that is very difficult to use as collateral when a business person is looking to acquire a startup loan, deeded land is free of much of the red tape that accompanies trust land. The designation of deeded land when used as expendable capital increases the likelihood of a lender accepting it as collateral. According to Mark St. Pierre this is part of the plan of the CDC
“If we wanted we can carve out five acres of this land and attach it to a mortgage. It is a pretty simple and straight forward business strategy that could allow for a business to gather money to start up,” he said.
One of the initial projects that the CDC has put in to motion is the erection of a shopping center that would include a grocery store as well as a small business incubator that would serve as a launch pad for other businesses ventures in the Wounded Knee area.
“The incubator would serve as a place where a business could establish itself and would include a home office and a shipping and receiving center for the startup,” said St. Pierre. “We will potentially bring in more than 100 jobs and when we say that we are not over exaggerating,” he said.
The CDC has already launched a casket making company that has create culturally appropriate products that is created by tribal members from materials gathered in the area. The company however has had a difficult time busting in to a market that has been dominated by retailers marketing cheaply made caskets from China.
“When someone sees the products that we make they will be absolutely amazed. There is an assumption that a metal casket is a better product that is just untrue. We are making a product by local woodworkers with local customers in mind,” said St. Pierre.
The CDC has also recently announced that they will be opening a gift shop that will tap in to the highly profitable and untapped tourism market.
“There is a real opportunity on the horizon here and we want businesses around the area and local tribal members to know what is happening here and realize its potential,” he said.
(Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com)
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