Woodard: HUD grant aims to boost Pine Ridge Reservation economy

Tuesday, February 1, 2011  

"Oglala Lakota community leader, Nick Tilsen, envisions a vibrant future for his people. He sees elements of that transformation already in place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. However, they need stitching together, like a quilt whose diverse and colorful pieces are scattered -- unseen and uncelebrated -- all over the Oglala Sioux Tribe's homeland in southwestern South Dakota. "There's been economic activity around the reservation, but no way to pull everything together," said Tilsen (at left).

Until now. A new Housing and Urban Development grant will help the four-year-old organization Tilsen runs, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, do just that. HUD spokesperson Brian Sullivan called the project "exciting" and "a well-rounded regional plan." The funding -- nearly a million dollars -- comes out of HUD's Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, formed to reduce bureaucratic barriers and involve local people in the development process, said Sullivan. The office encourages grassroots innovation, and Thunder Valley is delivering that right out of the gate, according to Tilsen.

For starters, Tilsen and his colleagues have flipped the power dynamic. "This is not the federal government's plan. It's our plan: the collective vision of the Oglala people. They work for us," said the 28-year-old Tilsen, who credits his parents, who met at the 1973 takeover of Wounded Knee, for his activism.

Economic development has been attempted at Pine Ridge. Why would this endeavor succeed where others have failed? According to the project's attorney, Brett Lee Shelton, previous models were not targeted at growth, but at assimilation. Since Oglalas have about as much affection for forced acculturation as they do for the Seventh Cavalry, the schemes inevitably collapsed. "Thunder Valley's funders were creative in taking the community into account," said Shelton, a tribal member and partner in the law firm Smith Shelton Ragona. "This project arises from the people.""

Get the Story:
Stephanie Woodard: Pine Ridge Rising: Community-Based Development Project Gets Underway (The Huffington Post 1/31)