Prior Lake, Minn. – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) will donate $550,000 to the Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska for several community improvement and infrastructure development projects. The funds will be used for a youth program, a new swimming pool, the tribe’s buffalo ranch, a Dakota language program, energy assistance, the fire department, and the tribal day care facility. This grant is part of the SMSC’s most recent round of more than $10 million in grants awarded to 18 American Indian tribes in eight states.

The Santee Sioux Nation has created programs and opportunities for its youth to ensure they have access to activities on the reservation. “It is our goal to keep our youth active throughout the year to become alcohol and drug free,” wrote Chairman Roger Trudell in the tribe’s grant request letter.

Specifically, the SMSC grant will benefit the following:

– Youth Development Program: $100,000 to fund a teen center and youth activities such as basketball camps, tee ball, football, swimming, teen dances, movie nights, and track.
New outdoor pool: $250,000 for a new 80 x 40-foot pool, which will replace a smaller, aging one that would require major reconstruction in order to operate safely.
– The Santee Buffalo Program: $50,000 for fencing of a new pasture for the buffalo herd next to the tribe’s Ohiya Casino and Resort.
– Dakota Language Program: $50,000 to benefit teaching of the Dakota language to tribal members on the reservation and in Sioux City, Iowa, where many tribal members reside. The program also provides workshops, conferences, continued training, presentations, and traditional activities for the community.
– Heating assistance: $50,000 to help provide heat to tribal members needing assistance during the cold winter months.
– Santee Sioux Nation Fire Hall: $25,000 to assist with equipment upgrades.
– Santee Day Care: $25,000 to assist with facility repairs and additional staffing at the only day care facility on the reservation.

Background

The Santee Sioux Nation is part of the Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires of the Dakota/Lakota Nation. Historic ties between the Santee and the Shakopee Mdewakanton have remained strong since the reservation era began in the mid-1800s.

In 2011 the SMSC awarded a loan of $20 million to the Santee Sioux Nation to fund construction of the new Ohiya Casino and Resort, located five miles east of Niobrara, Nebraska. The SMSC has also awarded the Santee Sioux Nation more than $8 million in grants over the past eight years.

The Santee were forcibly removed from Minnesota after the Dakota Conflict of 1862, first to Crow Creek, South Dakota, and then to an isolated area in northeastern Nebraska along the southern banks of the Missouri River. Health care, social services, education, employment opportunities, infrastructure, and other human services generally taken for granted by the mainstream population were not historically available to them. Today the Santee Sioux Reservation encompasses 172 square miles (110,080 acres) and is home to about one-third of the tribal population of 2,662.

About the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is a federally recognized, sovereign Indian tribe located southwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul. With a focus on being a good neighbor, good steward of the earth, and good employer, the SMSC is committed to community partnerships, charitable donations, a healthy environment, and a strong economy. The SMSC and the SMSC Gaming Enterprise (Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and Little Six Casino) are the largest employer in Scott County. Out of a Dakota tradition to help others, the SMSC has also donated nearly $272 million since 1992, including more than $152 million to other tribes, tribal organizations, and American Indian causes.