Oglala Sioux Tribe looks to benefit from growing tourism industry

Thursday, August 2, 2012  

The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota plans to open a national park amid debate about bringing more tourists to the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The tribe's management of the South Unit of the Badlands National Park depends on approval from Congress. It could be one step in attracting more visitors -- and their money - to the reservation.

“When you take a community of people where at one point our language was outlawed and parts of our culture were outlawed, it’s hard for us to, I guess, open up to the idea of sharing that in a way to make money off of it,” Nick Tilsen, the executive director of Thunder Valley, a non-profit on the reservation, told the Associated Press.

Other tribes are already involved in tourism. The Navajo Nation said 600,000 visitors spent $113 million on the reservation last year.

Get the Story:
At crossroads for tourists, one of nation’s poorest Indian tribes debates development (AP 8/1)

NGM: Oglala Sioux Tribe perseveres in Wounded Knee's shadow (07/17)
Native Sun News: Oglala Sioux Tribe gets closer to national park (06/11)
Obama administration proposes the first tribal national park (04/26