Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe secures $5 million to help address damaged infrastructure

Thursday, December 5, 2019  

News from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota -- An unrelenting season of disastrous weather events in the first half of the year has wreaked havoc on the transportation infrastructure on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier, Transportation Director Dakota Longbrake and council members such as District Six Councilman Tater Ward have worked hard to secure more than $5 million dollars in additional transportation funding to help repair damaged roads and transportation infrastructure. Multiple trips to Federal agencies and a lot of paperwork culminated in a visit with Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The funding comes at a time when the weather severely restricts the amount construction that can be performed but repairs are expected to begin as soon as possible to restore roads to the more remote areas of the reservation.

Tribal officials are continuing to press the federal government to fund repairs and improvements to the roads on federal inventories. While $5 million dollars seems like a large amount of money it falls well short of the estimated $120 million dollars to repair the major projects on the reservation.

Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier stated, “I’m happy that the Federal agencies we have been able to assist us with these funds. We are still a long way from fixing all our roads but I am working to secure additional funds to get our roads in better shape.”