AGENCY VILLAGE The South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance became a nonprofit this year and is entering the next phase of its work, five years after it was started by the states nine Native American tribes and dozens of other organizations to promote entrepreneurship in economically disadvantaged communities and preserve and promote Indigenous culture.
Tourism is the states second-largest industry and a primary economic engine in plenty of towns across the state. The idea is to connect more of those millions of tourists and their billions of dollars with South Dakotas rich American Indian culture.
Tamara St. John is an archivist for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. Her belief in the opportunity tourism can offer reservation communities spurred her to spend the past five years as a state representative.
Seeing that tourism is such a huge economic driver for the state of South Dakota and, it really could benefit our area, she said. I believe that it is an act of sovereignty for a tribe to take control of their cultural history by telling their own story. And what better way to do that than tourism with people from your local community to even internationally?
Around the same time St. Join joined the Legislature, other stakeholders were meeting to discuss the potential of Native American tourist attractions.
Weve had fits and starts for decades with tribal tourism, Secretary of Tourism Jim Hagen said in an interview with South Dakota Public Broadcasting earlier this year. About five years ago we really made a concerted effort to reach out to our tribes, tribal partners and friends and say, Lets really get this going.
The Tourism department sought outside help from the International Institute of Tourism Studies at George Washington University, which has been specializing in helping Indigenous people create tourism on their reservations, Hagen said.
The institute facilitated early meetings of an ad hoc group of local and tribal entities with an interest in developing tourism in their communities.
That group eventually became the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance, which earned nonprofit status earlier this year. The alliance includes more than 50 network participants, including representation from tribes like St. John, the South Dakota Department of Tourism and businesses that operate in tribal communities.
Encouraging business
Theres currently no direct line between the states nearly $5 billion dollar tourism industry and the economically disadvantaged reservation areas.
The tourism that we want to start isnt going to make our tribes rich, said Frank Kills in Water, the SDNTA board chair. The ultimate goal is that ikce wicasa (common man) going out and using that skill and using something that hes learned through the work of our alliance and our partners in the industry to go and bring that dollar home to his family.
One of the small businesses represented in the SDNTA is Tatanka Rez Tourz. Its run by Guss and Tianna Yellow Hair, a father-daughter duo on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The two also hosted a training for other prospective Native American tour guides in May through the SDNTA.
They currently offer three tour packages that range in time commitment and the topics covered.
We try to accommodate you and take that into consideration, while still following who we are and why we started this, said Tianna Yellow Hair. Which is to educate our visitors on things that have already been in the public but also to knock down a lot of those stereotypical views that people have of us.
Room for growth
The same difficulties that make developing a new industry in reservation communities appealing also make it a challenge from remote locations to infrastructure needs.
Investing in accommodations for visitors can be a hard sell, especially when so many residents have their own needs. Kills in Water said buy-in from the tribes has not been universal.
Our own people feel like when a bus comes through, theyre looking at us like were animals in cages, he said. They come and they see all our trash, and our boarded-up houses, and the struggles of reservation life … and some of our people, they see tourism in a negative light. They see that, Oh, were selling ourselves out. Were selling our culture.
Other proponents of tribal tourism, like St. John, have a different perspective.
I would say that by developing a tourism program, youre able to control those things. Youre really able to define by your policies or your code where people can go. What would you like them to see? What would you like them to know? Its really a way of taking control.
Kills in Water hopes the SDNTA becomes the go-to organization to help develop tourism opportunities for Native people in South Dakota.
The entrepreneurial aspect of this is giving individuals a chance to go out and become tour guides. Its giving them a chance to showcase their skills and what they do, he said. And its giving them a voice.
How to watch
The next episode of South Dakota Focus airs on Nov. 21 at 8:30 p.m. CST/7:30 p.m. MST. It can be viewed on SDPB-TV1, Facebook, YouTube and SD.net.
The episode includes:
- A visit to the Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation
- A conversation with the board chair of the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance
- How the Tatanka Rez Tourz business educates visitors on life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
This story is part of a series that Jackie Hendry, host and producer of South Dakota Public Broadcastings South Dakota Focus, will write to preview the upcoming show on South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as theyre published. Contact us at [email protected].
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