Tribe gets nearly $8 million from federal program that state shunned

Rosebud Sioux Tribal Headquarters in Rosebud. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

A Native American tribe in South Dakota will receive a nearly $8 million grant from a federal program that state government declined to apply for.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has been selected to receive a $7.88 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant . The tribe will use the money to install electric-vehicle charging stations, purchase electric buses for transit routes and purchase and operate a heavy-duty EV garbage truck.

“This is a great opportunity for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe,” said Ivan Crow Eagle, the tribe’s environmental director, in a news release from the EPA.

States and major cities were also eligible for grants. South Dakota and Sioux Falls chose not to apply . A Sioux Falls official said at the time that the grants “have numerous requirements that would ultimately take away the focus from the city’s current and planned sustainability efforts.” A spokesman for Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration said more federal spending would make inflation worse and said the federal dollars would come with “strings attached.”

Rapid City obtained a $1 million planning grant but was not awarded an implementation grant.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s grant is from the latest phase of nearly $5 billion in total awards by the program. The grants are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in 2022.

Grants for tribes and territories were awarded following a review of 110 applications that requested a total of more than $1.3 billion.

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