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.”