A sample of the homes being built at Keya Wakpala Woiċaġeyapi on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. The project aims to construct hundreds of affordable, energy-efficient houses. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
Less than a month after an $8 million federal award for electric transportation, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has been awarded nearly $12 million to electrify homes across the reservation.
The $11.8 million award for Rosebud is the largest in the second round of funding from the Interior Department through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program. Rosebud was awarded $1 million through the program in March.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota was also awarded $2 million in round-two funding, according to a news release from Interior. The money is meant to hook up electricity for homes that don’t have it, transition current homes to “zero-emissions” energy and pay for repairs and retrofits to support zero-emission hookups.
Tribe gets nearly $8 million from federal program that state shunned