PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — The vice president of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe says she would welcome more opportunities to collaborate with the State of South Dakota.
Santee Sioux Tribal Vice President Cynthia J. Allen-Weddel gave the annual State of the Tribes Address to a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature this afternoon (Wednesday).
“We worked together on a skilled nursing home facility in Flandreau,” Allen-Weddel said. “It was built during the pandemic. I was completed in 2022 on time and under budget.”
She said the facility helps keep families together on the Santee Sioux Reservation and Moody County and is an economic engine for the community.
As for future collaboration, Allen-Weddel outlined a proposal to house city, county, tribal, and federal detainees in a new facility on reservation land, calling it a “multi-jurisdictional” solution. She put the cost at $38 to $65 million. She kidded that if the legislature had any spare millions for the project, the tribe would gladly accept it.
She said the region’s Siouan tribes look ahead seven generations when making decisions. She ended with a pitch for greater cooperation between the tribes and the state.
“The tribe urges the state to collaborate with it and other tribes to make a better South Dakota,” Allen-Weddel concluded.
