Due to the COVID-19 Emergency and Prevention Initiatives that the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the OST Coronavirus Taskforce have been addressing and implementing on the reservation, the Tribe is seeking to develop a Oglala Sioux Tribe COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had detrimental impacts on impoverished communities internationally. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is the poorest county in the United States and one of the poorest Indian Reservations in the Nation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe created a Task Force to plan for a worst-case scenario in the event that this virus enters our communities locally and our tribal membership.

Unfortunately, like many Indian Reservations, the Oglala Sioux Tribe must advocate for these needs more aggressively than States. We are sometimes overlooked.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Pine Ridge Agency is located in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, provides services to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which boasts an enrollment of 46,855 members. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation consists of approximately 2.1 million acres and it is located in the southwest portion of the state and occupies areas in Oglala. The Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, an educational outreach of St. Joseph’s Indian School is committed to promoting the knowledge and understanding of the Northern Plains Indian Culture past, present and future, through the preservation of historical artifacts and contemporary works of art.

We are developing a COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund to assist the Oglala Sioux Tribe in acquiring needed medical supplies, develop quarantine protocols that give the tribe access food and decontamination supplies in case of a local pandemic event.

Your donation will help assist the Oglala Sioux Tribe is sustaining a robust approach in providing this needed care and the implementation of effective plans of action to treat and prevent a high impact of the COVID-19 on the reservation.

Thank you for your needed help..

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) -In a 15-4-2 vote, tribal leadership moved forward with plans to lock down the Pine Ridge Reservation for seven days in response to an increase of COVID-19 cases.

The lockdown begins at 10 p.m. Oct. 23 and goes till 6 a.m. Oct. 30. Tribal leadership decided this after more than seven hours of discussion Wednesday.

As part of the plan laid out by the OST COVID-19 Response Taskforce, the infectious disease plan has the reservation in Phase 3. Phase 3 activated when the reservation exceeded 200 active COVID-19 cases, and on-reservation healthcare could not “handle the number active COVID-19 cases.”

According to the South Dakota Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard data, Oglala Lakota County had 305 active cases Wednesday and a total of 641 cases. The cumulative positive rate is 10.6%. Pine Ridge IHS hospital has 14 patients with COVID-19 occupying beds, according to the state health officials.

A lockdown, defined by the taskforce, means no one will travel on or off the reservation for seven days. BIA and tribal roads, as well as nonessential businesses, will close. People must work from home, to “the greatest extent possible,” according to the ordinance.

Essential employees and services supporting the Tribe’s critical infrastructure of the tribe are not included in the lockdown. Additionally, tribal leaders outlined plans to provide elders food and ensure mental health care for tribal residents.

During the seven-day lockdown, the tribe will have travel pass applications available. Once completed, the OST COVID-19 Response Taskforce will approve them via email ostcovidpass@gmail.com.

Tribal Pass - Ost & Artist

More information can be found on the tribe’s Coronavirus Taskforce Facebook page.

Tribal Pass - Ost & Artist

Tribal Pass - Ost & Artifacts

Tribal Pass - OST & Art