Native Tourism Alliance to support entrepreneurs

'I believe that it is an act of sovereignty for a tribe to take control of their cultural history by telling their own story. And what better way to do that than tourism with people from your local community to even internationally?'

The South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance became a nonprofit this year and is entering the next phase of its work, five years after it was started by the state’s nine Native American tribes and dozens of other organizations to promote entrepreneurship in economically disadvantaged communities and preserve and promote Indigenous culture.

Tourism is the state’s second-largest industry and a primary economic engine in plenty of towns across the state. The idea is to connect more of those millions of tourists and their billions of dollars with South Dakota’s rich American Indian culture.

“When you look at tourism and the idea of having a place for visitors to come that’s just off the interstate, I think that is tourism gold,” said Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal archivist Tamara St. John.

The Tribal Historic Preservation Office in Agency Village features a growing collection of hundreds of historic artifacts and Native art. The collection is currently housed in the tribal administration building on the Lake Traverse Reservation in the northeast corner of the state.

“The tribe has been very accommodating, but we have outgrown (this space),” St. John said. The tribe is in the early stages of developing a visitor center to house the collection.

St. John’s belief in the opportunity tourism can offer reservation communities spurred her to spend the past five years as a state representative.

“Seeing that tourism is such a huge economic driver for the state of South Dakota, and it really could benefit our area,” she said. “I believe that it is an act of sovereignty for a tribe to take control of their cultural history by telling their own story. And what better way to do that than tourism with people from your local community to even internationally?”

Around the same time St. Join joined the Legislature, other stakeholders were meeting to discuss the potential of Native American tourist attractions.

“We’ve had fits and starts for decades with tribal tourism,” Secretary of Tourism Jim Hagen said in an interview with South Dakota Public Broadcasting earlier this year. “About five years ago we really made a concerted effort to reach out to our tribes, tribal partners and friends and say, ‘Let’s really get this going.'”

GWU provided guidance

The Tourism department sought outside help from the International Institute of Tourism Studies at George Washington University, which “has been specializing in helping Indigenous people create tourism on their reservations,” Hagen said.

The institute served as a facilitator of early meetings of an ad hoc group of local and tribal entities with an interest in developing tourism in their communities.

That group eventually became the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (SDNTA), which earned 501(c)(3) nonprofit status earlier this year. The alliance includes more than 50 network participants such as representation from tribes like St. John, the South Dakota Department of Tourism and businesses that operate in tribal communities.

“Together, we represent and try to get representation from all nine tribes in our area,” said Frank Kills in Water, SDNTA board chair. “It helps us as an alliance to have partners on every reservation to help bring tourism to each reservation in a good way.”

Dateline:

AGENCY VILLAGE, S.D.