Economic conditions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are extremely difficult. Pine Ridge is among the poorest counties in America, with a hovering unemployment rate of 60 to 70% and an average per capita income of $4,200. Nonetheless, there is a growing economic movement to create jobs and provide infrastructure for small businesses to grow. Among the greatest challenges for local entrepreneurs are land, access to infrastructure (water, sewer, electricity, road access, etc) and investors to help capitalize their businesses. A huge obstacle to investors in reservation-based businesses is the difficulty for businesses to build equity. A large part of the reservation is trust land (land that is held in trust by the federal government for Indian people and their communities). Trust land generally cannot be used as collateral, which creates a high-risk situation for possible investors. To combat this issue we are currently looking at a piece of property for development. The property is 100 acres, next to the road, and has access to electricity and clean water. This land is also fee-simple land (land that is not held in trust by the government, therefore we pay property taxes on it). The positive outcome of purchasing fee-simple land is that it can be used as collateral and mortgaged. This opens up better possibilities for investors and banks.
Our goal with the master community development plan is to first create a vision of a community that is supported by local tribal members. All of these elements will be designed into the community master plan:
