- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Tourism
A coalition of South Dakota's nine tribal nations will use a $175,000 prize to train Native youth and develop tourism businesses that keep revenue in Indian Country rather than flowing to outside operators.
The South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance won the 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, which selected 10 organizations from 3,790 applicants nationwide.
The funding addresses a longstanding economic disconnect: Native culture and heritage drive South Dakota's $5 billion tourism industry, but tribal communities see little financial return. Nearly half of Native Americans in the state live below the poverty line, with per-capita income on some reservations under $14,000.
SDNTA's approach centers on its Grow Our Own program, which trains tribal members as tour guides, cultural educators and business owners. The model aims to create jobs that allow young people to stay in their communities while building tourism enterprises owned and operated by Native people.
"For too long, our stories have been told by others, and profits from South Dakota tourism have gone everywhere but back to our communities," said Sarah Kills In Water, an SDNTA board member from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
The organization formed in 2019 through a planning process led by George Washington University that brought together representatives from all nine federally recognized tribes of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate. It became a formal nonprofit in 2024 with a board representing each tribal nation.
Executive Director Rhea Waldman said the unrestricted funding will expand infrastructure and partnerships needed to scale Native-led tourism ventures across the state.
The prize includes access to a network of 60 organizations that receive mentorship and strategic support from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, which has invested more than $300 million in social justice and conservation initiatives since 1945.
