2007 Annual Report Executive Summary
Oglala Sioux-Pine Ridge Empowerment Zone
As the focus of the Oglala Oyate Woitancan Empowerment Zone (OOWEZ) shifts to sustainability, we find ourselves enmeshed in an education process where the communities are becoming more in tune with the goals and objectives of the federal funding cycle. While we understand the congressional budget process, we are currently working with our congressional delegates to extend and more fully utilize the tax credits and other non-financial incentives of the Empowerment Zone Program.
OOWEZ is in the final phase of several projects that will contribute to the sustainability of the OOWEZ and create meaningful employment in an attempt to reduce dependency for the residents of the OOWEZ.
Most Significant
Accomplishment
Since the OOWEZ was established, there has been a challenge to include ALL communities in the OOWEZ family; however, there were extremely strong sentiments that the intent of the OOWEZ initiative was to act as a vehicle to diminish the Oglala Lakota’s land base and ultimately its sovereign status. As a result, this distrust by a group of fundamentalists in the Wounded Knee District led to a tribal court order that effectively banned the use of USDA EZ funds in that district. In the meantime
USDA funds continued to be used in the district in areas
of Food and Nutrition (commodities, school hot lunch program), Agriculture
(drought assistance, conservation, crop insurance etc.), Education and Outreach
(county extension office). In 2006,
several key district members went back to court and successfully argued that
the concerns raised by the plaintiffs were without merit. The result was the OOWEZ Board of Directors
formally brought the Wounded Knee District into the OOWEZ. This led to key on-site training from Rural
Development staff to the members of the
Oglala Sioux
Tribe EZ Summary Page Oglala
Sioux Tribe EZ Funding Page