The Oglala Sioux Tribe went live recently with their COVID-19 Household Economic Assistance Program that will provide assistance to eligible tribal members whose households have been negatively affected by COVID-19.
President Biden’s American Rescue Plan is designed to provide relief to Americans and to stimulate the economy. This plan ultimately granted Tribes authorization to use these funds to do the same in their jurisdictions.
Recently the Oglala Sioux Tribe passed an ordinance authorizing $2,000 to eligible enrolled tribal members regardless of them living off the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Kevin Killer is the Tribes President and has been pivotal with other tribal leadership in pushing this agenda forward.
“I think that the biggest thing is just making sure that you try to be as transparent as possible,” said Killer. “This coming into my administration making sure that we have weekly conferences and we've been doing those Mondays or Tuesdays, depending on,” said Killer schedules and stuff like that, but just covering a different things.”
Adult tribal members and their dependents who are also enrolled or will soon be enrolled are eligible and the process can be as easy as doing it online, which is preferred, but also filling out a paper application. Just make sure you know your enrollment number.
“I would encourage online cause it's a much easier option,” said Killer. “I mean the paper application could be intimidating, but it's literally the same questions that are online that are on the application. In most cases, people on average have been taking about four to five minutes and it's not that bad. It's yes or no questions.”
If a Tribal member makes over $75,000, or over combined $120,000 with their spouse, the Tribe asks that they provide proof of hardship.
“So, for example, if you had to buy exercise equipment, because the gyms aren't open because and it was over $2,000 and you made $5,000 last year, just submit those receipts and that will be enough proof,” Killer continued, “or if you had to buy a new computer because you had to Zoom things like that.”
The Tribes leadership spent many meetings in regard to not only the application process but one of the topics included financial literacy.
“We had council members on there who are the chairs of our finance committee for one of the first ones kind of explaining the process too, is that we had Lakota funds on there,” said Killer. “Talking about how to open up a checking and savings account. Financial literacy is a huge thing in our community. So making sure that we find ways to keep resources in our money, especially if the individual payments are going out, how do we keep that money circulating in our own economy?"
Many tribal members spend money in places like Chadron or Rapid City, the tribe has a plan for that.
“I think the biggest thing is we got a list compiled of native vendors, and we're going to start that and just keep distributing that,” said Killer. “So, at the very least use those native vendors as much as you can.”
Another major factor according to President Killer is to simply look to the future.
“Also, just think about your kid's future, go to Lakota Federal Credit Union, it takes $5 to open an account,” said Killer. “You already have a check in hand, it's easy, and you're basically helping your kids think about the future by helping them learning about savings, learning about checking, how a business operates, all that kind of stuff, and really looking at ways to go beyond your immediate needs and stuff like that. This is most likely a one-time thing. So use it wisely.”
The online application process as of July 7th, has already seen 12,000 applications and that’s not even counting the written applications. President Killer has asked the for members to stay patient when it comes to new enrollments as the enrollment office has been backed up by months due to the pandemic. There are quite a few other tribes that are doing almost the exact same thing for their members.
If you’re an eligible member of the Tribe, you can visit www.ostarp.info to submit an online application or to download applications.