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Lakota Woman On U.S. Treasury Board

Courtesy Four Bands Community Fund

A Lakota woman from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation has been appointed to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board.

The position brings a voice to the national table on discussions impacting community development in underserved communities like South Dakota’s reservations.

Tanya Fiddler has worked with Community Development Financial Institutions for 12 years.

Fiddler says being appointed to the Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board by President Barack Obama was humbling. But she is looking forward to the opportunity to fill even more needs in Indian Country.

“We’re creating private sectors or creating housing,” Fiddler explains. “We have houselessness versus homelessness, if you ask me. So, affordable housing…you’re seeing the non-profit developer be the one that can come in and fill those gaps.”

Despite misperceptions of poor economic development on reservations Fiddler notes that the tax revenue on the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Sioux Reservations has increased more than 200 percent in the last decade.

Fiddler wants people to understand that there are positive economic stories on the reservations – and she intends for there to be even more.