South Dakota Department of Public Safety

An apartment complex on the Rosebud Reservation has drifts of snow blocking the doors and windows on Dec. 27, 2022. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

Disaster declarations for tribes land as two-part storm looms

BY: - February 21, 2023

President Joe Biden declared major disasters for two tribal communities in South Dakota on Tuesday for a pair of deadly December storms.  News of the declarations for the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes arrived as snowflakes began to fall in the first of two more winter storms expected to blanket the state. This week’s storms […]

State Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, on the House floor during the 2023 legislative session. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

Bipartisan bill would make state IDs free for low income South Dakotans

BY: - January 25, 2023

PIERRE – State identifications cards are needed to get a job, rent an apartment and vote in South Dakota. Even library cards are out of reach without an ID. The wallet-sized card, which resembles a driver’s license, costs $28 in South Dakota. Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, wants to make state IDs free for low […]

Crews push their way through a massive snowdrift plugging an overpass on Interstate 90 near Kadoka. (Courtesy of State of South Dakota Highway Crew)

Risky rescues have state pondering approach to drivers who ignore road closures

BY: - January 25, 2023

PIERRE – Hundreds of motorists drove around Interstate blockades or ventured onto snowed-over highways during a two-week storm event late last year, diverting the energies of emergency responders to rescues that sometimes put those responders at risk.  That’s not uncommon during winter storms, according to Sec. Craig Price of the Department of Public Safety (DPS). […]

Wayne Boyd, chief of staff to the president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, looks at a map showing cleared and uncleared roads on Dec. 27, 2022, after winter storms. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

State responds to criticism, says it answered tribal storm needs

BY: and - December 29, 2022

The state has responded to Rosebud Sioux Tribe officials’ frustrations with its response to recent winter storms. The tribe issued an emergency declaration in response to the storms, which partially buried homes across the reservation and resulted in at least six deaths. The deaths occurred both before and after a National Guard deployment ordered by […]