SOUTH DAKOTA – A $71 million investment from the Investing in America program to electrify homes in 13 communities across Indian State will help close the electricity access gap.

Two Lakota tribes will receive a portion of these funds to improve services in their communities. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will receive $11.8 million for this initiative. Another $2 million will go to the SAGE Development Authority, a federally recognized Section 17 corporation founded by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

“Every family deserves to have access to reliable and affordable electricity. Now, with historic investments from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are fulfilling our commitment to deliver clean energy to Indian Country to power more homes,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “This new program builds reliable, resilient energy that tribes and communities can rely on and advances our work to address the climate crisis and build a clean energy future.”

This second and final round of funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program is part of an overall $150 million commitment to provide financial and technical assistance to connect homes in tribal communities to clean energy-powered transmission and distribution; Providing electricity to non-electrified households through zero-emission energy systems; converting electrified homes to zero-emission energy systems; and support the associated home repairs and upgrades necessary to install the zero-emission energy systems. Additionally, the program supports clean energy workforce development opportunities in Indian Country.

“Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program continues to provide tribes with the support they need to ensure their communities have safe, reliable electricity that is essential to daily life,” said Bryan Newland, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs . “Working with tribal governments to develop clean energy sources and deliver the benefits of reliable electricity to their communities is part of our mission to serve federally recognized tribes.”

In 2000, the Energy Information Administration estimated that 14 percent of households on Indian reservations lacked access to electricity, ten times higher than the national average. In 2022, the Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy released a report that said 16,805 tribal homes were unelectrified, most of them in the Southwest Region and Alaska.

The Tribal Electrification Program advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40 percent of the total benefits of certain federal investments go to disadvantaged communities marginalized by underinvestment and burdened by pollution, including federally recognized tribal nations. For a complete list of tribes receiving a share of this funding, visit tinyurl.com/3d9ck792

For more information, see the BIA’s interactive map https://tinyurl.com/bctjwsvh for projects in tribal communities funded through the Investing in America agenda.