Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal officials say they need emergency funding to fix damaged roads-and quickly. Spring flooding washed out roads in some rural areas and forced culverts out from under ground in others.
Officials link two recent deaths on the reservation to dangerous driving conditions and say other Great Plains Tribes have the same problem.
It’s tough to drive BIA route 3 on the Cheyenne River Reservation. There are missing chunks of pavement - potholes in some areas and washed out gravel roads.
Tribal officials show off the damage, and stop their cars next to neon orange signs. This stretch of road runs along the bank of the Moreau River. A steep cliff drops down into shallow water.
This closed off segment of dirt road is about six years old...and now, it’s at risk of sliding into the river during a flood. That’s what happened to the original segment of road built in the 50’s. That was replaced with a new section of road higher up the hillside last fall.
Tracey Zephier is the Attorney General for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She says over time, the river bed has moved.
“I would say it’s probably a hundred yards from where the river used to be to where it is now.”
The Moreau River feeds into the Missouri River. Zephier says in the 40’s and 50’s, the federal government built dams along the Missouri to prevent downstream flooding in states, like Arkansas. She says the Oahe Dam, near Pierre, has forced sediment to collect in the Moreau River.
“What it’s doing is basically acting like a big stopper in the bottom of a bathtub. And so the water can’t drain like mother nature would allow it to do.
Zephier points out a large island in the center of the river covered in trees and grass.
“If the sediment wasn’t on the bottom of this, the river bed would be able to just scour that, just push it down. But the sediment has raised the bottom of the river bed up so this stuff is catiching where it wouldn’t have caught before.”
With higher sediment levels, floods can happen faster. This year, there were several floods on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Zephier says water levels went over a 20 foot wall and onto the roads. Some tribal members living nearby were evacuated.
“What you see here is when you try to alter mother nature. Over the course of 50 years, this is what happens.”
Tribes across the country get money each year through the Tribal Transportation Program--a division of the Federal Highway Administration. That’s the money that pays to maintain these roads. Harold Frazier is the tribal chairman. He says the nearly 2.3 million dollars they receive isn’t enough to solve the problem.
“It’s going to be in the millions of dollars, maybe around 20 million at a minimum just to fix the damage parts. And we don’t have that type of money on our reservation so we’re kind of stuck in a tough spot right now.”
In the past, Frazier says FEMA has helped with several emergency road repairs.
“They’re a reimbursable program. So when you’ve got 20 million dollars of damage, you’ve got to spend 20 million then they’ll reimburse you 18 percent. So we don’t got 16 or even four million to do this. So it’s a big challenge.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs maintains BIA roads. The agency did not respond to questions for this story. Tribal Chairman Frazier says the immediate repairs are not enough to prevent future damage.
“We have a road that’s been shut down since May 27th because a culvert, it washed out. There’s a big hole in the road, I’m going to say about 40 feet wide and 40 feet, 50 feet deep. And it’s just sitting there and nobody has worked on it. It is a BIA road but they ever responded to it.”
Frazier says dangerous roads have caused deaths. He says two people died on Cheyenne River Sioux reservation because of road conditions. He says A washed out culvert on the Standing Rock Reservation In North Dakota also killed two people. There are similar problems with roads on other reservations Fraizer says are also underfunded.
This year, the tribe applied for funding through a program called Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads.
“It’s a program out of Federal Highways. And back in May they instructed out Transportation Director ‘don’t do any work until it is authorized’. As then we sat back and around the Fourth of July we started pressuring, calling and still not getting any results.”
Frazier says they’re still waiting for authorization to fix damaged roads on the reservation.
A Spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration responded by email saying the department is working with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He says the tribe can move ahead with emergency repairs and that the agency is helping them apply for funding. The spokesperson says emergency repairs are already finished in several locations.
Representatives from U.S. senators John Thune and Mike Rounds’ offices, say they are aware of the road conditions in Eagle Butte. Both support increased and emergency funding for tribal infrastructure.
Tater Ward is a District Council Representative for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He answers questions as we drive down BIA route three. His main concern is people’s safety.
“Response time for the ambulance and for fire trucks, for children going to and from school-you just have to add on another half an hour or an hour to travel down these bad roads because you have to go that much slower and dodge that many bad holes. And hopefully there’s not a culvert washed out ahead of you that you might not see.”
Ward says route three is the way many residents get to businesses in town centers for work and school. He says some roads are frequently closed down because of flooding and school busses have had to find alternate routes.
“They’ve band aided this so much that the band aid is not sticking anymore. And we need emergency help as soon as possible.”
The Tribal Council wants to make repairs before school starts later this month to prevent future accidents.