Prior Lake, Minnesota - The communities of Buffalo Lake and Long Hollow on the Lake Traverse Reservation will be better served with the construction of two new district centers, due to a $1 million grant for fiscal year 2008 to the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced the grant today. Groundbreaking on the Long Hollow facility was May 30, 2008.

Existing district center buildings, constructed in the early 1970s and not renovated since then, are in need of repair and are also inadequate in size to accommodate the meeting and gathering space needs of the local communities. When originally constructed, these district centers were generally utilized only once per month for purposes of holding the monthly district council meeting. Over the course of the past ten years, however, the districts have transitioned to local community service providers, providing a range of social, health, and economic services for members of their local community. These buildings are also used for after school programs, a summer feeding and recreational program, religious services, and wake and funeral services. With the new facilities the local elders will have a place to work on projects such as quilt making, while the youth will have additional space for learning activities including a computer lab, according to the grant request.

In fiscal year 2007 the SMSC gave a $1 million grant to the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate for community centers at Lake Traverse and Heipa/Veblen. In 2001 the SMSC made a donation of $250,000 for construction capital for the Enemy Swim Day School which is on the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.

Since 1998 the SMSC has worked with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (Nation) on several economic development projects. In 2005, the SMSC loaned them $17 million for construction of a new casino hotel at the Watertown, South Dakota, location to replace the existing Dakota Sioux Casino. In July 1998, the SMSC loaned Sisseton $32 million to build Dakota Magic Casino and Hotel in Hankinson, North Dakota. Then SMSC loaned them an additional $5 million for the construction of a second wing to the hotel and for the construction of a golf course.

"The members of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community have made a commitment to help Tribes through economic development grants and loans," said SMSC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks. "It is important for us to help other Tribes whenever we can."

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