Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe

http://www.sioux.org/index.php/main/flash

I chose to focus on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe whose reservation covers five counties (Dewey, Ziebach, Stanley, Haakon, and Meade) in South Dakota, making it the fourth largest Indian reservation in land area in the United States with around 8,470 persons.

The websites overall presentation is made to look ‘commercially’ Native American, with tan backgrounds, scenic imagery, and even flowing river sounds accompanied by Native American tribal chanting, but then again the website does also give the less commercial option of viewing the website in the traditional Lakota language.

The website is very open and proud about its history including information and further links on topics such as the Battle of Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee Massacre, Religious Freedom etc. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe express a great importance in the tribes traditional ideals of the community, making the community their top focus; “Community is our focus and our way of life. Community is our culture just as it has always been. We are all one.

Many of the small communities on the Cheyenne River Reservation do not have water systems making sanitation very difficult to sustain, employment is very low ranging seasonally between 10%-40%, and alcoholism, drug abuse, diabetes and depression are pandemic. Although the tribe is in much poverty, in more recent years, the tribe has prominently improved their economic situation; they have recently been given one million dollars in order to fix their water system, a grant has been issued for the community to build an elderly home, a bingo hall, and to improve safety for Cheyenne river roads. All of which will create more jobs on the reservation and improve the current economic situation.    

Overall, the website comes across as very community based with little or no ulterior motives; the website does encompass donation links for the community, however these are not highly promoted throughout the website, thus it would lead me to believe that the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s main motive through the website is truly to just inform.