Zieback County the poorest county in the US

A county is South Dakota made  headlines across the world this week. Ziebach County made news because of its persistent poverty which claims over 60 percent of the population. The unemployment rate soars even further during the winter to over to 90 percent. That is because the economy is mostly construction jobs and during the harsh winters a lot of those workers are laid off. Even during the summer, there is not enough work or business for most of the people.

From the UKs Daily Mail, we find out more about Zieback County.

‘Many, many people make these grand generalizations about our communities and poverty and ”Why don't people just do something, and how come they can't?”’ said Eileen Briggs, executive director of Tribal Ventures, a development group started by the tribe. ‘It's much more complicated than that.’

The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, created in 1889, consists almost entirely of agricultural land in Ziebach and neighbouring Dewey County. It has no casino and no oil reserves or available natural resources.

Most towns in Ziebach County are just clusters of homes between cattle ranches. Families live in dilapidated houses or run-down trailers. Multi-coloured patches of siding show where repairs were made as cheaply as possible.

Families fortunate enough to have leases to tribal land can make money by raising cattle. Opportunities are scarce for almost everyone else.

The few people who have jobs usually have to drive up to 80 miles to tribal headquarters. The nearest major population centres are Rapid City and Bismarck, each a trip of 150 miles or more.

Basic services can be vulnerable. The tribe's primary health clinic doesn't have a CT scanner or a maternity ward. An ice storm last year knocked out power and water in places for weeks. And in winter, the gravel roads that connect much of the reservation can become impassable with snow and ice.

Nearly six decades after the reservation was created, the federal government began building a dam on the Missouri River, but the project caused flooding that washed away more than 100,000 acres of Indian land. After the flooding, the small town of Eagle Butte became home to the tribal headquarters and the centre of the reservation's economy.

‘There are things that have happened to us over many, many generations that you just can't fix in three or four years,’ said Kevin Keckler, the tribe's chairman. ‘We were put here by the government, and we had a little piece of land and basically told to succeed here.’

But prosperity never came. The county has been at or near the top of the poverty rankings for at least a decade. In 2009, the census defined poverty as a single person making less than $11,000 a year or a family of four making less than $22,000 a year.

Eagle Butte has few businesses and the handful that do exist struggle to stay afloat. The town has just one major grocery store, the Lakota Thrifty Mart, which is owned by the tribe. There's also a Dairy Queen, a Taco John's and a handful of small cafes. There's no bowling alley, no cinema.

Poverty stricken Indian reservation battles with winter storms

People have been without power for weeks at a South Dakota Indian Reservation after a powerful storm knocked out electricity lines. Some people in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation will still be without power for a few more weeks as repair crews struggle to repair the indian reservation that spans two counties.

The winter storm also caused extensive damage to drinking water system, and many of the businesses and schools have remained closed. Repair costs from storm damage have drained the reservation's $175,000 emergency fund. All of this has only compounded the problems in the reservation where half of it's residents live in poverty.

From this Associated Press article that we found at the Connecticut Post, writer Wayne Ortman relays the story of one family that lives on the reservation.

Sonny Brave Eagle and his family spent six days in the dark without a phone or working radio before law officers found them in their home after a fierce winter storm cut power across South Dakota's impoverished Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

"We didn't know what was going on," said Brave Eagle, among hundreds of people on the sprawling reservation amid a second week without electricity as utility workers struggle to make repairs. The storm brought down power lines, iced roads and led to water outages.

Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty estimated that 1,500 to 1,700 homes were still without power Monday, and said it would take "better than three weeks" to get the reservation up and running again.
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Ice coated roads and electrical lines, and forced shops and schools to close. Then before residents could recover, a blizzard tore through the Dakotas with wind gusts between 25 and 50 mph.

The frozen ground complicated efforts to replace power poles, and snow had to be cleared away to allow utility crews to get close enough to rebuild transmission lines, said Brings Plenty.

The power outage led to equipment malfunctions at a pumping plant in a pipeline system that provides drinking water to the reservation. Water service and pressure must be restored gradually in an old system with weak pipes, the tribal chairman added.

About 8,000 people live on the reservation, which is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and the outages affected everyone, Stites said.

But the reservation faced difficulties well before the storms. The unemployment rate is 80 percent, tribal leaders say. More than half of Ziebach County and 38 percent of Dewey County lived in poverty in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The reservation spans both counties.

Video: Child poverty rate in South Dakota

In efforts to decrease the poverty rate in South Dakota, the organization Voices for Children has launched a new website called Bridge to Benefits.

South Dakota has the second highest poverty rate in the upper mid-west. Voices for Children hopes to change that through the new website. At Bridge to Benefits, parents can find public support programs and tax benefits.

From this video from KOTA, reporter Makenzi Henderson talked to Voices for Children about the website.

Census Bureau: SD's 2005 poverty level rose to 13.6 percent...

from KXMB

Census Bureau: SD's 2005 poverty level rose to 13.6 percent

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, South Dakota's overall poverty rate in 2005 rose to 13.6 percent. That was the highest level since 1997.

The statewide poverty rate in 2004 was 12.9 percent.

The 2005 figures show that just over 100,000 people in the state lived below the poverty level in 2005.

In 1997, the poverty rate was 14 percent. And in 1989, 14.8 percent of South Dakotans were at or below the poverty level.

Most of the counties with the highest poverty rates include Indian Reservation land. Ziebach County, in north central South Dakota, had the highest percentage of people living in poverty: 51 percent.

According to the 2007 federal guidelines, the poverty level for a family of four was $20,650 a year.