Wakpa Sica looking to start construction again

FORT PIERRE — For three years, Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place has stood north of Fort Pierre, one wing a mostly empty shell and the other a field of grass. Now, for the first time since a federal earmark dried up in 2006, construction could start again at Wakpa Sica.

Wakpa Sica has applied for several federal grants totalling $30 million as part of the stimulus act, designed to give money to “shovel-ready” projects capable of creating jobs. Wakpa Sica executive director Stacey LaCompte believes her project fits the bill.

“We would be complete if we got everything. We’re a shovel-ready project,” LaCompte said. “The construction manager says he can get his team mobilized and three days later we can be going on the construction.”

In addition to the jobs created in the multi-million dollar project, LaCompte said a completed Wakpa Sica could employ as many as 200 people.

LaCompte has received no word on when the grants Wakpa Sica has applied for will be rewarded. She and Wakpa Sica board members are hoping that after years of waiting, Wakpa Sica might be on the verge of completion.

“We’ve been working on this thing for a long time,” said Clarence Skye, a member of the Wakpa Sica board of directors. “We need to get it completed.”

“I’d be ecstatic,” said LaCompte. “It’s not just for the tribes. I believe it’s for the state. If we had an economic development center here and a training center it would be for the local people, too.”

In addition to the stimulus money, Wakpa Sica is also trying to add funding to President Obama’s budget for the next four years. The project has requested 10 million over four years, LaCompte said, and has garnered support from South Dakota’s Congressional delegation. Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson and Republican Sen. John Thune all signed a letter to the Office of Management and Budget supporting Wakpa Sica’s request.

If Wakpa Sica only gets part of the money it has requested, LaCompte said, work will begin right away on the judicial center, which would occupy empty land to the right of the structure.

When fully complete, Wakpa Sica will contain a museum and cultural center that board members hope will attract tourists and school groups. It will also contain a justice center intended to try to unify tribal law and provide a neutral setting for settling disputes on reservations.

“Economic development and the judicial system go neck and neck,” LaCompte said. “Businesses can come in and feel comfortable. Lenders will have precedent to move forward — there’s something in writing that lets them feel more secure in coming to our reservations.”

Skye agreed.

“The court library, some of the other research areas and the court chambers — that needs to be done. That’ll take quite a bit of money,” he said. “It would be great if they could get stimulus money to do that.”