Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal
More than 10,000 Native Americans live in Sioux Falls, yet no Native person has ever served on the Sioux Falls City Council, according to the Sioux Falls City Council and Minnehaha County Historical Society.
One Hunkpapa Lakota woman, Allison Renville, is hoping to change that.
Renville, who was raised in Sisseton, S.D., on the Lake Traverse Reservation, moved to Sioux Falls over two years ago after surviving domestic abuse. After moving to Sioux Falls she became invested in community protests, domestic violence and sex-trafficking outreach. Since moving to Sioux Falls, Renville said, she’s put over 1,000 miles on her car traveling around the Sioux Falls metro area helping with community projects.
“We have the ability to create our own narratives and do what we can for Sioux Falls,” Renville said. “I bring in such a deeper understanding of the city as someone who holds conversations with houseless people, sex-trafficking survivors and domestic violence survivors.”
Rapid City, the second largest city in the state, has had several Indigenous city council members and school board members over the years. Sioux Falls, the largest city, has never had a Native American council member.
In 2023, Dawn Marie Johnson, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, became the first woman-of-color and first Native American woman to serve on the Sioux Falls School Board. Johnson is currently the only Native American on the Sioux Falls School Board.
In recent years, more Native candidates have run for elected office. In 2022, a record 143 Indigenous candidates filed to run for city, county and state offices nationwide.
“I think that kind of resonates with folks. When you think about it, there hasn’t been another Native (in Sioux Falls) who’s gotten this close,” Renville said. “I thought, ‘Why not me?’”
Renville, who is seeking an at-large seat on the city council, has spent the past decade involved in tribal, national and state-wide campaigns. She’s also run for office previously, n 2018 she ran for District 1 State Senate.
“When I moved here, I was already doing a lot of election work and I got to the point where it was unavoidable for me not to put myself out there,” Renville said. “I was involved with protests after Jacob James was killed, and I kept getting pulled into different conversations. In order to do something, I needed to establish who I want to be.”
If elected, Renville plans to focus on homelessness, food insecurity, sex-trafficking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. Currently, six Native Americans are missing from Sioux Falls, five of whom are minors.
Renville said she also feels that more needs to be done to adjust for the city’s growing population. The city’s population has grown by 17,363 people since 2021 – now topping 210,000 residents. Renville said she feels the city’s infrastructure – specifically community-based resources – hasn’t adjusted.
“I would hope that people would think my perspective is valuable to the conversation. We have Lakota people here, Omahas and Iowa tribes. There are so many different folks here and a lot of the time they’re the ones who feel the brunt of the negative policies coming out,” Renville said. “Because we don’t have that (Native) perspective (in the council) we’ve never been given the opportunity to add to the conversation.”
The Sioux Falls city council election will be held on April 9.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
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