Dupree/Ziebach County, SD

Dupree is an incorporated city with a total area of 0.40 square miles located in Ziebach County in north-central South Dakota. As of 2020, 2,413 people reside in the county’s total area of 1,971 square miles with just over 500 residing within the incorporated area of Dupree (U.S. Census). Dupree serves as the county seat of Ziebach County, which lies almost entirely within the Cheyenne River Reservation, home to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The extreme northern Ziebach County line lies within Standing Rock Reservation. Cheyenne River Reservation, which includes 13 separate communities, encompasses a total land area of 1.4 million acres and is the fourth-largest reservation in land area in the United States. Social, economic, and environmental factors, including lack of available resources, substandard housing, geographic location, and poverty, affect area residents’ access to health and well-being supports. Seasonal and extreme weather affects local agriculture, walking and bicycling to destinations, and active recreation outdoors. U.S. Climate Data (2021) reporting average annual precipitation of 16.6 inches and snowfall of 36.8 inches. Long, cold winters include short days and below freezing temperatures with daytime highs averaging in the low 30°F and short, warm summers with temperatures reaching middle 80°F affecting local agriculture, walking, and bicycling to destinations, and active recreation outdoors.  

The Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds land grant universities to work with community extension services in counties where more than 40% of adults have obesity. CDC High Obesity Program (HOP) efforts focus on increasing access to healthier foods and safe places for physical activity, including activities that will reduce or eliminate health disparities related to nutrition, physical activity, and obesity. In 2018, two South Dakota counties were identified as eligible for CDC HOP funding with more than 40% of adults having obesity, Buffalo (41.8%) and Ziebach (41.4%).

South Dakota State University (SDSU) is building upon successful work in tribal communities in Buffalo and Ziebach counties under previous CDC HOP funding. SDSU Extension teams continue, in partnership with tribal communities, to engage previously established Wellness Coalitions in HOP efforts to improve the community environment and culture of health. New school-based coalitions are mobilizing to help schools serve as resource centers for improved access to healthier foods and safe places and spaces for physical activity in more remote, rural areas of tribal communities.

Intervention Strategy: Collaborate with partners to improve the food system to increase access to healthier foods through implementing Farm to School/School Gardens, Double Up Dakota Bucks, and Stock Healthy, Shop Healthy interventions that:

• Establish healthy nutrition standards in key institutions, such as community health centers, faith-based organizations, food banks/pantries, and early care, education, afterschool and recreation programs that provide food access.
• Improve state and local food assistance programs/systems (e.g., voucher incentive programs, increased electronic benefit transfer acceptance where food is purchased), transportation routes to food stores, and access to healthier foods at community venues, including markets and gardens.

In Dupree, we engaged and empowered the local wellness coalition to implement environmental interventions, such as gardens.

Community gardens increase access to and availability of healthier food, increase physical activity of gardeners, and provide numerous social and emotional benefits.

Intervention Strategy: Collaborate with partners to connect activity friendly routes via sidewalks, paths, bicycle routes, motor vehicle transportation and parking with everyday destinations, such as homes, early care and education, schools, worksites, parks, or recreation centers through implementing transportation and land use plans and interventions, specifically Safe Routes to Everyday Destinations:

• Establish new or improved pedestrian, bicycle, or transportation systems (i.e., activity-friendly routes) that are combined with new or improved land use or environmental design (i.e., connecting everyday destinations).

“Sidewalks are a barrier, walking around is hard.“

“People would rather sit than move.”

“No lights makes it harder at night […].”

In 2020, SDSU Extension employed the Rural Community Food and Physical Activity (R-CFPA) Resource Audit Tool to complete an observational assessment of food and physical activity resources, including their mapped Dupree locations and windshield survey of observable access qualities of all available resources. The resource audit approach integrated engaged learning, shared measurement, and participatory verification activities. The R-CFPA audit integrated resource availability and location data from geospatial databases with “on-the-ground” direct observations to create resource maps, visualize resource locations and access qualities, and determine connectivity routes based on walkable distance around and within a resource-specified hub, such as a school or other everyday destination. Participatory discovery, shared measurement, and engaged learning guided co-creation of this Dupree Story Map and locally informed, place-based solutions to improved access to healthier foods and safe rural places and spaces for physical activity and active living in tribal communities.

A Story Map is a tool that helps community partners and members to build, publish, report, and share stories of the community’s food and physical activity resource environment as narrative text, maps, images, and other multimedia content. Cheyenne River’s Story Map explains and displays locally available supports for healthier food and physical activity access as well as access obstacles or environmental risks that are determinants of weight healthy lifestyles for people who reside in the tribal community. A shared story can create awareness, influence opinion, inform action, and effect change—and when engaging communities, maps can be an integral part of storytelling. This Story Map provides Dupree’s food and physical activity resource availability and access narrative grounded in a sense of health and place, illustrates spatial relationships between destinations, and adds visual appeal and credibility to findings shared broadly with all cooperators aimed at reducing or eliminating health disparities related to obesity, healthy food and physical activity insecurity.

Connecting people and places via safe routes aims to create ways for community members to travel actively to-from and between available destinations, such as schools, churches, health and social services, grocery or other stores, and to easily access spaces for physical activity, such as parks, playgrounds, sport, recreation, and cultural centers.

Activity-friendly route is a direct, convenient, and continuous pathway offering separation and physical protection from cars, making it easy to cross the street, and connecting various destinations that people visit every day from where they live, work, or park by walking, bicycling, using a wheelchair or skateboard. These routes can include public transit stops, parking spaces and lots, sidewalks and crosswalks, protected bicycle lanes, pedestrian bridges, multi-use trails, park or greenways, and walkable-bikeable shoulders along rural roadways.

Activity space is defined as the geographic coverage of a person’s travel by measuring the places people visit and the routes people take to get there. Activity routes are measured as the total distance in linear miles along a designated route or within a designated activity space inclusive of all walkable surfaces.

Everyday destinations are sites and spaces where people travel regularly from where they live, including jobs, grocery stores, child care and senior centers, schools, churches, libraries, post office, parks, restaurants, cultural centers and natural landmarks, and health care services.

Dupree's activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations are located within the 1.20 square mile community resources audit area measured to contain all available food and physical activity resources identified through HEAL MAPPS (2018) participatory photomapping, including 11 food resources and 25 physical activity resources. We identified an activity space described as “easily” walkable. Easily was defined as close distance among a set of resource destinations in the area within a continuous roadway measuring approximately 1.5 linear miles along and within the area perimeter.

Activity Space: Dupree City Center: This activity space in Dupree was measured within a 1.44 mile connected dirt road (no sidewalks) and provides 3.35 linear miles of connected roadway/footpaths. This activity space displays 7 food, and 9 physical activity resources, and 14 everyday destinations. Destinations located along the activity routes includes Dupree School District and Dupree daycare, both resources for food and physical activity, as well as a community garden and community center/YMCA that provide food and physical activity access, sport court (1), playgrounds (2), open fields/park space, commercial kitchen, restaurant, grocery (SNAP), post office and 2 churches.

Food resources are all retail, production, and/or distribution sites, spaces, and services in the local community where consumable food/foodstuffs are available to consumers.

Healthier foods emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products. Healthier foods include a variety of protein foods such as seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes (beans and peas), soy products, nuts, and seeds. Foods and beverages that are healthier are low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

Grocery and Food Retail includes stores primarily engaged in retailing to consumers a general range of food items and products, which may be fresh or packaged.

There is one grocery store and one convenience store within the audit area. The Lakota Thrifty Mart is a full-service grocery store that has limited accessibility. There are signs stating hours of operation and tobacco use restrictions. There are also sidewalks near the grocery store with off street parking. There is no sign stating that the store takes WIC or SNAP. This is a local grocery store that does not sell alcohol, yet tobacco products are available.

Café, Deli, Restaurant includes shops and places where ready-to-eat meals and/or food and beverage products, such as cooked meats, sandwiches, prepared salads, coffee and pastries are sold to people that pay to sit and eat meals served on the premises or order and pick up foods to eat elsewhere.

At the time of the project, there were two restaurants in Dupree, including Maria's Bar and Grill and the Ranch House Cafe, though the Ranch House Cafe has since closed permanently.

Local Food and Agriculture includes food sourced by hunting, gathering, fishing, and/or foraging as well as agricultural produce that is commercially or communally grown.

Onspewicakiyapi Wojupi (Learning Garden), is a local community food garden that operates in spring, summer, and fall. This garden included signage with hours of operation and parking off-street. The Learning Garden is gated and fenced to protect the garden from animals, with seasonal learning opportunities including seeding, growing, and harvesting the food. There are public recreation spaces around Dupree, though there is not a lot of information posted on fishing, foraging, or hunting access. There is one community garden in Dupree that has little information regarding if it is public or private.

Food Assistance includes programs that provide food to low-income consumers through several mechanisms, including food benefits used to purchase food through normal retail channels, food vouchers for purchase of specific foods and beverages with particular nutritional qualities, and direct provision of free meals.

There are two food assistance programs and two meal sites in Dupree located at the YMCA Volunteer Center, the Dupree Day Care (meal site) and a food distribution site at 3rd and A St. The Sioux YMCA is a state funded program that provides food assistance/ meal site for children and adults, including a summer food program. This site has signage stating the meal program hours and restricts tobacco use on site. This center is accessible for people with disabilities. It has information for people that participate in SNAP and WIC. The Dupree daycare provides meals and snacks.

Physical activity refers to all bodily movement including during leisure time, for transport to get to and from places, or as part of a person’s work. Daily physical activity improves health, to learn more read Move Your Way.

Indoor physical activity resources are places or facilities inside a building with space and features designed, enhanced, and/or used by people as an available resource for physical activities indoors. Access to indoor physical activity resources was audited as either fee/cost or no/low cost.

Outdoor physical activity resources are facilities or places that are outside, exposed to seasonal climate, with features designed, enhanced, and/or providing access for people to physical activities outdoors, such as courts, fields, grounds, parks, and trails or natural amenities, such as landscape variation and water areas. Access to outdoor physical activity resources was audited as either fee/cost or no/low cost.

Access to physical activity resources based on “fee/cost” or “no/low cost” is reported to help explain inequalities in financial costs and affordability, which contributes to physical activity disparities in under resourced rural communities.

Fee/cost designates that there is a standard monetary cost and payment required to use the resource or facility, such as a membership, court, green, class, or user fee, typically associated with private or for profit commercial facilities

No/low cost designates that there is no observable cost or fee, or no/low cost or optional fees, such as donation, parking, or access permit, required to use the resource or facility, typically associated with public and not-for-profit physical activity resources. Note: In cases where auditor indicated fee “not observable” on the audit worksheet, the resource was categorized as no/low cost by default.

Indoor physical activity resources

Two indoor physical activity resources are available, Dupree Community Building and Sioux YMCA Youth Center. One new indoor resource, an exercise gym/fitness center, is under construction. Indoor recreation areas include the Dupree YMCA and the Community Rec Center (may be a fee). Sioux YMCA Youth Center is a nonprofit recreation center with programming, including community gardening, for youth and older adults with no fee policy posted, though provides signage for hours of operation, smoking restrictions, and lights for safe use after dark.

Dupree Community Building - Recreation/community center provides indoor (and outdoor), private nonprofit, no/low-cost physical activity resources serving youth and older adults located at 6th and B Street. Lights for safe dawn-to-dusk access. No/low-cost Signage provides hours of operation, information, or policies restricting tobacco use onsite.

Dupree has two indoor facilities that have general use fees. Pioneer Hall and Harry’s Hall are community gathering spaces that can be rented for community events or meetings. There may be a cost to use the community center. An exercise gym/ fitness center is currently being built near the school.

Outdoor physical activity resources are outdoor places exposed to seasonal climate with features designed, enhanced, and/or providing access for people to physical activities outdoors, such as courts, fields, grounds, parks, and trails or natural amenities, such as landscape variation and water areas. Access to outdoor physical activity resources was audited as either fee/cost or no/low cost.

Outdoor Physical Activity Resources

Dupree has no/low cost outdoor facilities that include the rodeo, School playgrounds and sports fields, and public parks. The Dupree HeadStart has a private playground with equipment for younger children and youth. The Dupree public school has a bike rack for bike commuters, lighting for safe use after dark and a playground, benches and bleachers and is a no-fee, public use play area.

The Dupree Pow Wow and Rodeo Grounds is a private, nonprofit riding arena with seasonal access, though no fee policy is posted. There is a designated parking area, restrooms, bleachers, and shelter from the weather. This arena is used for outdoor riding and rodeos with food available during events. There is no safe drinking water, though alcohol is available and consumed during events. This arena does not appear to be handicapped accessible nor does it include signage to restrict tobacco use.

The menu bar at the top of the Story Map is like a table of contents. Click on the words to jump to the corresponding section in the Story Map.

Throughout the Story Map you will see yellow buttons. Click on a button to access relevant resources or scientific information

To navigate back to the Story Map, click at the top of the browser window on the Story Map tab shown below.

Points on the map are marked with a symbol. Hover or click on a symbol to view details about the resource at that location.

Hover over a map symbol to display basic information about a resource.

 Click Read more to read additional information about using a resource.

Click the expansion button to make the map full screen. Click the expansion button when in full screen view to return to the Story Map.

 Click the table of contents button to view all points on the map.

 Click the zoom plus (+) and minus (-) button to zoom in and out.

Where people live, work and play, and the resources that are available, provide options and easy access to goods, programs, and services that are necessary to support healthy behaviors and lifestyles across peoples’ lives. Health equity and well-being develop differently within and among people in communities.

This Story Map geographically displays information collected using activities and tools facilitated by SDSU Extension in partnership with communities in 2020.

You can use the information contained in this report to plan and prioritize ways to effectively improve the health within a community and increase local access to healthier food and daily physical activity for all people. Decision makers and funders can use this report to shape policies, inform practices, and guide outcomes that are concrete and workable, so that change is relevant to the community’s health and well-being. These include policies and programs that improve the community through healthier food and physical activity options.

Lastly, the Story Map is useful for community members to seek out locally available options for healthier food and physical activity. It provides insights into recent changes and new challenges, information for getting the community involved as change agents, and connections between people’s behaviors and health outcomes.

The Story Map is easy to share and use using the link or PDF document.

Mobilize and engage as a community by bringing new leaders, organizations and residents into the local efforts. Identify a job for everyone so that the work is shared.

Assess by asking and answering questions. Explore these maps and photos and narratives that emerged and look for resources and the real story of community needs.

Plan by setting clear goals and steps, such as how to make it easier for people in your community to access healthier foods and physical activity.

Implement your goals and make sure everyone involved know the plan. Find the people in your community who can activate the goals.

Track your progress over time by working with local experts who know how to evaluate programs.

Let your Story Map help promote your story of healthier people and place. Remember to celebrate your successes!

Story Map for Issues of Health and Place  

Start a dialogue about the underlying causes of poor health or quality of life in your community.