The Yankton Sioux Tribe is requesting the National Guard's assistance with flooding in the White Swan community at Lake Andes.

However, the South Dakota Department of Public Safety responded that the tribe still has other options available to help with the flooding, and Gov. Kristi Noem has said the National Guard is only to be used as a last resort.

In a letter to the tribe on Monday, Public Safety Secretary Craig Price wrote that state officials share the tribe's concern about the flooding's impact on residents and have sent state staff to Lake Andes to meet with the tribal emergency manager and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He noted that the tribe requested the National Guard's help in a Sept. 20 letter to Noem, but didn't specifically state the reason it needs the National Guard.

Price suspected the tribe was requesting the National Guard's help in constructing a berm to protect the White Swan community. He noted that the tribe has Bureau of Indian Affairs funding, materials, tribal equipment and personnel, local contractors, and access to state and federal technical assistance to construct the berm.

The state has provided pumps the tribe requested and raised the roads to re-establish access to Lake Andes for tribal members, according to Price.

"We are still ready to assist the Yankton Sioux Tribe to keep your tribal members safe and rebuild after flood waters recede," Price wrote.

The letters are the latest in months of flooding problems at Lake Andes. Near the Yankton Sioux Tribe's reservation, the city of Lake Andes, which has fewer than 1,000 residents, has been dealing with flooded roads and closed businesses. Lake Andes Mayor Ryan Frederick told the Argus Leader on Monday that they don't have a lot of options.

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The tribe said that the flooding has increased with each storm since the bomb cyclone in March. Sixty of the tribe's families were impacted by the flooding, with limited access to basic life services and their homes slowly becoming inhabitable, according to the tribe. The cause of the flooding is a blocked culvert between Lake Andes and the Missouri River, according to the tribe.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe said in August that it had been waiting six months for the state to stop the flooding at Lake Andes and fix the blocked culvert.

"Our community is literally drowning due to state negligence and indifference to the health and well-being of our people," the tribe said in an Aug. 12 statement.

The tribe alleged that Noem suggested tribal residents use surplus Army tents for temporary housing while Highway 18/50 was elevated, which would bring the road grade to a level that would cut off the connecting roads and further disconnect the community from emergency services, basic living necessities, jobs and schools.

Noem visited the Yankton Sioux Tribe's housing development in July to see the flooding firsthand and discuss the culvert issue with tribal officials. Since then, state officials have worked with FEMA to inspect affected homes and make arrangements to assist the tribe in repairing the damage and, if necessary, move residents to temporary housing, according to the governor's office. The state's plan to raise the highway grade included plans to raise a secondary road between tribal housing and the highway to Lake Andes, at no cost to the tribe, according to the governor's office.