South Dakota
$20 million injected into support for South Dakota emergency medical services
PIERRE — The South Dakota Department of Health pushed out $20 million for improvements to emergency medical services across the state in the past two years, putting much-needed funding toward a number of vital areas, such as telemedicine and grants for local services.
Highlights of the initiative were outlined in the recently released 2023 South Dakota Department of Health annual report.
The influx of dollars should help keep emergency medical services vital in communities across the state, Marty Link, administrator for EMS and trauma programs for the department of health, told the Mitchell Republic.
“Not only was the $20 million instrumental in advancing EMS, but the ongoing support and advocacy for EMS demonstrated the commitment to our pre-hospital care providers,” Link said. “The $20 million provided South Dakota to lift up a one-of-a-kind Telemedicine in Motion initiative, replace 308 LIFEPAK monitor/defibrillators and conduct a statewide sustainability assessment of the state of EMS in South Dakota.”
Telemedicine in Medicine is a program unique to South Dakota, Link said. It connects physicians and nurse medical professionals with first responders in the field, improving efficiency in patient assessment, treatment and transfer to definitive care centers.
The $1.7 million in funding specifically for the program has helped provide tablets for EMS providers, training and telehealth services, including unlimited data, software, professional support services and project implementation.
Such improvements are important in a primarily rural state like South Dakota, where patients can often find themselves a long way from a treatment center.
“Telemedicine in Motion is a one-of-a-kind pioneering initiative first developed in South Dakota specifically for EMS providers. No where else in the country is there a statewide initiative of its kind,” Link said. “(It) is instrumental in ensuring patients have the best possible care, especially in such a vast frontier and rural state as South Dakota.”
Arielle Zionts / KFF Health News
Benefits of the system were highlighted in December when medical responders used it to treat Gann Valley rancher Jim Lutter, who had been attacked by a bison at his ranch. The communication system connected the rural ambulance personnel with an emergency medicine physician in Sioux Falls,
who assessed the situation, provided guidance and contacted the receiving hospital in Wessington Springs and advised them on how to prepare.
She also was able to arrange for a helicopter to transport Lutter to Sioux Falls, where he could receive high-level treatment. Ambulance crew members said they were able to devote all their attention to Lutter as the emergency physician advised them, took notes and coordinated responses in Wessington Springs and Sioux Falls thanks to the system.
Link said 92 of the 122 ambulance services in South Dakota are live and active with the technology, and there have been approximately 900 encounters of its use since November 2022.
Another $11.6 million in funding went to replacing LIFEPAK monitors for local ambulance services.
The monitors help emergency responders identify when patients are experiencing an ST elevated myocardial infarction, aka heart attack, in transport and allows an EKG reading to be transmitted to the receiving hospital and allow the staff there to prepare for the patient.
Time is critical in such medical cases, and detailed communication between ambulance and hospital personnel can make the difference in saving a patient’s life. The monitors help improve that communication.
“The quicker an EMS clinician can identify if a patient is having an ST elevated myocardial infarction and alert hospital staff, the quicker a patient can receive definitive care,” Link said. “Time is of the essence to ensure patients not only get the care they need, but maintain a high quality of life post event.”
Link said the department has been extremely pleased with participation in both the Telemedicine in Motion and LIFEPAK programs, including cooperation with Indian Health Services that helped supply the Pine Ridge and Eagle Butte ambulance services with equipment from both programs.
In addition, another $8 million went into a regional service designation assessment on the current state of EMS in South Dakota, with $7.5 going toward grants for the development and implementation of systems and solutions to support the sustainability of critical services throughout the state.
Mitchell Republic File Photo
The assessment is helping officials better understand the current ambulance system and identify its strengths as well as areas that need improvement. One objective, for example, is achieving ambulance response times of 30 minutes or less to any resident or visitor who calls 911.
The assessment is a first for South Dakota, Link said, being far more detailed than any previous review.
“Nothing like this has ever been done before. The department works with, engages and communicates with EMS stakeholders on a regular basis, but this is by far the most comprehensive assessment to date,” Link said. “The report provided several short, medium and long-term recommendations which will guide the department and align the grant opportunities for EMS services in a meaningful way.”
The applications for those grants were opened Jan. 16 and run through March 15. Applicants hoping to receive the grant must provide specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, relevant and time-bound solutions for improving long-term sustainability of EMS in South Dakota.
Funding for the grants must be obligated by the end of 2024, and grant recipients must spend the funding received by Nov. 1, 2026.
“This will be a competitive grant opportunity for our EMS providers across the state,” Link said. “The department will have approximately $7.5 million to distribute to these providers for a variety of activities that may include, but are not limited to, billing software solutions, supply procurement systems, workforce recruitment and retention, training programs or the development and implementation of regional hubs.”
A second round of grant funding will open and be announced later this summer.
The approximately $20 million in funding for the programs was approved by Gov. Kristi Noem and the South Dakota Legislature in 2022. Noem praised the initiative in her annual state of the state address earlier this month.
“In South Dakota, we value living a healthy life, no matter where you live. Every South Dakotan should have the Freedom to live where they want — but they shouldn’t have to choose between a rural way of life and good health outcomes. In our rural communities, emergency responders are sometimes the only local healthcare providers. They often show up in our very worst moments. But the nationwide EMT turnover rate is 36%. And in South Dakota, nearly 90% of our emergency medical services are done by volunteers,” Noem said in her address.
Noem said the funding is an investment in the long-term health of emergency medical services in the state. And a healthy EMS community means healthier South Dakotans, she said.
“These efforts are an investment in the future of EMS. More importantly, they are saving lives,” Noem said.
The 2023 South Dakota Department of Health annual report can be found at doh.sd.gov/health-data-reports/annual-report.
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 10, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 10 drawing
01-03-20-35-46, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
South Dakota
After Standing Rock, could a canceled mine project offer a roadmap for opponents of a new oil pipeline in South Dakota?
Almost exactly a decade since the start of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access pipeline gained national and international attention, new disputes are simmering over tribal rights in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Earlier this month, an environmental organization and a Native American advocacy group sued the US Forest Service, claiming that an exploratory graphite drilling project on national forest land threatened a recognized ceremonial site on mountain meadows known as Pe’ Sla, or Reynolds Prairie.
But on Friday, Pete Lien and Sons, the company behind the project, abruptly withdrew, saying it would perform reclamation on the site and would not seek to file another plan. The decision came as a striking victory for Native American tribes and environmental groups that had opposed it – but other projects in the works may not meet the same conclusion.
The project, claimed nine groups within the Sioux Nation, including the Standing Rock Sioux, would “directly and significantly” affect the use of Pe’ Sla, which sits within Ȟe Sápa, the Lakota name for the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, itself the locus of Lakota creation myths.
A second exploratory project by a Canadian company looking to mine uranium on state-owned land could affect Craven Canyon, an area that contains 7,000-year-old sites of importance to Indigenous tribes, historians and archaeologists.
Opposition to the twin projects – backed by Pete Lien, of Rapid City, and by Clean Nuclear Energy Corp – comes as a proposed Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline for carrying Canadian crude oil to the US is close to securing commitments from oil companies after Donald Trump granted permitting through an executive order.
All the projects have at their heart issues of extraction, water safety and sacred sites, much as the Standing Rock dispute of 2016 that saw “water protesters” gather in a standoff with law enforcement over concerns regarding water safety and sacred sites.
That case began when the Standing Rock Sioux passed a resolution stating that “the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of our Tribe and … would destroy valuable cultural resources” and was a violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty guaranteeing the “undisturbed use and occupation” of reservation lands surrounding the pipeline.
In the aftermath, the environmental group Greenpeace was ordered to pay damages of $345m by a North Dakota judge to pipeline company Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access in connection with the protests, an order that is set to go to appeal. Greenpeace claims the legal action is designed to silence activists.
Most of the current disputes relate to energy, reflecting the Trump administration’s drive toward US energy independence and away from dependence on foreign sources, particularly China. Graphite, used in electric vehicle batteries, is almost exclusively imported. Roughly 95%–99% of uranium is purchased from foreign sources, including Russia and Kazakhstan.
The pipeline deal, meanwhile, is expected to help increase oil output from Canada, the world’s fourth-largest producer, to around 6.1m barrels a day, up from 5.5m now. Bridger, the company behind the Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline, has said the project was being developed in response to identified market interest.
Wizipan “Little Elk” Garriott, a member of NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights group opposing the mining at Pe’ Sla, says the entire process of approval for the planned mine “happened in the dark”.
“There was no notice that they were proceeding provided to us, nor to the sovereign tribal nations,” he says, in violation of environmental and cultural impact study requirements and consultations with the tribes.
Lilias Jarding, director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, one of the parties in the victorious Pe’ Sla action, says the decade since Standing Rock has seen a huge growth in projects attempting to mine tribal lands and areas of ceremonial significance.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the push for both minerals extraction and energy has dramatically increased. “They’re being more aggressive,” Jarding says. In the case of Pe’ Sla, he adds, the company didn’t stop drilling when the lawsuits was filed: “They started drilling 24 hours a day.”
The alliance, along with tribes, claim the graphite project violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and that the US Forest Service improperly used a process known as a “categorical exclusion” to bypass reviews.
Oglala Sioux president Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement that the Sioux tribes never ceded to the US the lands in the Black Hills, which, he said, “remain the spiritual center of the Great Sioux Nation and they are not for sale, lease or exploitation” and that the lawsuit is a “united tribal response to protect a sacred site from those who continue to desecrate our ancestral lands”.
Oglala activist Taylor Gunhammer said that drilling at Pe’ Sla was akin to “drilling under the Vatican or at a sacred site in Jerusalem”.
A representative of Clean Nuclear Energy Corp, Mike Blady, said the company was “aware of the cultural significance and are doing everything in our power to ensure that there is no collateral damage”.
Will this amount to a populist action similar to Standing Rock?
The Pe’ Sla dispute did not provoke the kind of Indigenous-led, grassroots resistance to fossil-fuel infrastructure projects that accompanied the Dakota Access pipeline, which in some ways became a template for contemporary protests, powered by social media, celebrities and politicians.
The tribes were not in favor of following in that direction, Jarding says: “It’s a deeply sacred spiritual and ceremonial site, and elders have made it clear that it’s not a good place for another Standing Rock with thousands of people. They say this is not the place.”
Under the Biden administration, the tribal groups felt they were entering into a period of co-management policy over federal lands that in many cases lie within treaty agreements. But under the Trump administration, that sense of co-operation has diminished.
“We’ve seen a ramp-up of opening up federal lands for mineral and gas exploration, but as a planet we need to be moving away from fossil fuels and toward policies that are sustainable into the future,” says NDN’s Garriott.
What was planned for Pe’ Sla now, or was happening at Standing Rock a decade ago, or has indeed happened over a long history of disputes between sovereign tribal groups and the US government, he says, is “protecting our land and protecting our water, not only for ourselves but for the planet. We’re not random protesters out there – we’re protecting our own land”.
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 9, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from May 9 drawing
15-41-46-47-56, Powerball: 22, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from May 9 drawing
08-12-13-27-42, Star Ball: 04, ASB: 04
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Dakota Cash numbers from May 9 drawing
01-02-04-08-18
Check Dakota Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 9 drawing
08-11-17-29-49, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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