| The Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, whose members are also know as the Dakota people, has more than 10,000 members, 65 percent of whom live on or near the reservation. The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is located primarily in Roberts County, South Dakota, which, according to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, has the distinction of being one of the poorest counties in the United States. The Lake Traverse reservation is unique in that it is an "open" reservation. Non-Indians own much of the land and there are more non-Indian people living on the reservation than Indians.
The Sisseton Wahpeton Community College (SWCC) is chartered as a nonprofit entity of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. The tribal college, which is located on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeastern South Dakota, has been successfully providing for the educational needs of tribal members since 1979. The facility was designed by the first employees of the college and built by members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and students of the initial SWCC vocational trades program to house a vocational and technical school. The college has been in the same building since it was established, and the building is in need of considerable repairs. Although renovations were done several times in the last twenty-three years, some of the renovations weren't completed and at other times things were done in a hurry. Due to those circumstances, the building does not meet electrical, building or ADA code standards.
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