Rosebud, SD

Built environment, Climate and environment | 2026

Understanding waste-burning practices to reduce exposure to air pollution and improve waste management.

Unregulated trash disposal and waste burning are issues in many tribal communities, where investment gaps have prevented the development of robust waste management infrastructure. In the Rosebud Sioux Tribal community, trash burning is common, but there is a lack of community-level data on how burning practices might affect air quality or whether the smoke emitted from burning trash enters nearby homes. The Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, a public health organization serving the 18 Tribal Nations of the Great Plains, will study indoor and outdoor air quality to understand the health risks and environmental impacts of waste-burning practices and assist the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in exploring strategies to reduce household and community air pollution. 

The Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board will partner with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and students at local tribal college Sinte Gleska University to generate tribally owned environmental data, in accordance with tribal data sovereignty principles. Researchers at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center and the Pennsylvania State University will serve as advisors. The project team will map burn pits and dump sites in the community, tracking frequency of use, materials burned, and seasonal patterns. The team will monitor outdoor air quality and survey households about waste disposal and housing conditions, recruiting up to ten households that burn waste to participate in indoor-outdoor air quality monitoring around their homes. The team will analyze data to detect contaminants caused by waste burning. Findings will be shared with participating households and at a community meeting, where the project team will present maps and summaries of outdoor and indoor air patterns and invite interpretation and feedback. 

This project will enable action at household, community, and tribal levels. The team will develop and share informational flyers and short videos focused on safer waste handling in households and strategies to reduce smoke entering homes. At the community level, this project will initiate conversations about the health risks and environmental impacts of waste burning and build capacity to conduct environmental monitoring. Findings will be shared with the Rosebud Sioux Tribal sanitary department and other Rosebud Sioux leaders to inform decisions on dump-and-burn site cleanup, ongoing environmental monitoring, and long-term waste management policy and to advocate for infrastructure investments.