Skya Ducheneaux

Skya’s Candidate Statement

Hi there, my name is Skya Ducheneaux. I’m the Executive Director of Akiptan, a Native CDFI located in Eagle Butte, SD on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. My story begins on a cattle ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. I was born, raised and am an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. While growing up it was instilled in our family to have a solid work ethic, to keep your family close, to be a good neighbor, to be a straight shooter, and to help out whenever you can.

I suppose this is common for many rural families and communities. To explain just how rural our home is: our nearest Walmart is 90 miles away, I rode a bus to school for 45 minutes one way, my parents still don’t have cell phone service at their house and data shows that poverty is a persistent epidemic on our reservation. Therefore, I understand, on a very personal level, rural America, lack of access to resources and what it means to live in an underserved community. That was all I knew for the first 18 years of my life, then I was headed to see the world! I didn’t make it very far, the urban life was hard for me to transition to, I missed home. I missed the culture on my reservation, the small town, the community atmosphere, and I missed agriculture. So, as life would have it, I ended up back on my reservation working for a national nonprofit named, the Intertribal Agriculture Council.