A comparative analysis of the planning processes on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux Indian reservations in South Dakota is presented in this master's thesis. The planning process is basically the same as is utilized in planning for a city, county, or region, but the problems facing reservation planning bodies are greater due to the greater incidence of unemployment, underemployment, substandard housing, low family incomes, illiteracy, and general poverty on the reservations. Environmental factors which augment differences between Indian and non-Indian planning are the Indian cultural and value system and the unique legal relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. Priorities in reservation programs tend to be decided by Federal agencies on the basis of available funds. Tribal governments desire to establish priorities on the basis of need. Rosebud, with a stable tribal government, has been able to progress toward reservation development and improvement in a continuous and orderly fashion; however, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, internal political differences and personality conflicts have caused political instability which has adversely affected the planning process. Since program failures on the Pine Ridge Reservation (and to a lesser extent on the Rosebud Reservation) were partially the result of Indian non-involvement, successful reservation development should be based on a philosophy of mutual involvement and mutual consent premised on the assumption that Indian people want to be intimately involved in affairs which affect their own welfare. (JH)