RAPID CITY, SD — It is a cool late-summer morning. The smell of sage permeates the air as one steps into the red-carpeted hall of the squat and busy building. Young children eagerly greet their teachers and principal, who they call Unci, or “Grandmother”. Gathering together in one room, each person wafts the sage smoke over themselves, a cleansing ritual in many Indigenous American cultures. Children, parents, and faculty gather together in song as they welcome in the day.
This is a snapshot of the beginning of the average school day at Oceti Sakowin Community Academy, a Lakota dual-immersion school started by the NDN Collective in 2022, which seeks to integrate the Lakota culture and language into a standard learning environment for children of grades K-3. Mary Bowman, head of the school and a public school veteran of 15 years, spoke on the ritual commencement of the day afterward, “There’s data that says if they start their day with gratitude, it helps to set them up to have a positive day. So all those things help them get ready to learn”.
In 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was ratified, bringing a legal end to US government interference in Native religious practices, which had been conducted on grounds of previous legislation such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 prior. Prior to this, events such as Pow Wows and the Lakota Sun Dance were forbidden. “[1978] was the first year that we could legally Sun Dance, it was illegal. And it was it, I would say, probably, at the turn of the century, in the early 1900s that people were jailed. They call it the terrible word, insane asylum and oftentimes practitioners saw forcible assimilation by residential schools and commitment to Asylums in an attempt to make Indigenous peoples integrate into the economic and social norms of colonists”.
If the language, culture, and spirituality were not carried on in secret, it is possible that Indigenous cultures would have been lost completely– and OSCA seeks to begin to heal this damage which has echoed down through generations.
In a conversation with Bowman after the morning ceremony, she elaborated on her motivation with OSCA, which she found while teaching, saying, “Anytime I could do anything cultural, those kids just latched on,” and stated her desire to connect children with their heritage. “I think it’s one of the deepest questions you have as a child. ‘Who am I and where do I come from?’ And society tells you you’re this and you’ll never fit in that little box, that assimilation box, because that’s not where your roots are,” she said, “so part of what we’re doing here, by teaching kids a culture and language, is to heal, to help heal the intergenerational trauma,”
Following a grant by the Forest Service, OSCA seeks to expand in the near future. “Right next to our playground here, there’s kind of a flat piece of land there, we’ll have a sweat lodge,” said Bowman, who elaborated on plans for an expansion of the existing garden, new playground equipment, and an outdoor classroom. The school is currently housed in a temporary facility— however, NDN plans to eventually expand to a more permanent facility.
Additionally, Bowman hopes that in the future they will be able to provide resources to parents seeking to integrate Lakota culture and language into their children’s education who may be unable to attend at this time due to age or travel restrictions.