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Welcome The Lakota Project is a grass roots urban outreach
program based in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Project is specifically
designed to meet the special needs of the Lakota Indian family in
today’s society. Through the teachings of the Lakota Project
over the first 12 months, forty children and their families will
graduate from phase one of learning fundamental Lakota and will
enter into the initial stage of becoming mentors. |
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News
Through a generous grant from the United Methodist
Church, General Commision on Religion and Race, the staff of the Lakota
Project have developed a comprehensive curriculum that will help strengthen
the Lakota family and empower the Lakota children.
The curriculum is based on the seven values that have been passed down
from the Lakota Elders. With the help and guidance from the elders the
Instructors of the Lakota Project have spent the last twelve months developing
the curriculum,
details
Both on and off the reservations many schools are
unable to provide an appropriate education for American Indian students.
The students have not had access to a curriculum that includes an accurate
portrayal of their heritage and are subject to ongoing racism and discrimination.
The majority of the teachers within the school system are non-Native individuals
that do not possess the full range of knowledge in order to effectively
teach the American Indian students. For these students the opportunity
for a public education is less than fulfilling.
Loss of Family Identity and Values Loss of Language
and Culture
Currently out of the 9 South Dakota Indian Tribes of approximately
200,000 people, there are only 6 tribes that have retained their languages
and only 3 of those tribes have retained their culture. The Lakota Nation
is one of those three. Today there remain only a handful of the Lakota
people that speak and know the origin of their own language, most of those
being elders.
The Lakota language is the foundation of their
entire culture. The loss of their language as these elders pass over would
surely mean the loss of the Lakota culture and traditional way of life.
Lakota Project Non-Profit Status
The Lakota Project has received temporary recognition,
by the Internal Revenue Service, as an educational institution on 11/12/03.
Advanced ruling period began 1/23/04 and ends 12/31/07. (Foundation Classification
509(a) (1), publicly supported 509(a) (1) of the IRS Code as a non profit
organization described in section 501(c) (3).
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The Lakota children have endured despite cultural and economic hardships. The suffering that these Indian children have endured directly or indirectly due to the continual loss of their heritage is staggering. Shadowing many children in their quest to discover themselves and their culture are the complex difficulties associated with being poor. Poverty not only affects their basic living essentials like substandard housing, nutritious foods, adequate clothing and poor health care, but directly affects their academic achievement. Putting food on the table leaves little left over for educational purposes, especially secondary education, such as that The Lakota Project will provide. details |
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Historic influences by the government, organized
religions and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Once thought to be positively
assisting the Native Americans to be more “American”
by taking away their cultural beliefs, traditions and even their
languages, is now known today to be a primary cause for their lack
of self identity, self worthiness in society and has all but destroyed
the family structure. Demographics have also played their role in loss
of culture. By relocating Indians off the reservations into Boarding
Schools and for jobs, as well as providing HUD housing on the reservations,
this has led to the breakup of extended families and the decline
of teachings as a result of daily interaction with Elders.
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