Authentic learning experiences, including curriculum, are essential for healthy development. For South Dakota students, these experiences include opportunities to foster their connections with local communities, cultures, nature, and lands. This infographic provides teachers with guidance on how to build their understandings and skills, and with…

Indigenous women stand in solidarity on the frontline of refusal, protecting their ancestral homelands and their ways of life across North America and beyond. The Indigenous stand-off at Standing Rock in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline inspires this photo series of vignettes where Indigenous voices accompany images of Indigenous women in…

During the 2024-2025 school year, the state of South Dakota will implement a curriculum inspired by the conservative Hillsdale College model. South Dakota teachers will need to expand their content coverage without the benefit of additional instructional time; find ways to teach young students content that is developmentally inappropriate; base…

Limited research exists to address Native American college student experiences and culturally appropriate ways of integrating student affairs practices (Shotton, Lowe, & Waterman, 2013). In fact, the dominant society's culture in institutions of higher education is often contradictory to, and even discriminatory toward, American Indian student…

This qualitative study used a focus group approach (talking circles) to elicit tribal elder insight on important concepts for the purpose of creating a curriculum to teach tribal youth in South Dakota about nutrition and physical activity in culturally appropriate ways. The focus groups were part of a larger project that is exploring mechanisms…

The Indigenous voice may be muted or lost at complex and controversial cultural heritage sites, but barriers to interpreting these sites can be bridged through collaboration and co-creation. This process necessitates a long-term investment by both the sites and stakeholders. Lessons learned from this experience can serve as a framework for…

The problem statement for this manuscript is to describe the literature on grant funding for underrepresented investigators, particularly American Indians, and detail the CRCAIH Pilot Grant Program and its success in developing underrepresented researchers (e.g. American Indian, early stage investigators). Grant funding is increasingly difficult…

Twenty-first century classrooms are filled with increasingly diverse student populations. Effective teacher preparation programs must include explicit course work in culturally responsive pedagogies and field experiences that place educators in new sociocultural contexts. Field experiences in cross-cultural, place-based settings have the potential…

In 1742 two sons of the explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de La Verendrye met an indigenous nation they called the Gens de l'Arc somewhere along the middle Missouri River near present-day Pierre, South Dakota. Louis-Joseph and Francois were searching for the mythical Sea of the West, and the former asked the chief of the Gens de l'Arc if he…

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is in need of several thousand houses to alleviate overcrowding and improve living conditions. The United States government has failed to provide appropriate or sufficient housing and other individuals and organizations that have attempted to build homes for the Lakota have met with widely varying results. This paper…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether enrolled members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation who graduate from the Sisseton Wahpeton College have experienced impacts on their lives upon earning a degree. The study was a qualitative, descriptive case study that was intended to report the responses provided by…

Sinte Gleska University students are all ages. The author's class has an even mix of genders, and there are also non-Indians with various experiences and backgrounds, but they have one thing in common. They are eking out a living in the second poorest county in the nation. The class discusses why NDNs or Natives write. In "Winged Words:…

American Indian adults have the highest smoking rate of any racial group in the nation. By the turn of the 21st century, smoking rates for the general adult population were reported to be 24%. Among adolescents in the United States, 34.8% of high school students reported they currently smoked in 1999. In comparison, American Indian adults report…

Legal gaming on Indian reservations has increased dramatically since the 1987 landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court in "California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians." In this case the Supreme Court upheld by a 6-3 vote the right under federal law for Indians to run gambling operations without state regulation in states…

There is no "typical" rural teacher. But wherever rural teachers are, they struggle against mighty forces, and they often struggle alone. This article provides a glimpse into the lives of three teachers in diverse, far-flung settings: Haralson County High School in northern Georgia, Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation…