Imagine Montana June 16 5-7 p.m. at Bozeman Public Library

Can you imagine an inclusive, sustainable economy? A Montana where our most vulnerable neighbors have opportunities to prosper and all children realize their full potential? If so, we need you to Imagine Montana at the Bozeman Public Library on Wednesday, June 16 from 5 – 7 p.m.

Together with Montana Budget & Policy Center, and WEEL, Hopa Mountain invites you to participate in a community conversation on April 9 to share your hopes for Montana and your ideas on how we get there. We welcome everyone, especially families struggling to make ends meet, community advocates, and local legislators, to discuss how we can work together to build plans and policies that create a better future for all Montanans. This event is free of charge and open to everyone. A light dinner will be served.

Hopa Mountain is a nonprofit organization based in Bozeman whose mission is to invest in citizen leaders, adults and youth, who are working to improve education, ecological health, and economic development. For more information about Imagine Montana and the community conversation on June 16 at the Bozeman Public Library or to register, please call (406) 586-2455.

Grants available for youth-led service-learning

Application due: June 30, 2010

Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization, announces the availability of competitive sub-grants for Youth Leaders in Service. This Learn and Serve America Community-Based grant program is designed to engage rural and tribal youth, ages 11-17, living in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, in leading service-learning activities that create healthier communities. To be eligible to apply for the Youth Leaders in Service sub-grant, each applying organization must submit a Preliminary Application to the four-day service-learning training that will take place from August 9-12, 2010 at Luccock Park Camp in Paradise Valley (south of Livingston, MT). Community-based and out-of-school program directors are invited to submit a complete Preliminary Application by June 30, 2010, which outlines all four participants who will be attending the training. The Preliminary Application can be found at www.hopamountain.org/programs. Following full completion of the service-learning training by all of an applying organization’s attendees, organization’s will then be eligible to apply for a sub-grant award of up to $15,000.00 to initiate and implement Youth Leaders in Service in their home communities from Fall 2010 through Summer 2011. Final Applications will be due October 1, 2010 and will be made available to attendees at the August service-learning training in Luccock Park.

Up to sixteen sub-grantees will be awarded a Youth Leaders in Service sub-grant to receive up to $15,000 in funds. Funds must be matched 1:1 in cash or in-kind support by sub-grantee organizations. Rural (towns with less than 35,000 people) and tribal communities are eligible to apply. Preference, only, will be given to participating organizations that serve a high percentage of children through free and reduced lunch programs.

Hopa Mountain’s mission is to invest in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, who are working to improve education, ecological health and economic development. “Through Youth Leaders in Service, rural and tribal youth will have the opportunity to design and implement innovative service projects in cooperation with local community partners,” said Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Executive Director of Hopa Mountain. Hopa Mountain will provide ongoing training and technical assistance to selected youth program leaders and teen citizen leaders throughout the Northern Rockies.

Marissa Spang, Youth Leaders in Service Coordinator at Hopa Mountain, will host several free, live informational webinars throughout June 2010 on Youth Leaders in Service. Every webinar will offer an introduction to service-learning and an opportunity to initiate service-learning through Youth Leaders in Service. Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility and build community leadership and connections. Service-learning projects address important community needs and unmet opportunities through strategic inquiry, committed action and reflection and lead to visible and sustainable outcomes.

The free webinars will be hosted on the following dates and times:

June 2, 2010 from 2:00PM-3:30PM
June 4, 2010 from 10:00AM-11:30AM
June 8, 2010 from 2:00PM-3:30PM
June 10, 2010 from 10:00AM-11:30AM
June 14, 2010 from 2:00PM-3:30PM

The webinars are open to educators and community members who are interested in learning more about service-learning and bringing service-learning to their communities through Youth Leaders in Service projects. There is no charge to participate in the live webinars and registration is not required. However, please note that participants must be able to access a phone line, a computer and the Internet. The following web page gives the webinar link, the phone number and the conference ID number that participants must use to access the webinar: www.hopamountain.org/programs.

Youth Leaders in Service is made possible through Learn and Serve America, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Learn and Serve America helps over one million students every year make meaningful contributions in their communities while building their academic and civic skills and establishing a lifelong commitment to service. The Corporation for National and Community Service engages more than four million Americans in service each year through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America.

Imagine Montana: Envisioning Economic Security

Opportunity Link recently worked with Hopa Mountain, the Montana Budget & Policy Center, and WEEL to organize an Imagine Montana session for northcentral Montana. This citizen leaders planning session, held in Havre on March 29, brought together 35 leaders across the Hi-Line who discussed how to become more actively engaged with shaping state policy that helps struggling families.  Participants recognized that many working Montanans are struggling with the economic crisis. Many working families have found it hard to make ends meet because wages have not paid enough to meet basic needs. Small businesses, the largest type of employer in Montana, are finding it harder and harder to provide affordable health care and retirement plans for their employees, who are finding it harder and harder to pay for them.

Recognizing these factors, Imagine Montana conversations in Havre centered on five focus areas: Increasing the quality and quantity of value-added Montana products; creating more “green” jobs; increasing job-related training in secondary school through higher education; early childhood education and child care; and ecological health/farm-to-organic markets. Groups formed into these five discussion areas and outlined ideas and future work plans. Individuals identified policy areas that they would like to work on in the future.

As more Imagine Montana discussions continue across the state, there will be opportunities for northcentral Montana citizens to join working policy groups with others who are interested in working on similar initiatives. Imagine Montana partners are now working on a new website to keep citizens apprised of the project’s progress.

For more information, please contact Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Hopa Mountain executive director at bsawyer@hopamountain.org.

Anaconda Teens Imagine a Better Park

ANACONDA – It doesn’t take much to imagine a better Benny Goodman Park: littering, vandalism and suspected drug use plague its reputation as a spot for delinquents.

A group of Anaconda youth is challenging that fortune through action and ownership.

“Imagine the Park,” a teen-led service project launched in January, is creeping into reality. What began as a few ideas proposed by skateboarders has grown into grand rehabilitation for a troubled hangout.

The overall concept is still in its infancy, but aims to create fun and healthy alternatives for all kids. New playground equipment and skate park expansion are among the possible improvements moving forward.

Deb Cuny, executive director of the Anaconda Family Resource Center, and VISTA coordinator JoAnna Thayer oversee the project’s many ambitions.

“What we’ve chosen to do is look at that park and build more assets,” Cuny said. “We realize we have something positive down there.”

A $15,000 Learn and Serve America matching grant lifted the project off the ground, funded by Bozeman’s Hopa Mountain Inc. at the beginning of the year.

Hopa Mountain appreciated how “Imagine the Park,” plans to take on a high risk area of the Anaconda, Cuny said.

With that money and additional fundraising to back their potential, project leaders invited the public to a kick-off event Jan. 9 at the park, which about 50 people attended.

From that meeting came the kids’ list of key ideas, which Cuny said they are continuing to develop.

“We’re telling kids we’re building our foundation here, and we have to build it strong,” Cuny said.

Brainstorming new ideas

“Imagine the Park” meets weekly at the Anaconda Family Resource Center building, broken into five committees to explore every corner of Benny Goodman.

The original skateboarders continue their work on the skate park

committee. Others may choose improvement and repairs, playground and pavilion, new projects or policy and enforcement.

An executive committee is also in place to oversee the budget and make all final decisions. It is made up of a few leaders from the other focus

committees.

Together, they work on specific action plans for feasible ideas,

Thayer said.

“Each committee will be

responsible for going through each idea and determining which are

realistic to accomplish this year,” she said.

Surveys to Fred Moodry Middle School and Anaconda High School will generate a more inclusive picture of what the park’s most frequent users want to see.

Questionnaires go out in mid-April, with results back by mid-May, Cuny said. It will include types of projects, and park hours.

“We’ll go over our key ideas and funnel those down,” she said. “We’re trying to make this as inclusive as possible.”

Kids’ involvement

Anaconda High students Harold LaForge and Trey Kahm waited as long as they could for something to change at Benny Goodman. A few years’ deterioration left the skate park less and less fun to drop into.

LaForge and Kahm, both 16-year-old sophomores, said they couldn’t deal with the conditions.

“A lot of stuff there is breaking,” Kahm said. “It’s just run-down and nasty.”

The skate park at Benny Goodman has gone downhill since it was built in 2005, Kahm said.

“I think every five years, a skate park should start adding stuff on,” he said.

Five years later, Kahm and LaForge joined the base group of skateboarders seeking to clean the park. They joined with the Family Resource Center, and “Imagine the Park” was born.

The kids simply wanted lighting during the summer so they could skate later at night, Cuny said.

“All it took was for these kids to know someone was behind them,” she said.

On the skate park committee, LaForge and Kahm are thinking big. They said they’d like to see expansion to include street-style terrain, and a repair to the drain to cut down on pools of murky storm water.

“It’s a good place for kids to hang out, up until when it’s become so trashy,” Kahm said.

Community involvement

Pat Huber, director of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Parks and Recreation, said they will work with kids to provide whatever resources they can to improve what he described as “an eyesore.”

“I commend them,” Huber said. “It’s a great start, and if we can convince the rest of the community to take responsibility like these kids, it’s a win for us.”

“Imagine the Park” made a presentation to the Anaconda commission March 23, and chairman Neal Warner told the Montana Standard they would support the project any way they can.

“I’m excited about projects like this where the youth take charge,” Warner said. “It’s neat, because it teaches them how to get involved.”

Project leaders will look to rally community support April 24 for Global Youth Service Day. With help from AWARE Inc., they will hold a recycling drive to help clean the park.

It also works as a fundraiser, Thayer said. Everyone is encouraged to join the effort.

“As adult leaders, we must mentor the youth,” Thayer said.

Reporter George Plaven may be reached via e-mail at george.plaven@lee.net.

Hopa Mountain Announces Learn and Serve America Grants; Encourages Organizations to Apply for Upcoming Grant Awards

The Governor’s Office of Community Service (serve.mt.gov) announced today that Hopa Mountain (hopamountain.org), a non-profit organization in Bozeman, has awarded Learn and Serve America grants to six Youth Leaders in Service projects in Montana and one in Wyoming, through a partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service (nationalservice.gov). The grant awards range from $8,000 dollars to $15,000 dollars.

“Through Youth Leaders in Service, rural and tribal youth have the opportunity to design and implement innovative service projects in cooperation with local community partners,” said Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Executive Director of Hopa Mountain.

The Learn and Serve America awardees include:

· Children’s Museum of Bozeman
· Anaconda Family Resource Center
· Boulder Elementary School
· Eureka School District
· Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation
· Heart Butte High School
· Facing History Community Night Class at Wyoming Indian High School

Each awardee is implementing youth-led service-learning projects in their home communities in 2010.

Hopa Mountain’s mission is to invest in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, who are working to improve education, ecological health and economic development.

“Our youth are our future,” said Jan Lombardi, Director of the Governor’s Office of Community Service. “Hopa Mountain’s programs give youth a chance to set their sights on a hometown problem and learn how they can personally invest in creating a brighter vision for the future.”

Hopa Mountain is offering free service-learning webinars throughout April and May for those individuals and organizations interested in implementing youth-led service-learning projects in their communities or applying for a Youth Leaders in Service grant in June.

For more information about upcoming service-learning webinars or to participate, please contact Marissa Spang, Youth Leaders in Service Program Coordinator at (406) 586-2455 or visit www.hopamountain.org.

Learn and Serve America helps over one million students every year make meaningful contributions in their communities while building their academic and civic skills and establishing a lifelong commitment to service. For more information please go to http://www.learnandserve.gov/.

The Corporation for National and Community Service engages more than four million Americans in service each year through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. For more information please go to http://www.nationalservice.gov/.

The Governor’s Office of Community Service (serve.mt.gov) was created in 1993 to expand service opportunities for all Montanans.

Notes from the Edge: What Hopa Mountain has Meant to Me —Andy Marshall, Youth Program Participant

Hopa Mountain has changed my life, and the way I look at it in so many ways. Being part of this program has opened up my way of thinking about the different personalities each of us hold. While they may not be perfect, it is what gives us our shine, our uniqueness. I’ve seen so many people within Hopa Mountain share moments in their lives that meant so much to the people listening. Just listening to the words has helped me understand them a little bit better and strengthened my ability to listen in everyday life.

At this year’s summer camp, we had a tour of uptown Butte, a place that reminded me of how time can pass. The buildings were so old, but
thankfully, taken care of. The places we visited and stayed were beautiful. This year we stayed at Homestake Lodge near Butte. We enjoyed playing games that got us thinking about life. One of the group activities was a scavenger hunt. Learning how to use tools like a compass, and finding points then adapting it to a map was fun and eye opening.   This camp is a place that has many warm memories in my heart.  Even a small moment can create a big smile within . . .that’s something I believe.

We headed to bed one night and we had an awesome opportunity. Through our windows, our whole room had the chance to see wolves up close. The moment we saw the first, another followed, and another after that. Before we knew it there was a whole pack outside, a sight you very rarely see. Just to see the amazing glint of their eyes was captivating. We were privileged enough to witness this event. It was simply a stroke of luck.

The counselors I worked with were and are very good people. They had the ability to talk with so much power, to communicate with others, sharing words that they believe. The youth I have worked with have expressed out loud the feelings that I have been so proud to be trusted in. That is one of the advantages to this program in my eyes, learning to express yourself in a way that you believe. And knowing that you need to follow others in some situations is a good skill to have also.

The program activities expand our understanding of life and how we take place in life. Talking about things that you can do to help your community and what you want to do with your future… putting your mind in a position to think about your future, something so simple but something so meaningful, if only you think about it.

Over the years, I have worked with Hopa Mountain’s summer camps, and have been amazed at how everyone just seems to get along. How they could take all their differences and put them aside. Hopa Mountain has helped me understanding that people have more to show then just what they present on the outside.

In my opinion, if we can do that everywhere, the world would be a better place. The experience with the Hopa Mountain youth programs has been something to remember for the rest of my life.

Sharing Resources for Positive Youth Development

This is a very exciting time to be investing in positive youth development. Education leaders, like Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, have unequivocally shown that intensive, long-term commitment to youth, especially those who are disadvantaged, pays off in adulthood. As parents, educators, and caring community members, we all dream of a brighter future for our children. Now, how do we fully live into this vision to ensure that all youth have the opportunity to reach their full potential?

To start, it is important to raise awareness of common goals for positive youth development. These are:
— Promoting positive relationships with peers;
— Emphasizing strengths;
— Providing opportunities to learn healthy behaviors;
— Connecting youth with caring adults;
— Empowering youth to assume leadership roles in programs; and
— Challenging youth in ways that build their competence.

Research shows that if youth are connected to even one caring adult, they are more likely to complete high school. Creating a shared vision for positive youth development in our communities is vital to realizing these goals.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a process developed by David Cooperrider, can help in realizing a broadbased community vision for youth. Beginning an AI process in your town begins with discovery.

Discovery: Invite community members (including youth) to talk to each other and to discover when and where the community engages youth at its best. Uncover what youth, adults and programs that serve youth are already doing well. Hearing positive youth experiences can be energizing.

Dream: Sometimes run as a large community visioning session that includes youth and adults, a leading question in this phase is, “Describe three hopes for youth in our community.” Individuals’ visions will help set the direction for more positive youth development.

Design: Typically, small groups will identify key relationships, examine how their dream overlaps with those of others for positive youth development, and determine activities that need to be realized to achieve the dream.

Deliver/Destiny: With plans in place for positive youth development, individuals can take ownership and begin implementation. In the implementation process, maintaining the group’s energy level depends on continuing to maintain a shared sense of destiny for youth. Continue discoveries of new strengths to help your community and youth realize their dreams.

Using Appreciative Inquiry can move communities and existing programs toward more positive youth development, with a focus on supporting long-term social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development.

At Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman based nonprofit, we are using AI to strengthen positive youth development in rural and tribal communities throughout the Northern Rockies. Positive youth programs are core to our mission. With broad-based support, we collaboratively organize year-round youth programs and help rural and tribal citizen leaders launch or improve existing programs.

Hopa Mountain’s youth leadership programs in Gallatin and Park Counties offer teens between the ages of twelve and eighteen year-round opportunities to strengthen their leadership skills through positive educational experiences, time outdoors, service learning and personal asset development. Ongoing activities support teens in becoming agents for positive change in their peer groups, families and communities while gaining valuable life skills in service to others.

Our youth leadership programs start with week-long summer camps focusing on outdoor experiential challenges, time in nature, individual skill development and service projects. During the school year, youth programs meet weekly. Meetings include time for planning and implementing service projects, team-building activities, leadership development, positive youth mentoring and free time to socialize and build friendships. Teens often lead portions of meetings to practice hands-on leadership and vote on possible activities and projects for the group.

Quarterly service projects are organized and implemented by the teens. In addition, youth participate in educational activities that expose them to new interests and opportunities. Team building sessions strengthen skills such as problem solving, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making.

If you are interested in starting a youth program in your community, Hopa Mountain staff can help facilitate planning sessions, trainings and provide technical assistance. Hopa’s Youth Program Manual and Youth Leaders in Service Community Innovative Guide are available free of charge at www.hopamountain.org.

—Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Ed.D., is the Executive Director of Hopa Mountain. She can be reached at (406) 586-2455.

Hopa Mountain’s youth programs and technical assistance services are made possible with generous support from the O.P. and W.E. Edwards Foundation, the Walter L. Braun and Lucille Braun Family Charitable Gift Fund, the Beim Foundation, the Treacy Company, Learn and Serve America, a program of the National Corporation for Community Service, and the National Science Foundation.

The Park County youth leadership program is offered in cooperation with LINKS for Learning and Yellowstone Country Guardians.

Strengthening the Circle: Native Nonprofit Leadership Program 2010 Applications Open

Applications for Strengthening the Circle, the 2010 Native Nonprofit Leadership Program (NNLP), are now available on-line at www.hopamountain.org/Strengthening_the_Circle.html

This yearlong training program is designed to give Executive Directors and Board members the tools, skills, and technical support needs to successfully develop and strengthen nonprofit organizations working with youth in Indian Country. Hopa Mountain, Seventh Generation Fund, the Indian Nonprofit Alliance, Artemisia Associates, WolfStar PR, and the Foundation for Community Vitality are cooperatively organizing the 2010 Native American Nonprofit Leadership Program.

Strengthening the Circle aims to strengthen the capacities of experienced and emerging non-profit organizations that respond to the needs of American Indian families, especially those organizations serving families and youth on Indian reservations. This Native Nonprofit Leadership Program will consist of a 4-day workshop for 40 executive directors and Board members with follow up technical assistance. The 4-day training program will take place in Bozeman, Montana April 20-23.

Travel, lodging, instruction, and materials will be covered for applicants that are accepted into the program.In addition to the 4-day training session, each participant will receive a Strengthening the Circle Guidebook for Native nonprofit leaders, resources for Board development; eight hours of consulting or coaching; and ongoing support through your peers and past graduates of the program.

For more information about the upcoming program, please contact Marissa Spang at Hopa Mountain at (406) 586-2455, marissa.spang@hopamountain.org or apply at http://www.hopamountain.org/Strengthening_the_Circle.html

Montana Superintendent of Schools Denise Juneau Teams Up with Bozeman Based Hopa Mountain Foundation to Prepare Montana Children for Success in School

December 16, 2009

More Montana parents and caregivers will have the opportunity to prepare their children for success with reading thanks to a new partnership between the Montana Office of Public Instruction and the Hopa Mountain Foundation http://www.hopamountain.org/, a Montana-based non-profit that heads up a statewide literacy initiative.

Today, Superintendent Denise Juneau’s office announced the purchase of 5,400 high quality books for Montana children ages 0-5 living in families with limited access to early learning resources. Juneau says she hopes the partnership will give parents and caregivers tools and information to help them prepare their children to become successful readers and learners. Hopa Mountain will match the purchase in the spring of 2010.

“Literacy is the first building block children need to reach their full potential,” said Juneau. “When we get books into the hands of parents during the preschool years, we support them as they lay the essential foundations for learning during the school years.”

Many studies indicate that babies, toddlers and preschoolers will have improved school and life outcomes if members of their families spend a little time each day reading books with them.

Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Executive Director of Hopa Mountain said, “We are pleased to partner with OPI’s Indian Education Division to support families of preschool children in Montana communities. We know that early practice with sounds and words builds strong connections in children’s developing brains – connections that will enhance learning throughout the school years and beyond. We owe all our children the best early learning foundations we can provide.”

Hopa Mountain http://www.hopamountain.org/ is a Bozeman nonprofit that invests in citizen leaders who are working to improve education, ecological health, and economic development in their home communities. Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program, an early literacy initiative led by teams of local community leaders around the state, offers parents early learning resources, along with personalized encouragement to actively promote the early learning within family life that leads to children’s success in school.

Oglala Lakota youth rich with culture and knowledge

By Elvin Returns From Scout and Rose E. Honey, Special to Today

Story Published: Dec 5, 2009

Story Updated: Nov 27, 2009

“What is papa and how do you cook tinpsila?” Middle and high school students from the Lakota Native Science Field Center recently shared the answers to these questions with people from two other Native communities in the Paradise Valley of Montana.

In August, 21 students, six staff members and three elders from the Pine Ridge community joined more than 75 other students, staff and community elders from the Blackfeet and Wind River Native Science Field Centers for the 2009 Native Science Field Center Summer Gathering. Though their communities are known as some of the poorest in the country, this summer the LNSFC students learned that their communities are some of the richest in the world when it comes to culture and knowledge.

LNSFC was started three years ago on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is currently directed by Elvin Returns From Scout with the help of six Oglala Lakota College student interns and counselors; Helene Quiver-Gaddie, Dylan Brave, Oceola Blue Horse, Anthony Valella, Curtis Belile, Joy Romero, and Delaine Has No Horse, who drove the students to locations in the field.

The Bush Foundation, National Science Foundation, Oglala Lakota College and Hopa Mountain, a nonprofit organization in Montana that works to support rural and Native community organizations, provide support for the field center. LNSFC’s main objective is to engage youth in academics through a cultural lens by integrating Western science and Lakota culture and history thus encouraging science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths.

“We have the best of both worlds,” said Dylan Brave, OLC intern. “We have the Western science and we also have the traditional science, which is just as good. I think it’s awesome that we are starting to incorporate both of them because they both bring good things to the plate. It’s great that these kids get to go through this program because we didn’t have this kind of program growing up.” The existing field centers will act as a model towards expanding the number of NSFCs in order to serve youth and adults in more communities through training, mentoring and resource sharing.

Dr. Hannan E. LaGarry, a conservation biology instructor/researcher in the Oglala Lakota College Center for Science and Technology shared geological and environmental information about the Badlands National Park with Lakota Native Science Field Center students.

One important way the students learn at LNSFC is by listening to community elders who have local knowledge of native plants and animals and know the cultural and historical significance of local places. Community members who are interested in sharing their knowledge with Pine Ridge youth travel with the LNSFC to local places teaching them the Lakota language and the cultural history of these places while relating it to the ecology and geology of the area. In this way, LNSFC encourages local traditional knowledge to be passed down to Lakota youth while students learn the ecology of their environment at the same time. In addition, studies have shown that incorporating tribal knowledge, principles and language into education increases Native student success.

Community members such as Wilmer Mesteth and Warren “Gus” Yellow Hair have been lead advisors for the LNSFC in traditional science and culture. Mesteth spent more than a week with the students this summer. He showed the group native plants, shared his knowledge of their Lakota names and medicinal qualities and talked about the contents of a soil called wase by the Lakota, used as a paint-like covering for ceremony. He also took the students to locations that are important to the Lakota people such as Hunbleca Paha, a butte that was a vision quest site.

One high school student who has participated with the field center for two years liked visiting Wind Cave the best. She learned about the origin of the Lakota peoples as well as how the cave was formed by water, how pressure differences create wind through the cave and that it is the fourth longest cave in the world.

An OLC intern, Curtis Belile, who helps with LNSFC said one of the benefits offered by the center is, “just getting kids attention – they get to travel, run around, and climb around on the buttes while they learn the culture and the history of the Lakota people.”

Helene Quiver-Gaddie, also an OLC intern said, “We want to teach our students science with a cultural influence and hope that they will tell their friends and families what they learn in the program. Like a tree branches out with its leaves, we hope they will disperse information throughout the community.” Other excursions LNSFC went on this summer include LaCreek Wildlife Refuge, Mammoth Site, Buffalo Pasture, Slim Buttes, and Badlands Overlook.

The 2009 Summer Gathering opened with a sweet pine smudge, and the youth were invited to stand up to introduce themselves and to “say what you have to say with strength and confidence, and let people know who you are and where you come from.” This year at the gathering, students learned some Lakota, Blackfeet and Shoshone words, played traditional games like Double Ball, and shared cultural stories and foods with the group.

With the help of Lakota community elder Patricia May, some of the students cooked a traditional dinner of tinpsila and papa soup, chokecherry wojapi, frybread, and buffalo ribs.

Additional Summer Gathering activities included a plant identification walk with Pauline and Calvin Weatherwax, Blackfeet elders who pointed out traditional native plants that have medicinal qualities. Natural antibiotics, fluoride, and even plants for lactose intolerance were identified and students learned the importance of respecting these plants and the sun for the medicines they provide, by remembering and saying their Native names in Shoshone, led by Reba Teran from Wind River.

Yellow Hair emphasized the importance of these teachings to the students from Blackfeet, Wind River and Pine Ridge by saying, “You young people here today will carry on these teachings. Whatever you take from here today, you will walk with it and take it on your life journey. So try to keep in mind all of what you are learning today. You are learning two cultures, and you are going to walk with those. And our people are going to be strong again. We are not going to be strangers in our own country. We are going to get our rightful place back, and we are going to work with our white brothers and sisters and teach them what we know.”

This year, Little Wound School in Kyle, S.D. and Bennett County High School in Martin, S.D. have cut their school week to only four days. LNSFC hopes to provide extra academic activities for juniors and seniors in these schools by holding all-day science Fridays with the occasional afterschool and Saturday field activity for the students. High school science, math and Lakota language instructors will assist with the LNSFC activities which will run through December.

Field experiences include visits to educational centers such as the South Dakota Discovery Center & Aquarium, and post secondary schools in the area including the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Chadron State College in Nebraska and Black Hills State University. These visits will give the students an introduction to the educational opportunities that await them in areas that are not far from their homes.

LNSFC is always looking for community members to participate and share invaluable knowledge with the Lakota youth. The Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring Institutes run throughout the year. To participate at any time during the school year or for more information, contact Elvin Returns From Scout at Oglala Lakota College at (605) 455-6004.

Elvin Returns From Scout is a graduate of the Oglala Lakota College Center for Science and Technology in Environmental Science and is the director/coordinator of Lakota Native Science Field Center. Rose E. Honey is a graduate researcher.