Dakota Wicohan

Dakota Wicohan has worked to regenerate Dakota language and lifeways for over two decades. Through the deep commitment of hundreds of community members, Dakota Wicohan is carrying forward the wisdom passed down from culture bearers. As a cultural incubator, it lifts up intergenerational programming grounded in the Dakota values of peace and kinship, creating a circle of language activists, teachers, elders, speakers, and learners prepared to sustain cultural knowledge for future generations.

Our team at Emergence is honored to support their vital work in a range of ways:

Strategic Planning: Breaking Through Barriers

“Community is at the heart of Dakota Wicohan’s vision. So when it came time to develop a new strategic plan, they reached out to us to develop an approach that would ground the entire process in the community’s wisdom. We connected with internal staff and over 30 community members in a range of ways–gathering insights through individual interviews as well as an in-depth retreat. Together with Dakota Wicohan’s team, we collectively identified critical barriers to their work. Then, we engaged in a collaborative process to define strategies for breaking down each barrier. One of the most crucial strategies focused on growing organizational capacity by investing energy into leadership development, particularly among the next generation of staff and board members. Because they are ones who will guide and sustain Dakota Wicohan’s work for future generations.” - Liz Welch, Founder & Principal

Capacity-Building: Supporting Strong, Balanced Leadership

“As an organization, Dakota Wicohan is deeply committed to supporting a thriving internal team. We had the opportunity to co-create a staff retreat focused on fostering their individual and collective strength. Their team is creating and running such powerful and expansive programming for community members to carry forward Dakota language, culture, kinship, and values. Every staff member is deeply invested in the work. But through open dialogue, the team was able to identify that they were growing programming too quickly and stretching thin, and needed to reinvest in growing staff capacity first. It was wonderful to witness the group support each other and discuss ways to recalibrate and move forward together–and to recognize the care that Grace (Goldtooth, Executive Director) has for the team.

During the retreat, we created space for assessing where each team member wanted to develop their skills, for exploring ways to navigate conflict while remaining grounded in Dakota values, and to support development of a new generation of Dakota leaders. I think everyone left with a sense of clarity and empowerment–feeling prepared for the work ahead.” - Anya Piotrowski, Director, Team Operations & Advancement Systems

Evaluation: Drawing on Community Values to Deepen Impact

“When it’s rooted in community values, evaluation can be a powerful tool for nonprofit organizations. Before beginning our work with Dakota Wicohan, they had really thought of evaluation as an external, hands-off process that didn’t have much impact on their work. They sent their data to someone they didn’t have much of a relationship with, and staff weren’t engaged in exploring or understanding the results. So we started from the beginning, in helping the team understand how culturally responsive/empowerment evaluation is so much more than just a grant stipulation to follow. How it can truly help to guide their work and deepen their impact in the community, if it’s used with intention, if there’s connection to the process from across the organization, and the results can be explored and utilized by the team to drive toward their mission.

This year we’ve been in a process of discovery, to better understand what Dakota Wicohan’s evaluation needs truly are. And during the staff retreat, we were able to engage the full team in dialogue on the value of culturally responsive evaluation, when it’s done well. Now we’re driving forward–to ground their evaluation work in the real work of their organization, and to co-create evaluation methods that align with the community’s practices and values. The team is taking ownership of this work in such incredible ways, and I’m so excited for what’s to come.” - Audrey Fallis, Director, Advancement Systems & Evaluation