How Oceti Sakowin Community Academy is inspiring funders to stand with Indigenous educators & communities
Photo by Angel White Eyes, NDN Collective
Unapologetically Indigenous. It’s the feeling that educators at Oceti Sakowin Community Academy (OSCA) instill every day in their students. Because they know that celebrating Indigenous identity, language, and culture empowers Indigenous students to grow and thrive, in the classroom and out.
Since its creation in 2022, OSCA has modeled the power of Indigenous-led, culturally grounded educational models. As part of the NACA Inspired Schools Network and NDN Collective’s educational equity work, OSCA’s educators are part of a broader movement to push back against the American education system, which has done more to accelerate the loss of language, culture, and tradition than to support the positive development of Indigenous children. The data shows how much the public school system continues to neglect Indigenous students: they have the lowest reading and math scores and high school graduation rates of any other racial or ethnic minority, and the highest absentee and dropout rates. According to the South Dakota State Report, Native students’ proficiency in English Language Arts and math are only 21 percent and 13 percent respectively, indicating systemic failures in meeting their basic educational needs.
Photo by Angel White Eyes, NDN Collective
Supporting the Indigenous Change-Makers of Tomorrow: Funders Provide Over $2.3 Million in 2024 to Realize OSCA’s Vision
Given the realities facing Indigenous students, there has never been a more critical time for Indigenous communities to design their own educational pathways. And today, funders and grant makers across the country are recognizing and responding to this need with powerful support for OSCA’s vision.
The Emergence team has been working with OSCA from its earliest days. To develop an effective advancement strategy, we first had to take into the account a number of significant challenges, including a lack of charter school legislation in South Dakota through which to secure funding; a hypercritical accreditation process for non-western, independent schools, and the smaller pool of funders interested in funding singular schools.
To confront those challenges, we focused on understanding OSCA’s vision at the deepest level and identifying what resources they would need to begin to realize it. We began identifying funders that would stand behind OSCA’s educators, in full support of an Indigenous-driven model. And we supported OSCA’s team in deepening relationships with funders to ensure funding would be sustainable–providing the time and space to do the hard work of launching a thriving, Indigenous-led school.
The result of this work demonstrates the power of OSCA’s message, vision, and impact. In 2024 alone:
The Administration for Native Americans awarded OSCA with a nearly $900,000 grant to support its language revitalization work, as part of its Native Language Preservation & Maintenance program.
The Better Way Foundation is also funding OSCA’s language work, as well as professional development for its educators, with a $450,000, three-year grant.
Northwest Area Foundation is supporting OSCA’s overall work over the next two years with a $250,000, two-year grant.
The Trust for Public Land awarded OSCA its $499,000 Forested Community Schoolyard Grant to transform the school’s outdoor area into a culturally-grounded green space, including an outdoor star knowledge classroom and powwow grounds.
First Nations Development Institute granted OSCA its Native Language Immersion Initiative grant to support the revitalization of the Lakota language.
OSCA deepened its relationship with the Vadon Foundation, which last year devoted $225,000 in funding to help OSCA realize its model for Indigenous-led education.
These and many other funders are expressing their shared belief that Indigenous-led schools, with curricula informed by Native culture and tradition, are critical to the wellbeing of Indigenous communities. With sustainable funding, OSCA’s team of educators are focusing now on completing its new school building, pursuing vital professional development, and deepening its Indigenous-centered curriculum to help every student thrive.
These investments will allow the students learning in OSCA’s classrooms today to become, as NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen has said, “the warriors, revolutionaries and change-makers of tomorrow."