Science, Spirit Offer Hope at Native American College

Reprinted from the March 2004 issue of Science and Theology News with permission.

PINE RIDGE RESERVATION, S.D.- South Dakota is a frontier state-complete with extreme weather and open skies, Native Americans and legendary gambling cowboys, carved mountains and the naturally stunning rock formations of the Badlands. But at Oglala Lakota College, a four-year institution with 12 campuses spread over the sprawling Pine Ridge Reservation in western South Dakota, instructors and administrators push their students toward a different frontier - higher education.

Oglala Lakota College, or OLC, has a unique mission: to supplement a traditional school curriculum by teaching the Native American traditions of culture and stewardship. The Lakota-Sioux tribe sanctions and controls the college. The tribe views education as more than just a means of enriching students' lives. Graduates of the college are also prepared to enrich life on the reservation - to use their mastery of medicine, modern technology and education to help preserve and enhance their spiritual beliefs. The curriculum combines Wolakolkiciyapi, or "Learning Lakota ways of life in the community," with a standard academic program.

That integration can be difficult. Instructors face Native American students who are sometimes resistant to Western ideas and who often lack the kinds of educated role models that might draw them into a particular field. Jim Taulman, a conservation biology instructor with a southern drawl who came here two years ago from Alabama, says there are few jobs, few Native Americans with advanced degrees and a general malaise among many of the students. "You'll hear the talk out on the reservation, just standing around kicking dirt and complaining. Everyone is saying the same thing: There are no jobs."

The "campus" of the college, which is spread out over the 2-million acre Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, doesn't immediately lead a visitor to different conclusions. After traveling through stark, subtly scenic hills outside of the nearest large airport, a small green sign announces: "Entering Pine Ridge Indian Reservation." On a two-lane road that looks like a highway heading out into the middle of nowhere, kids skateboard, taking up the road without regard for the nonexistent traffic. A little farther down the main road into Pine Ridge, a man stands next to his pickup truck in the middle of a field covered with trash and metal scraps. There are a few ranch houses in the distance. On the local radio station, teenage DJs play hip-hop - Outkast or 50 Cent - dedicating each one to a friend or "anyone out there who is listening, who likes this song."

In an effort to encourage Native Americans into science and math, fields that seem far out of the scope of life on the reservation, the National Science Foundation partnered with the college in 1994 to launch the Model Institutions for Excellence program. Its goal was "to basically increase the capacity of minority-serving institutions to award bachelor's degrees in science, technology and math," said Stacy Phelps, a writer of the grant. At the college, a major part of this effort included integrating science and technology into everyday life on the reservation. Instructors attempted to mesh those daunting subjects with native spirituality and beliefs.

Continued on page 2: »