The Lakota Cambridge School can help build a better future

In the heart of the United States lies Pine Ridge reservation, the poorest area within the US, a community dying of broken promises, neglect, and poverty. Their statistics are those of a third world country. Fewer than 38% of their children graduate from high school. The average life expectancy is just 47 years, driven by dire poverty, unemployment above 80 percent, poor health and nutrition, a lack of housing and basic utilities, and tragically high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide.

“The Lakota people stand at a precipice. If something doesn’t change now we will soon just be pages in history books.” Lakota Educator, Pine Ridge reservation.

For decades research studies have demonstrated that fundamental changes in educational policies, increasing academic standards and providing a firm grounding in traditional Lakota values, will have tremendous positive effects for the children of Pine Ridge but, continuing a history of neglect, these policies have never been enacted and generations of Lakota people have been lost. It is recognized by the Lakota people that education can be this community’s rebirth and break the downward spiral of poverty—dramatically improving the educational attainment of Lakota children will provide a new generation of the Lakota Nation with opportunity, preparation for success in higher education, employability, skills, self-sufficiency, leadership and hope for the future.

International and U.S. educators are working with the Lakota people on the creation of Sunka Wakan. Sunka Wakan is a project of The Academy of the Fox Cities, a 501 c 3 not-for-profit organization with the goal of providing premium life-changing educational opportunities for all students. The final vital step in the creation of Sunka Wakan is to raise awareness and the needed funds. This is a groundbreaking, innovative model of K-12 education that will address the dire and urgent need of the Lakota people. Sunka Wakan reinvents education for the Lakota. Sunka Wakan is built around the philosophy of grounding Lakota children in their traditional history, culture, and language while delivering the highest international standard of core curriculum education…a level of academics that, to this point, has not been made available to the Lakota Nation. Sunka Wakan directly addresses many of the barriers to survival and self-sufficiency faced by Lakota children as individuals … and by the Lakota Nation as a whole.

In the Early 1900’s the slaughter of thousands of the wild mustangs of the Lakota by the US government was one more attempt to crush the spirit, culture and life of a noble people. Now, herds of wild mustangs, themselves rescued from slaughter and eradication on public lands, will be a vital part of a catalyst for change and new hope for the Lakota nation of Pine Ridge reservation. The horse (sunka wakan) is held sacred and is a vital and integral part of the Lakota culture. The Lakota are known as “the horse people” and horse programs will be an important part of the cultural teachings at the school. The Academy of the Fox Cities is partnering with the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB) to ensure that ecotourism, including herds of magnificent wild mustangs rescued from slaughter, will provide financial self sustainability for the school, provide opportunities for equine therapy and horsemanship for the Lakota children, and sanctuary and freedom for the wild mustangs. Although designated a national treasure the numbers of mustangs are dwindling in the wild and fewer than 180 herds remain. ISPMB is the first organization in the United States to be rescuing entire herds of wild mustangs, saving them from the fate of family bands being ripped apart, rounded-up and sent to slaughter. This meaningful collaboration will be a win-win for the Lakota Cambridge school and the wild mustangs.