Amanda Ruiz, an OLC and SD Mines student,
listens to Bryant High Horse, a Sicangu Lakota elder, mentor, cultural advisor
and instructor with Oglala Lakota College, speak about the multipurpose
learning center and greenhouse for the Lakota people being built thanks to a grant
from Ford.
RAPID CITY, SD (Sept. 11, 2018) – Oglala Lakota College,
Purdue University
and South Dakota
School of Mines & Technology have been awarded a grant from the Ford College
Community Challenge (Ford C3) to design and build a multipurpose
learning center and greenhouse for the Lakota people of the Pine Ridge
Reservation on the Oglala Lakota College He Sapa campus in Rapid City.
The project is tied to a program at
Purdue and Mines called Engineering Projects in Community Service
(EPICS) where undergraduate students earn course credits for
participation in teams that tackle real-world problems. The Lakota EPICS team
includes students and professors from all three schools.
“We have to dream big,” says Bryant High Horse, a Sicangu Lakota elder, mentor,
cultural advisor and instructor with Oglala Lakota College. “I’m really
happy that Purdue and SD Mines have come. Instead of a partnership, I always
say we’re becoming family, or tiwahe. (relatives in Lakota).
Funding from Ford enables the construction of the initial greenhouse.
Project leaders envision a future teaching center that works with existing OLC
facilities and integrates STEM, culture and food sovereignty topics per the
community’s requests. Greenhouses are increasing in number on Pine Ridge. This
new OLC-based greenhouse will offer research and development opportunities to
help community members.
.“This is about so much more than a greenhouse project,” says Amanda Ruiz, an
OLC and SD Mines student who is helping lead the project. “This is about
building mentorship, this is about the youth, this is about passing on the wide
range of traditional knowledge to the generations to come. There are so many
unspoken needs, and we can build diversified community solutions around this
project. This is a holistic effort that can become an example for other tribal
communities.”
Students in the project will work as small engineering design teams alongside
leaders who will guide the process, manage resources and budgets across three
campuses.
Madison Phelps, an Oglala Lakota College student who is majoring in
pre-engineering and tribal law, is among those on the project. “All of our
reservations are food deserts,” says Phelps. “Food sovereignty is the greatest
independence a tribe can have. Having a greenhouse that teaches about
traditional foods is something our community can really use. It gives me hope.” After finishing at Oglala
Lakota College, Phelps plans to transfer to SD Mines to complete a degree in
civil engineering with emphasis in sustainability.