Cultivating Lakota

Early Childhood Learning Opportunities

About The Program

The American Indian College Fund supports a Lakota language and culture revitalization project,Cultivating Lakota Early Childhood Learning Opportunities. Partnering with Sitting Bull College the project seeks to develop a scope and sequence of a pre-K Lakota immersion language curriculum, improve family engagement strategies, create an early learning language immersion assessment system, and strengthen the knowledge and skill of Lakota immersion language teachers. Focusing on early learning contexts, this project is envisioned to create long-term, sustainable plan for Lakota language and culture revitalization.

Project Description:

Cultivating Lakota Early Childhood Learning Opportunities is guided by three main objectives:

Development of Lakota language immersion curriculum, enriched by family engagement
Development of Lakota language immersion assessment aligned with curricular lessons
Provide opportunities for teachers to engage in targeted professional development in language learning and development

This funded project will have intentional benefits and sustained impact on the Lakhól’iyapi Wahóhpi families, children and teachers at Sitting Bull College and beyond.

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Connecting TCUs and our earliest learners, we support the creation and development of early childhood education from within Native communities — strengthening Native families’ roles as advocates and partners in their children’s education, and creating collaborations between early learning centers and community partners.

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