Dakota Education

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Traditional Education

Traditionally, Dakota children were educated by listening to the stories of their elders that teach one how to behave and contain important life lessones. These stories were given to the Dakota by wakan (sacred) beings who stated that the Dakota people cannot live unless the stories are kept alive. They are told by men and women who have extensive training in the oral traditions. To be qualified to keep an oral tradition one has to listen to the elders for hours, tell stories back to them, and be corrected. Certain stories are meant to be told at least once a year. The repetition of hearing the stories over and over again, the attentiveness of the listener, and the authority of the speaker imprints the stories in the minds and hearts of the young people and helps the stories to be carried on over generations. Some of the stories include songs, dances, and gestures that ground their lessons in memory (Wilson 2005).

The emphasis on oral education began to die out with forced assimilation as many parents felt their children must set aside Dakota ways to be successful in the dominant culture. Today there is more awareness of the social problems caused by the loss of traditional identity and Dakota people are working to preserve the stories that are so important to their culture (Wilson 2005).

Formal Education

Children from the reservation usually attend school in nearby towns. Native high school students in Canada and Minnesota have an incredibly high dropout rate and very few go to college. The high dropout rate is caused by a multitude of social factors. Native students sometimes face racism in school or have a hard time adjusting a foreign cultural setting. For many Native people there is a stigma associated with going to school because it is seen as a route to assimilation (Wilson 2005).

Some communities are working to improve educational opportunities on the reservation by establishing Head Start Programs, local schools, and tribal community colleges. This is only possible where funding is available. The Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1980 provided federal funding for Tribal Colleges, but there has not been enough assistance for more than a few basic programs. The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) offers free education to Native students. UMM boasts a 7.2% Native student population and Native students at UMM have a remarkably higher graduation rate than Native students at other colleges in the U.S. (UMM 2005)

Links

The content of this page was carefully researched, but the authors are not experts on Dakota culture.

If you are Dakota, your feedback is much appreciated.

San, Bob and Judy Riley

    2005   Dedicated to the Native American. University of Minnesota, Morris eNews, April 21.

Sisseton Wahpeton College

    Electronic document, http://www.swc.tc/, accessed November 29, 2008.

Wilson, Waziyatawin Angela

    2005  Remember This! Dakota Decolonization and the Eli Taylor Narratives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Written by: Melissa Lorentz and Louis Peters, 2009.