Four Years of Transforming Indigenous Education
A Conversation with Oceti Sakowin Community Academy’s Mary Bowman
In Lakota culture, four is a sacred number. And as Oceti Sakowin Community Academy (OSCA) marks the beginning of its fourth academic year, its team of Indigenous educators are even more committed to their sacred work: reimagining education through an Indigenous lens.
We spoke with OSCA’s Head of School Mary Bowman recently about what it takes to create a space for students to be “unapologetically Indigenous”--and her vision for OSCA’s future.
Photo by NDN Collective
OSCA just started its fourth academic year. Looking back, what are you most proud of accomplishing through the journey so far?
“I think it’s the way we built out our curriculum from the ground up–and how we’re now seeing the way it’s supporting and empowering our students. The intention and the mission of the school was to strengthen the cultural identity of our students. And I think being a witness to that, seeing what that looks like in students I've known since kindergarten who have become so confident as third-graders. They're so proud of who they are. I call them language warriors and culture bearers, and they truly are. They want to share who they are and what they’re learning with everyone.
I remember last year, our students were playing hand games at the Civic Center, and there was music playing. And the girls just just started dancing like nobody was watching. Because that’s what we do: if there's music playing, we're going to dance because we're so proud of who we are. I just think I have the best job, because it's so beautiful to see a child have such joy and pride in who they are.”
Talk about the development of your curriculum–what was involved in that process and what does it provide to OSCA students?
“When I started designing the school, I was coming from public education–and was still grounded in westernized education. I thought we’d have more traditional education, but just adding culture and language. But through working with NDN Collective, my thinking shifted and became more liberated. Culture couldn’t be an add-on. It had to be the center of everything.
For that reason, our curriculum is focused and centered on Lakota Star Knowledge, which connects to seven sacred sites. These sites ground us in our origin story, guided our traditional migration paths, and still sustain our ceremonies and spiritual wisdom.
Photo by Angel White Eyes for NDN Collective
Through our teaching, each year our students learn a story that is connected to one of those sites. For example, as part of their promotion ceremony, our kindergarten students retell one of those stories. So they are meeting a state standard in reading–to be able to retell a story from beginning to end–but they are doing so in a way that sustains our cultural knowledge.
I’m so proud that our team has just completed our first Graduate Profile–like a curriculum map–that outlines the stories, teachings, and ceremonies of our Star Knowledge. This profile encompasses what our students will know by the time they complete elementary school. It includes classroom work and also experiential learning–including visits to our sacred sites.
This past year our first graders visited Mato Tipila or “Bear’s Lodge,” or what’s known in the western world as Devils Tower. In the month before the trip, they created poster boards–the kind you’d prepare to share research at a science fair–to share the stories of this sacred place. We hosted an event for parents and families where students acted out the story, and our dance teacher taught them hoop dancing. It was wonderful. And by the time our students are in fifth grade, they’ll be able to share these stories in the Lakota language.
Through all of this, our students are hitting every major academic area: there is so much math and science integrated in our stories and traditional knowledge, as well as language, reading and writing. But these subjects are being learned through the lens of our culture. Our ancestors kept these stories alive–and now our students will ensure they are not lost. That they will endure for another seven generations.”
“We are also a community that centers on the Indigenous value of reciprocity. That means each of us has a responsibility to each other–to help pave a better way for the generation behind you. And I can already see that value taking root in our students.”
How does this kind of curriculum translate into day-to-day life at OSCA–for students and for teachers as well?
“Unlike many other educational institutions, this place feels like a home. It goes beyond what students are learning–it’s about how they are learning it and the environment we’re creating. Above all, we are creating a space of belonging. We practice our deep kinship beliefs, grounded in the understanding that we’re all relatives. So as principal, if I have a student who is brought to my office because of a behavioral issue, I always think to myself: how would I like my grandson to be treated? We can see these moments as opportunities to learn–to talk about what a child was feeling in that moment and how to come to a mutual understanding to move forward.
For our teachers, that can be challenging in its own way–because it’s such a departure from western education. But it quickly becomes an incredibly welcome change. I had one teacher who came from public school who said, “the minute you walk in, you can feel the difference, because the students are so happy. You can feel the love and joy here in this building.”
We’ve started being very intentional about providing specific support and training for teachers interested in our Indigenous approach. Through a partnership with Oglala Lakota College and what we call our “grow your own teacher” initiative, we’re bringing education students here to work as assistant teachers while they work toward their degrees. They provide extra hands to our own teachers–and the goal is to create opportunities for them to teach full-time when they become certified.
One of our assistant teachers right now came to us because her daughter was in our kindergarten class. Her husband had recently passed away tragically–and she told me how healing being at OSCA has been for her daughter. She was committed to having her children grow up in the culture and the language, and how she’s on her way to being a part of that process as a teacher herself.”
Photo by Angel White Eyes for NDN Collective
How has the community responded to OSCA’s approach?
“The first year we opened, we really had to push hard to recruit students–because it was brand new and an extremely different approach to education. But that was our intention–to look different, to offer something public school couldn’t. As we begin our fourth year, I think we’ve demonstrated what this approach of being grounded in culture can do. We have 70 students and, since that first year, we always have a wait list. Our parents and families share that their students are reading and singing in Lakota, and teaching each other about “being a good relative” and taking care of each other--something that’s so deeply important in Lakota culture.
I also think our students are already teaching the wider community as well. Our students are asked to come and sing and pray in Lakota often. In May, they were asked to sing a prayer at the opening of a memorial to the children who died while at the Rapid City Indian Boarding School, which operated from 1898 to 1933. The children at that school were removed from their families to forget who they were and to assimilate. And for our students to stand and sing and honor them in their Indigenous language–it’s the way we heal from intergenerational trauma.”
With four years behind you, what do you see as OSCA’s greatest impact–and how do you imagine that impact will grow over time?
“I think providing that deep sense of belonging–that’s something that absolutely isn’t the norm for most Indigenous students.
I was born and raised here, but in terms of education, I barely ever saw myself in what I was learning. When I did, the representation of Indigenous people was never positive. But I was very fortunate that I was raised in our Lakota culture–and I would go home and hear all these beautiful things from my mom about our language and our beliefs. I was so lucky I had that. I think it’s the reason why I was able to graduate when so many other of my peers dropped out. That's what's different at OSCA. Our students do not feel like they're outsiders in their education as I once did.
We are also a community that centers on the Indigenous value of reciprocity. That means each of us has a responsibility to each other–to help pave a better way for the generation behind you. And I can already see that value taking root in our students and the way they think about what they want to do with their lives–and how they want to serve their communities. Through deepening their cultural knowledge, they understand that we are all interconnected, and that we all have to use our individual gifts to take care of each other.
I always tell them how excited I am to see who they will become and where their gifts will lead them. Even as children, they are already becoming leaders in our community by becoming our language warriors and culture bearers. But I know the confidence that brings them will lead them to such incredible places.
I said the other day to a group of students, “maybe one of you will be a senator.” And a young girl responded back, “Oh, Uŋčí, that’s me! I’m going to be a Senator. And I’ll get our land back!”
That will be our long-term impact–empowering our students to dream big and change the world. And we’re only just getting started.”