Lakota Well-Being Project

12/18/2025

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❄️🎉 Congratulations to Our Fall 2025 Honors Students! 🎉❄️

Sitting Bull College proudly celebrates the students who earned a place on the Fall 2025 Honors List. Your dedication, perseverance, and commitment to academic excellence truly inspire our campus community!

We are honored to recognize your hard work and proud of all that you have accomplished. Keep striving, keep learning, and keep leading, you are shaping a bright future for yourselves and for our community!

Congratulations on your outstanding achievements!

***Reminder:
Undergraduate students must have passed 12 or more credits and not received a D or F as a final grade. Graduate students must have passed 6 or more credits and not received a D or F as a final grade.
Students who were undergraduate or graduate students and made the honor roll but opted out on sharing their name via the FERPA and/or Media Release Policies were not included in this published document.

12/17/2025

12/15/2025

12/15/2025

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Today we remember Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull) who was killed on this day in 1890. He gave his life defending our rights and way of life. Let’s honor him today and always by building up our youth and ensuring a brighter future for our people.
https://youtu.be/rwQFmTwbQpE

12/04/2025

The Pleiades constellation shines brightly in the night sky, holding deep cultural significance for the Arapaho people. More than just stars, these clustered lights tell stories of heritage, connection, and the nature that have guided generations.

For the Arapaho, the Pleiades aren't just distant points of light—they're a celestial compass woven into their traditions, marking seasons and linking the heavens to the Earth in timeless stories. The story of the six brothers and their sister who illuminate the night sky called beenoku3i’ in hinono’eitiit.

This evening and tomorrow evening would be a great viewing of the constellation, according to Inez HIgler, anthropologist (1891-1977).
Day ends: appearance of Pleiades
Midnight: Pleiades overhead
Morning about to begin: Pleiades close to the mountains in the west.

The full version of this story, in Arapaho, was recorded by Salzmann in his publications of 1956. See also Dorsey and Kroeber #82.

12/03/2025

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11/28/2025

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11/28/2025

November is Native American Heritage Month! In celebration, we’d like to introduce you to a few Native Americans who have made some enormous contributions to our country:

Fred Begay was born on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation in Colorado in 1932. Both his parents were Navajo healers and taught him Navajo medicine. Fred Begay spoke both Navajo and Ute and didn't learn English until he was 10. He attended a Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Ignacio, Colorado. Curious about the natural world, Fred Begay asked a lot of questions like how rainbows were made, earning him the name "Clever Fox". You would think this high desire to learn would gain appreciation from his teachers, but it didn't. He was instead trained to be a farmer and he never graduated high school. After serving in the Korean War, Fred Begay, still with a deep desire to learn, went to the University of New Mexico and earned a bachelor's degree in math and science (while at the same time taking remedial classes to catch up on his high school diploma). He later received a masters degree in physics and a doctorate in nuclear physics, becoming the first Native American to earn a degree in this subject. He became part of the Los Alamos Nuclear Physics team in 1971 and worked on thermonuclear plasmas as a possible alternative source of energy. He also studied the origin of high energy gamma rays and solar neutrons. Fred Begay always believed his Native upbringing helped him with his thinking. Fred Begay is also the head of the Seaborg Hall of Science, spending a significant amount of time talking to youth in the Navajo community, inspiring them to pursue careers in physics and technology. In 1994 the National Science Foundation presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

11/27/2025

“This dress is something that would probably fit my daughter, who is approximately three years old, perfectly. The amount of beadwork on this item indicates it took many months to create. I can't imagine that the little girl for whom this dress was made wore it for very long since children grow so quickly. It was probably made for one daughter, and then passed down through the family; passing down beaded items is a practice in my household. In a way, each dress carries knowledge that is then transferred from one generation to the next.”
-Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda)

Three contemporary Plains Indian artists—John Pepion (Blackfeet), Brocade Stops Black Eagle (Crow), and Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda)―reflect upon their relationships with works created by their Ancestors. The three Native culture bearers have each curated a section of the exhibition, framing works that originated within their respective communities behind one of the three concepts at the heart of the exhibition. Through this unique combination of cultural objects and stories, Creative Continuities aims to educate visitors about the diversity of Native American culture, history, and tradition that crosses tribal boundaries, past and present. Now open through June 2027.

Čheškásansan kšúpi (Dress). Lakota artist. Lakota (Sioux). Circa 1880s. Hide, metal, and glass beads. Gift of Lora and Robert U. Sandroni. Autry Museum; 2021.34.1