South Dakota Humanities Teachers' Institute

This 5-day conference includes presentations, discussions, journaling and daily field trips; it will provide the opportunity to experience the stories, places and people of the historic Lakota in order to understand the social, emotional and economic complexities of Lakota life today.  The in-depth knowledge gained will enhance authentic teaching and ultimately deepen learning by the children in each teacher’s classroom.

EMAIL US for more info or to register.

The South Dakota Humanities Council supports and promotes the exchange of ideas to foster a thoughtful and engaged society.

Monday-Friday Itinerary
Monday: 8am Breakfast, 9am welcome, Presentation:  How Todd Lost His County (and found it again out west).  This power point presentation gives the local history of John B.S. Todd in relation to the greater history of the state and the United States, including his entry with the Harney Expedition against the Sioux, his writing of the 1858 Treaty in Minnesota and the eventually naming of Todd County at the Rosebud Reservation. 
10am handout maps and preview our first field trip, drive to Fort Randall, visit Fort Randall Post Chapel and military cemetery.  Information will be presented on the fort’s historical significance and its most famous occupant, Sitting Bull, by Wagner Area Historical Society.  Noon Meal at Fort Randall Casino, discuss Casino’s role in modern Native American life, culture, and economy.  Drive to Marty, the headquarters of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, which has been located here, on the east bank of the Missouri River since Todd helped write the Treaty of 1858. Visit the Marty Catholic Indian Mission Church, drive to Greenwood to the Monument of the Treaty of 1858 and the gravesite of Struck by the Ree, whom Merriweather Lewis announced would grow up to be a friend of whites. On the way home, stop at spot where the Keya Paha River joins Niobrara River, a landmark designation in the 1858 Treaty.  Around 7pm, supper will be served at the TeePee Café in Bonesteel.

Tuesday:  8am breakfast, 9am presentation:  What Happened After Whetstone? This power point presentation documents the basic chronological locations of Spotted Tail, Swift Bear and Milk from 1869 to 1875.   9:30 South Dakota Humanities Scholar Joanita Kant of Brookings offers her presentation:  Quill and Beadwork of SD’s Sioux Indians. This program shows how beads and porcupine quills were used from the time of Christopher Columbus to the present. The focus is their use among the Sioux.  Immediately following her will be a display and presentation of local bead artisan Judy Hanson.  Judy was taught to bead the old way, from her grandmother Geraldine Yellow Eyes at Milk’s Camp.  For our field trip, we will drive ten miles to the 99^th meridian, the longitude that formed the border of the Great Sioux Nation from the land opening of the east 1/3 of Gregory County in 1892 to the western third’s opening in 1904.  We’ll visit the new round UCC church, as well as the 1903 Episcopal Church that Milk’s children had placed on the north bank of Ponca Creek on his allotment after his death.  Chief Milk’s great-x-4 granddaughters (one lives on the allotment today) will provide the tour of this church and the Episcopal cemetery where Chief Milk is buried.  We will also visit the former Congregational Church on the south bank of the Ponca and its cemetery (where one of Red Cloud’s daughters is said to be buried), Milk’s Camp Day School where the Indian Agent was shot in 1902 and the Catholic Cemetery south of Milk’s Camp.  Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Milk’s Camp Community member Judy Hanson will show old photos, star quilts, and lead participants in a mini-bead project. Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Milk’s Camp Community member Brandon Andrews will demonstrate traditional artwork in a new form:  tattoos.  Supper will be Indian tacos served by Judy and her family at the Milk’s Camp Day School pow-wow site.

Wednesday:  9am drive to Mission, SD.  At 10:30am we will drive through Antelope Community, on the eastern edge of town and contrast this with the Milk’s Camp Community.  At 10:45 visit and tour of Heritage Center at Sinte Gleska University, noon lunch at Pizza Place, drive to Rosebud, the Headquarters of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the location of Spotted Tail’s final camp.  There will be a Humanities Presentation by Mike Marshall of traditional Lakota games, and dance and singing demonstration by Shane and Noella Red Hawk.  We’ll talk to tribal tourism representative John Spotted Tail about history of Rosebud, and hear from Charlie Moe of Salt Camp Cabins on what it means to run a bed and breakfast on the Rosebud Reservation.  At 3:30, we’ll drive to St. Francis, arriving at 4pm to visit the German-style St. Francis Mission Church and Beuchel Memorial Museum.  At 5pm, we’ll visit a sweat lodge and a Sundance site.  We’ll picnic for supper in the park along the Little White River, then drive home.

Thursday:  9Am  South Dakota Humanities Speaker presentation Bob Kolbe, antique postcards.  Bob’s impressive collection of antique Native American postcards includes some from the Bonesteel area.  10:30 Local historian Jack Broome will be walk-on guide as we drive to Whetstone Bay of the Missouri River, the site of the former Whetstone Agency on Highway 1806 (named for the year of Lewis and Clark’s trek down the Missouri), as well as former townsites of Wade, Day and Lucas.  We’ll visit Jack Sully’s grave (he was married to a Native American woman and was one of the few white men in the territory prior to 1904).  We’ll see a Spirit Mound near Burke Lake. Back by 5 or 6pm, participants will have a chance to print their own T-shirt with tattoo-inspired design (see Tuesday’s schedule).  The evening ends at the former Catholic Church in Herrick and we’ll contrast it with the Catholic Mission Church in Marty.

Friday:  9am Ronette Rumpca, Curator of Interpretation at the South Dakota State Historical Society Museum will bring kits on Buffalo and the Plains Indians, and Dakota, Nakota, Lakota Life and do a presentation for the Teachers’ Institute. This will give participants an opportunity to see the kits and do some of the activities.  Then they can bring the information back to their classrooms all over the state and in the future be more likely to access State Historical Society resources.    Rumpca’s presentation will be followed by a roundtable discussion on how to tie information into classroom.  What have we learned and how can we use it?  We'll address developing activities based on the workshop and integrating them into existing curriculums and content standards.  At this time, participants should identify resources that they have in their own community that could be utilized as fieldtrips; also who are the people that could be guests in a classroom who live in their community.

Our Humanities Institute begins Monday morning and concludes Friday around noon.  Meals are provided and include breakfast at Vosker's in Burke each morning, picnic lunch and supper as our trips allow.  Lodging is provided at the Hillcrest Motel in Burke.

EMAIL US for more info or to register.