A Look Back at 2023
As we begin the new year, we wanted to pause and share our immense gratitude for your support as we continue to build a better world for future generations.
All of us at Sicangu Co would like to say Wopila (an immense thank you) for walking this journey with us.
Please enjoy some of the highlights that your support helped make possible:
After an extensive listening, learning, and planning process, we built the first home at the Keya Wakpala Woiċaġeyapi site and added highly talented and passionate staff to the project to build on this momentum in 2024. The KWW team will be coordinating with Tatanka Funds to provide homeownership readiness support to prospective homebuyers at the site.
Our 7Gen Internship was awarded the Outstanding Employer Award at the National Indian and Native American Employment & Training Conference. The 7Gen Internship is a summer opportunity that exposes young people between the ages of 18-24 to the various opportunities across our ecosystem and provides them with support to implement a community service project.
Now in it’s fourth year, Wakanyeja Ki Tokeyahci expanded to included an additional grade level for a total of 32 future fluent Lakota speakers. In fact, they’ve outgrown their building and had to build an addition to accommodate the growing demand for their culturally-relevant services. In the coming year, we’ll be looking to ways to accommodate additional growth through a new school building.
Two of our tribal enterprises celebrated huge milestones by reaching their 10-year anniversaries. Both Rosebud Office Solutions and Sicangu Propane surpassed a decade in operation.
The Health Initiative offered health coaching to 30 individuals and built 66 more family gardens throughout Rosebud. The coaching program includes fresh food vouchers, cooking classes, nutrition education, personalized physical training, and socioemotional support.
We hosted the first ever Sicangu Food Summit and expanded the Sicangu Harvest Market to a second weekly location. The movement for food sovereignty continues to grow, and we’ll be looking to expand our production in 2024 through more small-scale demonstration projects.
Land stewardship and food sovereignty efforts meshed with continued improvements at the Wolakota Buffalo Range and on farmland managed by Sicangu Co. Wolakota completed it’s first pilot commercial meat harvests, and will be vastly expanding community access to bison meat in 2024.
Tatanka Funds made its first agricultural loans and provided more than $100,000 in direct assistance to Sicangu and local producers. TF is an emerging CDFI that promotes agricultural producers,
Thank you for your generosity and support, and for being part of our work. We are building a better world not just for the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, but for all our human and non-human relatives; a world where everyone and everything can thrive. We look forward to walking with you into 2024 and for the next Seven Generations.
Wopila,
Clay Colombe, CEO & the Sicangu Co Team.
