Blihéi??iyA (Blee-hee-i-ch’-eeya) Verb – to bestir oneself, brace up , brace one’s energy, gather one’s strength (as for a hard task), do ones best, make an effort, renew one’s strength to keep going. Photo courtesy of Aaron Huey
Wóu?spe (Wo-oon-s-peh) noun – lesson, learning, knowledge; education
Lakota Today, Lakota Forever!
Planning Meeting held at Tribal Housing Authority – June 14, 2011
People Present:
Frances“Pigeon”Big Crow, Director, OST Childcare; Paul Forney, OST Fatherhood Initiative; Doyle Pipe On Head, Assistant CEO, Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing Authority; Wilbur Between Lodges, Housing Authority, Courtney Two Lance, Director, OST Credit and Finance Dep.; Richard Iron Cloud, Sweetgrass Project; Emma “Pinky” Plume, Director, OST Partnership for Housing, business woman and community advocate; David Carradini, HUD Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; Thunder Valley CDC: Nick Tilsen, Director; Mark Tilsen Marketing Support; Georgine Looks Twice, PR; Dallas Nelson, Community Liaison.
Summary:
David Carradini, Program Advisor for the HUD Center For Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, organized the meeting and asked those present to advise on how to structure a youth conference to be held on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The agenda changed and transformed the more we gathered input from those sitting around the table. It was decided that moving the conference date to be part of the lead up to the annual Oglala Nation Pow-wow would attract the most people.
Instead of using the customary way of conducting a conference (Panels, Keynote Speakers, etc…) we all wanted to do something different, so we created an agenda of youth activities, speakers, visioning sessions, and small group breakout sessions. This model worked very well at our Oyate Omniciye | Oglala Lakota Plan “Visioning and Listening Sessions.” This style of small-directed group discussions gives youth a chance to make their voices heard and empowers people to speak-up when they normally would not.
This planning meeting was a huge success. Everyone left the meeting feeling excited about this event even though there is much work to be done. Lakota Today, Lakota Forever, is our working title of the event. All of the people present were glad to be part of the planning process and look forward to working with each other to put on an awesome youth conference.
Held August 2nd, 3rd 2011. Location to be announced. See you all there and keep your eyes peeled for more details to come.
Wowas’ake (wo – wash ahk aye) noun – energy, power, strength.
“Renewable Energy for Tribal Community Development” will be happening in Denver (Renaissance Hotel, 3801 Quebec Street) end of the month. The timing is admittedly not great. Here are the tribal presenters, in case you’re interested in their topics:
It’s a promising crowd. Mike Connolly’s been in the game for a while. As of July last year, Campo still had the only commercial electricity-producing wind farm on tribal lands. And Daryl Williams presented last year — food waste-to-energy, through anaerobic digestion, work where you don’t have a great alternative to return nutrients to the land.
Contact the conference via ; should also get you there.
