Lakota Perspectives

The Team

This summer, eight University of Pittsburgh undergraduate students will be participating in the Lakota Perspectives program. Coming from a wide range of majors and backgrounds, each student will be making a unique contribution to the program. The faculty leader, Mark Kramer, is a teaching professor in Pitt’s English department where he has taught creative writing and experiential learning courses for nearly two decades. Mark will guide students through various service work, cultural learning, and writing and academic exercises. To facilitate this program, we partner with Amizade (https://amizade.org), an organization that offers community-based, ethical global service learning experiences. Over the course of many years, Amizade has established long-term relationships with members of the Lakota tribe, built on trust, mutual respect, and sustainable commitments, with a shared interest in social justice and righting historical wrongs. On the ground in Pine Ridge, activities and service projects are determined and coordinated by Keller Allen and the Cross/Poorbear families, who are local community members, advisors, and leaders. Keller heads the Magpie Community Foundation, a group of organizers and Lakota elders committed to addressing the needs of the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.

Who Is Benefitting From This Project?

University of Pittsburgh students and members of the Lakota tribe living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

The Project

The University of Pittsburgh’s Lakota Perspectives program on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota offers students the opportunity to live alongside and learn from educators, leaders, and community members from the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation. Through agricultural service projects, guided trips, community building with local residents, and readings and discussions on Lakota history and culture, participating students walk away from their experience on Pine Ridge not only enriched educationally, but also with a newfound sense of community and connection to the environment.

During the program, students work on significant community projects, such as renovating a cook shack adjacent to the Cross family’s Sun Dance grounds. Each year, the cook shack enables local leaders to provide meals to hundreds of Sun Dance attendees and their families, which enables this incredibly integral festival to Lakota culture to happen. The Sun Dance is one of the seven major rites of the Lakota, of which only two others survive today. The renovations will make the cook shack better equipped with increased prep space and accommodations, which will improve efficiency, hygiene, and structural integrity. Beyond this, students will engage in various other service learning projects that serve the needs of the local community as identified by the program’s site partners and community members. Pitt students will also help run a program with Lakota youth who will participate in this construction work and in cultural learning. Some of these youth have never had the opportunity to engage in these activities related to their own culture or visit their own tribe’s sacred sites. Program participants will also participate in unique, hands-on, and immersive outside-the-classroom learning experiences about Lakota and indigenous culture and history, as well as partaking in outdoor adventures – for example, visiting Badlands National Park and the Crazy Horse Monument. 

Thoughts from students from the Summer of 2023:

“Being with the Cross family – the primary family who hosted us – was the best hospitality I’ve ever experienced. We were instantly treated like family, making such a personal experience even more profound. We shared great connections, making saying goodbye difficult." 

– Jake Vasillas ‘25, student participant 2023

Impact on the Pitt Community

Pitt students will have the opportunity to engage in unique and enriching outside-the-classroom, culturally immersive experiences. Through hands-on service, they will have the opportunity to learn directly from Pine Ridge community members about history and social issues that lack proper representation in traditional curriculum and textbooks. Students will also become more informed and well-rounded writers, researchers, and thinkers and will, upon their return, be able to utilize these abilities in the classroom, on campus, and beyond. The Lakota Perspectives program helps students grow as community leaders and become stronger advocates for indigenous rights and environmental justice.

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Contributions received for this project shall be used in accordance with the purpose described herein, the terms in the FAQs and applicable law. For questions that cannot be answered in the FAQs, please call 412-648-4658 or email engage@pitt.edu.