Recipient Organization
SISSETON WAHPETON COLLEGE
AGENCY VILLAGE
SISSETON,SD 57262
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Sisseton Wahpeton College Extension Program: Outreach and Informal Education will continue its focus on improving the healthand nutrition of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Strategies to accomplish this goal will focus onpromoting better diets and physical activities. By focusing on communal, intergenerational, and culturally based activities theproject will reduce the social isolation that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.For more than a decade, the SWC Extension Office has promoted healthier eating habits on the Lake Traverse Reservation.Originally this focused primarily on gardening, food preservation, and nutition. More recently, the activities have been expandedto include health lifestyle choices, STEM literacy, and food sovereignty. Integration of traditonal and contempary Dakota cultureis viewed as an important new inclusion which will increase interest and promote intergenerational participation.An underlying objective that runs through most of the proposed activities is support for an initiative of the Sisseton WahpetonOyate working in conjunction with the South Dakota USDA Office, the creation of a Food Cooperative. Several new activitiessuch as hydroponics, the hoop-houses, personal/small business finances, and especially the establishment of a Farmers'Market at SWC will help lay the foundation supporting this effort.The activities will be designed for individuals of all ages, with the goal of increasing intergenerational participation. Workshopswill be open to both tribal and non-tribal members living on or near the Lake Traverse Reservation. The project will increaseknowledge of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Economics, Health and Nutrition, and STEM literacy.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The SWC Extension Office will provide activities based on three core elements, analogous to the three-pole design utilized inconstructing a traditional Dakota tipi, these components will provide a solid foundation supporting the various components whichform the overall project. The first element is the use of the culture and traditions that engage both the youth and the elders of thecommunity. The second is promoting scientific literacy and knowledge, especially as it relates to the natural resources of theLake Traverse Reservation. The last is a focus on health and nutrition to combat the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, andrelated problems within the community.One primary area of activities will be the cultivation/location, harvesting, and preparation/preservation of native plants andtraditional foods. In this case it is relative easy to see how the three core elements interact. These activities also align with theCulinary Food Science program being developed at SWC, along with the food cooperative initiative that the Sisseton WahpetonOyate is trying to establish with the support of the USDA.The College has been asked to provide educational support for the effort, which will be divided into two major categories. Onewill be a small number of certificate programs preparing students for employment in the targeted sectors; this is the focus of thecurrent Culinary Food Science certificate supported by the Equity program. The SWC Extension Office will focus on the broaderinvolvement by community members, especially as it relates to gardening or production of goods for the food cooperative. It willalso look beyond the food cooperative with activities focused on home-use food sources, including making jams and jellies,garden salsas, preparing and preserving fish or other personally harvested meats. Beekeeping and honey production have alsorecently been added to the line-up of Extension activities.In other proposed activities the ties to the three core elements might be less obvious. While the physical activity and traditionalaspects of archery are apparent, the scientific literacy may not be. One way this will be incorporated is in bow makingworkshops, with the selection of proper materials and the design to make them the correct draw-weights. A high-quality self-bowmust be constructed out of wood sections that have two distinct characteristics. The back of the bow (the face away from thearcher) should be more flexible, while the belly of the bow must be able to cope with a significant amount of compression.Earlier this year the National Science Foundation funded the Kaksiza Ca?hde?ka (Hoop Hollow) Center for Dakota Linguistics atthe Sisseton Wahpeton College. A major focus of the Center is to develop topic-based language instruction (TBLI) modulesbased on traditional and contemporary cultural activities. These are taught in the Dakota language, which is shown to improvelanguage acquisition. While language instruction is not a focus of the Extension program at SWC, there is a natural intersectionwith the Kaksiza Ca?hde?ka Center and this proposal in developing the other content such as fishing, equine care and riding,archery, and gardening.Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SWC Extension Office began working more closely with the local 4-H organization. Theobjective is increase participation, especially by students from the tribal schools, and to increase the number of activitiesavailable. Archery, horsemanship, and rodeo are activities that have been supported by the SWC Extension Office. Establishinga 4H-based Robotics Club was in the early stages prior to the pandemic. As participation in these events was growing eachyear, the Extension Office wants to revitalize and expand all these initiatives.While continuing to build on prior successes, the project will expand its range of outdoor and physical activities. Participation inarchery was quickly growing amongst the college students and with the youth groups. The competitions sponsored by the SWCExtension Office at Sica Hollow were highly attended during the first two years before being cancelled in the spring of 2020.Fishing, including spearing, is an opportunity to encourage participants to engage with nature throughout the year. It alsoprovides connections to other workshops such as 'how to fillet a fish', 'different methods of cooking fish', and 'the nutritionalbenefits of adding fish to your diet'. These all have obvious ties the Culinary Food Science program and to the topic-basedinstruction of the Dakota language. Additionally, outdoor safety or winter survival workshops are also being developed thatconnect to ice fishing.The SWC Extension Office will provide activities based on three core elements, analogous to the three-pole design utilized inconstructing a traditional Dakota tipi, these components will provide a solid foundation supporting the various components whichform the overall project. The first element is the use of the culture and traditions that engage both the youth and the elders of thecommunity. The second is promoting scientific literacy and knowledge, especially as it relates to the natural resources of theLake Traverse Reservation. The last is a focus on health and nutrition to combat the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, andrelated problems within the community.1. cultivation/location, harvesting, and preparation/preservation of native plants and traditional foods2. support for community food production to increase food security, provide economic development, and support a tribal food cooperative initiative3. promote and support physical activities and a healthy life-style
Project Methods
The SWC Extension Office will provide activities based on three core elements, analogous to the three-pole design utilized inconstructing a traditional Dakota tipi, these components will provide a solid foundation supporting the various components whichform the overall project. The first element is the use of the culture and traditions that engage both the youth and the elders of thecommunity. The second is promoting scientific literacy and knowledge, especially as it relates to the natural resources of theLake Traverse Reservation. The last is a focus on health and nutrition to combat the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, andrelated problems within the community.One primary area of activities will be the cultivation/location, harvesting, and preparation/preservation of native plants andtraditional foods. In this case it is relatively easy to see how the three core elements interact. These activities also align with theCulinary Food Science program being developed at SWC, along with the food cooperative initiative that the Sisseton WahpetonOyate is trying to establish with the support of the USDA.The College has been asked to provide educational support for the effort, which will be divided into two major categories. Onewill be a small number of certificate programs preparing students for employment in the targeted sectors; this is the focus of thecurrent Culinary Food Science certificate supported by the Equity program. The SWC Extension Office will focus on the broaderinvolvement by community members, especially as it relates to gardening or production of goods for the food cooperative. It willalso look beyond the food cooperative with activities focused on home-use food sources, including making jams and jellies,garden salsas, preparing and preserving fish or other personally harvested meats. Beekeeping and honey production have alsorecently been added to the line-up of Extension activities.In other proposed activities the ties to the three core elements might be less obvious. While the physical activity and traditionalaspects of archery are apparent, the scientific literacy may not be. One way this will be incorporated is in bow makingworkshops, with the selection of proper materials and the design to make them the correct draw-weights. A high-quality self-bowmust be constructed out of wood sections that have two distinct characteristics. The back of the bow (the face away from thearcher) should be more flexible, while the belly of the bow must be able to cope with a significant amount of compression.Earlier this year the National Science Foundation funded the Kaksiza Ca?hde?ka (Hoop Hollow) Center for Dakota Linguistics atthe Sisseton Wahpeton College. A major focus of the Center is to develop topic-based language instruction (TBLI) modulesbased on traditional and contemporary cultural activities. These are taught in the Dakota language, which is shown to improvelanguage acquisition. While language instruction is not a focus of the Extension program at SWC, there is a natural intersectionwith the Kaksiza Ca?hde?ka Center and this proposal in developing the other content such as fishing, equine care and riding,archery, and gardening.Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SWC Extension Office began working more closely with the local 4-H organization. Theobjective is increase participation, especially by students from the tribal schools, and to increase the number of activitiesavailable. Archery, horsemanship, and rodeo are activities that have been supported by the SWC Extension Office. Establishinga 4H-based Robotics Club was in the early stages prior to the pandemic. As participation in these events was growing eachyear, the Extension Office wants to revitalize and expand all these initiatives.While continuing to build on prior successes, the project will expand its range of outdoor and physical activities. Participation inarchery was quickly growing amongst the college students and with the youth groups. The competitions sponsored by the SWCExtension Office at Sica Hollow were highly attended during the first two years before being cancelled in the spring of 2020.Fishing, including spearing, is an opportunity to encourage participants to engage with nature throughout the year. It alsoprovides connections to other workshops such as 'how to fillet a fish', 'different methods of cooking fish', and 'the nutritionalbenefits of adding fish to your diet'. These all have obvious ties the Culinary Food Science program and to the topic-basedinstruction of the Dakota language. Additionally, outdoor safety or winter survival workshops are also being developed thatconnect to ice- andspear-fishing.