376 - Sitting Bull College Entrepreneurial Building

When we first started we didn’t even have a building. Coming from nothing, we moved into the skills center in the 70’s. As our programs and staff expanded we worked our way up to our new facilities.

Different people’s thoughts and ideas brought the vision of campus together in pieces. The reason this is so beautiful is because we have so many individuals contributing to be a part of it. Community members are working together to build on each other’s strengths. The key to having a successful organization is by bringing in people who love what they are doing. When we are doing things that we care about it makes our work more than a job.

As a first generation student it was life-changing, coming up from assimilation, I knew nothing about my culture. In native american studies class I really started to learn about my own lifeways that I hadn’t experienced as a young person. This exposure to my beautiful culture and language, built on my sense of identity as a tribal member.

Our parents did what they thought was best to be successful in our modern world. I was hungry for knowledge and had pride in who I was an indigenous person knowing the history of our people. Tribal colleges allow us to feel like family, while our priorities are incorporating language, customs and culture.