After more than 70 years, a community center is one step closer to fruition

NORTH RAPID CITY – The ground blessing for the He Sapa Otipi was held on the site of the planned community center on Friday. It was a chilly morning, and the wind could be heard whisking through the grasses of the four acre area in North Rapid behind the Haines Dollar General. A community center has been a dream in the making for many decades – a place for the Lakota community to use for ceremonies and gatherings.

Executive Director Cante Heart (Sicangu Lakota) thanked NDN Collective and its founder and CEO Nick Tilsen for donating the land. She asked the audience to look at the land behind her. “This is the future site of the He Sapa Otipi. It’s not just a community center. It’s going to be a place for our future generations to sing and dance and celebrate our culture, our land, our heritage, our family, and our relatives, but also a place where we can have journey services so we can send our relatives off in a good way on their journeys. It’s going to be a beautiful place, and I know you can see it already.”

Heart explained it was important to give thanks. “Before we do anything we wanted to start off in a good way and respect the land and do a ground blessing. Because Mother Earth is our mother and we want to respect her.”

Valeriah Big Eagle (Ihanktonwan Nakota/ Hunkpati Dakota), who leads NDN Collective’s He Sapa Initiatives and is a He Sapa Otipi board member, wanted to remember board members who had passed since the latest project began in 2016 – Randy Ross, Sandra Woodard and Beverly Stabber Warne. “This has been an ongoing battle for our community for over 70 years. The unci’s of our community have been asking for an Indian center where we can convene so for this to finally come to be, for us to have a ground blessing, for us to be on land where the future of the Indian center of Minneluzahan will be, is very humbling and I’m a little emotional.”

Big Eagle said it has been hard without any journey services. “The only place that we have is Mother Butler and we know we can’t stay overnight there and send them off the way that we want to.” She said that the kids often can’t afford the cost of the YMCA, but the center will provide a place where all those things can happen.

Tilsen spoke about completing an intention. “We have to meet the Creator halfway. We have to meet the ancestors halfway. We can’t just pray for things to change. We have to roll up our sleeves and make them happen. And that’s what has been going on all this time, all this work that has been done, even the work being put in by the city to commit dollars to this.”

He noted that the Oceti Sakowin Community Academy has already opened but eventually there will be a whole community. “We’ll be able to decide what kind of housing we want and need for our community. We’ll try to develop housing for the people that work in the school, develop housing for the people who work at the Indian center.” He said what is most powerful, is the process of people coming together, making change, and collaborating.

“I’m just really excited to see this happening today,” said Big Eagle through tears of gratitude and joy. “We are continuing on the prayers of the ancestors before us who advocated for this Indian Center to be,” she told Native Sun News Today, “and started that advocacy over 70 years ago, and so we are one step closer to that vision.”

Council member Callie Meyer representing

Ward 5 was present and spoke briefly about her support for the project.

While the center would be Indigenous hosted, Big Eagle said that it is a center for the entire community. “It isn’t just for Native people, it’s for all of us. This is one of the ways we can come together and recognize that this is all of our community.” She noted the community members who came to take part in the ground blessing, “It’s so wonderful to see everyone here from all walks of life.”

The organization secured nine million dollars in Vision Funds and launched their He Sapa Otipi Capital Campaign to raise funds for building construction dollars and focus fundraising efforts both locally and nationally.

They are asking the community to participate in a community visioning survey. They are also planning community input sessions. Anyone interested in service on community advisory boards is asked to apply to serve on a building committee, cultural committee, Capital Campaign committee and youth advisory committee. You can find out more about upcoming events and workshops on He Sapa Otipi’s social media.

The building construction is expected to begin next year.

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

The post After more than 70 years, a community center is one step closer to fruition first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source