Dakota Itancan Kagapi – Making Dakota Youth Leaders
Dakota Wicohan created the first half of a leadership and civics curriculum for Dakota youth—Dakota Itancan Kagapi, or, the making of Dakota leaders. The program will be used to train Dakota youth through the inter-related strategies of remembering, reclaiming, and reconnecting with our Dakota language and lifeways to enhance the region’s civic foundation.
Civics Education. $250,000 the first year and $250,000 the second year are for a competitive Arts and Cultural Heritage Grants Program-Civics Education. The commissioner shall award grants to entities that conduct civics education programs for the civic and cultural development of Minnesota youth.
- Develop materials, lesson plans, and curriculum for the first four of the eight units in the Dakota Itancan Kagapi curriculum--see curriculum overview in attachments.
- Pilot draft materials across our tripartite kinship structure: tiwahe, tiospaye, and oyate.
- Evaluate curriculum and pilot to inform next phase of curriculum development.
• Administered and tabulated 76 surveys on cultural belonging with adult and youth participants that attend a weekly language program at Dakota Wicohan.
• Transcribed and coded 24 hours’ of oral history interviews with Dakota community elders—some of whom have now passed over.
• Completed the Dakota 101 handbook and drafted a companion curriculum for students in Grades 6-12 that meets state social studies standards.
• Piloted draft lessons of three units with Dakota Wicohan staff, consultants, and team.
• Piloted draft lessons from the Dakota 101 unit with Dakota Wicohan staff, consultants, and broader community.
• Evaluated results to inform next phase of curriculum unit with youth after this grant ends.