August 26, 2009
Written by Lil

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Article VII “ARTICLE VII.
… the necessity of education is admitted, especially of such of them as are or may be settled on said agricultural reservations, and they, therefore, pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school, and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly complied with; and the United States agrees that for every thirty children between said ages, who can be induced or compelled to attend school, a house shall be provided, and a teacher competent to teach…”

This section of the 1868 treaty guarantees Lakota children the right to education in buildings that are safe and equipped to ensure a quality education. When teaching about this treaty to Lakota students at Takini School, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in western South Dakota, they look around at water stained carpets and ceilings caving in above their heads. The air is thick with the musty, dank smell of mildew and mold. They wonder what the Minneconjou leaders,(their great great grandfathers) who signed this treaty would think of the conditions their grandchildren’s education system. Minneconjou leaders like One Horn, Iron Horn, Blue Cloud and Spotted Elk signed this paper with the assurance that they were providing a future for their descendants.

At this time, Takini students are again preparing to move into a second set of modular classrooms that are supposed to be temporary until a more permanent structure can be provided. The first set of this modular units were intended to be used for approximately five years, but they were in use for over fifteen years until spring storms destroyed roofs and ceilings. Takini School is concerned now with the arrival of these second set of modular units that are to be temporary for only a few years. We believe our students deserve a permanent structure for their education.

TED Rowland Takini School Superintendent


This report shall serve as the justification to the Bureau of Indian Education and to the Bureau of Indian Education Facilities Management programs that the Takini School has been, and still is, waiting for the buildings to properly accommodate the addition of grades 10-12 to the originally planned facilities for grades K-9.

This is a brief overview of what transpired in the 1980s on the western end of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Historically, the children who graduated from the elementary schools located in Red Scaffold, Cherry Creek, and Bridger had to travel to the BIA Boarding School in Eagle Butte, approximately 100 miles away, if they wanted a high school education. At that time, the school in Red Scaffold was a K-9 system, the school in Cherry Creek was a K-6 system, and the school in Bridger was a K-8 system. In 1986 the Red Scaffold School Board contracted with the BIA to start a high school in Red Scaffold.

The Contract Grant School in Red Scaffold was a K-12 system with approximately 180 students. The physical plant consisted of the main building, which contained a library, offices, and high school classrooms, and six portable elementary classrooms. The Red Scaffold School Board leased the multipurpose gymnasium and the cafeteria and kitchen facilities from the community of Red Scaffold.

The elementary schools located in Bridger and Cherry Creek were both BIA-operated schools and were apparently determined to be adequate to serve the educational needs of the student populations from those communities. Approximately 70 students were enrolled in the K-6 system in Cherry Creek and approximately 35 students were enrolled in the K-8 system in Bridger. For the first time in history, parents were able to walk their children to school in their own community.

Progress was being made. Indian education had evolved from students being taken away from their parents when they were six years old, sent hundreds of miles away, and returned when they were 16-18 years old, to students attending elementary school in their communities and then traveling to the east end of the reservation for high school, to students attending elementary school in their communities and then high school on the west end.

As a result of the BIA decision to build a K-9 school in a central location, the elementary buildings in all three communities were demolished. The new facility was not designed to accommodate grades 10-12.

Progress was halted. In fact, Indian education, from the perspective of local Lakota families, had deteriorated. The elementary schools in the communities were torn down, the new facility was built for only K-9, and students needed bus transportation to attend elementary school when before they could walk to school.

The new facility was designed as an elementary school but the academic program was expanded to include high school. The BIA approved the expansion when they granted a high school to the west end. Since Takini School opened in 1989, high school classes have been taught in temporary facilities. In accordance with federal government regulations, these students have been classified as un-housed students.

To develop an outstanding academic program, we must have at least an adequate facility. This is what we want and this is what we need. At the present time 195 students are enrolled at Takini School, 136 elementary and 59 high school. They attend school in the deplorable conditions pictured in these photographs.

SEPTEMBER 2009

TEMPORARY BUILDING HAD ALREADY BEEN CONDEMNED BEFORE THE STORM DAMAGE. WE BE GAN CLASSES I NTHIS BUILDING IN SEPTEMBER BECAUSE WE HAD NO OTHER PLACE TO HOLD SCHOOL

THIS BUILDING IS CALLED THE BLUE BUILDING

TAKINI HIGH SCHOOL 2006

HISTORY OF TAKINI SCHOOL WM,VH,TR

In 1979 Red Scaffold School Board entered into negotiations with the BIA to build a new school for K-9 on the west end of the Cheyenne River Reservation. (Red Scaffold already had a K-9 system in place.) Originally, the Red Scaffold School Board and the community of Red Scaffold wanted the new building to be located at the junction of roads leading to Red Scaffold, Cherry Creek, and Dupree next to the Beaver Widow homestead on donated land. In the early 80s, 4.5 million dollars was appropriated to build the school.

At this time a movement began to consolidate the schools in Red Scaffold, Cherry Creek, and Bridger. The BIA decided to locate the new school in between the three communities of Red Scaffold, Cherry Creek, and Bridger.

The infrastructure for electricity, water, and roads was already present at the originally planned site, but it was not present at the location selected by the BIA. Three-phase electricity was established at a cost of 1.5 million dollars, which was taken from the 4.5 million dollars appropriated for the new school. A two-inch water line that ran for the last 7 or 8 miles was replaced with a six or eight-inch water line in order to fill the water tower with water for drinking and safety purposes. A new road leading from Red Scaffold to the new site, with a major bridge over Ash Creek, was built. Because it was necessary to spend a couple of million dollars of the appropriated money on these projects, the plans for the new building had to be downsized significantly.

In 1986 Red Scaffold School Board contracted with the BIA to start a high school. The plans that were developed to house students in grades K-9 were not altered.

At this time the K-6 schools in Cherry Creek and Bridger were BIA operated. The K-12 school in Red Scaffold was a Contract School. The CRST Council mandated an election to determine how the new school would be operated. The first vote resulted in a tie; contract won by one ballot in the second election. A special election was held to elect School Board members. Two members from each of the three communities and one member-at-large were elected: Harold Condon, Lucy Etzkorn, Dorothy Strikes Enemy, Ramona Red Horse, Mary Jane Good Shield, Deloria Straighthead, and Jess Knight were elected.

The new K-12 school opened in 1989, with an enrollment of over 300 in a building designed for 225 elementary children. In 1991, with money in the school budget, the Takini School Board built a metal building, which included seven classrooms and two administrative offices. In 1992 the Takini School Board built a small metal multi-purpose gymnasium. In 1994 six modular units were added to the campus to house the high school classes.

Initially five modular houses were built to accommodate teachers. Over the years Takini School Board negotiated with lending institutions to purchase twenty-some trailers for teacher housing. (The closest community with rental possibilities is approximately 100 miles away.)

Photos of damage to classrooms in the spring of 2009

July 30, 2009



Takini School administrators and staff are requesting your assistance with a serious issue regarding our high school. For the last sixteen years, the high school has been housed in temporary modular units that were intended to be used until a new high school could be built. The time frame, at that time, was five years. As you can see, that time period was not met.
Last spring, these buildings were severely damaged due to heavy snows. The Bureau of Indian Affairs office of construction management told us that they would bring new temporary buildings and place them on temporary foundations, and that we would be placed on the high priority list for a new high school. They also said they would place these new temporary buildings on the east side of our current gymnasium.
Which leads us to our current dilemma; the BIA office of construction management has now decided to place the temporary classrooms on permanent structures and to place them in the same area where the damaged classrooms are located. These decisions were made without consulting Takini School administration. We had been planning our upcoming school year around the plans that had been made in the spring. This change greatly affects the beginning of our school year. The issues are: 1. the current location is not large enough to accommodate the new classrooms. 2. It is already the end of July and there is not enough time left to make all the adjustments that will be necessary. Even if the new classrooms are placed in the original area that had been agreed, the time period is still not enough to prepare them to be ready for the beginning of school. 3. BIA office of construction will not give us a date on when they will begin to do any of the work. 4. Since these new classrooms are being placed on permanent foundations, it leads us to believe that we are no longer on the high priority list for a new high school.
These are some of the reasons we are asking for your assistance. Our administration has tried to communicate with the BIA office of construction, but does not get any response to phone calls or emails. Our superintendent has already made two trips to Albuquerque without receiving any satisfaction to our concerns.
We are requesting the support of the congressional offices to ask the BIA Office of Construction Management, Mr. Dennis Rodriguez, to reconsider the location of the new portable classrooms. The reasons being that once and for all the high school would be located in its own area on the east side of the campus. The area where the classrooms are now located require the high school students to walk through the elementary hall wall to get to the nurses office, the library, the gymnasium, and the cafeteria. The movement of high school students through this hallway disrupts elementary classrooms continually. It is imperative that this decision be reversed. Teacher time spent monitoring the hallway takes away from time that would be better utilized in the classroom.
Our first priority now, is to accommodate our students that will be coming in on September 08, 2009. They deserve to have things in order and ready for their arrival. If the year begins disorganized, it will affect the learning of our students, and the productivity of our staff. At this point, we are at a loss as to what our accommodations will be for the start of school. After requests of assistance through the Bureau of Indian Education, they recommended that we contact our congressional delegation.