Lakota Waldorf School

Our mission

The Lakota Waldorf School is an independent, non-sectarian K through 8 Waldorf school serving the children of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Our mission is to provide a Waldorf education integrated with Lakota language and culture, enabling children to create positive futures for themselves, their communities, and beyond. We strive to help our children develop a strong cultural identity and reverence for their heritage; build a foundation for Lakota language fluency; and acquire the academic, social, and practical resources needed to face the challenges of today's world.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is the home of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe. We are serving some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the country. In this community, with a population of about 40,000, unemployment runs at 85 percent and 60 percent of families live below the poverty line.

In addition to all age-appropriate academic subjects, we offer a Lakota language and culture program that is an adaptation of the Waldorf curriculum and is designed to fulfill our mission and meet the needs of our community. Our younger students engage in a daily rhythm of activities that include Lakota arts and crafts, recitation and singing, stories and legends, movement and indoor and outdoor play. The curriculum for our grades students includes grade-level math, English language arts, science, history and other subjects, with Lakota content and activities interwoven throughout as appropriate. We developed a culturally relevant curriculum that is tailored for indigenous students.

Besides the academic programs, we also developed the following programs: Lakota Language, Lakota culture, Healthy Meals, Organic Gardening, and Bee keeping. We conduct our own teacher training program: AIWP (Academy for Indigenous Waldorf Pedagogy) to train local teachers in our unique educational pedagogy. Recently, we began a partnership with the Oglala Sioux Tribe to provide educational programs to the youth incarcerated at our local Juvenile Detention Center.