Type | Public tribal land-grant college |
---|---|
Established | 1979 |
Parent institution | Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate |
President | Erica Holmes |
Students | 250 (80% Dakota people) |
Location | , U.S. 45°33′46″N97°03′39″W / 45.56271°N 97.06074°W |
Campus | Rural reservation |
Nickname | Mustangs |
Website | www |
Sisseton Wahpeton College (SWC) is a public tribal land-grant college of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota. It was established in 1979 and serves the Dakota people and the general public. SWC has an average enrollment of about 250 students, of whom more than 80% are tribal members. [1] It has both vocational and academic programs, which includes certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor degrees as well as articulation arrangements with other universities and colleges so that students can transfer for continued studies.
SWC was originally a vocational and technical school; an academic program was added as enrollment climbed. SWC is one of the few post-secondary schools in South Dakota to offer both vocational and academic degrees.
Although SWC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission to offer associate and bachelor's degrees. It also has agreements with several 4-year degree-granting institutions that allow SWC students to take much of their coursework at SWC or seamlessly matriculate to another institution. The agreement between SWC and Mount Marty College offers SWC students the opportunity to earn a Baccalaureate degree in Business and Tribal Governance.
SWC is a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), a community of tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations. SWC was created in response to the higher education needs of American Indians. It generally serves geographically isolated populations that have no other means to access education beyond the high school level. [2]
SWC was one of the first tribal colleges to establish an institute for the study and preservation of tribal culture. The college created the Institute for Dakota Studies in 1992. This center's mission is to teach, study and preserve the tribe's unique history and traditions.
The Center for Excellence in Dakota Language, established at SWC in 2005, works with the college's strong Dakota studies and Dakota Language programs to revitalize the Dakota language. Eventually, this program hopes to establish a revitalization model that can be replicated anywhere in Indian Country.
The college has recently expanded its facilities and programs; one of the final products of this was Song to the Great Spirit, the new SWC Vocational Education Building. Designed as a facility where students could learn building trades by constructing a single-family home inside, the building's unique design makes the SWC campus a local landmark.
The building is an example of culturally contextual architectural design: it is in the shape of four Indian figures who, with drumsticks raised, are singing a traditional Dakota song using their drum. The building honors SWC's history and that of the Dakota people. The figures are made of fiberglass and are almost fully functional. Two house stairwells, one the elevator, and the other the utility and storage closets.
SWC has also almost doubled its square footage, with added classrooms and offices and an Early Childhood Education Center. Also part of the campus is an auditorium, which also houses the transmitter for KXSW, a local radio station.
Sisseton is a city in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,479 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Roberts County. Sisseton is the home to a number of tourist attractions, including the Nicollet Tower, and is near the "Song to the Great Spirit" building on the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus. The city is named for the Sisseton division of the Native American Sioux. It also serves as an important part of the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.
The Dakota language, also referred to as Dakhóta, is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, commonly known in English as the Sioux. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language. It is definitely endangered, with only around 290 fluent speakers left out of an ethnic population of almost 250,000.
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The Spirit Lake Tribe is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake. It is made up of people of the Pabaksa (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna), Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ) and Wahpeton (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ) bands of the Dakota tribe. Established in 1867 in a treaty between Sisseton-Wahpeton Bands and the United States government, the reservation, at 47°54′38″N98°53′01″W, consists of 1,283.777 square kilometres (495.669 sq mi) of land area, primarily in Benson and Eddy counties. Smaller areas extend into Ramsey, Wells and Nelson counties.
The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is the homeland of the federally recognized Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. Most of the reservation covers parts of five counties in northeastern South Dakota, while smaller parts are in two counties in southeastern North Dakota, United States.
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The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two subdivisions of the Isanti or Santee Dakota people. They are on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeast South Dakota.
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Angelique EagleWoman is a Dakota law professor and scholar of Indigenous law. She is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation. EagleWoman was the Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada from 2016 until she stepped down in June 2018, alleging issues of systemic racism leading to constructive dismissal.
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