THE WOLAKOTA PROJECT
Begin by listening.
Search South Dakota Elder interviews by spoken words, themes, speaker, and OSEU.
Essential Understandings
and Elder voices
A FOUNDATION FOR LEARNING
The Essential Understandings
The Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings begin with Indigenous people defining themselves in their own voices.
Read the complete document
Use the current South Dakota Department of Education document for the full understandings and standards.
Current OSEU documentTEACHING THROUGH INQUIRY
Archived OSEU-aligned Lessons
Search complete archived lessons by OSEU, standard code or wording, grade, subject, and included Elder voices.
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About this archived collection
These lessons retain their original activities, authorship context, and historical standards. They are labeled as archived to distinguish them from new lessons. Missing source fields are identified; inferred grade levels are labeled on lesson pages. Repeated copies of the same lesson are combined.
BRING LISTENING INTO LEARNING
For educators
Start with an Elder’s teaching, then make space for understanding and reflection.
Watch the interview in its context. Notice the speaker’s words and perspective.
Use the interview’s questions to investigate people, places, ideas, and history.
Reflect on your own experiences and invite thoughtful conversation.
Archived lessons
Find source-aligned lesson plans and read the complete inquiry on this site.
Explore archived OSEU-aligned LessonsSouth Dakota standards
South Dakota content standards · Current OSEU understandings and standards
Teaching & learning resources
VOICES AT THE CENTER
About the WoLakota Project
A place to listen, learn, and deepen relationships.
In 2008, Indigenous Elders began conversations that led to the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, first published in 2012. The WoLakota Project has brought together Elder interviews and learning resources since 2013.
This collection keeps each teaching connected to its speaker, original video, available transcript, and source reflection questions. Explore a subject through multiple voices while honoring the context of each interview.
Stay connected to the source
This South Dakota collection draws from wolakotaproject.org and reuses transcript indexing, themes, and learning resources from the Wolakota Resource Library. North Dakota collection records and NDNAEU alignments are excluded. Transcripts, archived lessons, and recreated resources are available here. Links to the original project are retained only for content that could not be recreated, including missing transcripts and the interactive tribal affiliation map.