Interview · South Dakota · Cheryl Medearis · OSEU 7
Themes: Education & learning, Values & generosity, Community & responsibility, Economy & livelihoods, Listening & observation
Learn About questions
What’s the history of the Tribal College Movement?
Did all tribal colleges start out under the oversight of other state universities?
How many “Non-Indian” students attend tribal colleges?
What degree programs are being offered by tribal colleges?
What economic development programs are working well on the reservations? Among tribal people in general?
Learn From questions
Who was responsible for helping YOU get a college education? How did that happen?
Are there any unique understandings that YOU bring to your work as a result of specific people, events or specialties you encountered at the school(s) where you got your training?
Have you experienced economic or financial struggles at some point in your life? How did / do you deal with those?
Transcripts
Addressing OSEU 7 with Cheryl Medearis
Watch this interview on YouTubeI'll speak to that from a perspective of what tribal institutions have done for the people in not just our area, but the tribal college movement is probably, in my perspective, one of the strongest movements that ever occurred. From a personal basis, I may never have gotten a college education. I don't know that. It may have taken me even longer had Sinté not been where it was when it was. And I date back to Sinté-Gleska College when the institution wasn't really trusted to be on its own.
So my diploma reads the University of South Dakota because they proctored and granted the degrees and helped develop the curricula. But that's been one of the strongest impacts that I see. We're able to put teachers into schools that are educated, whether they're non-Indian or non-Indian, into schools with a whole different understanding than the teachers that were there previously, people in businesses, in all different walks of life. So it's been very strong.
Economic development is a continual struggle on the reservation, but one person at a time, one program at a time, again, we have to look forward to that next generation. And that understanding is one that will continue way beyond us. It will continue on and on if we do our job to build what we have today.
Resource text
From the current WoLakota source page:
Addressing OSEU 7
Cheryl Medearis
Transcript
(deep listening, information)
(deep listening, information)
Some indexed text was extracted from scanned material. Check the original source for exact wording and spelling.
Source materials
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Additional source transcripts
Addressing OSEU 7
Addressing OSEU 7 with Cheryl Medearis
I'll speak to that from a perspective of what tribal institutions have done for the people in
not just our area, but the tribal college movement is probably, in my perspective, one of
the strongest movements that ever occurred. From a personal basis, I may never have
gotten a college education. I don't know that. It may have taken me even longer had
Sinté not been where it was when it was. And I date back to Sinté-Gleska College when
the institution wasn't really trusted to be on its own.
So my diploma reads the University of South Dakota because they proctored and
granted the degrees and helped develop the curricula. But that's been one of the
strongest impacts that I see. We're able to put teachers into schools that are educated,
whether they're non-Indian or non-Indian, into schools with a whole different
understanding than the teachers that were there previously, people in businesses, in all
different walks of life. So it's been very strong.
Economic development is a continual struggle on the reservation, but one person at a
time, one program at a time, again, we have to look forward to that next generation. And
that understanding is one that will continue way beyond us. It will continue on and on if
we do our job to build what we have today.