Sinte Gleska University (SGU) grew from humble beginnings and a lofty vision to an institution that offers a full range of post-secondary programs for its students. The founders of SGU envisioned a higher education institution that allowed tribal students to complete their entire college education within the boundaries of their tribal nation. They hoped students would complete not only bachelor’s degrees, but also master’s and doctorate degrees. Viewing the creation of SGU as an exercise in tribal sovereignty, the institution’s founders believed that higher education was the key to a sustainable tribal nation and that tribal students would benefit from being educated within their cultural homeland.

BEGINNINGS

Sinte Gleska University began in 1971 as Rosebud College Center, an extension center that offered college classes from the University of South Dakota and Black Hills State University. In 1973, the South Dakota Board of Regents approved a bilateral agreement between Sinte Gleska College, Black Hills State University, and the University of South Dakota to offer associate’s degree programs (Stein, 1992). Four years later, after the associate’s degree programs proved successful, the board of regents approved upper-level courses at Sinte Gleska College that led to bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and human services (Mohatt, 1978). The college conferred its first bachelor’s degree in 1980 (Sinte Gleska University, 2016).

At the same time, Sinte Gleska College’s board of directors explored the concept of gaining their own accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities (NCA). They instructed the college’s administration to file an application for candidate status with the NCA. A self-study team was formed to assess and address the criteria for accreditation. They submitted their results to NCA also, which led to the association’s first site visit. NCA granted Sinte Gleska College candidate status in 1978. The college continued to offer programs through its bilateral agreement with the South Dakota Board of Regents while also working to advance the college to full accreditation. In 1983, the college completed its final self-study and NCA conducted a peer review, recommending that Sinte Gleska College be accredited at the associate and baccalaureate levels. Accordingly, Sinte Gleska College became the first tribal college to be accredited at the baccalaureate degree level, offering bachelor’s degree programs in elementary education and human services (Manning, 1978). The programs proved successful and so the college developed additional bachelor’s degree programs. By 1992, Sinte Gleska College became a university, and two year’s later offered a total of seven baccalaureate programs, including the first bachelor’s degree in Lakota language, history, and culture.

The bachelor’s programs in education, human services, and business have proven especially popular, and a large cadre of students have graduated from them. In accordance with the founders’ vision that a tribal student should be able to complete his or her entire college education at SGU, and due to numerous requests from graduates for master’s degree programs in education, human services, and business, Sinte Gleska began building capacity to teach graduate-level classes and to develop new master’s programs. In 1988, Sinte Gleska became the first tribal college to be accredited at the master’s degree level with a Master of Science in elementary education. In 1989, the college graduated its first cohort of master’s degree students.

Determined to expand its degree offerings and create pathways for the Sicangu Lakota Nation, Sinte Gleska College made the most of meager resources.

In 2002, the Human Services Department submitted a self-study for a master’s degree. During a comprehensive accreditation review in 2003, the Higher Learning Commission approved a Master of Science in human services. Meanwhile, the work on the development of a master’s degree in business continues as more and more students complete the baccalaureate and hope to pursue graduate studies. This will be the next master’s degree that SGU offers.

DEVELOPING BACHELOR’S AND MASTER’S PROGRAMS AT A TRIBAL COLLEGE

The growth and development of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs was not without challenges. One challenge has been to the university’s open-enrollment policy. In order to maintain the integrity of the bachelor’s programs, degree-offering departments developed formal admissions procedures. These admissions policies vary from department to department, but several common components include the completion of an associate’s degree, a formal application, a minimum grade point average of 2.6–3.0, as well as background checks, interviews, and references (Sinte Gleska University, 2016).

Recruiting and retaining a highly qualified instructional staff is a challenge too, because of the isolation of the university, low faculty salaries, and the lack of housing for faculty. Other challenges include developing curriculum for degree programs that is appropriate, rigorous, culturally relevant, and which will meet the professional standards of the degrees. Resources for the programs and support staff are essential, as is maintaining the academic integrity of the programs. SGU also faces challenges in formulating appropriate assessments and assessing employment opportunities for graduates. SGU’s Human Services Department contended with these challenges when it developed one of the university’s first bachelor’s degree programs. Gerald Mohatt, founding president of SGU, was a clinical psychologist and saw the desperate need for human services professionals on the Rosebud reservation. He was also interested in the relationship between traditional Lakota emotional and behavioral healing practices and Western clinical practices. Dr. John Muller was hired to develop the department and to create a relationship with Lakota medicine men, or the wapiya wicasa, that would lead to courses which were culturally sensitive to the Lakota ceremonies and healing ways (Mohatt & Eagle Elk, 2000).

The Associate of Social Science degree in human services was offered from the University of South Dakota and delivered at Sinte Gleska College Center in the early 1970s. The program was one of the most popular degree programs and quickly advanced to a Bachelor of Social Science degree as part of the bilateral agreement with the South Dakota Board of Regents. This degree program was one of the first two bachelor’s degrees that NCA approved when SGU became fully accredited in 1983. In 2003, the department was approved to offer a Master of Science in human services with emphases in mental health counseling and school counseling.

The program has been a success. Sherman Marshall, Chief Judge of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, became the first graduate. He was followed by others who went on to become school counselors, juvenile detention center counselors, mental health workers in tribal treatment centers, social workers, and even instructors in the Human Services Department at SGU. This degree program has had a tremendous positive impact on the treatment of mental health illnesses and emotional and behavioral health on the Rosebud reservation.

The college was first accredited at the baccaulareate level in 1983, a major milestone in the tribal college movement.

The university’s education program has also had great success. When the Rosebud College Center opened its doors in 1971, there was only one Lakota teacher on the Rosebud reservation. The founders wanted to change that. After decades of failure in schools designed to assimilate and acculturate tribal children, they wanted to transform education and develop new tribal models for its delivery to the next generation. They saw the development of a culturally appropriate teacher education program as the first step in that process.

The 1970s were a period of growth for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe because of the abundance of federal poverty programs. Local schools were given access to large sums of money for Indian education and most schools used some of that money to hire Indian para-professionals for their classrooms. This was a perfect population for teacher education programs. Colleges and universities throughout the nation developed professional development projects to train Native teachers. The University of South Dakota and Black Hills State University were two institutions that developed programs to train Native teachers. SGU had partnered with both of those institutions to offer extension classes, so a natural progression was to develop an associate’s degree in education and later a baccalaureate program. The state universities assisted Sinte Gleska College in the development of their degree programs and helped build capacity at the institution. In 1983, when Sinte Gleska prepared for NCA’s accreditation visit, the board of directors requested full accreditation at the bachelor’s level for a degree program in elementary education and special education. Ultimately, NCA approved full accreditation for Sinte Gleska College as a four-year, bachelor’s degree-granting institution. One of the baccalaureate programs was a Bachelor of Science in elementary education, with an emphasis in special education and K-8 elementary education.

This degree became a life-changing experience for many students. One graduate, Debra Bordeaux, explained that she graduated from Todd County High School and enrolled at Black Hills State University where she attended for less than two years. During her last month there, she was subjected to racial slurs that caused her to leave the university. She returned to Rosebud intending to enroll at another state institution, but because it was mid-year she had to wait. Her parents encouraged her to take some classes at Sinte Gleska College, and since she was an education major, she enrolled in classes. She liked the small class size, the cost-effectiveness, and the family-oriented atmosphere of the tribal college. She decided to stay and complete her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. After graduation, she taught in one of the local elementary schools. She went on to work in the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Headstart program. She was admitted to and graduated from Sinte Gleska University’s Master of Education program in educational leadership. Debra Bordeaux now works for SGU where she administers the Indian Professional Development grant and serves as the institution’s vice president of student services (D. Bordeaux, personal communication, April 5, 2017).

Debra Bordeaux is just one of many success stories. Graduates from SGU’s bachelor’s and master’s education programs are highly sought after by local schools and other employers. The graduates enjoy a high level of passing the PRAXIS test, a South Dakota state requirement for teacher certification. Three of the 15 teachers in South Dakota that achieved national teacher certification are SGU graduates. Ninety-five percent or higher have a job in their field of study waiting for them when they graduate. Much credit for the success of the programs goes to the chair of the Education Department, Cheryl Medearis. She truly wants students to be successful and will go the extra mile to ensure their success and sense of belonging. Medearis challenges the students to achieve beyond their self-expectations.

Many of SGU’s historic steps in creating new programs were achieved here, in the university’s first administration building.

In “Profiles of Graduates,” a video interview conducted by the SGU Media Department, Allan Bertram expressed his gratitude and pride at being an SGU graduate. “It was a life-changing experience for me personally,” he said. Bertram went on to delineate characteristics that he felt made the SGU program outstanding and successful, noting that the program gives the opportunity to gain an education within a flexible schedule and affordable cost structure—and that smaller class sizes help students get more personal attention which allows them to gain a deeper understand ing of the subject with more hands-on experience and interactive classes. Bertram also pointed out that the sense of family and caring— the knowledge that everyone wants to ensure that you succeed and that you belong—is essential. Bertram now serves as the Pentagon Basketball Director at the Denny Sanford Expo Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Bertram, 2017).

Along with human services and education, SGU’s business degree programs have opened further opportunities for tribal students. The business management bachelor’s degree was first proposed to the accrediting agency in 1988. Initially, the program was denied approval because the accrediting agency did not agree that the institution had sufficient financial resources to support such a program. In an address to students, President Lionel Bordeaux stated, “The accrediting agency denied a degree in business in a community that had an 80% unemployment rate and a 90% poverty rate.” It ended up taking another 10 years to get approval for SGU’s bachelor’s degree in business. However, since its approval, the business management program has proven to be one of the most popular degrees, and graduates of the program have assumed influential positions within the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

One of the graduates of the business management degree program, Lauri Bordeaux, holds the directorship of Sicangu Nation Employment and Training, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s labor department. Lauri has created employment opportunities for tribal members and has provided workforce development and modeled economic development through the creation of a small business in landscaping within her department. She recently contracted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance program, and is actively working with clients in the program to help them become employable. In a recent SGU forum, she explained her approach: “We do whatever we can to help people become employable and place them in jobs. This sometimes is as simple as helping them get a driver’s license, providing dollars for a drug test, or helping them learn to fill out an application” (Bordeaux, 2017). Earning a bachelor’s degree in business from SGU opened the doors for Lauri Bordeaux and for many other graduates who have joined the ranks of tribal employment. This is truly tribal nation building— one student at a time.

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Sinte Gleska University’s baccalaureate and master’s degree programs continue to have a significant impact on students, creating educational opportunities so that they can achieve their dreams. In his closing remarks during a video interview, Allan Bertram poignantly remarked, “In the 1970s, when the founders of Sinte Gleska University were starting this college, I don’t think they imagined that it could have a mark on the world. As graduates we carry the torch for Sinte Gleska University no matter where we go” (Bertram, 2017).

REFERENCES

Bertram, A. (2017, April). Profiles of SGU Alumni. Mission, SD: SGU Media. Bordeaux, L. (2017, February 3). Report on Sicangu Nation Employment and Training. Mission, SD: SGU Media.

Manning, T. (1978, July). Letter of Formal Notification of Candidacy.

Evanston, IL: North Central Association of Colleges and Universities.

Mohatt, G.V. (1978). Sinte Gleska College: Issues and Dilemmas in the Development of an Alternative Setting in a Native American College (Doctoral Dissertation). Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.

Mohatt, G.V., & Eagle Elk, J. (2000). The Price of a Gift: A Lakota Healer’s Story. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Sinte Gleska University. (2016). Sinte Gleska University Catalog. Mission, SD: Sinte Gleska University.

Stein, W.J. (1992). Tribally Controlled Colleges: Making Good Medicine. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.