A NON PROFIT DEDICATED TO THE HEALING OF NATIVE
PEOPLES
AND THE PRESERVATION OF LAKOTA CULTURE AND LANGUAGE.
Lakota
Spotted Eagle Medicine men, Pete Catches Sr. (Petaga Yuha Mani) and
Peter V. Catches (Zintkala Oyate) had a vision of Oceti Wakan. It
was in response to events that have devastated the Dakota Nation (Lakota,
Nakota, and Dakota), the great Sioux Nation. Their vision was to establish
a Healing Center to confront cultural genocide, disease, poverty,
alcohol, drugs, and other problems and including cultural
and language education. Culture is maintained, evolves and
flourishes from one generation to the next by preserving the
language. This vision included all peoples.
The Healing Center is the heart of our project. It will have
a large ceremonial house with small cabins surrounding it and it
will be next to the Sundance grounds, a very special place.
We have 19 acres in the foothills of the Black Hills on the Pine Ridge
Reservation. The Ceremonial House, with its fireplace in
the center, will be a place to get what one needs to heal. That fireplace
represents the sacred fire within each of us. Our winters can be severe;
we need a place where ceremonies and educational gatherings can take
place. We have the land, the architectural drawings; we just
need the funds to build it.
Our objective
is to continue to develop materials to help revive language
and culture, continue educational workshops and develop
materials and programs for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse in
young people and develop character education curriculum based
on cultural values for the schools.
Our purpose is to preserve the Lakota culture
for the generations to come.
