Dakota Wicohan

COVID-19 Response Survey

This project will utilize traditional Dakota arts to increase the participation of at least ten youth in the creation of their own dance regalia. We will leverage the skills of our adult staff members as teachers, promoting our intergenerational model of learning to retain Dakota arts knowledge in our community.

With our Growing Dakota Artists series, we aim to increase our community's exposure to different forms of Native arts, utilize the interest generated by our sampler series to shape our future arts programming, and increase class attendance in the media most favored by our community, retaining knowledge for future generations.

General operating support

At the L.E.A.D. conference, DW will utilize networking opportunities to share our successes in programming arts and cultural programs for girls, and learn strategies to increase our boys' participation.

Through our Tawokaga program, we remember, reclaim, and reconnect Dakota language and lifeways in our communities. Through apprenticeship programs, we support skill development and arts opportunities for emerging and master artists practicing traditional arts. Ultimately, our goal is to keep these cultural traditions alive for future generations.

The ultimate purpose of Tawokaga is to 1) increase the number of community members engaged in Tawaokaga, making beautiful things, our Dakota word for art; and 2) leverage the successes our intergenerational group of artists have had over the past two years to increase the visibility and sustainability of Dakota arts in Native and non-Native venues in Minnesota through relationship building with individuals, communities, and organizations. These capacity-building steps will advance our Tawokaga goal of reclaiming and sustaining the intrinsic value of Dakota arts in relationship to artists and communities in southwestern Minnesota.