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We are excited to introduce you to one of our recent Native American Jump Start Education Grant recipients, Elyssa Sierra Her Many Horses (Concha). She exemplifies the CORE Values that NAJS hopes to instill in our grant recipients.

Sierra is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and affiliated with Taos Pueblo and Anishinaabe tribes. She is the oldest of ten siblings. They greatly helped her become the educator and person that she is today. Sierra was inspired by her grandfather, Dennis Banks, who taught her to follow the values he had carried in life. These values are based on resilience, perseverance, and a passion for helping Indigenous people. After graduating from Black Hills State University in 2018, She spent the summer studying the Lakota language. Sierra’s goal is to become one of few teachers to teach in the Lakota dual immersion program at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation. 

She has not only taught kindergarten in the Lakota language but Sierra also developed curriculum for all core subjects in the language. She used her own personal time to study everyday to improve her own language proficiency. Sierra was able to see the dual language immersion program grow at Red Cloud Indian School and she was able to teach kindergarten to fifth grade. She was able to develop over 200 children books in the Lakota language along with assessments, videos, and curriculum. Sierra is currently teaching sixth grade this year at Red Cloud Indian School. Outside of teaching in the classroom, she has taught free adult Lakota language classes five nights a week starting in 2019. 

In 2021, Sierra graduated from Arizona State University with a Masters of Arts in Education. As she learned, she grew into more of an educator and curriculum developer. She realized there was still much more for her to learn as a student. With support from a NAJS Education Grant, she is currently attending the University of Hawaii at Hilo where she will be completing the Ph.D. program in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization. The program will focus on the techniques, teaching methods, and community work to revitalize Indigenous languages. She applied for the doctorate program at the University of Hawaii in hopes of receiving more guidance to help advance the dual language immersion program at Red Cloud Indian School. 

Sierra shares the Hawaii people are one of the few Indigenous peoples that have successfully revitalized their language. She is certain that her tribe will continue to work to achieve the same progress. Sierra has the intention to share her knowledge with not only her colleagues, but with multiple immersion schools within South Dakota, Wyoming, and Minnesota. She has hosted an annual conference, which invites all Indigenous immersion schools to attend. This conference is where she is able to share her own experiences and teaching resources with other educators. Sierra wants to continue to teach students as they grow older and she wants the program to continue through twelfth grade. She dreams of having Red Cloud Indian School become the first K-12 Lakota Language dual immersion program. Sierra recently married another NAJS grant recipient, Keegan Her Many Horses, this summer.