Native American Studies

Click to access educational videos, audio, and interactive games for classroom and home use.

Welcome to SDPB’s Native American Studies section. SDPB provides educational content like the Tatanka: A Way of Life Lesson Plan, activity ideas, and documentaries like Lost Bird of Wounded Knee. Thank you for visiting SDPB, and have a great day!

Photo of Red Horse winter count from the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum in Saint Francis South Dakota.

Winter Count Lesson Plans

A winter count is a pictographic record of historical/memorable events for a tiospaye (community). Significant events are recorded for future generations.

PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia offers FREE educational resources for PreK–12 educators and students. Search by grade, subject, resource type, and more. (Image - Ken Burns Collection on PBS LM)

Instructional Resources

On this page, you will find Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings instructional resources. Topics include lands and the environment, culture, language, kinship, oral tradition, sovereignty, and treaties.

A colored drawing of two Native Americans embracing superimposed on an image of a buffalo.

Example Resources from PBS LearningMedia
(Search Today)

Collection - The Sacred Relationship Between Native Americans and the American Buffalo
Video and Activities - Native Voices (Oral Tradition)
Video - Kevin Locke
Video Interview - Indian Reorganization Act, Treaties, Etc.
Lesson Plan - Tatanka: A Way of Life for Native People in the Past and Present
Collection - Native American Heritage Collection
Native American Series from PBS

A red and black graphic that says Guide to Tribal Nations.

Informative Guide

Download your free 37-page guide to all things Native American in South Dakota!

A photo of a buffalo bladder used as a water carrier. The image has the following text - What is the buffalo part called, and what is one of the traditional uses of the buffalo part?

Classroom Activity

Tatanka: A Way of Life - Traditional Use of Buffalo Parts activity.

Build a Model

Explore the unique history and culture of South Dakota's Native Americans.

Image of Medicine Knoll. Grassland with rocks in the form of a snake.

Snake Visions: Metaphysical Place Knowledge and Medicine Knoll

Medicine Knoll, in Central South Dakota, exhibits an ancient and peculiar knowledge of place in the form of an enormous snake.

Three large stones on grass with a creek in the background.

Three Stones: An Arikara Legend

Three seemingly ordinary stones sit on a hill above some cabins at the Oahe Sunset Lodge on Lake Pocasse, just west of Pollock, South Dakota.

Grass with rocks in the shape of a turtle.

Landmarks: The Snake Butte Turtle Effigy

There are runic legends written in stone on hilltops across SD: giant snakes, turtles, mythical beasts, and sacred symbols. The meanings are a mystery to most of us.

1948 photo of a reunion of the last survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Eight Native American elders, with headdresses, are sitting on the grass.

Photographer Bill Groethe and the Last Survivors of the Little Big Horn

In 1948, Bill Groethe attended a reunion of the last survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

Photo of traditional foods including an orange squash, two sumac flowers, choke cherries, pumpkin seeds, leaves, and other seeds.

Traditional Foods | Food Sovereignty and Healthy Cooking

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Educational Resources