Wambli Ska Society

About the Organization

Organization category

Public Charity

Country / State

United States / South Dakota

Mission

THE MISSION OF WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE IS TO EMPOWER THE NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITY TO OVERCOME BARRIERS, REVIVE CULTURAL TRADITIONS, AND PROMOTE RESILIENCY IN A COMPASSIONATE AND SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT. WE WALK ALONGSIDE OUR PEOPLE — RESPONDING TO URGENT NEEDS WHILE REVIVING TRADITIONAL LIFEWAYS, FOSTERING EDUCATION, AND BUILDING PATHWAYS TO SELF-DETERMINED FUTURES. AS AN INDIGENOUS-LED NONPROFIT ROOTED IN SERVICE, CULTURAL RESTORATION, AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE, OUR MISSION REMAINS INTENTIONALLY BROAD, DESIGNED TO MEET THE EVOLVING REALITIES OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES WITH AGILITY, COMPASSION, AND STRENGTH.

Programs or services

Core Programs & Services — Wambli Ska Okolakiciye
Youth & Education

Teen Drop-In Center — basic needs, meals, showers, computer lab, tutoring, homework support
K-12 On-Site Homeschool — Lakota language, history, and culture
Suicide Prevention Programming
Safe Passage Program — protecting youth in high-risk areas

Workforce Development

Sacred Storm Buffalo Mobile Harvest & Apprenticeship
Sacred Storm Buffalo Butcher Shop, Market & Apprenticeship

Housing & Emergency Services

Warriors Lodge (Zuya Wicasa Ta O'Tipi) — men's transitional housing for 20+ young men
Good Medicine Lodge (Pejuta Waste O'Tipi) — emergency shelter, day center, meals, showers, laundry, mail, case management

Food Sovereignty

Food Pantry & Community Garden
Traditional food harvesting and distribution

Health & Wellness

Wellbriety Program — Indigenous-based addiction recovery
Mental & Emotional Health Support — trauma-informed care
Medical and mental health service access
Prayer Vigils and community grief support

Justice & Safety

Oyate Court — restorative justice program
Community Violence Intervention
Search Teams — missing and murdered Indigenous people

Cultural Revitalization

Lakota language, ceremonies, and values instruction
Art and recording studios
Cultural gatherings and elder engagement
Youth advocacy for Indigenous culture

Detailed programs

**WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — PROGRAM OVERVIEW**

**THE ECOSYSTEM**
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is an Indigenous-led nonprofit in Rapid City, South Dakota operating an interconnected ecosystem of programs rooted in Lakota values, trauma-informed care, and cultural restoration. Founded by Chris White Eagle — a butcher turned developer of people — Wambli Ska was built on the belief that poverty, food insecurity, housing instability, and cultural disconnection do not arrive one at a time, and neither do we. Every program feeds the others, creating a pathway from crisis to culture to career.

**TEEN DROP-IN CENTER**
The Teen Center is a safe haven for Native American youth ages 10–18, providing hot meals, showers, food pantry access, tutoring, homework support, life skills training, art and recording studios, suicide prevention programming, and mentorship. Lakota language, cultural teachings, and elder engagement are woven into daily life. An on-site K-12 homeschool option grounds learning in Indigenous history and identity. The Center is the front door of the Wambli Ska ecosystem — often the first step toward workforce development, housing support, and deeper cultural connection.

**SACRED STORM BUFFALO — WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT**
Sacred Storm Buffalo is Wambli Ska's flagship workforce initiative, restoring the ancestral relationship between Lakota youth and the buffalo while building real careers. The program operates across five interconnected platforms:

**Field Harvesting** — Mobile harvest operations partner with Indigenous ranchers and tribal nations. Apprentices learn ethical harvest, full carcass utilization, food safety, and cultural protocol alongside elder knowledge keepers.

**Processing & Packaging Plant** — Apprentices advance through commercial butchery, HACCP certification, packaging, and product development for buffalo.

**Retail Store** — The Sacred Storm Butcher Shop and Market offers Indigenous foods and traditional products under a Native First, Local Second philosophy, providing apprentices with retail and small business experience.

**Cook Shack Food Truck** — A mobile food operation bringing buffalo-based meals and Indigenous culinary culture to powwows, community events, and public spaces, staffed by apprentices building food service and entrepreneurship skills.

**Internal Apprenticeships** — Grant writing, communications, and administrative apprenticeships develop the next generation of Indigenous nonprofit leaders from within, providing hands-on training in organizational management, storytelling, and advocacy.

**LEADERSHIP & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT**
Wambli Ska's leadership work includes restorative justice through the Oyate Court program, Wellbriety addiction recovery support, community violence intervention, and youth advocacy training. Culture is the curriculum — Lakota language, ceremony, and traditional values are the foundation of every leadership pathway.

Target Audience

TARGET POPULATION
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye serves Native American youth, young adults, families, and unsheltered individuals in Rapid City, South Dakota — the urban hub for nine surrounding Lakota reservations including Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock. Our primary population includes at-risk Indigenous youth (ages 10–30), men in need of transitional housing, women and men in leadership, unsheltered community members, individuals impacted by the criminal justice system, and tribal members relocating from some of the most economically distressed communities in the United States.

THE NEED
South Dakota has the highest Native American poverty rate in the nation at 49%. Pine Ridge Reservation has a poverty rate of 53.75% and a per capita income of $7,773 — against a U.S. average of $27,599. Rosebud Reservation's average household income is $23,000, the lowest of all nine South Dakota reservations. Native Americans make up 10–20% of Pennington County's population but more than 50% of the daily jail population. The nearest grocery store to Pine Ridge is 80 miles away in Rapid City.

PROGRAMS & POPULATION SERVED
Teen Drop-In Center serves at-risk Native youth through education, meals, mentorship, cultural programming, and suicide prevention. Sacred Storm Buffalo provides workforce development and food sovereignty through buffalo harvesting and butchery apprenticeship. Warriors Lodge offers transitional housing, mentorship, and life skills for 20+ young Native men. Good Medicine Lodge serves the unsheltered community with emergency shelter, meals, and case management. Oyate Court diverts Native individuals from the criminal justice system through restorative justice rooted in Lakota values.

IMPACT STATEMENT
We are Indigenous-led, community-rooted, and built to meet our people where they are. Our programs are essential infrastructure for a community systematically excluded from the resources others take for granted.

Geographic Focus

United States, South Dakota (USA), Rapid City (SD)

Current projects

Wambli Ska is actively building a comprehensive food sovereignty infrastructure rooted in traditional Lakota land practices and community self-determination. Current initiatives include the development of community gardens and greenhouse growing spaces that extend South Dakota's short growing season, provide fresh produce to community members, and teach cultivation, harvest, and food preservation skills across programs.

Livestock development is underway with the addition of pigs and chickens — creating a diversified, sustainable food production model that supplies nutritious protein to the community while building hands-on agricultural skills for participants. These initiatives are designed not just to feed people today, but to develop the knowledge and infrastructure for long-term food independence. Every garden planted and every animal raised is a direct act of reclaiming the Indigenous right to feed our own people, by our own hands.

Wambli Ska is expanding its education programming into a more structured, center-based academic support model — a culturally grounded alternative for youth who have been pushed out of or underserved by the traditional school system.

A central focus is GED completion programming, creating a supported pathway for young adults to earn their credential in an environment that honors their experience and integrates Lakota identity into the learning process. The goal is not just a diploma — it is restored confidence, rebuilt academic identity, and open doors to workforce development and leadership. Flexible scheduling, peer support, and staff mentorship are built into the model to meet participants where they are, including those managing housing instability, employment, and family responsibilities alongside their studies.

The Sacred Storm Butcher Shop and Market continues to grow its physical presence, deepening product offerings and strengthening relationships with Indigenous producers across the region. Wambli Ska is actively working toward launching an online retail platform that will bring Sacred Storm products — buffalo cuts, wild game, traditional foods, and Indigenous harvested goods — to customers beyond Rapid City. The online store represents both a sustainable revenue strategy and a cultural visibility opportunity, extending the reach of Indigenous food sovereignty regionally and nationally while reinvesting proceeds directly into the ecosystem.

Each of these initiatives reflects the same vision: a Wambli Ska ecosystem that builds the conditions in which crisis becomes less likely. Gardens mean families eat. GED programs mean young adults have options. A growing retail platform means the organization sustains itself and others. Together, these projects represent Wambli Ska moving from response to resilience — growing its own food, educating its own people, and building an economy on its own terms.

Organization goals

SHORT TERM
Stabilize Core Operations
Secure sustainable operating funding to retain culturally connected staff, maintain facilities, and ensure consistent service delivery across all programs.
Teen Center & Education
Further, the GED completion program and center-based academic model with flexible scheduling and culturally grounded curriculum for youth failed by traditional school systems.
Sacred Storm Retail & Online Growth
Complete the Sacred Storm Butcher Shop buildout and launch an online retail platform bringing buffalo, wild game, and traditional Indigenous foods to regional and national customers.
Food Sovereignty Infrastructure
Break ground on greenhouse construction, expand community gardens, and launch pig and chicken operations — building an on-site food production system with generational impact.
Housing Capacity
Stabilize funding for Warriors Lodge and Good Medicine Lodge to ensure consistent operations, wraparound services, and case management for all residents.

LONG TERM
The Ranch — Anchor of the Ecosystem
Acquire and develop a working ranch as the anchor of the entire Wambli Ska ecosystem — housing buffalo herds, agricultural production, livestock, food processing, and cultural land practices. A self-sustaining campus where every program converges and every participant finds belonging, purpose, and a pathway to thrive.
Station of Social Entrepreneurism
Partner with trade institutions, community colleges, and universities to offer credentialed training — building the skills, confidence, and cultural grounding that fuel long-term recovery and stability.
Full Food Sovereignty & Sustainability
Build a closed-loop Indigenous food system from land to distribution, pursue school lunch procurement contracts, and grow earned revenue through retail and ranch operations — reducing grant dependence and building lasting financial resilience.
Every objective moves the community toward sovereignty, self-determination, and a future buil

Leadership

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — LEADERSHIP TEAM
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Chris White Eagle — Chief Executive Officer
Founder and visionary behind Wambli Ska and its full ecosystem. A butcher turned developer of people, Chris built Wambli Ska on the belief that his community deserved sovereignty, not just survival. His leadership is defined by lived experience, cultural grounding, and unwavering commitment to empowering Native American youth, families, and community members in Rapid City and beyond.
Tarah White Eagle — Chief Operating Officer
Tarah translates vision into daily reality — overseeing program coordination, staffing, and organizational systems to ensure every part of the ecosystem functions with consistency, care, and cultural integrity.
Annie Bachand — Chief Financial Officer & Development
Annie oversees budgeting, financial reporting, compliance, and grant development — ensuring every dollar is managed with transparency and strategic purpose while actively building the funding relationships that sustain and grow the ecosystem.

PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
Gerri LeBeau — Harmony Administrator
Coordinates operations and connects community members to the right resources at the right time.
Julianna Steidley — Sacred Storm Buffalo Market
Leads retail operations, Indigenous producer relationships, and the Sacred Storm Butcher Shop and Market.
Chance White Eagle — Plant Management
Oversees Sacred Storm plant operations, food safety compliance, and apprentice training.
Jose Arguello — Workforce Mentor
Walks alongside apprentices building skills, confidence, and professional identity.
Caylee Martinez — Women's Leadership & Teen Center
Creates culturally grounded spaces where Native young women and youth find support, identity, and voice.
Jada Steidley — Communications & Outreach
Builds Wambli Ska's visibility and voice across funders, partners, and community.

Each leader brings lived experience, cultural connection, and personal investment

Strategic priorities

Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is guided by a clear set of strategic priorities that move the organization and community from crisis response toward long-term sovereignty and self-determination.
Stabilize & Sustain the Ecosystem
Secure reliable general operating funding to retain culturally connected staff, maintain facilities, and ensure consistent delivery across all programs. A stable organization is the foundation of everything else.
Expand Food Sovereignty Infrastructure
Complete greenhouse construction, grow community gardens, and launch livestock operations — pigs and chickens — while continuing to build Sacred Storm Buffalo's retail presence and launching an online platform to extend Indigenous food access regionally and nationally.
Deepen Education & Workforce Pathways
Launch a structured GED completion program and center-based academic model alongside formal apprenticeship pipelines in butchery, agriculture, food entrepreneurship, grant writing, communications, and administration — developing Indigenous leaders from within the community.
Develop the Ranch — Anchor of the Ecosystem
Acquire and build a working ranch that unifies every program into a self-sustaining campus. Partnering with trade institutions, community colleges, and universities, the ranch will offer credentialed training in agriculture, culinary arts, veterinary science, and Indigenous land stewardship — building skills, confidence, and long-term stability for participants.
Build Financial Resilience
Grow earned revenue through Sacred Storm retail, the online store, the Cook Shack, and ranch operations — reducing dependence on grant funding and building an organization capable of serving the community for generations.
Sustain Cultural Revitalization
Ensure Lakota language, ceremony, and traditional practices remain the living foundation of every program, every apprenticeship, and every harvest — not a program objective, but a permanent way of life.

Organizational capacity

Wambli Ska Okolakiciye's greatest capacity is not a building, a budget, or a program portfolio. It is people — a community hungry for purpose-driven work, deeply invested in the well-being of their families, and committed to building a better life for everyone around them.
People as Infrastructure
Every staff member, mentor, apprentice, and elder who walks through the doors of Wambli Ska brings lived experience, cultural knowledge, and personal investment that no resume can fully capture. They are not employees serving a population — they are community members serving their own people. That distinction changes everything. It changes how a young person is greeted at the Teen Center. It changes how an apprentice is mentored at Sacred Storm. It changes how a man in crisis is received at Warriors Lodge. When the people doing the work are the same people the work is for, the capacity of an organization becomes immeasurable.
A Community Ready to Work
Rapid City's North Side is not a community defined by its deficits — it is a community rich in resilience, talent, cultural knowledge, and an urgent desire to contribute. Wambli Ska has witnessed firsthand what happens when that desire is met with opportunity — young people who were written off by systems become apprentices, then mentors, then leaders. Adults who arrived in crisis become staff members who hold others through their own. Elders who feared their knowledge would be lost find it alive in the next generation.
Organizational Systems
Wambli Ska's organizational capacity is supported by an executive leadership team spanning vision, operations, financial management, and development. Program leadership is in place across every major initiative — retail, processing, workforce development, youth services, housing, communications, and outreach. Internal apprenticeship pipelines are actively building the next layer of organizational capacity from within, reducing dependence on outside hiring and ensuring that institutional knowledge stays in the community.
Capacity for Growth
Wambli Ska is not at capacity — it is building toward it. Every new program, every new partnership, every new apprentice trained, and every new leader developed expands what this organization can hold and what this community can accomplish. The ranch, the greenhouse, the online platform, the GED program, the university partnerships — these are not aspirations disconnected from current reality. They are the natural next steps of an organization that has already demonstrated it can build what it imagines.
The capacity of Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is the capacity of its community — and this community has never stopped working, never stopped dreaming, and never stopped showing up for one another. That is an organizational asset no grant can fully fund, and no audit can fully measure. It is simply who we are.

Funding Needs

Grant categories you're seeking

Community and Economic Development, Farming and Agriculture, Nutrition and Food, Workforce, Youth and At-Risk Youth

Funding needs

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — CURRENT FUNDING NEEDS
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye seeks general operating support and program-specific investment to sustain its ecosystem of programs serving Native American youth, families, and community members in Rapid City, South Dakota.
GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT
Unrestricted funding sustains culturally connected staff, mentors, elders, and the infrastructure that keeps every program running — ensuring we respond to the whole person, every time.
TEEN DROP-IN CENTER & EDUCATION
Priority investments include GED completion programming, center-based academic support, culturally grounded curriculum, elder honoraria, and suicide prevention programming.
SACRED STORM BUFFALO — WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Investment is needed for apprenticeship stipends, equipment, Cook Shack food truck expansion, and an online retail platform to extend Indigenous food sovereignty and generate long-term organizational revenue.
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY INFRASTRUCTURE
Capital investment is sought for greenhouse construction, garden development, and livestock startup — feed, fencing, and care for pig and chicken operations — building permanent, generational food infrastructure.
HOUSING & WRAPAROUND SERVICES
Warriors Lodge and Good Medicine Lodge require ongoing funding for operations, case management, meals, and basic needs — providing the stability from which healing and growth become possible.
THE RANCH — A STATION OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURISM
The ranch anchors every program into a self-sustaining ecosystem — a living campus where buffalo, agriculture, and cultural land practices converge. Partnering with trade institutions and universities, the ranch offers credentialed training in agriculture, business, culinary arts, and Indigenous land stewardship — building the skills, confidence, and cultural grounding that fuel long-term recovery. Participants do not just learn a trade — they learn how to thrive.
Every dollar invested moves a community toward s

Impact & Recognition

Outcomes and impact

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — OUTCOMES & IMPACT
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye measures impact not just in numbers — but in lives stabilized, identities restored, and futures redirected. Our outcomes span every dimension of well-being: cultural, educational, economic, physical, and spiritual.
Youth & Education
Native American youth accessing the Teen Drop-In Center receive daily meals, basic needs, mentorship, and culturally grounded academic support. GED completion programming opens doors to workforce development and higher education for young adults who were pushed out of traditional school systems. Every young person who finds their voice, completes their credential, or reconnects to their culture is a measurable outcome.
Workforce Development
Sacred Storm Buffalo apprentices gain industry-recognized skills in butchery, food safety, agricultural production, retail operations, and food entrepreneurship — graduating into careers and building economic independence rooted in cultural identity.
Food Sovereignty
More than 2,800 pounds of meat delivered through the Feed the People Campaign. Traditional Indigenous foods — wild rice, beans, chokecherries, medicines — placed on community shelves. A mobile distribution network reaching families who travel 80 miles for food access. An intertribal trade relationship with Hawaii. A developing Pacific Northwest partnership working toward tribally harvested fish distribution.
Housing & Stability
Warriors Lodge provides safe, supported transitional housing for 20+ young Native men. Good Medicine Lodge provides emergency shelter, meals, and case management for the unsheltered community — meeting people at their most vulnerable and walking with them toward stability.
Cultural Revitalization
Lakota language spoken. Ceremonies honored. Elders elevated. Youth connected to who they are and where they come from. This is the outcome that makes all other outcomes possible.

Success stories

A STORY OF IMPACT — WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE
It started with a buffalo.
When Sacred Storm Buffalo opened its Butcher Shop and Market with a ceremonial community gathering, the team had a vision of what an Indigenous food hub could be. What they did not anticipate was the moment a young person walked through the door and saw traditional foods on a shelf that looked like theirs.
Wild rice. Indigenous beans. Chokecherries. Sage. Cedar. Sweet grass. Medicines responsibly harvested by Native youth from the land. Not in a museum. On a shelf. In Rapid City. For many young people involved in Sacred Storm, this was the moment the work became real. They had not just stocked shelves — they had built something that said: our food belongs here. Our traditions belong here. We belong here.
That same season, Sacred Storm's Feed the People Campaign delivered more than 2,800 pounds of meat to families in need — many traveling 80 miles from Pine Ridge just to access food. The mobile refrigeration unit rolled. Families ate.
Then came a relationship with an Indigenous producer in Hawaii. Today they carry each other's products — a quiet act of intertribal commerce rooted in sovereignty and reciprocity. In the Pacific Northwest, a 400-pound food giveaway opened a developing partnership now working toward USDA certification to ship tribally harvested fish to South Dakota — bringing culturally significant foods back to communities that have gone without them for generations.
This is what food sovereignty looks like when it is led by the people it serves.

Organization achievements

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Since its founding, Wambli Ska Okolakiciye has grown from a vision into a living, breathing ecosystem of programs that stands as one of the most comprehensive Indigenous-led community development organizations in the Northern Plains region.
Program Development
Built and operationalized a full ecosystem of interconnected programs — Teen Drop-In Center, Sacred Storm Buffalo workforce development, Warriors Lodge transitional housing, Good Medicine Lodge emergency shelter, Oyate Court restorative justice, Wellbriety recovery support, community violence intervention, and cultural revitalization — serving the full spectrum of community need under one organizational roof.
Sacred Storm Buffalo
Launched and rebranded Sacred Storm Buffalo from Meats and Treats into a fully operational butcher shop, retail market, mobile harvest unit, and food truck — establishing Rapid City's first Indigenous food sovereignty enterprise. Distributed more than 2,800 pounds of meat through the Feed the People Campaign. Established intertribal trade partnerships with Indigenous producers in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.
Food & Cultural Infrastructure
Installed cold storage, retail display systems, and a mobile refrigeration unit. Launched traditional food offerings including wild rice, Indigenous beans, chokecherries, and responsibly harvested medicines — placing cultural foods on community shelves for the first time.
Community Presence
Built a trusted, recognized presence on the North Side of Rapid City — becoming the organization our community calls when crisis arrives, when culture needs a home, and when a young person needs someone to believe in them.
Funding & Recognition
Secured grant investment including the Working Here Fund award from Farm Credit Services of America, with active pursuit of additional capital from regional and national funders committed to Indigenous community development.
Through every achievement runs the same thread — culture, compassion, and an unshakeable belief in the potential of our people.

Major funders

Vadon
World Wildlife Fund
Turner Foundation
HUD ESG
LDR (Lutheran Disaster
NDN Collective

Partnerships & Collaborations

Wambli Ska Okolakiciye understands that sovereignty is built in relationship. Our partnerships reflect our values — rooted in reciprocity, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to Indigenous community well-being.
Indigenous Producer Network
Sacred Storm Buffalo actively partners with Indigenous ranchers, producers, and creatives across the region through the Native First, Local Second campaign — prioritizing Indigenous-grown and harvested products in our retail space and distribution network. A trade partnership with an Indigenous producer in Hawaii has created a model of intertribal commerce that crosses geographic boundaries while honoring shared values of sovereignty and reciprocity.
Tribal Nation Partnerships
Wambli Ska maintains developing relationships with tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest, including a collaborative 400-pound food giveaway and active work toward USDA certification to ship tribally harvested fish to South Dakota — expanding culturally relevant food access for our community.
Local & Regional Coalitions
Wambli Ska collaborates with a coalition of Indigenous retail spaces, producers, and creatives advancing Indigenous economic visibility and market access across the region. The organization actively engages community partners in restorative justice, violence intervention, housing, and behavioral health to provide seamless wraparound support.
Academic & Trade Institution Partnerships
As part of the long-term ranch development vision, Wambli Ska is pursuing partnerships with local trade institutions, community colleges, and universities to offer credentialed training pathways in agriculture, culinary arts, veterinary science, and Indigenous land stewardship.
Community Elders & Cultural Leaders
Perhaps our most vital partnership — elders and traditional knowledge keepers are embedded across every program, ensuring cultural integrity remains at the center of everything we do.

Sustainability, dissemination & replicability

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — SUSTAINABILITY, DISSEMINATION & REPLICABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Wambli Ska is purpose-built for long-term sustainability — not as a grant-dependent service provider, but as a self-determining Indigenous ecosystem that generates its own resources, develops its own leaders, and grows its own food.
Earned revenue is central to this strategy. Sacred Storm's retail store, online platform, Cook Shack food truck, and long-term ranch development are designed to generate consistent revenue that reinvests directly into the ecosystem — reducing grant dependence while creating employment and building community wealth.
Human capital sustainability is equally intentional. Internal apprenticeships in grant writing, communications, and administration develop the next generation of organizational leaders from within. The leaders of tomorrow are already inside the building today.
Cultural sustainability runs deepest. By embedding Lakota language, ceremony, and elder knowledge into every program, Wambli Ska ensures its work is not just organizationally sustainable — it is culturally alive and self-renewing across generations.
DISSEMINATION
Wambli Ska shares its work through social media, community events, funder reporting, and public storytelling. The Native First, Local Second campaign extends the message of Indigenous economic visibility regionally. Partnerships with tribal nations in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest carry the model into intertribal networks across geographic boundaries.
REPLICABILITY
The Wambli Ska ecosystem is a transferable framework — a youth center as the front door, workforce development rooted in cultural practice, transitional housing with wraparound support, a food enterprise generating revenue and sovereignty, and a ranch anchoring everything together. This model can be adapted by tribal nations and urban Indigenous communities across the country.
What heals here can heal elsewhere. That is the nature of good medicine — it is meant to be shared.

Internal checks & balances to prevent fraud

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — INTERNAL CONTROLS & FRAUD PREVENTION
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is committed to the highest standards of financial integrity, organizational accountability, and transparent stewardship of every dollar entrusted to us by funders, donors, and the community we serve.
Board Oversight
The Board of Directors provides independent oversight of all financial activity. The Board reviews and approves annual budgets, audited financial statements, and the Form 990 prior to filing. No expenditure authority rests solely with a single individual — all significant financial decisions require board awareness and approval.
Separation of Financial Duties
Financial responsibilities are deliberately separated across staff roles to prevent any single individual from controlling the full cycle of a financial transaction. Authorization, recordkeeping, and reconciliation functions are assigned to different personnel — ensuring that no one person can initiate, approve, and record a payment without oversight.
Compensation Approval
All compensation for executive leadership, officers, and key employees is reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. No individual participates in the vote regarding their own compensation. Decisions are documented in board meeting minutes and informed by comparability data from similar organizations.
Conflicts of Interest Policy
All board members, staff, and contractors are required to annually review and acknowledge the organization's conflicts of interest policy. Any individual with a personal interest in a matter before the organization must disclose that interest and recuse themselves from related decisions. Conflicts are documented in board minutes.
Grant Fund Stewardship
Grant funds are tracked separately by award, with expenditures coded to specific grant purposes and reported to funders according to grant agreement requirements. Program staff and financial staff maintain shared accountability for accurate and timely grant reporting.
Financial Reporting & Transparency
The organization maintains accurate and current financial records, prepares regular financial reports for board review, and completes an annual Form 990. Governing documents, including bylaws and conflict of interest policy, are available to the public upon request through the organization's website at www.wambliska.org or by written request to PO Box 887, Rapid City, SD 57709.
Culture of Accountability
Beyond policy and procedure, Wambli Ska's internal culture of accountability is grounded in the same values that guide our programs — integrity, transparency, and responsibility to the community. We hold ourselves to the standard our community deserves: an organization that is as trustworthy in its finances as it is in its relationships.

Get Involved

How can volunteers get involved?

WAMBLI SKA OKOLAKICIYE — VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Wambli Ska Okolakiciye welcomes volunteers who come with open hearts, willing hands, and respect for the community and culture they are entering. There are meaningful ways to contribute across every program in the ecosystem.
Ways to Get Involved
Teen Drop-In Center — tutoring, mentoring, homework support, meal preparation, and event support for youth programming and cultural gatherings.
Sacred Storm Buffalo — assist with retail operations, market events, food distribution, the Cook Shack food truck, and community food giveaways.
Good Medicine Lodge — meal service, basic needs support, and day center assistance for unsheltered community members.
Gardens & Food Sovereignty — planting, tending, harvesting, and food preservation alongside youth and community members building our growing infrastructure.
Cultural Events & Powwows — event setup, coordination, and community support at gatherings that celebrate and sustain Lakota culture.
Administrative & Professional Support — grant writing, communications, photography, graphic design, and organizational support for those with professional skills to contribute.
How to Connect
We ask that all volunteers approach this work with humility, cultural sensitivity, and a genuine commitment to serving — not saving — our community.
To get involved contact us at grants@wambliskasociety.org or 605-205-5100. We welcome you.

How can donors support your mission?

Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is building something rare — an Indigenous-led ecosystem where culture is the curriculum, community is the classroom, and every program feeds the next. Donors who invest in Wambli Ska are not writing a check to a charity. They are becoming relatives in the work of healing, sovereignty, and self-determination.
Ways to Give
General Operating Support — the most flexible and impactful gift. Unrestricted donations sustain the staff, facilities, and organizational infrastructure that keeps every program running every day.
Program-Specific Giving — donors may direct gifts to the Teen Drop-In Center, Sacred Storm Buffalo, Warriors Lodge, Good Medicine Lodge, food sovereignty infrastructure, GED and education programming, or cultural revitalization initiatives.
Capital Investment — gifts toward the ranch development, greenhouse construction, livestock operations, and online retail platform build permanent infrastructure with lasting generational impact.
In-Kind Contributions — donations of food, supplies, equipment, professional services, and culturally relevant goods directly support daily operations and program delivery.
Planned Giving — donors may include Wambli Ska Okolakiciye in estate planning, ensuring their investment in Indigenous community well-being extends beyond their lifetime.
Corporate & Foundation Partnership — businesses and foundations are invited into long-term funding relationships that align with commitments to racial equity, food sovereignty, Indigenous rights, and community development.
Every Dollar Matters
No gift is too small. Every contribution — of any size — moves a community not just toward survival, but toward sovereignty, dignity, and a future built on their own terms.
To give or learn more contact us at grants@wambliskasociety.org or 605-205-5100. Visit us at www.wambliska.org.

Do you accept partnerships?

Yes. Wambli Ska Okolakiciye actively seeks and welcomes partnerships — grounded in the Lakota principle of reciprocity. We do not enter relationships transactionally. We enter them as relatives, with shared purpose, mutual respect, and a long-term commitment to the community we both serve.
What Partnerships Look Like
Community & Nonprofit Partners — organizations working in housing, behavioral health, legal aid, education, and social services are invited to collaborate through referral networks, co-located services, and coordinated case management — ensuring community members receive seamless wraparound support without falling through the cracks.
Indigenous Producer & Business Partners — Sacred Storm Buffalo actively seeks partnerships with Indigenous ranchers, growers, makers, and entrepreneurs through the Native First, Local Second framework — creating market access, intertribal commerce, and shared economic sovereignty.
Academic & Trade Institution Partners — Wambli Ska is pursuing partnerships with community colleges, trade schools, and universities to develop credentialed training pathways at the ranch and across workforce programs — combining Indigenous knowledge with recognized credentials.
Corporate & Social Enterprise Partners — businesses aligned with Indigenous values, food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and community development are invited into partnerships that create shared value beyond a transactional exchange.
Tribal Nation Partners — we actively build government-to-community relationships with tribal nations regionally and nationally, sharing resources, knowledge, and models of Indigenous self-determination.
Our Standard for Partnership
Every partnership must honor the dignity of the community we serve, respect Indigenous culture and sovereignty, and contribute meaningfully to the ecosystem we are building together.
To explore a partnership contact us at grants@wambliskasociety.org or 605-205-5100.

Are you seeking board members?

Yes. Wambli Ska Okolakiciye is actively seeking committed, passionate individuals to join our Board of Directors — people who believe in the power of Indigenous-led community development and are ready to bring their skills, networks, and hearts to this work.
Who We Are Looking For
We welcome candidates with backgrounds and expertise in finance and accounting, legal and nonprofit governance, healthcare and behavioral health, education and academic leadership, agriculture and land stewardship, business development and social enterprise, communications and public relations, and Indigenous community advocacy.
Cultural humility, a genuine relationship with the community we serve, and alignment with Lakota values of reciprocity, respect, and responsibility are as important to us as professional credentials. We actively encourage Native American community members and Indigenous leaders to apply.
What Board Members Do
Board members provide organizational oversight, participate in strategic planning, support fundraising and funder relationships, review financial reporting and the annual Form 990, and serve as ambassadors for Wambli Ska's mission in their professional and community networks.
Our Ask
We ask for your time, your wisdom, your network, and your unwavering commitment to a community that deserves nothing less than the best leadership we can build together.
To express interest in board membership contact us at grants@wambliskasociety.org or 605-205-5100. We would love to welcome you to the table.

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