Stand With Standing Rock: Montessori School

The goal of this GoFundMe is support for the furnishing of four Montessori classrooms at the Wichakini Owayawa Immersion School on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.

Funds raised will be used for purchasing Montessori materials and supplies for the four Montessori classrooms, as well as the shipping for donated materials from other Montessori schools. 

The Standing Rock Montessori schools will be conducted in the Lakota language, and the project is completely controlled by the Standing Rock Montessori community. 


Our hope is that this fund will continue to support a legacy of Social Justice for our Brothers and Sisters who so bravely fought for water rights for our country not so long ago. It would honor their commitment and love for the Montessori philosophy of the humanity we are part of. 

The following is excerpts from an address from Betty Archambault to the annual Montessori for Social Justice Conference held in Portland, Oregon June 2019.


"We are striving to educate our children with culture---our own history, values and view of the world and language through the Montessori Method because it is time to take back our education and to do what is best for our children. Sitting Bull said, 'Let us put our minds together, and see what life we can make for our children.'

I am a Montessorian. Chante Washte Wi, Good Heart Woman is my Lakota name. I am an Oglala Sioux from Pine Ridge South Dakota. My husband is Standing Rock Sioux and we have lived on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota for 30 years. 

We have fought to get Montessori education for our children since 1989; we have had a couple of attempts over the years, but today I am happy to say that my husband was able to secure funding for the training of five Montessori teachers.  Four of them were trained to return to our Lakota Language Immersion school on Standing Rock. Three are second language teachers who are translating the materials into the language, with the help of our elders.

Our problem is that we have few materials and no funding from anywhere to set up our classrooms. We are reaching out to all Montessorians who are serious in getting the Montessori Method to the grassroots people, who belong to this land. We are the people who have suffered atrocities as our land was stolen and we were called non-human by the Pope to justify the theft of our land. 

In this day and age,  the US government still will not acknowledge the treaties made with indigenous nations and does not honor the promises made by the treaties to provide an education of our choice.

In this small school on Standing Rock, we want the Montessori Method!

We now have four trained Montessorians,  a few materials, and a borrowed space in our community college to begin our program. 

We ask that you look into your hearts and help us to make that dream come true. Once again I ask you to Stand With Standing Rock in bringing back our language with the assistance of the best education system in the world."

Thank you in advance for your support of a beautiful new school!

The video is of Dave Archambault, one of the organizers of Standing Rock Montessori, speaking at a TEDx event.
Illustrations are courtesy Betty and Dave Archambault.