 Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |
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 Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |
 Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |  Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |
 Lakota Arts and CultureLearn Lakota beading & quillwork skills, see Native Art demos and workshops, visit the Black Hills and Pine Ridge, discuss Native literature, hear Native flute music, enjoy Native American movies, learn to speak Lakota |
Where: South Dakota
When: SORRY - THIS TOUR IS NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
Tribes: Lakota
CAN I EXTEND THIS TOUR?
We have tours that adjoin with this one so if you would like to elongate your time in Indian Country, please call the office for information.
307 699 6015
TOUR ITINERARY
DAY 1
Arrive Rapid City Regional Airport and shuttle to your hotel
DAY 2
Meet your Lakota guide and head into the sacred Black Hills of the Lakota, hearing of the origins of the Lakota, and how they came to walk this special land. After lunch in the hills, travel to your tribal hotel and settle in.
This evening, enjoy your 1st Art workshop (this will include a history of Lakota Art slideshow after which you will be well equipped to make a decision on which project you might choose)
DAY 3
Stand before a vast moonscape expanse and witness the beauty of the Lakota Badlands. At the White River Visitor Center, take opportunity to discuss culture with Lakota Rangers and after lunch with a local artisan we return to our comfortable Arts Room to our 2nd Art workshop and learn time-honored techniques used by traditional artisans.
Tonight enjoy movie night as you work on your piece.
DAY 4
Evans Flammond is a renowned Lakota artist with a signature personal style and use of color. This morning, travel to his studio where he will explain his Art, techniques and the meaning of his work for you. At Red Cloud Heritage Center take opportunity to view the work of local Lakota artists. Enjoy lunch in Pine Ridge town, then inspired by Lakota artisans return to begin your 3rd Art Workshop.
This evening is Native Book Club! Enjoy and participate in a discussion of literature and tribal authors (pre-determined – you will receive a book list before you arrive).
DAY 5
Wounded Knee! We will rise early and head eastwards as your guide explains the sequence of events that resulted in nearly 300 Lakota losing their lives in 1890. Having paid our respects at the modest memorial site, we move on to the Oglala Lakota College Heritage Center for a presentation, then take lunch at the nearby tribal hotel.
Our 4th Art Workshop keeps us busy for the afternoon, then this evening, try our hand at learning to converse the local tongue in a Lakota language class.
DAY 6
This morning, gather in our Art Room for the final Art Workshop session. Finish your piece, or gather instructions to be able to continue working on it through the winter back home, and discuss the aspects of Lakota Art we have learned.
Our final field trip is to visit the Lakota-owned Dakota Drum Store and Prairie Edge; not only the largest gallery on the Northern Plains, but which also features the Sioux Trading Post – a fabulous resource for tribal art supplies.
This evening we say our farewells over dinner and enjoy a Native Flute presentation and music night.
DAY 7
Depart from Rapid City (RAP)
DID YOU KNOW?
Native American Jewelry: it’s beautiful and when it's created as Art, it is unique – your friends will never have the same piece you have!
Native jewelry skills range from beading and quillwork to silverwork, wood carving and rocks - turquoise, brown stone, opal, pink stone, onyx, set in silver or copper. Inspiration is rich and usually comes from symbolism, tribal colors and from nature around the people.
Dreamcatchers: Totally unique to Native Americans! The dreamcatcher art form developed through the Ojibwe tribe and though some say it was never a tradition of the Old Ones, it is certainly a well-established ‘new tradition’ now and has become an economic boom within often impoverished yet artistic families and communities. Featuring sinew strands tied like a web around a round or tear drop shaped frame, it is hung over a bed/cradle to protect children from having bad dreams.
Quillwork: An ancient traditional Native American art form. The process of porcupine quilling required catching the porcupine to harvest quills which were then softened, then dyed by boiling with plants, flattened with the front teeth, then woven on birchbark or leather. Quilling is initially difficult and fiddly, and thus considered to be very exclusive. Once beads became available, patterns were transferred and the popularity of quill work declined.
Beadwork: The colonial powers brought additional trading opportunities and it was through the Spanish and the Europeans that Native people first got access to glass seed beads. Most Native cultures have readily adapted to modern conveniences and not having to capture porcupines for art supplies must have been an attractive prospect. Patterns were adapted and beading became the ‘in thing’ on the Plains!
TOUR OVERVIEW
Come to South Dakota and experience Native American Arts on the Great Plains. Join our Lakota artist guides for a week of exploration and creativity - take field trips to see the places that inspire the beauty of tribal Art and under your guide's expert tutelage, try your own hand at crafting an item in the Lakota tradition.
This is a one of a kind experience!
Ever heard of a tour where you spend each evening enjoying language classes, Native Movie night, Native Music class, all while you are learning new arts skills? This is the ONLY tour of it's type anywhere.
Lakota Arts and Culture is based on the traditional way that the people followed Mother Earth's example. Children and adults alike absorbed the knowledge of the elders sitting around the evening camp fire in the darkness, listening to the stories that told the history of their relatives, each story having its time and place to be told.
And in this special time of learning there grew the seed of creativity. Tribal people were always concerned with adornment and decoration, for within the creation of beautiful items and clothing lay personal pride in one’s own appearance and stature, as well as honoring for family members and children. For what better way to show love than in hours spent upon an item given to a special person?
The men, made bows, arrows, and other tools and they decorated hide parfleches and many other functional items with meaningful designs and symbols of medicine. The women would quill or bead endlessly; cut hide with deft hands to make warm clothing or tipi repairs. Moccasins would be fashioned, decorated and stored for daily or ceremonial use by her family, and as the children watched and learned her skills, she explained the designs she had dreamed and brought to life or discussed family designs from across the decades.
MORE TOURS FOR 2019 / 2020
Gathering of Nations - April 18-26, 2020
Southwestern culture & powwow burst forth every spring in Albuquerque. Now transferred from The Pit to its new outdoor location, the Gathering of Nations is the perfect culmination of a seven day cultural odyssey through the Native Nations of New Mexico. Explore the ancient origins of the Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo cultures, with guides who live traditional lifeways that have been preserved over the millenia.
Native Yellowstone - May 23-29, 2020
The Cheyenne, Kiowa, Shoshone, Bannock, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Nez Perce, and the most recent arrivals, the Crow , are among the twenty-seven tribes with cultural ties to Yellowstone that each know a different story. Within these archives from ancestral memory is found a common theme – the sacred nature of the land named for the Yellow Rock Water and the connection to place, an ancient compact between the two-legged and four and the earth that sustains but is, as yet, still unmade.
I Am Lakota - May 30 - June 6, 2020
Traverse prairies to the sacred Black Hills, the barren beauty of Mako Sica, the Badlands and spend time on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, following the culture & history of the Lakota through great leaders such as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse.
PLUS Visit the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
Lakota Storyteller - Oct 3-11, 2020
Visit the sacred lands of the Lakota Sioux in the crisp, sunny weather of the fall, starting at the Lakota place of genesis – Wind Cave. Visit Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee, Paha Sapa - the sacred Black Hills, Mako Sica – the Badlands, Bear Butte, and Mato Tipila. All are sacred sites of the Oceti Sakowin and your extraordinary week celebrating Native culture culminates at the biggest powwow of the season – Oglala Nation Powwow!
Walk In Beauty - please enquire for Fall 2020 dates
Navajo philosophy is epitomized by the phrase ‘Walk In Beauty’, from the sacred prayer, the Blessing Way. Aspiring to that spirit, we enter deep into the cultures and landscapes of the South-western tribal nations; we meet the Navajo, explore the Pueblo cultures, and the ancient wisdom keepers – the Hopi.
Apache - - please enquire for 2020/21 dates
Follow the trails of legendary Apache leaders like Geronimo, whose names and deeds reverberate through the canyons, mountains, and deserts of their homelands. Travel through history on a journey that weaves through traditional Chihuahua Apache heartland of the Dragoon and Chihuahua Mountains learning of the intricacies and diversity within Apache cultures.
