Fort Yates, ND — Native Nations Rebuilders Program (cohort 6) - Tipiziwin is a Wiciyena Dakota and Hunkpapha Lakota. She was raised on the Standing Rock Reservation by her loving parents who instilled a strong work ethic and fierce love for her people and community. Tipiziwin is currently a Lakota language activities instructor in the Lakota Language Nest at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota; it is the only Lakota language immersion school in North Dakota and on the Standing Rock Reservation. She’s served as a member and co-chair of Standing Rock’s Education Consortium’s Lakota Language and Culture Committee and taught at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s annual Lakotiyapi Summer Institute, which offers language teacher training as well as beginner’s level Lakota classes. Tipiziwin is a graduate of Sitting Bull College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Native American studies. She also completed the College’s intensive Lakota language teacher preparation program involving the study of the Lakota language, second-language teaching approaches and language acquisition methodologies. She is married and has four children.
