Author: St. Joseph's Indian School

At St. Joseph's Indian School, our privately-funded programs for Lakota (Sioux) children in need have evolved over 90 years of family partnership, experience and education. Because of generous friends who share tax-deductible donations, Native American youth receive a safe, stable home life; individual counseling and guidance; carefully planned curriculum based on Lakota culture and individual student needs and tools to help build confidence, boost self-esteem and improve cultural awareness. All of this helps children to live a bright, productive, possibility-filled future.

Pinger Home- Spotlight

Every Tuesday for the next few months, we will be highlighting one of our 20 homes on St. Joseph’s campus.

Here at St. Joseph’s, we provide nationally-accredited home-away-from-homes for Native American children in grades one through twelve.

There are no dorms at St. Joseph’s. Children live in one of our campus homes with two specially-trained houseparents. They live and play together as any family would. The boys and girls learn life skills and enjoy spending time with their ‘St. Joseph’s family’.

St. Joseph’s PINGER HOME is one of our 4-6 grade girls’ homes on campus.

Kimberley and Mike are the Pinger Home 6-day houseparents.

Mike has been at St. Joseph’s for 14 years. In addition to being a houseparent, he coaches 4-6 grade girls basketball, oversees the Campbell’s Labels for Education program and facilitates different staff training opportunities. In his free time, he enjoys anything athletic- like playing golf- in the summer. He has also refereed high school and college basketball for the past 33 years.

Kimberly, one of our newest houseparents, has been at St. Joseph’s for approximately two months. She is originally from Columbus, Ohio. Her favorite winter activity is ice skating and when she is not at St. Joseph’s she enjoys drawing, running and playing board games.

Here are a few fun facts about the girls of Pinger Home: Continue reading “Pinger Home- Spotlight”

Dennis Home- Spotlight

Every Tuesday for the next few months, we will be highlighting one of our 20 homes on St. Joseph’s campus.

Here at St. Joseph’s, we provide nationally-accredited home-away-from-homes for Native American children in grades one through twelve.

There are no dorms at St. Joseph’s. Children live in one of our campus homes with two specially-trained houseparents. They live and play together as any family would. The boys and girls learn life skills and enjoy spending time with their ‘St. Joseph’s family’.

St. Joseph’s DENNIS HOME is one of our 1-3 grade girls’ homes on campus.

Mary and Peter are the Dennis Home 6-day houseparents. Mary has worked at St. Joseph’s for 20 years, 10 of them as a houseparent. Peter has worked at St. Joseph’s for 10 years as a houseparent. They find their work with the Lakota children in our care “very rewarding”!

Here are a few fun facts about the girls of Dennis Home: Continue reading “Dennis Home- Spotlight”

Weekly Happenings at St. Joseph’s!

Greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School.

The weather the last two weeks has been amazing. No blistering cold, rain or snow and temperatures have been in the 50’s and 60’s.

VALENTINE’S SOBRIETY CARNIVAL
A week ago, we held our Valentine’s Sobriety Carnival in the Rec Center. For the students in grades 1-6, there were various games of skill, chance, hope and luck that they could take part in.

Continue reading “Weekly Happenings at St. Joseph’s!”

Carola Home- Spotlight

Every Tuesday for the next few months, we will be highlighting one of our 20 homes on St. Joseph’s campus.

Here at St. Joseph’s, we provide nationally-accredited home-away-from-homes for Native American children in grades one through twelve.

There are no dorms at St. Joseph’s. Children live in one of our campus homes with two specially-trained houseparents. They live and play together as any family would. The boys and girls learn life skills and enjoy spending time with their ‘St. Joseph’s family’.

St. Joseph’s Carola Home is one of our High School Boys Homes on campus.

Continue reading “Carola Home- Spotlight”

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at St. Joseph’s!

One of our Counselors wanted to pass this Valentine along.

Our first grade students were making Valentines in Guidance Class the other day and one student wanted to give a Valentine to God!

Now I could write a long blog on this, but I think it speaks for itself.

We truly are blessed in our Mission here at St. Joseph’s Indian School, and the students provide the greatest blessing of all.

Mike, St. Joseph's President

Happy Valentine’s Day to all our supporters and those sharing in our Mission!

Mike
St. Joseph’s President

Welcoming in February at St. Joseph’s!

Greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School. I hope this blog finds you all well!

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

Last week, we joined Catholic schools from all around the country to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.

Since 1974, National Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. The theme for the National Catholic Schools Week 2017 is “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Services.”

Throughout the week, Continue reading “Welcoming in February at St. Joseph’s!”

A note from Kory…

Hi everyone.  My name is Kory and I serve as the Executive Director of Development at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to work for such a wonderful organization.  The passion of our staff is only matched by the generosity of our friends and donors – I enjoy my work immensely!

Very soon you will be receiving your annual Gift Receipt in the mail. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your support, let you know to watch for this document, and tell you a little about myself. Continue reading “A note from Kory…”

Random Happenings at St. Joseph’s!

Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School!  I hope the weather in your area has not been too harsh.  We have had a nice stretch of weather that our students have taken full advantage of.

Every day after school, they are outside playing and sledding down the ‘playground hill’. Though nice, the weather has maintained a crispness here in the Chamberlain area that has kept the Missouri River frozen. Continue reading “Random Happenings at St. Joseph’s!”

St. Joseph’s 3rd Place Finish at the 40th Annual LNI Knowledge Bowl!

Our high school Lakota Nation Invitational Knowledge Bowl Team travelled to Rapid City, South Dakota on December 14th to compete in the 40th Anniversary of the Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI).

With the expectation of a snow storm and below zero temperatures, we decided to head to the competition a day early and were able to beat the storm. The next day, the storm worsened and halted travel for our Archery and Hand Games Team, who were still on campus at St. Joseph’s Indian School. This left our Knowledge Bowl Team as the sole representative of St. Joseph’s.

St. Joseph’s team- consisting of Lily, Justin, Danielle, Alyssa and Taelonna- began the competition with a ‘victory’ over Pierre Riggs High School on a forfeit, due to the declining weather conditions and their inability to make it to Rapid City.

Our next match was with Pine Ridge, which we won convincingly. We started out tentative, but in the end won by a score of 9-2.

Now all we had to do is wait our next opponent, White River, a perennial powerhouse in the competition … Continue reading “St. Joseph’s 3rd Place Finish at the 40th Annual LNI Knowledge Bowl!”

Christmas and Basketball at St. Joseph’s Indian School!

Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School.

These past few days have been cold and windy… but there has been no heavy snow, which had closed the Interstate the previous week.  The cold has kept the Missouri River frozen, which is what those who will be taking part in the ice fishing tournament next weekend like to hear.

Since St. Joseph’s students are away from campus for Christmas spending time with friends and family, we celebrated Christmas here the first Sunday after they returned (January 8).  I was wondering what we should call the day and a young student came up to me and said, ‘happy St. Joseph’s Christmas!’  It is as good a name as anything else! Continue reading “Christmas and Basketball at St. Joseph’s Indian School!”