FORT YATES, N.D. — “There are many sources of funds for tribal colleges,
and we’re tapping all of them in building our new campus,” said Ron His
Horse Is Thunder, Lakota, president of Sitting Bull College and, at press
time, a candidate for chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The
first major building planned for the college’s grounds is a handsome $6
million science and technology center designed by Jiran Architects &
Planners of Bismarck, N.D., to sit at the base of a bluff south of Fort
Yates.

Construction crews are currently finishing up the 23,000-square-foot
building, which will welcome students in October to its physics, chemistry,
biology and nursing labs; classrooms; computer lab; auditorium; interactive
video linking laboratories to those in other North Dakota colleges; and
greenhouse.

“The new facility at Sitting Bull College is more than just a building. It
represents the progress being made in training the next generation of
scientists, teachers and entrepreneurs for meaningful jobs in Indian
country,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., vice chairman of the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee. Dorgan is also a member of the college’s honorary
national campaign committee, which raised funds for the project.

The expansion means the college can handle more students, and that means
higher expenditures for teaching materials and equipment — funds that will
be provided by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of
Energy.

Science and agribusiness faculty member Gary Halvorson is particularly
pleased with an analytical chemistry lab with state of the art equipment,
including an atomic absorption spectrophotometer and a high-precision
liquid chromatograph. “The tribe spends $200,000 a year on environmental
sampling,” said Halvorson as he led a tour of the building. “Our dream is
to develop a service lab that takes on that work and provides employment in
the community. Our ultimate dream is a commercial testing lab dealing with
the general public, and we’ll work with the college’s business students to
make that big leap a reality.”

Another aim, according to Academic Dean Koreen Ressler, is four-year
accreditation for the school’s environmental sciences program, now a
two-year program.

It has taken years of work by a national committee, headed by former U.S.
Sen. Tom Daschle, to make ambitions like these possible. “Our final goal is
$40 million, and we’ve raised $16 million so far,” His Horse Is Thunder
said. “The first and biggest gift was $4 million from the tribe. We told
them that if you want a new campus, it’ll make it a lot easier for us if
you provide a base.”

With that as the starting point, the college received several million from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “There are set-asides for tribal
colleges and tribes and rural communities, and we’ve tapped all three,”
said His Horse Is Thunder, noting that the funded project does not have to
be tied to agriculture. Additional funds came from the U.S. Department of
Education, the American Indian College Fund and federal monies set aside by
both Dorgan and South Dakota’s Sen. Tim Johnson.

The next buildings to be constructed are a $3 million teacher-education
facility for students in the associate and bachelor’s programs; an
approximately $7 million business center that will house business courses,
the Tribal Business Information Center and a business incubator with
several storefronts; and a maintenance and bus garage for the
reservation-wide transportation system run by the college.

Several smaller projects have already been completed, including 18 housing
units for married and single students. Housing is a critical need,
according to His Horse Is Thunder. “I could double enrollment if I had
dormitories,” he said.

Holistic choices have been a priority in planning the new campus. Buildings
will have passive solar heating and will be surrounded by a native-plants
landscape developed by ethnobotany faculty member Linda Jones, Catawba, and
herbalist Monica Skye. “It will be a teaching resource for students and
something we can feature on visitors’ walking tours,” said His Horse Is
Thunder.

The college is facing the future with confidence, according to His Horse Is
Thunder: “We must have graduates who are ready to face any and all academic
challenges and solve the many issues faced by the Standing Rock Nation and
the wider culture. This initial academic facility for the new campus [the science and technology building] is intended to do precisely that.”