Scholarship a memorial to Jumping Bull

| Sunday, August 28, 2005

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

KYLE — Oglala Lakota College has established a new scholarship as a memorial to a great-grandson of Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull who was a Lakota Studies Department instructor for 24 years.

OLC officials have set an $80,000 goal and started fund-raising activities to establish the Calvin Jumping Bull Scholarship. The South Dakota Community Foundation will provide a matching grant of $20,000 when OLC meets its goal.

Jumping Bull, who died at age 75 on July 1, was a major force in working to keep the Lakota language alive and to strengthen the culture for generations. He believed that by keeping the songs alive, the Lakota would also preserve the language, said OLC president Thomas Shortbull in a news release.

When few Indian people went to college in the 1950s, Jumping Bull blazed a trail to higher education, Shortbull said.

"Calvin was a warrior who went to college so that his education would benefit the Lakota people," he said in the release.

Jumping Bull attended Bureau of Indian Affairs schools on the reservation during his early years. He received a bachelor's degree in art education at Dakota Wesleyan University and a master's degree at Black Hills State University. He worked as principal at Red Cloud Indian School for eight years. He helped Loneman School in Oglala become the first tribally contracted school and worked to establish Oglala Lakota College. Jumping Bull then joined the faculty at OLC, teaching in the Lakota Studies Department.

Throughout his career, Jumping Bull worked for more Indian control of the schools and educational institutions. He tirelessly advocated for more Indian teachers, staff and administrators. Indian students had the opportunity to get their education on the reservation, and Jumping Bull wanted it grounded in Lakota culture.

In 2001, Jumping Bull received the Northern Plains Tribal Art Show Living Treasure Award.

In 2004, he was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame in Cheyenne, Wyo., where he led a Lakota dance troupe from 1969 to 1979.

Those wishing to contribute to the scholarship can send donations to Thomas Shortbull, OLC president, P.O. Box 490, Kyle, SD 57752; can call Shortbull at 455-6020 or Marilyn Pourier, OLC development director, at 455-6045.