KYLE - Oglala Lakota College has announced a new scholarship in honor of the late Lakota spiritual leader Frank Fools Crow.

The Frank Fools Crow Scholarship will be given to students who are "continuing in the path of tribal leadership and culture," according to a news release from Oglala Lakota College.

"Fools Crow was one of the most respected and influential spiritual leaders on our reservation," said OLC president Thomas Shortbull. "He was the inspiration for many of the spiritual leaders who came forward from the 1960s until today."

Fools Crow, the nephew of well-known Lakota leader Black Elk, is credited with keeping sacred Lakota rites alive on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when the federal government outlawed cultural and religious practices.

"Much of what OLC teaches in Lakota history, language and culture classes were the result of his and other elders' brave efforts to keep the culture alive," the news release states.

Fools Crow died in 1989.

For more information, call Shortbull at 455-6020 or Marilyn Pourier, OLC development director, at 455-6045. Contributions to the scholarship fund can be sent to Thomas Shortbull, OLC President, P.O. Box 490, Kyle, SD 57752.