"Founded in 1988, the Cheyenne River Youth Project is a grassroots, Native- and woman-led nonprofit organization dedicated to providing Lakota youth with access to a vibrant and more secure future. At the heart of our innovative, culturally relevant work is Wólakȟota, our people’s sacred way of life."
Their perspective explains that as Native leaders, their primary focus is to serve as healers. Their work is medicine. In Lakota culture, children are sacred.
From their impactful graffiti art program to their youth center to outdoor classrooms to midnight basketball, CRYP explains, "it’s not just about giving money, which cannot solve every program by itself. In our communities, we need trust-based, heart-centered, low-touch giving and long-term investment designed to effect lasting, transformative change."
"For a hundred years, it was virtually illegal to be Lakota. The Native American tribe, known for its chiefs Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud, was legally dispossessed of its religion, its spiritual practices, and much of its language, starting in the late 19th century. All Native American tribes were. Until 1978 and the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, generations of Lakota were raised without access to their culture. Now, the Cheyenne River Youth Project is working with a determined generation of young Lakota to create a stronger economic and cultural future—and they’re using their Lakota heritage to get there."
Executive Director Julie Garreau often says that CRYP is “the little nonprofit that did.”
Cheyenne River Youth Project has indeed accomplished so much. They are an inspiration.