Connecting Lakota girls and young women to sacred land, culture and higher education.
Inyan Kagmiya — The Rolling StoneThe Spirit of Stone people never, keep moving.
Inyan Kagmiya reconnects Lakota girls and young women with their ancestral lands, cultural identity and educational possibilities through Elder-led, land-based healing, intergenerational mentorship and journeys to Native-led institutions, so that the next generation of Lakota women may be sovereign in their hearts and minds.
Led by Elder Ramona White Plume, our programs counter poverty, isolation and intergenerational trauma by replacing them with connection, vision and possibility.
We serve Lakota girls (ages 10–17) and young women (ages 18–25) living on reservation lands in South Dakota. Many have never left the reservation, and few have seen role models who have reached stability and education. Indigenous youth who keep strong cultural ties and a positive sense of their future do far better in health, education and economic life. Our programs are built to create those conditions.
Indigenous scholars and practitioners have long championed these approaches. We bring all three together.
We return to sacred sites to restore cultural grounding and spiritual wellbeing.
We place elders and young people in sustained, intentional relationship.
We give real exposure to Native-led higher education and professional life.
Ta Oiye Takan Win — Her words are Sacred Woman
Elder Ramona is the cornerstone of this project. She is not simply a participant but the cultural and spiritual anchor of every program. Her wisdom, relationships and presence cannot be replaced.
We pay all our staff a living wage, and we believe Indigenous knowledge-holders should be paid fairly for their cultural work. Paying people with dignity is part of what we hope to model for the young women we serve.
Elder Ramona and her two granddaughters spend ten days on a working retreat in Monterey, near California State University Monterey Bay, a minority-serving institution. The retreat focuses on passing knowledge between generations and on planning the programs that follow. This intimate trip is the seed from which the larger programs grow.
The Black Hills, Pahá Sápa, are the sacred heart of the Lakota universe. Ten girls and young women camp there for seven days with Elder Ramona and four chaperone women from the community. They sleep under the stars, hear Elder teachings, learn ceremonies for young women and form bonds that last a lifetime.
This program helps build a sweat lodge and supports monthly ceremony gatherings with shared meals. It carries the community through a year of purification and gives the young women we serve a lasting ceremonial home.
Weekend journeys at the turning of the seasons return the young women to sacred sites in the historical homeland of the Lakota people. They restore cultural grounding, spiritual wellbeing and a sense of belonging.
When a young Lakota woman knows who she is and who she can become, she is unstoppable.
She knows her land, her people and her lineage. She also knows she can become educated, mobile and fully alive. Every gift supports the next generation of Lakota leaders, healers, mothers and visionaries.
Your gift funds journeys to sacred land, ceremony and mentorship, and living wages for the people who make them possible.
DonateWe welcome questions from funders, institutions and community members about our programs and partnership opportunities.
info@inyankagmiya.orgMitákuye Oyás’iŋ — All My Relations