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| The History
of OSEC |
| Oceti Sakowin is a term that translates from both
the Lakota and Dakota languages into English as
“Seven Council Fires”. Inherent in the
term is an implication of relatives coming together
for a common purpose. To meet one’s relatives
in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration,
to celebrate through food, song and prayer a common
bond and to work together to build a better future
for the coming generations. |
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| It is in that spirit that the founders of the
Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium first began working
together. The Oceti Sakowin Learning Education Consortium
is a legacy of the Visions TECWEB Project, a Technology
Innovation Challenge Grant of the U. S. Department
of Education. Visions TECWEB and its participating
membership provided the programmatic and financial
basis for the establishment. The initial Visions
TECWEB partnering members where diverse. Comprised
of parochial, state, federal and tribal schools
and a tribal education department, the Visions TECWEB
project tested the theory that the needs of the
Native Children served outweighed the political
considerations of systems that had evolved separately,
and sometimes in competition, of each other. The
success of Visions TECWEB in building curriculum,
providing guidance to members in professional development
and to help direct and gather resources was viewed
by other school leaders serving Native Children
as an important model to continue. In December of
2000 the original Visions TECWEB schools invited
other schools and tribal colleges to begin the process
of building an organization that would carry out
the model started by the Visions TECWEB project. |
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