Rosebud Scholarship Fund

The overarching problem is the lack of a sustainable economy for the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, a nation of approximately 80,000 citizens, about 30,000 of which live within the boundaries of the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The lack of an economy is a critical roadblock to sovereignty for the Oyate which is vitally important for them to retain culture and traditions that give their citizens identity and self-worth. The Oyate has plenty of labor, with almost half of the population being 18 or younger, but there is not an economy to take advantage of this. The current unemployment rate is 85%, meaning the large majority of Sicangu citizens rely on the US government for a living, which is not sovereignty. 

This issue is not limited to the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, as many of the over 500 Native Tribes across the United States have similar unemployment rates. The United States engaged in intentional and unintentional genocide of its Native population for centuries, leading to conditions like this that we see today; Native people are now just 2% of the US population. Because of this, politicians and their resources typically do not cater to Native people. One area where resources lack in Native populations is education. In South Dakota, only 1 in 5 Native students that start college will finish with a degree, compared to 2 in 3 for their non-native peers. This is primarily due to a lack of financial resources, as families lack the assets or savings needed to support their students. 

One of the main reasons Native communities, including the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, do not have sustainable or even existent economies is a lack of educated, skilled labor. 

Globally, Native populations in Australia, New Zealand, and South America (among other areas) suffer from a similar set of issues caused by European colonization. 

Our solution is to build a relief-for-service program that increases college completion rate and encourages student to return home to work for the Oyate and build an economy. Every Sicangu student that wishes to pursue any form of higher education will be fully funded in return for a 2-4 year service commitment to the Oyate. This program will be modeled after relief-for-service programs that already exist in the state of South Dakota such as the Freedom scholarship and Indian Health Service's Health Professions scholarship. 

This model empowers students to return home and work for the Oyate. As it stands, Tribal citizens with degrees have to find work elsewhere in bigger cities that pay enough to service student debt. This program will eliminate their debt, thus helping the Oyate retain its talent. Having retained its talent with a variety of degree and skillsets, the Oyate will be able to build a sustainable economy.

In order to fully fund every student every year, our program will require a sustainable funding source, or an endowment. Taking into account the average S&P 500 investment return, the number of Sicangu students that attend college, and where Sicangu students typically attend college, we are working to build an approximate $10 million endowment. The interest generated annually will fully fund every Rosebud student. 

Our solution strictly serves the people of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, inhabitants of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in central South Dakota, USA. They are a strong people, once rulers of vast swaths of land in central North America. Before the Europeans arrived, the Lakota Oyate and an empire of themselves among the various Indigenous peoples. Through genocidal warfare and intentional, destructive policies, the colonizers broke down traditional Lakota society. Thankfully, they didn't do so completely. Although Lakota ceremonial practices and culture were banned as recently as the 1970's, tradition remains alive and vibrant today. However, some parts like the Lakota language, for example, is in danger of going extinct.

Our solution works to meaningfully improve the lives of all Sicangu Lakota citizens by creating a sustainable economy. Citizens are currently underserved by the lack of an economy, as 85% are unemployed, meaning they are reliant on the US government for a living and are not able to practice their own sovereignty. When our solution comes to life, every citizen will be a participant in a vibrant, culturally relevant economy that will give everyone identity and purpose. Identity and purpose is important for wellbeing, particularly for Indigenous youth that may struggle to find it living in the colonizer's world. 

A culturally relevant economy driven by educated, skilled Tribal citizens will address the need for sovereignty for the Sicangu Lakota Oyate and its citizens.  

Our target population is the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, inhabitants of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in central South Dakota. Approximately 30,000 citizens populate the reservation today, with an additional 50,000 Sicangu people living off the reservation. The Rosebud Scholarship Fund is fully supported and embraced by the Sicangu Lakota Oyate. Our solution would not exist if it were not for the Oyate's support. We are authorized to fundraise on behalf of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) by formal Tribal resolution. Our executive director, Troy Blake, and our former board chair, Leon Leader Charge, presented our mission and vision to Tribal Council, and they approved. It was a momentous occasion that was made possible by the full support of the Tribal president at the time. 

Although our target population is the entire Sicangu Lakota Oyate, as the economy we help create will bring sovereignty and identity for everyone, our sub-target population is Sicangu collegiate youth, as they will be directly receiving our support. Currently, we do not have our relief-for-service program developed. In the meantime, with our current funding levels, we are organizing Sicangu students that are rising college freshman into cohorts of 10 every spring. These students are selected based off of their commitment to serving the Sicangu Lakota Oyate. Within their cohorts, students participate in professional development, mentorship, and receive financial support to ensure they are able to continue their studies. The purpose of these cohorts is for students to get to know each other so that when they eventually all return to the reservation to make their positive impact, they have partners to do this with. We currently have 3 cohorts of 10 and are learning an incredible amount from our students and how to best serve them. 

Our solution, the Rosebud Scholarship Fund, was born and developed by the Sicangu Lakota Oyate via the effort of our executive director, Troy Blake. Troy first came to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in 2018 as a high school math teacher, taught for two years, and then stayed for two more years developing the Rosebud Scholarship Fund. Over the four years he lived in the reservation, he learned an incredible amount and developed close relationships with Sicangu citizens. As a teacher of juniors and seniors, he experienced first hand the reasons why students failed to attend or complete college. He was ceremonially adopted into a family after attending ceremony with them weekly. He had frequent conversations with Tribal leaders about what they wanted their educational future to look like. He even worked as a Tribal employee at RST Childcare and the RST ARPA office. Importantly, he worked to develop the scholarship fund right along Sicangu educational leaders; at the encouragement of the Tribal president at the time, the RST Education Director gave him an office in her building and he worked there for a year. He had daily conversations with the Education Director and RST Higher Education Coordinator. He would also have frequent conversations with the RST President and chief of staff as he would visit RST headquarters for various business. In fact, he credits the entire solution being presented in this application to the President's chief of staff, Wayne Boyd. 

Over the course of four years, the Rosebud Scholarship Fund team has varied greatly, but currently it consists of our executive director, Troy Blake, 5 governing board members, 3 advisory board members, and a volunteer mentorship coordinator who was former scholar of ours. The chair of our governing board is Della Spotted Tail, the RST Higher Education Coordinator. She is one of 3 Native members of our governing board, meaning our board is 60% Native. Della, as our chair, sets the strategy and focus of our organization, while our executive director works to carry out this strategy. 

Another significant tell of the Oyate's support of our solution is the fact that they not only gave our executive director an office, but they gave him a full salary. This salary was given after our executive director presented his vision to the RST Education Committee, a sub-committee of Tribal Council. Our executive director works closely with the RST Education Committee, providing them regular updates on organizational happenings and progress. Sometimes, they agree with our direction, and sometimes they don't, but that's where meaningful dialogue takes place. 

Our executive director is a non tribal member, having been raised in Washington state, USA. However, he found is second home in Rosebud. He would not still be doing this challenging work if it weren't for the immense love and support he receives from the Oyate. After he stopped teaching, he made a promise to his students that he would never stop serving them. He does not intend to break that promise. 

We need support in a variety of areas. We do not need to raise funds, but rather build a network, as our ambitious solution will require a number of talented minds. We mentioned that our goal is to build an approximate $10 million endowment to fully fund every Sicangu college student annually. However, even if this application were directly for a $10 million endowment, we would not be applying. If you have heard the saying that it is more about the journey than accomplishing the goal itself, that very much applies here. Our solution is unique in that we need to spread awareness in order to be successful. If we simply receive $10 million, we still will not have created the awareness necessary to bring capital to Rosebud or lessen racial biases and barriers that prevent genuine business. People will also not be informed as to why Indigenous economic sovereignty is so important in the first place and the history behind it. So, first and foremost, we need a network of passionate people on our side that are fully informed of the problem and its complicated historical pretext. Part of building this network will involve training on how to pitch to investors, how to find the right investors, and how to maintain and curate investor involvement. It will also involve building business and marketing strategy; how do we bring people to the table in the first place so that they will want to learn more? We have a feeling that will involve showing hard impact stats, and we do not currently have a structure in place for measuring impact. 

Most importantly, from an indigenous perspective, community is most important. If we aren't building community with our solution, then there is no purpose. I do not imagine the Sicangu Lakota Oyate's sustainable economy being in a vacuum, nor can it be, as a successful economy trades with various groups. We hope to be selected as a Solver in order to build with community. 

He lived in Rosebud and worked intimately with the Oyate for four years. For more detail, please see "how are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution" above. He still continues to serve the Oyate in his position. 

There are a lot of scholarship funds out there that provide money to Native students, but only money and to all Tribes. Our solution takes it a step further by requiring students to return to their home reservation to work and build an economy. Our solution will be an economic development model for all Tribe's to use. With the partnership of MIT solve and our other wonderful partners, we can make it happen.

For the next year, our impact goal is to have 40% of our 10-student senior cohort graduate. As mentioned, only 20% of Native students that start college in South Dakota will actually finish. We want to double this, and I know we can do better. We also want 90% of students in our cohorts be satisfied. 

In the next five years, we want 60% of students that started with us as college freshman to graduate and 98% to be satisfied. Also in the next five years, we want to see 50% of our scholars returning to work in Rosebud after graduating. This number is based off of sheer student inspiration, though. If we can get our relief-for-service solution up and running soon, we hope that number is 100%. 

A few specific indicators include the unemployment rate and worker productivity. To be honest, we are not actively tracking these and could really use assistance with which ones to track and which goals to work towards.

The problem is that Sicangu people are not sovereign, as the vast majority are unemployed and therefore reliant on the US government for a living (85%, to be exact). When one has a stable job with growth potential, one is able to make decisions for oneself and feel empowered. This empowerment will allow Sicangu Lakota people to prioritize culture and language. Stable jobs with growth potential come from a sustainable economy. A sustainable economy requires educated citizens of various skillsets. Currently, these educated citizens are not staying in Rosebud, as they have student debt to service. Our relief-for-service solution will keep educated citizens in Rosebud in return for full financial support. These citizens will build a sustainable economy with stable jobs for all that will give citizens agency and sovereignty, which will encourage culture and language preservation.  

Technology wise, we believe internet access is most important. Privileged Sicangu students have access to our application and the benefits of our solution, but we want to ensure that all Sicangu students have access. We also imagine that if our solution is to become reality, it will take an out-of-the-box solution that involves technology, particularly because Rosebud is such a rural area where capital needed for a sustainable economy typically does not go. We hope to learn what this technology could be via becoming an MIT solver. 

DEI is at the core of our solution. Sicangu Lakota people, and Native people in general, are currently not welcomed, supported, or valued by their own colonial government system or the US government. We need to show the US and the world that Native people are capable and can do it their own way. 

As far as our team is concerned, as it stands only 4 out of 10 of us are Native. If we say that we are exclusively supporting Sicangu Lakota people, we need to ensure that not only is the majority of our team Native, but Sicangu Lakota specifically. That is something that is always on our mind, particularly as we start to expand. An organization that is supporting Sicangu Lakota people should be primarily ran by Sicangu Lakota people. Sometimes, it is easy to bring on people that might seem like a good fit initially and just onboard them. However, we understand that we need to do the extra work and train and vet Sicangu Lakota people to work with us. Eventually, our executive director's goal is to step back on the board and have a young Sicangu Lakota college graduate take over for him. 

Our solution is a relief-for-service model. It involves a number of stakeholders, including students, Tribal leaders, local businesses, contributors, and educators. We do not currently sell products or services. Our revenue comes from different donors and businesses that believe in our solution. They give their funds to us, trusting that we as an organization are able to do the legwork of maximizing the value and impact of their funds (i.e. finding students that need the most assistance and training them around our mission). Donors (private, public, corporate, etc) give to us as an intermediary organization between their desire to make an impact and those that are in need of their impact. 

Our plan is to build a $10 million endowment that will generate annual interest to fully fund every Sicangu student's education. This will start with raising investment capital. We need a few large investors to believe in our model and create authenticity in the eyes of other investors. We also plan to bring in an element of selling products and services once we are more established and have the infrastructure to do so. Artists all across Rosebud are extremely talented but lack the network to sell their items. We want to provide this for them, in exchange for a cut towards supporting our students. The final part to our revenue stream will be government contracts. We hope to get enough to cover our salaries and basic operations, so that we can tell donors that 100% of your donated funds truly do go towards students. Government contracts are very common for Native organizations to earn. 

The grant that got us started in 2019 was $25,000 from State Farm Insurance. This was a highly competitive grant (200 awarded out of 4000 applicants) that our executive director worked hard to earn. Out of the 200 awardees, we were selected as the one organization that State Farm wanted to come out and film a promotional video for. Our executive director worked hard to build that relationship. 

We have not raised investment funding to date. The closest we came was raising $1 million from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate). This was to be the start of our $10 million endowment. The $1 million was on the verge of being delivered, as it had full support from Tribal leadership, including all 4 officers. However, our executive director made a tactical/political error (long story short), so the funds were not delivered. It was disheartening, but the potential is there. 

We have raised approximately $200,000 since our founding in 2019, and that is with only 1 year of a full-time staff member. Our other big contributors besides State Farm are $2,500 from UBS and multiple $10,000 and $5,000 commitments from private donors. 

I truly believe our potential is unlimited if given the correct support, particularly from a program like MIT solve.