Saturday morning the CAIRNS director traveled from Wingsprings in the Lacreek District of Pine Ridge Reservation to He Dog School in the Parmelee District of Rosebud Reservation to share a “Winter Counts and Star Knowledge” presentation with Teach for America corps members and teachers in the two reservations. The two-hour illustrated talk included traditional Lakotan narratives, contemporary Lakotan art, an overview of Lakotan winter counts, a brief discussion of differences between Indian history and tribal histories as well as of conventional academic perspectives and traditional tribal perspectives. The discussion of the traditional Lakotan method of determining when a new year began was paralleled with the traditional and paschal methods of establishing Easter Day and with the Lunar New Year, which was Saturday, February 10, 2024, the Year of the Dragon. 

The image above is a slide from the presentation.