4. The Seven-Generation Framework (SGF

who is considered property. Instead, the dog and people provide service to one another in a mutual relationship of reciprocity and respect.

In the Lakota language, there is no hierarchy of animals. All animals, including people, horses, dogs, and so on, belong to oyate (a group of animals/organisms). No particular species in the oyate holds dominion over others, and they share existence on the planet within nature. The notion of humans being at the top of the chain, superior to other animals, is a colonial one.

Historically, in the Lakota culture, a dog (sunka, pronounced sh-UN’-ka) was seen as a sacred being that protects the camps and provides various sacred rites. The dog also helped people, prior to the horse, by carrying wood, keeping watch of the camp, or towing the tipi in what is known as a travois. The ideas of the dog and its spiritual connections are complicated and often particular to different healers in the communities.

There is a story in Lakota culture about an old lady and a sunkpala (puppy) that we all are told growing up. The old lady is quilling—a craft that uses porcupine quills to adorn various items—a buffalo hide, and it is said that when she finishes the hide, the world will come to an end. Luckily, the sunkpala is there to help because, as the story goes, when the lady gets up to tend to something else, the puppy undoes some of her work, thus giving people a little more time on this planet. (parr. 7-13)

3.3. Current Context

Several tragic events at the South Dakota Reservations have resulted in the death of children, adults and dogs. As a result, “members and volunteers from across South Dakota founded the Oglala Pet Project (OPP) in 2011 to rescue abandoned, unwanted, and abused animals, especially dogs. The OPP also works to provide medical services to reservation animals” (Meyers and Weston, 2020, parr. 23). However, other outside organizations, who follow a narrative of ‘rez dogs’ that wander through life without purpose, are “swooping into the reservation to save dogs, extracting them from their native culture to live healthy, happy lives in mainstream America” (Meyers and Weston, 2020, parr. 25). For the Lakota Peoples, this is the continuation of settler colonianialism in which Wasicu (White settlers) invade Tribal Land and extract their relatives, in this case dogs, to ‘civilize’ them under Western values and worldviews. 4

3.4. Colloquialisms

As Meyers and Weston (2020) argue, “like the slang term “hood rat,” a derogatory phrase used to refer to adolescents in low-income areas, “rez dog” can also now refer to a younger person found within a tribal community who seems, to outsiders, to be walking through life without purpose. This highlights areas of misunderstanding or disagreement between the cultures” (parr 20).

4. The Seven-Generation Framework (SGF)

The Lakota community navigate the processes of change, development and growth in terms of a Seven Generation Framework (SGF). The generational model is emancipated from the static manufactured non-nature of the Gregorian calendar, it prioritizes forward focused multigenerational growth in which each generation is a registration of change and process. The Seven-Generation framework creates a platform for interconnection between strategy, events, variable time frames and multiple scales.

The SGF is a means for the Lakota to trace progress back to their ancestors and project it forward to their decedents, in this way, complex multigenerational memory facilitates the organic blossoming of the Tribe. In the Shunka Kola Project, we apply the Seven-Generation Framework future facing. In conversation with the POC we understand that Tribal Members have a community derived duty to make space and resources available for the future generations.

4.1 Project Proposal: ‘Festival of Healing’ (Festival)

The ‘Festival of Healing’ ushers in the beginning of a new stage in the Seven-Generation Framework in an attempt to rebalance the human – dog relationship in the Lakota communities. The festival is a community-led weekend event in which the Mind, Body and Spirit Tracks converge into different activities, conversations, workshops and spaces. The meeting will make space for Tribal Members to evaluate the progress of the community dog management framework (CDMF) and decide on future generational initiatives and milestones.

Each ‘generation’ is marked by a milestone, in the case of the CDMF, the ‘Festival of Healing’ is treated as a generational milestone. The festival is understood simultaneously as an autonomous decision-making process and a capacity building initiative for the next ‘generation’. The festival is also an opportunity to harness scalability of the SGF. Initially, initiatives will be

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introduced at a local scale within the Pine Ridge and Rosebud towns. As the ‘generations’ advance, the project scales, growing into neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation towns and, eventually, into a Tribal scale. The Festival, and the processes it engenders, transitions from oyate, a community of animals and organisms, to tiyóšpaye, our extended family.

4.2. Mind Track

The Mind Track involves capacity-building and extracurricular activities:

A. Capacity-building workshops are intended for school students who want to learn about pathways to tertiary education in veterinary, conservation or biological sciences related to dogs and wildlife. These workshops should held at least every two months over a weekend and will be led by invited academics or professionals. Workshops should be conducted as a combination of class and fieldwork. B. Extracurricular activities could include weekly mapping workshops or other student-led activities related to CDMF.

4.3. Body Track

The Body Track focusses on community dog management strategies, a spaying and neutering program and contributes to establishing important local expertise in the form of locally owned and run Lakota veterinary services.

A. To design a sustainable spraying and neutering program, taking into account resource requirements and long-term efficacy. In collaboration with partner programs in South

Dakota and afield, the Shunka Kola project will need to constantly raise funds to maintain veterinary operations. B. Tribal Nations have constraints to own land, so, as a temporal solution, the SGF proposes the Shunka-Truck, a truck in which a veterinary can travel within the Pine

Ridge reservation offering their services. Building on the successes of the pilot program, part of funds raised will go towards obtaining and manufacturing the Shunka-Truck.

Ultimately, the Shunka Kola Project aims to find land, create local expertise and establish a locally-run indigenous-owned veterinary service.

4.4. Spirit Track

The Spirit Track involves spiritual healing and decolonization.

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