Along with St. Joseph’s Indian School, many Native American youth call Chamberlain, South Dakota and the surrounding Indian reservations home.

While visiting St. Joseph’s Indian School and the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, you can also enjoy a variety of activities around the state!

Visiting St. Joseph’s Indian School

Tours of Campus

Campus tours are available in a variety of ways:

  • A self-guided audio tour to use in your car or listen to as you walk around campus at your convenience.
  • Guided tours depart from the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center at 10:30 and 1:30 Monday-Saturday. Transportation is available.
  • A privately guided tour by appointment only. Transportation is available.

To set up an appointment for a guided tour or request transportation for a tour, please call Charleen at 1-877-342-0829.


St. Joseph’s annual powwow helps our Native American students share their culture, heritage and traditions.

St. Joseph’s annual powwow helps our Native American students share their culture, heritage and traditions.

Annual Powwow

St. Joseph’s annual powwow helps our Native American students share their culture, heritage and traditions with friends like you from around the nation! This year’s powwow takes place September 14-16, 2017.

Guests enjoy free Native American cultural activities like:

  • A tiyospayeextended family — banquet on Friday night (registration required)
  • Cultural Activities — dreamcatcher crafting, Lakota hand games, dance presentations and more
  • Tours of St. Joseph’s campus, school and the children’s campus homes
  • Indian drum group competition
  • Traditional Lakota (Sioux) meal
  • And much, much more!!

Call 1-800-584-9200 for more information or register online at www.stjo.org/powwow.


St. Joseph’s annual powwow helps our Native American students share their culture, heritage and traditions.

The Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center is committed to honoring and preserving the culture of South Dakota’s Native Americans.

Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center

The Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, an educational outreach of St. Joseph’s Indian School, is committed to promoting the knowledge and understanding of the Northern Plains Indian Culture — past, present and future — through the preservation of historical artifacts and contemporary works of art.

The museum is committed to honoring and preserving the culture of South Dakota’s Native Americans and educating the thousands of people who visit the museum each year. The museum was recently recognized with the 2015 George S. Michelson Great Service Award, which “honors businesses or organizations that have done an exemplary job of exceeding visitors’ expectations in customer service.”


Recommended sites around South Dakota

Mount Rushmore: Keystone, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore is a granite sculpture of the heads of four former US presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Visit the nearby Borglum Visitor Center to learn how the monument was built.

Black Hills National Forest: Custer, South Dakota

Black Hills National Forest covers an area approximately 110 miles long and 70 miles wide. When visiting, you will enjoy breathtaking rock formations, canyons, grassland parks, streams and clear blue lakes. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota (Sioux) people, who call them Paha Sapahills that are black.

Crazy Horse Memorial: Crazy Horse, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Memorial is the world’s largest mountain carving. Visit the Native American Educational and Cultural Museum to learn more about the country’s beginnings. Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota leader who fought against the removal of his people to an Indian reservation.

World’s Only Corn Palace: Mitchell, South Dakota

The World’s Only Corn Palace has attracted the unusual, the notable and the road-weary for over 120 years. The structure is decorated with murals created with corn, grain and grass.

Badlands National Park: Western South Dakota

Rugged beauty and remarkable rock formations along with geologic deposits and prehistoric fossil beds can be explored and viewed while traveling around the park’s 244,000 acres.

Wall Drug Store: Wall, South Dakota

Hailed as ‘America’s Favorite Roadside Attraction’, the 76,000 square foot store offers you a one-of-a-kind experience. Enjoy ice cream, shop for local handmade gifts and take old-time photographs, among many other things.

Falls Park: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Visit the 123 acre park in the heart of Sioux Falls and admire the falls, where an average of 7,400 gallons of water drop 100 feet each second.

Spearfish Canyon: Spearfish, South Dakota

Formed 30 to 60 million years ago, the Spearfish Canyon boasts breathtaking rock formations and copious amounts of Ponderosa and Spruce Pine trees, as well as smaller lakes, waterfalls and hiking trails.


We look forward to seeing you at St. Joseph’s Indian School!

 

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