Wookiye Bookmark Initiative
As part of the Wookiye Project, the Office of Indian Education began concept development for Project BookMark in 2021. This initiative was designed to assist South Dakota schools in obtaining books by Oceti Sakowin authors for their libraries and classrooms. A selection of books was approved by the South Dakota Indian Education Advisory Council. These resources were chosen to help South Dakota teachers integrate the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings & Standards (OSEUS) into curriculum development.
The Wookiye BookMark Initiative, funded by the Bush Foundation grant, was launched for the 2023-2024 school year. From August to October 2023, the Office of Indian Education collaborated with the South Dakota Historical Society Press to distribute selected books to every school in South Dakota.
Each elementary school in the state was sent two copies of Muskrat and Skunk / Sinkpe Na Maka: A Lakota Drum Story by Donald F. Montileaux; while every middle school and high school received two copies of The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living by Joseph M. Marshall III. Accompanying these books were sets of magnets representing all nine reservations sharing geography with South Dakota, along with a list of books by Native authors from the South Dakota Historical Society Press.