The Ministry

The Need

• Oyate Concern serves the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  They are the descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Big Foot.  This is the tribe that defeated General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.    Treaties were signed and broken many times with the Lakota people.  Throughout history, they have been cheated out of their land and their treaty rights have been violated repeatedly.  The Pine Ridge Indian reservation is the site of the Wounded Knee Memorial.  European historians recorded the event as the Battle at Wounded Knee, but to the Lakota people it is known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee.  On this site nearly 300 elderly men, women and children were killed by the 7th Calvary.
   
• Today, the reservation is the home of between 35,000-40,000 Lakota Sioux.  Shannon County, which encompasses Pine Ridge, is known to be one of the poorest counties in the US.   There are approximately 20,000 children here under the age of 18.  Our ministry serves the village of Oglala, SD.  This general area has a population of roughly 2,500 people.

Our Ministry Statement

• Oyate Concern’s ministry is to share Jesus Christ and His love for all people within the Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  We also serve to meet the physical needs of the community, in providing goods and services. Our commitment to the reservation is long-term. We are creating programs to provide job skill and educational opportunities for teens. We hope to support and come alongside the next generation to become strong and serving leaders for the people. Oyate is the Lakota word meaning “the people”. See our complete ""Missions Statement" and our "Statement of Faith" for more information.

   

Our Strategy

• The ministry is built on the 3-R strategy of the Christian Community Development Association and Dr. John Perkins.  The three “R’s” stand for Relocation, Redistribution, and Reconciliation.
  
  
• Relocation involves living in the community and sharing in the problems and solutions to those problems as a neighbor.
  
  
• Redistribution aims to redistribute resources from wealthier communities to poorer communities, helping build resources back into the communities that they have lost and keeping resources in the community, empowering those in the community.
  
  
• Reconciliation involves realizing that God has given us the ministry of reconciling men to Himself.  As a result, reconciliation can happen between peoples who have historically been enemies as a testimony to the work of Jesus Christ in the lives of believers.  See CCDA website, also.