Running Wolf Cultural Survival School was created by the Medicine Lodge Confederacy (MLC) in order to teach the Arikara world view, epistemology, and to revitalize the Arikara Language. The Running Wolf Cultural Survival School is built on the Running Wolf Ranch owned by Lee Voigt, a member of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara(MHA) Nation. The name Running Wolf is his father Eugene Voigt’s Hidatsa name Zaysha Titiash. Eugene had the vision to purchase land and establish the 3,500 acre ranch.

North Dakota does not have a Charter School Law under which to incorporate. Charter School Laws include mechanisms that allow funding to flow into the school to meet needs of students in lieu of them attending Public Schools. Therefore, the Running Wolf School by necessity must be a Private School. It will begin by Parents organizing under the Home School laws of the State of North Dakota. However, because North Dakota does not have charter school laws, no money will flow to the school which is problematic and there is not money to pay for school operations, salaries, building maintenance, or utilities.

The MLC has developed a language community called “Strikes The Enemy”. They consist of parents and grandparents working together as a community to become fluent in Arikara and teach their children. They are all committed to learning the language while learning about the Arikara Creation Stories and mythologies which give the language meaning and context. The language community is committed to creating a dialect of Arikara that has been named the “Strikes The Enemy” dialect. This name reflects that many of the members are descendants of the Arikara sub-chief “Strikes The Enemy”. The kanaachitawiu (leader) in 2013 spent the year devising a 3,000 word dictionary transforming the Arikara polysynthetic language into an analytic language. The MLC has been meeting weekly refining and agreeing on the spelling and word transformations. This language community will launch a language nest with ten of their own children beginning in June, 2018. It has become apparent to members of the MLC that although they have a grasp of the language, they will never achieve true proficiency. The group spends about 90% of their efforts on activities related to Arikara survival and in doing so realize that a drastic change is needed in order to achieve fluent speakers.

The Medicine Lodge Confederacy evolved from a vision given to a young man who wanted something better for his Arikara people and the human family. He created a movement after he made and shared 260 songs in Arikara that addressed the meaning of life and the ancient teachings regarding the Arikara cosmology. The people who are learning and applying the teachings are members of the Medicine Lodge Confederacy. They are actively teaching their children and are creating a place for people to seek their purpose in life. This spiritual movement and the cosmology of Arikara has been renewed through the songs and prayer for the past nine (9) years. This movement gave a place for the language to be spoken and sung about. The Running Wolf Cultural Survival School is formally opening in June 2018. If you have any questions regarding helping the school or any of our other initiatives please contact us, we would greatly appreciate it.