This weekend Village Earth and the Brave Heart tiyospaye agreed to work together to restore the Brave Heart’s 720 acres of land located between Pine Ridge and Oglala. They will also receive a “seed” herd of buffalo from Village Earth’s “Adopt-A-Buffalo” program scheduled to be released in August of 2005. 
Picture: Basil and Carla Brave Heart point-out the benchmark (below) that marks the northwest corner of their land to Henry Red Cloud (right). 
The 720 acres include the orginal 160 acres that was allotted to Basil’s Father during the 1887 General Allottement Act (Dawes Act) . After being issued a “Forced Fee Patent” the land was reposessed by the bank and sold to an Austrian homesteader who used it for cattle grazing. In the 1980’s the land opened up for sale at which time the Braveheart Tiyospaye worked together to purchase it, bringing it back into their Tiyospaye and the Oglala Lakota Nation. However, without having access to the resources needed to utilize it, they have had to lease it out to a non-tribal rancher for $3.oo an acre per year. The Brave Hearts would like to restore the health of their land and raise buffalo for sale, ceremonial use, and above all for “healing.” Eventually, the Bravehearts would like the land to return to tribal trust status, ensuring that it will be part of the Oglala Lakota Nation forever. Recovering Indian lands that were lost because of “forced fee patenting” is a high priority of Village Earth and so we are extremely excited about this partnership.
GSLL 1501 – Approaches to Community Development
This course provides a framework for community development based on a participatory, bottom-up, multi-sector model. Various approaches have been used in community development with varying degrees of success. One approach that has consistently demonstrated effectiveness is the Village Earth model based on participatory practices.
Through personal and structural empowerment, the objectives of economic well-being, environmental sustainability, and socio-cultural vitalization can be met. By looking at an overview of the entire development process and using case studies, this course will prepare participants to work in the field of community development and illuminate how all of the development efforts fit together to support the overall goal of sustainability.
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
Compare different development approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.
Understand the basic principles that underlie sustainable development.
Incorporate participatory practices into community development activities
Design a development project based on the Village Earth model
Who should take this course? This course is suited for people who are interested in community development and work or plan to work in this field. This includes people working or volunteering at NGOs, NPOs, governmental organizations, without border organizations, or missionary organizations. In addition, people involved in funding community development projects benefit from this course.
