(Above: An excited crowd watches a herd of bison launch out of the trailer onto their new home on the Pine Ridge Reservation, SD) Today, Village Earth released it’s 3rd “seed herd” of Bison on the Pine Ridge Reservation! The bison came from the Danylchuck ranch in Rye Colorado as part Village Earth’s Adopt-A-Buffalo program and were released onto the Brave Heart’s land 5 miles west of Pine Ridge village. Village Earth has been working with the Brave Heart family since February of this year to prepare their land, fencing, and water resources for the arrival of the bison. 
Despite the cold and rain, over 30 people from across the reservation came out the Brave Heart’s land for the release which included prayers, songs and stories about the buffalo, and a talk by Basil and Bob Brave Heart about the importance of reclaiming the land, restoring the ecology of the great plains, and the importance of the buffalo for the Lakota people. 
On Friday night, prior to the release, the Brave Heart Singers performed at a dinner event at the Historic Arkansas River Project in downtown Pueblo, Colorado to celebrate the pickup of the buffalo and to honor the Danylchuck family for the bison. 
The buffalo were rounded up and corralled on a sunny day in Rye Colorado and followed by picnik provided by the Danylchucks. 
A HUGE Thank You and Was Te! Goes out to Henry Red Cloud and Bret Tsacher (of the Lone Buffalo Project), John “the Worm Man” Anderson, and Bryan Deans (of Butte Bio Fuels), and Ralf Kracke-Berndorf for their help in ensuring that the buffalo were delivered safely to Pine Ridge in time for the scheduled release.
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.
