The President's Diversity Council has given the NDSU Dakota Studies Initiative the 2010 Impact Award, which recognizes individuals, groups and units campus and community-wide that have demonstrated a significant contribution to advancing diversity as related to the President’s Diversity Council Strategic Plan via positive interactions with others, a respect and value for differing backgrounds and points of view inside and outside of NDSU.
Dakota Initiative Team members include Craig Schnell, Thomas Riley, Clifford Canku, Dale Sullivan, John Cox, Jeanne Hageman, Paul Homan, Daniel Klenow, John Peacock, Bruce Maylath, Kelly Sassi, Tim Kloberdanz and Joy Sather-Wagstaff.
In Elizabeth Birmingham's letter of nomination, she wrote, "The Dakota Initiative originated several years ago in the English department under the direction of department head Dale Sullivan and came to fruition this fall when NDSU hired Dr. Clifford Canku, an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate. John Peacock, an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Oyate and professor of language, literature and culture at Maryland Institute College of Art, was instrumental in helping to identify and recruit Dr. Canku to our campus."
Working with Peacock to help keep the Dakota language from becoming endangered further, Sullivan, Maylath and Sassi of the English department, with support from Schnell and Riley, took the initiative to lead other departments in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to provide support for an assistant professor of practice position in Dakota Studies and attendant course offerings.
Canku taught courses during the 2009-10 academic year in Dakota Language I & II, Dakota Tribal History, Dakota Tribal Culture and Dakota Religious Studies. According to Birmingham, doing so has helped NDSU retain its American Indian students, like Teresa Black Cloud, an English education major from Bismarck, N.D., and an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Lakota Oyate, who is taking Canku’s course in Dakota Religious Studies. “Learning the traditions and language of the Sioux people is important to me as a Lakota student and woman. I hope I will be able to share what I have learned from Dr. Canku’s class throughout my life and become more involved with my identity as a Native American," Black Cloud says. "I feel like I have been given a great chance to become closer to my culture.”
The recipients are provided with a $500 award, which they donate to a charity of their choosing. The Dakota Studies Initiative has chosen to donate the money to the Gladys Ray Emergency Shelter in Fargo.
The mission of the Gladys Ray Emergency Shelter is to provide a safe and comfortable place for people who cannot access other shelter options in the community. The emergency shelter also helps connect people to permanent housing and services in a welcoming and non-judgmental environment. The shelter can serve 25 men and 10 women per night. It is open from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. Once fully operational, the facility will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. The shelter is located at 1519 1st Ave. S.