At CRYP, we love welcoming new children to The Main youth center. Not only is it a joy getting to know each and every one of them, it’s so much fun to see what interests they explore, and what gets them excited. Charly Etzkorn, 11, first came to The Main this past...
Basketball is a big deal on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Lakota youth have a great passion for the sport, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that many of them first find their way into Cheyenne River Youth Project programs via our full-size Morgan...
We love getting to know our youngest CRYPers at what we’ve come to call, affectionately, “the little Main.” These 4- to 12-year-olds are enthusiastic about everything they do here, and we get a kick out of watching them discover their passions and interests as they...
When young children participate in their first programs or activities at the Cheyenne River Youth Project, they’re embarking on a journey that likely will continue through their teen years and into their adult lives. One child might drop into The Main for arts and...
A couple of months ago, we profiled one of the five Lakota teens who have been participating in “Growing Into Wowachinyepi (One Who the People Can Depend On),” a special program we designed in conjunction with the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen...
This spring, five Lakota teens have been participating in “Growing Into Wowachinyepi (One Who the People Can Depend On),” a special program we designed in conjunction with the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute based on its “Champions for Change.”...
In a small town, it’s fun for everyone when someone new arrives—for us as a staff, and for all the kids. This spring, we all welcomed 7-year-old Christina Collins Siquieros to The Main, and already she is thriving. Christina actually lived on the Cheyenne River...
Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Elsie DuBray, 17, first attended a special event at the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte when she was a third-grader. She thought it was so cool, she has volunteered with CRYP nearly every year since then, for the...
The Cheyenne River Youth Project has welcomed children ages 4 to 12 since we opened our doors to "The Main" in 1988, long before the opening of our Cokata Wiconi teen center. Since the beginning, we’ve understood how important it is to reach our children while they’re...
In the four-plus years since we launched our teen internship program, we’ve seen three types of participants: teens who complete one or two internships in different tracks, teens who complete all four tracks, and teens who fall in love with one particular internship...