The Lakota Dream Museum is hosting a grand opening for it’s new location in Downtown Rapid City. The public is invited to see early Native American artifacts that date back as far as 150 years and hear speakers explain the budding collection.
Nearly a year and a half ago, 23 year old Adonis Saltes started working towards creating a Native American museum in the Black Hills. The founder of the Lakota Dream Museum says the location in Rapid City is tangible evidence of their progress.
“As of right now this is our museum, and this is what we want to show to the world, let people know what we’re about. We have some of the biggest artifacts that’s very important to our people historically in this building right now. We have exhibits on the Sundance, the sacred ceremonies. We’re actually going very deep into the Lakota Culture and as authentic as you can get.”
Saltes says museum employees plan to unveil the generations old artifacts during the grand opening. Olympic athlete Billy Mills is among a list of people scheduled to speak at the event.
Saltes says the downtown location is only the first step to creating the museum he envisioned. Eventually, he hopes to buy a plot of land in the Black Hills and build a larger space dedicated to Native American history.
“This is the baby steps to where we want to be three years from now. We plan to be getting the land here very soon and starting that journey while we keep this one going. It’s going to be a historical day to have the first Native owned museum in the heart of the Black Hills.”
The grand opening is scheduled for Saturday at noon in Rapid City.