The Lakota Nation Invitational, or LNI, offers entertainment for kids of all ages. One event, the Bear Jamboree, teaches young children about STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, art and math.
Volunteers set up tables behind a basketball game for the 16th annual Bear Jamboree. The event is popular with kids who come to play games, get candy and see Santa Clause make his stop at the LNI. This year, some of the activities don’t just entertain-they get educational.
Josh Williams is a Mentor Supervisor for the Oglala Sioux Tribe Childcare and Development. He says there’s plenty of activities to choose from.
“We have like sensory tables, we have engineering blocks, we have math puzzles, abstract art and everything that we could do with all of these children. We have a whole ton of activities.”
The event is free to anyone that wants to join. Williams says the jamboree brings in three to four hundred people every year.
“We go through a lot of supplies during this but it’s always a blast and the kids always remember us.”
O.S.T. Childcare and development teamed with the Bear Program-a nonprofit suicide prevention group in Pine Ridge- to make this event big. Brian Sherman Jr. works with O.S.T. childcare and is a former volunteer at the Bear Program.
“They started doing this for the less fortunate kids, or the kids that just need a babysitter while their parents are enjoying their other sibling’s game.”
Sherman says the event has evolved over time. O.S.T. Childcare and Development gives presentations and brings activities to make learning STEAM fun to school in the Pine Ridge Reservation. He says involving this is another opportunity encourage the skill set.
“We’re trying to instill that resilience, give them motivation. Give them something to be excited about and a lot of kids are excited to learn things but a lot of people don’t that support that so we’re trying to give them what they need in a fun way.”
Sherman says O.S.T. Childcare hosts expos, conferences and activities in the Reservation year-round.