A legislative push to place the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, or OSEUs, in every South Dakota school has died on the Senate floor.
In what represented a concerted push to mandate the program in the state, the proposal was ultimately trounced on the Senate floor on a vote of 7-28.
Many of the no were from lawmakers concerned with potential changes to education and the qualification of educators to teach these lessons.
Lower Brule Republican Sen. Tamara Grove said it was a challenge to sit through that vote.
“Just being really vulnerable, it was really personal," Grove said. "You’re not supposed to get attached to your bills like that, but I did, so it was a hard loss, but I’m okay. That compels you forward, and that is why I’m not quitting.”
Grove said she believes in the OSEUs and their power to improve state-tribal relations.
“My mind was on the exchange students kind of theory of if you know people from across the waters, you’re less likely to go to war with them," Grove said. "A big part of the divide in the state of South Dakota is because we don’t understand each other. We don’t know each other.”
That sentiment was echoed by Oglala Lakota Democratic Sen. Red Dawn Foster.
“If you talk to college students to this day they’ll say they weren’t aware there were nine tribes in the state of South Dakota, and how the state boundaries became a fact, and the fact reservations and tribal nations supersede the state and federal government," Foster said. "How can you know your neighbors if you don’t know the history?”
Grove said she is now working on a non-legislative push via the Department of Education to further incorporate the OSEUs into schooling.