SD tribes are ready to work with the state on protecting Native children, even if the state is not there yet.

The sovereign tribal nations of South Dakota are willing to work to improve the welfare of Native American children, with or without the state’s help. Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Chairman Clyde Estes is not happy with the South Dakota House of Representatives decision to kill Senate Bill 191 that would have created a task force to study and improve the foster care system where Native children are disproportionately represented.

The American Indian Academy of Denver will close at the end of the school year. The charter school could not draw enough students to sustain its programming. Last fall, families rallied to save the school, hoping to draw students with its curriculum focused on teaching indigenous values in a 21st-century format. Parents said the school provided a sense of community and that students were able to learn Native languages such as Lakota. Denver Public Schools is now focused on helping students transition to new schools. “We’re accessing each one of them, supporting the families to see how we can help them enroll, and we’re also exploring how to develop a program so in the absence of a school if we have a program that we can institute district-wide, I think that’s a win-win for our community,” said DPS superintendent Alex Marrero.

Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.