Since 1993, the OSWS has endeavored to strengthen and preserve Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota cultures through the development of culture-based writing.
Our Beginning
The Oceti Sakowin Writers Society (formerly known as the Oak Lake Writers’ Society) emerged from the annual retreats that members of the South Dakota State University and Brookings communities began hosting for tribal writers and tribal mentors at the Oak Lake Field Station near Astoria, South Dakota.
Our Work
The Oceti Sakowin Writers Society holds an annual writing retreat for enrolled tribal members of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate. We have also published several volumes of writing by our members, and support various conferences and other events.
Our Mission
The Oceti Sakowin Writers Society organizes literary efforts for the purposes of preserving and defending Oceti Sakowin (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) cultures, oral traditions, and histories; to reaffirm our peoples’ political statuses; and to regulate and transform representations of such that are inaccurate and damaging. To those ends, we create, research, review, publish, present, and promote works in various genres in a manner that will bring about a greater understanding of our cultures, legacies, and lands.