The ONE Spirit sponsorship program includes children, elders, and families. As a sponsor, you can give a Lakota child or elder protection from cold and hunger and get to know a Native American family.

You can learn about the Lakota culture and develop a mutual understanding of common needs and values.

ONE Spirit sponsors are worldwide. The sponsors come from all over the US as well as from England, France, Spain, Germany, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Singapore, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, and Scotland. Some sponsors are single individuals, some are families, and some are groups of people who combine their resources to help.

The Mission Of The Sponsorship Program

The mission of the Sponsorship program is to:

• ease the pain that comes from a lack of the physical necessities of food, clothing, and protection from the cold.
• provide support so families can care for their children and elders.
• promote an intercultural relationship that removes the curtain of the unknown and returns the First Americans to an equal and valued place in our society.

How the Sponsorship Program Helps

Sponsors help to provide clothing, food through project SHARE and gifts at appropriate times of the year. Other funds are used to help families with heat and urgent needs they are unable to provide for themselves or through tribal and government programs. On the reservation, most families will have periods of time when they are without heat or electricity and, even more difficult, periods when they are without food!!!.

Government food programs are not designed for sharing societies. The Lakota people believe in (and practice) sharing. Families share what they have with family, relatives, and neighbors. Those that are eligible for food stamps (EBT) and commodity programs also share with others. This means that food runs out or is in short supply long before the next government allotment.

One of our senior sponsors shops for food bargains and sews children's clothes, quilts and sleeping bags to send to families. Some groups knit and crochet and send the items to families who need them. Some people prefer to make monetary donations that help provide for urgent needs for food, heat, or medical care that is not currently being met.

Who are some of the families who need Sponsors?

One family is a mother and three children who live in a small house in one of the outlying areas of the reservation. They get their water from a well and often the mother has to choose between having adequate food or buying propane for heat. The mother is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Business from the Lakota College which is several miles from her home. This mother has to either walk or hitchhike to classes since there is no public transportation. This mother is an advanced "beader" and is able to earn a small income from selling her crafts but it is in no way sufficient to meet the household expenses.

Another family is actually an extended family of 13 who lives in a 3 bedroom house. This family often finds the basics needs of life like food, heat and clothing in short supply. Recently a sponsor for one of the children sent a pair of shoes, the youth wrote back thanking the sponsor and telling the sponsor that it was the first time he ever took the tag off of a pair of shoes given to him. He is 14 years old and every pair of shoes he ever owned had been previously worn by someone else.

And another family includes a mother of three children on dialysis who lost one leg to diabetes. This mother and her children are lucky. They have a relative they can live with. They have electricity and water but are often without food to last the month and proper clothing because their meager income must pay for the electricity.

One Spirit has a long waiting list of children/elders/families who live in situations similar to the ones described above. Grandmothers caring for many grandchildren left in their care by parents who have no place to live and no means of supporting the children. Not only is it common for families of 10-20 members to live together in a 3 bedroom home. It is common for their homes to lack adequate insulation from the heat and cold, as well as be plagued with extensive black mold problems that leave both children and adults with respiratory problems.

The One Spirit Program offers two methods to choose from

• Direct Sponsorship of a child or elder - involves direct contact between the sponsor and the families through telephone, email and postal services. Individuals learn about another culture and that people possess the same basic needs, wants and values despite the difference in living conditions and cultural backgrounds.
• Indirect Sponsorship - individuals or groups may help a child, elder, or family by making contributions to be used to meet the needs as described above. Contributions can be made on a regular basis at convenient times throughout the year (i.e. monthly, quarterly) or made on a one-time basis. This money is used for the urgent needs of children and families who are waiting for sponsors. The needs include food (provided through the Project SHARE program), fuel for heat and cooking, and urgent clothing needs such as coats and shoes.

How Can I Learn More or Sign Up to be a sponsor?

Contact Shelly Shipman at