In 2003, Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation created a tribute to American Indian Educators. The Crazy Horse Memorial® Educator of the Year Award honors an individual who has made significant contributions to Native American education. The award includes a $1,000 grant to the recipient’s school library or to programs of his or her choice that help students. The recipient and benefitting program are announced at the annual Native Americans’ Day Celebrations at Crazy Horse Memorial®.
Jonni Hertle (Wakpá Wasté, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) has been awarded the 2023 Crazy Horse Memorial® Educator of the Year Award. Hertle, an elementary teacher in the Rapid City Area Schools (RCAS), received an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Oglala Lakota College and a Master of Arts degree in Education, Learning, and Leadership from the University of Minnesota. She was also named the 2023 RCAS Teacher of the Year.
While presenting the award, Angel Lee, Director of The Indian University of North America at Crazy Horse Memorial®, said that Hertle has “fostered an environment of inclusivity, one which every student feels valued and empowered.” Lee went on to explain that Hertle’s impact on her community and Native American education expands beyond the classroom through examples such as being essential to the “first ever Winter Wacipi at General Beadle Elementary School in 2022,” and “key in a state-wide initiative to incorporate the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings in K-12 curriculum.” From Hertle’s proactive involvement in such initiatives, Lee said “she has created lesson plans, provided technical assistance, and served as a model to successful integration of Indigenous language and culture in everyday lessons.”
Hertle, while accepting the award, said “I live my life in the terms of ‘I am what my ancestors prayed for’ – that gives me the strength and resilience to keep going. For my grandfather, my grandmother, my Iná, my Lekši, my Tȟuŋwiŋ, and for my grandchildren – so they know a life in an educational system that includes them and does not try to erase them.”
Part of receiving the Crazy Horse Memorial® Educator of the Year Award, Hertle was able to choose an organization to receive a $1,000 grant and she chose Rural America Initiatives (RAI) to receive those funds. RAI is a Rapid City based non-profit that partners with at-risk and low-income Native American families to strengthen the development of healthy, sober, self-sufficient lifestyles.
Proposed recipients of the Educator of the Year award come to Crazy Horse Memorial® from the public via an annual nomination process and the 2024 nomination form is available now. Nominees can be Native or non-Native and can live, work, and educate anywhere in the North American continent. Go to Educator of the Year : Crazy Horse Memorial® for more information and the current nomination form.
For more information, please visit www.crazyhorsememorial.org and follow Crazy Horse Memorial® on all social media and/or contact Amanda Allcock at 605-673-4681 or email Amanda.Allcock@crazyhorse.org.
Comments