Šiná Okígwa (Paints Robe) provides cultural education, wellness, mental health, and land-based programming to Lakota tribal communities across South Dakota. Built by relatives, for relatives.
Šiná Okígwa (Paints Robe) at the Indigenous Peoples parade in Rapid City, featuring co-directors Monique Apple and Delaney Apple. Šiná Okígwa partnered with Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health Great Plains Hub for the floats.
View the parade photos →
Youth, families, singers, dancers, horses, handgames, and a traditional buffalo harvest come together in Lakota Homes.
See the gathering →
Photographs from the gathering as young people and relatives recognize the elders and stand together as one Oyate.
View the photo story →After the elders were honored at the gathering in Lakota Homes, the Šiná Okígwa youth singers sang a thank you song.
Use the arrows to look through other months, or see every gathering on the events page.
See all eventsWe are a South Dakota nonprofit corporation founded in 2024, but the work we do is generations old. Our co-Executive Directors have led cultural programming in Rapid City and on the reservation for more than a decade: horse camps, ribbon skirt nights, ceremony, youth mentorship, long before the paperwork made it official.
What's new is the container: a Lakota-governed nonprofit organized to carry this work forward sustainably, transparently, and on our own terms. We do not assimilate into philanthropic norms that were not built for us. We bring our own.
Our mission · vision · values · history · grants & partnerships
Honoring all relations: human, animal, land, ancestor.
Courage to endure, to heal, to return to what is true.
Truth-telling in our work, our governance, our relationships.
Giving without expectation. The first virtue, taught first.
A multi-day youth camp at Lakota Homes. Horse healing, hand games, shared meals, and traditional Lakota singing instruction for koskalaka, young men learning to carry the songs, ride, and grow into their place among the people.
Koskalaka learn the songs at the drum, sitting with singers who carry them, learning by ear and by repetition the way it has always been taught.
The young men's coming-of-age hunt. A first harvest, an offering, and the teachings that come with taking a life to feed the people.
The sacred ceremony marking a young woman's passage. Held with relatives, elders, and the community standing witness.
The Creator's game. Youth learn stick handling, team play, and the older meanings that sit underneath the sport.
Weekly programming at the Oyate Center. Ribbon skirts, sweat dresses, beadwork, ledger art, moccasin making, and wičáglata singing for girls. Consistency is the point.
Children on horseback. Families gathered at the fire. Women laughing over beadwork. This is what showing up looks like.
All photographs are from our own programming, used with the consent of the families and participants pictured.
Our two Co-Executive Directors run the programs day to day, guided by a board of enrolled tribal citizens with deep roots in the communities we serve. We are not advised by Indigenous people. We are governed by them.
Member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota and Oglala Lakota Nations and co-founder of Sina Okigwa-Paints Robe, Inc., which she established with her husband, Delaney Apple, to support community wellness through cultural activities and reconnecting with Lakota lifeways as a pathway to healing. CEO of Our Generation Consulting and Training Center, LLC, providing culturally responsive training to organizations serving Indigenous communities, and a Senior Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, supporting the Together Overcoming Diabetes program. She spent more than 20 years with the Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes in behavioral health, health research, and program development, earned her Doctor of Social Work from the University of St. Thomas, and is pursuing South Dakota's highest clinical social work credential (LCSW-PIP). Outside of work she creates traditional Lakota beadwork and regalia and sings with her family's youth drum group.
Enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation who grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and lives in Rapid City, South Dakota. Co-founder of Sina Okigwa-Paints Robe, Inc., dedicated to supporting individuals, families, and communities through culturally grounded healing, recovery, and mentorship. A gifted Lakota singer and drummer, he integrates traditional teachings, language, and cultural practices into his work with youth and adults. As Cultural Advisor at Oyate Health Center, he helps develop culturally integrated healthcare services that promote holistic wellness and strengthen community connections. He holds an Associate Degree in Lakota Studies from Oglala Lakota College and is committed to advancing healing through Lakota values, culture, and the Tiospaye (extended family) way of life.
We operate lean. Every dollar funds horses, fuel, tipi canvas, drum-making supplies, food for camp, beads for skirts, and stipends for the elders and culture keepers who teach.
Please enter your full legal name and mailing address at checkout, because your tax receipt is issued exactly as entered, and we email it to the address you use.
Already gave? See your gifts and print receiptsSina Okigwa-Paints Robe is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, EIN 99-1602892. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law, and no goods or services are provided in exchange. An official receipt showing your name, address, gift amount and date is issued immediately after checkout, so please give your legal name and address on the payment page. Other ways to give: mail a check, donate in-kind (tack, regalia materials, food), or volunteer your time.
(888) 304-5828
info@sinaokigwa.org
sinaokigwa.org
For media inquiries, grant partnerships, or to volunteer with a program, please use the form. We respond within five business days.