Spotlight on CRYP: Healing Spaces Steeped in Lakota Values

CRYP nurtures Native youth to thrive, now and in the future.

“You don’t really know your community until you work with the kids who live there,” says Julie Garreau, founder and CEO of Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP), a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Lakota youth and their families. “One of the first lessons I learned was to let the kids guide me. I learned a lot about myself and our community through them.”

Started by Garreau in 1988, CRYP’s mission centers on the knowledge that investing in its youth will break cycles of poverty and ensure vibrant futures for the resilient community in and around Eagle Butte, SD, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. CRYP shows how grassroots, culture-centered leadership transforms whole communities.

CRYP creates safe, culture-rich places for Lakota youth.

“To flourish, to thrive, you have to feel safe. Many of our kids—for various reasons—don’t feel safe elsewhere. But when we ask why they come to CRYP, they say, ‘I feel safe here. I can be a kid here,’” says Garreau. “When you feel safe, you can think about other things—a class, a job, all those things. But it starts with feeling safe.”

In its nearly four decades, CRYP has created safe, nurturing spaces for generations of young people. Its efforts reverberate, contributing to community development, cultural continuity, and economic strength.

CRYP has developed five program areas to help youth overcome historical and circumstantial challenges to become adults thriving on their own terms: arts and culture, food sovereignty, Native wellness, social enterprise, and internships and leadership. These programs sow seeds that will continue the cycle of growth and healing.

CRYP’s approach is grassroots and holistic for healing that lasts.

“We definitely have the power to address the challenges our community faces,” Garreau notes. “We’re responsible for ourselves. We’re taking hold of our own and working to make things better.”

CRYP’s comprehensive and holistic programming features two age-based youth centers, a pesticide-free three-acre garden, plus a Lakota arts institute and other culturally based efforts—all aimed at giving community youth the opportunity to live in Wólakȟota, peace and balance.

Though the Cheyenne River community members have the knowledge to work toward change and built-in accountability to themselves, they often don’t have the financial resources to put their plans into action. That’s where philanthropies like Northwest Area Foundation, which counts CRYP among its grantee partners, can have a lasting impact.

The past is present for CRYP youth, and community healing is a key step toward the future.

“History isn’t history for us. The traumas continue. The mothers and sisters and daughters who go missing, our young men who go missing, assaults and other violence—those are our relatives. And when they go missing, the generational trauma is reopened, and we need to heal,” Garreau observes. “We’re a tight-knit community. The people we serve during the day at CRYP are exactly the same people we go home to. So, for us, community accountability is a constant.”

Finding ways to heal as a community and nurture the next generation of leaders is core to CRYP’s work, especially through lasting connections with CRYP youth so they’ll continue participating and giving back as they grow up, even as adults. They’ll strengthen families, revitalize the economy, and sustain Lakota culture for generations going forward.

“Every initiative is about healing, which can look different for everybody. But after this many years of working with the kids of our community, I know they need access to Lakota culture and language and value systems and ceremony,” says Garreau. “Creating safe spaces that give kids that access—that’s how we have a big impact.”