Cloud Horse Art Institute – Kyle, SD, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, USA

“In our view, the term “architecture” refers to more than just the design and decoration of buildings. It embraces what happens whenever human thought or action makes order and meaning of random space: naming places, designating sacred parts of “wilderness”, clearing village areas and garden plots, claiming food-gathering areas, planning and constructing buildings, and arranging the spaces that surround and connect them. Finally, it includes the often unseen social and religious meanings which are encoded into buildings and spatial domains.”

Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton “Native American Architecture”

The Cloud Horse Art Institute (Šunkawakan Mahpiya Oklolakiciye) is a non-profit educational institution based near the town of Kyle, SD on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is the dream project of Tilda Long Soldier and her husband Mark St. Pierre, and is named in honor of Tilda’s great grandmother Ella Cloud Horse. The institute exists as a unique place to teach traditional Lakota crafts, food preparation, language and spiritual values alongside contemporary “western” arts like theater, creative writing and painting.