It’s important as Native writers, we use literature to honor, celebrate and empower our tribal nations and communities. Oak Lake Writers’ Society annual retreat immerses members in this endeavor.

After attending member workshops and writing sessions led by writing mentor and keynote speaker Joseph Marshall III (Sicangu Lakota), OLWS members will be sharing their works on Saturday evening. Members have very different writing styles and interests from poetry and children’s writing to journalism and social media or non-fiction and academic writing. It’s always exciting to hear what they choose to share, whether it’s new material crafted during the retreat or excerpts from their previous works.

This event will be streamed on Facebook Live. While the event features members only, the viewing is open to everyone. Please join us for this virtual only event starting Saturday evening at 5:30PM MDT.

Thanks again to our sponsors for making this summer’s tribal writers’ retreat possible - First Nations Development Institute, IFAIR Institute For American Indian Research, NDN Collective and University of New Mexico Department of English Language & Literature.

Please join us for the kick-off event of the 2021 Oak Lake Writers’ Society annual retreat on August 5, 2021. While the retreat registration has closed, the virtual kick-off event is open to the public, featuring this year’s OLWS Mentor, Joseph Marshall III.

The Livestream will be available on our Facebook page on Thursday, August 5, at 6:30 p.m. Central. Marshall is a featured author of the OLWS #NativeReads program with his book, The Lakota Way.

Marshall’s new book “Crazy Horse Weeps” carries a message every tribal member should hear. Marshall provides a painful but necessary view of our past and a bleak look at the future for the Oceti Sakowin if current trends continue. Marshall believes if the language is allowed to die, then so will our identity as they are entwined in origin, thought, philosophy, values, ethics, the origin stories, the kinship system and the relationship to the environment. If the language dies, then false versions of history will become the norm, Christianity will replace our relationship with our environment and assimilation will have succeeded in the end with our assistance.

Marshall offers a way forward to rebuild and strengthen our Lakota identity, via language immersion projects for both adults and children and remembering our shared history together via storytelling, as well as asking us all to question ourselves and challenge our own thinking.

Join us for this discussion with Marshall of the various issues and situations in Native communities that we as Native writers and poets often choose to write about.