Full Name
Tatewin Means
Job Title
Executive Director
Company
Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
Speaker Bio

Tatewin Means is from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, Oglala Lakota and Inhanktonwan nations in South Dakota. Ms. Means grew up in her Oglala homelands where her father is from. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity; JDwith a concentration in Human Rights Law from the University of Minnesota Law School; and Master of Artsdegree in Lakota Leadership and Management from Oglala Lakota College. A longtime advocate for human rights, survivors, children,and families,Tatewin Means served as the Attorney General for the Oglala Sioux Tribe in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from 2012-2017.In 2018, Tatewin sought the Democraticnomination for South Dakota Attorney General—the first ever Indigenous woman to seek the office of a state Attorney General in the United States. Tatewin served as a German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2015 and a 2020 fellow in PolicyLink’s Ambassadorsfor Health Equity fellowship.Currently, Tatewin is a 2022 RockwoodLeadership Institute’sLeading from the Inside OutFellow. Tatewin is the Executive Director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, an Indigenous grassrootsorganization in Oglala Territory, seeking liberation for Lakota people through language, lifeways and spirituality.

Tatewin Means