Best New Projects from SD Architects: Cankdeska Cikana Cultural Heritage Center

This month and next, Blueprint South Dakota will continue spotlighting the entries in the 2025 Design Awards competition. AIA South Dakota members again proved their creativity and problem-solving skills with beautifully functional work, on display in communities across South Dakota and beyond. Each installment in this series introduces readers to a different project, in the design team’s own words. As part of every entry form, AIA SD asked submitters to provide a “long description” that addressed the design intent and its progression. We invited submitters to go beyond the stats to show the value the project added for their client or community. In turn, they detailed the problems the project solved, told how their process made the most of hidden opportunities, and described the ways the design supports the client or community through form and function.

Cankdeska Cikana Cultural Heritage Center

The basics

Firm: JLG Architects
Client: Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Category: Large Project
Location: Fort Totten, N.D.

The story

An epicenter of community gathering, cultural pride, and historic preservation near Fort Totten, N.D., on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation, the Cankdeska Cikana Cultural Heritage Center is an open and accessible asset to the community to continue the centuries-long Native American tradition of passing down cultural history and traditions to future generations of the tribe.

The College was named in honor of Paul Yankton Sr., whose Dakota name was Cankdeska Cikana. A proud warrior who believed in self-responsibility and the need for educational opportunities for Indian people. Altogether, the 9,000 SF addition unites its historic artifact collection for the first time in a permanent home while also providing a multipurpose space where campus and community can connect, learn, and celebrate tradition. Most important, this flexible space helps instill and strengthen the values of Spirit Lake Tribe’s culture for future generations–reinforcing educational opportunities desired by the College’s namesake.

The Cankdeska Cikana Cultural Heritage Center’s open and accessible design helped realize leaders’ vision of sharing cultural history and traditions of the tribe with future generations. This center-of-gallery view illustrates how historic tribal artifacts are displayed. Designed by JLG Architects for Cankdeska Cikana Community College. Photo credit: Chad Ziemendorf.

The Native American value of resource stewardship was a prominent design guide through reduction of waste, minimizing resource use, and maximizing a $400 per square foot budget. The project design is reflective of important Native American symbolism, most notably taking cues from the Medicine Wheel, Drum Circle/Powwow and vernacular tipi design.