PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION - It didn't look like a math academy. Beneath an overcast sky and in the muggy heat of an August afternoon, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation students stood on the threshold of the grave of White Cow Bull and listened to their teacher tell the story.

"He did what a warrior was supposed to do," said Bill Ten Fingers, leaning slightly on a cane and talking about the man who many say killed Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

And then Ten Fingers threw in some math.

"What year was he born?" he asked the students, followed by questions about the year of his death, the year he fought at the Bighorn and if the headstone calculation could be wrong.

Yes, Ten Fingers told them, the headstone is wrong, and hopefully some day, that will be changed. The underlying lesson was that math, and the ability to do quick calculations in their heads, helped them figure out the mistake.

Sharpening math skills and soaking in large doses of Native American culture was all part of the reason for the first weeklong Oglala Lakota College Math Academy last week that drew middle school, high school and college students, along with community members.

The academy is funded through the college's continuing education program and service learning program, said Glorianna Under Baggage of OLC.

"The goal is to interest people in the joy that can be with math," she said. "It's not to be feared or to avoid in school."

Because it was the first academy of its kind, there was no formal application process and participants heard about the academy by word of mouth. The cross section of ages created an advantage for the students, Under Baggage said. And when the academy is expanded in the years to come, that will be something they won't change.

During a game of math jeopardy, community members and middle school students were mixed in with the high school students. Julio Bald Eagle, 11, shot his hand into the air to answer a math equation that some of the older students struggled with. But he was stumped when Ten Fingers asked what "Oglala" means.

"It means scatters their own," answered Alvon Little White Man, a school teacher.

Having multiple ages answering questions is just what they want to happen, Under Baggage said.

"Multi-generational learning is a natural way of learning," she said.

The lessons each day at the academy ran in themes, not by what each age group was learning, which meant the teachers could use a variety of math components that every student from every age group could understand.

"You learn algebra at a very young age, not just in high school," she said.

The students also studied family trees and used math to figure out the percentages of Native American blood in each family member. Another day, the students assembled and shot rockets.

In just a couple of days, the students became more confident and improved their skills, Ten Fingers said. By going on field trips, the students were engaged with hands-on work that they could relate to life. The Cow Bull lesson was twofold, he added.

"Some of them have the propensity to just soak up the math," he said. And if math doesn't come easily for them, they are learning math by studying a common man who became great for his hard work and sticking to what he believed in.

For Little White Man, the academy was a great refresher.

"I'm having a lot of fun," she said. "If all the math classes were like this, the kids would just love it."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com