Pahin Sinte Owayawa

Pahin Sinte Owayawa is one of the close-knit elementary-level communitys in Porcupine, South Dakota, run under Pahin Sinte Owayawa, with 155 students on its rolls from grades K through 8. That puts it 24% below the typical public school in South Dakota, which averages around 204 students.

Pahin Sinte Owayawa is a school of Pahin Sinte Owayawa, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

On the student-mix side, Pahin Sinte Owayawa logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Native American (100%).

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 7 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 22.1:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 15.4:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 98% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Around the school, census data for Oglala Lakota County shows median household income runs about $41,417, 12% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 54%. Pahin Sinte Owayawa is one of 11 public schools in Oglala Lakota County (combined enrollment of about 3,656 students).

Wounded Knee District School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 7.0 miles from this campus.

Pahin Sinte Owayawa operates from a low-density location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Pahin Sinte Owayawa has shrank 21%, going from 197 students in 2018 to 155 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.