Dustina Gill,Sitomni Sa Yapi Win, Paints Red Around Her

Becoming allies to a community-led non-profit doing vital resilience work.

Dustina Gill, Sitomni Sa Yapi Win, Paints Red Around Her, hails from the Wahpekute band of the Oceti Sakowin and is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in the northeast corner of South Dakota on the Lake Traverse Reservation. 

As a lifelong advocate of Native youth, Dustina established Nis’to Incorporated, a Native nonprofit organization. Nis’to, a Dakota word that means “concern for others outside of ourselves,” does cultural resilience-based work with youth, young adults, and families on the Lake Traverse Reservation centered around leadership, reentry, and mental health and well-being. 

Priding themselves on intentionality, Nis’to feels that’s what connects them to the values of the Waterers. Dustina says, “I was taken aback, shocked, and so honored. It was such an amazing feeling to realize someone noticed what I was doing.” Everything they do is guided by the people they work with and they strongly believe in “not about us, without us.”