VERMILLION, S.D. – Campus life allows for people from all sorts of backgrounds to connect and learn more about what the world has to offer. Sometimes, it can even help those who did not grow up that far from each other make lifelong connections and help make a difference in this world.
 
South Dakota’s Taylor Byerley and Jade Ecoffey are a great example of just that. While both compete now on the Coyotes’ cross country and track and field teams, they used to face one another on opposing teams at high schools just 10 miles from one another on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Western South Dakota.  
 
“Jade and I have been competing against each other probably as early as elementary school, like third and fourth grade… I think in middle school we both found some success in cross country,” Taylor said about some of their early competitions.
 
But their time at USD is not the first time they were teammates. “I transferred to a school on the reservation my sophomore year and was able to play with Jade in traveling basketball,” Taylor continued. “And I think we became more of acquaintances then.” The two even competed together in the early days of their youth in basketball. “We played basketball with each other, like little hoops when we were like third, fourth graders which was really crazy,” Jade said. “We didn’t even know each other at the time, but we saw a video (Taylor’s) mom sent us and it was just us really tiny.”
 
Now with the two being roommates all four years at USD after finding out they both committed to the program after being acquainted all those years, a bond thanks to more than just athletics has grown between the two.
 
Athletics are not the only place they are teammates when it comes to activities around campus. Taylor and Jade both are deeply connected to their Indigenous heritage and upbringing on the Reservation, including being part of multiple different organizations and groups on campus. The two even represented the Oglala Lakota Tribe at South Dakota’s Native American Heritage football game earlier this fall.
 
“Since we’ve been on campus, we’ve been really involved with Native Student Services and some of the different events and programming they offer for students,” Taylor talked about. “But it wasn’t until last year we really stepped into being more involved with AISES and SACNAS… Those were two organizations that were kind of dying out because the people who were President and Vice President just graduated and no one really stepped up to fill those roles.”
 
An advisor the two had in Native Student Services recommended to Jade and Taylor to fill those roles for the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). “We went into it really blind, but we’ve had so much success and so much fun with both of these student organizations,” Taylor said.
 
Taylor ended up becoming the President of both organizations, with Jade as her Vice President.  
 
Not only do they compete together on the cross country course, but work together across these organizations to help spread knowledge and give back in many different ways for their heritages.
 
“Last year we got the ball rolling and went off what past leaders have done with the organization,” Jade said about some of the stuff the organizations have done. “A lot of the time they would go out into the community and read Indigenous book to the elementary school or the Boys and Girls Club of Vermillion. So we started out with that and then we started to reach out to community members.”


 
Jade even reached out to a Clay County Commissioner that works a lot with Indigenous prairie plants and seeds along with restoration efforts. The two did a few events with them and even just finished a year-long project where they ran a workshop to prepare the plants to grow before getting the opportunity to plant them all around campus this fall.
 

 
“It’s been amazing to see how much growth and how many events we’ve been able to do and the community involvement we’ve been able to do,” Jade said.
 
Another project they were happy to be part of was when they hosted the Dakota Exile Riders, a group that rides horseback annually nearly 300 miles from the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska to Mankato, Minnesota to commemorate the Dakota 38 + 2, the largest single-day mass execution in U.S. history. The two helped facilitate a potluck for their stay there and served them food.
 
“That was just an amazing thing to hear elders’ perspectives of the Dakota People and them getting exiled and just having that community involvement in cultural relationship with our elders,” Jade said. “Taylor did a lot to help get funding from our tribe and being able to reach out to community members to come serve food at this potluck.”   
 
Their good work has not gone unnoticed either. They applied for the South Dakota Board of Regents Community Service Award, which AISES ultimately received. Just a few weeks ago, the two of them were able to go to the South Dakota Board of Regents’ meeting and were recognized for all their hard work. They even received a plaque for their work, which they plan to hang in the Native American Cultural Center.
 

 
“It’s amazing to see just some ideas that we tossed around and some people that were really committed to making the organization work and just our outreach was able to do that much and be recognized at the state and higher education level,” Jade said.
 
The two will also be working closely with South Dakota campus leaders to create programming for students and the community that will help create a sense of belonging and give resources for native students.
 
They also aren’t the only student-athletes who are doing their part as well. Geneva Timmerman, a fellow cross country runner and also a roommate of Jade and Talyor’s, comes with them and helps with organizing events. “Seeing (Geneva) take it in and just appreciate our culture and wanting to learn more,” Taylor said. “I think is so special. Like if we can do that for a handful of people, I think that we have succeeded.“
 
Geneva with a few other fellow members of the cross country team even joined AISES last year and helped with the organization of so many different events while giving their opinions on things while continuing to help create connections. “It’s so awesome to see our teammates want to be so incorporated with what we care about,” said Jade. “I think that just goes to show how close that you can be with people on your team throughout college.”  
 
Thanks to all the great work they are putting into these organizations, it allows for the two to also work with a lot of other great organizations around campus and collaborate on different programs and events as well. “We’ve been able to collaborate with the Latin American and Hispanic Student Association for Día de los Muertos. We’ve been able to collaborate with the Environmental Club and Coyote Sprouts Society here,” Jade mentioned when talking about different groups they’ve worked with. “I think having the opportunity to share our culture, our ideals and have it be known to the broader Vermillion community and the broader campus community has been instrumental in just being able to share who we are and we’re the original habitants of this land.”
 


It is incredibly important to them to help show the broader community the truth when it comes to Indigenous peoples. “I think it’s just really important to be able to show people that this is our native heritage, we are still here. I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about native people in general,” Jade talked about. “I think even nowadays people will say ‘oh well do you still live in teepees’ or ‘Natives are dirty…’ You see the effects of that, it’s not just inherently who we are… It is important to educate people on that. People don’t know about colonization, people don’t know that this is our original land base, or that we have been displaced from our original land base… We need to be able to share our history; the good, the bad and the ugly.”
 
The two are doing a lot to help educate on all of these items as well. They want people to feel more together and truly have people feel more like a community. Native Student Services did that for them during their time at USD, and they want to make sure everyone else gets those opportunities and more.     
 
Being student-athletes on top of helping create all of these great programs, it can be a lot to make sure they are doing everything they need and want to be doing. “Some weeks are more hectic than others,” Taylor said. “The people that we work with through our student organizations are just great people who also want to play a part and want it to work, so they’re a lot of times willing to change their meeting time if it has a conflict with our practice schedule or we’re traveling for a meet.”
 
Both their sport of running and their culture are a huge influence in their everyday lives, and they truly believe that their culture helps give them a larger sense of pride when it comes to athletics. “I have a greater appreciation for the sport because of my culture,” Taylor said. “I think it gives me a sense of pride, like being able to come to the University of South Dakota, a Division I program, wear that jersey that says South Dakota across my chest and also know that I have so much community and culture behind me and so just much support back home and kids who look up to us.”
 
“Running has always been an outlet for me,” Jade mentioned. “The reservation is not the easiest place to grow up in and a lot of the time you see social issues that go on and a lot of systematic issues, political issues… We’re under resourced; it’s kind of poverty stricken in a lot of places… I feel like running and sports are kind of an outlet for children and it was an outlet for me and being able to find something I’m really good at and keeping me away from those influences that could have taken me in the wrong direction. I’m really grateful that I found that I was really good at running and I was able to learn a lot of things from running where the most amount of effort I put into running was the effort I got out. That kind of went into every other aspect of my life.”
 
The two are huge in wanting to not only give back, but truly be role models for young indigenous athletes and Indigenous people as a whole on what can truly be possible in life when you put your mind to it.
 
“My coach used to say all the time in high school, if it was snowing outside or the weather was really bad, ‘you are descended from warriors, you should not care about a little snow or a little weather. You should go out there, compete and be the best you can be and show people who you are because you come from a long line of resiliency.’ So many times people have tried to erase your history and your culture,” Jade said.
 
The two even put together, with the help of a great mentor, a kids’ running camp near Rapid City to help give back to the community and try to be good role models.
 
“I definitely think we don’t have enough representation at this collegiate level and in these spaces,” Taylor said. “I think someone like us like we are doing great and are finishing success, not only in sports but in other aspects of life, I think it is important to be a good role model for others. And I think that’s also part of our Lakota culture is just how we carry ourselves and how we try to present ourselves to others and be a good person and give back.”
 
“It’s almost like a duty to give back to the reservation,” Jade continued. “Just because we do have so many social issues and you do see kids struggling, like you want to be a leader for them.”
 
Taylor and Jade hope their work will continue to inspire younger Indigenous athletes to see what is possible, both in sports and beyond. They want to be examples of what can happen when students embrace their heritage, pursue their goals and remain committed to the communities that helped shape them.
 
For Ecoffey, that commitment extends beyond her time at USD.
 
“I've always wanted to settle back down in the reservation, Rapid City area of South Dakota and hopefully give back to my community,” Ecoffey said. “Hopefully take what I learned and do some stuff there. Whether that be running camps or through my profession.”
 
For more information on events and involvement for Indigenous groups at the University of South Dakota, be sure to check out the Native Student Services or usd_aises on Instagram.
 
All photos courtesy of the usd_aises Instagram.