KYLE, S.D. (AP) – Oglala Lakota College in western South Dakota has received a grant of $25,000 from a Native American tribe in Minnesota to help fund the school’s Lakota language immersion program.

President Thomas Shortbull says the funding from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community will help the college operate its Lakota Woglaka Wounspe immersion school for about 40 students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.

The college receives funding for the program from the federal Administration for Native Americans but needs a match of $75,000 to meet operating costs.

Shortbull says the immersion program was created after the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation’s Council of Elders told him five years ago to do something about the loss of their language.

The Mdewakanton Sioux also donated to the immersion program in 2013.