With over 60 colonies in South Dakota, Hutterites make up almost 10% of the state’s farming population, according to the South Dakota Census Data Center. Despite this, many South Dakotans know next to nothing about Hutterites and their distinctive culture. To get a glimpse of the Hutterite lifestyle and education system, we spent a day at Oaklane Colony in Alexandria, SD.
After an hour-long drive, we arrived in time to eat lunch (referred to as “dinner”) with the colony students. At Oaklane, the women prepare meals in a central kitchen, which is surrounded by two dining halls: one for the children and one for the adults. Hutterites value both efficiency and community, so during the evening meal, colony elders are seated next to teenagers to pass down wisdom and insight.
During “dinner,” the middle school boys quickly revealed their passion for football. While they admitted to occasionally watching the Chiefs and Eagles on TV, they often use the radio or shop computer to check games’ scores. The girls, seated on the other side of the room, preferred to discuss “colony volleyball,” their rule-free version of the game.
“Well, we love it, but we’re not professionals,” said one excited student.
With regard to the meal, options included soup, chicken, corn, stuffing, carrots and pickled vegetables. Hutterites place heavy value on self-sufficiency and sustainability, so almost every meal is made with fresh ingredients from the colony.
As lunch concluded, the students had ample time to walk back to English school – Oaklane Colony Elementary – and prepare for its second session of the day. Like much of colony life, the school schedule is affected by gender-based expectations. As the boys returned to English school, the girls spent roughly 20 minutes washing dishes and caring for their younger siblings. Later in the afternoon, the boys take time to tend the garden.
“We raise sweet corn, cucumbers, melons, very well everything. During the summer we hoe and weed and in the winter, we take the produce in the garden that we pick in the summer; we haul it down to the kitchen,” said Brandon Wipf.
The English school at Oaklane has two main classes: one for kindergarten through fourth grade, and one for fifth through eighth grade. Both classrooms are functional and inviting, with bright pops of color and well-supplied libraries. The upper-level classroom also has spacious cages for its class chinchillas, Lucy and Ethel. Tracy Henglefelt, the upper-level teacher, lives off the colony yet drives in every day. Henglefelt began as a colony educator 11 years ago, so she now has things down to a science.
“We do center rotations,” said Henglefelt. “I’ll have one grade doing math with me, and then there will be some kids at the activity table, some in the reading area and some doing math things on their computer.”
Although it can be a challenge for one teacher to instruct 16 children in five grades, Henglefelt and the students still prioritize fun. Specifically, the class enjoys “pop the top,” a birthday tradition that requires everyone to open soda cans in unison. Also notable is the colony’s Christmas pageant, which the students must rehearse during the school day. For the small group of sixth graders, memorizing the 13-page script was simple.
“It took me 25 minutes,” they said, practically in unison.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Mason Dean

Joseph Tunge looks through Oaklane Colony’s pantry.

Whether they are learning, working or worshipping, the children at Oaklane Colony have a very structured schedule.
“At 7:00 we go to breakfast then we go home and at 7:45, we go to German school until 8:30. Then, from 8:45 to 11:32 [is] English school and then we eat and then from 12:00 to 3:30 we go to English school then at 4:00 we go to German school again and at 5:30 we come out and we go to church then at 6:00 we come out and go to supper,” said David Wipf.
Aside from their time at Oaklane Colony Elementary, the children attend German school twice daily, both before and after English school. In German school, the students learn grammar, memorize songs, practice spelling and analyze bible stories. Another key focus of German school is connection with Hutterite culture, which has various European influences.
“Once and a while we have a bit of history from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and all those countries,” said Lori Wipf, an eighth grader. “From Russian, to German, to Turkish, Ukrainian, we have like seven or eight languages in our one language.”
Although some nearby colonies offer high school classes, students at Oaklane only receive an eighth-grade education. However, even without high school, the young Hutterites quickly become integral to the colony’s economic and social life. At age 16, the boys receive an iPhone and are assigned jobs at a special ceremony. One day each year, the 29 colony families (almost all with the last name Wipf) gather in the church where the pastor assigns each young man his lifelong career. As for the girls, at age 15 they begin shopping, cooking, cleaning and other seasonal tasks to keep the colony in check.
“During the summer, I’ll have to go pick cucumbers, asparagus, tomatoes, pickling, do stuff like that,” said Lori Wipf. “I have to start butchering and it stinks. I’m not looking forward to that.”

To store all the food that is grown and processed at Oaklane, the colony utilizes an organized system of pantries, cellars and warehouses. In the center of the colony, a large building is devoted to butchering and pickling, with one room holding countless cans of produce and the other: nine freshly butchered cows. The building’s upper level, which contains the dining halls, also has rooms devoted to bread, utensil storage and ice cream making.
At Oaklane Colony, there is a large emphasis on dairy production. With roughly 300 cows, the colony’s dairy farm is almost entirely automatic. Each day, advanced technology is used to milk the cows and supply them with grain feed at specific intervals. Apart from dairy, the colony also participates in other industries, including metalwork, carpentry, mechanics and crop cultivation. Although these specializations allow Oaklane to participate in the local economy, they also allow for autonomy and communal living. For the students, this aspect of colony life is very significant.“[My favorite part is] probably the way we kind of stick together. Stick together, work together, do [everything] kind of communal: everything together,” said Lori Wipf.
When the colony is not together, however, one can find the children in an intense game of touch football. Next to their playground, the largest of all South Dakota Hutterite colonies, the students of Oaklane catch interceptions, run plays at breakneck speed and occasionally “hit the griddy.” Most of the girls prefer to sit and watch, yet they practice little restraint, teasing the boys throughout the game. It is another reminder that kids will be kids, Hutterite or not.
“We’re not really different. We do stuff that other people do, too,” said Sadie Wipf.