After completing his studies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Darrell Kipp returned home to Browning, Montana, to found the Piegan Institute, a reservation-based center for curriculum and professional development.

Over the past twenty years the Institute has developed a national reputation for innovative programming, and its success inspired Kipp and his colleagues to launch Nizipuhwahsin (Real Speak) School, a Blackfeet language immersion school for children kindergarten through eighth grade. The school offers a complete curriculum in Blackfeet and has won international recognition for its success reversing the decline in the number of native speakers of Blackfeet.