Oct. 2 - Oct. 8 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

     What a week.  This morning I'm sitting on a velvet Victorian sofa in the gaming/living room of the Hotel Bullock in Deadwood, SD. While only a few hours drive from Pine Ridge, the whirring of slot machines and the neon lights flashing couldn't be farther from the sights and sounds I experienced these past 7 days while volunteering with Re-Member. I have a lot of processing to do and will probably rewrite this at some point but I wanted to share some thoughts and experiences.
     The Re-Member organization was started about 14 years ago and has about 1300 volunteers each year. Its purpose is to provide a "service-learning" experience in that its as important to learn about the Lakota people we work with and meet, understand about their lives and their culture, as it is to do the physical work.  The organization works hard to address the housing crisis on Pine Ridge. It is a non-profit and many of the volunteers are from religious organizations around the country but there is no religious agenda and absolutely no evangelizing. "Mitakuye Oyasin" is posted everywhere meaning "we are all one people".  Many volunteers are college kids (UCONN Huskies were there this year).  Repeatedly we were reminded to "listen" with our ears and eyes so we could learn and understand these people.
     To that end we started our days at 6am. After breakfast our head honcho, Ted, would share some thoughts called "wisdom of the elders" passed down from past wise, life experienced Indians.  While this seemed a bit hokey the first couple days, I did "listen" and came to appreciate what the elders had to say.
     There were about 35 of us volunteers and we were divided into groups of 6 for the work projects and for "kitchen duty". Dale and I had two work projects. The first two days we drove 45 minutes in the work van to the middle of the rez to a place called Yellow Bear Canyon. It is a LONG way from anything but a beautiful spot with views of the rolling hills.  Larry Swallow and his wife Yolanda and 2 kids have just moved their two trailers there and our job was to help connect them with

Larry and Yolanda

siding and skirting(for you city slickers that is the covering around the bottom sides of the trailer to help keep it warmer in the freezing winter.) I became a pro at the "chopsaw." See picture! Anyway, they have no running water as yet but just got electricity. There are horses and dogs running around. They are wonderful people and Larry spoke to us one night back at our home site about Lakota history and culture. Actually we had different Oglala Lakota speakers every night, each wonderful and presented different  aspects of their culture and lives both historic and current. Our other project was helping to build a front porch and steps for another woman who had a trailer but had to jump 3 feet to get out. A lot of these trailers came from the US government as rejects from Katrina as they had formaldehyde in them. But good enough for the injuns, right? And they weren't a gift, they sold them. Oops, I'm starting to get political. Not now.We also spent some time on the bus visiting different part of the rez such as the Red Cloud Indian School started by the Jesuits and Red Cloud ( who signed the 1868 Ft. Laramie treaty which put the Indians on the rez in the first place. Didn't work out so well for them). Wounded Knee is a small town with the cemetery where the victims of the 1890 massacre are buried. We hiked near the "stronghold" area where the Lakota would go to hide from the cavalry.

Chopsaw Jane

    This is getting long and I've just scratched the surface. Not so much humor in this posting. I loved the experience. I was very much out of my comfort zone when I arrived and honestly, glad to be on my way at the end of the week.The "dorms" were a little grim but we got over it.  It was exhausting both physically and spiritually. The other volunteers were a wonderful group with shall we say, varied personalities! One fellow I especially enjoyed...well, I won't use his real name, lets just call him "Jim" always had a good quip or two.
     The last piece of "wisdom" Ted read yesterday seemed very apropos to my trip: Charles Knight, a Ute wrote    Pick a road, any road. Follow it for the rest of your life. No expectations. Just possibilities. When ya leavin?  I'm on my way right now to Yellowstone.

The "rez"

  PS I don't know why this posting is looking so odd but as I've already deleted one section by mistake and I've been sitting here for 3 hours I have to let it be. My computer skills are limited!