Pine Ridge: Roses & Thorns

Beautiful Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was waiting for us as we pulled in the gravel drive Saturday afternoon. The weather was absolutely gorgeous: not a cloud in the sky. The whole day was committed to orienting with the great staff and students from two other schools that came here.

Sunday morning we woke up to Indian music from a cd at 7 AM. We were excited to visit the memorial of the Massacre (not a battle) of Wounded Knee. Hundreds of native Americans were killed here because of their unwillingness to assimilate to western society, and we witnessed all of their graves, different from our cemeteries. The grass would be impossible to keep green in this environment, and the economy is hurting due to the 95% unemployment in Pine Ridge. One of the poorest (if not the poorest) counties in the United States. The manager, Ted, compared the reservation to Haiti in its poorness.

After Wounded Knee, everyone got a chance to have some quiet time at the Badlands where for about 20 minutes the entire group sat separately in silence. The wind blew through the cliffs at times, but other than that nothing. A precious moment to just think which is hard to come by even in the small town of Storm Lake. Everyday, everyone is moving. Here we've learned to slow down and take everything in.

Sunday night we had a speaker, Quiet Spirit, who taught us a little about the problems of the Lakota people. Alcoholism, suicides, and teen pregnancies are ultimately due to the government taking the Badlands from the Native Americans and turning it into a park. The soil is now not fertile where medicines used to be grown. Cattle now graze and trample the ground. Ranchers have taken over what Quiet Spirit said used to be a land for all people. Stewardship is not the same as managing.

Tomorrow we will learn more about the culture and finally get to work on some construction! (If it does t rain too bad...)