Pow Wow

Thursday June 11, 2009

Today we were supposed to go to Bob Bear Killer’s house, which I was really excited for because that was one of the projects I worked on when I was here in March. I really wanted to see all the progress that was made. Unfortunately, Bob lives at the bottom of a big hill, and to get to that hill you have to drive at least 2 miles on dirt roads. Today, all the dirt was mud and there was no way we were going to make it to his house safely, left alone be able to make it back up that big hill at the end of the day.

So after the 45 minute drive, we got about half way down the dirt road, we had to turn around. We drove 45 minutes back to Re-Member and we ready to work in the workshop for the rest of the day. We got there and found out that we were needed elsewhere. So we went to help Corbin and his crew at the pow wow grounds because they needed help supporting the canopy –thing that surrounded the grounds. We got a lot of work done and now none of the canopy is going to fall on people. The pow wow starts tonight with the 200+ Crazy Horse Riders arrival. It continues Friday night, Saturday night and ends Sunday night. Corbin is actually dancing in this pow wow, so that will be fun to see. He’s really a highly rated, highly honored pow wow dancer. All of us interns, minus 1 or 2, are going to go to the pow wow tomorrow night, so that should be a lot of fun.

Bunk Beds

Wednesday June 10, 2009

Today we installed bunk beds in a couple homes on the Rez, 6 homes and 21 beds. We installed 2 bunk beds in a trailer in Porcupine, somewhat near Dwayne’s garden. Two more bunk beds in Evergreen Housing across the street from Marie’s house. Another bunk bed and two single beds were put in the cluster of houses near Wounded Knee. Four sets of bunk beds were built for the Rescue Team for the Rez, so that the people on call have a place to sleep. Two more bunk beds were installed in Pine Ridge, near the high school. And finally a bunk bed and a single bed were installed in Pine Ridge somewhat near John Nelson.

We did so well today, everyone worked together great. We kicked butt. Tonight, Corbin gave a talk about his regalia for powwows. Normally, the interns don’t go to the talks at night, either because we’ve heard them before or we need that down time. But tonight, I think all but 1 of the interns was there devoting their attention to what Corbin had to say. It was actually a really fun and interesting night.

Porches

Tuesday June 9, 2009

Today we went to the house of a man named Darryl, who lived right next to Antoinette Brave Heart in Kyle. We had a big day ahead of us: rip out two porches, build and install two porches, build and install a ramp, build and install a set of stairs, and paint the entire inside of the house (walls and ceilings). But, we all had the mind set that we were going to get everything done. 

It was me, Mike & Chris, Maureen (who we had forgotten and left without, she caught up later), and three work crews. Mike was going to do the porch with the ramp all by himself, I was gonna get a few volunteers and take over the other porch project, Maureen and Chris would take the rest of the volunteers inside to paint.

It took a while to get the porch started and progress was slow (mainly because none of us really knew what we were doing. By the time we had the porch frame attached to the house, Mike was already done with the porch itself and started on the ramp. But, at the end of the day we got the porch done (minus the handrails). It was a very productive day, hard honest work felt really good.

Tomorrow, I just found out, I'm going to be install bunk beds into homes with Phil and Breanne. That sounds like it's gonna be a good day.

Before: After:

Wheelchair Ramps

Monday June 8, 2009

Today was the first work day. I was with Phil and we went out to Marie Lamont’s house in Porcupine. We installed two wheelchair ramps, a new porch, some handrails, and fixed up a different porch. She had a surprisingly really nice house, not just for Rez standards, I would say she had a nice house in general. However across the street from her there is a grouping of about 20 houses with 4 gangs in the group, so she can’t ever go out at night. Just when you think things are good, something else happens. She was extremely nice and smiled all day.  Everyone one of the groups that came this week was represented in the crews we worked with today so it was nice to see everyone work together so well. 

Wounded Knee, Again

Sunday June 7, 2009

We went to Wounded Knee again today, per usual. It was our shortest trip there. We were there for at most half an hour, 2 weeks ago we were there for at least 2 hours. What helped was that everything was mud and it was raining the whole time.

After Wounded Knee, instead of the Badlands, we started on work projects since there were so many people. The crews I was with had to move three huge wicked heavy stoves on to a trailer to bring to the recycle center/dump on the Rez sometime later in the week. Then, I got to drive that trailer around for a while. We cleaned up the workshop, in and around it, some other groups mowed the grass because snakes like to hide out there.

Also today a new intern arrived, Christian. All of the other interns are college students, but Christian is a 30 year old teacher, so I was anxious about meeting him and having him as an intern with us. But once I actually met him all of that went away. He seems like a really cool guy, but I haven’t gotten to know him yet. We’ll see.

Even Newer People

Saturday June 6, 2009

Another new batch of volunteers arrived today. It’s our biggest week of the whole summer. We had a UCC (United Church of Christ) group from St. Louis, a whole mix of kids and adults, a UCC group from Denver, same mix of people, a Congregational group from Illinois, everyone is over 65, a family from Idaho, and a group from an all boys school in St. Louis. It’s a very mixed group this week.

Busy Day

Friday June 6, 2009

Last night was the last night for the volunteers; I was hanging out with a couple of them because I had gotten to know them over the past two work days. I ended up staying up ‘til about 12:30 playing cards with them, which is a big deal because normally people go to be at 10:30 when it’s lights out (and the night before, I had fallen asleep by 8:45). So I said goodnight, and they told me they were going to pull and all-nighter. They invited me to stay up with them, I couldn’t I was way too tired. But they told me they were going to watch the sunrise. I told one of them to wake me up before they head out because I had wanted to see the sunrise at least once while I’m out here. At 4:30 they woke me up and the now only 5 of us (there were about 12 people at midnight) walked up the hill behind Re-Member to watch the sunrise. I was glad I got to see it. We hung out there for a while, talked a bunch and got to know everyone. I’m glad they woke me up so early.

So all the volunteers left, everyone was gone by 7:30 in the morning, last week people were hanging around ‘til 10:00. Us interns, now including Naomi, were all going to go to Rapid City again but those plans fell through because all the keys to the Re-Member vans were locked in the Office and no one had a key.

So we waited around for a while, in the mean time, we watched a movie, did laundry and dog-sat for one of the other staff members. Naomi, Breanne and Bekah took Maggie (the dog) out for a walk. As they were walking down the road Maggie suddenly jumped back and then Breanne jumped over Maggie. A snake had tried to bite her. Breanne came running inside calling for me because they needed my “man strength.” I got outside to see what was going on, and then gave me the pleasant job of killing the snake because it was hissing like crazy and started to coil up. I was extremely hesitant but, to spare details I ended up killing the snake. I told myself I was protecting the girls and Maggie and that is why it was OK of me to kill the snake, I kept telling myself I was on defense. More than almost being attacked by a snake, Maggie stepped on a cactus and has needles in her paws, and later on puked all over the rug in the girl’s room. We shouldn’t be allowed to dog-sit. 

Eventually we got some keys from a person who had keys to the Office and decided instead of going north to Rapid, let’s go south to Nebraska. It was great, on the way we saw the biggest brightest rainbow ever, and the full rainbow too, both sides, it was cool. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and then went to see “Up” in 3D in this small, old, 50s style theater. It was great, there were 15 people in the theater, and we made up 8 of them. The movie was great and we had a lot of fun. All 8 of us bonded together so easily, I was afraid Naomi wasn’t going to fit it but she fits in perfect.

Finishing Up

Thursday June 5, 2009

Today I was with Mike and Chris again. We started at Rose’s house and finished that by lunch time. Finished skirting the trailer, finished the trim, cleaned up her whole yard, filled in all holes or gaps in the skirting and outside of the trailer with caulking and foam. Then we went back to Naomi’s house in Kyle and finished the skirting there, finished the handrail on the front steps and deck, finished the trim, and covered up the water heater and added a door to get at it. It was an incredibly productive day. 

Roses & Thorns

Wednesday June 4, 2009

Today, I went out of my way to be overtly and obviously nice and outgoing to the crazy lady. We had found out why she had the staff as her thorn. She said that she didn’t like the way we said “can you help me with this” or “if you can, I need you to do ‘whatever]” she said that we should be more respectful and aware of people and their skill and comfort levels, we shouldn’t tell people to do things, instead we should say “if you want to and don’t mind doing so, there is this task to do.” Umm ok. If we don’t ask people to help us or to do something, a lot of the times nothing gets done. Especially with high schoolers, they would be more than happy to stand around and just watch. And people came out here to work and help, not to just be here.

So this morning we were loading the trailers, I was passing out the wood to load in. I handed her a 4 foot 2x4 and said “are you going to be comfortable carrying this, [is this in your skill level]? (The brackets are what I said in my head).

Anyway, we went out to Potato Creek to install some windows and paint some trailers. But all morning, after loading the trailers, it was raining. It wasn’t hard rain; it was just never ending rain, so we couldn’t really do our work. We waited around for the rain to stop, at about noon we left to go to a work site some other crews were at with Mike and Chris to see if they needed help. We got there just as they were eating lunch, so we joined them. After lunch, they told us they didn’t need any help. So we went over to see how Jerry was doing at Antoinette’s house. We got there, helped for a little while and then they were finished, so we helped pack up his trailer. Everyone was getting soaking wet, you couldn’t walk up the ramp to the trailer because it was all mud: it was like a slide. Everything was packed up, so we left.

Tonight at R&T everyone was anxious to see what the crazy lady had to say. “My rose was watching everyone work together in the rain, and no thorns” Well, good she had no thorns, but “watching” people work? Yes. Because the whole time we were at Antoinette’s she stayed in the van and did nothing. Whatever, no thorns.

Potatoes

Tuesday June 3, 2009

Today I was with Phil and we went to Dwayne’s house in Porcupine to work on three different community gardens. We planted onions, potatoes, turnips, beats, and radishes. We ran irrigation lions, cleaned up the garden, and dug out post holes and put in fence posts (although no fence). We had a lot of fun in the garden, especially with the potatoes.

However, tonight was not as fun. Every night we do Roses & Thorns, it’s a daily reflection of highs and lows of the day and experience. There are a few rules to R&T: (1) You cannot have a thorn without a rose, (2) you can have a rose without a rose, and (3) a thorn cannot be a person, so that it doesn’t become personal. So it was the crazy lady from Virginia’s turn “well, my thorn would be the staff I worked with today, I don’t want to go into detail.” I was one of the “staff” she worked with. So yeah, that led to a whole big mess.

Work Day

Monday June 2, 2009

Today we started the first work day of the week. I went with Jerry and two work crews to Antoinette Brave Heart’s house in Kyle. We were skirting her trailer all day and I was really impressed by the Minnesota kids that were in my group. They, for the most part, either lived or worked on farms so they were very hard and good workers. We got seven sections of skirting built and put up which is pretty impressive. It’s looking like the week is not going to be a bad one like I expected.

Bad Badlands

Sunday June 1, 2009

Wow, June already. We did the normal routine, history and Wounded Knee in the morning. But instead of going to Wounded Knee I stayed behind with Catie, Maureen, Bekah and Abby to restock and do an inventory for the Canteen, the set of four closets where Re-Member sells t-shirts, water bottles, local crafts, sweatshirts and stuff. It was fun just hanging out with people.

After the group got back from Wounded Knee we attempted to go hiking in the Badlands. We got about 2 minutes into the hike when it started absolutely pouring and huge wind gusts started blowing everything around. So needless to say, we turned around. 

More People

Saturday May 31, 2009

The new volunteers came today. We have a group of high school students from a charter school in Scottsdale Arizona, a church youth group from North West Minnesota (10 minutes from Canada, and 20 from North Dakota, so yeah way up there), a dad and son from Illinois, a family from outside of Chicago, 3 high schoolers from Denver, a girl from Virginia, a crazy lady from Virginia, a couple from Tennessee, a girl from Wisconsin (Naomi) who is volunteering this week and will be an intern with us for the next three weeks. Honestly, I’m not too excited about having so many high school kids here this week. I’m used to working with college aged kids, my peers, so being with high schoolers is going to be different. 

Goodbye

Friday May 30, 2009

Today all the volunteers left. We have a new batch coming in tomorrow afternoon, until then we staff members have a break. The interns took advantage of our 28 hour weekend and went to Rapid City, a city off the reservation about 2 hours away. We went out to dinner, went to the mall, and just hung out and got to know each other pretty well. 

Open, Vast, Free

Thursday May 29, 2009

Today I worked with Jerry on John Nelson’s house in Pine Ridge. Earlier in the year, John’s house had caught fire and luckily it didn’t burn to the ground, which is uncommon for Pine Ridge because there is no Fire Department. When something catches fire, it usually burns completely to the ground. Our goal today was to get the electricity in his house working. He wanted it done just so he and his kids could move back in. Even with all the fire damage, no insulation, no bathroom or outhouse, he just wanted electricity so he could move back in and provide for his family. Although the house had a lot of damage to it, it was in one of the nicest placed I’ve seen on the Rez so far. He was secluded in what used to be a park, had plenty of trees for shade, which is hard to find, and was only minutes away from Pine Ridge Village. We spent the day running wires, wiring outlets and switches, and trying to fix up the fuse box with tons of fire damage. Although we didn’t exactly get electricity back in the house, we did get the entire ceiling and walls insulated.

After work, all the work crews met at Bette’s Kitchen in Manderson for dinner. I had an awesome Buffalo Burger. After dinner, Jerry took a slight detour on the way back to Re-Member. We went to Goose Neck, what he considers the greatest view on the Rez. We got up there and it was amazing, you could see everything in every direction. The Rez looked awesome, rolling green hills, scattered pine trees, zigzagging rock formations, and so much more. Jerry said, “if you look off over there you can see in the distance some mountains, those are the Black Hills, they are 90 miles away.” I thought that was incredible, back home you can’t see more than 10 miles off into the distance, it’s just crowded. Here everything was open, vast, and free. 

Sunburn

Wednesday May 28, 2009

Today myself and two work crews of volunteers worked with Mike and Chris at Naomi’s trailer in Porcupine. We got a lot done in the few hours we were there. We took out her old and broken front steps and built and installed a brand new deck and stairs, added a set of stairs to the back of her house (there was nothing there before, just a 3 foot drop from the back door), fixed her water heater, fixed all the leaks in her plumbing, and started skirting here trailer. Also today, I got RIDICULOUSLY sunburned. My next is about the color of a stop sign. 

OUthouses

Tuesday May 27, 2009

The real work week finally started today. The work crews that I was “responsible” for (it’s still weird actually being considered a staff member) went with Corbin to the on-site workshop to build some outhouses, or as he calls them, “Reservation Penthouses”. Apparently we set some sort of record because we started and finished building three outhouses in a day. One of them, instead of the normal half moon on the door, had a buffalo head cut into it and another had the silhouette of a turtle. It was a great first work day; everyone was excited, energized, and ready to work today. We had fun with it too.

Black Hills National Cemetery

Monday May 26, 2009

Instead of the usual week schedule, things got changed up a bit today. On Mondays we usually begin on the work projects, but being that today was Memorial Day we went the Black Hills National Cemetery up in Sturgis for the Native American Veterans’ Memorial Service. It was really cool, a group of Native soldiers lead in the march carrying the American Flag right along with the Lakota Flag. They marched into the Sioux Victory Song, and sang the Sioux National Anthem to begin the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we went to Bear Butte, a “mountain” and state park in Sturgis that used to be the site of many Lakota spiritual ceremonies. We learned the history of the Butte from the State Park Director, who happened to be the first Native American director this park ever had. 

Wounded Knee and the Badlands

Sunday May 25, 2009

Today we started off the first full day of the week by giving the volunteers a little history about the Lakota, Pine Ridge and the relationship between Native Americans and the US Government. After that we went to Wounded Knee, the site of the 1890 Massacre and the 1976(?) occupation by the American Indian Movement, which is only about 7 miles from Re-Member. We went to the mass grave, stood in the same place as the Lakota did in 1890, and reflected on the experience.

After Wounded Knee, the group went to the Badlands for a hike. Easily one of my favorite parts of the Rez, easily. To me, the Badlands are like a mix of Land Before Time, Lion King, and Jurassic Park (a weird combo I know, but here’s a picture) 

First Night

Saturday May 24, 2009

Today this week’s volunteers arrived. We have a church group from south eastern Nebraska, a group from Ithaca College, an inter-faith group from the University of Maryland, a family/friends group from Chicago, two friends from Boston, and a lady from California. Just getting to meet them tonight for a little bit, I have the inkling that this is going to be a good week. 

Out West

Friday May 23, 2009

Today I finally got the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota after being in the car for more than 40 hours. Back in March, I came out here with my school for a service trip, I ended up liking it so much out here that I applied for a job as an intern at an organization called Re-Member and got it. So now I’m back in South Dakota, on Pine Ridge, pumped for be here for about a month.

Re-Member is an organization that acts as an outreach to the Lakota people of Pine Ridge. The purpose of the organization is right in the name: Re-Member. Not “remember” as in “remember you keys before you leave your house” but “Re-Member” meaning: to put back that which has been broken (opposite of dismember).  One of the prime functions of Re-Member is Crisis Management, or Emergency Home Repair. There is not enough time or supplies to fix all the homes and trailers on Pine Ridge, so Re-Member fixes the houses so that people can continue to live in them. Some frequent projects are building and installing bunk beds, building and installing outhouses, building and installing front steps and wheel chair ramps, skirting trailers, painting, and a lot more.

Some facts about Pine Ridge Reservation:

• ·         Unemployment rate of 80-90%
  
• ·         Per capita income of $4,000
  
• ·         8 times the United States rate of diabetes
  
• ·         Twice the rate of heart disease
  
• ·         8 times the United States rate of tuberculosis
  
• ·         Alcoholism rate estimated as high as 80%
  
• ·         1 in 4 infants born with fetal alcohol syndrome or effects
  
• ·         Suicide rate more than twice the national rate
  
• ·         Teen suicide rate 4 times the national rate
  
• ·         Infant mortality is three times the national rate
  
• ·         Life expectancy is the lowest in the US and 2^nd lowest in the Western Hemisphere, only Haiti has a lower rate
  
• ·         The reservation is roughly the side of Connecticut and has only 1 hospital
  

Other than myself, there are 6 other interns: Catie from Connecticut, Maureen from Massachusetts, Joey from New York, and Stephanie, Breanne, and Bekah who are all from Michigan.