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Guest Column: One Visit to Pine Ridge

[Commenter turns columnist! The spirit moves friend and frequent blog conversationalist Shane Gerlach from Yankton to contribute his thoughts on South Dakota's American Indian population. Yesterday I published Part 1 of his essay, listing many of the grim statistics on life on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Here's Part 2, his presonal reflection on a church youth trip to Pine Ridge in 2010.]

Last year I took kids from Trinity Lutheran Church in Yankton to the Pine Ridge Reservation to show them up close what life is like there. I really wanted to inspire them to do something.

We left on Tuesday about 1:00 p.m. for Pine Ridge. We dropped down and crossed Nebraska on Highway 12. As we neared supper time we stopped in the town of Gordon, Nebraska, for supper at Pizza Hut. After our meal together, we came out and found the sky was black and it was beginning to rain. I jumped in the van and found a radio station and learned that 20 miles to the west of us was a tornado touching down. I called my bride and had her check the radar online. She saw that if we headed North onto the rez we would avoid the storm. With the rain pounding down on us we headed north with the kids watching the sky, my eyes on the road in the lead vehicle and my ears on the radio. About 27 miles north the Gordon radio station advised immediate cover in Gordon with the sirens going off. The rain was torrential. We were down to about 35 miles per hour as we entered South Dakota.

It started to clear up the closer we got to Pine Ridge village. We pulled into the SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club, got settled in our sleeping quarters and met the staff. The facility was amazing. The sky had cleared, so we drove into town so the kids could see what life is like on a Tuesday night on the rez. Teen night at the park was canceled because of the weather so we were a little bummed about that.

Back at the Club we had a meeting about what they had seen in town. I asked Jamie Big Crow to come and visit with us. Jamie is quite possibly the most amazing person I have ever had the honor to meet in my life. She was fifteen years old and has seen quite a bit. She shot straight with the kids about life on Pine Ridge including the rampant use of drugs and booze, the too frequent suicides, and the devastation that she sees on a daily basis. The kids were stunned to say the least. She talked about all the gangs and the damage they do. She talked about life and death with an ease that shows familiarity with them.

The storms rolled back in out of the hills and tore at the teepees out front. We all quickly added a hand to try and save them. The winds were awful. Inside the club we met with a group from a school in Chicago that was on the rez running four camps (soccer, cheer, music and basketball). They have come every year for six years. My kids played a trust game with the Chicago kids and quickly forged bonds and friendships.

On Wednesday we wandered around a bit before seeing a video about SuAnne Big Crow's life and her dream. The kids were again moved by the dreams and determination of a peer.

We then drove to Whiteclay, Nebraska. Whiteclay has about ten buildings. It is an unincorporated town (no government, no law, no structure, no taxes, etc.) 12,000 cans of beer a day illegally move from Whiteclay to the rez. 12,000 cans of beer a day. On the two-mile stretch of road between Whiteclay and Pine Ridge Village we saw dozens of "Think/Why Die" signs. This, we are told, is the deadliest stretch of highway in the world. At 10:30 in the morning the kids saw sights I don't think they will ever forget. There were drunks lying in ditches, amputees falling off their crutches drunk, couches on the side of the road with people passed out on them. These are not sights our Yankton kids were used to.

Around 11:00 we headed back to the club and dinner at the Happy Town diner. SuAnne longed for a place called Happy Town with no prejudice, discrimination, drugs or alcohol. She got her wish. Happy Town is a 50's diner whose proceeds all go to the Boys and Girls Club. We had burgers, real fountain-flavored cokes, fries, shakes and malts, and real Rocky Mountain oysters!!!

Following lunch we drove north on the rez to the southern Badlands. Amidst the beautiful vistas, the kids saw poor housing and devastation. There are few road signs. Maps are useless. BIA Highway 2 we found out is an unpaved washboard dangerous road with blind unmarked curves. Gangs claim territories with tagging. White crosses and more "Why Die" signs litter the landscape. We were all stressed by the time we hit the visitor center.

We headed back south with a stop at Wounded Knee. This was easily the most powerful part of the trip for me. Wounded Knee overwhelmed me with emotion and spirituality. I wish I had the words to describe the feelings I had there. I had read and heard of the names on the graves: The chiefs, the windtalkers, the activists, the martyrs, the paupers, the babies. The mass grave is devastating to look at, especially when you see the pictures in the run-down museum of the soldiers dumping the bodies into the freshly dug hole.

After supper we returned for an evening look at Whiteclay. The kids saw more people in various stages of inebriation, some the same as had been there in the morning, some walking the mile stretch, some driving, some on horseback.

Back at the club we talked about how we felt and what we wanted to do. I gave the kids a couple hours to digest the day before we sat down and talked. Some kids were willing to give up their funds from the church to give to the club. Some kids were willing to give up their paychecks. Some kids are longing to go back. Some kids are willing to come back even though they have graduated high school. These kids wanted to do more.

"Once we've been here how can we do nothing?"

That was the quote of the trip.

I spent time with SuAnne's sister CC, her nephew Jordan, her mother Chick, and got a good idea of what is needed.

Chick, the director, hadn't cashed a check since August. Her payroll went right back into the funding of the club. The indoor pool hadn't been up and running since October of last year because they couldn't afford to heat it. $100,000 dollars in grant money for a bike trail from the town to the club was stolen from them by the tribal government. Grants were running out for their workers. Play equipment was in such disrepair that the kids could hardly use it.

Chick and the other folks at the club were happy we didn't come to "fix" but to listen and learn. We were invited back whenever we want to come back. Jordan, the caretaker of the club and future director, wants us back in August for Pow Wow.

We leaving around 6:30 a.m. Mountain and came home across Rosebud. We got back to Yankton around 1:00 p.m. Central with a group of kids who were thankful for the experience, appreciative of what they have, and wanting... needing... begging to do more.

I urge all of you to educate yourselves about the plight of the reservation and see what you can do to help.

9 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2011.07.12

    This is very brave, Mr. Gerlach. Best wishes to you.

  2. shane gerlach 2011.07.12

    Mr. Kurtz my next move is to try and hold a benefit concert/festival at the SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club featuring all South Dakota musicians. I would like it to happen next spring. It's going to take a ton of work to organize and make happen but I'm going to do it.
    Unfortunately because of my health I will not be making it back this summer, possibly this fall though. I love the reservation. The stark beauty inspires me and the spirituality truly touches me when often times the religion I was raised in just leaves me frustrated.
    The spirit of many of the people is simply inspiring. I don't use the word inspirational much but I met people on Pine Ridge that are the very definition of the word. The problems far outweigh the good, but there are people there that are fighting to make a difference and I want to be counted among them.
    I have been lucky in my life. I have amazing friends and family. I have been blessed with a son when doctors told both my wife and I we couldn't have a child. I am on the winning side of a battle with debilitating Graves disease, Graves eye disease and Graves dermothapy. I don't have much but I have my will, my mind, my time and my desire and those are the things I can share with the people on the reservation.
    I know it is so easy to be jaded, but I choose not to be. I hope others make the same choice.

    Shane

  3. Barbara Hall 2011.07.13

    This guest column is impressive. Mr. Gerlach has seen the people of Pine Ridge, not just their problems. This is the point from which any effort to effect change must start. He then makes the most important call. He doesn't go to the reservation with a pre-defined plan to help solve a problem the way he thinks it should be done. He asks the people of Pine Ridge what they need. The only way problems will be successfully addressed is when they are guided by the people who are living there, and who know best what needs to be done and how best to do it. Finally, he sees what so many miss. He sees the hope and optimism on the reservation. Because despite the problems and the deprivation, the spirit of the people is tremendously resilient and proud. As it deserves to be.

    For anyone who wants to help in other ways, there is great need. I have heard detractors complain that we throw too much money at problems on the reservations and it does no good. One reason is that budgets are chronically and severely underfunded. This band-aid approach cannot solve problems that have become entrenched by the chronicity and inadequacy of this inattention. Other money is lost to corruption but this does not make the need go away. Finally, there is the ongoing federal-state and state-tribal division of responsibility that too often results in neither jurisdiction doing enough of what needs to be done.

    There is a need for long-term solutions. But in the meantime, there are immediate needs as well. While people on the reservations wait for the thousands of new homes that are needed, they face the reality of making do with poorly insulated homes plagued by mold and in such poor condition, they are not worth repairing. In the winter, there is a tremendous need for assistance with heating costs. I have participated in these programs and have seen the gratitude. It's summer now but the problem won't be fixed by the time winter weather arrives. Donations can be made directly to bypass the middlemen, the 501c3s, the red-taped strangled Tribal Councils and the inadequate Federal LIHEAP program. See http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_8056e9b4-13c2-11e0-b813-001cc4c002e0.html

    "We've set up relationships with the propane companies that service Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservation. The kind operators/owners know who needs help and can't get it from their Tribal, State or Federal government. No one should freeze to death in the richest country in the world," says my friend Neeta. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/3/933064/-Band-Aid-for-the-Lakotas:-But-a-directly-applied-one

    St. Francis Energy Co. (the only Native owned fuel company on Rosebud) accepts donations by credit card, at 605-747-2542 11am-6pm MST. Ask for Sherry Cornelius or her mom Patsy. They have an account to accumulate donations for the average $150 order. If you'd like to mail a check (payable to St. Francis Energy Co.) the address is:
    Attn: Sherry Cornelius
    St. Francis Energy Co. / Valandra's II
    P.O. Box 140
    St. Francis, South Dakota 57572

    The Lakota Plains Propane Company serves the Pine Ridge Reservation. Donations can be made by calling 605-867-5199 M-F 8am-5pm MST. Ask Crystal to contribute to someone from Autumn's list. ($120 minimum donation.)

    And then what? Winter will come year after year. Other problems will also persist. What really needs to happen is at the political level. But thanks to Shane and Corey we have information to ponder and hopefully act on.

  4. troy jones 2011.07.13

    Shane, the first step in finding a solution is seeing it first hand. The second is becoming personally invested with time, treasure and talent. This is a great example of these.

    The hard part is yet to come. You will have to spend years seeing it from all sides and learning what might work inside their cultural norms as well as what is possible within ours.

    As one who grew up within sixty miles of the three reservations and spent thousands of hours there in my life, I think most of the solution will be organic. And what your family is doing might be the most significant outsiders can do- show with effort (not words, views on govt. programs, or sending a check from one's excess) we care and want them to be successful.

    Off the reservation, I am always struck by the difference in Sioux Falls vs. Pierre with regards to the interaction between the races. In Pierre, it is common for a local white adult or child to sit in a park or on the street to just sit and visit.

    Here I see more segregation. And when I do it here, the Indian is less open to it so it is a mutual challenge because they wonder if my motive is impure. In Pierre, it is easy to make a connection as it only takes a minute to have mutual friends if we didnt already know each other. My point is it takes personal effort and willingness to be rejected to start showing you care.

    P.S. Don't be surprised if your first effort is looked at with skepticism as they wonder if your motive is just to make yourself feel good. Credibility takes time to be earned. But after awhile, you will be richly rewarded with friendship and many graces. May God bless your efforts Shane.

  5. shane gerlach 2011.07.13

    Thank you Barbara and Troy.

  6. larry kurtz 2011.07.13

    "“When I first arrived at Tekakwitha at age four or five, the nuns and priests seemed welcoming, as though they wanted me to think of the place as my home. This friendliness went on for several weeks. Then one day, Father Pohlen came to the Papoose House where I was living and took me by the hand. He led me to the church, where we went behind the altar to a little room that had nothing in it but a chair..."

    http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/07/south-dakota-boarding-school-survivors-detail-sexual-abuse/

  7. Anne 2011.07.13

    I grew up on military reservations, which provided quite a different educational opportunity for dependents. Most of what I know comes in adult life when I lived in states that contain reservations and from work in the federal court system where many of the reservation problems end up.

    White America is unable to understand the deep relationship of indigenous Americans to the land and the spiritual values it holds for them. Despite the massive attempt to purge them of their native culture, it has survived and is again being openly transmitted through the tribal colleges and other efforts. Even those who leave the reservations and live in the general culture feel like they are being held in concentration prisons designed to demean and eliminate their culture. The closest parallel to their experience is the Soviet attempt to suppress and eliminate Christianity and other religions. The problems with alcohol and escape substances on the reservations are very similar to the vodka culture that formed in the Soviet Union.

    One time you said you had experienced both church and tribal politics and would not choose to expose yourself to either. Tribal politics is the result of imposing a hierarchical system of authority on a culture that did not even consider that concept. Leaders became leaders through demonstrated competence, decency, and generosity. Tribal councils which are haphazard copies of authoritarian bureaus in our own culture do not have either the cultural or materials resources to deal with the problems that have resulted from a people being herded onto reservations and severed from the culture that provides their identity and informs their purpose.

    I feel strongly that supporting educational efforts that encourage a leadership that understands both the old leadership by merit and the realities of the way America is shaping itself are about the biggest hope for improving life on the reservations. Begin with the fact the tribes are sovereign nations with, poor as it is, their own land. We have obligations to the tribes that are specified in the treaties. A fully educated leadership in both traditions, and it is slowly emerging, can rebuild those nations into prideful and functioning societies. Education, as it was for America during its first two centuries, is the key to rebuilding the Indian nations.

    But I guarantee that a lot of white people won't like them.

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