Backtracking - 8/25/08 - Life on the Rez - Day Three - - -

Monday was our first real day of work - though the previous two days had already been incredibly eye opening experiences. We got up around the same time - about 7am, and ate breakfast and got ready. We headed out to Makasan to work on the ramp and deck outside the fellowship hall, and assessed what needed to be done over the course of the three days. After taking some time to look at the plans the other group had left us, we went to work finishing the deck, and I got to try my hand at the screw gun and helped put the tops and sides on the railings. It was Tina and I and the four guys plus Paul, Karen's husband. We finished all that we could that day, and needed to pick up supplies before we could finish the rest of the railings, and work on the bell tower also. Over the course of the morning, I got attacked by a mama bird when I was trying to take pictures of her babies, and also got to meet a rather large snake, at least four feet long, that decided to grace us with its presence when it surprised Barry and crawled out from under a couple boards that were laying on the ground.

That afternoon, we had lunch at a place called Bette's Kitchen, a little place out in the country that was a restaurant run out of a woman's house. We ordered our food and then headed outside, and drank in the landscape. It was beautiful - from our vantage point, you could really see why the area was called Pine Ridge. We ate our amazing lunch (and had some of the best chicken fried steak I've ever eaten), and then went for a quick hike up a little hill behind the restaurant and took some pictures.

After that, we headed back to the retreat center to get ready for the kids to come, and got ready to play. It was a blast hanging out with them - they were amazingly open to us as we played pool and foosball with them, played blocks, and Roger and John got taught how to use the Skip-It. We also met Delane NoNeck, a resident haunt of the retreat center that greeted all of us by checking our pulses and temperatures. Before we knew it, the kids were heading home, and we got ready for the evening, heading out to the 70's wounded knee site to meet Kelly Lookinghorse, our guide.

We got a briefing before entering the grounds, and then were each handed a pinch of tobacco for a small ceremony while we were inside. Kelly sang a song, and then he said a prayer and instructed us to raise our hands up to heaven, and then sprinkle the tobacco on the ground. We got a chance to look around the cemetary a bit, and then headed back to the retreat center for supper. It was an intense experience, and on the way back, we passed some more of the sunflower fields, and Barry mentioned that at some point, he felt like we needed to take a photo of me in one of them, and what better time than now? So, we pulled over on the side of the road, and spent some time taking photos in the field of sunflowers. It was great to lighten the mood a bit.

The evening was spent hearing stories from Kelly and his wife Susie - a mentally and emotionally exhausting evening. It was clear from his voice and his tone that he had not progressed as far as Will had in his healing - hints of bitterness and anger were frequent as he told his stories. He made comments about things like the fact that there was plenty of work to be done, and yet no jobs, that we as "white men" are enablers that come on to the reservation to save the sinners and feel closer to God. He even said at one point that he wants someone to tell him what he did wrong, so he can tell his grandkids why they had to suffer for so long.

The night was both frustrating and enlightening, and definitely made me think a lot. Some of the other folks on the trip were angry about what he had to say and took what he said with a grain of salt. What he said was difficult to hear - but after I heard him talk about how the indians stereotype the white people that come on to the reservations, it was also eye opening. It is a difficult thing to understand what it means to be stereotyped, especially when that isn't something that normally happens to us, or affects us much if it does happen. It it powerful to walk in someone elses shoes for a while, and to come to understand what it means to feel for a bit the way others do most of their lives.