On August 23, nine people gathered in the Grace parking lot at 8am, ready to head off to Pine Ridge, SD, for a six day long mission trip on the reservation. We loaded into two cars and took off down the interstate. Some had been there before and had some idea of what we would encounter, but by the time we arrived and started jumping in, it was clear that none of us were completely prepared for all the things we would learn and encounter during our week on the Rez.
We got to the Retreat Center in Pine Ridge around 4, unloaded and met some of the kids that were still there from drop in. I met a little girl named Alanie, and helped her make a hat out of a piece of tag board. :) We got settled in to our rooms in just enough time to start making supper. We made a run to the supermarket and got tacos ready, ate, and then prepared to welcome our first guest speaker, Will Peters, a musician and resident Lakota Indian, and also his daughter.
Will was a fountain of knowledge and insight - and one of the things he said that really struck me was "If you live your life as a man who benefits those around you, you're walking in the right way." Another thing he said was "The ones who have power are the ones that need to be protected - women, children, and the elderly." Both of these statemenst stuck in my mind as I listened to the rest of what he had to say, and got to hear his heart as he talked about his time spent as a teacher and as a councilman - and the struggles he faced along the way. His passion for care and respect for women, children, and the elderly was evident as he spoke. Much of what he stands for centers around these things.
His voice often contained hints of sadness and anger as he spoke about Pine Ridge and about being an Indian - but the primary tone of his voice was one of overcoming those other feelings, about realizing that you have two options - to dwell on the past and wallow in your own pity, or to get up, brush yourself off, and keep on living. The life these Indian people faced 40 years ago during the second wounded knee was difficult, senseless, and painful. Will told these stories so that we could learn from them, and thel told us what he had learned from dealing with them. He told us of the 85 percent unemployment that permeates the Reservation - and the devastation it brings.
Will had a tattoo of a turtle on his arm, and as he was finishing his talk with us, he referred to it, telling us the meaning it had. The turtle was representative of "Turtle Island" - the name the natives had for the United States - for North America. Around the border of the shell were the colors of the medicine wheel - the colors that represent the different "tribes" that make up the world - Black for the African races, Yellow for the Asian races, Red for the Indian races, and then, faded, and barely visible, white, for the English/Caucasian races. As we listened to him tell us about the colors, I, and I would guess many of the others thought he was making reference to the fact that we as whites were fading away, fading into the background as we had tried to to with the Indians during our attempt at assimilating and killing many of them over the course of history. But, to our surprise, he said simply (and with a gleam in his eye) that it was only fading because the tattoo artist used bad white ink. It was this sort of hidden humor that he spoke, and it made us listen to what he had to say.
He played us a couple of songs before he left, and we spent some time talking to him as well. As I got ready for bed that night, exhausted both mentally and physically, I started thinking about the day, and the week that was to come. I love getting to go on mission trips - not lead, but just go. I love learning from the people I am on them with, and getting a chance to get to know some of my "peers" a bit better through the process. I wrote this in my journal that night:
"I want time to learn from my "elders" this week, to take time to learn from my mentors and friends. Talking to Terry during this whole process has made me more keenly aware of the need to learn from all whom we encounter, to be attentive to and respond to the needs of our peers and friends. We stand to gain so much..."
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