Game Faces

After the chaotic environment at the youth center on Tuesday, the students resolved to put their game faces on and take back the night (i.e. manage the chaos!).  After having close to 30 kids last night with widely varying ages, they decided to split the group up into smaller, more manageable teaching sessions, repeating teaching for multiple groups.  They also decided to allow students who truly did not want to participate to be excluded.  With this new resolve, we were ready to start our Wednesday.

We started with an early visit to the Red Cloud Indian School Heritage Center.  The center changes exhibits frequently, and for this visit, there was a Wounded Knee Exhibit.  I am familiar with this historical event from previous visits and readings, but the exhibit hit me hard.  It was incredibly powerful and moving with historical photos that I had never seen, as well as narrative from Red Cloud students.  The tears always come at some point, and this was the time.  The chapel provided a peaceful moment of reflection as well.

After this visit to Red Cloud, we arrived at Big Bat’s promptly at 9am to meet our buffalo supplier, Bamm Brewer.  Big Bat’s was not as busy as the summer so the students decided to make some purchases and take some selfies in the parking lot (I usually avoid Big Bat’s during pow wow because it is just too busy with all types of buying and selling inside and outside the store).  After sitting in the SUV for about 30 minutes, I called Bamm, who said he would be there in 5 minutes, and we agreed that I would follow him out to the “meat house” (no clue where this was before I agreed to this).  Keeping watch for a red Chevy truck was on everyone’s agenda, and once spotted, Shelby rolled her window down and waved vigorously to let him know that we were the SUV that would be following.  He gave one quick wave and then we were off to the meat house in a two vehicle caravan.  We drove out past the pow wow grounds to an area of Pine Ridge that I had never been before.  The meat house had a huge buffalo skin/fur (?) on display out front which made for an interesting topic of discussion upon arrival.  Bamm was friendly, kind, and quite funny, as well as gracious so our buffalo bargaining went very well. I bought a buffalo roast, prime tips (?again I’m not sure that I am getting the description quite right), and one beef roast.  After an explanation of how to cook it, and a story about the buffalo herd that lives close to his home that involved a curse word or two, he was fast friends with the group.  After explaining how the meat house had come to be and the buffalo herd that is close to his home, we received an invitation to meet the baby buffalo that he has tamed (that was abandoned by her mother).  Cola, the Magic Buffalo, is housed in a pen close to the house and can be walked with a lead rope.  She was beautiful and had the most gentle, knowing eyes.  The students took turns feeding and petting her and posing for photos with her.  She will be returned to the herd when she is bigger.  After thanking Bamm profusely for this amazing experience, we were off again.  However, we had to stop before getting out to the main road because of more exciting animals to see—this time, llamas (or alpacas?).  There was one just laying in the dirt road/driveway so I decided to attempt to make friends.  I picked some grass and clicked to it like I would a horse and was able to get it to come to me.  This was a bit scary and again exciting, but he or she wanted no part of my grass—sniffed it, turned his head quickly, and then ran off to join his friends. 

After stowing the buffalo in the refrigerator at the cabin, we were off again for a quick trip to the Badlands.  The wind was blowing like crazy, but as always the lighting and clouds provided another unique view of this beautiful terrain.  Red Shirt Table was quiet today, unlike the summer when we had to share the view with bikers.  The bikers were nice, but having the view to ourselves is better.

This day was a whirlwind and our next stop was the high school.  I had asked AJ what he felt like the students needed as far as education, and he mentioned sexual health.  This was not on the students agenda for the youth center so I told them that I would cover it.  After a self-image pep talk, we got down to business with review of STI’s and unplanned pregnancy prevention.  The students were quite engaged with this topic, and even more so when Hayley gave them a demonstration of the correct way to apply a condom using a banana.  I really enjoyed doing this teaching!  We left all of the condoms that Sharon had brought and then prepared to move on to the youth center.  As we were packing up, Ted, the Lakota teacher, in the alternative classroom invited the students to his house to learn about the sweat ceremony.  This was terribly exciting and quite unexpected!  We got directions to his house and made a plan to visit after the youth center.

After the discouraging teaching session yesterday, the youth center on this day was calm and quiet in comparison.  The students still arrived with their game day faces and “take back the night” attitudes though!  There were much fewer children, but the audience was completely engaged in learning about stranger danger and smoking prevention (and much more manageable).  A quite pleasant evening which was a welcome change! 

After the youth center it was off to Sharp’s Corner to try to find Ted’s house.  After looking for a green house with a white fence set back from the road in the waning daylight, I finally had to call for directions.  His very sweet mother-in-law directed me to look for the flickering porch light and to turn down the driveway by the three trees and the ditch.  I have an absolute terrible sense of direction, but these directions worked like a charm.  Ted and the rest of the family were still in the sweat ceremony so we waited with Mamie, his mother-in-law and some of the small grandchildren.  After an hour or so of conversation, everyone that had been in the sweat arrived, and Ted very kindly had his son, Dino, who is a Lakota teacher, explain the sweat ceremony.  This particular sweat was related to the change in season from winter to spring and the return of the Thunder Beings who will bring rain to the earth with the season change.  There was also an explanation of a particular type of medicinal soup that is consumed at this time of year, but I will not get into that here.  The sweat custom and Lakota legends were fascinating, and the time spent with this family was truly enjoyable.  We got to see the sweat lodge as well.  This is a night that I will never forget.  I have pushed the students to do more health promotion than they had planned for—I hate to pass up an opportunity when it presents itself–and this includes going to the high school for additional teaching each day.  However, I feel like our added efforts were rewarded—good begets good.  If we had not gone to the high school, this invitation from Ted would not have happened. 

Even if we go to the exact same places for each trip, I am always amazed by how different each trip is.  We never have the same experience twice, and I guess that is just one of the many things that I love about coming to Pine Ridge.