Hannah and I had the absolute honor of going on a educational drive around the reservation yesterday, led by Damon Leader Charge, director of Tribal Outreach at University of South Dakota, member of the Lakota Sicangu, and wonderful teacher.
First of all: Damon now lives in Sioux Falls and drives three hours to do this outreach with learners who rotate here. You can tell by how he talks about his childhood home and the reservation his love for the land, culture, and people-- the pride and also the concern about the challenges the Tribe is facing. More on that later.
Seriously, he takes it upon himself to drive three hours to Rosebud to give a three-to-four-hour tour of the reservation, then drives three hours back to Sioux Falls. We definitely owe him a thank you card.
And he was so... well, he called it "blunt," but I felt so honored that he'd let us-- these two random outsiders-- in on little bits of daily life here, on the tooth-and-nail resilience of his tribe.
Anyway, in non-COVID times, Damon drives here, picks up the learners in his truck, and drives around the reservation giving the history of the communities and answering questions. Times being as they are, he met up with us in the hospital parking lot, and we followed his truck in our Subaru with him on speaker phone.
It's obviously impossible to do a three-hour experience justice in a blog post-- it's one of those you'd have to be there sort of situations (so come to Rosebud!), but here are some reflections I've been turning around in my mind:
1. 60% funded. Per Damon, tribal estimates are that IHS, housing, schools, and tribal resources are about 60% funded-- meaning significantly underfunded. We drove about and saw many a boarded-up house... from what I understand from what Damon told us, the federal government agreed to maintaining housing for natives in return for the tribes ceding land in the late 1800s (the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868). The boarded up houses, the housing shortage on the reservation is emblematic of broken promises.
2. Pride and resilience. Damon described to us the ongoing fight to keep tribal schools open. There's what sounds like a stark achievement gap due to difficulty recruiting and keeping teachers, and yet-- "the intimate classes and the Lakota teachings" are being kept alive in these community schools. They are symbols of hope and self-sufficiency for the communities. He brought us to the structure of a former school in Soldier Creek (one of the communities on the reservation), where students would previously gather despite the state of the building, even when the electricity went out or the water stopped working, to keep the learning going, to keep teaching the next generations. Funding has since been approved for a new school building, "but taking away the school would be like taking away part of the community's pride." And that's one of the many opportunities for advocacy, one of the many fights ongoing.
3. Love and life. Damon is another of the many people who have met who clearly loves this land and the Tribe. Outside the fact that he committed to a six-hour commute on a random Monday, Damon also showed us where he grew up: "I wouldn't have traded it for anything," which I suppose rings true for so many of us regarding our childhoods. He talked about his cousins and parents, the creek he'd play in with his friends, the strong kinship with his neighbors. Driving through Grass Mountain ("reminds us of the Black Hills, one of our most sacred sites-- where our origin story starts"), through the Parmalee community, along hidden creekbeds, being followed by the families' dogs-- there is clearly so much to love here. Sure, it's stating the obvious, but it bears saying: clearly, there's such deep, unshakable love here and a recognition that there's so much to improve upon, to advocate for. Damon said, regarding the reservation: "Our ancestors fought and died for this." What a gift, then, and also a heavy burden.
Like I said, I feel in no way qualified to tackle educating anyone about the structure of the land or the tribe... I'm super early in my own learning. Here are some resources, though, that I've found helpful:
1. The RosebudREZ communities page (we saw 9 of the 20 communities yesterday)
2. Information about the Sioux Tribal government
3. The Sicangu Community Development Corporation (CDC) YouTube Channel (they even have cooking classes!) and web site (Hannah sidenote: They even make KIMCHI here is link - a Korean staple wow (modified kimchi but still))
4. Information about the Rosebud Sicangu Sioux reservation on the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center (I think it's closed due to COVID?)
We're back on the wards for week 3 of our block. Leah, our attending for the past two weeks (and newfound medpeds-minded friend!), left to return to Boston this morning. It snowstormed over night, so the landscape is so different from when we first got here. Our morning commute:
This is us, hitting our stride at IHS. Can't wait to meet our new inpatient attending!
This afternoon is full of meetings with folks back home... Hannah will be in clinic, and I'll be in the Zoom world. Look out for Hannah's next riveting update!
Best,
Sharon
