Lakota AID   Volume 1 Issue 1

Click here to recommend this article to a friend Hello everyone, Welcome to the Lakota-Aid website and first newsletter. The dates for this newsletter will be around the end of each month all being well, occasionally there might be a slight delay if I happen to be in South Dakota and the dates fall wrong. I will do my best to get the newsletters out around the same time each month. Firstly, I have to tell you that I am going back to the Pine Ridge Reservation on the 10th June, get back on the 27th June. If anyone does make any enquiries via the website to do with any of the projects at present, apologies in advance for any delay in getting back to you. I will answer any e-mails etc as soon as possible after I get back, so don't worry if you do not hear anything straight away. Apart from this 4th trip back to the Rez being one of research into the areas the people need the most help right now (incidentally, it is just about everything that they need help with!!! It is knowing where to start!), I am also attending The Afraid of Bear/American Horse Tiospaye Sundance, held at the Wild Mustang Horse Sanctuary in the Black Hills, South Dakota,12 miles south of Hot Springs. The landowner, 78 year old Dayton Hyde, runs a spectacular 11,000 acre sanctuary for American Mustangs. 600 wild horses run free on the grounds intersected by the Cheyenne River in an area identified as the southern boundary of the Black Hills. Ancient petroglyphs in the vicinity demonstrate that this region was a gathering and ceremonial place for tribal people from all over North America. Even though there are many Sundances held on the Pine Ridge and other Lakota reservations, this is the only one held in the Black Hills- the area known to the Lakota people as ' The heart of everything that is'. The Sundance begins with 'Tree Day' on the 17th June and ends on the 21st, the summer solstice. The Sundance is one of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota people, practised for millennia by the Plains Indian tribes of North America. The dance was outlawed in 1882 by the Code of Indian Offences as having been formerly associated with armed hostilities against the government. The Code was reversed by terms of the Indian Reorganisation Act of 1934, and the dance remains the central ritual of Lakota culture and spirit. It is truly and honour to be invited to this Sundance, along with my American friend Janice. Janice is from Conneticut, U.S.A, and has been collecting clothes, toys, furniture, canned goods etc, for many years now and has them shipped over to the Reservation around Sept/Oct each year, to be distributed among the people by Loretta Afraid of Bear and her husband Tom Kanatakeniate Cook. Tom and Loretta live in Chadron, just over the border in Nebraska. Tom works for 'Running Strong,' a national non -profit organisation long active on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Janice and I had the honour in march/april of this year of being made members of their Tiospaye (extended family), by Al Weasel Bear, who is the great, great grandson of Chief Sitting Bull. You can see Al's picture on the website. Janice and I met via the internet about 2 years ago and we have been firm friends ever since. We both have the same passion and desire to help the wonderful Lakota people, and this will be our 4th trip to the reservation together. We are getting to know our way around the wild, barren , but extremely beautiful lands of the Pine Ridge reservation reasonably well, having gotten lost on many an occasion!! Everywhere looks the same, and because there is a vast area of wide open spaces, criss- crossed by the gentle rolling hills that look so familiar in the good old John Wayne movies, it is very easy to lose your bearings. On our first trip to the reservation, in July 2002, Janice and I stayed a whole week in a Tipi. At night, the stars looked just amazing, no street lights or buildings to obscure them. I saw many shooting stars that were absolutely beautiful, to say I was in awe would be an understatement! You could hear the Coyotes howling , sometimes quite nearby, it was wonderful . One night, a severe dust storm hit in the middle of the night, and Janice and I were awoken to the sound of the wind howling , and the smoke flap of the Tipi thrashing about wildly! Talk about a scary night!.The dust and dry grass and bits of rock came flying into the Tipi, pebble -dashing Janice and myself, and all you could do was to stick your head under the blankets and hope for the best! The Tipi poles were rocking to and fro and creaking like the timbers of an old galleon, we both truly thought that the darn thing would take off like a rocket at any time! The blankets provided some protection, but the wind whistling through the Tipi was so strong, that it lifted the blankets up off your feet and all the debris came flying under the blankets!! All good stuff I can tell you and a night to tell our Grandkids for sure! There will be lots more stories like this to come, some happy, some very sad, so keep watching this space people, happy to have you along. With all best wishes to everyone MITAKYE OYASIN. Brenda [Home] [Why the Lakota need your Help] [Newsletter] [Ambulance Project]