Lakota AID Registered Charity No: 1097444 Volume 2 Issue 3

Hi Everyone I have finally got around to doing a newsletter and apologies for the delay. I have been away on my 6th trip to the Pine Ridge Rez as you know, but also it takes me a couple of weeks to get over the dreaded jet-lag!! It really affects me and I wish I was one of these people that travel anywhere and are as fresh as a daisy, but alas that is not the case with me!! I had a very productive trip this time, I feel that I have achieved more on this trip that I have done over the past 2 years which is really good. I stayed with Rita Afraid of Bear and her son Nathan Blindman, in Rita’s new trailer. Although this trailer is not a brand new one, it is a lot better than the old one. It is a much bigger trailer than the old one, half as long again and much wider, so much more space for her. It has lovely big windows which let in a lot of light, just perfect for when she does her beadwork, and it has lots of storage space , a nice kitchen area with a breakfast bar, a nice sized living room, one really big bedroom with a toilet and shower and sink, and a smaller bedroom with sink and toilet. Before she had an outside privy, now she has 2 inside flushing toilets and a working shower etc and it is all thanks to you lovely people that this has been possible. One kind lady and her husband donated the money for me to get Rita a fridge/freezer, as she only had a tiny fridge. We went to Rapid City, about a 2 hour drive from Slim Buttes where Rita and Nathan live on the Rez, to purchase a fridge as there is a lot more choice there. The day we decided to go and look turned out to be a very windy day, typical prairie wind that makes the trailer creak and move with the sheer force behind the wind. Quite scary at times and apparently even worse when the tornado season is around. Rita chose the fridge she wanted and it was loaded onto the back of their truck and lashed down with a rope. If you don’t know the size of American fridges, let me tell you they are BIG!!!  Even the smallest ones are huge so it needed to be secured down very tightly, but the wind still managed to rip free the plastic covering that had been wrapped over it. That had to come off and by this time it was early evening and getting dark. The wind was getting stronger and a big storm was brewing behind us as we drove the 2 hour journey back to Slim Buttes. By the time we got back to Rita’s trailer it was dark and we only had the light from the trailer and an outside light, so Nathan backed up the truck as near to the steps of the trailer as he could and pulled down the tailboard. He put some wooden boards from the truck to the top of the steps to make a sort of ramp for us to slide the fridge into the trailer. Let me tell you that trying to get a huge fridge from the back of a truck into a trailer in a near hurricane force wind is not easy!!!! The wind was practically taking the fridge out of your hands and it was a nightmare just trying to hang on to it!!! After much manouvering we managed to get the fridge up as far as the door only to find that it would not got through because of the door handle on the fridge !! It had to be moved back and turned so that the fridge handle now faced forwards and not sideways. Piece of cake now we thought, famous last words also, the darn thing still would not go through the doorway, so it was decided that a piece of the door jamb would have to be prised off to make a bit more space. Again the fridge was moved back onto the truck, and while Rita and Nathan attacked the door jamb with a hammer and screwdiver, I was left holding the fridge, which was some experience I can tell you!! The wind was so strong that I had to just had to brace myself as best I could and hang onto the fridge as if my life depended on it! I could feel it being pulled over with the force of the wind and I had to keep my head down to stop my face being pebbled dashed with dust, dirt and bits of twig. Boy was that wind fierce, and to make it worse you could see the lightning in the distance getting nearer all the time, it felt like something out of a disaster movie!!!! After what felt like an eternity, the door jamb was removed and finally we managed to get the fridge into the trailer, then it could just be pushed on its wheels into the kitchen and where Rita wanted it to be put. We were all covered in dirt, our hair looked like a scarecrows and we were tired, but very happy to have finally got that fridge installed. About half an hour later, a big storm hit, so talk about in the nick of time eh! The moral of this story is that it just goes to show how hard it is living out on the reservation to even get yourself a fridge! We take so much for granted living over here, that we just do not realize the hassle it is for these people to just have the basics in life. Everything is a real struggle, and this is just one example of how hard it is to live a reasonable life for most of them. I have had already told Rita that next time she wants to get a big item, don’t call me-ha! ha!! No seriously, I would not have missed this for the world, it is an important issue that I can relay to the world about the difficulties of just plain everyday life, so I guess it was all meant to be as they say. I also had the great honour on this trip, of meeting a lovely 78 Elder called Tony Black Feather. He has been campaigning for his people on humanitarian issues, for over 20 years, and is very much informed on the issue of the Treaties made by the whiteman in the last century, which are still being broken and have never been upheld. Tony represents his people at the United Nations conferences, and he believes that the US government should not mix politics with humanitarian issues, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. I also met Garvard Good Plume, who is a member of UNPO (unrepresented, peoples organization www.unpo.org  . This organization have just published an article of mine on their website under the Lakota section.) and I am now in regular contact with him. He has been tirelessly fighting to help his people over many years, and we are talking over ideas of how to maybe combine forces in the future, to help many Elders out with propane  especially during the winter. He has given me a big list of Elders needing help all year round, which I will be putting on the website soon. I have had many people enquiring about wanting to write to Elders etc, but many of them are not good writers and are too old to really change, but they still need help and it would be still good if people want to help an Elder with propane, or help by paying an electric bill, even if they cannot write back, so please bear this in mind folks. I have also a young man named Dale Kills Enemies at Night, that needs help to buy the books he needs for college and to help him in his education. Dale is a recovering alcoholic, and has been doing extremely well over the past 7 years. He is now 30 years of age and is studying law enforcement at Chadron College which is just over the border in Nebraska, and wants to major in criminal justice. Because he has proved that he has had the courage to stop drinking and get on with his life, he has been asked at the college to give counselling to youngsters there , and to get over to these kids about the perils of racism, alcoholism and drugs. A very worthwhile cause and Dale deserves a lot of merit for this and he also deserves a chance to be able to get a good education and is a wonderful example to his people. If anyone would like to help Dale out in anyway with his education, please contact me via the website, or at lewjas@aol.com Your help is very greatly appreciated and please spread the word . Don’t forget also, if anyone would like me to come and do a talk as a fundraiser, about my Rez trips and the plight of the Lakota people, please do not hesitate to contact me ok? That’s all for now folks, but I will keep you all posted so keep watching this space!! Take care and Mitakuye Oyasin Brenda Aplin- Lakota Aid. [Home] [Why the Lakota need your Help] [Newsletter] [Ambulance Project]