Lakota
AID
Registered
Charity
No: 1097444
Volume
2 Issue 6
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Hi Everyone I returned from my 8th trip to the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota on Oct 5th, and as usual am severely jet-lagged and desperately trying to get on with being back in good old England again!! I am a person that needs sunlight , and have come back from clear blue skies and still warm temperatures (even the Native peoples call it an ‘Indian Summer’), to grey skies and not a chink of sunlight anywhere in sight!!! Ah well, at least I am lucky enough to be able to visit the Pine Ridge Rez and it’s amazing people, so just have to count my blessings I guess!! The winter there will set in with a vengeance soon however, and I did experience a taste of it on this trip when the temperature suddenly dropped from the 80’s, right down to the 30’s overnight and the wind cut you to the bone!! The day before had started out ok, then a wall of dust was seen looming in the distance which gradually obliterated the whole of the sky as the day wore on! The wind was amazing, as well as the dust, and by the evening a thunderstorm brewed as well, and made a truly awesome addition the dust storm. The thunderstorm only lasted about an hour or so and then suddenly the dust storm was gone and everything calmed down for a short while. The wind suddenly sprang up again and blew hard all through the night and the temperature plummeted. The morning was really cold and then as suddenly as it had started, the wind dropped and the temperature started to rise again and the rest of the trip was a beautiful as it had started out. Such extremes of weather patterns exist out on the Great Plains, truly awesome, and you can only be amazed at how the Lakota People’s once managed to survive in such harsh conditions, but survive they did!! Today is a different story indeed, and as I have emphasized over and over, these people cannot survive as they once did and struggle on as best they can, Propane being a real life- line for these people. I only experienced a short taste of the winter to come, but I can tell you it would truly be a very scary thing to realize that if you could not put propane in your tank for your heating and cooking you are in real trouble. Rita Afraid of Bear, who I stay with and her family, keeps saying to me that I should come out and stay in the winter when there is lots of snow around and the biting wind of the Plains, so that I can tell people over here just how darn cold it does get, and maybe I will one day. Temperatures can drop to minus 20 – 40 degrees below freezing and with the wind chill factor, it can be minus 75 plus degrees below freezing!! Now, as promised I can now reveal the nature of this trip and why I have not said anything until now. (are we sitting comfortably-haha!). Back in may of this year(2004), I was contacted by RCA films, director Robert Celecia and Producer Amanda Strolin. Bob had heard a radio interview with a Lakota Medicine Man named Basil BraveHeart and this had started Bob doing some research into the Lakota People. He came across my website and saw that I had met Basil BraveHeart on one of my trips and so contacted me.
Bob told me that he would really like to do a documentary on the Reservation, about peoples lives and what they would like to see for the future for their people, and could I arrange this with the people? I was so knocked out by this that it took me three times of reading that first e-mail from Bob, to fully understand what he was asking. When I finally came down to Earth, I immediately made contact with Nathan Blindman (Rita Afraid of Bear’s son), who has worked in the film industry for over 20 years, and put this proposal to him. Nathan said yes to helping with no hesitation, and he did an absolutely brilliant job of coordinating the whole thing for me. Garvard Good Plume helped arrange a group meeting to be interviewed also, so many thanks to Garvard also. There was frequent communication between myself and Bob and Amanda, Nathan and everything gradually started to take place. I
flew over to Rapid City on the 16th sept, nearly
a week before the film crew were due to arrive,
so I could go around with Nathan and meet the people
that wanted to take part in the documentary. We
explained what the documentary was all about and
fixed a convenient time and date for their interview
and this helped to break the ice with the people
before the actual interview day arrived.
The
film crew travelled up from Montana by road hauling
a small trailer with them, which was sited on Rita’s
land and they did some great cook outs at night
around a roaring fire , with the Coyotes howling
in the distance! Rita’s dogs joined in the nightly
chorus which was reallyfunny, but also very beautiful,
as it made you feel just how close with nature you
are out in the remote and amazing place! Over the next few days interviews took place with people of all ages and from all walks of life, and the whole thing was an amazing and emotionally draining experience. We all met Russell Means on this trip too.He was an activist and staged the sit in at Wounded Knee back in 1973, so that was a bonus!!
We all went down to the Lower Brule Reservation for the weekend of the 25th/26th sept to film the pow-wow and do interviews there also, and we were all treated fantastically by the people. We ended up having to do ‘The Honouring Dance’, which after we got over the initial shock proved to be a brilliant experience and a lot of fun too! God knows what the people thought of a bunch of White people trying to do an Honouring Dance Indian style, but they all came rushing into the pow-wow arena to shake us by the hand, so I guess we did alright!!! I would not have missed this trip for anything, so did not want to tempt fate by revealing the purpose of this trip before hand, just in case anything went horribly wrong and it did not happen at all!!!
There were lots of tears when the crew left the Rez, they were all such a great bunch of people, sound man Danny, camera men Marty and Tom, and co-ordinator Rita(another Rita!) , director Bob and producer Amanda. They were all visible moved by the whole thing, and have gone back their home towns with a very different outlook on life to when they hit the Rez! I cannot thank Bob, Amanda and the crew for wanting to do a documentary of the Lakota people and I know that the people are truly grateful for this opportunity also. We all cannot wait to see the edited version, it will be really exciting. Only good things can come from this documentary I feel, who knows what the future holds? THANK YOU BOB, AMANDA, RITA, MARTY, TOM and DANNY! You are all very special people . I also want to say a BIG thankyou to Nathan Blindman, without whose help I could not have gotten the organized. THANKS NATHAN. Plus also a huge thank you to Rita Afraid of Bear for letting us all invade her land and disturb her peace. She was brilliant also. THANKS MOM, I love you. Life back here in England seems pretty boring in comparison right now, but I have to get on with fund raising etc, and the talks I do to help spread the awareness of reservation life. Well, guess that’s about all for now folks. Thank you once again to all that have donated so far and are trying to help the cause. I cannot do this without you, so keep spreading the word ok!!! Don’t forget that I will come and give a talk on my reservation trips wherever I am asked, so if anyone is interested in organizing something please feel free to contact me. lewjas@aol.com or via the website. Take good care everyone and keep watching this space!!! Yours very tired but happy!! Mitakuye Oyasin Brenda.
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