Team 2 Week 2 Journal

Monday, July 4th, 2011
On this, our day of independence, we were invited by Mona to go to a Pow Wow in Iron Lightning. We brought camp registrations and promoted camp to the youth we saw. Also, ran into many of our youth from Bear Creek and Cherry Creek. While at the pow wow we were able to go to a ceremony and see a tradition that is usually saved for Memorial Day but because of the rain this year they were unable to get to the cemetery. After that, Mona brought us to try to dig up turnips. We walked around and collected sage but never found a turnip. We were told it was probably too late for them and the “tops had blown off.” Also, we met Emily who does the photography program at the Sioux Y and participated in a walk to prevent youth diabetes.
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Today we went to Bear Creek and stuck with our Food Pyramid programming. We started by shooting hoops and playing kickball and then moved into Food Group Bingo. We had fewer youth than usual because of the holiday weekend and many families went out of town. While playing kickball, many adults from the community came and watched what we were doing. This community definitely seems engaged with their youth. Food Pyramid Bingo was a hit! We played bingo and gave a small basketball as a prize that we had received from Tyson to give out. During bingo, Levi and Jenny played basketball, first to ten. Every time Jenny scored Levi would say, “Wait for me to score so we can win together!”
Cherry Creek- We arrived in Cherry Creek and had an instant battle against fireworks. The kids weren’t ready to play games because they had pockets full of bottle rockets. We did manage to get a baseball game going for a while and ended by playing basketball with the older boys. The younger boys practiced playing catch and the girls played Food Pyramid Bingo.
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Rain, rain go away come again another day! Today in Laplant it is raining fiercely. So, we programmed in the Boys and Girls Club and did painting. We made paper airplanes and then painted them and had a paper airplane contest of who could go the longest. Also, we painted insect themed paintings to hang on the wall. A few kids walked over to the school and shot baskets with Andrea. We tried to contact Deretta by stopping by her house. We had Mona call last week and let her know that we would be stopping by today. She never answered.
Swiftbird- The rain is gone and the kids are ready to play. They see the van and come running out like moths to a flame. Everything is still wet so we sit outside the community building, under the “garage”, play with chalk, and make friendship bracelets. All of the kids are covered head to toe in mud from a mud fight and all are embracing making the bracelets from the little boys to the older girls. It was fun to see all the kids exchange bracelets. Then we played basketball, until the unfortunate “Man Down” situation when Jenny in her competitive and aggressive bball spirit slipped on loose gravel and cut up her knee. Then we were forced to play glasses vs. no glasses, (Andrea and TC vs Keela and Cotton) The best game of all was when the kids took the hula-hoops and made a jumping game out of it, sort of a cross between twister and hopscotch. It was one of the funniest things we’d seen and the kids came up with it. They played together so well.
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
Today we await Team 3’s arrival. We have big things planned but first are heading to Bear Creek and Cherry Creek. The kids in Bear Creek are still minimal. A few were grounded because they were playing with glass and a boy, Stacy, was cut. In addition, we found out Nevyn was pretty badly burned by fireworks and had to go to the hospital in Rapid City. We don’t know really how bad it is, we heard it from the kids in a few different story lines. But, with the little angels we did have we played a scavenger hunt. They had so much fun running and finding things, i.e. a flower, a piece of garbage and throw it in the dumpster, a blue hula hoop, a friend who is five, etc. While we started playing baseball and catch while little Kobe had the time of his live on the swing set, a man pulled up to mow the field! Our phone calls to the tribal office worked and in no time Bear Creek will have one of the best programming areas in all of the communities. When we were telling the kids about the baseball field, Levi grabbed a helmet, bat and glove and said, “I’m a real baseball player!” They are so excited to play on their new field.
Cherry Creek- The battle vs the fireworks continues. Its really hot today so the kids are hard to find as it is and the added fireworks battle slims our numbers considerably. But, we still have a few kids to play with. They want to play ball tag which soon turns into a water fight. We played some basic baseball skills and hung out before we had to leave and get back to Dupree to welcome our next Team.
We met team 3 at the hotel and picked them up to bring them to a dinner we had arranged at the Ranch House consisting of Board Members, community members we hope to collaborate with and Sioux Y staff. With a great turn out of sixteen people we were able to close the place down with conversations and gratitude to each other making it a supreme welcome and setting up Team 3 with key people so they have tools to succeed. After, dinner we took a stroll down to Pioneer Hall where they were having a Grand Re-opening (after rebuilding from a tornado that devastated the town)celebration and serenaded the fine people of Dupree with some of our favorite Kareoke jams.
Friday, July 8th, 2011
We got in both vans with plans to head to all four communities. We left about 10:30 so we could get to Laplant by 11ish. We started by gathering up youth and jumping right into a “Track and Field” Day that we had organized. All seven of us manned a station from sprints, to jumping jacks to skee ball. Then we gave them star stickers for all the events they completed with the final event being a cross country running event. It went over super well and lasted just enough time for us to head to Swiftbird and stay on track. We ran the same event in Swiftbird and Bear Creek (in the new beautifully mowed field). We were very lucky in Swiftbird to have “Opening Ceremonies” of traditional Lakota songs and drum by Cotton, TC and Sage. The Lakota culture is very important to these youth and they are very open to talking about it. Then we made our way to Cherry Creek. Now, this is where the fun begins…
Driving down the lovely roads to Cherry Creek we blew a tire. Great. But, between seven capable adults we changed that tire and made our way to Cherry Creek on a donut. It was too late to try to get a new tire so we would have to first thing in the morning before heading home. It started to rain in Cherry Creek when we rolled in so the kids weren’t out and about as they usually are. We gathered up some and said our goodbyes as well as introduced Team 3 to key potential youth leaders like William and Chandler and then headed on our way back to town. We ended our day by having dinner with Mona at the Ranch House (again) and heading over to the Dupree Powwow. After the powwow we went back to the hotel, gathered our necessary things and prepared ourselves for the long trip home. We leave with this note….
Dear Cheyenne River Reservation,
You are beautiful. Your people, your culture and your lives are beautiful. The struggles that you have in your community are struggles that can and will be overcome. Your youth are so smart and open to so much learning. Keep teaching them your culture and your language. They are the future and they will listen. Your wisdom, generosity, bravery and respect will carry on through us as we return to our homes. We have grown as we hope your children have by this experience.
We hope to meet you again.
Your friends,
Andrea, Ashley and Jenny.