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Saturday, January 17, 2004
Friends and Family,
Hello from Pine Ridge Reservation! This is our first update since we
arrived here to the Oglala Lakota Nation. We apologize to anyone who
tried to use the cell phone number we gave in our December e-mail â^À^Ó it
doesn't get any reception here. Below is our contact information again
with a phone number that works:
Karissa Ortman Loewen & Carl Meyer
PO Box 120 / #2 Jacobs Drive
Porcupine, SD 57772
phone: (605) 867-2179
fax: (605) 867-2759
We'd love to hear from you in whatever way suits you best.
Carl's parents, (Rich and Brenda Hostetler Meyer) drove us here from
Goshen, IN and stayed 2 days to help us move in. We pulled out of the
Blue Heron Farm driveway on January 7th a little after 9:00 in the
morning. We spent that night in Sioux Falls and had a pleasant visit
with Karissa's grandparents and aunt the next morning before continuing
on. The four of us arrived here in Porcupine by nightfall on the 8th.
We've spent the past week and a half here moving in, registering for
classes, finding our way around Pine Ridge and Rapid City, and listening
to KILI radio.
To all of you who looked at us last as if you expected to see us frozen
solid in a block of ice when we next would meet (you know who you are),
we'll have you know that most days have been in the 50's, even the low
60's since we arrived. And not a single flake of snow has fallen since
we've been here -- sun, sun, and more bright and beautiful sun. Yes, we
love global warming.
The thing that has impressed us most since we arrived here has been KILI
radio: "Riding out over the airwaves, one hundred thousand watts strong,
the voice of the Lakota Nation!" Broadcasting from Porcupine Butte, less
than a mile from our home, KILI's a vibrant and independent mixture of
local talk radio, global Native news, community announcements, and
music. We've heard shows on a whole range of issues from diabetes
prevention to tribal government. Public Safety hour opened with a prayer
in English and then Lakota for all the public safety workers and their
families on the reservation, followed by comments from police officers
and jail workers, interspersed with country music. In the morning, we
often listen to elders speaking in Lakota. We can usually figure out the
topic (only because they slip in an English word here and there). This
morning the topic was education, though we have no idea what they had to
say about it. In the evening, there are often Lakota young people
deejaying -- usually rap (sometimes by local artists) or alternative.
Another evening we heard an interview with a successful Lakota business
man whose company sells fry-bread mix all over the country. We found it
in a grocery store a couple days later in Rapid. You might even find it
somewhere near you -- the box says, "WoodenKnife Traditional Lakota
Fry-Bread Mix (just add water )." The most refreshing part about these
programs is that they seem to represent a wide range of perspectives
from the reservation -- young and old, traditional and progressive.
Musically, we have heard anything and everything, including lots of
traditional Lakota drum groups, modern music by Native Americans,
country, oldies, classic rock, rap, and children's songs. Politically,
the hot topic is the tribal government's proposal to legalize alcohol on
the reservation, and there have been both pro and con perspectives on
KILI. All in all, it's great community radio, and a good way for us to
get introduced to what's happening on the rez (since most everything
that's going on is announced on KILI).
We live in a 16x80 ft trailer, just a mile south of Porcupine
(population 400, one convenience store / gas station). You might even be
able to find it on your atlas. Our living room window looks out over a
gorgeous prairie panorama to the west (great sunsets from our living
room couch), and BIA highway 27 zooms by atop an embankment to the east.
Getting up that embankment in the snowmelt mud is a four-wheel-drive
project, so I guess it's fortunate that our two unit vehicles are a Jeep
and a Suburban, though we may never get used to the idea of driving
SUVs. Up on the highway, it's about 25 miles south to a Nebraska border
crossing or 80 miles north to Rapid City where everyone here does much
of their shopping and business. It's a beautiful drive up to Rapid,
which is nice since we may end up driving there almost weekly. The
landscape is a mix of prairie hills, pine trees, and beautiful jagged
land formations, and the highway passes through parts of the Badlands
National Park. If we need services closer to home, southwest of us about
a half an hour is Pine Ridge Village, the largest town on the
reservation.
So far most of our time here has been spent in and around the trailer,
fixing things up and moving in. Besides our neighbors ('neighbor' here
means a ten minute walk up hill and down dale) and the folks down at the
nearest Oglala Lakota College center and the Post Office, we've only had
contact with a few people who noticed the vehicles out front and stopped
by to ask for some help with gas, propane, food, etc. In the past, MCC
has put some money towards helping with such needs, and we're continuing
that. But figuring out how to respond to the requests fairly and
consistently and in a way that gives respect and dignity to those who
ask for money will be challenging.
Now that we've had some quieter settling in time, we'll be shifting
gears next week. Monday morning there's a community meeting up in Kyle
about the alcohol legalization issue, and then Monday evening our Lakota
language classes begin. Then Harley and Sue (previous MCC program
coordinators) visit the following week (arriving Jan 28) to help us get
oriented. We're looking forward to getting into the work here and
connecting with all the local partner organizations and people in the
coming weeks and months.
Make sure to give yourself a prize if you've read this far. Thanks to
all of you for your support!
Love,
Karissa and Carl
