Hope in South Dakota

Language Level: Advanced

Standard Accent: American

HOPE IN SOUTH DAKOTA

Many young Native Americans nowadays find themselves caught between two worlds, finding it difficult to establish their own identity and path in life. But the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has become a beacon of hope for Native Americans on the reservation and across the country, with some impressive academic achievements; on average, 93 per cent of their graduates go on to higher education, and the graduating class of 2007 included seven Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients, the highest per capita in the nation.

BETRAYAL

The history of the relationship between the Lakota (or Sioux) Native American tribes and the white settlers is not so positive. It is one of betrayal and broken promises. The tribe’s sacred ancestral homelands lie in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota, but during the 19^th century, as gold as found and treaties broken, these lands were taken from them. As the Lakota refused to sell the land, an Allotment Act was passed, dividing it into small parcels. Tina Merdanian, who grew up on the reservation and is now Director of Public Relations at Red Cloud Indian School, takes up the story:

Tina Merdanian

Standard: American Accent

This concept of owning land individually, to the Lakota, was totally ludicrous. How can you own something that does not belong to you? It’s like dividing up the sky and saying “I own 180 acres.” For the Lakota people believe that they were stewards of the land for future generations – caretakers. Well, the last and final step was reservations, and placing our people on these reservations.

SERIOUS PROBLEMS

The Pine Ridge Reservation – the second largest reservation in the US – covers around 3,000 square miles of Southwestern South Dakota, with an estimated population of 30 to 40,000, who refer to it simply as “The Rez,” the realities of life on the reservation are harsh: unemployed is estimated to be as high as 85 per cent, life expectancy is 20 years below the national average and rates of infant mortality, suicide, diabetes and alcoholism are all frighteningly high. Although the reservation covers the southern half of the Badlands National Park, with its natural beauty and stunning rock formations, much of this land is fairly desolate:

Tina Merdanian:

Now, you have to understand, when they designed these parameters as reservations they did not give the Lakota people the most prosperous pieces of land – quite the opposite.

Nor were they designed to be self-sufficient, self-sustaining, but instead dependent. So how do you break the mould when the need is so great? How do you start up business when you don’t even have financial institutions?

A BRIGHTER FUTURE

At Red Cloud Indian School they believe the answer is through education. A Jesuit School, it was founded in 1888 as the Holy Rosary Mission, at the request of Chief Red Cloud. As a leader of the Oglala tribe of the Lakota (or Sioux), Chief Red Cloud had led the most successful military campaign ever waged by an indigenous people against the United States. Later he became more of a statesman for the Lakota people and petitioned the government for a Jesuit school on the reservation. His wish was granted before he died and now he lies buried overlooking the school.

These days Red Cloud Indian School is one the largest private Native American Schools in the country, with around 600 students attending classes from kindergarten to high school. Father Peter Klink, president of Red Cloud Indian School, explains how he sees its role:

Father Peter Klink

Standard American Accent

And, hopefully, to assist and be a part of the process of opening doors of opportunity for young people in the tribe, through education; and probably what has surprised me more is how blessed our efforts have been – as we watch, in the midst of the unemployment, poverty that are real challenge on the reservation – seeing youth come to high school graduation, seeing a future for themselves and having experienced an education that  they can use as a springboard to a brighter future for them, and I think through them – by kind of  a multiplier effect – as they come back as teachers, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, hopefully, a brighter future, not only for them, but for their people.

The Wounded Knee Massacre (no sound)

The most notorious incident in the history of the Pine Ridge Reservation took place near Wounded Knee Creek on a cold winter day in 1890. Chief Big Foot, one of the last Sioux leaders to resist the relocation of this people to reservations, had travelled to Pine Ridge with a band of men to join Chief Red Cloud. They were intercepted by the Seventh Calvary, a regiment of the US Army, and escorted to Wounded Knee. The next morning, December 29th 1890, as the army tried to disarm the Indigenous, a shot was fired. In the few minutes of carnage that followed, around 200 Indians were killed; the bodies of unarmed women and children were found as far as three miles away, slain as they tried to escape. The reaction to the incident helped to ensure that this was the last major armed conflict between the US Army and Native Americans. 

These days a simple stone monument (pictured) marks the mass grave where the dead Indians were buried. It is said that the soul of the nation may well be buried here, too. you can find out more by visiting the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, South Dakota www.woundedkneemuseum.org For more information on the Red Cloud School, visit www.redcloudschool.org 

Travel info

For more information or reaching South Dakota, not mention its other attractions which include Mount Rushmore, we suggest you visit the state's tourism website: www.travelsd.com