Pine Ridge Trip

I'm going to cheat a little and copy an email I wrote to a friend about last weekend. Nealy and I went out to Pine Ridge to visit our friend Emily who has been living there for the past two years as a volunteer at Red Cloud High School. It was a fun weekend, but it definitely gave me a lot to think and pray about.

So I left on Friday in a panic because I couldn't find my debit card. My mom and I tore the house apart looking for it, then went down to my grandma's in case I dropped it in her car, then to the bank in order to get cash. Turned out that it was stuck in the dryer - oops! Then I drove 1.5 hours to Sioux Falls to meet up with my friend Nealy. I hope that if you take trips with your friends that you have a friend like Nealy - she's so prepared. She brought all kinds of snack food including an entire cantaloupe that we finished off on the way there.

It takes about 5.5 hours from Sioux Falls to get to Pine Ridge. We drove along the end of the Badlands for part of it. I'm not sure if you have heard of the Badlands, but they are really cool.

Saturday we hung out and had pumpkin cookies and then went to a powwow. I've never been to one of those before - didn't really know what to expect. Basically it is a dancing competition. There are 3 different types of dancing for men and women. Men can do traditional, fancy, or grass dancing. Women can do traditional, fancy shawl or jingle. My favorite is the men's traditional because that is what I think of when I think of native dancing, but I also really like the grass and jingle dancers. The least exciting is the women's traditional because they stand in one place and bend their knees to the beat. Perhaps they will rotate a bit, but that's about it.

Sunday we went to church then went to this place called "Bette's Kitchen" which is a restaurant that is run out of Bette's house. Bette lives in a double wide trailer house in a town called Manderson. What is really cool about this place is that you can eat outside and look over some amazing scenery. Western South Dakota is so different than where I am from - much more interesting.

The whole experience was eye-opening for me. It was like being in another country in my own state. I saw some very historical sites including where the Massacre of Wounded Knee happened. I encourage you to look up that story - it's heart breaking in so many ways. How we have treated the natives is horrendous and has certainly taken its toll on these people. It is a place of poverty and violence and is only beginning to reclaim its proud heritage.