Awakening the Lakota Culture
By Stuart Hughes
Rosebud, S.D. - An awakening of culture is making a difference on South Dakota’s Indian Reservations.
At the Rosebud Boys and Girls Club, the sign outside is scrambled in a mix of numbers and letters,
“Can’t you read Indian?” joked Heide Big Crow, director of the center.
Big Crow says she works 12 to 18 hour days, but there’s never enough time to do the little things like fix her sign. Until just months ago, Big Crow hired her assistant, Jesse Robinson, she was running the Boys and Girls Club alone. Big Crow teaches Lakota language and culture, helps the kids with homework and runs the after school programs. She funds all of these entirely through donations. To the 20 to 30 kids of the Boys and Girls club she cares for she is a mom, a friend and a teacher.
“Most of these kids don’t have computers at home so they come here to do their homework” she said “Some of them have parents that aren’t good to them, or don’t have moms or dads that are around a lot of the time. They need to know what a good role model is like so they can grow up to be like them.”
Big Crow’s assistant Jesse Robinson, is a young man with a computer technology degree who handles most of the necessary repairs at the center, and fixes the computers when they break. Robinson works at polishing the centers newly refurbished bowling lanes. The alley Robinson is preparing was built in the 1960s, but has been defunct for decades. It has little holes pocked in the ceiling. Until recently, it was used for archery.
“We’re going to use two lanes for bowling, and the rest for the archery,” Big Crow said. She would like to have an archery range and a bowling alley, but supervising archery takes staff she doesn’t have, and fixing all of the pin-return-machines take expertise and tools she doesn’t have either. She says she’s ok settling for a little of both, it gives the kids more variety.
“There’s not a lot to do in Rosebud, and if we can get the kids involved in activities it keeps them from drugs, and alcohol, and the gangs that run around here,” Big Crow said.
Colorful signs with Lakota words for “Bow” and “Arrow” hang around the alley. Big Crow says she teaches a blend of cultures at the center. She says that without guidance, some young natives can fall into a culture of violence.
“Being native doesn’t mean running around causing problems. Being native means caring for your tribe and family and making something of yourself,” Big Crow said.
“Being Indian doesn’t mean you just live on the reservation. Being Indian is a culture. If we can teach the kids some of their culture and language that’s also really good for them, Otherwise, they grow up thinking the Indian way is gangs and war, but that’s not the native way”
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Todd County Middle School Vice Principal Bill Williams says he sees the effects of cultural loss, and they can be just as devastating as drugs or alcohol, and can lead to substance abuse.
“They’ve lost their native culture, but they don’t have the Anglo culture either. They can’t relate to either culture, and this is devastating for the kids. But the ones who go to the pow-wows, speak the language and know their culture, they’re the ones who really get it and succeed,” Williams said.
Williams said he is confident that a combination of family, culture, and tradition will heal the youth on Rosebud.
“Family is key, community leaders are key, and if you can get kids involved in learning culture and traditions, and they can really succeed,” he said
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Susan Walking Bear and her family are members of the oldest warrior society in North America. . Tokalas, she says are proud warriors who guard their people with their lives. The Walking Bears live in a trailer up the road from the wounded knee memorial, and care for the site. They built a shrine to the American Indian Movement across from the memorial
“The Sioux have always been known as the bravest, most fierce warriors in the world. They started Tokala long before AIM began,” she said.
Tokala ideals include resilience, cultural knowledge, and protecting the tribe. They reject the culture of dependence Walking Bear says has been created by decades of easy federal money.
“Everybody’s waiting for a handout. That’s not the Lakota or the Tokala way. We need to find our cultural identity again,” she said.
The Tokala society recruits and trains native youth to identify medicinal plants, and trains them to make and use traditional Lakota weapons for hunting.
Walking Bear said she has been a part of Native resistance movements since she was a child.
“I remember Russell Means was always around our house when I was a little girl. From a young age what he stood for, independence, and resistance, has always been a big part of my life.”
Walking Bear said she believes the only way for the Lakota people to heal is for the youth to realize their heritage, and who they are now. She says they need to realize the proud people they come from.
“You can’t succeed out there, It’s been proven to us. Our relatives always end up coming home to the reservation. Our parents set the flames with AIM, now I hope and pray we can guide the youth movement to their fires.”
Photos by Ashli Johannsen
