This is a huge deal. My "crazy professor" pulled past this security booth on to Leonard Crow Dog's property essentially asking people to "take me to your leader" and he, his college-aged daughter and I ended up meeting Chief Leonard Crow Dog, a highly respected Lakota medicine man who was a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM) when they took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs governmental building in D.C. and who apparently is still being watched by the FBI for being a radical Native. We shook hands with him and listened to him calmly chew out Whites for their annihilation of Native Americans and their culture. Somehow the one-sided conversation turned and he introduced us to one of his eighteen children and invited us to explore the ceremonial grounds including touching and praying at the Sun Dance tree. I also attended my first sweat ceremony on Saturday with my professor and his daughter. Very cool experience and I'm looking forward to the next one. Take away from Professor Christensen about living in a place where a different religion is practiced: "Your ability to spiritually discern is important because it will help you protect yourself [from the possibility evil spirits, etc.]" Good reminder as I try to avoid being like traditional missionaries who end up converting people to European lifestyles.
Day 11 on the Res: Today, a truck from Minneapolis dropped off 1200 pounds of frozen food and Tree of Life distributed it to a crowd. I hope all those people can figure out how to thaw restaurant sized queso, tortilla dough balls, etc. Those were happy people to be getting a lot of food. Today was also the first time I've ever hung my clothes out to dry. The dryer hadn't been fixed so I set up the line and hung everything with humility (my heppy-jeppies all up there on the line!) while mission team volunteers worked around the trailer to winterize it for Tree of Life. Apparently Sam, one of the native construction workers, chased down one of my white towels when it blew off the line. While in my imagination it would have been a funny scene to watch, I do appreciate his help. Sure enough, before all my clothes were dry, a volunteer had fixed the dryer. I actually like line drying them except for those obnoxious little white balls from the new towels that are now on everything. I'll just pretend I don't see them next week!
Day 8 on the Reservation:Yesterday, Weatherbug said that all week was going to be beautiful. So imagine my surprise/terror last night at 5:15am when I woke up in a trailer propped up by cinder blocks to a wind and lightning storm. We don't have a tv, radio or the Internet over at the trailer so there was no way for me to see if there was a tornado. I wandered around the trailer for about twenty minutes before returning to my bed against an inside wall, trying to get my head as close as possible to the center of the trailer. By 7:30am, it was still drizzling and I walked down the street to the Tree of Life Ministry as lightning crossed the sky on three sides of the horizon and fresh blue skies brightened behind the trailer in the distance. The rest of the day has been beautiful but now Weatherbug says we'll have rain until Thursday. Whatever.
At some point this summer, Eric might think to check my blog and see what's going on, so Eric, if you do, this is for you. Everyone else, sorry.
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Dear Eric,
Since this is kind of a public love blog note, I'll try to refrain from getting too personal or mushy. In order for that to work, insert telepathic *** messages where implied by the asterisks. ;-)
I love you so much. Since we're currently 1,597 miles apart, I wish teleportation had been invented so we could ***. I think of you many times a day and wish that we could *** and ***. I can't wait until August 15th when we get to see each other again and can finally *** and harmonize together with the radio. May this truly be the last time we're apart for this long.
Yours,
Heather
*If you're not Eric and you think my love note is completely inappropriate, then you need to read the message again and insert more appropriate implied thoughts!
"I don't know what to feed [my new stray puppy] because we don't even have food." - Pedro, approx. 10 years old, Rosebud Reservation, 6/19/09
Since I arrived here on Monday night, I have- moved into a mobile home- visited a site for public Sun Dances- saw an elk (rare occurance-- the Native American man we were traveling with had never seen one before!)- attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting for Mission, SD- met a Christian Lakota medicine man and a traditional art artisan who's willing to teach me anything I can think of related to hides, beads and quills
- noticed that Oreos at grocery store cost $5.14 (!)
- drank a gallon of milk- put together 2 bed frames and a closetI am currently going through withdrawl because my roommate has been preparing our morning coffee with 1/2 decaf beans (!!!). I'm trying to make up for it with caffinated green tea...
And now I'm on the Rosebud Reservation, SD. Exhausted after traveling 15 hours yesterday and then setting up house in a mobile home. But good. By the way, I forgot to write that Eric and I had a fantastic week-long vacation in DC and NC before I left. I'm so glad I was able to spend time with him.
After traveling via car about 2,500 miles since May 31st and visiting an endless list of great friends, I've now got 24 hours before my plane takes off for Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Prepare yourself for some stories from a couple reservations...
I'm presently sitting in a quiet apartment in Washington, PA waiting to visit Tricia at her school and observe her afternoon classes. (Yes, I should be writing a paper instead of this post, but c'est la vie!) Thankfully, the high school lock-in went well, I was able to successfully move out of my apartment, enjoy fellowship with a few amazing seminary ladies and get safely to western PA this past weekend. And now I am so happy to be able to relax here. Eric, Arnold, Leslie and the rest of the Drew team are safely back from the safari in northern Uganda and will start flying home about 2am tonight. It's been a long two weeks since they left. My mind has been cluttered with wishes to be with them, hopes for their safety and a long to do list here in the states. I'm looking forward to seeing Eric soon and hearing stories about some of the people who are on my heart. Before that happens, however, I'm going to enjoy a great day with Tricia and Shannon and then make a totally-out-of-the-way pit stop at Jumonville on my way to NJ. :-) And this coming weekend will be amazing when Eric and I get to travel to DC and NC to see a whole bunch of great friends. All of this fellowship is so good for my soul, especially before I take off for the flatlands of South Dakota for ten weeks.
This is a huge deal. My "crazy professor" pulled past this security booth on to Leonard Crow Dog's property essentially asking people to "take me to your leader" and he, his college-aged daughter and I ended up meeting Chief Leonard Crow Dog, a highly respected Lakota medicine man who was a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM) when they took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs governmental building in D.C. and who apparently is still being watched by the FBI for being a radical Native. We shook hands with him and listened to him calmly chew out Whites for their annihilation of Native Americans and their culture. Somehow the one-sided conversation turned and he introduced us to one of his eighteen children and invited us to explore the ceremonial grounds including touching and praying at the Sun Dance tree. 
