Harsh reality, but beauty, too

The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is an out of the way place many Americans may never have heard of, much less visited.

But a group of nine Elgin Academy juniors and their teachers will never forget their trip to the vast plains and harsh ridges of the 1.7 million-acre Lakota reservation in southwest South Dakota.

Pine Ridge is the poorest place in the country, according to census data. About 80 percent of the residents are unemployed. Alcoholism and diabetes are rampant. The infant mortality rate is 2.5 times higher than the national average, and life expectancy for both men and women is about 20 years less.

"My first impression was like this is a Third World country," said Johnathan Vanko, 17, of East Dundee. "Nobody really knows they are there."

The group went to Pine Ridge for a week in September to volunteer with Re-member, a not-for-profit organization formed to assist with some of the most basic housing needs. Their main emphasis has been building thousands of bunk beds and delivering them to various homes throughout the reservation.

There is such a housing shortage that often 20 or more people stay at a residence, said Elizabeth Murray, 16, of Geneva.

And in many of those houses there is no electricity, running water or heat.

Murray said they delivered beds to one trailer and set them up in a room that had been added on.

"There was no floor. It was dirt," she said.

Nonetheless, the 18-year-old girl who was home when they delivered the new beds offered them food and drinks. And when her mom came home she was equally gracious and grateful for their efforts.

"The look in her mom's eyes was the ultimate thanks," Murray said. "And I think she had 16 or 17 people stay there that night."

Kathleen Rusniak, who teaches Spanish and is the school's community service coordinator, said she also was stunned by the level of poverty and conditions on the reservation.

But improving the situation won't be easy because there are few resources for residents. Jobs are scarce and just getting groceries is a long haul that can be expensive, considering the price of gas.

"I never knew how there's nothing out there for them. There's no place to work," Rusniak said.

The Lakota tribes, who are also known as the Sioux, still claim the nearby Black Hills as their land. Unlike the reservation, the Black Hills are filled with spruce and other pine trees, and streams and meadows with plenty of wild animals, fish and vegetation.

In the 1860s, a treaty between the Lakota and the U.S. government gave the Black Hills to the American Indians. But a few short years later, gold was discovered in the hills, and white settlers and soldiers led by Gen. George Custer quickly moved in, forcing the Indians off their hunting lands and into the Badlands.

Custer was defeated and killed in the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. But in 1890, the massacre at Wounded Knee, which is on the Pine Ridge Reservation, put an end to the Indian wars. About 150 Lakota were killed, many of them women and children, as the Army was disarming them.

The Elgin Academy group visited Wounded Knee, which is now marked with a monument and cemetery.

Rusniak said she was struck by how many infants and children are buried in the cemetery. Many families had buried more than one child there over the years.

"I've never been in a cemetery where I've seen so many children's graves," Rusniak said.

For Steve Hilsabeck, who teaches history, the trip brought an important part of American history to life.

"There is tremendous abject poverty and a lack of hope. Yet there is also a powerful sense of culture and history, and they draw strength from that," Hilsabeck said.

In addition to their work, the group visited with residents, learned about the reservation's university and the Red Cloud School, attended a powwow and learned about Lakota traditions.

Vanko said he will never forget the beauty of the Lakota culture and how important land is to them.

"It was the experience of a lifetime," said Vanko, who is hoping to return to Pine Ridge to work with Re-member next summer. "Their culture is beyond belief."

Murray also hopes to continue a relationship with the Pine Ridge residents. She has already suggested a pen-pal exchange between Elgin Academy and Red Cloud students.

Getting to know each other may be one of the best ways to help them, she said.

It is also important that other Americans become aware that the Lakota people are out their struggling to survive and maintain their culture. The U.S. government has not made it any easier over the years, Vanko and Murray said.

"It kind of makes you angry," Vanko said. "Somebody has to care about these people."