I Dreamed a Dream….
“To give them a life free of drugs and alcohol”
“His Lakota name is Hoksila.”

“These young students of life are very talented. Drawing, painting, quilling, beading, and sculpturing come naturally… in this poor socio-economical community the chances of the young reaching their dreams is little or none. By twenty years old they have already given up their hopes and dreams, many times the young look and feel many years past their age.”

Motivation for the Program

As parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, how much do you worry and agonize for the young people in your life who struggle with feelings about absent parents, school problems, acceptance by peers, and other life challenges?  On Pine Ridge Reservation,  Lakota adults have the same anxieties and concerns for their youth.  Small houses that shelter between 10-20 people don't provide an environment for homework or the privacy desired by teenagers.  Drugs, alcohol, and violence on the reservation can be life threatening.  Grinding poverty robs the youth of hopes and dreams.  It deprives them of the chance for learning, and destroys their chance to graduate from high school, attend college, and use their talents in a productive way when they grow up.  Instead of happiness and hope for the future, they face depression, despair, and a high teen suicide rate. 

Origins

Lakota adults and elders are deeply concerned for their youth.  John Dubray, a dedicated Lakota man who lives on the reservation in Allen, SD, has been doing something about it.  He created a youth-oriented Lakota initiative called My Buffalo Land's Children in Allen.  His program, supported by ONE Spirit, started mainly as a youth art program and has slowly grown from there. 

John's My Buffalo Land's Children program offers a unique way for ONE Spirit to work with the Lakota people that exemplifies our philosophy of supporting their initiatives. And John's program is the inspiration for the ONE Spirit youth program, to work closely with John and help spread the program to the whole reservation.  Art programs, learning centers, sports, music, horseback rides, mentoring are all part of the community's vision to provide real hope and support for the youth.

Youth Program Mission

The ONE Spirit youth program mission is to address these problems through supporting the Lakota youth and their families, especially on Pine Ridge Reservation, by:

• helping provide safe havens and learning opportunities
• building cross-cultural and inter-personal relationships between youth on and off the reservation
• working toward a day when hopes and dreams provide a realistic alternative to suicide, and
• helping to bring about conditions in which the 70% high school drop-out rate can be changed into a 70% completion rate.

That mission translates into many kinds of activities for and involving Lakota youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation, including these programs:

• Safe Houses
• Art programs
• A youth horse program
• Cross-cultural exchanges
• Sports teams like baseball, football, running, swimming.

Activities

We in ONE Spirit are careful not to go in and set up our own programs; we believe that the Lakota know best how to care for their youth.  In the activities described here, it is our mission to support Lakota initiatives. 

Art Program

Young people in the Allen Art Program, under the supervision of John DuBray, cleaned up the space in the Allen Community Action Program building and decorated the walls with two murals. The space is now a popular spot for many community events. The Allen Youth have made it their specialty to produce native drums. Their work is now being exhibited and sold both here in the US and in Europe.

The oldest of the ONE Spirit youth programs, our art program has aided and extended John's initial program.  Art is one of the most important examples of a program that engages Lakota children creatively and promotes a positive self-concept.  It is a good fit for Lakota youth because they have a tremendous natural talent and love to draw, paint, and make jewelry, beadwork, and drums.  Our ability to reach and involve the youth is limited only by the lack of materials and supplies.  ONE Spirit supports youth art programs in schools, summer art camps, and community youth programs.  We provide much needed art supplies and help to arrange exhibitions of Lakota youth art off the reservation, including abroad.  

Art classes taught by Terrie Jo Gibbons are an example of art programs in the schools.  Approximately 150 students attend her summer art camps.  In 2009, several representatives of ONE Spirit had the pleasure of helping with the art and science camps.  Selected art work from the summer camps, as well as other youth art, was featured this fall in an art exhibit sponsored by the Global Art Project in Staten Island (New York City).  We already have plans for two more youth art exhibits next year - in New York City and Binghamton, NY.  All aspects of these art programs are constantly in need in art supplies and raising funds to help provide those supplies is one of our highest priorities. 



The Jumping Eagle Safe House

Donna and Billy Jumping Eagle, who work closely with ONE Spirit, have a safe home for up to 20 children that is a safe place for Lakota children to live if they are not able to stay at home.  Kids come to the safe house for various reasons:  no available space in a house where their parents live - often up to 20 people in a small house - or social problems such as drugs, alcohol, or violence, in the environment. 

At the Jumping Eagle's safe house these kids are nurtured, encouraged/required to stay in school, grounded in their culture by the elders - grandparents come in and tell stories in the oral tradition.  Children living there go on horse-camping experiences and they are taught to take care of horses, a very important part of their culture.  In short, these kids are given a lot of care and a lot of love. 

However, the kids are not taken away from their families.  Their parents know they are there and know they are safe.  They can see their parents and their family but they have the care they need.  Some of these children stay in this safe house for many years. 

Through our SHARE food program ONE Spirit provides food for this home.  We provide clothing and supplies they need for the house (e.g., beds), equipment for camping (e.g., sleeping bags), school supplies, special items and gifts for holiday times.

We in ONE Spirit are working to replicate this valuable program in many other areas across the reservation. 

Horse Programs

Horses are a natural part of Lakota culture and tradition, and horses have a well-documented role in reaching troubled and challenged kids.  Teaching a child horse care and horseback riding instills confidence and self-reliance.  On longer rides, such as the Youth Ride and the Big Foot Ride, Lakota youth and adults camp out and the elders use the opportunity of being with the children to teach responsibility and cultural traditions through stories of the Lakota culture and exposure to their beautiful homeland.

Horses are a key ingredient in preserving the culture of the plains, giving the kids the roots they need. 

Cross-Cultural Exchanges

Most Lakota children see and interact only with other Lakota children, children with the same problems, traditions, life styles as their own.  Except perhaps through the unrealistic medium of TV they don't see what other children are like, or hear about what they think or dream about.  At the same time, children off the reservation know little or nothing about Native Americans.  What they do know are legends that are taught as history in schools - legends that paint Native Americans as primitive and often as savages.  If they know anything of Native Americans today, it is usually about casinos.

It is our goal to foster cross-cultural and inter-personal relationships between reservation children and non-reservation children to broaden their horizons and expose them to the culture and viewpoints of each other.

In the short-term one possible way to establish such a relationship is through a photo exchange program.  By means of digital cameras and computers provided by the ONE Spirit youth program, youth on the reservation could exchange photos with youth groups outside.  Similarly, through funds for printing, mounting, matting, and framing from ONE Spirit, a photo essay program on the reservation would allow Lakota youth to document every day moments in their lives for exhibit in schools, churches, and cities throughout the country and abroad. 

In the future we hope to take these exchanges to an inter-personal level by establishing an infrastructure necessary to support reservation youth groups hosting groups from outside and arrange for groups of reservation youth to travel to spend time with youth groups elsewhere in the country. 

Sports

In theory, ONE Spirit supports the development of sports teams on the reservation.  In practice, we have not yet done much in this area, but we have donated some baseball equipment.  More is needed along with equipment for baseball fields, support for team transportation costs, balls, bats, gloves, shoes, and uniforms.  Baseball is America's past-time!  Certainly any kid in our proud country should have an opportunity to play baseball!  These young athletes could also use some support to attend summer football camp.