It’s been four days since I left South Dakota. As a child of military parents, I’ve been through most of the United States, but I don’t think I’ve ever before rested my head against a window and watched South Dakota go by. I went there for my spring break, which I suppose deserves a little explanation. I applied last fall to be a participant in my school’s Alternative Spring Break program. In the application, you choose the top three issues you’d like to work with over the break. My top two were Native American Issues and Women’s Issues. I think the third was Environmental Issues, but that’s not important, because I was selected to go to Sisseton, South Dakota on a Native American and Women’s Issues trip.

 

It was pretty much as I’d imagined. Not terribly different from Missouri, just a little more flat. It was a nine hour drive that my group turned into an eleven hour trip with multiple pit stops. I’m the kind of person who likes to get in the car and not get out until Google Maps tells me I’ve reached my destination. In my eight hour drive from Alabama to Missouri, I only stop once, and if cars didn’t need gas to like, run or whatever, I wouldn’t even do that. But since I’m not 21, I wasn’t tasked with driving our (incredibly fancy) rental cars, and I was able to lounge in the back until we arrived. That’s a pretty good deal.

Our trip was remarkable from the beginning. On our first morning waking up in the Catholic church whose floors we were sleeping on, we left bright and early to go shower at the local tribal school. Tiospa Zina Tribal School not only lent us their showers, but also let us observe some Dakota culture classes later in the week and play dodgeball and kickball with some very energetic fifth-graders. I’m not going to say that I was sore for three days, and that’s because I was sore for four days. Maybe I’m still sore and I’m just used to the pain. WHAT IS EXERCISE?

Later that day, we got to meet the lovely people we’d be working with all week at Wac’Ang’A Sweetgrass Inc. They came to see us at the church, and with sewing machines under their arms, they helped us sew our sweat dresses for the Inipi sweat lodge ceremony we’d be participating in later.

 

The ceremony was absolutely incredible. Words couldn’t do it justice, but it was an experience that I am incredibly grateful to have been invited to participate in, and one I will treasure for the rest of my life. What a way to start off the week.

On our first day of service, we split up into two groups and did some spring cleaning for Wac’Ang’A’s headquarters and the women’s shelter. Organizing things ranks near eating pizza and sleeping in on my list of favorite things, so when I walked into a room of shelves and various articles of clothing, I was very excited. I didn’t take a before picture, but I did take a picture of my completed side of the room versus another completed side. I love my ASB group, but I love organizing/bragging more.

                         

Our second day centered around learning about the historical trauma native people face as a community. Brenda Hill, director of the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence, gave us a presentation where we learned about colonization and oppression, the intersection of being native and being a woman, and how these things can lead to violence.

The next day was a long one. We watched two documentaries- “Tough Guise” and “Dakota 38.” The first is about masculinity and how that expectation from society affects men and women. The latter is about a group of native people who travel on horseback to Minnesota in remembrance of 38 Dakota men who were executed in 1862. This is the largest execution in American history, and no one in our group had previously been aware of it. It was an amazing story, and truly representative of how much we don’t know about our country’s history.

After the movies, we went to KXSW 89.9 FM and appeared on “Getting Real About Life” with Crystal Owen. We discussed our experiences in Sisseton, our feminist community back at Mizzou, and sang our fight song. After the show, we got a tour of Sisseton Wahpeton College, met with the president, toured the absolutely gorgeous Tribal Headquarters, skipped through Sica Hollow State Park looking for sticks we’d later decorate, and climbed the Nicollet Tower.

 

Our fourth day working with Wac’Ang’A began with two more movies. “Listen to the Grandmothers” and “Rape on the Reservation” were two powerful documentaries about sexual violence. “Listen to the Grandmothers” told the story of how native culture used to hold women in high esteem, and this changed when colonization began. “Rape on the Reservation” followed a mother whose daughter was raped and murdered on a reservation, and the movie looked broadly at rape as a problem on Native American reservations.

Later in the day, we worked as an assembly line to create ribbons for an upcoming campaign for domestic violence awareness. The lockers at the local school will display three purple ribbons for every orange one, representing that one in four teens will experience dating violence. We also developed poster ideas for Wac’Ang’A’s Engaging Boys to Men program, and we talked with some of the young men in the program.

Our last day in Sisseton was full of hugs, tears, and sharing. This was the actual day we played dodgeball with the tribal school kids (these were where the tears came in- we went one for four against very small children) and relived high school as we tried to find a spot to sit in the cafeteria. We completed our talking sticks, which represented the journey of our lives thus far, and presented them in a group at Wac’Ang’A. We heard everyone’s life stories, and were somehow able to smile through our tears for a group picture after the women of Wac’Ang’A presented us all with the Sacred Sister award.

 

We then stopped by the native health center, Woodrow Wilson Keeble Health Center, for a tour, and circled back to Wac’Ang’A for the Dakota naming ceremony we’d been invited to attend. We watched as four of the young men in the Engaging Boys to Men program received the Dakota names they’d carry for the rest of their lives. It was awesome to watch, and after the ceremony we shared a meal together for the last time.

I went into my spring break with a vague awareness of our itinerary and a relative certainty that I knew the names of the people in my group. I left with new friends, new knowledge, and renewed passion. I can’t thank the people of Wac’Ang’A or the people of Sisseton enough for inviting us into their lives for a week. I felt so welcomed and so loved throughout the entire week, and I only hope to be able to share everything I learned on this trip.

So thanks, South Dakota. That was a pretty good first impression.