(no subject)
Hello from Deans Ranch, Slim Buttes, Pine Ridge (Oglala Lakota Nation), South Dakota.
I'm a few weeks into my current adventure: living and working at a developing sustainability education/demonstration center at an 8,000-acre cattle ranch (future restored prairie/buffalo grassland) on an Indian reservation.
I came here from Massachusetts mostly via I-90, with lovely visits with some Midwest-residing friends along the way, a good visit to Carleton, and a gorgeous stretch of MN-61 along the Mississippi River. I spent the final night of the trip in Palisades State Park in eastern South Dakota. I expected South Dakota to be mostly flat and homogenous, but it has been full of surprises for me. The Palisades has cool canyon rock formations with a river flowing through, and plants I've never seen anywhere else, like tiny cacti poking out of cracks in the rocks. Most of what I saw of eastern South Dakota was indeed flat, and vegetated with agricultural monocrops. But the expansive approach up and down and over the plains to the Missouri River took my breath away, and while the area around that river is the most spectacular out of anything I've seen in South Dakota so far, all I've seen of the western part of the state is fantastic--great rolling plains with buttes, peaks, valleys, and lush ravines.
When I arrived at the reservation, I was nervous. In a lot of ways I didn’t know what to expect. Driving through the massive construction project on the road between the towns of Pine Ridge and Oglala, I though, "I'm here"--and was inexplicably comforted--when a friendly Lakota man on horseback, whose dog kept running in front of my car, came up to me and asked, "Can I hit you up for a few bucks?"
I arrived at the ranch in the early evening. The permaculture students, just a few days from the end of their two-week course, were mostly off the ranch at a coffee shop "in town" (in the nearby college town of Chadron, Nebraska), preparing for their upcoming presentations. The first person I met was Cory, a permaculture designer and teacher from Los Angeles and Tampa, and one of the main organizers of the projects here. The second person I met was Steph, a friend from Lost Valley--we were interns there at the same time--who I had no idea would be here.
Arriving in the final few days of the course made life at the ranch seem especially chaotic at first, but it was also a good time to come. I got to meet the amazing people who were here for the course: a teacher who has spent time all over the world, including amidst dozens of indigenous peoples; a Sudanese student who is a doctor in an Eritrean refugee camp; two Haitian students, who I learned only after the course was over are the country's Minister of the Environment and his assistant; and many others. Permaculture courses are so inspiring and empowering that the energy when I got here was just wonderful.
The other interns are also great people. There are five of us--Nisa, Sam, Steph, Natasha, and me. Fortunately for me, they all like to make music!
And I feel lucky to get to know Bryan, the rancher and the other main organizer of the projects here. He is a Lakota man who grew up at Pine Ridge on and off, served in the military--including at the Presidio of Monterey, strangely--is an engineer, is very connected with the Lakota community, and has a vision and the beginning of a hugely ambitious project that could contribute to major transformation of the reservation.
Bryan is in the early stages of restoring the 8,000 acres of this cattle ranch to healthy prairie, someday to be roamed by buffalo instead of cattle. The lush ravines will be planted with food forests--fruit and nut trees and edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful plants--open to anyone for foraging. This ecosystem restoration and edibile landscaping is intended to be a model for change throughout Pine Ridge, which Bryan also intends to help make happen, and eventually on other reservations as well. On the ranch there is also the beginning of a permaculture and sustainability education center and Lakota community center with a huge (56' x 66') straw bale house/classroom/workshop underway, a beautiful vegetable garden planted this year, eventually the rez's first public library, an organic CSA, a restaurant with organic food right from the ranch, and various other aspects.
The straw bale building is the main project right now, so that's what most of us are working on most of the time. I'm also working with Cory on grant writing. And once again, I'm milking a goat! (Nanny is her name.) There are many animals at the ranch. We don't see most of the cows most of the time, except for two orphan calves. There's a pig, Scratch and Tom the cats, currently nine dogs (ranging from a chihuahua to huge mutts), and some chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl. Another pig, and Billy, a male goat, have been slaughtered while I've been here. There are also thirty horses. I got to try riding Rain in the arena a few days ago. I can't wait to ride more!
Being in Indian country has lent itself to many new adventures so far. The best, which I hope to repeat, was participating in a sweat lodge. Many Lakota still practice ancient traditions of their people, especially the sweat lodge ceremony. It was incredible to be totally welcomed, along with several other young white people, into the sacred ceremony. In the frightening heat, surrounded by the Lakota songs and drumming, and joining in the prayers for loved ones, people in need, and the earth, I felt as much as I've ever felt in my life like I was part of something larger than myself.
Spending time in prison is a reality for many Lakota. I took my first trip to a jail last weekend, bringing one of the ranch hands here to visit her boyfriend and spending a couple hours with them there. Fortunately he's out now and transitioning back into ranch life, and his energy, enthusiasm for the project, and physical strength make a lot of difference.
The unpaved roads on the reservation are the worst I've ever seen. The loose gravel makes it hard to keep good traction. A recent study actually found BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Highway 41--the road the ranch is on--to be the most dangerous road in South Dakota. I experienced this firsthand last week when I lost control of my car sliding on the gravel as I went around a curve, and I fishtailed off the left side of the road into a ditch and crashed into a barbed wire fence. Fortunately I was fine (though, like when I slid on black ice last winter and fishtailed across the highway onto a snowbank, I did scream!), and the damage to the car was minimal. The roads here are just one example of insufficient infrastructure on the reservation, and I’m especially going to avoid driving on them on weekend nights . . .
Being in this new place is also makiing possible some fantastic exploration of the landscape. I love going "out on the range," up into the grassland. And on the past two Sundays, I've hiked in the Black Hills. Steph went with me on my birthday, and we took a brief hike to the Cathedral Spires, beautiful rock formations. This past Sunday, Natasha went with me, and the hike was wonderful but hardly the highlight: the wildlife was unbelievable. We saw hundreds of buffalo, a coyote, many antelope and deer, and five hawks.
I'm a few weeks into my current adventure: living and working at a developing sustainability education/demonstration center at an 8,000-acre cattle ranch (future restored prairie/buffalo grassland) on an Indian reservation.
I came here from Massachusetts mostly via I-90, with lovely visits with some Midwest-residing friends along the way, a good visit to Carleton, and a gorgeous stretch of MN-61 along the Mississippi River. I spent the final night of the trip in Palisades State Park in eastern South Dakota. I expected South Dakota to be mostly flat and homogenous, but it has been full of surprises for me. The Palisades has cool canyon rock formations with a river flowing through, and plants I've never seen anywhere else, like tiny cacti poking out of cracks in the rocks. Most of what I saw of eastern South Dakota was indeed flat, and vegetated with agricultural monocrops. But the expansive approach up and down and over the plains to the Missouri River took my breath away, and while the area around that river is the most spectacular out of anything I've seen in South Dakota so far, all I've seen of the western part of the state is fantastic--great rolling plains with buttes, peaks, valleys, and lush ravines.
When I arrived at the reservation, I was nervous. In a lot of ways I didn’t know what to expect. Driving through the massive construction project on the road between the towns of Pine Ridge and Oglala, I though, "I'm here"--and was inexplicably comforted--when a friendly Lakota man on horseback, whose dog kept running in front of my car, came up to me and asked, "Can I hit you up for a few bucks?"
I arrived at the ranch in the early evening. The permaculture students, just a few days from the end of their two-week course, were mostly off the ranch at a coffee shop "in town" (in the nearby college town of Chadron, Nebraska), preparing for their upcoming presentations. The first person I met was Cory, a permaculture designer and teacher from Los Angeles and Tampa, and one of the main organizers of the projects here. The second person I met was Steph, a friend from Lost Valley--we were interns there at the same time--who I had no idea would be here.
Arriving in the final few days of the course made life at the ranch seem especially chaotic at first, but it was also a good time to come. I got to meet the amazing people who were here for the course: a teacher who has spent time all over the world, including amidst dozens of indigenous peoples; a Sudanese student who is a doctor in an Eritrean refugee camp; two Haitian students, who I learned only after the course was over are the country's Minister of the Environment and his assistant; and many others. Permaculture courses are so inspiring and empowering that the energy when I got here was just wonderful.
The other interns are also great people. There are five of us--Nisa, Sam, Steph, Natasha, and me. Fortunately for me, they all like to make music!
And I feel lucky to get to know Bryan, the rancher and the other main organizer of the projects here. He is a Lakota man who grew up at Pine Ridge on and off, served in the military--including at the Presidio of Monterey, strangely--is an engineer, is very connected with the Lakota community, and has a vision and the beginning of a hugely ambitious project that could contribute to major transformation of the reservation.
Bryan is in the early stages of restoring the 8,000 acres of this cattle ranch to healthy prairie, someday to be roamed by buffalo instead of cattle. The lush ravines will be planted with food forests--fruit and nut trees and edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful plants--open to anyone for foraging. This ecosystem restoration and edibile landscaping is intended to be a model for change throughout Pine Ridge, which Bryan also intends to help make happen, and eventually on other reservations as well. On the ranch there is also the beginning of a permaculture and sustainability education center and Lakota community center with a huge (56' x 66') straw bale house/classroom/workshop underway, a beautiful vegetable garden planted this year, eventually the rez's first public library, an organic CSA, a restaurant with organic food right from the ranch, and various other aspects.
The straw bale building is the main project right now, so that's what most of us are working on most of the time. I'm also working with Cory on grant writing. And once again, I'm milking a goat! (Nanny is her name.) There are many animals at the ranch. We don't see most of the cows most of the time, except for two orphan calves. There's a pig, Scratch and Tom the cats, currently nine dogs (ranging from a chihuahua to huge mutts), and some chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl. Another pig, and Billy, a male goat, have been slaughtered while I've been here. There are also thirty horses. I got to try riding Rain in the arena a few days ago. I can't wait to ride more!
Being in Indian country has lent itself to many new adventures so far. The best, which I hope to repeat, was participating in a sweat lodge. Many Lakota still practice ancient traditions of their people, especially the sweat lodge ceremony. It was incredible to be totally welcomed, along with several other young white people, into the sacred ceremony. In the frightening heat, surrounded by the Lakota songs and drumming, and joining in the prayers for loved ones, people in need, and the earth, I felt as much as I've ever felt in my life like I was part of something larger than myself.
Spending time in prison is a reality for many Lakota. I took my first trip to a jail last weekend, bringing one of the ranch hands here to visit her boyfriend and spending a couple hours with them there. Fortunately he's out now and transitioning back into ranch life, and his energy, enthusiasm for the project, and physical strength make a lot of difference.
The unpaved roads on the reservation are the worst I've ever seen. The loose gravel makes it hard to keep good traction. A recent study actually found BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Highway 41--the road the ranch is on--to be the most dangerous road in South Dakota. I experienced this firsthand last week when I lost control of my car sliding on the gravel as I went around a curve, and I fishtailed off the left side of the road into a ditch and crashed into a barbed wire fence. Fortunately I was fine (though, like when I slid on black ice last winter and fishtailed across the highway onto a snowbank, I did scream!), and the damage to the car was minimal. The roads here are just one example of insufficient infrastructure on the reservation, and I’m especially going to avoid driving on them on weekend nights . . .
Being in this new place is also makiing possible some fantastic exploration of the landscape. I love going "out on the range," up into the grassland. And on the past two Sundays, I've hiked in the Black Hills. Steph went with me on my birthday, and we took a brief hike to the Cathedral Spires, beautiful rock formations. This past Sunday, Natasha went with me, and the hike was wonderful but hardly the highlight: the wildlife was unbelievable. We saw hundreds of buffalo, a coyote, many antelope and deer, and five hawks.