The fact is, impact aid is offered to schools, for tribal students, but the truth is, many of the schools offer very little for cultural activities. Cultural teachers struggle for funding with activities and support that isn’t completely understood from non-Indian administrators. Funding for cultural activities are next to nothing. Now here is the next issue, maybe 45 minutes of the day, and 3 days out of the week is the set time that I’ve seen scheduled for students to learn the culture and language. This isn’t nearly enough time to provide proper teachings for students to retain the information flashed in front of them. Many elders and instructors say, the only way the language and culture could be saved, if it is taught at home. But the issue we face is that most of our families are still being affected by the boarding school era. Non-speaking Lakota parents with a major fear instilled by churches on the culture, who are afflicted with addictions, who are struggling to keep their family life together, in the most impoverished places in America. The Lakota O’zan Zan would be able to fill the cultural void by providing proper teachings and support for students by not removing American Indian Youth and placing them so far away from home. Allowing students to still be with friends and family at school and within their own homelands.- Schools attempt to address the environment issues by providing disciplinary guide lines, school counselors. the past two years I’ve worked positions as a social worker, counselor and cultural instructor in two different Indian run schools. The process, I found when observing counselors and teachers was just this, Faculty towering over Lakota youth, threatening and demanding their respect to be given freely. This approach only antagonized students as well as the school officials, which resulted in students being suspended, kept out of school activities and or expelled from school. The introduction of the cultural values, providing sweat lodges, drum groups and simply gathering of wood and material, in preparation of the events, resulted in students becoming much more receptive. The interest in Lakota practices became a focal point for me, in helping students find a balance with school and home life. The meaning for this I feel is the counselors and administrators; all have never lived on the reservation. So they couldn’t understand the environment these youth are struggling in, with the added misconception or outlook about our beliefs as Lakota people. Faculty attempting to help with these youth were very book smart but as far as reservation life is concerned, they are not life smart. I’ll attempt to explain, for example: a German-speaking counselor speaking to an English-speaking student will not be as helpful. The counselors and administrators come from two different worlds than the our youth, which then falls back to the disciplinary guide lines, with punishment and threats, this is one of the reasons why in our state, we have the highest rate of drop outs in the United States, specifically American Indian Males and Females. I never realized the term “pushed out’, was used in association with schools, many of our family members suffered this fate, including myself.
- Statistics of South Dakota concerning American Indian Males and Females, ranked through out the United States. The reason for the drop out rate being the highest in the nation I feel is due mainly to a large amount of students that have been pushed out of schools by administrators deeming them problem students. These students pushed out are also absorbed into the drop out rate percentage. The State of SD also has the lowest graduate rate of American Indian males and females. This specific county, Ziebach County, within the state has been ranked #1 poorest county in the US, since 2004. Many would think SD would be the top 10 poorest states since 7 of the poorest counties are located within the Dakotas, SD is ranked 28th with the family income chart reaching nearly 50,000.00 per house hold. These are truly 3rd world settings, many families here on the reservation go without and the children suffer the most, without a voice and too young to legally care for themselves, they are left in the fray to find a reason to survive. The rest of the world still has a view this government is honoring the treaties they presented to us long ago. Most don’t realize the issue our families are facing, the boarding schools and churches have internally damaged our cultural practices and language. Families are torn apart by addictions, violence, prison, a social services system and the driving force of poverty. Maybe poverty wouldn’t be such an issue if we still had our culture, maybe if our culture was practiced widely, we could stand as a strong unit to ensure our youths success. This is my attempt to view the issues we face with a positive outlook, but unfortunately the statistics speak for itself.Prior to becoming Tribal Chairman, I worked for 4 1/2 yrs as a social worker, investigating neglect and abuse cases within CRST. The position was hard to fill, but I did it from a Lakota perspective, also provided a sweat lodge and invited clients to the lodge, I prayed with parents, smudged daily and filled my office with the cultural medicine to help provide a healthy and comfortable atmosphere for parents and children. I smudged the offices daily, in the morning and at one point was warned that if I kept doing this, I would be written up, so I continued despite the warnings. Working this position was very heart breaking, dealing with other social workers and judges, the culture helped me balance to be able to continue helping. Near the end of my career as a Social Worker, our office recieved a visit from the district supervisor from the Pierre office. During the meeting, we were asked why the numbers of children being placed into the foster care system had dropped. It felt like I had been slapped in the face by the comment I just heard, I was repulsed. I responded and asked, “shouldn’t this be a good thing, this means we are doing our jobs”, as the conversation went on it made me sick to sit and listen. I told the supervisor “you are only worried about the quantity of children being placed and not the quality of care that is being given”. I worked hard with the families I served, in my mind helping a family and most importantly keeping them together was the main purpose of a social worker. In the end, it wasn’t hard walking away from this organization. I knew how other social workers felt about American Indian people just by the way they looked at me and avoided me. I knew I wasn’t an ideal person to even be in social services with long hair and brown skin. But besides the treatment, I know my choice of direction in dealing with families was successful, the policies of Social Services were not in the best interest of Lakota families. I was successful using the culture as a basis when I spoke with families and carried out investigations, so the method of the culture is proven, if not look at how our ancestors lived; they were perfect in a natural sense, pure to the land, the creator and the tiospaye.
- Schools and Social Services have become a starting point for youth in graduating onto the prison systems. I’ve learned the school systems have been referred to as “School to the Prison Pipeline”. This past year, I had visited two different prisons, the women’s prison in Pierre SD and the men’s prison in Sioux Falls SD. Over 90 percent of the inmates were high school dropouts, in both prisons. Most of the prisoners in their lives, had at one time or another, gone through the foster care system. Over 50 percent in both prisons were American Indians, the major population made up mostly of Lakota men and women. Studies have shown over 60 percent of the children funneled through the foster care system are American Indian Children in the state of SD. The numbers are staggering, since our populations only make up 11 percent of the full population in SD. Recent studies show over 700 hundred children are removed from home yearly, in this state alone. When the government asks for numbers, the statistics are there but programs that have failed our people are still being used. In the past, I’ve heard the plight of our Lakota families, referred to as, JOB SECURITY. Lakota children, young Lakota men and women are being taken away, the places they are taken to, they are robbed of their dignity and stripped of their identity. A five year old child attempting suicide by slitting his wrists open with a razor, because he didn’t want to be taken by the Social Worker, even the wakanyeja knows that its wrong to tear apart families. This treatment is no different than the days agents ran down our ancestors and sent them to boarding schools. Look at it any way you want, they only perfected the system. They make a good living taking away our children and parents, human trafficking made legal. The numbers are real, we can argue the amounts but in the end, you’ll never see a prison shut down, but a school being shut down is another story. The amount brought in by placing children and imprisoning people is a substantial number whether its 3000 or 5000 per month. I remember people referring to SD as a welfare state, I never realized they were talking about us, and these programs have made them experts, they make a good living, off the backs of our people. Laws and policies stacked against our impoverished mothers and fathers, fighting for custody of their children, losing them to the Penitentiary and Foster Care systems. These are real issues our people are facing, think about our relatives, think about our young ones that we lost, some are not dead they are still alive, just forgotten, locked away in a cell. We have become products of our environments, which as formed us into the creatures you see today. People ask, where are our warriors and strong Lakota women today, most of them are behind bars, they were in need of direction, a good home and a reintroduction to our ways as a people. These are the frontlines, these are the battles our O’yate are fighting today. We can’t stand by and watch our nation die, if we fail, we fail together and if we succeed we do this together.
