#2415483 - 06/12/11 08:39 AM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: Nimrod777]
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RUGER
Arachnophobic
Non-Typical
Registered: 11/19/99
Posts: 4097433
Loc: TN
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Hope you have a safe trip.
_________________________
Youth is wasted on the young.
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#2415995 - 06/13/11 05:34 AM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: Nimrod777]
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Snake
16 Point
Registered: 05/03/09
Posts: 15478
Loc: McMinn Co.Tennessee U.S.
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Cool , prayers sent !
_________________________
No matter the storm , when you are with God , there's always a rainbow waiting .
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#2416194 - 06/13/11 10:26 AM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: Snake]
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green doe
16 Point
Registered: 07/24/03
Posts: 12436
Loc: Wisconsin
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Prayers for you and your group, Nimrod, and for you too, tnshooter.
_________________________
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.
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#2416243 - 06/13/11 11:47 AM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: green doe]
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ChippewaPartners
10 Point
Registered: 08/25/01
Posts: 2909
Loc: Pamelot, my farm near Catoosa
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As a former Pine Ridger and Native American myself maybe I can weigh in with some reflection. My Dad was Captain of Police of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Law & Order Department while we lived in Pine Ridge in the late 1960's. I was also awarded the 1972 Outstanding Indian Athlete award in South Dakota by none other than Billy Mills, a famous Lakota "warrior", Google Billy Mills and watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnFla7g84PU
Every year, probably since I went to high school in Pine Ridge there are hundreds of churgh-goers who come to Pine Ridge to paint a church or paint something or other. All the while the able-bodied Lakota young men and women stand, sit or drive by and watch the work in progress. Pine Ridge hasn't changed much in the last 40 years. White Clay, Nebraska a couple miles south still sells more beer than TNDeerers could drink in a lifetime. Here, check this out for some background on alcohol on the rez:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2BwAjKRX3I
When you arrive on the rez, nothing will be new to Pine Ridgers. This crisis has been decades in the making. you will encounter a people trained to docility and living on the bureaucratic nipple for generations. It is not a sign of government generousity or trust responsibility, it is a governmental failure to generations of Natives. It hurts to turn my back on fellow Natives , but trying to shake people out of their self-inflicted denial is getting rather old. Don't feel sorry for Pine Ridge. Challenge them, confront them, don't bring labor, bring paint. Reservation life sucks because it breeds dependence and despair.
For me, It all began back in the 1980’s. I was a salesman for the now-defunct firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert in LaJolla, CA. Not exactly the village on earth that anyone would have expected a kid who grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to land. Being privy to the dealings of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, both in their daily moves in the government bond market and what they were trying to do in “farming” out tribal assets to investment managers at Security Pacific Bank (now Bank of America) was hard to swallow. It wasn’t pretty then, it still isn’t today.
In 1994 I put together a business plan to start an investment management firm, Chippewa Partners, Native American Advisors, Inc. (www.chippewapartners.com) Today, as a fiduciary Registered Investment Advisor, half of our clients are Native American and located all across North American and into Alaska. Starting out it wasn’t easy. Communication was and is, often difficult in Indian Country. Tribal leadership wasn’t adept at understanding the business principles needed to keep Wall Street brokers from lining their pockets with tribal money. Cell phones were not common, getting phone calls returned was rare, and getting tribal leadership to understand that diversification of tribal assets was more than just slot machines and bingo parlors although those profits were not to be dismissed. Although not a writer by design or by training I know that I use a different part of my brain when I write. I enjoy writing. I find it good for me and for what I do. Keeping a daily trading journal is a big part of my success and something I will continue to do as long as I’m actively trading the markets. Now, the internet is a great invention, probably as important as the wheel. My writings are my opinions and no one else’s and they allow the world and clients to see my thinking. I have had some great feedback on what I say, and of course, as is so typical in Indian Country, no shortage of name-calling and uncivil discourse directed my way. That comes with the territory of calling the kettle black and calling it as I alone see it.
One of the problems inherent in Indian Country is the idea that whatever works for the success and improvement of the tribe should be an original idea. I say use the internet and copy whatever works, from whatever tribe, from whatever color of people. Indian America’s problems are not indigenous just to America, trust me. For years and years, tribes have spent millions upon millions trying to reinvent the wheel and send tribal employees to conferences and training sessions, workshops and seminars. I don’t know the return on investment of all those tribal employees gaining travel time but frankly, the internet is and can be the great equalizer.
One of my early heroes’s understanding the power of the press was the late Bill Lawrence, owner/publisher of the Native American Press. His determination and attitude to run an off-reservation tribal newspaper was refreshing. It took the tribal councils party line and put it up for inspection. It asked the right questions and framed the story for the benefit of all tribal members not just those at the top of the tribal power trip.
The internet has the ability to effect tremendous change in Indian Country. From delivery of investment advice to communication, from tribal political campaigns to educational opportunities. An internet connection and using GOOGLE are probably enough to start any business venture in Indian Country. You can get any question answered and there are a billion answers to what may help cure the ills in Indian Country. Whether looking up diabetes, gambling addiction, housing issues, tribal sovereignty, revamping a tribal constitution, it is all there. Today, in the comfort of your own chair it can be done. All Indian America has to do is ask the right questions and be ready to respond with action. Really, it is just about doing the work. Every day.
Native Americans in Pine Ridge need to look in the mirror and go to work. God Bless you for going but do them a favor. Don't go.
Doing "their" work is simply enabling. And they have been enabled for generations.
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#2416299 - 06/13/11 12:59 PM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: Nimrod777]
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MUP
Non-Typical
Registered: 08/01/07
Posts: 36085
Loc: Just North of Chatt-town
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Awesome Keith! Prayers for a safe and successful trip bud!
_________________________
MUP
Amateurs: Built the Ark
Professionals: Built the Titanic
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#2416325 - 06/13/11 01:23 PM
Re: Mission Trip to Dakota!
[Re: MUP]
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Nimrod777
18 Point
Registered: 09/28/03
Posts: 23178
Loc: Spring Hill, TN
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Well said, Chippewa, and well heard. Even though I am a greenhorn at working with mission trips targetting Native American people groups, it only takes a few days to start to suspect the exact things you revealed from personal knowledge. When the people are allowed to basically do nothing and get by on it, then there is a distinct lack of motivation to do anything at all.
Our trip is not built around providing labor and construction and materials. In fact, very little of our week will be spent doing anything but loving on the kids and trying to teach them about God.
I really appreciate hearing your take on things. It's a rare opportunity!
_________________________
Some hunt for racks, some hunt for roasts. I hunt for sheer joy; the aforementioned items are merely fringe benefits.
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