Native report | exploring south dakota | season 19 | episode 3

- Boozhoo, I'm Rita Karpinnen, your host for "Native Report," a series that highlights indigenous voices from across Indian country. On this episode of "Native

Report," we travel to the Black Hills of South Dakota to learn about a historical site making history and we shed light on what kind of community-led resources are available on Pine

Ridge Reservation. Plus, we learn what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders. All this and more coming up on "Native Report." - [Announcer] Production for

"Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, and viewers like you. (bright music) (bright

music continues) - Tucked in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a physical representation of the rich history of the Lakota people. The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest

mountain carving and is considered the eighth wonder of the world in progress. But Crazy Horse Memorial is much more than a carving. It is now a place where the indigenous community can come

together to celebrate, remember, and even learn. The "Native Report" team got to speak with the first indigenous CEO to learn his plans on continuing the legacy. (bright music) -

[Announcer] And now Crazy Horse Memorial proudly celebrates history and dreams with Legends in Light. (bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - In 1877, Crazy Horse

goes to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, for what he thinks are peace talks. As soon as he gets there, he figures out pretty quick he'd been lied to and misled again. He was there to be

incarcerated. He resists incarceration and he was stabbed to death. Right before he was stabbed to death, heckler's in the crowd yelled out, "Hey, Crazy Horse, where are your

people's lands now?" He simply points to the Black Hills and he says quietly, "Our people's lands are where our dead lie buried." That's the moment that

inspired what you're looking at. - Chief Henry Standing Bear is a first cousin of Crazy Horse, ThasuKke Witko, and Chief Henry Standing Bear saw and realized that what Crazy Horse

accomplished by protecting the women and children and the tribe from General George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry, that he was a great hero. And so Chief Henry Standing Bear wanted to

honor Crazy Horse, but, also, he also realized that by having a mountain carving near where Mount Rushmore is here in the Black Hills that into the future, people will never forget Native

American cultures and traditions. He then wrote a letter to Korczak Ziolkowski asking him to come carve a mountain. My name is Whitney Rencountre II. I come from the Crow Creek Hunkpati

Dakota Nation right here in Central South Dakota, and I'm the chief executive officer of Crazy Horse Memorial. When Chief Henry Standing Bear and Korczak Ziolkowski and Ruth Ziolkowski,

the founders of Crazy Horse Memorial, early on when they started, they had their eye on the big picture, which this is a humanitarian project that was bigger than any founders, family,

community, that they created Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation a few years after the first blast here at Crazy Horse. There was not a lot of resources except for this vision. So they had to

really go through a difficult process in the early days because no one believed that this could actually transpire. (bright music) - I get asked a lot about funding. I want you to know it

was decided ages ago that this would be built by the people for the people. The government's tried to give us $10 million four different times. We always say, "No, thank you."

This is built by the people for the people, and that's just the way it will always be. (bright music continues) - [Whitney] So the mission of Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is to

protect and preserve the culture, tradition, and living heritage of the North American Indians. And we have over 600 tribes across the nation that exist and we've developed a reputation

of a safe place to protect and preserve the artifacts and also to display the beautiful art that exists. As people are attracted here from all over the world when they arrive, we have over

11,000 artifacts in our museum, the Indian Museum of North America, and people can learn and be inspired to learn more because we know that there's so many tribes and so many traditions

that it's gonna take a lifetime to try to learn about all of them, however, at least to be inspired is a start. (gentle music) Another aspect is through our living heritage part of our

mission is we have singers, dancers, artists, musicians, from all across the tribes that exist in North America. - [Guide] Now, in 2011, Ruth created the Indian University in North America

two miles south of us. - The university's, the first classes were in 2010, and it's a summer program called the 7TH GEN Summer University Program and we currently partner with

Black Hill State University, who allow the students to attain 12 college credits while attending our summer program. And then we have a fall program in partnership with South Dakota State

University and those students that attend the fall program earn 15 college credits. It's like a study abroad. They're already enrolled in an institution, a college across the

university, across the nation, but they come to our fall program for a study abroad type of semester where they'll earn 15 college credits and a certificate in leadership and

sustainability. The thing about our university program is it's not just a summer program and a fall program. The students actually, we coach and mentor them all the way until they

finish their degrees. So that is a huge part of our mission, is to really promote Native Americans students in higher education. When you combine all of the functions of our organization, we

feel like it continues to advance our mission and it helps inspire people to want to learn more after they visit Crazy Horse Memorial. (bright music) We meet them where they are. We're

not gonna tell them what to think or what to believe. We just feel like we want to create a place, a safe place, that will inspire and want people to do better. - The story behind creating

the Crazy Horse Memorial and the work being done to continue the vision is intricate and worth spending even more time looking into. If you'd like to learn more or begin planning your

visit, please check out their website, crazyhorsememorial.org. (bright music) - Low-dose CT lung screening or LDCT screening is to screen for lung cancer in people who are at high risk and

who don't have any symptoms. If detected at an early stage, the chances for cure are higher. By the time signs and symptoms develop, lung cancer is usually too far advanced to cure.

Studies show LDCT screening reduces the risk of dying from lung cancer. There are specific criteria for screening for lung cancer. Usually screening is reserved for older adults who are at

greatest risk. It is generally offered to smokers aged 50 and older and for heavy smokers with at least a 20-pack-year smoking history. This is how many packs of cigarettes per day times the

number of years. This means one pack per day for 20 years, two packs per day for 10 years, or any combination that equals 20 pack-years. Current smokers or those who have still smoked in

the last 15 years are at higher risk for developing lung cancer. If someone has serious health problems or has poor lung function, they may not benefit from lung cancer screening and may be

more likely to experience complications from follow-up tests and possible surgery. For the scan itself, you'll lay on a long table that will slide into the CT scanner. The table passes

through the machine initially to determine the starting point of the scan. You may be asked to hold your breath to get a clear picture of your lungs. The scan itself is quick and takes less

than a minute. A radiologist will look at the images and send a report to your healthcare provider. LDCT screening is usually done annually and until the point at which you're unlikely

to benefit from screening. This includes worsening health conditions that make you too frail to undergo lung cancer treatment. Talk to your healthcare provider about lung cancer screening if

you're aged 50 and older and if you're a heavy smoker or have a history of heavy smoking. If you don't fit those criteria, we can help you quit smoking. It's why

we're here. And remember to call an elder. They've been waiting for your call. I'm Dr. Arne Vainio and this is "Health Matters." (bright music) - We now take you to

the Badlands of South Dakota, all the way to the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Lakota people. Many only know of Pine Ridge as the poorest reservation in the United States with a

staggering unemployment rate of 90% and median household income of $25,000. But the Pine Ridge community is more than just statistics and poverty. The "Native Report" team got an

inside look at what life is like on the reservation and what kind of work is being done in partnership with the Pine Ridge community to better serve those who call it home. Friend of show

Julius Not Afraid shows us around the reservation and shares more about the organization One Spirit. (gentle music) (bright music) - So a little bit of itinerary of what we got going on

today. We will be traveling some miles and our destination to and from, whether it's here at Bamm Brewer's meathouse, Charging Buffalo, to Okini Market. I want to say that's

approximately 40 miles, 30 miles past that is the Allen Youth Center and then back to Wounded Knee is another 50 miles. So we're here in the Slim Buttes community on the Pine Ridge

Indian Reservation. We are now about to enter the Charging Buffalo Meathouse. This is Mr. Bamm Brewer and Company. Wonderful, wonderful place we have established underneath the One Spirit

program. Looks like we have a packed house here. Wonderful. - One Spirit is a 501c3, which is a charitable organization recognized by the federal government and by the tribal government here

on the reservation as a organization that's founded to support the efforts of the Native Americans to take care of their people in the best way that they feel is right for who they

are. Well, first of all, you know, when we first founded One Spirit, I had been working with a medicine man on the Mattaponi Reservation in Virginia, and he told me about conditions on Pine

Ridge. So I met with Lakota people and one of the things they first said to me was, you know, "We need a food program. We need food here. It's known as a food desert and we need

something here." There's a lot of problems here because of the food, lack of food, lack of nutritious food, a lot of health problems, and a lot of diet-related health problems like

diabetes is rampant, those kind of things. So our first job was to try to provide, and to provide nutritious food to the people. And most importantly, we wanted somehow to get to the point

of providing buffalo meat. And then when we went to looking at how we could be self-sufficient, we ended up thinking about the buffalo house. And that came because Bamm Charles Brewer was

working with us distributing food and he talked about having buffalo meat for the people, and they had gotten away from that, but the feeling was that that was part of the diet that helped

them be as healthy as they had been traditionally. - So our family raises buffalo. We've been doing it for over 20 years. I pretty much lost count of how many years we've been

doing it, but we approach it in a kind of a traditional way. We let them live off the land. I look at them all as my relative, my brother, and we take care of them and we just enjoy

returning my family to the buffalo way. Now that we got a place to process buffalo and other wild games, what I discovered was that some of our people don't eat it no more. That's

how far away from our culture we've come. So now we've kind of, we're trying to even do things as far as cooking it to bring it back. When this building was built, it kind of

mended a sacred circle of the buffalo's life. To me, that's the part that comes from the heart there. That's the main reason, what we need it to fix. - So our job is to also

bring something that's within their culture. Not to bring a factory and set it up on the reservation, but to bring the buffalo house and distribute buffalo meat, you know, not only to

the people here, but when we reach USDA inspection, which is next year, that we can distribute it across the US in different states. But, you know, in addition to that, you've gotta

contribute to the economy, right? And people need jobs and they need to be able to, they need to have something to do and something they're proud of. So we started the Okini Market.

Okini is a Lakota word that means sharing material wealth. And so we started out first with a list of people. We had people who worked with us who other people on the reservation could call

and say, "Look, I don't have, my child needs a coat," or "My child needs shoes," or "Could I get a blanket," or "Could I get something that I need in

the house?" Those kind of things. And so we put them on a list, what we call the okini list. And we had wonderful donors who looked at that list and said, "Oh, I can buy

this," and they bought it and they sent it to the family. As with food, it got to the point where we realized that, yeah, but they're not picking out their own. You know, it's

nice they get what they need, but they're not choosing, right? Their child doesn't get to choose their coat or their shoes, you know? And I'm sure your viewers know that if

you try to put shoes or a coat on a child who doesn't like it, you're gonna hear about it. But here, no, because it's very cold and the kids are gonna be happy that

they're warm. But we didn't want them just to be able to be warm. We wanted them to be able to choose, to have the choice that all of us have, that we can go to a store and we

could find what we want. - A lot of our people don't have reliable transportation or they live on a fixed income. And so here at the Okini Market, we are, like I said, centrally

located, and we're not an hour away like some other places are, an hour and a half away. To get from one side of the reservation to the other is about two and a half hours, almost three

hours, depending on how fast you drive (chuckles). But so it's a large reservation and there isn't too much in between. And I wanna say like 90 to 95% of our products here are

below $10. I mean, that's like the outfits we have up. You can get all of it for less than, I think, $15, less than $10. So everything is really affordable. We do offer some free stuff

when we get some stuff in, like I told Jeri right off that I refuse to sell food, our Pampers, our toiletry, our cleaning items. Those are basic necessities that everyone should have and if

we can get them and provide them to people, we're gonna do that. We're not gonna charge for that. What we want to do is just be self-sustaining. We wanna be able to supply needed

necessities to our people and still be able to pay the rent, pay the lights, get propane, and then make sure that our employees have an income as well. So we're not looking to make

money. And that's why the stuff, we sell it at a very, very affordable price. They usually contact Jeri. She's the contact information on the website and they can either email her

and ask, "What is it that you need?" And she'll get ahold of me and once I go through the shelves or go through boxes and say, "Oh, we need more kitchen supplies, more

pots and pans, more home furnishing, stuff like that," then I can let her know. And then once they do that, we have the, either people can just ship it to us at our address here or they

can do the Give Back Box labels to where shipping is paid for them. (upbeat music) - So the other thing, though, that's most concerning here is the youth. And there are various things

about this. Look, as we know, there's addictions. There's addiction in parents, and when parents have addictions, children suffer, right? Parents suffer too, but so do the children

and the community and everybody around them. So in 2015, we opened the youth center here. We gave them the resources, they built it, and they opened up a youth center. And really what a

youth center is here is providing food, love, love and care, right, for the kids. They can come in, they can play, they can eat, they can have people, adult people, like other people around

them who are going to be supportive of them, who could help them with school work, who could do whatever these kids need. And they can get them places to do things that sort of broaden their

horizon. - I'm Ogalala Lakota from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and I reside in the Medicine Root District. My everyday role with One Spirit, it is never the same, but it's

always with the intent of helping others and helping people with resources and getting the help that they need with whatever it may be that day. It could be food. It may be supplies. It may

be pointing them in the direction of getting necessities, toiletries, clothes. And I am that person to help them get that right away. I am also a go-to person for donors if they have those

quick questions and want to know information about our reservation. I was just interested in what this program had to offer just because of the community relationship and I knew it could

still be with kids, it could still be with the community, it could be with elders. And I really found a passion for elders, like going out and visiting them. And they live out way in the

country, I go and I make time to go sit with them, go have coffee with them, and just hear their story. So I really have like a soft place in my heart to know their story and, you know, why

they still choose to live very humbly, because I find humble grandparents and it's so warming to know that they could just live so grateful for what they have and they share what they

have, and they might not have much, but they're so willing to share. - Barbara High Pine is an elder who was living in very difficult situations at her house and her roof had caved in.

Barbara's not the only person here under those circumstances. There are many like Barbara. And housing on the reservation is very scarce. One of the things I need to say is that housing

here, there often are families who live 10 people in a three-bedroom house because there's not enough housing here for them, right? So it's not like we could say, "Oh,

let's just go find Barbara another house." Because of our affiliation with the people from Amish country that you've been meeting and the partnership that we formed with

people, not only individuals and companies, but with organizations from all over, we were able to say, "Okay, let's get her a house to live in 'cause she can't live like

that anymore." - And I'm so grateful that Jeri decided to help me. Last year, we had a bad cold, cold winter and our water pipes busted and so we were homeless for a while, my

nephew and I, and we stayed from relative to relative. But last year, I almost froze (chuckles) because of the ice storm and all my animals perished. We came home and we've been waiting

for this to happen. I'm glad my dreams have come to a reality and that this winter, I'll be warm and happy. - The house is now being built. I think it's being finished today.

And we're gonna see the finishing touches on that house and see her when she gets to go into her house, in her new place. - Convection oven, microwave that'll sit in here.

We've got a table for you. We got a lift chair. And we're gonna be working on a refrigerator and stove for you. So this is one bedroom and (Julius singing in indigenous language)

the second bedroom. - Very good. Nice. (Julius singing in indigenous language) (Julius singing in indigenous language) (Julius singing in indigenous language) - She made it possible. -

[Builder] Yes, she did. (Jeri speaks indistinctly) - You bless me more than I can- - You bless us all. You bless us all, Barbara. - It's a huge resource to everybody. We lack in so many

aspects where One Spirit is there to, well, shoot, One Spirit is here for me to remember, like, we can do things. But One Spirit and Jeri Baker has this mindset is if you see it, do it. You

can do it. - During our team's visit to Pine Ridge, one thing was made clear. One Spirit strives to help the Lakota people achieve happier, healthier lives, which reflects how

remarkable and unique their history and culture is. If you would like to help One Spirit fulfill their vision of self-sufficient and independent future, you can visit the One Spirit website,

onespiritlakota.org. If you missed a show or wanna catch up online, find us at nativereport.org, and don't forget to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for behind the scene

updates. Drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show. Thanks for spending time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian country. I'm Rita Karppinen. We'll see

you next time on "Native Report." (bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music)