Funny quick story... After about four days in the house, I found another leak! So, thankfully this one is small enough where I can still live in the house. The plumber is coming tomorrow. Heh. Seriously though, this is my little house on the prairie. It sits on the outskirt of Dupree and looks down onto the community. I love it and Atlas loves the backyard. I found out that that is a Vicious Dog Ban here on the Rez for Pitbulls so Atlas will be staying in the backyard. No free running for him. That or I have to put him on a chain to walk him. Not a leash, but an actual chain. To me, that's a bit crazy because he's a small guy, but because he looks like a Pitbull, he needs to be on one... Oh well. Thank goodness for the backyard. He met a girl who works at the Y the other day. It was the first person he's seen besides me since we've lived here. He was SO excited. haha He didn't even bark or anything. Just jumped up and down a lot and ran around. She let him out for me on Saturday so I could go to the Black Hills Stock show and Rodeo. It was my first rodeo and let me tell you, it was pretty amazing! It is a top qualifying rodeo and one of the biggest events in South Dakota (besides the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally).
While talking with my boss the other day, she was talking about how Lakota's are very spiritual and love to tell ghost stories (awesome!). Somehow she brought up the fact that Owls are considered a very scary animal within the Lakota culture and history. I have done a little bit of digging on the internet and have come to determine that the owl is both feared and embraced by the Lakota's. The owl is an important animal when talking about the medicine men. The medicine men used the owl as a source of healing and thought it to be very powerful. Like all good in the world, we only know things to be good because we know the bad as well. This goes with the powerful owls and medicine men. Within many tribes there are also those medicine men and women who go bad or are thought of as witches. They use the owl to cast spells and death upon members on the tribe. Owls are nocturnal and for the most part do their hunting at night. It was said that the witches of the tribe would either turn into or use the owl to spy on members of the tribe or to bring the bad upon them. This is how many Lakota's have become afraid of the owl.Coincidentally, I have about four glass owls sitting inside my house right now. :) I'll keep you all updated as to whether or not anyone asks about them.
I am reading a really interesting book called Land of the Spotted Eagle. It was written by Luther Standing Bear in the early 1930's. Within the book, he speaks about the misconceived thoughts and lies that have been presented on the Lakota Indians. Within the book he speaks about what it was like growing up and all of the traditional parts of their culture that are no more. There are many things that I have put together as far as traditional Lakota and modern day Lakota, such as the speaking loudly thing I had mentioned in a prior post. Many Lakota's do not speak loudly and this is because traditionally, it was looked down upon. Especially while courting. The women rarely spoke and the men when courting a woman would speak very softly if at all. There are many things that Lakota's still do today that are a part of their history and traditions and as my boss said once, they most likely don't know why they do some or most of the things they do, but it actually does go back to their traditions. It's sad that many Lakota's are not as in touch with those traditions as their grandmothers or grandfathers once were. I'm hoping to really focus on bringing traditional activities to the children while I'm out here. It's an interesting matter because I don't want to overstep any unsaid barriers that may be out there as far as a white girl going and trying to bring those things to the kids. From what I understand, many of the elders are very much accepting of it and I feel with me really understanding I don't want to step on anyone feet, I'll be successful at doing it.
I was speaking with my boss on our way back from the rodeo about how I think it's great that there is so much history and traditions that the Lakota's have and how I wished I knew more about my heritage. I told her about how I went online and searched one summer and followed it back to being Irish on my mom's side of the family and Cherokee on my dad's side (which is actually true, I found our relative's name on the Dawe's Rolls). She laughed and went on to tell me that "being Cherokee" is kind of a joke within Indian culture. She said that everyone says they are Cherokee and that is how many white people try to connect to the native cultures. Shit. Was all I could think. She went on to say that even if you are Cherokee, keep it to yourself. I may dig up some more information on that as well... haha.
As far as the job goes, I'm just plugging away at it all. I am still in need of some male counselors. We are getting two counselors from Brazil, so that should be interesting. This next week, I believe I am going with my boss (Carol) to Whitehorse which is a small community out here on the Rez. I am also working on a possible Grant for $20,000 for healthy food and physical activity for our kids in our after-school programs and hopefully camp as well. The kids are def. getting used to having me around and are starting to open up a bit which is awesome.
Although, I'm by myself for a large chunk of my time out here, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I have actually really enjoyed living by myself (with Atlas). It's not that I wouldn't like a roommate, because roommates are great when they are in fact, great people, but having time to myself where I can just be... It's nice. I don't have to worry or spend my time thinking about what I'm doing with my life or what job I'm going to try to get or do because I have it! I was also thinking about my time in college and how I switched from Nursing to Education, to Early Childhood Development and then went and worked at my first camp. Spending that time out at Camp Sugar Pine and getting in all of those interesting experiences and REALLY learning about risk management shaped me into the person I am today. I knew then that I wanted to be a Camp Director and five years late, here I am. Hard work and Dedication. Not to brag or anything, but I made it. I did it. I did what I set out to do and here I am. Ask me how I enjoy it when Camp is in session and we'll see what my thoughts are on it then. :)
Love and miss you all!
-Court
No comments:
Post a Comment