by Robyn Douglas ·
Friday, September 27, 2024
This past summer, five Harvard moms and their daughters took a trip to the “poorest community in America,” the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to volunteer at Re-Member. An independent nonprofit, Re-Member welcomes volunteer groups for one-week stays to complete projects that improve daily living and to learn the culture of the Lakota Nation.
The trip started as a project for our Girl Scout troop. As the most senior Girl Scouts in town, we’ve done lots of community service in Harvard and surrounding areas, but we’ve always wanted to expand to help a community outside of our own. Last November, one of our leaders, Katy O’Leary, told us about the Re-Member program, and after some research, we decided it was perfect. It met our goals as we would be both serving and learning. It felt like one day we were booking tickets, and the next it was time for our flight.
As we drove from the Denver airport to the reservation, I looked out at the landscape; the flat, grassy plains were so different from the forested hills we call home. I looked over to my mom, who was singing along to the country music on the radio, and I smiled, already knowing this was going to be an unforgettable trip.
A group of Harvard Girl Scouts and their leaders who volunteered at Re-Member pose in Colorado before heading to South Dakota. Front row, from left: Mary Arata, Vicki Smith, and Katy O’Leary. Back row, from left: Eve Douglas, Lucy Feltz, Meaghan Arata, Holly Senykoff, Savannah Senykoff, Amanda Smith, and Robyn Douglas. (Courtesy photos)
We were part of 40 volunteers staying at the Re-Member facility for a week. I never thought I would ever share a bunk bed with my mom, but there I was. Re-Member is run mostly by volunteers from around the country, though there are construction advisors and guest speakers who are members of the reservation. Part of the time we were doing physical jobs, and part of the time we were learning about Lakota Nation history and culture from members of the reservation. The latter included playing traditional games, listening to live music, shopping for handmade jewelry, and hearing stories of the past and current reservation life.
Pine Ridge is called the “poorest community,” but what does that mean for the people who live there? Nick, a Re-Member leader, explained that resources are minimal. The reservation is approximately the size of Connecticut, but there are only four ambulances. Also, it’s a long, expensive process for fresh food to be shipped in, so food costs a lot of money while being of a lesser quality. As a result, people have to buy cheaper, less healthful food, and this leads to health problems. The reservation has the lowest life expectancy of any community in the United States. Overall, the quality of life is poor.
Amanda Smith (right) holds a piece of wood for Robyn Douglas as she cuts it for the trailer skirt.(Courtesy photos)
However, we would discover it’s no wonder the reservation is like this. Members of the reservation told us about the history of the Lakota people and how colonizers have robbed, hurt, destroyed, and abandoned this community. Dakota High Hawk recounted the history of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where U.S. Army troops slaughtered hundreds of Lakota natives. My friends and I had never heard of this, and we’re appalled it was never mentioned in our years of history class. For years, the government and history books called this the Battle of Wounded Knee, a quick win for the U.S. government. We visited the site, and we saw that the sign there had recently been changed to say “massacre” rather than “battle.” This is a good step forward, but there are still many distortions of what really happened between the government and Indigenous people.
That’s why Re-Member was created—a hope and desire to help right an unforgivable wrong. Depending on the day and the group, volunteers could end up building ramps, stairs, beds, or outhouses, all to provide a safer and more dignified way of life. Ramps are especially needed, due to the high number of diabetes-induced amputations. On my first day I skirted trailers. No, this does not include giving a trailer a cute outfit; it’s building a wood barrier between the trailer and the ground to provide insulation. Re-Member has also started a garden. All of these improvements are given without charge to the residents who ask for them.
There was a learning curve when it came to how to build things. After all, I had never even held a drill before this trip. But all the Re-Member leaders were kind and patient, guiding everyone through the tasks.
Some volunteers even got to meet the recipients. Meaghan Arata, one of the Harvard volunteers, recounted her visit delivering a bed. When they dropped off the beds, she got to meet the three kids who were receiving them. Before they left, one little girl gave her a sticker of Elsa from “Frozen” and a can of fruit punch as a gift. Meaghan said, “It felt incredibly fulfilling to build something with my own hands, then watch it make a huge difference.”
During our stay on the reservation, we met many of the people who live on “the rez,” whether they were recipients, speakers, craft vendors, or simply someone we ran into at the store. Almost everyone we talked to has lost at least one family member. Hearing their stories put our privileged lives into perspective. For us volunteers, we stay for a week and then go back to our comfortable, safe homes. The people on the reservation have to live there.
Overall, the experience was eye-opening. It’s honestly crazy to me I had never heard of this community and its history until last year. Also, while the Lakota residents of Pine Ridge Reservation have endured so much hardship, they have an inspiring hope. They are working hard to reconnect with lost traditional values, improve the community, support their families, and so much more. Their kindness, patience, resilience, and bravery remind all of us that “Mitakuye Oyasin”: We are all related.