Author: St. Joseph's Indian School

At St. Joseph's Indian School, our privately-funded programs for Lakota (Sioux) children in need have evolved over 90 years of family partnership, experience and education. Because of generous friends who share tax-deductible donations, Native American youth receive a safe, stable home life; individual counseling and guidance; carefully planned curriculum based on Lakota culture and individual student needs and tools to help build confidence, boost self-esteem and improve cultural awareness. All of this helps children to live a bright, productive, possibility-filled future.

Only two weeks away

As I reflect back upon the 2011-2012 school year, it is difficult for me to believe the end of the school year is only two weeks away. It does not seem as though we have already gone through 38 weeks of school!

I know many of the students are counting down the days until their summer vacation arrives however, as a classroom teacher, I get a little down around this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my summer vacation just as much as the students, but I also miss the kids and wonder how they are all doing at their homes. I sometimes come out to St. Joseph’s campus during the summer and think to myself,

“Wow, it sure is boring here without all the students running around and chatting.”

Eighth-grade graduation is upon us. Some of our students will be attending our high school program, while other students have made alternative plans for their future. It is a time of excitement and pride, but also anxiety for both staff and students. As staff, we have known some of these students since they were in first grade. We have developed relationships, shared stories, shared laughter, had disagreements over rules or assignments, and sometimes even listened through our students’ tears.

Regardless of what our students have gone through in their lives, they can look back on their time at St. Joseph’s and realize they have grown, whether it be physically, emotionally, or simply that they are graduating from eighth grade. They have had many accomplishments; they have formed many bonds, both with adults and their classmates that will continue no matter where they choose to go in their lives. They should be proud of themselves, for they have made it. It may have been difficult, but they have fulfilled the requirements for their first eight years of schooling.

On May 25, there will be a chapel full of people watching as each student is handed their diploma and shares their favorite memories of being a student at St. Joseph’s. As I look forward to that day, I can’t help but smile. For I, too, have a feeling of accomplishment. I was given the wonderful opportunity of being a part of these students’ lives and I have helped them grow. I can only hope I’ve done my best because more than anything these children deserve the absolute best, as they are our future. The smiles on the graduates faces as they receive their diplomas is my motivation to continue on with my work here at St. Joseph’s, as I can see by both the piece of paper in their hands and the twinkles in their eyes that I have made a difference.

This difference would not be possible without the donations from our many generous benefactors. I want to take the time to thank you for your generosity and kindness over the 2011-2012 school year. Without you, none of this would be possible.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Pilgrimage to Rome

In Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel, we have a prominent stained glass window of Kateri Tekakwitha from the Mohawk and Algonquin tribes who lived near Auriesville, New York. On October 21, Blessed Kateri will become the first member of a North American tribe to be canonized and made an official saint in the Catholic Church. Bishop Paul Swain of Sioux Falls gave this exciting news to two Native American Deacons with St. Joseph’s connections. Deacon Bud Jetty (Spirit Lake tribe) is a member of our Board of Directors. Deacon Steve McLaughlin (Standing Rock Sioux) works with the SCJs on the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Indian Reservations ministering to the pastoral needs of the people there. Bishop Swain told the two excited men the diocese would sponsor them on a pilgrimage to Rome being organized by the Rapid City Diocese and the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions so they can participate in this landmark ceremony.

I also heard that Fr. Tom Westhoven, SCJ, plans to be there as well. For many years, Fr. Tom was St. Joseph’s Director of Development. Now retired, but still very active, he has been asked to chaperone a pilgrimage for the same exciting event being organized on the East Coast. His group will leave October 19. For anyone who might be interested, information on that trip is available by emailing bettybuteratravel@yahoo.com.

Circle of Courage: belonging, independence, mastery and generosity

A group of 14 college students and faculty members from Penn State New Kensington visited our area. With a grant from Rotary International, they gifted and installed new computers for the Cheyenne River Indian Outreach (also known as the Sacred Heart Center) in Eagle Butte. They spent the day on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus here learning about our programs and interacting with students. This evening all our high school students gathered in the dining hall, with our visitors interspersed throughout the tables to talk about college life and encourage our kids to consider pursuing higher education. One young woman spoke about what it was like to be the first in her family to attend college, which many here could identify with.

Our 1^st – 4^th graders engaged in a Battle of the Books via telephone conference with our two sister schools in Mississippi. Each class read five books and the students were quizzed on the contents. All the battles were close, with about 85% correct answers. Even those who were not perfect still came out ahead by the very fact they read the books, processed, remembered and advanced their critical thinking abilities.

We are working with a group called Child Trends to gauge our student achievements during their time with us at St. Joseph. Two researchers were on campus to hold focus groups with different age groups. Several families have also been interviewed. We aim at instilling the values from the Circle of Courage – belonging, independence, mastery and generosity. We want to help students mature in life skills as well, which goes beyond the standardized testing we can measure in the classroom. Child Trends is helping us find ways to measure if we are able to actually help students grow in those areas of values. I’m very interested in reviewing their findings.

New recipes and new ideas

Houseparents work for a six day shift and then get three days off, which gives them personal time to recharge their batteries and keeps them fresh over the long haul. Every three days, a third of our houseparents start a break and a fresh group takes over. Each home has one set of six day houseparents, and two homes share a set of three-day houseparents. Changeover days like today, are one occasion when all of the houseparents are here at the same time, and have a chance to exchange information about the students in the homes. It’s also a day when we can do staff training once in a while.

As the school year winds down, today’s changeover featured a fun gathering – a healthy recipe exchange. About a dozen staff created platters of healthy snacks they’ve found the students in their homes enjoy. Everyone could sample them for themselves, and pick up recipes and new ideas. I enjoyed the time to wander and chat, as people start to make their end of the school year summer plans. When the votes were tabulated, Wanda from the Stevens Home (6^th – 8^th grade girls) was awarded Best Tasting, Daniel from the Matthias Home (6^th – 8^th grade girls) was proclaimed Most Creative and Theresa from Cyr Home (4^th-5^th grade boys) had the Most Student Involvement.

While stopping by the Akta Lakota Museum, I ran into Sally and Matt from Wisconsin. Their parish priest, Fr. Pat used to be our chaplain and recommended they visit. I had some time to show them around. Sally is the parish Director of Religious Education, so I made sure she got to hear from our Religious Education teacher. When we stopped in the Art room we got to see some beautiful creations. Bob Miller is our Artist in Residence for the week and he is working with our students to make art that glows fluorescently under black lights. Our students generally like art, but have gone at this work with a real passion. Some are using highlighters or paint, and the work definitely jumps out and make a favorable impression. After school, we stopped by the Afra Home (1^st-3^rd grade girls) where the students proudly showed our guests around the home before they hit the road with many memories.

Day trip for the William’s Home

It is hard to believe that the school year is coming to a close and our fifth graders will be moving on to new homes next year.

Some of our Native American girls standing at the zoo entrance. — The William’s Home had a great day trip!

The William Home has been busy. Last weekend we took a day trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit the Washington Pavillion and the Great Plains Zoo. The weather tried not to cooperate at first but by the time we were ready to get to the zoo it had cleared up for us.

The Pavillion is a very interesting and educational place and the girls are able to do a lot of hands on activities dealing with science. They really enjoyed getting into the tornado demonstrator where they were able to feel 78 mile per hour winds and their hair really told the true story.

The zoo is always a great experience and we spent a lot of time feeding the animals in the petting zoo area. We have had a great year with this group of fourth and fifth graders. Though it is always sad to say goodbye to our fifth graders, we are just as excited for the girls that will be moving up next year.

Summer preparation at St. Joseph’s Indian School

When I finished morning mass I ran into 2nd grader, Dorian on his way back from the Health Center. Dorian had bruised his forehead and was coming back with an ice pack. He smiled about the frozen gel pack with a colorful picture of Garfield the Cat on one side. I remember the old days when nursing our owies meant ice cubes wrapped up in a wash cloth. Our nurses have created a child friendly area to help the youngsters through life’s bumps and bruises. We work with the local hospital to provide a doctor or physician’s assistant each morning for checkups and to make sure our students’ health needs are addressed. If kids are too sick to go to school, they stay in the health center with our two school nurses. After school, evenings and weekends, our houseparents take charge, just as you would do with your own kids at home. With spring in full bloom and outdoor activity increasing, the health center is less about colds and coughs this time of year than it is about healing cuts and scrapes from the playground.

A couple of college students that have worked here in the past summers showed up today to begin another round of summer work. With colleges already letting out, our graduations are not far away at all. Our facilities crew has an ambitious summer schedule that includes finishing two home renovations and beginning another two, in addition to all the ongoing maintenance, painting, landscaping and preventative work that keeps St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus looking beautiful. The extra help is already hard at work.

As our 8th graders prepare for the transition to Chamberlain Public High School next year, two of the coaches from high school visited with our aspiring athletes to get to know them. Students had a chance to learn about expectations and practice schedules. Some are excited about the chance to play on a bigger stage, but most are nervous and wondering if they are up to the competition.

It will take dedication and lots of practice, but I know many of the kids do have it within them to succeed not just in sports, but in life.

Youth learning charitable giving

Yesterday morning a violent thunderstorm with grape and ping pong-sized hail roared through our area. I was with the SCJ community at morning prayer when it hit and you literally could not hear the words the others were praying because of the noise on the roof and against the building. A few screens got ripped up, but we didn’t have any broken windows. Flowers that had bloomed were smashed down and the trees on campus were pummeled, leaving a thick carpet of green leaves covering the road and playground.

The clearing storms gave way to a couple of festive activities. We have a “Big Sisters” program, in which our high school girls help mentor our younger girls in grades 1-5. They gathered for a picnic in back of the Crane (high school girls) Home. I got to be an “honorary” big sister to help with the relay races where students balanced a balloon between their foreheads and raced an obstacle course around the yard. After a cookout, Maija had a couple of piñatas hanging from the apple tree in the back yard, and the little girls put a blindfold on and swung away with a broomstick until candy and small toys rained on the ground for the group to dive into.

Students at the St. Joseph's Indian School dance. — The kids had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with each other!

We hosted a 6^th– 8^th grade dance in the school gym for both our St. Joseph’s students and kids from town. In lieu of an entry fee, we asked people to bring food items to donate to a local charity or make a freewill cash offering. Towards the end of the night we had a cheer contest to determine where the food and money collected at the door would go. I closed my eyes and listened carefully as three worthwhile charities were announced. The loudest cheer came for the Missouri River Crisis Center here in Chamberlain. They shelter victims of domestic violence, and I know that some of our own students have spent some time there. Together, students collected 132 food items and $42 from the door will go to help those in need. Proceeds from the concession stand were also contributed to the cause.

Doug, the DJ, took requests under one condition – if you asked for a song, you also had to get out and dance. That was a clever ploy to increase the number of dancers on the floor. A fair sized group danced in the middle of the floor, but far more youth were plastered against the wall, wanting to ask or be asked to dance, but too shy to do so. I noticed a few boyfriend/girlfriend pairs not dancing, but holding hands and walking around the gym. With our students interacting more regularly with Chamberlain youth, I noticed a little more interaction and friendships forming with each event.

Another program that helps our students interact with kids from the community has been the Explorers Club, which was a pilot program for St. Joseph’s this year. The Explorers Club teaches junior high boys about responsibility and giving back to the community. These young men were engaged in projects like shoveling snow and raking leaves for the elderly, and raising money for charities in town through car washes. They worked on the gentlemanly art of learning how to tie a tie and dress a little fancier once in a while. Today at mass Doug, the leader of the Explores Club, came to honor Adrian, William and Isaiah from our eighth grade class for the contributions they have made.

Cansas, Janis and Adrian presented Carol Riggins, director of the Missouri Valley Crisis Center, a check from the proceeds of the dance.

National Day of Prayer

For today’s National Day of Prayer, the Chamberlain ministerial association sponsored a community prayer gathering at one of the downtown churches. Representatives from local government, the public school system, the hospital, farmers and ranchers, and the Native American community spoke about issues close to their hearts. I talked about the concerns we at St. Joseph’s pray for, and asked the community to lift those issues up in their prayer as well.

I am thankful that because we are a faith-based organization, not only can we pray, but we do regularly pray – in the homes, in the classrooms and dining hall, and of course in Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel.

What I hear our Native American children praying most for is their family. Most of our students’ families face some big issues, and our students are all too well aware. About one-third of our students don’t live with either of their parents, so we pray for a strengthening of families in our world.

We also pray that, in the face of high drop out rates, our young people will stay in school and fulfill their potential. We pray they will avoid the scourges of drugs and alcohol that are so problematic in our country, but particularly in the communities our students come from.

From another perspective, we get many prayer requests from our donors when they send us a note along with their donation. The economy is such a huge issue right now. People are praying for better employment opportunities for themselves or a family member. We frequently hear from people when they are facing major health struggles or are grieving the death of a loved one. We try to include all those intentions in our prayers. I was heartened to be in such an ecumenical gathering where we could pray for each others’ needs and the needs of our bigger world.

Basketball crazy boys

Becky, who works in accounting and I went to Brule County Abstract this afternoon to close on a building downtown that we purchased and pick up the keys. The old grocery store on Main Street has been vacant for a couple of years and it will give us a lot of room to expand our thrift store.

Since it is just a block away from the post office, it will also make it easier to handle the boxes and packages that people send us each day. The building needs a good cleaning and then quite a bit of work, but our maintenance staff is up for the challenge. When we went to check inside the store we invited Chantelle, who manages the current thrift store to go with us. She and Becky have done a lot of work to get the plans and proposal ready and were as excited as two St. Joseph’s kids at the Christmas Store.

After shooting a few baskets with the Raphael Home (1^st – 3^rd grade boys) I joined them for supper. The boys are basketball crazy, especially with the NBA playoffs in full swing. I remember third grade as the time I got so excited about baseball and basketball cards. These boys are just at the age where all of a sudden sports becomes such a central part of their life. They vied for my attention to tell me about their favorite teams and players. They asked me all kinds of sports questions, like which stars I had actually seen play. When they asked about who was champion the most times, I turned on my cell phone and pulled up a list off the internet. Then they crowded around and learned some of the history of the sport, cheering each time their team was listed.

St. Joseph the Worker

May 1st is a day the church celebrates St. Joseph the Worker. Fr. Anthony lead a prayer service after school. He used a shortened version of evening vespers, and the left side/right side response pattern worked much better than I anticipated with our students. Their responses were loud and clear.

At the assembly, we presented the Leo John Dehon Circle of Courage Award for this school year. Staff nominate students each quarter for their efforts at Generosity, Independence, Mastery and Belonging. For the first time, we had a tie in the number of nominations, so we awarded both Alyssa (4^th grade) and Malaina (6^th) the honors. Besides getting their name inscribed on the plaque, they will have a special lunch at a restaurant downtown with Kathleen, our principal. Then, they get to choose a staff member whose job interests them and job shadow them for a day.

Melissa in HR had one of those milestone birthdays today, so her co-workers found an excuse to get her over to central offices where about 20 of us waited with hairbrushes in hand to lip sync “You say it’s your birthday…” She laughed mightily and then ice cream cake was shared by all.

Letters and donations to our development office slow down a bit as summer approaches, but spring is very busy, so we had our spring appreciation lunch to thank our folks for all their dedicated work. Summer is busy in different ways, as it allows us to clean up files, organize and update mailing lists. We’re switching over to a new software system soon, and lots of people are heavily into their training.

Houseparent Tia hails from Louisiana, and invited me to a special supper at the Carola Home (high school boys) to celebrate Louisiana’s bicentennial of statehood. She cooked a bevy of regional Cajun delicacies that our boys and their never-ending appetites scarfed down.

On a wonderful spring night, as I walked home I saw the fourth and fifth grades playing softball. I stopped and pitched a couple of innings. I’m pretty good at lobbing the ball right over the plate so they can get a good swing at it.