Building camaraderie between the two groups

Sunday January 16, 2011

During homily time at church, I was preaching about how to combat the violence in our world and communities. While addressing the subject of the Arizona shootings, I asked how many of our students have had a family member shot in an act of violence. About 25 hands went up. It’s a sad reality in many of our communities. Tragedies are a topic that our counselors are well aware of when trying to heal the emotional hurts that some of our students bring.

After church, I stopped in on Matthias Home (6^th-8^th grade girls). Most of the girls were using the time before lunch for their required reading and journalism time, so I let them be quiet and talked more with the houseparents. During lunch Marlena wondered, “What do you do all day – pray?” During the school day the students may only see me pop into the classrooms for a few minutes, and they were wondering also. I told them a few of the things I do, and as always, ask them for suggestions how to make St. Joseph’s Indian School a better place. Usually, they hope for less homework or more allowance, but occasionally I get some good ideas to work on.

Today was the first weekend for our girls intercity league. Four teams of junior high girls, half from St. Joseph’s Indian School and half from town, started their weekly games meant to build camaraderie between the two groups.

Fr. Anthony treated Fr. Dominic and me to supper at a local restaurant. Our waitress was none other than D’Kera, one of our high school students! Several of our older kids are able to juggle school and work to earn spending money for now, and save some for the future. When they do get checks they are required to put some into savings. D’Kera did a fine job serving our table, and since her shift was ending, besides a tip we gave her a ride home and saved the houseparents a trip!

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. View all posts by St. Joseph's Indian School