Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School!
The weather has gifted us with several sunny, beautiful fall days. This past weekend was an exciting time for the Chamberlain area.
On Saturday, I went to Sioux Falls to watch the State Cross Country races because Ella, a Chamberlain High School freshman and daughter of one of our grade school teachers, was a favorite in Class A and the Lower Brule boys’ team had great success in their Region to qualify for State. Ella dominated from the start and won by 20 seconds, becoming Chamberlain’s first girls’ cross country champion. The Lower Brule boys came in 5 out of 16 teams.
On Sunday, 21 young people received the Sacrament of Confirmation at St. James Parish, the Catholic Church in Chamberlain, from Bishop Paul Swain.
Here on St. Joseph’s campus, the students have all been preparing for Halloween! Several homes went to a local pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins—some of which will be decorated and entered into a contest! To celebrate Halloween, St. Joseph’s students participate in a Grand March of costumes on Friday after the local trick or treating around campus and a trip through the haunted hallway in school.
Wendy, the lady in charge of our distribution center, is the most popular person on campus during Halloween! She has access to the room where all the necessary ingredients for putting the perfect costume together can be found.
A few weeks ago, two of our senior girls, Mia and Katie, attended the Siena 8th Annual Take Charge Conference in Tucson, Arizona, which is a program for Native American youth. The featured speaker was Matene Jerome from Littleton, Colorado who stood up to elected officials and fought to keep the topics of slavery and treatment of Native Americans in school curriculum.
St. Joseph’s students are taking part in Red Ribbon Week, the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. The program serves as a vehicle for communities and individuals to take a stand for the well-being of children through drug prevention programs, education and personal commitments to live drug free. The program commemorates the ultimate sacrifice made by DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who died at the hands of Mexican drug traffickers while fighting against illegal drugs.
Each day of the week has a different theme. Students wore pajamas to class, tie red ribbons around campus and wore crazy caps and mismatched or loud socks while also taking part in trivia contests. St. Joseph’s kicked off Red Ribbon Week last Friday with a Sobriety Carnival complete with inflatables and obstacle courses.
I hope you and yours have had a great week and a wonderful and exciting weekend. Know we are praying for you and your special intentions as our way of saying pilamaya—thank you— for your support of St. Joseph’s Indian School.
Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ
Chaplain
On your picture of the two little girls with Tatanka one’s name is Chante, there is no “h” after a “c” in our language as “c” is pronounced as a “ch.” Thus, Cante is pronounced Chan-tay. kurt kaltreider, Ph.D Nanticoke, Tsalgi, Lakota