Days on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus have memorable laughs and occasional tears. Today was a day for grieving, as we got word that the mother of four of our students died much too young. We are all lifting them up in our thoughts and prayers.
The boys’ aunt notified our family service counselors ahead of time, so Scott and Karen gathered the boys after school for a family meeting. An older brother, who lives out of state, was on the phone to take part in the conversation as well. After they had time to let the sad news sink in, I was called to join in for some prayers.
Dave, one of our Native American Studies Specialists, brought in a hand drum, and sang a Lakota prayer song to comfort and strengthen the family. There aren’t a lot of words at times like this, only a caring presence. Karen rounded up some gift cards to the local McDonald’s so the auntie and boys could go out for supper and some time together before parting. I’m sure the days to come will be tough on the boys. Our circle of support will try to walk with them along the difficult journey.
On a more joyful note, I stopped by the school gym later to watch our 1st – 3rd grade boys learning about wrestling. Two of the houseparents were helping Mark, our recreation specialist teach not only about rules and techniques, but about sportsmanship. The houseparents also appreciated the fact the boys could burn off energy in a constructive way, hoping they’d be calmer when they arrived home to settle in for the evening.
St. Joseph’s Indian School’s choir continues to add spirit to our prayer by their voices. After mass, the director thanked them for their efforts. One student remarked,
“You’re welcome. I like singing and it sure makes mass go by a lot faster!”
Like most things, when you are involved as an active participant, time does pass differently. When people are engaged and lose track of time that’s a good sign.
Last Sunday, our boys’ Intercity Basketball League held practice games. Today was the official start of league play as 6th – 8th grade boys from Chamberlain played alongside our St. Joseph’s students. The difference between 6th graders and 8th is noticeable at that age. A 4’9” sixth grader trying to guard a 5’ 10” eighth grader has great odds to overcome. But everyone hustled and kept trying. All the participants got plenty of playing time. Hopefully all will continue to improve their game, and more importantly, build friendships.
I made the annual Halloween pilgrimage to the Perky Home (4th-5th grade boys). In the basement, our houseparent Wendy has collected several hundred Halloween costumes over the years – store bought and homemade, scary, funny and whimsical. When I arrived, the Raphael boys (1st – 3rd graders) had just finished picking out what they will wear, and excitedly showed their costumes off. I found some Fred Flintstone clothes on the rack that I’ll try while passing out treats on Wednesday.
Yabba Dabba Doo!
Over the weekend many of the homes finished up their efforts to win the decoration contest for each age group.
As we were driving back onto St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus from Denver Monday afternoon, we saw a girl in pajamas going into the Benedictine Homes. Laura remarked that she must have spent the day at the health care center. Then we saw the rest of the procession from school … also wearing pajamas!
It was the kick off to Red Ribbon Week – our annual celebration with the message that drugs get in the way of dreams and success, and there are so many fun and healthy alternatives. Monday the students were encouraged to wear pajamas to school – follow your dreams . . . don’t do drugs.
Tuesday, bright red ribbons tied around many trees on campus got everyone’s attention.
“I will say no to drugs until I’m blue in the face!”
On Wednesday, the entire school had matching shirts, with the inspiring Gandhi quote, “Be the Change You Wish to See in the World.” In the evening the homes gathered for Red Ribbon Relays. The potato sack races were run (or hopped) with plastic garbage bags around Wisdom Circle. The problem with those was that scraping against the pavement started to wear holes in the bags, and by the last leg the kids could put their legs through the holes and run! Playing on the theme of “I will say no to drugs until I’m blue in the face” kids painted their faces blue – some completely like Blue Man Group, others with mustaches or creative artwork, but each unique.
Friday played on the theme of patriotism and the upcoming election – “ I elect to be drug free, by wearing red white and blue.”
This week staff reading group discussed a book of poetry called “Walking the Earth, Touching the Sky.” The collection was published by the students at Red Cloud Indian School. Everyone appreciated the beautiful artwork, the cultural information, and found several lines to be profound and thought provoking.
Robyn, one of our Family Service Counselors, shared that with her book on her office end table, students would frequently pick it up and start leafing through it themselves. They were impressed by how peers articulated in words what they too felt. That led them to open up and talk more about their experiences of grief, hurt, and being misunderstood, so that was an immediate benefit of discussing the book. Besides the difficult times some poetry expressed the beauty of nature around us, and the strength of God and spirituality.
Volleyball season wrapped up for the year with a fun match Tuesday night between the eighth grade girls and our staff. The adults got to be kids again, with wild costumes and Halloween makeup. I noticed that whenever our staff started pulling too far ahead, their serve suspiciously failed them and control of the ball went back to the students. We laughed at the trick shots and fun antics to give the kids more chances, but after two overtime games with many ties and rallies the staff prevailed.
I was showing a visitor from Germany around St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus. When she heard how far away our visitor had come from, one of our first graders asked, “Have you ever been to White Lake?” (a small town of about 400 a few miles from Chamberlain).
“That’s where I was in foster care before I came to St. Joseph’s.”
Our visitor remarked that there is such a contradiction between how so many of the children seem normal and well adjusted, yet realizing that it is often sad circumstance that brought them here. The younger students talk more freely about life’s difficulties than our older ones, but we encourage all to work through life’s hardships.
I stopped at the museum to wish Vickie a happy birthday. Perhaps a third of our museum has been put into storage preparing for the next phase of work, and the space looks so empty. But in a few months we’ll be having some great new updates. We are still open and have a good number of visitors from hunters in the area for pheasant season.
Tonight we held FAST (Families and Students together) graduation. FAST has helped strengthen ties between St. Joseph and the families, and hopefully strengthened the relationship between students and their parents/guardians. One parent shared,
“This program brought me and my kids closer than ever.”
St. Joseph’s recently purchased a building in downtown Chamberlain!
The new building will allow us to convert the existing Receiving building into a “one stop” disbursement center for non-food items used by St. Joseph’s students and staff, which is the biggest benefit the building will provide. This one-stop shop will include clothing for the students, household goods, personal care items, gifts, linen and all the supplies currently found in Central Storage.
At this time, these items are stored in several locations on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus. With the added space and efficiency, the building used by Central Storage, the current thrift store and storage areas below Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel can be available for other uses.
At this time we are out of storage room, and have little space for storage items that are seasonal or need to be saved for specific outreach programs, like the Bookmobile van, which distributes books to Indian reservation communities each summer.
Items that are taken to missions on the Indian reservation are currently stored in the van or trailer until a full load is ready to go. This means the van and trailer are not available for other use between mission trips. With the new building, the boxes can be kept inside until a load is ready to go, then the van and trailer can be taken to the store, loaded and taken to the designated reservation or mission. We are also hoping that this will allow for more mission runs and for more efficient processing of donations.
To keep costs down, maintenance staff from St. Joseph’s spent time doing demolition inside and outside of the new building in preparation for a contractor doing the majority of the remodel work. A general contractor will do the largest part of the project but, again to keep costs down, St. Joseph’s staff will do all of the electrical work and will co-ordinate with several local contractors on HVAC and plumbing.
Greetings everyone from Mike and the William Home (4th and 5th grade girls)!
This is my tenth year working in the William Home and it is hard to believe that we are finishing up the first quarter of school this week. As always, St. Joseph’s Indian School’s powwow was very enjoyable and our Lakota kids love showing off their homes, campus and dancing.
The girls are now getting excited for the start of basketball season. We signed up October 18 and our first game is November 5!
If you have followed the William Home activities from last year, you may recall that we set a goal to walk 500 miles (10,00 laps in the gym) as a group. Well, this year the girls have a new plan. We have worked to find the mileage to all the girls’ hometowns and have set up a map to track our walking. Our tour is set to take us 760 miles or 15,200 laps around the gym. So far, we have made it to Fort Thompson and Lower Brule and are headed to Winner, South Dakota next.
Thank you for all you do to help the children of St. Joseph’s, and we will keep you updated on where the William Home is on our walk!
Our new Cultural Specialists brings Hand Games to St. Joseph’s Indian School.
David Z. is bringing knowledge, fun and more culture to St. Joseph’s Indian School! Dave is an elder who carries knowledge from a variety of areas. One of the areas is in the songs of the Lakota (Sioux). He sings at the drum for ceremonies, wacipis – powwows – and also knows hand games.
We plan on taking a team of students to the Lakota Nation Invitational in December for hand games; the students are very excited about this opportunity! On Monday, October 8, we celebrated Native American Day in South Dakota. At St. Joseph’s, we played hand games during our Native American Studies classes. This day also served as a try out for the traveling hand game team. Students are asked to learn a hand game song and the rules that apply to the game.
On a broader scale, Dave will be helping spread culture, knowledge and curriculum to the organization as a whole. We look forward to the opportunity for Dave, the students, our organization and communities near and far.
I have the chance to share what’s happening here at St. Joseph’s Indian School since Fr. Steve is away for a donor luncheon in the Denver area.
This past Thursday saw the sign up for the girls’ basketball teams. Each grade from 4th to 8th have their own team and will play local schools in the area. They are now practicing in preparation for the opening of the season in early November.
Chamberlain’s High School football team had their last game prior to the state play-offs Thursday evening and it was an adventure as the weather made it difficult to do anything. The wind was blowing 35 to 40 miles per hour with some wind gusts as high as 60-79 mph. Though the Cubs came up a bit short, they qualified for play-offs and will journey northwest to play Cheyenne-Eagle Butte on Tuesday.
Friday saw the kick-off of Red Ribbon Week as inflatables were brought into the rec center for the students to have some fun. Lots of shouts of glee the students climbed up, slid down and bounced on various inflatables. Each home also provided a delicious snack to be shared. During this upcoming week the students will celebrate such days as wearing their pjs on Monday with the theme ‘follow your dreams … don’t do drugs!’; on Wednesday they’ll wear their Red Ribbon Week T-shirt which states ‘Be the change you want to see in the World’ and paint their faces blue to stress ‘I will say NO to drugs until I’m blue in the face’; and on Friday they’ll be asked to wear the colors of red, white and blue so as to make the statement ‘I elect to be drug free!’ There will also be a trivia contest held over the school intercom to remind the students of the danger of drugs and give them some insights as to how they can stay strong and say NO.
Saturday brought lovely weather which gave everyone the opportunity to get outside and work off some energy. It was also the opening of the pheasant hunting season which brings a lot of hunters to the area. I heard some shots from across the Missouri River on Sunday afternoon.
Just as the NBA is in their pre-season, so those taking part in the inter-city basketball league had a practice game on Sunday. We have four teams made up of 6th, 7th and 8th grade boys from St. Joseph’s and the Chamberlain area. In January, when the boys’ basketball season begins the girls’ will then have their inter-city basketball league. The program gives the young people in the area the chance to get to know and interact with each other so when entering high school they will already know each other.
Sunday was also very special since the first Native American Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, was canonized in Rome, Italy. The homes were alerted that EWTN was showing the ceremonies live at 2:30 AM Sunday morning with a repeat at 10:00 AM.
Deacon Bud Jetty and Deacon Steve McLaughlin, who help the Priests of the Sacred Heart minister in Chamberlain and on the Lower Brule and Crow Creek Indian Reservations were designated by the Sioux Falls Diocese to represent the diocese at the canonization. We look forward to their return to hear how everything went.
Hope each of you will have a wonderful week ahead! May our Loving God continue to bless and reward you for your generosity towards and interest in the Lakota children we serve at St. Joseph’s Indian School. You are remembered in our prayers.
The icon honoring Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was beautiful.
Two of our seventh grade students, Kaitlyn and Danielle, traveled to speak at donor appreciation luncheons in Denver, Colorado. We got in early on Friday, and decided to see the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. It’s the kind of place that tricks you into learning by making everything so interesting and fun.
We explored Egyptian mummies, amazing gems and minerals from the Rocky mountains and learned about a variety of Native American cultures. The girls’ favorite was called “Prehistoric Journey.” As we walked past dinosaur skeletons, they were in awe at the size and ancient nature of the beasts.
One of our school nurses, Ronda, chaperoned, and led us through a display like a health fair. After taking part in a variety of activities to measure heart rate, evaluate our walking style for calories burned, see our cells under a microscope, we got a personalized computer print out to take home as a souvenir. The planetarium show gave us a perspective on the massive size of our solar system. My favorite was the 3D movie about life under the sea. I even ducked one time when it looked like a jelly fish was floating past my head!
Our luncheons went well. Danielle and Kaitlyn were a bit nervous speaking at first, but with such a friendly crowd loaded with questions and interest in St. Joseph’s and our Lakota students, they were able to share lots of information and experiences.
We received wonderful hospitality! Donors Bob and Carylyn graciously treated us to supper at a nice Italian restaurant the first night. On Saturday, Alex, Chasson and Lauren invited us for a home cooked meal. We were even treated to a few pre-dinner flamenco style songs on guitar. The students and I make a game of rating all the new foods they tried, and the girls set a new “record” with 27 new taste treats over the 4 days.
Since the nearest mall to Chamberlain is 135 miles away, what is a routine for most teens is a special treat for our students, and we had to let the girls wander around the stores for a while.
Sunday night we went to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica for a special mass to honor Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, who was canonized earlier in the day. Kateri was a Mohawk and Algonquin woman and serves as a special inspiration for holiness for Native American Christians. Members of the local Kateri community wore regalia from their tribes. Bishop James Conley, who led the celebration, has Wea ancestry and blessed the altar by using an eagle feather to smudge the smoke with sage. The cathedral also dedicated a beautiful icon of Kateri that will help pass on her legacy to future generations.
The Carola Home won the high school trophy for with least missing assignments!!
Working hard and having fun!
Hello again from the Carola Home! A new year has begun and our boys are doing a wonderful job with all they have to do. This year we have four Juniors and three Freshman boys in our home. They have worked hard with school work, homework, tutoring, football, other activities and home responsibilities.
First quarter we had five boys make the honor roll and two who were just short of the honor roll, giving our home a GPA of 3.32. Besides studying hard, part of their success is not getting behind in their school work and not having many missing assignments.
The boys had a great time at Wild Water West!
With all the hard work they put in so far, they really enjoy having some downtime. With donors helping provided for St. Joseph’s Indian School, each home has a budget that they go by. Part of this budget goes to home trips. Home trips are a great time to relax and have fun and build relationships. At the beginning of the year, our home went to LifeLight Music Festival and Wild Water West. They had a great time camping and enjoying some wonderful music, go carts, going down the water slides and swimming in the wave pool.
With funds for a trip already spent, the boys had to come up with a way to make money. Our boys decided to do a car wash to raise funds for another home trip.
The car wash was a great success.
The boys used a no school day for the car wash. They asked for a freewill donation to support their home trip. They washed many cars and they spent all day with such a positive attitude and worked very hard. They made enough money for the trip – hiking at Harney Peak, shopping at the Rushmore Mall, and dinner and movies in Rapid City.
The boys are always saying “thanks for dinner” and while we were out at the restaurant they said, “Thanks for dinner.” We reminded them that they earned this themselves and thanked them for dinner.
They were very proud and so were we. They also realized how working hard can pay off.
Saturday morning we headed west, stopping at the Vore Buffalo Jump near the state line and then into Wyoming. Of course, we had to stop and take pictures and walk across the border so that everyone now can say they “walked from South Dakota to Wyoming!”
It’s a scenic drive to Devil’s Tower National Monument. Before starting our hikes we enjoyed the introduction to the area from the ranger. The group divided and had a choice of either a 1 ½ or a 3 ½ mile hike around the base of the Tower. The hikes and the views were both invigorating. Besides the prairie dog towns, the other wildlife we saw was a rattlesnake! Even though it was a baby one – and we viewed it from a distance – it added excitement to the day.
We attended mass that evening at St. Joseph’s in Spearfish, South Dakota. The group was given a warm welcome during announcements, and we were surprised to discover that the priest there is an uncle to one of our staff members. Then it was all-you-can-eat at the Pizza Ranch, a stop at the local mall, and enjoying the hotel pool before bedtime.
We began our Sunday with a visit to the impressive Crazy Horse Memorial, hearing the story of its origination, touring the museum, and gawking at the massiveness of the memorial. Afterwards we traveled back into the town of Custer for a brunch that included plate-sized pancakes! However, one of the German exchange students inadvertently ordered from the kiddy menu – the biggest member of our group had the smallest meal, which made for some good laughs!
After filling our stomachs we were ready to head back into Custer State Park to begin our wildlife quest. We had driven several miles on the Wildlife Loop and had only seen one pronghorn. The leaders were beginning to get worried that all the animals were in hiding, but then we came around a curve to be greeted by a herd of approximately 250 head of buffalo spread out across the hills! Some were even close to the road which made for some great photos. Before leaving the park we saw several groups of pronghorn antelope and two deer! It was a great way to wrap our visit to the Black Hills.
Of course, no visit to western South Dakota would be complete without a stop at Wall Drug! We had a chance to shop for souvenirs, have dinner and buy some of their famous homemade donuts before heading back to Chamberlain. We had an incredible 770 mile adventure—one that made great memories for each of the students.
