Supporters Dub 41st Annual St. Joseph’s Powwow Weekend ‘a blast’

We can describe our campus, students, staff and powwow until we are blue in the face, but it’s when you have the chance to experience St. Joseph’s Indian School in-person that the message truly sinks in. At least this was the reaction expressed by the nearly 500 supporters who attended the St. Joseph’s Indian School 41st Annual Powwow weekend, Sept. 14-16, 2017. Continue reading “Supporters Dub 41st Annual St. Joseph’s Powwow Weekend ‘a blast’”

Meet the 2017 St. Joseph’s Royalty

St. Joseph’s 2017 Royalty includes Miss St. Joseph’s Danielle, Jr. Miss St. Joseph’s Mersayis and Eagle Staff Bearer Treshawn.

After competitions in dance and a Q&A with judges, St. Joseph’s Indian School has crowned three students as the 2017 royalty for the 41st Annual Powwow. Learn more about Danielle, Mersayis and Treshawn!

In order to be chosen as Miss St. Joseph’s, Jr. Miss St. Joseph’s and Eagle Staff Bearer, our Lakota students must attend and represent St. Joseph’s with pride and respect at powwows and other events. They must also be good role models and demonstrate a good attitude toward all students and adults.

Continue reading “Meet the 2017 St. Joseph’s Royalty”

Flurry of activities as the school year winds down

This has been a busy last few days.  On Wednesday and Thursday of last week our eighth grade students had a day to shadow St. Joseph’s students attending Chamberlain High School. This is a great opportunity for the students to meet teachers and discover ways to get around the high school campus.  As our eighth grade graduates get ready to move into our high school program, our seniors are getting ready to move on to college, vocational school and other educational avenues. On Wednesday afternoon a prayer service and reception will be held for our nine high school seniors. Their graduation ceremony is May 18th.

This past Sunday, I attended the awarding of the annual Distinguished Alumni Award to Mr. Sam Dupris of Bloomington, Minnesota.  Sam attended St. Joseph’s from 1937-1942 along with several of his siblings.  Sam told our students that the values and educational base he received while attending St. Joseph’s has helped him throughout his life. After a stint in the Army, he used the GI Bill to attend flight school and for more than 25 years spent time with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) working his way up the ranks to be captain and chief pilot. Sam is the first and only Native American to serve as a FAA pilot.  He was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001 and South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2010.

This past Saturday, the annual Chamberlain High School Powwow was held at the new Chamberlain Community Center.  Irene, a junior in our high school program, was selected to be Miss CHS Powwow. She joined, Mia and Cassidy, fellow St. Joseph’s high school girls to participate in the dancing. Our drum group also participated with music and songs for the celebration.

Many new faces are on campus as new staff is being interviewed and hired for next year.  While we are happy to welcome them, it also means some of our ‘veterans’ will be moving on.  Eleven will be retiring from St. Joseph’s with 114.5 combined years of service and dedication to our students.

You may remember I mentioned the Explorers were doing a car wash last weekend to raise money for new playground equipment at American Creek Campground. They washed 84 cars, made over $500 in tips and a little over $3,500 in pledges. Since June of 2002, they have raised a little over $79,500 to be used for audio visual equipment, projects to beautify the Chamberlain/Oacoma area, supporting meals on wheels and aid to local residents facing health issues.

I hope you have a positive week while finding ways to draw closer to those you care about and taking that first step in reaching out to make a new friend.  May God’s blessings continue to be with you!

Sincerely,

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

Guest Blogger: LaRayne

Kids working on a craft at day camp!
Can you guess what they are making?

Hello everyone, my  name is LaRayne. I’d  like to give you a recap of St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Rising Eagle Day Camp. (Check out pictures here!)

Summer camp is a different time around St. Joseph’s Indian School.  It is a time for new faces, old faces and a time for building a lot of new relationships.  I have the pleasure of sharing some Native American cultural lessons with a twist of arts and crafts added to them.  Each day is precious.

Having a class of 30 students is something I am not used to, but I have the help of some great young adult counselors who chose to share part of their summer with our day camp kids.  It is great to have the help when we tackle making medicine pouches in one day, or learning to hoop dance in one morning.

St. Joseph’s Indian School campus becomes the village that raises the child for the day.  We have caregivers, teachers, counselors, lifeguards, food service workers, recreation specialists and good ‘ol supervisors who look after the camp-goers each day.

I especially enjoy seeing former students, meeting new students, and talking to some students who hope to come to our school in the future.  This camp brings together many good things.  It is somewhat like a powwow.  We celebrate, dance, create, build relationships, eat, play, and focus on culture.  Yes, each day is precious in the life of a child.

Hec’etu kstothat’s the way it is….

Don’t forget to check out the pictures!

Benefit from their generosity

While I was in the office working on Sunday’s homily, I got a phone call from the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. A couple from Houston, Mike and Carolyn, had brought up a truck load of clothes to share with us and wanted to meet me and say hello. I was in sweat pants and an old t-shirt, but that actually worked to my advantage as we went to the storage building and unloaded. I took Mike and Carolyn on a tour of campus.

The William Home (4th-5th grade girls) were most gracious about showing us the home and talking about their routine. They also volunteered to try on some of the sweatshirts and a coat so the good folks back in Texas who gathered it all up could see the kids who will benefit from their generosity.

Hidden America – Children of the Plains

A day of some sadness with a funeral and a wake to go to today.

Fr. Brian was a 46-year-old priest who pastored in Fort Pierre, South Dakota until an inoperable brain tumor was discovered about four months ago. He had been in the hospital and hospice care since then, and died earlier this week. During the homily, Fr. Michel acknowledged so many people were saddened that a young priest who touched so many people’s hearts should die so young and so quickly. But God’s ways are not our ways. What is most important not the length of our lives, but what we do with the time God gives us. Going to a priest’s funeral makes me more deeply reflect on my own priesthood and ask how I can be a better and holier servant of God.

The moment I was most moved to tears came at the beginning of mass, with about 40 priests lining the center  aisle to greet the body. Fr. Brian’s niece and nephew sang a gospel song, “I will Rise”. I couldn’t help but think of my own cancer, which is still in remission. I had a sense of,  this could have been me. But it led to a deepening of the psalmist’s attitude – “What return can I make to the Lord, for all the good God has done for me in seeing me through?”

One of our secretaries suffered a family tragedy when her college aged son died. This evening at the wake the church and hall were packed as tightly as possible, with a tremendous outpouring of care and support from the community.

Tonight ABC news 20/20 program with Diane Sawyer ran a special on Hidden America – Children of the Plains. South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was the location for the reports. The images and stories were powerful and well done. The journalists were realistic about the tough living conditions on the Indian reservation. And they also showed some of the hope and promise in young people trying to break cycles of poverty and alcoholism. Those are much the critical issues we at St. Joseph’s Indian School try to address.

I value the wisdom shared

We had an all day Board of Directors meeting. The longest segment of discussion revolved around the new strategic plan that we have been working on. With the added input and approval of the Board we should be ready to begin in early 2012. We went through the annual audit; we were glad to hear there were no major problems or findings. We reviewed the plans for the museum expansion and alumni center, and heard reports from our outreach programs on the Indian reservations.

I’m always trying to make sure St. Joseph is headed in the right direction, and asking the right questions. It helps to have others who care about the mission of the school to ask the big questions too, and provide direction and recommendations.

While I finish these meetings feeling a bit worn out, I also value the wisdom shared, which makes the load of administrative leadership easier to carry.

Making the Akta Lakota Museum into a small town treasure

Today, 15 Northern Plains artists submitted their latest creations  to our Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center acquisition committee, and the museum picked up several nice new pieces. The things I usually like are not the same ones our more knowledgeable artists recommend, and in the long run, they have done a great job of making our museum into a small treasure in town.

Two fellow SCJs Fr. Jack and Deacon Dave arrived for tomorrow’s Board of Directors meeting. Deacon Dave was my predecessor as director of St. Joseph’s Indian School. When I saw the school secretary at 11:30 mass, I asked her if anything special was happening at school today. “Deacon Dave dropped by to see us, so that made the day pretty special.” People still appreciate all he did to build up St. Joseph’s into the place it is today.

Adrian and Merrill are two 8th grade boys chosen to represent St. Joseph’s at our next donor luncheon, which will be in Pittsburgh in early December. I practiced with them after school, asking typical questions  our donors want to know. They’re excited and a little bit nervous, but that gives them incentive to practice harder. It will be a great chance for them to experience a big city and see what life is like there.

Gifts all around us

I’m back from a Donor Luncheon trip to Palm Desert/ Palm Springs California. Thirty years ago, I entered religious life with a year of Novitiate in the High Desert, about an hour away in Victorville. I remember at first being intimidated by the desert. Once I slowed down to explore and observe the myriad of life in what I thought was a wasteland, I was astounded by the beauty.

There is a lot to learn by going to the quiet.

This part of the Desert though, is well-developed and filled with hustle and bustle. Two high school girls, Erin and Danisha, represented St. Joseph’s Indian School at the luncheons. Both work part-time jobs after school and have been saving up their money to check out the clothing stores hoping to find different and unique items compared to what is available locally in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  Shopping, especially clothes shopping (it seldom takes me long to find my basic black !) requires lots of patience on my part, but I know it brings joy to them. I walked around and got my exercise, and had time to visit with Cheryl, the girls’ houseparent and trip chaperone. She told of her interaction with the students’ families. As she’s built up a trusting relationship the girls have shared with her many of the difficult circumstances that brought them to St. Joseph’s Indian School in the first place.

We were joined by about 70 donors on Saturday and 45 on Sunday. With some students, I worry they will get stage fright and be afraid to speak up. Erin and Danisha are both seniors and over the years have developed the self-confidence that made it easy for them to talk to our gathered friends and answer their questions. That bodes well for their future as they prepare to move on from St. Joseph’s in a few months. Both are applying for college.

Danisha’s family sew beautiful Star Quilts, and wanted to honor those folks whose generosity has made her education possible. Danisha brought along a beautiful quilt and at the end of the Saturday luncheon, she drew a name from those in attendance. Lucille was the lucky winner, and we couldn’t have picked someone for whom it meant so much.

Lucille herself taught for 50 years, and felt so honored that her excitement moved me to tears.

We drove by two of the huge Indian Casinos of the area. One of our donors is a member of the Morongo Tribe. They have shared their resources by taking materials to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation here in South Dakota to help those in need. While many of the Sioux tribes in South Dakota have tried casinos, the low population to draw from on the prairie has most of them struggling and not the massive operations like we saw in California.

Today I spent catching up on mail and messages. The bulldozers moved in and started the groundwork for our Akta Lakota Museum expansion. It will block off traffic flow for a while, but we look forward to the end results.

Two girls who have been here for 3 ½ years are transferring to another school. Their mom has moved and is in a better position to have them come back to live with her. Our goal isn’t to keep students here as long as possible, but prepare them for life when they and their families are ready to move on.  We easily get attached to students and miss anyone when they leave. When students transfer like this in the middle of the year, we look to our waiting list and offer the spot to another child.

Our principal Kathleen is in the midst of teacher evaluations, and this year is trying a new technique – actually videotaping lessons. This allows her to show the teachers how they present themselves and the materials in an even more concrete way. Because she also videotapes the class and how the students are responding, the teacher can observe student attentiveness and notice anyone who is having difficulty keeping to task.

I think it is a gift to see ourselves from others’ perspectives, and we can learn a lot from that.

At day’s end,  I watched the our 7th and 8th grade girls’ volleyball teams defeat our upstream neighbors the Crow Creek Chieftains. Many of our students are from the Crow Creek Reservation. Instead of an intense rivalry, play on the court was friendly. In the 8th grade game, Martina started the second game with the serve. Before she relinquished it back to Crow Creek, the score was already 18 – 0! Awesome job Braves!

 

Greetings from Fr. Anthony

Greetings once again from St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  As Fr. Steve Huffstetter, SCJ is away for a donor lunch in southern California, I have the opportunity to share with you what has been happening over this past weekend.  One piece of good news is that we had some much-needed rain which helped keep the dust down that has been blowing around recently.

I just returned from a prayer service that kicked off our celebration of Native American Day here in South Dakota.  While the rest of the country celebrates Columbus Day, South Dakota, as part of a process of reconciliation, started by the late Governor George S. Mickelson, honors the heritage and culture of the Native Americans here in the state.  Several of our students will be traveling to Kimball, South Dakota to do some powwow dancing for them and explaining various aspects of the Lakota (Sioux) culture and tradition.

Our American Indian youth love volleyball!
Our Lakota (Sioux) youth love volleyball!

This past Thursday, we saw our 7th & 8th grade volleyball teams have their first home game against Kimball.  The 7th grade swept the Kiotes and the 8th grade won their match 2 games to 1.  There were several rallies and good service streaks.  Most of the teams games have been away, so as the month progresses we’ll be having more home matches.

On Friday, Peggy Thomas’ 4th graders had a ‘book share’ in which they read stories they had written based off of a basic three paragraph start which they then could take in any direction.  They invited staff and other classes to come and listen to the stories and then discuss the stories and look at the pictures they had made to illustrate their story.

Two German exchange students and an advisor made it to St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus late Friday night.  They were suppose to be here on Thursday but a delayed flight caused them to miss a key connection which resulted in their coming a day late.  Father Steve and the group going to California had hoped to meet them as they arrived, to have supper prior to the departure of those going West, but the delay negated that.  They did not get much chance to rest up since they went out to the Black Hills with the students of Hogebach Home to see the sights.  They will be with us for about a week and a half and will attend Chamberlain High School with our students for a few  days and get to know our program and then make a presentation of their school and the activities they are involved in Germany.  St. Joseph’s sends over some of our students in late May and early June.

The youth at St. Joseph's Indian School had a blast learning about science and space!
The youth at St. Joseph's Indian School had a blast learning about science and space!

Our 5th graders took part in a program call Starbase which is a program to encourage interest in science and space.  They had daily activities here on campus and then went to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota for a tour and some additional activities on base.

Several of our students are involved in the Explorers Club which meets weekly.  One of our students, Isaiah, was elected sergeant-at-arms for the club.  They have only been meeting  for a few weeks with other students from the Chamberlain area and will begin to focus on what activities they can be involved with to help the local community.

On Sunday the SCJs who serve here in Chamberlain, at St. James Parish and St. Joseph’s, joined with those  SCJs who serve the Indian reservations of Crow Creek and Lower Brule for a community meeting.  It is our chance to get together each month and share what’s been happening and how each of us is doing.  It is an important aspect of community to be present to each other as a sign of support and encouragement.  We also have a chance to share a meal together and share some social time.

The rec department just sent out the schedule for the up-coming basketball season and the Inter-City league, which is a program to offer the opportunity for our students to get to know local Chamberlain students by playing together so that when they reach high school they will already know each other a bit.  I help out with officiating and the schedules reminds me I have to get in shape to run up and down the court.  The spirit is willing, but the knees can be weak.

Hope all of you have a wonderful week ahead.  Know that we continue to keep you in our prayers thanking the Great Spirit for your generosity.  May God continue to bless you all.

Sincerely,

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

St. Joseph’s Indian School

Chamberlain, South Dakota