St. Joseph’s – Page 30 – St. Joseph's Indian School

Cold weather has arrived!

What a difference a week makes! You may recall how I was saying it was still nice weather-wise here at St. Joseph’s. However, the bottom fell out this past week.

Fr. Anthony and the Lakota children. — Fr. Anthony spends time with St. Joseph’s students.

We got over 5 inches of snow and the temperature went down, down, down…

The Daily Republic, a daily newspaper in Mitchell, South Dakota (about 70 miles from Chamberlain), leads off the news the other day with an article on how the area has set low temperatures that broke a 105-year-old record.

Chamberlain was even mentioned on the radio when we hit 14 degrees below zero. The cold has had an effect on some of our water lines and has brought about a drip in the rec center ceiling. Our Lakota students do not seem to mind, however, and love to be out sledding as long as they can.

A big thank you goes out to our maintenance crew on campus! They are quick to clear paths so our students can get to school and staff can get to work when we have snow.

We moved our regular Sunday Mass to Saturday evening so the Dancing Dolls & Dudes had Sunday morning to get ready for their recital in the early afternoon. There was a great turnout for the dance presentations, which includes kids from the Chamberlain and surrounding communities; dancers as young as 3 and 4 year olds up through sixth graders took part.

When I drove up to the National Guard Armory, where the performance was held, I felt like St. Joseph’s Indian School was a visiting basketball team. So many of our Native American students were participating and watching, we had our large yellow bus and one or two of our smaller buses parked in from of the Armory!

Seems hard to believe, but our girls’ basketball season is drawing to a close. Our last home games for our younger grades are this week. Last Saturday, the 8^th grade girls hosted their annual basketball tournament. The snow prevented some of the teams from coming, but the rec center hosted a round robin tournament and we came in third.

Hope you all have a great week and that you are able to take advantage of the Advent Season and prepare the way of the Lord.

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

Where we going?

Where we going?

This is an interesting question that can be answered in many different ways. On this particular

The Lakota children decorated a Christmas tree at the South Dakota Hall of Fame. — Jacob and his classmates helped make small drums and drumsticks to use as decorations for the Christmas tree.

day at St. Joseph’s Indian School, the answer was to decorate a Christmas tree at the South Dakota Hall of Fame. This is about 4 miles from campus, right along Interstate 90.

South Dakota leaders and luminaries are honored here – it is a great stopping point along I-90. Each year, the Hall of Fame invites community leaders and organizations to decorate Christmas trees in the Hall of Fame. St. Joseph’s was one of the first organizations to arrive and picked a choice spot to put up our tree.

We took six of our younger Lakota students from Student Leadership Committee to help. They were all excited and couldn’t wait to help. The first challenge was matching all limbs to the right spot on the trunk of the artificial tree. We had to make sure to spread out the branches to make the tree look full and big. The students did a great job of keeping the branches separate and sticking them in the right holes. The tree looked full and big by the time we fluffed all the branches out!

Then, up went the lights! I helped string the lights from the top of the tree to the bottom with two of the girls guiding me around the tree and ensuring I had enough lights to make it the tree look bright. Once we finished putting the lights up we plugged them in to make sure they worked.

To our surprise, the lights twinkled and blinked. We didn’t remember the lights flashing last year… but hey, what a bonus! The students thought it was neat; they oohed and aahed, mesmerized by the lights.

After the lights were checked and the students refocused, they started to hang small hand drums up and down the tree. The drums have St. Joseph’s logo on them and the students help make them. Then we pulled out small dreamcatchers, a few wooden flutes and drumsticks for the students to hang. The last ornaments to go up were homemade snowflakes with pictures of the students in the middle. The final touch was small wooden teepee to top of the tree. After a few alterations, the tree was finished and looked great!

The students helped clean up the mess and put the tree in place. We loaded in the mini bus once again and headed back to campus. The students were in a great mood and sang a few bars of Jingle Bells on the way, only they changed the verse to “Jingle Bells, Frank smells…”

We had a good laugh over their version of a classic Christmas song.

All the fun aside, where are we going? can be a very hard question to answer.

But on this day, we were blessed to be able to tell the students, “we are going to spread the Christmas spirit and share our school with the rest of the community.”

St. Joseph’s tree at the South Dakota Hall of Fame was decorated by younger Lakota students. — St. Joseph’s younger students helped decorate the Christmas tree at the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

On this day, we were blessed to give the students a firsthand lesson about citizenship, generosity and belonging. On this day, we were blessed to teach a lesson about life. On this day we were blessed to help our Native American students learn a little bit more about where they are going and who they will become. Life lessons and teachable moments happen every day, and we are blessed to put them to good use!

Here is hoping you all have a great Christmas season full of family and blessings.

Merry Christmas!

Frank W.

6-8 Residential Coordinator

Another wonderful week in the neighborhood

It has been another wonderful week in the neighborhood – the weather has been great!

The campus was very quiet this weekend since the Lakota students and St. Joseph’s staff were on Thanksgiving break. I helped chaperone the bus that took the students to their homes in Eagle Butte and Pierre, South Dakota. It was good to meet some of the students’ families and everyone seemed very upbeat to be home for the holiday.

St. James Parish and Fr. Guy Blair, SCJ, hosted their second annual Thanksgiving meal open to anyone in the community. It was an outstanding success and served over 400 people. They had over a 150 takeout orders for people unable to leave their homes. It was nice to see that a wide variety of locals join together to help others.

Friday after Thanksgiving kicked off the Christmas season with the annual Parade of Lights in downtown Chamberlain. Some very bright and inventive floats brought out a lot of oohs and aahs from spectators who braved the chilly evening.

St. Joseph’s Indian School was blessed with the presence of a bald eagle that sat high in a tree along the banks of the Missouri River. It was a majestic sight. Deer hunting season opened recently in our area, which may explain why I’ve seen seven deer on three separate occasions within the last 10 days or so. They seem to know there will not be any shooting on campus.

This coming weekend will be the Dancing Dolls & Dudes program. St. Joseph’s students have been involved in this over the last few years. It will definitely be one of those Kodak moments!

Hope you have a great week and that God’s blessings will be with you throughout the new month as we prepare for the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

Learning? No, that was just fun.

We Serve and Teach. We Receive and Learn. This is our motto at St. Joseph’s Indian School. Here we are dedicated to lifelong learning and nurturing the whole child. That is why teaching and learning expands well beyond the classroom.

Problem solving and teamwork are a few of the many lessons youth learn at St. Joseph’s Indian School. — The Native American children at St. Joseph’s learn life skills, like teamwork and problem solving.

Today is Wednesday night, so typically that would be an Enrichment night, except that our Lakota students have gone home for Thanksgiving break. Every Wednesday night, St. Joseph’s homes have activities to round out student learning.

The skills students learn can be intangible—like building healthy relationships and dealing with peer pressure— or more concrete tasks—managing money or addressing envelopes. The activities are age-appropriate. High school students have Sons and Daughters of Tradition, a culturally based group with a talking circle and visiting Lakota (Sioux) elders. The younger homes have workbooks chock full of lessons and activities.

I love doing activities with the kids. One week we talked about hygiene: why we work so much at keeping homes and bodies clean, and some of the issues that come up with poor hygiene practices. For example, sharing eyeliner can cause an outbreak of pinkeye. L

Another week we talked about the difference between being assertive and aggressive. The lessons tied together pretty well – if you have to approach a peer about a hygiene issue, how can you do that it in an assertive, non-shaming way. “Umm, would you like a breath mint? Or perhaps some perfume?”

Honestly though, the Masters of Enrichment are our Rec center staff. It is one thing to talk to kids about cooperation. The students can brainstorm lists and fill out worksheets in the home, but when it comes to actually practicing the skill, no one makes it more fun than Brian, Andy and Shoney.

I remember one particularly rough week with the 6-8^th grade girls. We had done some worksheets on friendships and qualities we look for in a friend. This didn’t stop them from bickering and foot-dragging when it came time to help a peer with a kitchen task. “It’s not myyy joooooobbbbb!”

After our designated hour of class time in the home, we had a special hour of learning at the Rec center. Shoney and Andy took them outside for some friendly competition. They were given the task of standing shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot, and walking about 10 yards while keeping their foot touching their neighbor’s. It was the Stevens girls versus the Pinger girls in a race against time. They shouted encouragement. They strategized. They coaxed. They urged. They kept it together.

The next task was to fit all 12 girls into the circumference of a hula-hoop without touching the ground outside the hoop. Suddenly their differences became assets, and their ability to get close to each other became critical. The tallest girl stood in the middle and the smaller girls hung off her like a maypole. The others squeezed and tugged and balanced on one foot to make it work. In less than 20 seconds, they accomplished what an hour of “talking” about friendship failed to do. The girls pulled together. They didn’t leave anybody out of the circle.

At prayers that night, the girls shared that they liked doing the activity. Did they realize it was all about learning? No. I think it was more like putting cheese sauce on broccoli. All they knew was that they liked it, and that they would try it again if it were offered again. Works for me.

Last night we cleaned the homes as the kids prepare to go home for break. Laundry! Dusting! Cleaning out the fridge! Not as exciting as relay races, but important things to learn nonetheless.

We have so much to be thankful for in the upcoming days. We’re looking forward to a nice break and visits with family and friends. I hope that all the friends of St. Joseph’s also have an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Wopila tanka – many thanks! Claire

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Dear Benefactors,

From all the students and staff here at St. Joseph’s Indian School, best wishes to you and yours for a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Each of us has so much to be grateful for. May you have the chance to share the day with family and friends!

The Native American children at St. Joseph’s celebration Family Night every year. — The Lakota boys and girls made “trees of thanksgiving” to take home to their families.

St. Joseph’s students are getting in the Thanksgiving spirit as they took part in the National Family Week project this past Wednesday. They joined with siblings and cousins to make decorations to take home for their families on Thanksgiving. You can see our photos on Facebook!

They created a “tree of thanksgiving,” with leaves the students wrote messages on, expressing what they are grateful for. Thanks to a grant from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota, each family receives a gift card for their local grocery store to help provide food for the Thanksgiving meal. In the past, students took food boxes home with them, but the new system works wonderfully.

Three of our Lakota (Sioux) students had the chance to visit Washington, D.C. last week. Their family was honored by the United States for the role their great-grandfather played as a code-talker during World War II. As you might know, during that time Native American radio operators spoke in their native tongues so that German or Japanese troops listening would not understand what military information was being passed from one unit to another.

While these students were in Washington, D.C., another group of our students and staff were in the Houston, Texas, area to take part in a donor luncheon this past weekend. Kayla and Hope, two of our eighth graders, made the trip to share the impact St. Joseph’s has had on their lives. Our next two luncheons are January 18-19 in Los Angeles, California and February 22-23 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. If you would like to attend, you can register here.

I attended an ecumenical Thanksgiving prayer service held at St. James Catholic Church in downtown Chamberlain. It was nice to gather with others and be thankful. On Thanksgiving Day, the parish will host a Thanksgiving meal for anyone in the Chamberlain area who wishes to attend.

On Friday night, the day after Thanksgiving, there will be a presentation on Thanksgiving from a Native American viewpoint. The presenter will be Deacon Bud Jetty’s son, who is an educator from Montana. Deacon Bud serves on St. Joseph’s Board of Directors, and he and his wife are long-time friends of the school.

Last week we received word that 129 visitor-related businesses in South Dakota had been awarded the Great Service Star. The program is sponsored by the South Dakota Department of Tourism to recognize South Dakota businesses that show exceptional customer service to guests, customers or visitors. I am happy to inform you that St. Joseph’s Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center received the award. Visit their Facebook page to congratulate them!

Have a great Thanksgiving! May the holidays bring many blessings to you and your loved ones!

Fr. J. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

Visiting with a St. Joseph’s alum

Greetings from South Dakota!

First of all, our thoughts and prayers are with those in the Midwest who experienced such awful weather over the weekend. The loss of life and destruction are truly tragic.

Chamberlain High School presented their annual play this past weekend, Father of the Bride. Two of St. Joseph’s high school students were in the cast and four were part of the stage and lighting crew. As an added bonus, St. Joseph’s students Amber and Ashley created the set designs! In Dramatic Arts class, the director divided students into teams of two and let them come up with design ideas for the play. Amber and Ashley’s design was chosen – way to go, girls!

Basketball season is underway at St. Joseph’s, and the Lakota girls in 4^th through 8^th grade have taken to the hardwood courts. On Saturday, the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders played their counterparts from Chamberlain Elementary. There was a good turnout of family and friends on both sides to cheer them on.

The Chamberlain girls had some tall players, but St. Joseph’s girls had some real spunk and a ‘never say die’ attitude that helped them come back from early deficits and secure victory in the 4^th and 6^th grade games by one point each. The 5^th graders, unfortunately, came up just 4 points short. This week, all our teams will be on the road playing schools in the local area.

I had a nice surprise during the basketball games on Saturday. I got to visit with the mother of a current student who was a student here herself in the late 1990’s. Fancee was a star basketball player at St. Joseph’s. Now, she is married with four children and works as a police detective on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

She shared that her time at St. Joseph’s Indian School really prepared her for working with the Native American youth whom she now encounters in her profession. It was truly great to visit with her and hear how her years at St. Joseph’s helped her prepare for the future!

I hope each of you has a great week and that God’s blessings remain with you. Pilamaya – thank you – for your concern and generosity towards the Native American students at St. Joseph’s Indian School. Know that you and your intentions have been remembered in our Novena of Masses, November 11-19.

It’s never too early for Christmas songs!

I know that some people cringe at the thought of listening to Christmas songs from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but I’m not one of them! My XM radio already has at least two holiday channels (my favorite is Holly, Channel 17, but Holiday Traditions, Channel 4, isn’t bad, either) and since I commute 2 hours, 3-4 days a week, I have ample time to enjoy holiday music. I can’t get enough of the holidays, the site, sounds, tastes and smells of the holidays never get old to me!

This is our favorite and busiest time of the year in the Development Office at St. Joseph’s Indian School, too! Yesterday an ‘all hands on deck’ e-mail went out, asking that anyone who could help sort mail, please report to our Mail Processing area – we received 123 trays of mail!

We are indeed grateful for the holidays and the generous gifts that it brings from many of our supporters.

Geri, Director of Major Gifts, visits with a St. Joseph’s donor. — Geri has the opportunity to make personal visits to donors as the holidays approach.

But, not only is our Mail Processing Department busy this time of year, our Major Gifts Staff is equally as busy. We reach out to donors that we’ve come to know personally with a phone call, holiday card or personal visit.

It’s not always an easy time of the year for many of our donors who have lost loved ones and are facing loneliness during the holidays.

These personal outreaches are the ones that bring me the most joy in my job – I can take the time to visit with our supporters about how they’ll spend the holidays and share all of the activities and celebrations we have planned for the Lakota students at St. Joseph’s.

Indeed, the holidays are a time of gratitude for all of us at St. Joseph’s Indian School. We are grateful to work for a great organization and help carry out a mission that is changing the lives of Native American children and their families, and we’re grateful for our generous supporters who make our mission possible!

We wish you a blessed holiday season (now go turn on some Christmas music, while you still have time)!

Thank you to our Veterans

Good afternoon from a snowy South Dakota!

We had a little dusting of snow early this morning. With the leaves still on the ground, it makes for a slippery situation. I’m sure the students were not in mad dashes across St. Joseph’s campus today.

First of all, Happy Veterans Day! A big pilamaya – thank you – to all who made the commitment to serve in the Armed Forces of our country to keep us protected and free.

There is a Veterans’ Day powwow in Lower Brule today. LaRayne, our Native American Studies teacher, took 10 drummers and 5 dancers to take part. The Summerlee Home (4^th and 5^th grade girls) went up yesterday to join in the festivities and enjoy a meal with the community.

Friday night, several of our staff represented St. Joseph’s Indian School in a fundraiser for the Chamberlain School District Foundation. It was loosely based on an Old Fashioned Community Spelling Bee. Nine different teams took part in the event at the city civic center, which was recently rebuilt.

It was an open house for the new facility and a chance to raise some money for an outdoor classroom for the Chamberlain school system. The teams had fun as they competed in spelling, puns, scrabble and penmanship. While the MC stated ‘this might be the first and last spelling bee,’ it seemed everyone had fun and even the audience was able to take part.

I hope you all have a great week. We continue to keep you in our prayers, asking God to bless and reward you for your generosity to the Lakota children at St. Joseph’s.
Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

A Job of the Heart

Greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School! My name is Julie H and I am a Family Service Counselor at St. Joseph’s, working with girls in grades 6-12. I recently had celebrated my 12^th anniversary as an employee here. Can you believe it?

Julie and Native American students make fry bread together. — Julie helps Kezrai and Angela make fry bread for the meal following an Inipi ceremony, which is the rite of purification in Lakota tradition.

My first two years at St. Joseph’s, I was a houseparent for the Lakota students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. My next two years I was a Case Coordinator, and for the last eight years I have been a Family Service Counselor. My, how time flies!

As I look out my window today and see a bit of snow in the air, I am in a contemplative mood. I have had the question posed to me, more often lately, what brought me to St. Joseph’s and why I choose to stay?

The answer is really simple, actually. It’s the students.

The opportunity to work with kids brought me here, and that is what keeps me here.

I have said, since I came to St. Joseph’s, that working here is not a job – it is a calling. God reached into my heart and my life and brought me here to this wonderful place. There is really no other explanation.

I will be honest… this job can bring a person to tears. Tears of JOY when a student succeeds, tears of sadness when a student leaves, hurts, or struggles. Working at St. Joseph’s is a calling of the heart. And the human heart is a fragile thing. Working with our students can put your feet on a cloud, but it can also bring you to your knees.

Why? Because it is a job of the heart.

We, the staff of St. Joseph’s, lead with our heart. We want what is best for the students and their families. We rejoice when our families rejoice, we weep when our families weep. We celebrate when a student gets an A on a test, our hearts break when a student is disappointed or let down.

We only want what is best for our Native American students, but we all know life isn’t always fair and sometimes bad things happen to good people. When that happens, we put our hearts into it and support our families and students the best we can.

I am feeling truly blessed today that my calling has been to work with the families and children at St. Joseph’s. The good days outnumber the bad, the tears of joy outnumber the tears of sadness and saying “I work at St. Joseph’s Indian School,” always leaves my heart feeling full and happy.

This is a calling…but I could not fulfill my calling without the prayers and support of you, the benefactors of St. Joseph’s Indian School Without your support, we would not be able to offer the programs, stability, and safety we offer to our students. Without your support, we would not be able to offer the support we do for our families.

So while my job is a calling, your support is a calling as well. And I thank God every day that you have been called to be part of the St. Joseph’s family.

I send blessings and prayers your way as we move into the holiday season. May God bless you abundantly and fill your heart with joy for being called to St. Joseph’s.

Sincerely,

Julie

Changing Weather, Changing Activities

Greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School!

I hope everyone had a great week and lots of fun on Halloween. The Lakota students capped off their celebration of Red Ribbon week — a time focused on reminding them of the danger of drugs — with some spooky fun, wearing costumes to school and trick-or-treating on campus. The students then gathered in the rec center for the Grand March and judging of costumes. There were awards for scariest, funniest and most creative costume, along with awards for pumpkin carving and home decorations. Check out the fun on our Facebook album!

The Lakota children enjoyed decorating and dressing up for Halloween. — St. Joseph’s students capped off Red Ribbon Week with Halloween fun!

Our High School Academic Advisor, Tara, announced the members of the 2013 Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI) Knowledge Bowl team. LNI is an annual event held before Christmas each year in Rapid City, South Dakota. It gathers members of the Lakota nation from all over the state and surrounding areas to compete in a wide variety of events — basketball, archery, an art show, Native American hand games, language contests and the Knowledge Bowl. Our students, Erica, Ashley, Michael, Cody, Kyran, Liliana, Jacob and Angela will meet every Sunday night until the competition to practice.

The CHS volleyball team – including some St. Joseph’s students – hosts Cheyenne-Eagle Butte on Tuesday in the state playoffs. This will be a tough one to watch since I spent five years in Eagle Butte serving on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation; but since I’m now in Chamberlain, I have to say ‘Go Cubs!’

As the weather is changing and cooling down, St. Joseph’s students are spending more time indoors. We recently held sign up for archery and wrestling. The younger students are also getting ready for Dancing Dolls and Dudes.

With the end of the first quarter, we acknowledged our honor roll students in grades 1-8. Students received certificates and a special prize for A and B Honor Roll and for perfect attendance.

Have a great week. Know that you and your intentions are remembered in our prayers. Thank you for your generosity!

Fr. J. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain