Reservation Reflections

As has been evident, a lot of stuff happened during my week in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. I interacted with teenagers, got beaten up by little children, and got advice from a pretty smart man. I learned a lot from my brief time on the reservation. And from what I've learned I would like to share three things that I feel people should take away from what happened.

First, there is a difference between what you hear or what you learn and what actually happens. In the weeks leading up to my trip to Eagle Butte, I spent my time learning about the reservation and issues that plague reservations. I figured that I had learned enough to prepare myself for what I was about to encounter. As was evident, I was wrong. I came into the situation with expectations, beliefs, and stereotypes that were pretty much crushed before the first day ended. By the end of the week, I realized that almost everything I had learned did not actually prepare for me for the whole experience. I believe that knowing this will help everyone not only in terms of Native American affairs, but in terms of the world. You may think you know something about a culture, or you may come into a certain community believing one thing, but until you have experience a culture or a community in person, you have a lot to learn. I enjoyed my experience, but it would have been helpful to know this so I could have prepared myself for it.

The second thing people should take away from this is the power of empathy and diversity. I described my experience with Larry Fiddler and how he noted that I could never truly understand the Lakota experience because I wasn't Lakota. This is where empathy comes in to play. I may never be Lakota, but I should still try to understand the issues that concern reservations and the people that live on them. If anyone ever wishes to change the world for the better, then they need a healthy amount of empathy. You cannot change the world if you do not understand how the world is affected by certain issues. Diversity is important because it is clear that the people who live on the Cheyenne River Reservation are different than the people who live in Ames, Iowa or Tampa, Florida. I’m not saying they are vastly different, but I am saying they have had different experiences than I have had, and they come from a different culture than I did. Understanding that they are different in this way will allow you to better interact with them. They respond to issues differently than most people. They interpret community different than other cultures do. If we are to help them or the Project, we must know that we are stepping into a different culture in the process even if it doesn’t seem evident from the start.

The final thing people should take away from this is that my generation and future generations have the power to help others and change the world. Larry Fiddler noted this in his talk. Future generations have the power to fix past mistakes and create a better world. Because we have that power, it is our responsibility to act on it. We have the opportunity to be defined by our actions and not the mistakes that our ancestors made. I want to move the world in the right direction. Who’s with me?