The Experience in Eagle Butte

Last week, I spent my entire Spring Break in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. What was I doing there? I was helping out the Cheyenne River Youth Project. This project is located on a Lakota Indian reservation, and I went there as part of an alternative spring breaks program at my college. A great deal of stuff happened while I was there, and I’ve decided to blog about it over the next five days.

Overall, I loved my experience there. I learned new things, acquired wise advice, and bonded with some cool people. If I had not gone on the trip, I would have just spent my time at home. This was a more productive use of my time, and it is probably one of the most important things I will ever do in my life (I’m probably exaggerating). I have numerous things to say about my trip, but I guess I should start with where I volunteered.

I volunteered at the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte. This organization was founded 25ish years ago in order to help the youth in Eagle Butte. What many people fail to realize is that the youth on reservations are at risk due to issues such as gang activity, poverty, and educational issues. I did not realize this until a short while ago. All of these issues are important to understand because they affect everyone on a reservation including the young people. I’m not saying every reservation has these issues, but they still exist on some reservations. The Project in Eagle Butte has been designed to provide activities for teenagers and little kids alike in order to prevent nefarious activities from going on in the community. Nobody wants to see wasted potential occur with anyone, and I believe that the project can help to insure that most of the students do healthy activities that will not ruin their chances at a great future.

Other aspects of the Project include the fact that many colleges and high schools visit the area to help as well. This can result in issues that I will get to in another post. The Project has a gym where teenagers can play games (mostly basketball) at night, they recently hosted a “Passion for Fashion” night, and they have libraries and an art room. All of these aspects combine to show the true nature of the Project: to help teenagers feel welcome and encouraging growth. The Project also has an afternoon drop off session for little kids where they can learn, play, and have a small dinner. It was a joy working with the little kids even if they were a little brutal at times. Finally, the Project does try to help the community by offering family services. This service allows those in the community to request items that the Project may or may not carry. The Project has a warehouse that I saw. It is pretty big, but it does not carry everything. Still, families do utilize it and seem relatively happy about it.

I will get to what I learned and what exactly happened in later posts, but overall, I enjoyed the experience. There were some ways in which I felt the Project could have been improved, and there were times when I disagreed with practices or philosophy. However, this should not take away from my experience. It was a great experience. I learned a vast amount of new information, and I would gladly do it again. Hopefully, I can do it again this summer as a volunteer. It would allow me to gain hands on experience working with young adults which is what I want to do as a counselor in the future.

This is my first post of my experience in Eagle Butte. I feel I should also link to the website in case any of the readers want to help as well.  http://www.lakotayouth.org/