beyond description
So I'm back from my South Dakota reservation adventure. For those fans who have not recently tuned in, I took a trip with a high school youth group to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for a week. We drove all the way there and back....I don't recommend driving. Now that I'm back I have a variety of mixed emotions, and I'm not quite sure if I will ever think the same. The poverty level on the rez reminded me of Honduras and I kept expecting the people to speak spanish. The sadness and anger are overwhelming sometimes.
The camp that we stayed at was only 4 miles from the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre...it's a very sad story in which the US cavalry basically slaughtered most of a band from the Lakota Souix tribe and left them to die in a blizzard. Even though Wounded Knee happened over 100 years ago, the pain is still a reality for many of the people living there. I heard the story every day for a week. Just imagine the pain and resentment that builds after generations of being inundated with such a tradgedy. It would be like someone from Manhattan watching the twin towers fall every day on video and then having to live in an Arab or Islamic state of captivity. It's revolting some of the things that the US government did to the indigenous people while "winning the west." I understand that our freedom comes at a cost, but how can anyone do such a thing and decide it was just in any sense?
But there is hope on the rez. There are people there who speak the language of the Lakota nation, and who teach the ways to their children. There are people who have jobs and who support their families. There are healthy families on the rez that love and care and support one another. But there are unproportioned amounts of unhappy or apathetic souls who wander jobless on the highways or abuse their families. There is pain so deep that sometimes I just had to cry because it was beyond description. I pray that hope and justice come quickly to these people...may God use me in any way possible to help bring that about.
The camp that we stayed at was only 4 miles from the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre...it's a very sad story in which the US cavalry basically slaughtered most of a band from the Lakota Souix tribe and left them to die in a blizzard. Even though Wounded Knee happened over 100 years ago, the pain is still a reality for many of the people living there. I heard the story every day for a week. Just imagine the pain and resentment that builds after generations of being inundated with such a tradgedy. It would be like someone from Manhattan watching the twin towers fall every day on video and then having to live in an Arab or Islamic state of captivity. It's revolting some of the things that the US government did to the indigenous people while "winning the west." I understand that our freedom comes at a cost, but how can anyone do such a thing and decide it was just in any sense?
But there is hope on the rez. There are people there who speak the language of the Lakota nation, and who teach the ways to their children. There are people who have jobs and who support their families. There are healthy families on the rez that love and care and support one another. But there are unproportioned amounts of unhappy or apathetic souls who wander jobless on the highways or abuse their families. There is pain so deep that sometimes I just had to cry because it was beyond description. I pray that hope and justice come quickly to these people...may God use me in any way possible to help bring that about.
posted by Juliet at
10:00 AM
2 Comments:
Stories like these make it very hard for me to be happy about being an American. Whats even harder is learning how involved Christians were in stories like these. This isn't some middle ages crusade stuff, this is in our backyard and not that long ago. Its only a matter of time or crisis that these things will repeat themselves again in some form. Unfortunately, Christians will probably be right there in the middle again, little learned from past mistakes.
By
Anonymous, at 3:50 PM
The fact is that there are just a lot of people who are "Christians" or claim Christ, but do not live peaceful lives. It is unfortunate but true that fallen people make up the kingdom on earth. We can only do the best we can do live peaceful lives with love and compassion and to help those who have been harmed by others.
By
Juliet, at 10:45 AM
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