
Wanblee, South Dakota
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Volume 3, Issue 12
July 25, 2008
-Life On The Rez-
…an outsider looking in…
The sky fades from pink to plum as the guttural sounds of Oglala Lakota Sioux Indians fill the air, calling to the their ancestors of long ago. The shimmering adornment and flowing capes, the bells on feet and gown, the rhythmic, pulsating movement of men, women, and children as they dance to celebrate who they are and where they came from. This is life on “The Rez.”

Tonight marks the beginning of the annual Wanblee Powwow, a celebration of Oglala Lakota Indians. As an outsider allowed a glimpse of storied tradition and rich heritage, I view the dance with honorable respect. A people group I know little about, but now have become my neighbors. I am a guest living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Wanblee, South Dakota. This is my life. I am blessed.
I arrived one week ago amidst the plains of the Midwest, where wheat and rolling hills seem endless - a vast conglomerate of ranchers, cowboys, and Indians. A historic and time honored land, where the Black Hills collide with the Badlands, where white meets Lakota, where Pow-Wows and rodeos coexist, where thick grass buttress towering rock, where Mount Rushmore reigns and Crazy Horse is taking form – this is southwestern South Dakota, a place of beauty, rich history, geological wonder, and endless fascination.

I continue to thank God for the experiences he has allowed me to have, humbling me through the sites of long-standing oppression, despair, and hopelessness – teaching me to look beyond my own surroundings and ever increasing my knowledge that the world is not right. God did not create humanity to exist in malodorous disharmony, but sin and satan’s snares have wreaked their havoc. I long for Heaven and the coming of Christ, when wrongs will be made right and satan’s ensnaring hand will be no more.


-Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment