We Survived!: A Report on Our June 2018 Trip to Pine Ridge 1

Every trip we make to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has its unique challenges, and this year was no different, although some of them were fairly common by now: we had a blowout on the trailer that tore the fender off and left shredded rubber all over the road. The blowout was pretty run-of-the-mill, but the discovery that we didn’t have a tire iron that would fit the lug nuts was disappointing. We lost about four hours driving all over western Iowa and eastern Nebraska looking for someplace to get one.

We finally found a Walmart in Nebraska, thanks to Kyle Hooker’s Google skills and, after a couple miscues, finally found the truck and trailer again, and got back on the road.

We all finally made it to Lakota Prairie and got camp set up. The Davis clan (Spencer, Connie, Josiah, and Jaiken) were already there, and we had a good time reunionizing amongst our veterans and introducing the new guys (Tyler Wysong, Chavala Ymker, Debra Hunter, Kyle Hooker, and Shelley Gorin). We also went to Potato Creek to drop off all of the clothing and stuff that folks back home had donated.

Had a good Sunday. Dave and I went to Rapid City for supplies, and everybody else either went sight-seeing or just did their own thing. Got back to camp and had a good dinner, courtesy of Connie Davis. Dave and I drove to Potato Creek to check out how much mowing we needed to do for the Sundance this year. Now, I know some of you are asking, “How can you guys, as Christians, have anything to do with this pagan religious ritual?” I know this because its one of the questions I get asked most frequently. My answer is this: Love. We were commanded by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, to love one another, and care for one another. That’s what we’re trying to do. If, by doing a little mowing at the Sundance grounds, we can make camping for those folks a little more comfortable, a little more tick and snake-free, then all for the better. If by doing a little mowing, we can show these folks Christ’s love, without preaching at them, or judging them, then maybe we open a door to some of them.

Also, I’m pretty sure that at least some of them ARE Christians, already. Basically, I feel like we white Christians have given the native people of this country more than enough good reasons to hate Christianity over the last 600 years. Maybe its time to give them a reason to feel differently. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

While Dave and I were checking that out, a storm blew in. We headed back to camp to find we’d lost two tents: Dave’s tent, and the Davis family tent. Dave’s tent looked like it had tried to do a back-flip and failed to stick the landing, and the Davis tent was just crushed. We moved Dave into my tent with me and Kyle, and the Davis boys into our boy’s tent. Rusty Puckett, owner of the Lakota Prairie Ranch, came through (as always) and let Spencer and Connie stay in an empty A-frame building for the rest of the week, at no extra charge.

That’s just one of the reasons we always stay at Lakota Prairie: not only is it a very nice place, and reasonably priced, with fantastically helpful staff, Rusty and his crew have always gone above and beyond for us, not only in the area of accommodations, but in every way possible. Any time we’ve needed some piece of equipment, we’ve asked Rusty where we could find one to rent, and he’s always just said, “Well, I don’t know where you could rent one, but I’ve got one I could loan you.” Over the years, he’s loaned us welders, generators, tools, and this year, not only did he put the Davis’ up, he opened up a room he’s still working on that we were able to use as a kitchen. On top of that, we were asked if we could come up with a trailer to bring in the Sundance tree, and he loaned us a trailer, which we used, and broke, hauling the tree. He never said a word, just smiled and said, “I bet it was one of them old welds, wasn’t it.”

If you ever go to S. Dakota, I cannot recommend the Lakota Prairie Ranch and Resort highly enough. Plus, they’ve got a great restaurant.

Anyway, it stormed all night. Thankfully, there was very little rain, but I’m guessing we were getting wind gusts up to 60 mph or more. I spent most of the night awake. The wind would flatten the back side of our tent, and I’d just raise my foot to hold it up. At one point, Kyle and I both sat up simultaneously to hold it up. The peak of our tent was about 1 foot from the front door! It was quite the adventure, but we made it through without losing any more tents.

Monday morning, we sprang into action: the VBS team went to Potato Creek to do their thing, Ron and Sharon Roberts took lunch to the VBS, and did their thing of taking bags of staples (coffee, sugar, flour, beans, peanut butter, bread, etc.) around to all the houses in Potato Creek. Dave and I tackled the mowing at the Sundance. Dave did fine, and I once again demonstrated my affinity for finding unmowable stuff like tires, cinder blocks, fencing, and big wads of bailing wire. Fortunately, the Gravely is such a manly machine that there’s always somebody around who wants to give it a try, and this time was no different. A fellow named Charlie, who’d come in from New York state for the Sundance took a turn with it too.

Everything went pretty well, although the VBS ran out of food (Tyler saw one little kid eat 6 hot dogs, and Kyle saw another eat 9). Dave and I broke the crane I’d bought for loading and unloading the Gravely, with the Gravely 1/2 way up. Some of the Sundancers ran up and helped us muscle it up into the truck, and that put an end to the mowing for the week. Had another great dinner, thanks to Connie, and finished up with devotions. I spent the rest of the night frying up 10 pounds of hamburger for sloppy joes at VBS on Tuesday, and everybody else that wanted too went out to the Sundance ground to take part in a sweat (inipi). As per usual, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

Which brings me to another point about all the native culture/religion and our involvement in it: Almost every year, Chub and Wilbur have done a sweat for us, and usually, it was just for us. The last few years, however, we have been invited to take part in sweats which were part of the purification for the Sundance. It wasn’t just our people there, we were taking part in it alongside the Lakota people themselves. It’s kind of like being invited to Easter Sunday back here. It has taken years for us to build the kind of relationships with these folks, where they see us not as tourists, or evangelists throwing Jesus at them, or even plain, old do-gooders. I truly believe that many of them see us as family, just as we see them. To us they’re not some demographic, not “those poor native americans”, they’re Duane and Nancy, Chub and Marian, Flora, Agnes, Andrea, Wilbur, etc.

We are blessed pretty much every evening out there, to have many of them join us at camp for supper, and we sit and swap stories and lies, they often take part in our devotions and our own nightly rituals like Hi-Low’s.

Tuesday went pretty well, as well, although once again, the VBS ran out of food. I don’t believe we’ve ever fed so many people at lunch before, nor have they ever been so hungry. Dave, Spencer and I borrowed Rusty’s trailer, and helped to bring the Sundance tree in, with only a few minor faux-pas. It was an honor to help, and to be asked to help.

Wednesday was more of the same. I think I cooked 15 pounds of hamburger for walking tacos, and once again, I think they ran out (you’ll have to forgive me, but a lot of the week is just a blur. Dave and I kinda dropped the ball on the planning this year, and spent most of the week playing catch-up).

Thursday, we got up early and took those who wanted to go to Wounded Knee. As always, it was pretty deeply moving. Came back and loaded up for VBS, and took everybody down to the Sundance. This was the first year (that I can remember) that we were invited as a group to attend the Sundance. Previously, some individuals, like Dave, had been invited, but this year, we all were. Dave was actually invited to dance, and so we went, to not only support him, but to get a better look at the Lakota culture, and to just get to know them better (after all, can you really love them as people if you never truly get to know them?). It was pretty amazing to be part of something (even if only peripherally) that I had only read about, and I’m happy to say that our folks behaved with total respect (not that I expected anything else. This was a really great group).

One of the things that struck me was that, if our American Christianity demanded that level of personal sacrifice and dedication, our churches would probably be even more empty than they are now.

We spent about an hour at the Sundance, and left with a lot on our minds. We did our VBS, but cut it short, because it was like 106 degrees. This time, in an effort to not run out of food, I’d cooked 20 pounds of sloppy joes, which turned out to be way too much, since it was too hot for anybody to come out and eat. We bagged up all the leftovers, and took them to folk’s houses for them to have later.

We took everybody on the cross-country “shortcut” from Interior to Wanblee, and made it about 1/2 way before we found a spot where the road was washed out, with no way to get across. We back-tracked, and then ran around to the other end to take everybody to a couple of spots where you can go down the hill and right out onto the top of the badlands. It was pretty stinkin’ cool. Some of the younger ones scared me to death, bouncing around on top of those rock formations like mountain goats, but we got everybody back safely.

Thursday night, we went into the Badlands National Park for devotions and a little rock climbing. As always, it was awesome.

Friday, we packed everything up and took all of our remaining supplies to Potato Creek, where we unloaded them for anybody to take what they needed. We never bring anything perishable home. all leftovers, and unused food, water, diapers, wipes, cleaning supplies, etc. are given away to whoever needs them.

We had dinner at the Lakota Prairie Restaurant, and then went across the street to enjoy the Oglalla Lakota College’s graduation Pow-wow. As always, it was really something to see.

Saturday morning, we packed up camp, and hit the road, after getting a group picture. It was a grueling drive, and we made it to somewhere around Iowa City, where we stopped for the night. The next day wasn’t nearly as rough, until we got to Knoxville, Il, where the alternator went out on my truck. Fortunately, Dave had gotten us to a truck stop before it crapped out completely, so at least we weren’t just stuck alongside the highway. We called a tow truck, and moved everybody into the church bus to go on home. Kyle drove everybody home to my place, and then my wife, the lovely and helpful Jess, drove him back to Indy to meet up with his wife and family.

Dave and I got a hotel next to the auto shop, where we slept for about 13 hours. The shop got us fixed up and on the road, and we made it back to my place around 5. Of course, Dave still had a 3 hour drive to get home. Tyler and Austin are coming over this evening to help me unload the trailer and truck this evening, and we’ll finally be able to put “paid” to this year’s trip.

I want to take a moment to thank all of the folks who’ve supported this mission with donations of money, clothes, food, and in other ways, as well. We couldn’t do what we do, without your help. To us, you’re just as big a part of this work as those of us who are able to go on the trip, and we are deeply grateful. Thanks.

Also, if you’re interested in joining us next year, give me a holler. The dates (for those of you who like to plan ahead) are June 7-16, 2019. Dave and I promise to pull our act together and really try to be a little better organized next year (keep in mind that trying doesn’t necessarily guarantee success!).

Again, thank you all so much for all your support.