Crow Creek Reservation

. . . expressing the intuitive with perfect confidence

Keeping Bonds Strong Between Elders and Youth

Posted by ike
/ May 15, 2011 / 1 Comment

The isolated Crow Creek Reservation has few resources to stop the epidemic of suicide that is stealing their young—and the future of the tribe. While nobody has the funds to hire professionals full-time and year round, through the Grandmother to Grandmother project that I hope to implement one day soon, there is a possibility of bringing experts on to the reservation for a short time so they might share what they know. They can arm the population of elders (traditionally looked to for assistance in family crises) with instruction and a degree of competence in recognizing signs to protect youths from self-destructive behaviors, including the worst, suicide.
Taking the Cross-Cultural ‘Give Away’ to New Heights

Posted by ike
/ May 5, 2011 / 1 Comment

This winter as incredible snows swept the northern prairie, I sat in my warm Texas home and prayed people in the tribe survive the far below freezing temperatures. In fact, I spent most of my time this winter thinking about what more can be done for Hunkpati families. Of course, I want to continue providing monies for crisis intervention and stabilization of families, but along with my students who are board members of New Earth CH and Red Horse Connections TX, I hope to help launch a new level of effort to strengthen traditional leadership among grandparents and prevent youth suicides on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation. So consulting some of the grandparents in the tribe about the most pressing needs to address, I designed a small program that I affectionately call the Grandmother to Grandmother Project.
Crow Creek Culture—Crumbling at the Roots

Posted by ike
/ March 24, 2011 / 2 Comments

The Crow Creek Sioux are members of the Great Sioux Nation which refers to its people as Dakota meaning friend or ally. The word Sioux comes from the Ojibway word Nadowesioux- little snake or enemy. French traders and trappers who worked with the Ojibway people shortened this word to Sioux, which the United States government adopted.
Crow Creek Reservation’s Economic Woes

Posted by ike
/ March 14, 2011 / 1 Comment

It struck me as I went the US government Census reports for 2000 and 2010 in order to gather information on the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, how ridiculous it is to accept the government’s statistics as facts. The accuracy of any documented figures—no matter what agency gathers them—is always suspect, in my opinion. And I am not alone in this. As far back as 1996, when writing their own reports to submit to the US government officials, tribal staff identified “insufficient monetary and personnel resources to perform baseline data gathering functions that enable the quantification of problems and resources.” Still, some things can be shared about the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. Just keep in mind it all must be taken with at least a tiny grain of salt
Origins of the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation

Posted by ike
/ February 22, 2011 / Leave a comment

The Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation, including the Crow Creek or Hunkpati, signed treaties in 1824, 1851, 1863 and 1868 with the United States government to establish land boundaries and recognize tribes as sovereign entities with their own governing councils. Unfortunately, the US began violating these treaties immediately by demanding that the Dakota move to government proclaimed reservations which grew smaller with each treaty. Unwilling to comply, the Great Sioux Nation scattered, many fled to Canada where they hid out. That is until officials in Washington DC made a deal with the Canadian government to roust them from their hiding places and have the tribal families escorted by the mounted police back across the US border. These Native people became one of the first groups to inhabit the Crow Creek Reservation. But they were by no means the only ones. The last Dakota ‘colony’ to be set aside by the US, this reservation became the government’s ‘dumping grounds’ for any native in the northern plains deemed a “renegade” or unruly according to the military leaders in charge.
Taking a Place among the Elders

Posted by ike
/ January 25, 2011 / 5 Comments

One year ago, my best friend in the Tribe died. In the Dakota culture, the one year anniversary of a death is as important as the passage itself. Death is thought of as a long process, not an event that takes place over a few minutes time. And the one year anniversary is considered the end of a person’s passing. During and after this year of dying, I must avoid speaking her name so that she is not called back to me. Instead, I am to talk about her by using our relationship: honorary sisters and best friends. That is what I will do here.