My Nonprofit Reviews

Partnership with Native Americans
And how our community works with them
As I set here and drink my ceyaka (peppermint tea) locally harvested I want to first explain a bit about my community so that one can understand the workings and challenges that PWNA has had to work with.
First our community, Wanblee lies within the District of Eagle Nest and located on the north east corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Wambli means eagle in Lakota. And there is a very long, prominent butte, called Eagle Nest Butte. It is a historical and spiritual site. The altar of Horn Chipps was located here. He was the medicine man for Crazy Horse. We have approximately 338,000 acres within the district. The land base is extremely checker boarded and fractionated. We vote in an executive board that is comprised of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer and a Parliamentarian. We also vote in two council representatives that sit on the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. There are two subcommunities Pass Creek and Hisle. There are three different types of housing within the district, a private non-profit project, a school housing project and a few Oglala Lakota Sioux Housing projects. Each housing project have approximately one acre of space available for growing. We have one of the four elementary/high schools on Pine Ridge, Crazy Horse School. We have a IHS clinic, an Oglala Lakota College Center, a OST food distribution program, a few non-profits, mainly churches, and one privately owned grocery/convenience store. There are approximately 2,500 residents and about 92 jobs. Approximately 50 of these jobs are held by non-community members. We have a high unemployment rate and high rate of poverty and food insecurity and land loss is well known amongst our residents.
It all began with attending a Wanblee Community Action Team (WCAT) meeting. Ms. Phyllis Swift Hawk, GED Educator with Oglala Lakota College hosted and was addressing safety and preparedness for the community. She was the one who first invited PWNA into the community as a partner. I brought forward the idea of food sovereignty to the meeting. Mr. Raphael Tapia was at the meeting and we asked if we could put together a grant application based on preservation and preparation as opposed to tilling and garden preparation. We did. And with the support of PWNA, Laura Shad, we begin doing some traditional plant balm making with both adults and youth. We received testimony from a man with diabetes that said he had something like a sore or raw spot on his arm and what ever he treated it with it just wouldn’t heal. He attended our balm making and made some balm. He was curious and believed it wouldn’t hurt to try. He said immediately, within days, his spot began to clear up. We were so pleased to hear this and to be able to share that these medicines grew right in our back yards and that the balm wasn’t petroleum based.
The partnership began to have ripple effects as more partners were brought forward. We began by providing seeds and presentations on our natural plants/medicines. Because of this valuable partnership we were able to provide trainings on foods and food preparation. We hosted a cooking class and learned from a local chef, which PWNA brought to our community, how to cook, how to cut meats and prepare healthy foods. We presented on food preservation, which included dehydration, pressure canning, and ultimately, we were approved to purchase a freeze dryer. This is one of only two freeze dryers on the reservation. This freeze dryer answers so many of our local needs. Space for storage of food, nutritional content of preserved food, and availability of a awesome machine that will help us do this. We also planted a garden at the college center and had the youth sink their hands in the soil. Some fresh green beans were prepared for the youth and he said he never tasted such good beans. He never had fresh, out of the garden food before. He only purchased from the store. This partnership was and is very instrumental in our community journeying down the road of food security.
We were able to attend the youth food summit, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We were able to present on a lot of the local plants/medicines that are available to us. We also utilized these to make a lip balm for the students. Ms. Phyllis Swift Hawk also presented on the sacredness and connection to the root nation, the four legged nation, the winged nation. This was a very impressive presentation and discussion. The youth are very fortunate that PWNA recognized the value in community history and indigenous knowledge. This was a very impressive summit where the youth were provided an opportunity to mingle amongst each other and learn this traditional ecological knowledge.
In closing my review is and can only be positive and supportive of PWNA. They have come to our community, maintain a very respectful demeanor, have supported our ideas and dreams, have helped us to create partnerships with many local resources and have inspired us to continue to dream and to continue to bring resources to us. We are hopeful for moving forward with a high tunnel that we hope to grow thousands of pounds of vegetables. We also hope that we can look at creating a community cellar that will serve three seasonal purposes. First as an underground green house, then as a storm shelter when plants are moved out, then as a storage for food when the storm season is over.
Without PWNA we would still be talking about these things. It is the continued presence of showing up and also holding us accountable that makes this partnership successful and has allowed it to grow. We look forward to a continued partnership that allows us to dream, to be food secure, to recognize our own indigenous knowledge and continue to ensure our community has this knowledge in the future. Thank You Partnership with Native Americans-Raphael, Laura and Joe. These are the individuals that we work with and they do a super job!!!!!