If She Can Do It, You Can Too

Tomorrow, I am going to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a home for the Oglala Lakota tribe. You might have heard about this place: it was the place where the Wounded Knee Massacre took place in 1890 and a place where Wounded Knee Incident began: the 71-day stand-off between American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and FBI agents and the National Guard in 1973. The northern part of the reservation overlaps with the southern part of Badlands National Park called Stronghold Unit. The Unit is co-managed by the National Park Service and the tribe. During the World War II, the unit was used to conduct bombing practices. It wasn’t until 1968 when the Congress turned that portion of the land over to the tribe, the park, and the Forest Service.

I found Doris Respect Nothing (French mistranslated her last name. If translates correct, it would be Fear Nothing), an Oglala Lakota activist who has been working to protect this portion of the land and animals. She said, “Buffalo and Prairie Dogs are both vital to our lives.” She passionately described how she has been playing a role to give voice for those who can’t speak up for themselves. “It means to also include these animals. They can’t speak up for themselves,” said Doris.

I am extremely excited about this opportunity. It is because I am going to throw myself into a place where there is so much of deep Native American history that I never had a chance to study. I will learn their story from them, not by the text books that we have at school. It is because I get to work with someone like Doris who rises above the poverty of the poorest reservation of the United States. She symbolizes a hope in and out of her community. And I already know that there are more women like her in the community.

So, here I go again, looking into a new episode of my project.