Page 35 - 2022 July Report

Resilience
South Dakota trip report (3)
accounts. This is the only depository financial institution on the reservation – and also the first place many of their members have started a savings and/or checking account. They have recently started mortgage lending as well and homebuyer education was being conducted upstairs when we arrived. The mortgage lending operation is run out of the Oglala Lakota Artspace – our next stop after the Burrito place by the Lakota Trade Center. We quickly grabbed some lunch there on our way to the Oglala Lakota Artspace – again across from the OLC Piya Wiconi campus.
The Oglala Lakota Artspace (OLA) is an LLC with four partners – First Peoples Fund, Lakota Funds, Lakota Federal Credit Union, and Artspace. Artspace is a national organization that does only construction of spaces for artists around the country – some with gallery and studio space and some includes living space as well. Artspace will manage the OLA and First Peoples Fund does the programming. Both Lakota Funds and LFCU are tenants in the building. The building was completed in early 2021 and we’ve been anxious to hold a grand opening but have been unable to with COVID.
The space includes artist studios, training rooms, performance space, equipment rooms like quilting machines, pottery wheels, and two recording studios. FPF also has an office there for four staff who do the programming including the “Dances with Words” youth spoken word program. It also is the base for the Rolling Rez Mobile Arts bus which was an FPF purchase a few years before the construction of the OLA. Because the reservation is so large, the bus goes around on a schedule for training, with artist supplies, for performances and the LFCU uses it for mobile banking. The building has many aspects that are symbolic of the culture. The sculpture outside the front was a collaboration of four artists and is a reflection of Lakota star knowledge and includes symbols of four sacred places. The Lakota words of the Morning Song are cut-outs in parts of the outdoor design that are reflected onto the building and the floor.
From there we headed to Pine Ridge village – the seat of tribal government and the site of the Red Cloud School on the outskirts. On the way we stopped at the Wounded Knee Memorial. Here is a link (https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee) to additional information on the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and the 1973 American Indian Movement 71 day takeover.
We took a brief ride through Pine Ridge village. There are now two traffic lights! Then we went on to Red Cloud campus which houses the schools, Heritage Center, Holy Rosary Church, cemetery, and staff housing. Here is the link (https://www.redcloudschool.org/page.aspx?pid=429) to learn more about the school’s history. Mary Maxon, the executive director of the Heritage Center, met us in the gift shop/gallery area where the 54th Red Cloud Art Show was going on. Ashley Pourier, the archivist, took us through about five rooms of the “collection” which is a combination of the things Brother Simon collected and other donations. Brother Simon was the founder of the Heritage Center. They are working on a campaign for the construction of a building to better house the collection as it now resides in the building originally built in 1882 – so not ideal conditions for many of the art pieces and artifacts. We also visited the cemetery as that is where my grandparents and other relatives are buried. Red Cloud is also buried there. We did have a quick visit with Tashina as she was able to make it back from a board retreat before we left.
We then headed back to Rapid City with a visit to Red Shirt Table which offers a beautiful vista of part of the Badlands. Needless to say it was an exhausting but very full two plus days.
33