Lakota reservation reflections

I WAS FIRST IN SOUTH DAKOTA in 2005. I returned in May 2006 for a service immersion trip with a small group of Temple University students. It was then that I met a gaggle of friends from the Lakota Rosebud reservation near White River, S.D. It has led to lots of adventures, including two years and nearly 600 miles of hitchhiking, but that’s for another day.

Since Monday I’ve been traveling back there again and, if all went correctly, I should be in White River now. Check Google Maps here.

Read my reflections after first interacting in an American Indian community two years ago.

This region of Dakota’s limitless expansion is only interrupted by flurries of elevation change. Once on ground, the pavement of interstate 90 appeared to have tamed the land into a consumable table of gentle slopes and caressing ridges. All of which leads me to offer muddled explanations of the region’s geographical features: endless plains with small, yet punctuated elevation changes interjected regularly.  Read more here.

2 thoughts on “Lakota reservation reflections”

  1. Chris,
    I’ve read a fair share of Native American literature and some of my favorite poets and authors come from out West. See: Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdich and Leslie Marmon Silko. I had the privilege of seeing Alexie at the Free Library. His anecdotes are so funny that he could pass for a stand-up comedian, but he is able to simultaneously address the deeper issues at stake on reservations and for the Native American community. Good luck in South Dakota!

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