Real early on this travel morning, I went to the Black Hills first, fell in love with their ponderosa pines and was able to finally see Buffalo roaming and prairie dogs playing. Then it was back onto the plains.
I was not sure of when I was in the Black Hills or Badlands or Lakota territory. I am a product of colonial/settler perspectives and needed to look for signs.
When I came upon this sign I was a bit confused. I wasn't on the rolling pine covered hills anymore, which I would call grasslands. I also wasn't quite on the reservation yet either. If I were with hubby, I may have stopped and searched for rare and precious Fairburn agates, but I wasn't and I didn't. I drove on.
These I am guessing are the Southwestern edges of Badlands National Park, which is co-managed with the Oglala Lakota. I remember how afraid I used to feel as a kid whenever I first heard the words "badlands." Once again, if I had time or was on another pilgrimage I may have gone off to find the black-footed ferret, who through conservation efforts, were successfully reintroduced to the area. But I didn't seek, I drove on.
Finally... a place I have been wanting to visit for a very, very long time.
Oglala Lakota Nation for a quick overview
This article is written from an outside perspective and does not represent the Oglala Lakota Nation. It aims to provide an accurate and respectful overview based on historical and public sources.
Oglala Lakota are one of the 3 main Plains area groups of Indigenous People who historically were known to be nomadic and hunters of the buffalo.
The homelands of the Oglala Lakota are now defined by the government as being the Pine Ridge Reservation, an area of almost 11,000 square miles.
As I came further South on Rt. 18, a water tower and buildings came into view.
The entrance to this school had a mixture of old, newish, and newer. All Catholic once upon a time (1888-1980), by the 1960's the dormitories began to close, and by 2019 leadership was Lakota with many of the staff having attended the school. I am still undecided on whether that is a good or not-so-good a thing.
It was hard to discern the different entities on this campus and here is an example why. This newish looking sign, that is identified in the left bottom corner as Red Cloud School, is posted up in front of the oldest, and hence religious building. The Heritage Center is still marked as being in this building. I didn't get to go into any buildings as the campus was empty.
This Jesuit building began as the Holy Rosary Mission in 1887 set up to serve the government's assimilation policy, it took in children removed from their families and attempted to erase their Indigenous ways and culture. This was the original building where both classrooms and the dormitory was.
As in all the other stops, this Indian Boarding School also has its fair share of controversy. Check this one out if you have the inclination (from 2023, the same time the school changed its name to Maȟpíya Lúta):
There are allegations of harsh treatment, and some call this place (and many boarding schools in fact) a "perpetrator institution." Others, have several generations of Indigenous families that attended and thought the education beneficial. As seen from just these pictures alone, there is quite a bit of overlap.
From the current school:
This site contains a video, a "Truth and Healing Radio Hour" episodes, and lauds the inconclusive search for child graves as conclusive. The current school states:
"We recognize we can never authentically serve our community, or honor our own staff members, students and families, parishioners, and artists with whom we partner, if we do not first openly and humbly address the tragic injustices in our past."
10/2022
In the second half of a two-part collaboration with ICT (formerly Indian Country Today), members of the Pine Ridge community put pressure on the Catholic Church to share information about the boarding school it ran on the reservation.
The link is to an article from 9/2023 and as you can see the center was not done when I visited.
The grave of this famous war chief lies 200 feet East of this sign. He was born in 1822 near the forks of the Platte River in Nebraska. He was named Red Cloud from the ball of fire meteorite which passed over Sioux country from west to east and was observed at Fort Snelling Minnesota the night of September 20, 1822. Red Cloud was an Oglala Sioux of the Bear people band of “ Badfaces”. His family had no tradition of Chieftain ship, but he became a great war chief counting coups. He represented the fighting Sue from 1865 to 1870. in 1858, Red Cloud and warriors killed 30 Crow Warriors and their Chief Little Rabbit. Chief Red Cloud and Chief Man Afraid Of His Horses walked out of the Fort Laramie Treaty Council where in Red Cloud spoke, “ I will kill every Soldier or white man who goes north of Crazy Woman's Fork.” they took their Sioux bands to the Powder River Country.
In the summer of 1866, Col. Henry B Carrington opened Bozeman Trail to Montana goldfields and built 3 Forts; Fort Reno on Powder River, Fort Phil Kearney (18 miles south of Sheridan Wyoming), and Fort CF Smith in the Big Horn Mountains. this Army Act caused 1866 to be the “Bloody year on the plains,” and precipitated the Red Cloud war of 1866 to 1868. Chief Red Cloud and his Warriors close the Bozeman Trail and attacked Fort Phil Kearney 51 times.
On December 21, 1866 Red Cloud used the great young War Chief Crazy Horse to decoy to their doom Captain William J Fetterman and 80 men of his command who had been sent to rescue a wood train. the Warriors under Chief’s Hump , Sword, DullKnife, He Dog, Short Bull and Black Elk Charged Captain Fetterman, killing all of the 81 men. on August to, 1867, under Red Cloud, Chiefs Crazy Horse and Hump attacked captain Jay and Powell's wood cutters in the “Wagon Box Fight.” This fight resulted in Red Cloud being recognized as the leader of the several thousand hostile Sue Warriors and as speaking for the Sioux Nation.
HB Damon of the Indian office reported the United States could either make peace with Red Cloud or flood the country with troops. This resulted in the Sioux Treaty of April 29th, 1868, whereby the United States made peace on the terms of the enemy giving Red Cloud (Article 2) the whole state of South Dakota as a reservation. (Article 16) “ US troops would abandon Bosman Trail and leave three military posts (which Red Cloud burned). the country north of the North Platte River and east of the Summits of the Big Horn mountains Shelby unseeded Indian Territory where no white person shall be permitted.” Red Cloud signed the 1868 treaty on November 6th, 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. After Red Cloud touched the pen he and Crazy Horse and their wild bands disappeared into the unseated Powder River Indian Territory to live and hunt.
When War Chief Red Cloud returned from the Powder River Country in 1870 he became an advocate of peace. However, he retained his arms and War making capacity. with spotted tail and others he went to Washington in June 1870, and tried to get the government to live up to their treaty obligations. Upon his return he lived at the first Red Cloud agency located in 1871 one mile west of Henry Nebraska; Next at the second Red Cloud agency in 1873, which was located near Fort Robinson Nebraska. In 1874 Col. George a Custer's expedition to the Black Hills opened a trail called “Thieves Road” by the Sioux, which together with the finding of gold in Paha Sapa spelled the end of the Sioux ownership of the Black Hills.
Indian Agent Dr. Saville in November 1874, began the first Oglala Sue Indian count over the objections raised by Chief Red Cloud. In December 1875, the Interior Department called all Indians living in unceded Indian Territory to come to reservations on the Missouri by January 31, 1876 or be considered “Hostile.” Sue Warrior incidents provoked by the government breaking the Sioux Treaty of 1868, resulted in the Army taking over the Sioux Indian agencies from the Indian office in 1876. The Army began full scale War. The Sioux lost the Black Hills by signed treaty in August 1876, Red Cloud and other Chiefs signing under duress. on October 24th, 1876 Col. McKenzie disarmed Chief Red Cloud near Chadron Nebraska And brought the band into Fort robinson, thus ending red clouds final resistance. Henceforth he worked for peace.
Red Cloud move to the Pine Ridge agency, territory of Dakota in 1878 which was established for the agOglalal Sioux. He lived here until his death on December 10, 1909.
I did not go any further up the dirt road to the cemetery b/c it was in pretty rough shape. Here is a bit more on Red Cloud:The famous Oglala Lakota leader Red Cloud (Makhíya 'Usin) died of natural causes at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on December 10, 1909, at the age of 87, after a long life as a warrior and diplomat who fought to protect Native American lands. He lived to see his people confined to reservations, famously lamenting that the government kept only one promise: to take their land.
Holy Rosary Church is one of several Roman Catholic church sites on the reservation that is run by this group (with six active churches and three active missions, the pastoral ministry programming serves more than 800 families on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation).
The original church burned in a fire in 1996 and this church was replaced in 1998 with the current one.
This campus is still a Catholic School Campus. There is one other Catholic School on the reservation (an elementary school), in Porcupine. I think this site has the high and middle school.
At twelve o'clock noon of this date the cornerstone of the School House at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was laid, and the following named Sioux Chiefs were present: Red Cloud, Red Dog, American Horse, Little Wound, Lone Bear, Slow Bull, and Old Man Afraid of His Horses. The Oglala Sioux, under Red Cloud, are in a peaceable and well disposed condition, and the sentiment of the tribe is, and has been, that they particularly want their children, "educated in the English Language. Education, intelligence, and virtue when acquired make every people strong."
This was the first school established by the Fed. Government. It was called the Oglala Indian Training School; is now known as Pine Ridge School + is run by the Bureau of Indian Education. Pine Ridge School is now located on the west end of Pine Ridge Village. There is a high school building that was built in 1995, a two-story building that houses K-12 grades, a boys and girls dormitory, a dining facility, and several other buildings as well as school housing. Now the school has over 1,000 students. Below is the only current picture I could find of Pine Ridge School, despite a lengthy scroll.
They even have a daycare AND Teacher housing! They have struggled with getting teachers to the new school (it's that isolated thing again).
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