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MCC History with the Oglala LakotaIn 1973, Lawrence Hart, a Mennonite minister and Cheyenne from Clinton, Oklahoma, briefed MCC Executive Committee on the conflict happening on the Pine Ridge Reservation among factions including the American Indian Movement, tribal government, the U.S. Department of Justice and Bureau of Indian Affairs as he understood it. Lawrence was a newly elected member of the Executive Committee at the time. He encouraged MCC to investigate the needs of the Lakota people who had been forced out of their homes in Wounded Knee. Virgil Claassen from the MCC Clothing Center at North Newton, Kansas and Nelson Hostetter, who was then in Rapid City, South Dakota, went to investigate the needs on Pine Ridge. Federal roadblocks prevented them from entering Wounded Knee, but they estimated that 65 people had left their homes in Wounded Knee and were living in church basements and with other families on the reservation. MCC donated blankets, food and money to the Lakota people who had been displaced by the conflict. In September of 1973, after the Wounded Knee Standoff was over, Mennonite Disaster Service began home repairs and reconstruction in the Wounded Knee community in cooperation with the Pine Ridge Ministerium, the Tribal and District Councils as a joint MCC and MDS program. They were officially invited by the Mennonite Brethren Rev. Ted Standing Elk, of Porcupine's Lakota Gospel Fellowship, and Rev. Earl Hedlund of the Pine Ridge Gospel Fellowship. After three months of MDS work, MCC would be sensitive to expressions of need for longer-term community development work. A November 16 MCC News Service report states that Mennonite Disaster Service was forced to end the program of home repair on November 10, due to snow and freezing winds, having completed work on 20 homes. Not until 1990 did MCC resume a partnership with the Lakota. During that summer and following summers, MCC supported ten-week summer service assignments for several young people from the Pine Ridge and Porcupine communities through the Mennonite Brethren churches. Assignments initially included daily vacation Bible School, youth work and carpentry. In fall of that year, MCC was contacted by these congregations regarding possible expansion of involvement. In the summer of 1992, the first voluntary service workers from off the reservation arrived. MCC has since partnered with local grass roots, tribal and non-profit agencies to support community development projects with community leadership. MCC's original mandate from local congregations and the tribal government was to to assist in areas of youth work, economic development, housing and later peacebuilding. Throughout the years, MCC's work has followed the direction of community members and partner organizations. MCC has partnered with a wide variety of organizations doing work to benefit the community. In youth work, MCC has partnered with the SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club of America, Pine Ridge Youth Coalition, 4-H Club in Porcupine, Little League baseball, the Porcupine Day School, Wakanyeja Pawicayapi (Put the Children First) and various community and church youth programs. The MCC Summer Service program (later replaced by the MCC OLN Partners in Employment program) and the Lakota Fund have focused on economic development concerns. Habitat for Humanity and straw bale and rammed earth housing grass roots initiatives have partnered with MCC to work in the area of housing. Wolakota Kagapi, a local peacebuilding group, the Rapid City Center for Restorative Justice, Oglala Lakota College, South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, Indigenous Issues Forums, and grass roots initiatives have built relationships with MCC to work toward peace and against racism. More recently, MCC has partnered with Lakota Action Network, Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way), Fire on the Prairie, and Defenders of the Black Hills to work on issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and decolonization. There are many more partners that have not been mentioned here, and we apologize for their omission. We thank all of our partners for the opportunity to work together. This is a nation where Christian people from the dominant culture are not readily trusted. MCC has worked hard to establish a positive presence here, based on respectful dialogue, partnering on issues of common concern, and humility. We do not claim to have the answers to problems that the Lakota have been working more than a century to undo. Many people here believe that their problems are the effects of oppression by the dominant culture. We have been asked to stand with the Lakota people as they work toward true sovereignty, reclaiming their land and culture. MCC is often asked to be a voice for the Lakota people here, to advocate on their behalf in the dominant culture, especially in the government, and to educate Mennonite constituents and others from non-aboriginal backgrounds regarding the issues they face.
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Friday, September 5, 2008 |