secton 3 of Part One

Part One still continued....December 10-14, 1992

We drove through the Black Hills and was overwhelmed with it’s beauty. In the winter with snow on the evergreens photos made looked as though they had been shot in black and white. Being from Florida, we had never seen such a beautiful sight. And for me, I had never really seen snow, at least none in these amounts. I had never seen deer in such numbers or ever an antelope. Of course the song immediately came to mind, “Home, Home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play…” we were in awe. We found Highway 18 going East and headed toward Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. After a drive of fifteen miles or so, we came to the sign declaring we were about to enter the Pine Ridge Reservation, a nation within a nation. It’s own Tribal Laws, it’s own police and very, very few white people as we were soon to realize. We stopped and made pictures and wondered what it was we were about to experience.

We drove the vastness of the open plains seeing smatterings of old house trailers, run down houses and dodging stray dogs. We drove through the community of Oglala, then number 4 (as we have always known it) and then into Pine Ridge where we stopped at the one and only place we found, ‘Big Bats Conaco Station’. There you could fill your gas tank have a one of the BEST sub sandwiches or chicken strips, coffee, and JoJo’s. We did learn to love to hang out at Big Bats with a good cup of coffee, spit a sub sandwich and an order of JoJo’s.

We felt very ‘intimidated’ being the only white faces among a vast room of Native Americans. You could ‘feel’ they were NOT impressed with our presence and it didn’t take me long to realize I didn’t quite fit in this place. We made our purchases and headed toward “White Clay” just across the state line of SD and Nebraska. There where more alcohol is sold than Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska combined. You have to understand, Shannon County, the whole of Pine Ridge Reservation, is a ‘’dry county’’ meaning they aren’t allowed to SELL alcohol on the reservation, thus all who consume this drug of choice fill this little spot across the state line to purchase alcohol and all those who ‘bootleg’ it to the surrounding communities of Pine Ridge. It was so, so, so very cold and there were 55 gallon drums dotting the landscape with a burning fire for those trying to stay warm. Many were lying on the sidewalks huddled together trying to stay warm. Others just walking and wondering around with no place to go. Once we moved and began our ministry on Pine Ridge, we learned more and more of the lives and families of those who frequented White Clay. We drove through, made our ‘’U-Turn” and headed on down highway 18 to see more of Pine Ridge Reservation.

and moving right along continuing on with PART ONE....