Home > Missions > Lakota Mission Team

Contents:
About the Lakota Mission Team
2010 Lakota Mission Trip
2009 Lakota Mission Trip
2008 Lakota Mission Trip
2006 Lakota Mission Trip
2005 Lakota Mission Trip

About the Lakota Mission Team

The Lakota Mission Team works on home and community facility construction and renovation projects and provides activities for children on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Sioux tribe, in South Dakota. The Oglala Sioux have a rich spiritual and cultural history, but the Reservation is one of the poorest communities in the U.S. Unemployment hovers at 75-85%, and the average annual income is $8,000. Alcoholism, diabetes and suicide are rampant. Overall, American Indians have the lowest income, highest unemployment, shortest lifespan, poorest housing and education, and greatest infant mortality rate of any group in the county.

Each year, The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church [goodshepherdva.com] in Vienna, Virginia, sponsors a mission trip to the reservation. Visit their Lakota Mission Team page for more information, a Lakota team newsletter, and photos of previous trips.

Use these links to earn more about the Oglala Sioux and Pine Ridge Reservation: (note: these links will take you off Covenant's website. Covenant does not necessarily recommend or endorse the content on these sites, and provides the links as an informational service only)
Oglala Sioux home page [comcast.net]
Pine Ridge Reservation [wikipedia.org]
Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation [friendsofpineridgereservation.org]

WAKAN TANKA ISTA ETAN IYUHA OWANJILA HEUNCAPI
(In God's Eyes We All Are One)

2010 Lakota Mission Trip

2009 Lakota Mission Trip

Bob Ide and Annelise Stonebraker will travel to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, July 4 –12, on a work camp mission.

The reservation, home to about 15,000 Lakota Sioux, occupies 3,468 square miles of desolate landscape with little economic opportunity.

Work –campers typically repair roofs and decks, build wheelchair ramps, paint, and do other maintenance on local housing. The mission team works with the tribal council and other key leaders to identify the projects to be tackled during the week.

Bob and Annelise will travel with 17 others, most from Church of the Good Shepherd in Vienna, Virginia. The program is in its fifteenth year. This will be the fifth trip to Pine Ridge for Bob and the first for Annelise.

Annelise recounts looking forward to youth work camps when she was still too young to go. She seized this opportunity after the youth took a break from group work camp weeks. She caught the excitement for the Lakota mission from her brother, Gabe, and Luke Lowery, who had gone in recent years.

When asked about her expectations for the trip, hot weather and doing whatever work was assigned were Annelise’s first responses. She added she is especially looking forward to learning about Lakota Sioux culture, language, and modern challenges. She understands the group will attend a powwow.

Bob indicated that tribal challenges include poverty, high unemployment, alcoholism, and no real business opportunities. The city of Pine Ridge has just a handful of stores and restaurants, a hospital, and a retirement home.

The Jesuits have operated nearby Red Cloud Indian School since the nineteenth century. High achievement levels allow most graduates to go on to college.

The group flies to Rapid City and then travels in vans for two hours to reach the reservation. For the first time this year, they will forgo camping for beds in the public high school dormitory.

Participants pay their own direct expenses and raise an additional $500 for building supplies. Annelise is making pies to earn her share. She has sold a number to school friends and would be happy to take your orders via the church office.

2008 Lakota Mission Trip

Political and social unrest on the reservations has caused us to cancel the 2008 trip. We will try again in 2009!

Lakota Mission Team 2006

The 2006 Lakota Mission Team has returned from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota! THANK YOU, Laura McNally, Fred Eggleston, Gabriel Stonebraker, Luke Lowery, and Bob Ide and Nancy Ide. Nancy provided this wonderful summary of the trip:

We were joined with 4 or 5 other churches making up the team heading for Pine Ridge, SD on June 29. Most of us were on a flight together. Gabe and Anouk from the Church of the Good Shepherd (COGS) entertained us with 4 1/2 year old William who told them all about Star Wars. Then he was joined by his 2 year old sister, Amelia who decided she needed some of that attention and took a running leap into Gabe's lap to the delight of all bystanders.

We got to Rapid City and drove in vans to Sheep Mountain for the view and then on to Pine Ridge where the tents were set up and then dinner. AND THEN FIREWORKS! Afternoons and all night. And one night there were some people that ran around the tents in the middle of the night throwing firecrackers at the tents.

On Friday the work began with building ramps and decks, remodeling bathrooms, painting, laying tiles, and working with the children. The children arrived everyday from 12:00 noon for the 12:30 p.m. lunch we provided and then games, books, crafts, water games. The best of all were the derby race cars built and painted and then on Thursday, raced. The kids loved it. On Friday there was "gutter ice cream". For those of you who don't know what that is, I didn't either. You have a gutter -- like on your roof, but new. We lined it with foil and filled it with ice cream. The kids got to dump sprinkles and all kinds of syrup on it. They sat on the floor all around it and at the whistle, dug in. Luke was pacing back and forth saying, "Faster, faster" . Then they moved a foot and started all over again. It was hilarious and they loved it.

We had torrential rains one afternoon and night and several of the tents got rained out -- see Fred. The next day we had very strong winds and several tents bit the dust -- see Bob and Nancy. Then there was the fire in the field across the dirt road from us. But. God gave us a promise and sure enough we had a rainbow.

It was nice seeing old friends and making new ones - both among the Indians and among the team members. One day, after morning devotions, all the men got into a circle surrounded by the women and the men sang, "It's Hard to Be Humble". It was so funny.

On Sunday, after church, we have play day. Some went shopping, some rock climbing, and some sightseeing. Luke and Tessa (14 years old from COGS) rode with Bob, Nancy and another couple. When we saw the wild burros, they had to get out. Tessa jumped back in the van pretty quickly when one came toward her and Luke had his shirt grabbed by a burro. And then we saw a huge herd of buffalo. Then came Crazy Horse and some shopping and to a restaurant for dinner and back "home".

On Monday, we went to a Powwow and joined in a circle doing the side step that the Indians use all the way around. Their dress is awesome and real, not plastic costumes.
We had vendors selling their crafts at the Powwow and on the church grounds every day. Mostly their wares are amazingly beautiful.

One of my favorite parts among the team members was the fact that the 6 teenagers talked with the adults. Really talked. And they really worked. A good group over all. Thanks for all you did to help accomplish a worthy mission with your prayers and donations.

ALL IN ALL, A LOT WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN SPITE OF THE WEATHER AND I BELIEVE ALL ENJOYED IT.

Lakota Mission Team 2005

July 2005: The Lakota Mission Team has returned from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota! THANK YOU, Mick Cowles, Patty Munday, Billy Cowles, Julie Deranek, Bob Ide, Nancy Ide, Patricia Rogers and Joyce Smith - Covenant's 2005 Lakota Team.

The Lakota Team extends a huge THANK YOU to all of our supporters for a very successful and educational trip: to the Missions Committee for the Volunteers in Mission scholarships, to our Team Sponsors and Prayer Sponsors for their financial and spiritual support, to the Women of Covenant for the great fundraising breakfast, and to everyone who bought fundraising items - t-shirts, sweatshirts, beach bags, tote bags, picture frames, magnets and stationery.

We all worked very hard. We replaced roofs, ceilings, floors and siding; we installed dry wall, bathrooms and kitchens. We played and laughed with Lakota children. We learned the Lakota history and developed friendships with the Lakota people. We danced at a powwow and watched an incredible July 4 fireworks display. We visited the manmade Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments; we were stunned by God's creation at the Cathedral Spires and the Badlands. We bought dreamcatchers, paintings, jewelry and dance staffs from Lakota artists. It was an incredible trip!

The needs of the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation are great - unemployment, depression and alcoholism are rampant. Education is often viewed as unimportant and, as a result, many children and adults are poor readers. Nancy Ide has started a drive to collect children's books for young readers on the reservation.