Pine Ridge, Wazi Ahanhan

Pine Ridge is a literal translation of the Lakota Wazi ahanhan, a name applied to the characteristic topography of the reservation: rolling prairie land broken by whiteface buttes dotted with yellow pine. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, as the Oglala reservation is officially called, is located in southwestern South Dakota. The western boundary is marked by the Fall River - Shannon county line, approximately sixty-five miles due east of the South Dakota - Wyoming state line. The western part of the reservation leads to the foothills of the Black Hills through the off-reservation town of Oelrichs. North of Oelrichs are the city of Hot Springs and the Black Hills proper.

The northern boundary of the reservation is marked prominently by the Badlands National Monument and the off-reservation towns of Scenic, Interior, and Kadoka, South Dakota. To the east, Pine Ridge shares a common border with the Rosebud Indian Reservation, home of the Sicangu, the division of the two reservations being demarcated in the north by Black Pipe Creek. To the south, the reservation boundary line is contiguous with the Nebraska-South Dakota state line.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is second in size only to the Navajo Reservation. It comprises a total area of 2,786,540 acres, or 4,353 square miles. It is approximately rectangular in shape, fifty miles north to south and one hundred miles east to west. Its boundaries were established in 1889. The reservation is comprised of three South Dakota counties - Shannon, Washabaugh, and Bennett. The latter is organized with its own government and is therefore referred to as the ceded portion of the reservation. However, there is still federal land held in trust for Indians in Bennett County and its Indian residents are represented on the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council.

The seat of Pine Ridge tribal government and headquarters for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is Pine Ridge Village, located two miles north of the Nebraska state line at the junction of Nebraska State Highway 87 and U.S. Highway 18 in South Dakota. For administrative purposes, the reservation was originally divided into seven districts, the administrative district being called Wakpamni (literally, "distribution," i.e., the place where annuities are distributed to the Oglalas, and also the name of the town of Pine Ridge). The other districts were White Clay (additionally the name of a creek, a dam, and an off-reservation town two miles south in Nebraska), Wounded Knee, Porcupine, Medicine Root, Eagle Nest, and Pass Creek and LaCreek, making a total of eight districts.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, which was established as a result of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, is comprised of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, and one councilman from each of the eight districts. The tribal council is organized as a bureaucracy which ultimately answers to the superintendent, the resident representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the area director, located in Aberdeen, South Dakota; the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington, D.C.; and the secretary of the interior. The tribal council is authorized by Congress, with the approval of its superior chain of command, to transact business on behalf of the Oglala people, who elect their duly sworn representatives in reservation-wide balloting every two years.

The eight districts today are comprised of numerous communities which are located primarily along creeks, and are thus known as wakpala, 'creek' or, properly, oti, 'community' (from o, 'in', and ti, 'to dwell'). After the historical incidents which led to the establishment of the Pine Ridge Agency (the Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868, and battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876), the roving tiyošpayes were eventually required to settle down on the reservation. In 1878-79, when the Oglalas were moved from their agency near Crawford, Nebraska, to Pine Ridge, the seven tiyošpayes settled in the following manner:

1. The Tapišlecas, Wagluh'es, Itešicas, and Payabyas settled in what is now Wakpamni District.

2. The Oyuh'pes settled in what is now Wounded Knee District.

3. The Wajajes settled in Porcupine District.

4. the Kiyaksas established their homes in Medicine Root District.

In 1887, the Dawes Act (land allotment act) was passed by Congress requiring the allotment of Indian reservations in severalty. In addition to being criticized by the majority of Oglalas on ideological grounds (the land could not be "owned"), it necessitated a rearrangement of social organization antithetical to the original tiyošpaye organization. Individual families within the tiyošpayes were required to set up independent households, fairly evenly distributed throughout the seven (later eight) districts, with the exception of districts in Bennett County, where "surplus" lands were bought up by non-Indians. Since 1887 there has been both a reduction in reservation land and an increase in the number of small communities. In 1970, eighty-nine communities were reported for the entire reservation.

The total population of Rine Ridge has been estimated at between 13,500 and 15,000 (1974). Population density is approximately 3.1 persons per square mile. Seventy-four percent of the population is Indian, and of the Indian population, 48 percent is full-blood. Approximately 2 percent of the full-blood population is from other tribes, mainly from the adjacent Rosebud Reservation.

Sixty-eight percent of the Oglalas are bilingual, and among the sixty-five-year-old group no full-bloods speak only English. Only 17 percent of all the Indians have no knowledge of their native language, but there is a general apprehension among older people that the young ones are losing their language. Lakota is taught at both the government schools and mission schools, and Lakota bilingual education materials are being developed in a number of subjects. Most courses are taught by native speakers under the direction of a linguist employed by the tribe.

A 1969 Senate subcommittee on American Indian education found the results of its investigation of contemporary Indian education (and concomitantly employment, alcoholism, suicides, standards of housing, life span, and other measures of statistical value) equally a "national tragedy and a national disgrace." The national average statistics for Native Americans are typified by the Oglalas: inordinately high un- or under-employment, inadequate housing, high rates of dropout, grim rates of suicide and alcoholism among young people.

The average income of the Oglalas places them below the poverty level. In 1970, sixty-three percent of Oglala families reported an income of less than $3,000 per annum. There is less income among those Oglalas who regard themselves as full-blood than among mixed-bloods. In 1970, the unemployment rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation was 36.6 percent, roughly ten times the national average. Over one-fourth of the employed Oglalas were employed only part-time.

Over half of those employed work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Economic Opportunity, the Oglala Sioux Tribe (officially now, the Oglala Lakota Nation), or the Public Health Service. Others earn an income in light industry and road construction. The only industry on the Pine Ridge Reservation [1977 source, all this data will be updated as I locate the statistics] is the Moccasin Factory located in Pine Ridge Village. At one time Wright-McGill produced fishhooks on the reservation, but their last factory closed in 1968. Over one-third of the mixed-blood work force, and three percent of the full-bloods are self-employed, mainly at ranching. Still others are engaged in seasonal harvesting, mainly potato and beet picking in Nebraska. Indians who own their own land as a result of the Dawes Act lease their unused land mainly to white ranchers, but Indian ranchers have first bid on open land. Oglala cattlemen pay a rate of $20.50 per head of cattle annually. Non-Indians bid on land not used by Oglalas and often pay two or three times the rate paid by Oglalas.

Unearned income (aid to dependant children, aid to the disabled, aid to the blind, old-age assistance, and BIA general assistance) is most prevalent among full-bloods. Many Indian families are eligible to receive commodities such as flour, lard, powdered milk, canned meats and fruits, and, occasionally, beef.

Most housing on the reservation is regarded as substandard compared with general conditions in the United States. Thirty-three percent of the houses are log cabins, many of them built about 1868. They were originally constructed with dirt floors and sod roofs, but many have been renovated by adding a stucco veneer, wooden floors, and shingled roofs. Typically, the log cabin has one room in which there are a central wood stove for heating and cooking, enough beds to accommodate the residents, table and chairs, and miscellaneous cupboards, shelves, bureaus, and other household needs. Only forty percent of homes have inside plumbing; drinking water is pumped from a local well or is hauled from a more distant one. A bucket containing drinking water is normally found indoors, as is a so-called slop bucket, used for garbage. Outdoor privies are the norm, even where there is running water.

Except for the brick government buildings, the remainder of Oglala housing is of frame construction, often with several rooms. Contemporary dwellings have been made available by the federal government and are occupied mainly by mixed-bloods. Prefabricated houses from the former military base at Igloo, South Dakota, have recently been made available to the Oglalas at a minimal price. These "Igloo houses" are first offered to welfare families or to those with a minimal income, much to the consternation of Oglalas who work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs or some other government agency, but who cannot afford the more luxurious modern homes. The argument over who is more entitled to new housing is only part of a larger on-going debate between full-bloods and mixed-bloods over manifest favoritism by the federal government.

Oglala homes are usually regarded as overcrowded; however, statistically the modal home of two rooms houses 1.81 Indians per room. This does not take into consideration the size of the room or use of outdoor space, summer tents, or outdoor cooking arbors, which are integral to most Oglala households outside the reservation towns.

Since the establishment of the reservation, medical facilities have been made available to the Oglalas. Originally, physicians who also served in other administrative roles were assigned to the districts. In 1930, the Bureau of Indian Affairs opened a hospital on the north ridge of Pine Ridge Village. In 1955, the medical care of Indians came under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Public Health Service, Indian Health Service branch. The Public Health Service still maintains the Pine Ridge hospital and out-patient clinics and some field service to the local communities. In 1965, a mental health program was inaugurated which provided somewhat limited psychiatric care and administered a research program in mental health.

Health problems, particularly among the full-bloods, are found among thirty-three percent of the people. Statistically, the Oglalas have twice as many mental and physical disabilities as non-Indians. The most common medical problems are arthritis, diabetes, and heart trouble, but long-term disabilities often go untreated or only partly treated. Among the full-bloods, there is the myth that the white physician is capable of curing any illness immediately by the dispensation of appropriate medication. Oglalas who require long-range medication often discard their prescriptions once they feel relief from their immediate symptoms, only to suffer a relapse, sometimes fatal.

Inasmuch as the medical staff is temporary, there is little opportunity for close doctor-patient relationships to develop. The effectiveness of the medical staff is always being questioned by the full-bloods, particularly by native practitioners and ritual specialists. Many full-bloods ignore the Public Health Service, and when they are obliged to consult a physician, travel to private doctors in nearby Nebraska towns. There they may receive consultation and treatment without waiting in the long lines at the Pine Ridge Hospital, and they also feel that their association with the off-reservation doctors is more personal and, therefore, beneficial.

The two leading Christian denominations on the Pine Ridge Reservation are the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian. The former, called Sapa un ('to wear black', hence the "Black Robes"), claims the largest Christian membership, nearly forty-five percent of the Christian Oglalas. The latter, called Ska un ('to wear white', hence "White Robes"), claims thirty-eight percent of the Christian Oglalas; however, it has more full-bloods among its constituency than the Roman Catholic.

This distribution has emerged from historic circumstances. The Episcopalians, in 1875, were the first to establish a mission on Pine Ridge. The Holy Cross Episcopal Church is still maintained at Pine Ridge Village; however, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, it does not provide educational facilities on the reservation. In addition, there are twenty-eight other churches scattered throughout the reservation. Episcopal clergymen are augmented by lay leaders, most of whom are Oglalas, and preach in the native Lakota. Like other missionaries, the Episcopalians translated readings and psalms into the native language and continue to use it today to attract more members. Not only have the Oglalas been exposed longer to the Episcopalians, but their use of the native language appears to have some effect on reaching more full-bloods.

Although Jesuits have proselytized among the Sioux since their first contact in the seventeenth century, it was not until 1888 that the Holy Rosary Mission was established by German Jesuits on the Pine Ridge Reservation, four miles north of Pine Ridge Village. The mission was originally a gift of Katharine Drexel, daughter of a Philadelphia philanthropist, and during its early development was known as Drexel Mission. Like the Episcopalians, the Jesuits translated Christian scripture into Lakota, but in addition developed other literature of a more scholarly nature. Particularly significant is the work of Eugene Buechel, S.J., who wrote the first grammar of the Lakota dialect as well as a Lakota-English dictionary published posthumously.

The Presbyterian Church reaches approximately eleven percent of the Christian Oglalas; and the Body of Christ Church, somewhat over one percent. The remaining Christian sects, including the Native American Church, or "Peyote Cult," each claims less than one percent of the Christian Oglalas. These include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Seventh Day Adventist, Church of God, Lutheran, Gospel Missionary Union, Congregational, Methodist, and Baptist.

The early attitudes of the missionaries toward the Oglalas is reflected in the work of the Jesuit Louis Goll; for example: "The Sioux tribes even prior to the advent of the Catholic missionaries believed in God, in one God only. There is among them no trace of real polytheism, no trace of idolatry." Ritual specialists were characterized in the following manner:

While there was very little real worship of God, there existed a good deal of superstition among the Sioux. Clever and cunning men, called medicine men, wielded a baneful influence over the people, making them believe that they had seen visions or had had significant dreams after going through certain rites of fasting. After such a dream, the medicine men would tell, for example, where the hunters could find buffaloes. Of course, the medicine men had previously located the animals.

These attitudes persisted through the 1950s. Native religion was regarded by missionaries, particularly the Roman Catholics, as the work of the devil. This had an interesting effect on the Oglalas: at the same time missionaries were attempting to eradicate all signs of native religion, the Oglalas were positive that it worked. Those who subscribed to more than one religion, mainly native religion and Christianity, were regarded as transitional. Even medicine men attended Catholic mass, participating fully in holy communion - according to priests, a sure sign of their Catholicism.

At one time, like the Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics sponsored a laiety called the St. Joseph and Mary Societies. These societies were made up of catechists who conducted Catholic rituals in the absence of priests. Originally there were twenty-nine chapels distributed throughout the Pine Ridge communities, but because of a shortage of priests, regular masses were conducted at only a few of them. The catechists, in lieu of regular attendance by the itinerant priests, conducted prayer services, maintained the chapels, and served as liaisons between the church and Catholic laymen. As more Oglalas were consolidated into merging communities, the number of Catholic chapels decreased, as did that of sodality members. Without the presence of the church in the remote areas of the reservation, native religion continued to flourish as it had before, but without the overt criticism of the visiting priests.

Through the 1940s it was taken for granted by missionaries and anthropologists that native religion was on the wane. But even Macgregor reported during his research at Pine Ridge that "the acceptance of Christianity was at first and continues to be to some extent today, an acceptance of the deity of the conquerors and a search for his power, without complete abandonment of the old beliefs."

It should be noted here that whether or not the Oglalas accepted the deity of their conquerors or completely abandoned their native religion, there has never been any empirical evidence to favor one or the other. The Oglalas had in fact accepted the technology of the white man and had succumbed to his political authority. But to what extent they accepted his deity must go challenged. What was not reported by the missionaries or by anthropologists is that during the 1940s, and conceivably since the missionaries first came in contact with the Oglalas, Oglala medicine men were challenging the white man's god. But the missionaries were not aware of the Oglala polemics against Christianity, because they could only be "superstitious." At the same time missionaries were working out conversion strategies that would make Christianity somehow analogous to native religion, medicine men were discussing how Christianity was ambiguous in its own terms. Young Oglalas forced to go to mission schools were required to cut their hair, and then, much to their astonishment, were given a picture of a hirsute Jesus and his disciples. The Catholics preached against the evils of alcoholism, but allowed their priests to drink wine at mass. When the medicine men explained the notion of praying over minute packets of tobacco offerings to the spirits, the Catholics (and anthropologists) reported it as a form of saying the rosary, and a diagnostic of Christian elements in native religion.

During the 1950s, younger Jesuits attempted to provide a scheme of Christianity that was even more relevant to the Oglalas. With a decline in membership as well as in the number of local chapels, missionaries began to redesign the ritual in such a way that it would become more appealing to potential adherents. The work of the Reverend Paul Steinmetz, S.J., is instructive, and typical, at least on the Northern Plains reservations, of relevant models for Indian Christianity.

Steinmetz, who was parish priest at the Sacred Heart Mission in Pine Ridge Village, began participating in local native ceremonies, much to the consternation of his superiors. His objective was to create a more relevant connection between native religion and Catholicism. He designed a new church in Pine Ridge Village, one whose symbolism would reflect Oglala beliefs as well as Catholic. He also initiated the use of the sacred pipe as a part of the mass. He writes:

The Pipe is a type of Christ because it is the instrument of the mediator in the Sioux religion just as the Sacred Humanity is the instrument of Christ the Mediator in our Christian Religion. Christ fulfills the Pipe rather than destroys it since He does in a more perfect way what the person praying with the Pipe does in an imperfect way. The Pipe, then, is the great Sioux foreshadowing of Christ in his Priestly Office.

Steinmetz went on to employ and publish prayers to be used with the sacred pipe. Little did he know at that time that the practicing ritual specialists among the Oglalas, the same medicine men who sat in the front pew at his church every Sunday, were greatly impressed by the fact that he, a Jesuit priest, had finally seen the light! While the Jesuits were creating a new relationship between Christ and the flock, the Oglalas were asserting that the priests were at last recognizing the potency of Wakantanka and the efficacy of the seven sacred rituals first brought to the people by the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman.