Adults have forgotten what it is to be a child. To think, feel and act as a child. Because, as adults, we live in a world of rational thought. But, not so long ago, pigs could fly, we could defiantly fly over the rainbow, everything was bigger, faster and stronger than us. Forgetting this has cost us much. We have lost the sense of beauty, wonder and hope children intrinsically understand.

However, I fear the cost of this forgetting is much greater for our children. Adults have forgotten how to listen because they don’t understand what they hear from tiny hearts. Children have lost their voice. We must reclaim this. And we do this by listening, by striving to understand. Who are these creatures who are so like “us” and yet so defiantly not “us”. What do they think? What do they feel?

We must give children back their voice and then we must listen.

Photography is “the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface.” More importantly, photography allows us to listen with our eyes and our hearts. In four-week class settings, I will be walking approximately 8 students, aged 7-12, through the topics of: beauty, texture/lines, exposure, light/dark, perspective and point of view, people: portraits and photo journalism, emotions. Thereby “equipping children with the skills and encouragement necessary to express themselves through photography, thereby allowing adults to once again see life with a child’s eyes.”

The first class will be held in July 2009 with the children who inspire me, the children of the Yankton Sioux Tribe in Lake Andes, SD. The Yankton Sioux Reservation is 64 square miles and consists of several small Native American reservation communities. Unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, and injustice all demand that we hear these children’s voices NOW, So things may be different tomorrow than they are today. I believe hope is always an option and that change is possible. And who better to remind us of this then the young, the hopeful…the child.

Please consider how you might partner in this vision to give children back their voice.

Sponsor Class financially. 

• One student: $131
• Entire Class: $1,050

Donate Materials.

• Color disposable cameras (800 ASA, w/flash), 40 total needed

Support Alisa. 

• Cost of lodging, food, etc for month: $1,100

Donate by clicking below.  Thanks!

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In this hour, we NEED to be praying, seriously praying.  We need to be seeking the Lords heart for what we can be doing for these people that He has placed before us. 

This trip was to help us understand more of the battlefield, which in LA is Hope vs Hopelessness.  And the battlelines are pitched. 

The question of the hour is, “Is change possible??”  “Can my life change and be different, be more than it is now?”  We have to trumpet, loud and clear, that change is possible, that Jesus makes ALL things new.  Change IS possible and things CAN be different.

Our hosts for the day showed us into their home.  One step into the door, we realized this was going to be a new experience.  There was 40 some odd kids and around 10 adults all sitting in the living room, squished side by side.  They were ready and waiting for us to begin.  Once we gotsettled, Joey busted out his guitar and we sand some I like Bananas; Higher, Higher; Jiggle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas.  Children and adults helped us along with words.

Afterwards, some of the team headed outside, playing football and decorating sugar cookies.  The kids were so patient, so respectful.  And oh, the cookies they made–mounds of frosting, sprinkles and candy like you wouldn’t believe…  Inside, they gave the kids the 50+ gift bags and new boots we had prepared for them for Christmas.  One little girl was overheard to say, “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.” 

Before for the day, Dan, Ryan and I delievered one more Christmas present.  On our last trip to Lake Andes, Crystal and Grandma blessed our socks off.  We wanted to do something small in return by giving them some small roster trinkets that Dan had picked up.   (Grandma loves anything having to do with rosters)  We presented them to her.  She turned around and gave us all gifts as well.

The honor of that moment, I will never forget.  I felt honored in receiving those gifts, in being greeted into their home by Dawn’s laughter, by feeling like in some way I was coming home.

1800′s: At the outset of the 19th century, the Yankton Sioux Tribe held exclusive dominion over 13 million acres of land (20,312 square miles) between the Des Moines and Missouri rivers, near the boundary that currently divides North and South Dakota.

In 1858, the Tribe ceded “all the lands now owned, possessed, or claimed by them, wherever situated, except four hundred thousand acres thereof…  In consideration for the cession of lands and release of claims, the United States pledged to protect the Yankton Tribe in their “quiet and peaceable possession” of this reservation and agreed that “[n]o white person,” with narrow exceptions, would “be permitted to reside or make any settlement upon any part of the [reservation].”

1862:  When war broke out between the United States and the Sioux Nation in 1862, the Yankton Tribe alone sided with the Federal Government, a decision that isolated it from the rest of the Sioux Federation and caused severe inner turmoil as well. The Tribe’s difficulties coincided with a period of rapid growth in the United States’ population, increasing westward migration, and ensuing demands from non-Indians to open Indian holdings throughout the Western States to settlement.

1887:  The Dawes Act was passed, which permitted the Federal Government to allot tracts of tribal land to individual Indians and, with tribal consent, to open the remaining holdings to non-Indian settlement. Within a generation or two, it was thought, the tribes would dissolve, their reservations would disappear, and individual Indians would be absorbed into the larger community of white settlers.

By 1890, the allotting agent had apportioned 167,325 acres of reservation land, 95,000 additional acres were subsequently allotted in 1891, and a small amount of acreage was reserved for government and religious purposes. The surplus amounted to approximately 168,000 acres of unallotted lands.

In 1892, the Secretary of the Interior dispatched a three-member Yankton Indian Commission to Greenwood, South Dakota, to negotiate for the acquisition of these surplus lands.  When the Commissioners arrived on the reservation in October 1892, they informed the Tribe that they had been sent by the “Great Father” to discuss the cession of “this land that [members of the Tribe] hold in common,” and they abruptly encountered opposition to the sale from traditionalist tribal leaders.  In the lengthy negotiations that followed, members of the Tribe raised concerns about the suggested price per acre, the preservation of their annuities under the 1858 Treaty, and other outstanding claims against the United States, but they did not discuss the future boundaries of the reservation. Once the Commissioners garnered a measure of support for the sale of the unallotted lands, they submitted a proposed agreement to the Tribe.  

The Tribe would “cede, sell, relinquish, and convey to the United States” all of the unallotted lands on the reservation and the United States agreed to compensate the Tribe in a single paymen

Overlooking Missori River: Just outside Lake Andes, SD

t of $600,000, which amounted to $3.60 per acre and all the signatories and adult male members of the Tribe would receive a 20-dollar gold piece to commemorate the agreement.

President Cleveland issued a proclamation opening the ceded lands to settlement as of May 21, 1895, and non-Indians rapidly acquired them. By the turn of the century, 90 percent of the unallotted tracts had been settled. A majority of the individual allotments granted to members of the Tribe also were subsequently conveyed in fee by the members to non-Indians.

Today, the total Indian holdings in the region consist of approximately 30,000 acres of allotted land and 6,000 acres of tribal land. (combining the two, that is 36,00 acres, or 56.25 square miles)

“Remember when?”
Remember when we played store, and you worked for me and I gave you 5 days off?
Remember when we went to the river?
Remember last time I had a granola bar when we were coming back from the river?
Remember when?

My mom is drunk. 
When a little girls first real communication with you on any given day is, “My mom is drunk,” there just may be a problem.

Let me take care of those for you ma’am.
The beginning end of terror, involved a few sticks being thrown off the bleachers.  “I don’t want guns in my house.” “But, a robber might come into your house.”  “Well, I still don’t want guns in my house.” Repeat. Two “guns” lay unused behind my house. He comes with a third. “Do you have guns in your house? Real guns?”  “Yeah, I have a air-soft gun… any my dad has a machine gun.” “Oh…” He looks over the bleachers and sees the “guns” on the ground. Looking at me, says, “I’ll take care of those for you ma’am.” Jumping to the ground, picking up each stick, breaking them in two and throwing them away.

Grandma’s Chili
Food is a powerful thing. “Do you guys want some food? And a tent? And some blankets?” The only right answer is yes. You have something to give to me. Something worthwhile to offer. Thank you. Blessed beyond words. Amazed beyond belief.

Pretend Robber 
A play directed by the kids, mostly. …We are sleeping in our house. Everyone is in their room fast asleep, when I window breaks. It’s a robber. The people in the house wake up. The robber is climbing in the window. I have been shown where the household gun is kept. <<Enter a little editing of the script by Alisa.>> To the robber, “Are you hungry? We have plenty of food. Why don’t you come in the front door and we can eat.” Robber gets down from the window, comes in the front door. We sit down for a midnight snack. Replay scene. This time the kids say, “Are you hungry? We have lots of food. Come on in.”

I’m going to call you.
Please do. Please do. I want to be your friend. I don’t want to use, abuse and leave you like you’ve been left before. We have things to offer to each other. Gifts to bestow, lessons to teach, love to exchange. Call anytime.

Its real. They are real. This is really happening.

The status of Native youth is of deep concern to our communities. Our population is fast growing, with at least thirty five percent of the Native population under the age of 20. Yet, most of our children live in economic poverty. At least one third of the reservation-based children live in substandard, or overcrowded housing, many without some basic resources, like a telephone. Federal housing programs, for instance which could assist in Native communities, are often gutted in budget appropriations (by 67 percent or more in some years), average per capita income on reservations is $4500, one out of five Indian homes have both a telephone and an indoor toilet.

Most Native children are exposed to elevated levels of violence and chronic substance abuse on a daily, or at least weekly basis, particularly in reservation communities. In the state of Minnesota, a Native child is ten times more likely to die from a violent cause than a non-Native child. Nationally, and within Canada, suicide rates of Native youth are at least ten times higher than the non-Native population. Most Native children live in households where at employment opportunities and social opportunities for their families, including their parents are chronically compromised, and their tribal governments face uphill battles to secure basic infrastructure and budgeting needs for their communities, as well as a host of other complex challenges, often a result of political battles within states, where tribes may be seeking to exercise their jurisdiction, and or expand their land base and casino revenues, only to be faced by the threat of budget cut backs to basic infrastructure. These circumstances are in spite of the boon of casinos. Health expenditures that reach tribes are far below parity.

The federal government spends $2699 a year on the average American’s health, but Native people’s allocation is only at $1300. Over $2 billion is needed to build new schools in Native America, and to repair and renovate present institutions. Tribal colleges are chronically under-funded, yet provide the best educational opportunity for many Native youth. At the same time, historic approaches have only exacerbated the situation. Federal initiatives in both the United States and Canada, as well as religious based initiatives have often focused on removing Native children from these circumstances, rather than providing a redress for the circumstances. As a result, the boarding school era in the US and the residential school era in Canada removed children from their homes and communities to be raised by institutions. Although there has yet to be an apology by the American government for the impact of these actions, in it’s Statement of Reconciliation, the Canadian government acknowledged it’s role in a process which “separated many children from their families and communities and prevented them from speaking their own languages and from learning about their heritage and cultures. In the worst cases, it left legacies of personal pain and distress that continue to reverberate in Aboriginal communities to this day.” The Canadian government underscored its’ apology by recognizing the problems caused to victims of sexual and physical abuse in these schools, “To those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we are deeply sorry.”

There has been no similar apology issued in the United States although the circumstances are mirrored, and in fact, the Canadian residential school system was based on the American system of boarding schools. Subsequent approaches have included the now notorious removal of Native children from their homes to be placed in foster care or placed for adoption. The numbers of Native children removed in this situation is estimated to be as high as one quarter of all Native children in many communities; in some communities it is even higher. In data presented at the l974 Congressional hearings, “up to thirty five percent of all Indian children were living in non-Indian settings. Indian parents could expect their children to be removed from their homes at rates up to twenty five time higher than children from non-Indian homes.”

The historic legacy of relations with Native communities remains engraved upon us. All of this is coupled with the present environmental justice, human rights, sacred sites, and fundamental; rights to survive for all Native people. Native youth find that they are borne into communities in stress, yet, at the same time, communities of renewal and renaissance. We are people of courage, and we are peoples who have survived. There is no separation of a people from their history, and their experience. There is only a healing, and a new season of renewal.

Exerpt of an Article at: http://www.honorearth.org/initiatives/youth/overview.html

I am beginning to believe that this is long term. That no matter what, these kids are part of us and part of me now. I am beginning to believe, and that belief somehow both increases and lessens this ache in my heart.

When we arrived in Lake Andes, Jr. told me that Shiloh had broken his leg. When I asked how Shiloh broke his leg, Jr. corrected me and said that Shiloh had broken BOTH legs. I saw Crystal walking back to their house with Shiloh and Dawn, so I walked over to say hello. After hearing the story of what happened, I asked if he could come play and if I could hold him. I got permission to do both. When Shiloh was asked what happened, he pointed wordlessly to the tree… The monkey was climbing in a tree that wasn’t strong enough to hold him and he fell, breaking both legs below the knees. He had a cast on each leg, from his toes to above his knees. So, I got some unexpected cuddle-time. He was the hit of the day though, and got lots of love from both our kids and their kids. Maelyn and Jr. brought him stacks of snacks every time there was any. They even put on some impromptu skits, which he found hilarious. He continues to blossom into this amazing, smart, funny kid.

He didn’t have walking casts, yet he tried to walk a lot and at the end of the day and I saw him succeed. It was awfully funny to see… this little guy, unable to bend his legs covered with huge casts, toddling around. Later on, God gave me the gift of about 5 minutes totally alone with him, where I played with him and prayed for his total healing.

We stopped at Subway in Sioux Falls after church on Sunday. The cashier asked if we were a church group. We told her what we were doing and discovered she was from the area right around the community center in Lake Andes and her 12 year-old son was still down there. She asked us if we had met him, and we had. He had been hanging out with us the whole day on Saturday. Tracy is looking for a church and Kenzie is moving with her in Sioux Falls. We gave her number to Bob and Laurie. God is after the Yankton Sioux even in a Subway, 2 hours away from the Res. So cool!

Everyone, regardless of race, class or income can only give out of the reservoir of attention and affection they have received. It is impossible for someone who hasn‘t know the love of a mother, father or the Lord, to love their children well. We must know love to give love. This revelation, frees my heart, and lifts me past judging to loving the brokenness in each one, even in the very worst offender.

The children give a first impression of defiance, anger and pain. But, when they allow you to get small glimpses through the thin venire, when they begin to trust you, you see something hidden, something precious. For an instant, you see them. You see children who are trying to love. Trying to break past, break through. They are trying desperately to hold onto the belief that change is possible. These are good kids. They are so smart, so witty, so respectful. Some of them are just figuring out that it may be safe enough to come out of hiding, to allow who they really are to come to the surface. I pray they find safety when they do.

I want always to be someone who “comes back” and I want to be someone who stays. I want to love these little souls well. Jesus desires their beauty, and in their faces I see the beauty and the glory of the Lord.

In the faces of the children I see pain and hope. In the faces of the teenagers I see fear. In the faces of the adults, I see resignation.

In early June, a team of people from both Minnesota and South Dakota (Christian Outreach Fellowship, Bob and Lauri Brunz) traveled to the Yankton Sioux Reservation in Lake Andes, South Dakota to get to know the Nakota people. Bathed in prayer and preparation, this trip proved to be life changing for those fortunate enough to be part of it. Various teams have been making this trip on an annual basis, and this year the fields were truly white onto harvest. A total of 27 children and young adults gave their heart to the Lord, 16 of those choose to be baptized and many more experienced the pure love of the Father.

Through children’s ministry, mime, face-painting, puppets, music, bike repair, a community picnic, piggy-back-rides and love, the Nakota and the team poured into each other. There was an openness to the gospel, prayer and worship that has been absent in past years. Over 50 children and young adults participated in the week’s events.

One small boy named Shiloh touched my heart deeply. When we first came to the reservation, Shiloh wouldn’t smile, interact or speak with me or anyone on our team. Throughout our time there, the entire team hugged, played, prayed and interacted with him. On our last day at the Reservation, he fell, hit his nose and it started bleeding. Together with another team member, we stopped the bleeding and cleaned him up. After this I was hugging him and for the first time, he hugged me back. In fact, he clung to me, fell asleep and slept for two hours. As he slept, I prayed. I spoke destiny and love into his ear. That night he was giggling and talking up a storm. He came alive. It’s amazing what the Lord’s love can do.

There are many injustices happening on a daily basis on the reservation. Abuse, violence, neglect, alcoholism and poverty are daily realities for these children and for this people. The issues are so complex, there are no easy answers. The only solution is the Lord himself, that He would break in with repentance, mercy and love.

As a team, we will be fasting and praying on the 27th of every month for the Nakota people. Specifically for the people of the Yankton Sioux Reservation, in Lake Andes, South Dakota. Please consider praying with us. Our prayer is that God would send revival and justice. And that His kingdom would come and touch the earth.

If you will be joining us in prayer, are considering joining us next year or would like to know what you can do to help the Nakota people, please contact Pastor Bob Brunz at 605-338-9140 or Rosemary Dittmer, 763-757-8512.

Prayer Points:

• Praise and thanksgiving for the work God has done and IS DOING in Lake Andes
• Isaiah 61
• Malachi 4:5
• Children abusing children on the reservation becoming more and more common
• Abuse (physical and sexual) of the children in the home
• Domestic abuse
• Alcoholism
• Provision for food, shelter and clothing
• Children who were saved (Beulah, Auviyah, Mariah, Klaloc, Steven, Saxon, Preston, Mason, Isabel and Lita) and those who were saved and baptized (Apple, Mia Fischer, Riyaka (“Feather”), Robyn Bair, Magdalene, Quinlan, Audra, Audrie, Hawk Bair, Mia F., Jennifer, Malachi, Max, Charlize, Ihoktawon, Clarence and Junior)
• Children who heard the gospel and were not saved
• Pouring out of the Holy Sprit
• Revival to come to the Nakota people
• Protection of the children
• Breaking of the spirit of abuse, violence and un-forgiveness
• Repentance, mercy and love to fall
• The team that will be going to Lake Andes next year, that the perfect people would be called and respond to the call, provision, protection and equipping for the task at hand.