Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

[kiktayokangi]

I find it strange that the reservation is not listed here.
Why would one go to the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall instead of the massacre site? Not knocking the museum in Wall, it is nice.

Get off the interstate and drive thru the Oglala Badlands. There is the Stronghold table where the ghost dancers hid out. Keep driving, make a right up to Sheep Mountain-a very sacred place to the Lakota, and very very beautiful. Stop at Sharps Corner and get gas and a snack and support a local rez business. Keep going thru Porcupine, you will pass Porcupine Butte, where Crazy Horse would seek visions. Past there on the left you will see a pull-over with a sign, here you can see where Big Foot and his people were arrested and taken to Wounded Knee. Keep going and you will come to the massacre site. Spend time, pay respect, visit the local crafts people and support them. Oh yeah, if so inclined, you can go to Grandpa's in Porcupine and the boys will take you out on the most incredible horse back ride you can ever hope to take. Email me if interested. You can camp on his land, and all are welcome into his sweat lodge. A ''real sweat lodge'' all you got to do is pray, not pay. Turn right after Wounded Knee towards Manderson and wonder which butte Crazy Horse is buried in.
All these sites are sacred so be respectful, which I am sure everyone on this board is.

[Diane Merkel]

No disrespect intended. These "Places of Interest" boards are like the others, waiting for someone to post a topic.

I've visited Pine Ridge a couple of times but have never been sure how much we were allowed to drive around there or any other res land.

I've visited the sign -- and am amazed there isn't a museum or something else there -- and the cemetery. I appreciate your telling us where else to go.

[biggordie]

Well, I wont be taking any hossback rides, unless a miracle occurs and my back becomes healed and pain-free; but I certainly hope to get to Pine Ridge while I can still travel at all, and I will take you up on that sweat lodge invitation at Grandpa's.

Gordie

[kiktayokangi]

oh i did not think anyone was being disrespectful.

you can drive around the rez. i would just be careful at night because of drunk drivers. but for the most part you can go anywhere. Yes it is the poorest place in america, so you will get asked for money etc but you won't get mugged if you are smart about it, like in Pine Ridge center I would not go walking around in the projects or the park, but you can into buildings and stores and walk and drive around the public places. The Lakota people for the most part will welcome you with their humor and stories. A great place to visit is the Red Cloud school center--the artwork there will blow your mind. great gift shop too. Red Cloud is buried there.
BigGordie a healing sweat will help your back. A woman from Michigan with bad back problems came once and Grandpa did a healing sweat for her back and she said it felt much better and did not have the intense pain she use to have.

[biggordie]

Thanks. I'll see what I can arrange for 2010, when I'll be going to LBH. Next year I'm off to England. This year, I'm saving for next year. And so it goes..........

Gordie

[bc]

I think it is safer to drive around a reservation, even at night, that some other big city places. A little defensive driving and keeping an eye on other drivers around you is a fact of life no matter where you are at.

Ever take a subway in NYC or an EL train in Chicago on a weekend when there are no throngs of crowds around you for protection? Ever walk alone in one of those long subway tunnels on a Sat. afternoon in NYC? Ever drive through the Harlem bar district on a Sunday afternoon(not quite as scary in broad daylight but)? Ever take a big city interstate exit looking for gas or just make a wrong turn and end up in a part of town with people hanging around all over the place?

I can handle myself in a one on one go at fisticuffs but for years I have managed to avoid it. What's scary are the people who need to bring their friends to help out or else have to bring a knife or gun to a fist fight.

Give me a western Indian reservation anytime.

[lizs]

I have taken to driving more on the reservation. I've been OK with it on the highways, well, other than the time I, as a single female, was tailed by the Reservation police (actually, he came up behind me fast, roared by and the next thing I knew he drove back by me, only to turn around and then tail me). Of course that would be bad anywhere and I was plenty creeped out in broad daylight, but I did wonder about my rules and rights in a sovereign nation at the time. But that did not deter me from returning, as I love the land, the history and (like anywhere) the great majority of good people...

But I do wonder... is a person allowed to drive off on the gravel and dirt roads? A friend and I went after a very historical geocache that was south of the Badlands Park, which required 4WD and a crossing of Potato Creek to get there. Far off from any highways. The cache was placed by a person who apparently taught in Pine Ridge (maybe at the Red Cloud School), but I don't know if that person fully had permission for its placement (many geocachers just place them without going through proper channels). We did run into hunters and just waved, but had a moment of anxiety wondering if we were "legal" on the land.

We ended up seeing what was either a bombing target - or bombing siting target - of old 1940s cars, in a circle with an additional two lines of cars forming a crosshair in the middle. I was so pleased and respectful to see that site - and sad at the land taken from the Reservation for that use for bombing practice. As the placer of the cache stated, it would likely be a historic national monument in the white culture.

Also, the Badlands National Park land that is on reservation land confuses me. Can a person just go into the park there? I've been told by park staff that if the park is not adjacent to the road - and there is private land in between - to get permission to cross it, which of course makes sense. I have hoped to see Stronghold Table and attempt to feel for what happened there. I see on maps it appears it would be a long hike/backpack in from where the park is adjacent to roads. I also have seen signs on Cuny Table, the shortest way there by dirt roads, which say it's private property with no trespassing. So I don't go on those roads. Also, what is the status of the occupation which was going on there? Was the issue of the burials vs. park digging for fossils ever resolved?

I have just wondered about the accessiblity of the roads. For example, to get into the Palmer Creek Unit one definiltely needs to cross Reservation land. However, I'm thinking one road that heads that way goes by a cemetery, which likely does offer public access?

Over Thanksgiving I got to ask a woman permission to go in and look at the memorial to Thin Milk near Cedar Creek. I was very appreciative for that.

Thanks in advance for your help! And kiktayokangi, it sounds like you and your family would be very good people to visit.