When Jill Hamburg Coplan told me she was camping cross country--and bringing a U-Haul full of gear to kids on an Indian reservation, I asked her to write about her adventures:
The Toyota was crammed with an old cooler wedged in the backseat; a crate of food (bags of nuts, cans of Chef Boyardee), camping gear for four and borrowed books on CD and AAA guidebooks.
With our boys, 6 and 9, we went camping across the country--Great Lakes, Great Plains, Rocky mountains, southwestern canyons, the Pacific. We had no itinerary, but there was one place we had to go: Sioux Indian Boys and Girls Clubs, to deliver a U-Haul filled with donated baseball equipment. Friends in Montclair chipped in to pay for the 4 by 8 trailer. The equipment comes from Changing Winds Advocacy Center in Fairfield, Conn., a cool nonprofit that also does school supplies and book drives.
Many people have asked: Isn't it enough to visit the mighty Mississippi, hike canyons, see ruins and caves, farms and horse ranches? The reservations are hard to reach, uninviting places full of poverty and almost no tourism infrastructure. So why go? My answer is that Native Americans are a lot of what America means to us, and we want the kids to understand, the way they only could by forging a personal connection...
We hoped for a meaningful exchange, at a human level.
We met our first contact, Rosebud reservation's Madonna Bear Robe (see her at left with Ashton and my boys), at a giant annual pow wow. Arriving after dark, we slipped into the open-air circle in a huge field, strung with colored flags and lights. In the center, clothed in a rainbow of handmade dancing regalia, tiny children and elderly circled together in an age-old dance (see photo on first page). The jingle dresses' bells, still made of tobacco tins, sounded like wind. Powerful young men ecstatically singing in drum circles inches away from us seared into our memories. The children sat mesmerized. Near midnight, at Madonna's invitation, they joined the circle and danced with a new friend--her grandson Ashton. Then we camped out on the pow wow grounds. In the morning, we stood as America's national colors were raised, for a closing ceremony honoring a procession of Lakota military veterans (some wounded) of the Gulf, Vietnam, Korean and Second World Wars--as well as those warriors who never made it home. As we drove away, it seemed clear: Despite all the destruction, Lakota culture survives--and thrives. We'll never forget that.
We're headed to Big Sur next, and we'll send Barista Kids another update from our cross country camping trip.
Entry by Jill Hamburg Coplan
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