Last Day in Eagle Butte

It’s Friday and our last day in Eagle Butte. We appreciated sleeping in and eating a late breakfast after a week of getting started before 8:30 a.m.  

During the day we had several teams involved in a number of activities. Some baked cookies and brownies for the bake sale while others prepared for the start of the rummage sale.

Soon a group took the first batch of baked goodies and went up and down Main Street asking for free will donations to help support the children’s center, The Main.  Others stayed at the rummage sale, while still others baked more goods for sale. It was a good thing we made more baked goods. The group that went to Main Street was back for a second batch to sell. People were typically offering a $1, but one gave $12 even though cash is scarce when it’s not pay day.

Another group went to put a coat of paint on the home of Toni and Byron Buffalo’s daughter, Jackie.  These troopers put up with the heat and tackled the job with paint brushes and rollers.

Most of us had lunch at the senior nutritional center which was delicious potato salad, a healthy green salad and hot turkey.  Anne delivered lunch to the painters…they improvised potato chips for silverware.  After lunch, it was time to wrap up the rummage sale (boxing up remaining items) and play with the children on the playground (they enjoyed us pushing them on the swings and talking with them as they climbed all over the playground equipment). Once the painters returned and washed up it was 4:30 p.m. and time to leave Eagle Butte. We headed to Faith (population 469 and about one hour away)for dinner at the “Chances R” restaurant.  The ½ pound burgers and chicken fried steak dinners were big hits.

Then, it was time to move on to hour drive to Bridger for our night at the Lakota Tipi Bed & Breakfast (www.thebridgerproject.com). It is located up from the banks of the Cheyenne River at the site where the survivors of Wounded Knee relocated. Even though evening was falling, there was still time to squeeze in a number of fun activities with some of the families from Bridger before turning in for the night.

Bow hunting is important to Byron Buffalo and he provided several bows and arrows to let us all have a turn.  Everyone enjoyed aiming for the lifelike deer target and trying to retrieve wayward arrows. (They said that if there’s anything we were planning to bring on our next trip, arrows would be much appreciated. Because of the open space and tall grassland, arrows constantly need to be replenished.)

As evening fell, the weather was beautiful and the mosquito population, as we came to find out, very healthy.  Despite the bug spray, a number of us sported the tell-tale signs of the healthy mosquito population.

But now as the campfire was burning, a circle of us had gathered attracted by the promise of S’mores. Catherine improvised tools to roast our marshmallows.  The campfire setting drew several comments and prayers from the group.  We appreciate learning about the Lakota dependence on family and prayer as the twin keys to their survival.  We noticed that every gathering included thanks for what they have received.  As we wrapped up our stay we reviewed the Lakota words we had learned during the week:  unci = grandma; wopila = thanks from the bottom of our hearts; takini=survivor;  ducsha= see you later.