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“Back in them days, the farmers didn’t have the equipment they have now,” said Trudell, the reservation tribal chairman.
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Veterans Gerald Thompson, Lincoln DeMarrias, Dayton Seaboy and John Twostars, from Sisseton, S.D., present flags Saturday at the opening ceremony of the Dakota Homecoming event at Lake Park in Winona. They are members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Vietnams Veterans Association, a non-profit organization that participates in parades, powwows and meetings on and off the reservation. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
Trudell, 59, has lived his life on the reservation, with the exception of three years in the Army and two in Omaha, Neb. He was in Winona on Saturday for the Dakota Gathering, an annual event for Dakota Indians from across the Midwest to reunite on their ancestral land.
Today, the Santee reservation is home to 1,300 members and faces many problems.
Jobs on the reservation are scarce and many lack transportation necessary work elsewhere.
The lack of jobs has left some of the Santee people feeling hopeless, Trudell said.
“Right now the biggest struggle is the methamphetamine problem and other behavioral problems,” Trudell said. “Sometimes it’s hard to get people motivated. Some of the young people don’t see a future for themselves.”
Currently, the tribal council is working to improve the reservation’s economic standing, but Trudell said it’s hard “trying to build an economic base out of nothing.”
A group of about 10 people from the Santee reservation traveled to the gathering at East Lake Winona, called “Otakuye Hdihunipi” by the Dakota people, meaning “all relatives have come home.”
In 1853, the Dakota American Indians were forced from the land known as Wapasha Prairie onto reservations in North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. Two of these reservations, the Santee and Crow Creek in South Dakota are among the poorest areas in the country.
Crow Creek, home to about 3,000 people, is in even lower economical standing than the Santee reservation.
While growing up, Pat Big Eagle lived on the reservation during the summer. In 1972, he moved there year-round. He now lives on the Lower Brule reservation across the Missouri River from Crow Creek.
Big Eagle said the Crow Creek reservation is in terrible condition with the “housing in shambles,” an outdated water system and a lack of food.
“A lot of people aren’t’ getting their daily nutrition,” Big Eagle said. “There’s just no food there.”
The reservation’s education system is also struggling. Two years ago, the high school burned down and hasn’t been rebuilt due to lack of funding.
Despite all of its economic problems, Big Eagle still sees a brighter side to the reservation.
“Every day people just make the best of it under those conditions,” he said. “It doesn’t take a lot to make people happy.”
