Livin' Lakota Vida

South Dakota is known for majestic Mount Rushmore and the spectacular Black Hills, but veer off the highway southeast of these landmarks and you'll discover the "hidden nation" of the Lakota people -- virtually untouched by the trappings of 21st-century America.

Katrin Baker ('99) of Blacksburg gained firsthand knowledge of the Lakota culture when she spent a week volunteering on Rosebud Indian Reservation, one of the most economically impoverished communities in the nation. Baker was part of a 21-member Global Volunteers team that worked on construction, maintenance and educational projects.

Baker helped clean up powwow grounds in preparation for the annual Indian Days festival, helped build an addition onto the Grass Mountain Community Center and painted the home of an elderly resident. "Decades of mistrust of whites made initial contact with the Lakota people somewhat awkward," says Baker, an administrator at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. "Once they understood why we were there, it became easier to establish relationships. Many of those we met shared a tremendous amount about life on the reservation and the culture and traditions of the Lakota people."

Baker learned many Lakota traditions, including vision quest, language lessons, the significance of the seven rites and the native headdress; and she was invited to participate in a sweat lodge ceremony. One of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota, the sweat lodge ceremony, symbolizes the cleansing of the body and soul. The ceremony unites the present with the past, as memories of deceased tribal members are invoked through song, drumming and prayer.

"It was a powerful spiritual experience," says Baker, who spent her free time taking in the spectacular natural surroundings -- windswept buffalo ranges, sacred Grass Mountain, Lakota museums and landmarks like the monument commemorating the Battle at Wounded Knee.

Founded in 1984, Global Volunteers is a nonprofit international development organization based in St. Paul, Minn. The organization's mission is world peace through understanding between diverse cultures. Global Volunteers annually coordinates more than 150 teams of volunteers who participate on human and economic development projects via consultative status with the United Nations' Economic and Social Council. There's even more to learn <globalvolunteers.org>.

-- Michelle Hite ('88)