Eileen Briggs is a 2016 Bush Foundation Fellow. Photo courtesy Eileen Briggs

Lakota Women Among 2016 Bush Fellows
By Jim Kent
Lakota Country Times Correspondent
www.lakotacountrytimes.com

Eagle Butte, S.D. - It’s not often that someone hands you a large sum of money and says “Go follow your dream.” But that’s exactly what happened recently for two Lakota women.

Among the 24 Fellows from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native Nations in those areas when recipients of the 2016 Bush Foundation Fellowships were announced this month were a pair of community leaders from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Eileen Briggs has been executive director of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Ventures for 10 years. The program is a poverty reduction plan created to encompass the voice and spirit of the people of Cheyenne River. With that program’s completion in sight, Briggs saw an appropriate time to pursue a Bush Fellowship in order to learn more about other Indigenous communities that are trying to promote change.

“I’d come to a fork in the road and there was an opportunity to reflect on the work,” commented Briggs. “I felt like it was a good time to do this in my life and I also felt like this was a chance to stand up and do some of the things that I was really passionate about and really deepen my commitment and understanding in those areas.”

The Lakota businesswoman and poet plans to visit various Indigenous communities, be a part of conversations with key people in those areas and come to understand the levers of change being used by those groups.

“I also felt like it was a chance for me to beef up some skills around writing and facilitation,” explains Briggs. “Because I really feel like those are the ways you can really lead and guide and direct some important conversations that need to happen for society, for our communities…really for our whole state.”

One aspect of change Briggs views as fundamental on an individual level is the use of Lakota healing ceremonies, particularly for women.

“I want to be able to immerse myself in those ceremonies and those practices so that I can better ground myself in that work in order to launch transformational change,” said Briggs. “Not just for myself, but for other women and for our community as a whole.”

Being chosen as a Bush Fellow will also provide Briggs the ability to participate in specific training regarding facilitation. And it will offer her the opportunity to travel and spend time in communities visiting with those individuals who are creating change. The final link in advancing her leadership skills will be the time she’ll have to spend writing. Briggs noted that she’s wanted to accomplish this last goal but hasn’t had the time to focus on writing which she intends to share broadly.

Briggs will travel to tribal nations across the country, First Nations people in Canada and journey to see the Maori of New Zealand as part of her Fellowship and foresees her own experiences as having the possibility of benefiting a wide group of people.

“I really feel that anyone investing in their own professional and personal leadership really has the opportunity to take a greater stand for their community,” Briggs explained. “But I also feel that through my experiences and then through my writing and sharing what I’m learning will be a way to benefit my local community and the programming, practices and philosophy that we approach here, as well as other communities and inspiring them and helping to build momentum for positive change and transformation of community.”

Julie Garreau is a 2016 Bush Foundation Fellow.Photo courtesy Bush Foundation

On a more local level, Cheyenne River Youth Project executive director Julie Garreau intends to use her Fellowship funding to enhance her leadership skills by attending some mainstream leadership classes.

“I’ve never really stopped to say ‘I need to build’ or take a course or go to a conference or that sort of thing,” explained Garreau, observing how all-consuming leading any non-profit organization like the Cheyenne River Youth Project can be. “I’ve just never really done that. So, there’ll be some Western leadership models that I’m going to pursue and I have to figure that out yet. Just to build me. To make me a better leader.”

Since she’s not fluent in Lakota, Gurreau will also take language classes.

“This is just a piece of my development that should have come naturally,” said Garreau. “It should have been given to me. But I didn’t get that as a result of my parents coming through a boarding school system.”

Garreau hopes this two-pronged approach to developing herself will benefit her employees and the youth she works with as well as her community.

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The Bush Foundation was created in 1953 by 3M company businessman Archibald Granville Bush and his wife, Edyth. It awards $40 million each year to philanthropic organizations and individuals as a catalyst for leadership toward sustainable solutions to tough public problems and to ensure community vitality.

Based on self-identification, there have been 168 Native Fellows – including the current group. 

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