By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor RAPID CITY — In the face of extremely unfavorable odds in education, there are still some that are succeeding. In fact one of the most pressing concerns for Indian country has been the extremely high rate of high school dropouts and even pre high school dropouts on reservations. It has been estimated that 1in 2 Native students on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will leave high school prior to graduating leaving many on the reservation with a substantial number of tribal citizens who lack the necessary level of education to qualify for employment or other opportunities. What has been lost in the regurgitation of these statistics however is that there have been a number of students who have defied that odds and are currently succeeding at top flight colleges across the country. Growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation one is bound to experience a mix of tragic struggles and beautiful manifestations of an ancient beautiful culture. Located in the southwest corner of South Dakota the reservation is home to the Oglala Sioux Nation and an approximately 21,000 Native citizens and another 15,000 non Native residents. The reservation that is widely recognized as one of the last remaining stalwarts of traditional Native American culture is also home to one of the poorest counties in the country, the highest suicide rates, and some of the highest dropout rates in all of the United States. Much of what mainstream media has reported on throughout history has been the negative which contributed to an industry fueled by multimedia reports that former Oglala Sioux Tribal President Cecilia Fire Thunder dubbed, “poverty porn.” Lost in the shuffle however has been the multitude of academic successes that have risen above expectations to achievements that any community could take pride in. Schools like Dartmouth have had a long history of graduating Lakota students with the likes of Charles Eastman graduating from the school in the late 1800’s. More recently Stanford and Duke have admitted applicants from Pine Ridge and these students are finding their niches in these elite institutions. The motivation for students to go to these schools and to thrive in them however varies. “I talked to my younger brothers and sisters and they are my motivation and have been since I first decided to go here (Stanford). I didn’t realize they were as big of a motivation for me until I started talking to them every day. I want them to go to college and do well. I want them to be able to say if my sister is doing good then so can I,” said Tiarra Little, a sophomore at Stanford from Pine Ridge. Little said she chose Stanford because of its Native American student population and its resources for Native students. “I lean on other Native students for comfort and support and the small conversations helped me out a lot. The (Native American Cultural Center) have TVs and whatever. I really like the NACC here and that is why I chose to come here opposed to other schools that didn’t have something like this for the Native students. I spent so much time there that my first year upperclassmen called me a NACC rat,” she said jokingly. These same sentiments were echoed by Autumn White Eyes, a senior at Dartmouth, who is also from Pine Ridge Village. “I have had terms that were really good and terms that were really bad but when I have had a lot of friends in the Native American community who I have been able to lean on,” she said. “They have provided support for me.” For some however the option of having other Native students to lean on is not viable due to them being one of the only people on campus with ties to a Reservation. Lyle Jacobs, from Wounded Knee currently at Duke, had the option to attend schools with high Native American populations but chose to go a different route and attests that not having someone he could relate to was hard but that this challenge was not insurmountable. “There are a lot of people who say they are Native but not really anyone like me who is from the reservation. It was hard at first because I came in here thinking I was smart and that school would be easy like it had been in High school but I was so far behind everyone and I didn’t have the study skills that everyone had here,” he said. “For me I had to go and find a group of people that had the same interests as me. I started hanging out with other minorities and people I met by playing basketball every single night. I would tell other people who do not have someone like you around to find something you are really passionate about and more than likely there will be people who are in to that also,” said Jacobs. Jacobs who is majoring in Sociology with a double minor in public policy and education plans to use his degree to both enter in to sports reporting and to teach on the reservation. “I have chosen this route so I can go back to the reservation and change mindsets so kids can go on to schools like Dartmouth or Duke. I think the message is stronger if they can hear it from their own. Usually it’s white teachers telling them that, but if they have an Indian guy there it will be more powerful because they know I was once in their shoes,” he said. One thing for sure these three Lakota are definitely sending a powerful message. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
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