Greetings and a final farewell

It is strange the twists and turns our life journeys take us on. I have been reflecting these past few weeks about my time here at St. Joseph’s Indian School and about the impact the students made upon my life. I was thinking of one particular student I used as an example of going above and beyond what is asked of any of us. For many years, I used her as an example of her selfless action to help another in need in several of my classes.

Years ago, when this girl was in sixth grade, she had beautiful long hair and was very proud of it. One day she heard about a woman undergoing chemo therapy and was losing her hair and was in need of a wig. My student had her head shaved and donated all of her hair to help make a wig for this woman dealing with cancer. This past Friday, after several years of not seeing her, I bumped into her at a store. We were so glad to see one another and I was amazed at what a beautiful young woman she had grown into. I spoke to her husband and related what she had done in my class and he said she was still a woman of conviction and great compassion. This young woman is a true example of one the success stories of St. Joseph’s Indian School.

I am so proud of all of the students I’ve worked with. They have touched me, and I hope I have also had an impact on them. Some of the eighth graders have commented that we have known each other for eight years and, as they embark on a new journey, so shall I.

I have known my mentor match since first grade, when he hid in the closest of the classroom and would not speak to anyone but me! Now, he towers over me and is still growing (and I am over six feet in height!).

I will miss each student here and I thank each one for allowing me into their lives and trusting me with their stories of growing up Lakota. What an honor I have been bestowed with.

To all, I wish you peace and joy each day of your lives. Never stop dreaming and make those dreams become reality. I have always lived my life so there would never be any “should of, could of, would of…” and never stop believing, as Anne Frank said, “In the goodness of people.”

God bless,
Richard

 

Back in the swing of things

I’m getting back in the swing of things after a 10 day stay in the hospital for an obstructed intestine, apparently caused by scar tissue in my abdomen from the previous cancer surgery. Lent is often a time of fasting, and I had to go the first 7 days with no solid foods at all to help the system relax and clear itself out.

When I finally got to eat some chicken broth, it tasted finer and richer than Thanksgiving dinner! I had good care in our local hospital and thank all the nurses and doctors who looked after me.

Being close by also had the advantage of a steady stream of visitors. Staff dropped by to inquire, pray and support. One of our 2^nd graders, Kyla, had to come up to the clinic for tests, and she stopped by the room with a homemade card and hug that brightened my day considerably. LaToya, one of our high school juniors who works an after school job at the hospital brought me my tray of food and greetings from the Crane Home. As I roamed the hallways, pushing IV pole ahead of me to get some exercise, I ran into a whole variety of folks from the community with health concerns of their own, and tried to be a caring listener to them.

Hospital stays trigger so many different moods and emotions. At times during the week I felt anxious. Once they determined I wouldn’t need to have surgery, but just wait it out, boredom became a struggle. A few times the hospitalization had a retreat-like quality, as I had plenty of time for prayer and spiritual reading. With no meals to break up the day, the Divine Office, with its various prayers at each time of the day, took on greater significance to mark and celebrate the passage of time. I tried to listen carefully to what God might be saying in the midst of sickness and struggle.

Being active, it’s hard to slow down and my mind raced with the many things I could be doing. Now that I’m home and have both the freedom and opportunity, I don’t have the energy I’d like. It’s important to pace yourself and not overdo it.

 

What blessings are you most thankful for

Our Lakota (Sioux) students are streaming in this evening as Thanksgiving break comes to an end. Most are now at the Rec Center where the boys Inter City basketball games are in full swing. We now have just three more weeks of school before Christmas break and I’m sure the time is going to be filled with many activities and also fly by quickly.

Our weather remained sunny and dry this past week which made travel for the families and guardians worry free. On Wednesday, the “official” time for school to dismiss for Thanksgiving break was 2:00, but when I got to the school around 1:45 the largest classroom had just three students left. With so many of the students families spread across all of South Dakota, parents and guardians showed up throughout the day at the times that worked for them. We have a group of over 20 students from the Rosebud Indian reservation, which is two hours distant. The tribe sends a bus to transport them back and forth over the holidays. That bus showed up around 10:00. Many families came around noon and were invited to the dining hall to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey and all the trimmings.

Several students stayed on campus during the vacation. We have a couple of break homes for students who need to or prefer to be here these days – 9 students in the grade school break home and another half-dozen in the high school program. I stopped in every now and again to check if houseparents needed anything and see how the students were doing. The high school students were mostly involved with basketball practice. The grade school home had lots more fun activities, like a trip to Mitchell, South Dakota (70 miles away) to see a movie. There was also plenty of times for recreation in the home. Samantha and Aralyn taught me how to play Wii tennis on the TV screen – and thrashed me thoroughly of course.

Our homes are normally split between boys and girls homes. In the break home there’s a different dynamic as three families with brothers and sisters were together under one roof. They enjoyed sitting next to each other at table, and spending time with younger siblings.

On Thanksgiving Day, I drove 25 miles north to Fort Thompson on the Crow Creek Indian reservation to go to mass. Afterward, Sr. Charles cooked a turkey and invited people from the community to bring what they could to add to a pot-luck celebration. It was especially nice for those elders who may have been on their own otherwise to have company to eat with, visit and celebrate.

This year I am most thankful that I’ve been able to resume my normal routine of work; I’m glad the cancer is still in remission. What blessings are you most thankful for?

Here I am with the St. Joseph's Indian School float in the background.

On Black Friday, the city of Chamberlain sponsored a Parade of Lights downtown. The evening started with a free chili supper at the Fire Hall. Santa greeted us as we rolled in. With the parade theme, “The 12 Days of Christmas” St. Joseph sponsored a float of, “A partridge in a pear tree.” Our break home students rode on walked alongside the float. Instead of candies, they passed out dreamcatcher keychains. Maybe not as tasty, but practical and longer lasting.

My fingers are sore from writing staff Christmas cards, which I have spent significant time doing while the office and school have been closed. Instead of just signing my name I try to write a few personal words to each person who works here. I am so grateful for the dedicated staff here at St. Joseph’s Indian School who do so much for our students. While running a residential school with 200 students is a big job, when each do their part, it somehow–thanks be to God–all comes together.

 

My 500th post!

I’ve been blogging for almost two years now, and Adria, who helps me with the technical work on my blog, tells me that I just completed my 500^th post!

I started as a way to keep a lot of people posted about my battles and recovery with cancer, but also to let people know about the day-to-day events that make up the St. Joseph’s Indian School experience. I go back to the doctors in a few weeks for my next check up, and am feeling well. And each day that goes by at school, is another day of blessing, with lots of little events that touch my heart and bring a smile to my face.

"And each day that goes by at school, is another day of blessing, with lots of little events that touch my heart and bring a smile to my face."

Today was All Souls Day. Fr. Anthony suggested the homes give the students a chance to write down names of their loved ones whose death is close to their hearts. At Sunday mass, the kids placed small scraps of paper, or a whole page of neatly written names into a basket. Today before mass, I read through them, and prayed for all people who grieve and are trying to find the way forward without those they love to walk with them on life’s journey. I’m also reminded that we’re all ultimately on a journey towards our heavenly home, and remembering and praying for those who have died gives us a better perspective on how we should live our lives today.

Chris Grant is a law enforcement officer whose specialty is preventing gang violence in Indian Country. He did a series of student presentations today, and I sat in with the 4^th and 5^th grade boys from Cyr and Perky Homes.

When he asked the boys how many of them knew someone in a gang, all but two hands went up.

Sadly, it is a very real problem even in rural South Dakota Indian reservations.  When he asked what gangs do, one of the students said, “Gangs fight for colors”. Just wearing the wrong color can be dangerous in many places.

Officer Grant showed some graphic photos about the kind of harm violence can lead to. He had our boys complete  attention the whole time through. We hope and pray our students make the choice not to become involved in gangs!

 

Benefit from their generosity

While I was in the office working on Sunday’s homily, I got a phone call from the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. A couple from Houston, Mike and Carolyn, had brought up a truck load of clothes to share with us and wanted to meet me and say hello. I was in sweat pants and an old t-shirt, but that actually worked to my advantage as we went to the storage building and unloaded. I took Mike and Carolyn on a tour of campus.

The William Home (4^th-5^th grade girls) were most gracious about showing us the home and talking about their routine. They also volunteered to try on some of the sweatshirts and a coat so the good folks back in Texas who gathered it all up could see the kids who will benefit from their generosity.

 

Hidden America – Children of the Plains

A day of some sadness with a funeral and a wake to go to today.

Fr. Brian was a 46-year-old priest who pastored in Fort Pierre, South Dakota until an inoperable brain tumor was discovered about four months ago. He had been in the hospital and hospice care since then, and died earlier this week. During the homily, Fr. Michel acknowledged so many people were saddened that a young priest who touched so many people’s hearts should die so young and so quickly. But God’s ways are not our ways. What is most important not the length of our lives, but what we do with the time God gives us. Going to a priest’s funeral makes me more deeply reflect on my own priesthood and ask how I can be a better and holier servant of God.

The moment I was most moved to tears came at the beginning of mass, with about 40 priests lining the center  aisle to greet the body. Fr. Brian’s niece and nephew sang a gospel song, “I will Rise”. I couldn’t help but think of my own cancer, which is still in remission. I had a sense of,  this could have been me. But it led to a deepening of the psalmist’s attitude – “What return can I make to the Lord, for all the good God has done for me in seeing me through?”

One of our secretaries suffered a family tragedy when her college aged son died. This evening at the wake the church and hall were packed as tightly as possible, with a tremendous outpouring of care and support from the community.

Tonight ABC news 20/20 program with Diane Sawyer ran a special on Hidden America – Children of the Plains. South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was the location for the reports. The images and stories were powerful and well done. The journalists were realistic about the tough living conditions on the Indian reservation. And they also showed some of the hope and promise in young people trying to break cycles of poverty and alcoholism. Those are much the critical issues we at St. Joseph’s Indian School try to address.

 

I value the wisdom shared

We had an all day Board of Directors meeting. The longest segment of discussion revolved around the new strategic plan that we have been working on. With the added input and approval of the Board we should be ready to begin in early 2012. We went through the annual audit; we were glad to hear there were no major problems or findings. We reviewed the plans for the museum expansion and alumni center, and heard reports from our outreach programs on the Indian reservations.

I’m always trying to make sure St. Joseph is headed in the right direction, and asking the right questions. It helps to have others who care about the mission of the school to ask the big questions too, and provide direction and recommendations.

While I finish these meetings feeling a bit worn out, I also value the wisdom shared, which makes the load of administrative leadership easier to carry.

 

Making the Akta Lakota Museum into a small town treasure

Today, 15 Northern Plains artists submitted their latest creations  to our Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center acquisition committee, and the museum picked up several nice new pieces. The things I usually like are not the same ones our more knowledgeable artists recommend, and in the long run, they have done a great job of making our museum into a small treasure in town.

Two fellow SCJs Fr. Jack and Deacon Dave arrived for tomorrow’s Board of Directors meeting. Deacon Dave was my predecessor as director of St. Joseph’s Indian School. When I saw the school secretary at 11:30 mass, I asked her if anything special was happening at school today. “Deacon Dave dropped by to see us, so that made the day pretty special.” People still appreciate all he did to build up St. Joseph’s into the place it is today.

Adrian and Merrill are two 8^th grade boys chosen to represent St. Joseph’s at our next donor luncheon, which will be in Pittsburgh in early December. I practiced with them after school, asking typical questions  our donors want to know. They’re excited and a little bit nervous, but that gives them incentive to practice harder. It will be a great chance for them to experience a big city and see what life is like there.

 

Gifts all around us

I’m back from a Donor Luncheon trip to Palm Desert/ Palm Springs California. Thirty years ago, I entered religious life with a year of Novitiate in the High Desert, about an hour away in Victorville. I remember at first being intimidated by the desert. Once I slowed down to explore and observe the myriad of life in what I thought was a wasteland, I was astounded by the beauty.

There is a lot to learn by going to the quiet.

This part of the Desert though, is well-developed and filled with hustle and bustle. Two high school girls, Erin and Danisha, represented St. Joseph’s Indian School at the luncheons. Both work part-time jobs after school and have been saving up their money to check out the clothing stores hoping to find different and unique items compared to what is available locally in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  Shopping, especially clothes shopping (it seldom takes me long to find my basic black !) requires lots of patience on my part, but I know it brings joy to them. I walked around and got my exercise, and had time to visit with Cheryl, the girls’ houseparent and trip chaperone. She told of her interaction with the students’ families. As she’s built up a trusting relationship the girls have shared with her many of the difficult circumstances that brought them to St. Joseph’s Indian School in the first place.

We were joined by about 70 donors on Saturday and 45 on Sunday. With some students, I worry they will get stage fright and be afraid to speak up. Erin and Danisha are both seniors and over the years have developed the self-confidence that made it easy for them to talk to our gathered friends and answer their questions. That bodes well for their future as they prepare to move on from St. Joseph’s in a few months. Both are applying for college.

Danisha’s family sew beautiful Star Quilts, and wanted to honor those folks whose generosity has made her education possible. Danisha brought along a beautiful quilt and at the end of the Saturday luncheon, she drew a name from those in attendance. Lucille was the lucky winner, and we couldn’t have picked someone for whom it meant so much.

Lucille herself taught for 50 years, and felt so honored that her excitement moved me to tears.

We drove by two of the huge Indian Casinos of the area. One of our donors is a member of the Morongo Tribe. They have shared their resources by taking materials to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation here in South Dakota to help those in need. While many of the Sioux tribes in South Dakota have tried casinos, the low population to draw from on the prairie has most of them struggling and not the massive operations like we saw in California.

Today I spent catching up on mail and messages. The bulldozers moved in and started the groundwork for our Akta Lakota Museum expansion. It will block off traffic flow for a while, but we look forward to the end results.

Two girls who have been here for 3 ½ years are transferring to another school. Their mom has moved and is in a better position to have them come back to live with her. Our goal isn’t to keep students here as long as possible, but prepare them for life when they and their families are ready to move on.  We easily get attached to students and miss anyone when they leave. When students transfer like this in the middle of the year, we look to our waiting list and offer the spot to another child.

Our principal Kathleen is in the midst of teacher evaluations, and this year is trying a new technique – actually videotaping lessons. This allows her to show the teachers how they present themselves and the materials in an even more concrete way. Because she also videotapes the class and how the students are responding, the teacher can observe student attentiveness and notice anyone who is having difficulty keeping to task.

I think it is a gift to see ourselves from others’ perspectives, and we can learn a lot from that.

At day’s end,  I watched the our 7^th and 8^th grade girls’ volleyball teams defeat our upstream neighbors the Crow Creek Chieftains. Many of our students are from the Crow Creek Reservation. Instead of an intense rivalry, play on the court was friendly. In the 8^th grade game, Martina started the second game with the serve. Before she relinquished it back to Crow Creek, the score was already 18 – 0! Awesome job Braves!

 

 

Greetings from Fr. Anthony

Greetings once again from St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  As Fr. Steve Huffstetter, SCJ is away for a donor lunch in southern California, I have the opportunity to share with you what has been happening over this past weekend.  One piece of good news is that we had some much-needed rain which helped keep the dust down that has been blowing around recently.

I just returned from a prayer service that kicked off our celebration of Native American Day here in South Dakota.  While the rest of the country celebrates Columbus Day, South Dakota, as part of a process of reconciliation, started by the late Governor George S. Mickelson, honors the heritage and culture of the Native Americans here in the state.  Several of our students will be traveling to Kimball, South Dakota to do some powwow dancing for them and explaining various aspects of the Lakota (Sioux) culture and tradition.

Our Lakota (Sioux) youth love volleyball!

This past Thursday, we saw our 7^th & 8^th grade volleyball teams have their first home game against Kimball.  The 7^th grade swept the Kiotes and the 8^th grade won their match 2 games to 1.  There were several rallies and good service streaks.  Most of the teams games have been away, so as the month progresses we’ll be having more home matches.

On Friday, Peggy Thomas’ 4^th graders had a ‘book share’ in which they read stories they had written based off of a basic three paragraph start which they then could take in any direction.  They invited staff and other classes to come and listen to the stories and then discuss the stories and look at the pictures they had made to illustrate their story.

Two German exchange students and an advisor made it to St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus late Friday night.  They were suppose to be here on Thursday but a delayed flight caused them to miss a key connection which resulted in their coming a day late.  Father Steve and the group going to California had hoped to meet them as they arrived, to have supper prior to the departure of those going West, but the delay negated that.  They did not get much chance to rest up since they went out to the Black Hills with the students of Hogebach Home to see the sights.  They will be with us for about a week and a half and will attend Chamberlain High School with our students for a few  days and get to know our program and then make a presentation of their school and the activities they are involved in Germany.  St. Joseph’s sends over some of our students in late May and early June.

The youth at St. Joseph's Indian School had a blast learning about science and space!

Our 5^th graders took part in a program call Starbase which is a program to encourage interest in science and space.  They had daily activities here on campus and then went to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota for a tour and some additional activities on base.

Several of our students are involved in the Explorers Club which meets weekly.  One of our students, Isaiah, was elected sergeant-at-arms for the club.  They have only been meeting  for a few weeks with other students from the Chamberlain area and will begin to focus on what activities they can be involved with to help the local community.

On Sunday the SCJs who serve here in Chamberlain, at St. James Parish and St. Joseph’s, joined with those  SCJs who serve the Indian reservations of Crow Creek and Lower Brule for a community meeting.  It is our chance to get together each month and share what’s been happening and how each of us is doing.  It is an important aspect of community to be present to each other as a sign of support and encouragement.  We also have a chance to share a meal together and share some social time.

The rec department just sent out the schedule for the up-coming basketball season and the Inter-City league, which is a program to offer the opportunity for our students to get to know local Chamberlain students by playing together so that when they reach high school they will already know each other a bit.  I help out with officiating and the schedules reminds me I have to get in shape to run up and down the court.  The spirit is willing, but the knees can be weak.

Hope all of you have a wonderful week ahead.  Know that we continue to keep you in our prayers thanking the Great Spirit for your generosity.  May God continue to bless you all.

Sincerely,

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

St. Joseph’s Indian School

Chamberlain, South Dakota