Feedback, check up and a road trip

Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

The last quarter of school began with an all-school prayer service in the Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel. Each quarter, we recognize individual students who set an example of cooperation and service for classmates to follow. At the end of the year we will select one student from the group to receive the Leo John Dehon Service Award. Fr. Dehon founded the Priests of the Sacred Heart based on the values of justice and love. Today, 21 students came forward to receive a certificate and encouragement for their efforts.

Twice a year, our Parent Advisory Committee meets to give us feedback on how our programs and staff can better respond to our students’ needs.  Eight parents/guardians dialogued with our Child Services leadership about several topics:

-          How to handle restrictions and consequences when students misbehave.

-          The goals, highlights and changes we expect from our new strategic plan.

-          The opportunities and temptations about how our students are using technology.

-          Update on our Iye Tokéya Inájiŋ – They stood here at the beginning – Alumni and History center.

-          Creating public service announcements and video spots to help people know about the  programs St. Joseph’s has available for families and students.

Speaking of consequences and restriction, when students slip onto the F list in the high school program, a whole set of consequences kicks in to help students focus on school. With missing assignments come the loss of many privileges. One mom joked about how her girls refer to this loss of privileges as being under “house arrest.” But, the loss of privileges gets their attention and they know what they need to do to earn more freedoms. Another parent said that her kids may have learned St. Joseph’s rules too well – when they come home, they ask, “May I be excused to go to the bathroom?”

Three of the members have served on the committee for 5 years now, and we recognized their contributions by giving them one of our blue fleece St. Joseph’s jackets worn by staff.

I went to the doctor for a follow up visit from my recent hospitalization. Everything checked out OK. He told me to keep doing what I’ve been doing, and try to gradually increase the exercise.

I joined Fisher Home (6^th-8^th grade boys) for supper. The big topic of conversation was whose favorite teams would win the NCAA basketball tourney. There are no regional college favorites among our students but, like many kids, they tend to get on the bandwagon for winners. I grew up in Indiana and am cheering for the Hoosiers, glad to be back in the mix.

The boys had a great time in Washington, DC.

Each spring we have a donor-sponsored trip to Washington DC that allows a few of  our students to experience the Smithsonian’s American Indian Museum. Alex, Trey and Gabriel spoke about some of their favorite sights, with the White House on top of the list. It was Gabriel’s first visit to a large city, and he couldn’t get over the crowds everywhere. The boys got an appreciation of the many different tribes that are represented at the museum,and government and history became more concrete and real for them in what they saw and experienced.

 

Back from spring break

Many of our Lakota students enjoyed a spring break this past week. Our homes all opened up at noon today. While the students appreciate a chance to go home, I also notice that a few days off this time of year does wonders for our teachers and houseparenting staff. As we start the fourth quarter, staff are returning with renewed energy for the flurry of activity as we head towards graduation and all the end-of-the-school-year activities.

My week began with some community days of recollection. Fr. Jim from Milwaukee gave us a series of talks about spirituality and we took time to break from activity to spend extra time during this season of Lent in prayer and reflection. Mid-week, I made a quick trip to Wisconsin for a finance meeting for my religious order, the Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCJs).

Fr. Ed, who is retired in Milwaukee, brought out an index card box full of pictures. All were from 1965 when he was stationed here in South Dakota, and he asked me if we were interested in having the photos for our historical center. Many of the pictures were from the end of the year when families came to pick up students. Others were from the bus trip taking students home to North Dakota.

In those days, many of the students who came from that distance – more than 5 hours away – didn’t see their families from September through May, and the photos touched on their stories. As our Akta Lakota Museum expansion project continues to rise, several people have come forward with pictures and memorabilia that fill in St. Joseph’s history.

Campus wasn’t totally quiet during spring break. We kept one of the homes open for 13 students whose family situation made it better for them to remain here. Daves, Louie and Rudy are three brothers who live in different homes during regular school year because of their age difference, but were glad to have some family time together in the break home. They were the only boys in the group, but still got along well with the ten girls who stayed. The kids and houseparents in the break home enjoyed many activities on campus, and also traveled to Pierre where the water slide at the YMCA pool is always a hit.

Great job boys!

Since our high school students attend the public school, they continued with the usual classes. Friday was a day off for them as the Chamberlain boys played in the state basketball tournament at Sioux Falls. The Cubs finished 7^th, and their one victory avenged an earlier loss to our rivals from Winner.

Today was a landmark day for several of our high school students. Six have been preparing to receive the sacrament of confirmation, and Bishop Swain from Sioux Falls was in our area. Erica and Tia, sophomore twins, are from Fort Thompson, which is 25 miles north of us along the Missouri River. They joined the parishioners there and had lots of family to celebrate with them. Their roommates from the Crane Home also joined for support. The twins both took the same confirmation name – Kateri – in honor of the Mohawk/Algonquin woman who will officially become canonized in October. I am a former pastor of Fort Thompson, and know most of the folks there. I grinned however, when one newer parishioner came up to me before mass and asked how my recent trip to Rome was. I’ve never been to Rome – she thought I was the bishop!

Chris, at one of his last plays.

After Fort Thompson, I came back to Chamberlain, where three of our high school boys, William, Chris and Jacob joined their high school classmates for confirmation downtown at St. James. I noticed Chris took the name of a Saint that I’m not very familiar with – Genesius. When asked about it he said that Genesius is the patron of actors. Chris has relished taking part in the highschool theater department and definitely has caught the acting bug. Several children of our staff members were also confirmed, and I enjoyed wandering the tables to say hello and meet extended  family at the tasty dinner the parish put on for everyone afterward.

One more high school girl, Trinity, is prepared for confirmation, but will wait until May and receive the sacrament at her home parish, Isaac Jogues in Rapid City when the bishop visits.

 

Generous hearts and attitudes

Thanks to our other staff members for keeping you up to date on school activities while I was away this past week.

I serve on my Religious Community’s (SCJ) Formation commission. We gathered to discuss the education and formation of our seminarians, as well as vocational efforts for finding quality people who might be thinking about becoming a brother or priest. A couple of us attended the National Religious Formation conference in Kansas City. The theme was about the prophetic nature of religious life. One keynote I particularly found inspiring was a look at many women prophets in the bible.
I did work in Formation with college seminarians for five years and that has shaped my philosophy of our programs at St. Joseph Indian School. We are trying to educate and form well-rounded young people, who have self-confidence, know how to work through troubles and adversity, love to learn and know how to take care of themselves and others.

I believe a key to all of that is having a solid relationship with God and trying to understand how we can follow God’s will and ways and use our gifts and talents accordingly.

One nice example that I heard when I returned was from the Cyr Home (4th-5th grade boys). For a service project they decided to help a family in need for Thanksgiving. All 12 of the boys did extra jobs around campus to earn a few extra dollars. They also made money from selling Powerade and water at football games. The boys made a list of what they would like to eat at Thanksgiving, and three of the boys looked over food ads in the newspaper. They learned about budgeting and discovered how much their dollars would buy. Four of the students went to the grocery store to buy the food. Others helped wrap the food and included a turkey plate they found at Central Storage. When all was in order, they delivered the food to the pastor of a church downtown, who delivered the food to the families so the students would remain anonymous. I’m inspired through their generous hearts and attitudes.

The kids were such great hoop dancers!

This afternoon, our third graders put on a hoop dancing performance. We sat on the floor against the wall in the school gym, and watched them make their hoops into the shape of butterflies and eagles and let their spirits soar as they danced. Good exercise, great fun and an appreciation of Lakota (Sioux) culture as well.

We had a journalist from Germany taking video of happenings around campus. At the end of the day, he was interviewing three of our high school girls, and asked a question something like, “Why is being away from home more important than being with your family?” Danisha, one of our seniors, wisely put it in perspective.

Nothing is more important than family. Being at St. Joseph’s gives me opportunities and an education so in the long run, I can help my family even more.”

 

Very excited and happy

This weekend was one of travel for me as I baptized a nephew in Florida. It was a joy to spend a little time with a lot of my family who gathered for the occasion. Today it was back to the desk to look over the mail and messages that have come in over the past few days.

I met with two junior high girls, Zoey and Mia, who were chosen to go on an upcoming donor appreciation luncheon trip. In my first meeting, I want to try to answer any questions they may have. For both girls it will be their first airplane ride and they are excited. But they threw me a question I couldn’t answer. Zoey broke her arm quite badly last year, and now has a metal plate. “Will that set off the metal detector at the airport?” I’ll make sure we have a doctor’s note just in case.

Otherwise they’re very excited.

We have our exchange program with a sister school in Handrup Germany, which is also run by the Priests of the Sacred Heart, and we also raise funds in Germany. Kory, our Director of Development just got back from a meeting with the German SCJs, so he filled me in on we talked about how things are going there. The SCJs  were gracious hosts and supportive of a continued relationship and collaboration.

The students took on the St. Joseph's Indian School staff tonight - and won!

Tonight, was our faculty verses student volleyball game. Bryan, our Athletic Director, said that the students were more motivated tonight than in any game of the season and he wished they could have played like that every game. They played their best game of the season and beat the faculty in straight sets.

The staff was happy to make it through the matches with no injuries, except maybe their pride!

 

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