I am in Kyle South Dakota, having spent the day on the Pine Ridge Reservation teaching yoga with R.R. Shakti of Yoga World Reach. Storytime Yoga teacher Scottie Bruch, who is from Whitewood, South Dakota, also joined us with tons of wonderful donations she gathered from her community for the needy here.
We set off yesterday at about 3 p.m and ended up in another world around 11:30 p.m. when we reached our destination. It seems that landmarks and road signs disappear when you reach the reservation, and we had to back track several times and even got completely lost in the black darkness with no I-phone service (of which the GPS service on it had lead us astray), nor a gas station or car in sight to seek help if necessary! Luckily yoga has taught me to identify such fears of my mind and its endless of what ifs and not react to them but dissolve them, but mostly it was just so uncomfortable being in the car so long and I thought I would die if we didn’t find the Lakota Prairie Ranch Restaurant and Lodge finally.
This morning we were guest on the local radio station that is broadcast to 50,000 residents on the Lakota Native American Reservation. This is the place with the history of Wounded Knee, the massacre and everything really awful and still denied by our country. Our schools should be teaching what we did to Native Americans along with the Jewish experience in middle school so kids really understand it and get clear of its weight on our psyche. I remember really hating and bored with pioneers and Colorado history that we studied in the third grade. I considered the settlers and miners just a bunch of monsters pillaging and murdering the native peoples and land on a greed fest, and the women were really miserable back then too. I had read how pioneer women in Kansas and Wyoming committed suicide because of the constant wind.
During the radio show the hosts mentioned how many residents are plagued by high rates of diabetes from poor diet, high suicide rates (there was a suicide run given by the families who have lost loved ones, as their biggest pow wow of the year was happening this weekend.) and high crime. There is also a high rate of ADHD among Native American children on the reservation. I talked about how important the rituals and rites of the Native American culture are, which is actually used as a therapeutic tool here. Children need to be grounded in their bodies and souls. They need these rites and myths as a road map into the inner world to create meaning and be present and connected to their environment by participating in it rather than consuming it. The amazing thing is that Lakota cosmology is very similar to yoga philosophy, as I wrote in the earlier blog. In their artwork there are circles everywhere, and they believe in the levels of spiritual, emotional, physical and mental well being. They believe that everything is related, and there is a depth that informs all of the reality on the surface from down below as the Great Mystery. This is what grounds children in their bodies. Those who have experienced trauma and abuse must be able to ground themselves in the safety of the body and their own beings. To have self-awareness of emotions, behaviors, and to be deeply relaxed so that one feels and knows the relationship one has to the external environment.
There is a Waldorf School on the reservation and I’m hoping to come back with YWR in another three months and establish some children’s programs when school is in session.
I taught mostly teenagers and a few adults as well as young children today, and I used story to set the theme. To help them see the inner life, and also to distinguish between their desires and fears I told the Sufi story from my book The Treasure in Your Heart: Yoga and Stories for Peaceful Children, about the heart that no longer moves. How can we be peaceful and non-attached in the face of fear and desire? Joyful and painful experiences? So that we may not suffer. How can we stay centered in our selves and identify within rather than with the mind’s wanderings and entanglements? The yoga practice and mindful of these questions reprogram the body. By the end one teenager was so relaxed during shavasana that she fell asleep.
Afterwards there was a snack and we all talked with some of the participants. We talked about yoga history and where it came from, and again people were really interested in improving their health. We also talked about storytelling. One woman with a 10-month-old baby said she remembers hearing the stories in high school of her people, but has not heard or told them since. But she remembered them as creation stories, where the animals came from and so forth. I encouraged her to find the old stories again and to tell them to her daughter. And then she was to tell them to me when I returned in the fall.
R.R. Shakti then taught an adult class at the community college. The people said they really felt better afterwards and wanted to take more classes, even possibly driving to Sturgis once a month where Scottie taught. Additionally, they really connected with the sense that their bodies and souls were wrung out, as if it released toxins and re-energized them and their chi, and life spirit.
Tomorrow we leave and will talk about bringing a yoga teacher training to the reservation. Then we will go hiking in the Badlands and pay our respects at Wounded Knee. The insanity of the white man drove the spirit of the Lakota underground, but I have a feeling that its soon return is what is going to bring life on the planet back in balance.
We set off yesterday at about 3 p.m and ended up in another world around 11:30 p.m. when we reached our destination. It seems that landmarks and road signs disappear when you reach the reservation, and we had to back track several times and even got completely lost in the black darkness with no I-phone service (of which the GPS service on it had lead us astray), nor a gas station or car in sight to seek help if necessary! Luckily yoga has taught me to identify such fears of my mind and its endless of what ifs and not react to them but dissolve them, but mostly it was just so uncomfortable being in the car so long and I thought I would die if we didn’t find the Lakota Prairie Ranch Restaurant and Lodge finally.
This morning we were guest on the local radio station that is broadcast to 50,000 residents on the Lakota Native American Reservation. This is the place with the history of Wounded Knee, the massacre and everything really awful and still denied by our country. Our schools should be teaching what we did to Native Americans along with the Jewish experience in middle school so kids really understand it and get clear of its weight on our psyche. I remember really hating and bored with pioneers and Colorado history that we studied in the third grade. I considered the settlers and miners just a bunch of monsters pillaging and murdering the native peoples and land on a greed fest, and the women were really miserable back then too. I had read how pioneer women in Kansas and Wyoming committed suicide because of the constant wind.
During the radio show the hosts mentioned how many residents are plagued by high rates of diabetes from poor diet, high suicide rates (there was a suicide run given by the families who have lost loved ones, as their biggest pow wow of the year was happening this weekend.) and high crime. There is also a high rate of ADHD among Native American children on the reservation. I talked about how important the rituals and rites of the Native American culture are, which is actually used as a therapeutic tool here. Children need to be grounded in their bodies and souls. They need these rites and myths as a road map into the inner world to create meaning and be present and connected to their environment by participating in it rather than consuming it. The amazing thing is that Lakota cosmology is very similar to yoga philosophy, as I wrote in the earlier blog. In their artwork there are circles everywhere, and they believe in the levels of spiritual, emotional, physical and mental well being. They believe that everything is related, and there is a depth that informs all of the reality on the surface from down below as the Great Mystery. This is what grounds children in their bodies. Those who have experienced trauma and abuse must be able to ground themselves in the safety of the body and their own beings. To have self-awareness of emotions, behaviors, and to be deeply relaxed so that one feels and knows the relationship one has to the external environment.
There is a Waldorf School on the reservation and I’m hoping to come back with YWR in another three months and establish some children’s programs when school is in session.
I taught mostly teenagers and a few adults as well as young children today, and I used story to set the theme. To help them see the inner life, and also to distinguish between their desires and fears I told the Sufi story from my book The Treasure in Your Heart: Yoga and Stories for Peaceful Children, about the heart that no longer moves. How can we be peaceful and non-attached in the face of fear and desire? Joyful and painful experiences? So that we may not suffer. How can we stay centered in our selves and identify within rather than with the mind’s wanderings and entanglements? The yoga practice and mindful of these questions reprogram the body. By the end one teenager was so relaxed during shavasana that she fell asleep.
Afterwards there was a snack and we all talked with some of the participants. We talked about yoga history and where it came from, and again people were really interested in improving their health. We also talked about storytelling. One woman with a 10-month-old baby said she remembers hearing the stories in high school of her people, but has not heard or told them since. But she remembered them as creation stories, where the animals came from and so forth. I encouraged her to find the old stories again and to tell them to her daughter. And then she was to tell them to me when I returned in the fall.
R.R. Shakti then taught an adult class at the community college. The people said they really felt better afterwards and wanted to take more classes, even possibly driving to Sturgis once a month where Scottie taught. Additionally, they really connected with the sense that their bodies and souls were wrung out, as if it released toxins and re-energized them and their chi, and life spirit.
Tomorrow we leave and will talk about bringing a yoga teacher training to the reservation. Then we will go hiking in the Badlands and pay our respects at Wounded Knee. The insanity of the white man drove the spirit of the Lakota underground, but I have a feeling that its soon return is what is going to bring life on the planet back in balance.
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