JOIN US: Native American Children Need YOU!

JOIN US:  Native American Children Need YOU!

Changing Winds Advocacy Center is an educational, Civil Rights, and charitable organization working with several different Native American Nations in South Dakota.  We have many programs that you can easily participate in to strengthen the efforts of self-sufficiency of the tribes, support traditional cultural programs, and will serve the youth of the reservations through the building of a library.  

Rather than struggling against an immovable oppressor, Changing Winds Inc at www.changingwinds.org  has begun to assist the strengthening of the tribes from within.  There is a lot to be done and a lot you can do. Read the entire Blog entry to find out more about our organization and programs, why the need is so great, and how you can actively participate to make things better.

There was a recent post by a member of this blog who invited us to post information about Changing Winds Advocacy Center. We are an educational, Civil Rights, and charitable organization working with several different Native American Nations in South Dakota.  People are always curious about how they can actively participate in making the world a better place.  Changing Winds has programs that you can easily be involved in that will strengthen the efforts of self-sufficiency of the tribes, support traditional cultural programs, and will serve the youth of the reservations through the building of a library.  

Changing Winds Advocacy Center started in 2001 under the name of Students and Teachers Against Racism (STAR).  The original intention was to assist activists who were trying to remove racist American Indian team names, such as the Redskins, which is akin to the N word for African-Americans.  However, no sooner were we underway than the egregious treatment of Native American children in education was brought to our attention.  Within the first two years, we received complaints that ranged from the whipping of a Native boy by a group of white children on a playground, padded cells used for time-outs, a Native child thrown into garbage can by white children who told him “he could not come out until he stunk like an Indian”  and many more, equally unbelievable situations.  Two weeks after civil rights complaints were filed against a school district for never interfering with racist behavior of children and for unethical treatment of the Native children by the staff, a Native boy was found hanging from the school swing set.  The children were allowed to enter the school even as the boy hung there.  We were never able to bring attention to the situation in anything other than Native journals.  Visit our website Archives to see reports, articles, and evidence of what is happening to Native people even today.  http://www.racismagainstindians.org

The list of complaints are endless.  As STAR evolved into Changing Winds, we began to investigate other forms of injustice in South Dakota, where much of our work has taken place.  Native people, and indeed, people in poverty everywhere, go to prison for the crime of not being able to afford an attorney.  However, in SD, at least two federal agents have been caught falsifying charges against Native men.  One such case was recently publicized in the Argus Leader, a daily newspaper in South Dakota.  We investigated another federal agent last spring and found evidence of the same on the Rosebud Reservation.   We were able to refer the case to the Department of Justice who took action against the offending federal officer.

There is an urgently important movement starting in South Dakota, one which impacts the future of tribes there.  In past years, state social workers have ignored the Indian Child Welfare Act which states that all children fall under tribal jurisdiction and belong not only to their family but to their tribe.  It is actually illegal for social workers to remove Native children and place them in non-native homes without the approval of the tribes.  

South Dakota state social services has been like a demon that feeds on children.  In order to maintain their jobs, they must place children in other families homes.  They receive thousands of dollars for placing a child with another family, and they even get thousands more for Native American children.  Therefore, it is no surprise that certain reservations, such as Pine Ridge, lost up to and sometimes more than 1000 children per year to the state!  The ICWA law has been ignored, children have not only been placed outside of the tribe, illegally with non-native families, but also placed in other states making it almost impossible for family visitations or recovering the children.  Every reservation in  South Dakota is doing battle to hold onto their children and some have established new codes whereupon the state MAY NOT remove the children from the tribe.  Without the children where is the future?

By providing for the families who are in the most dire need of clothing, food and furnishings, we are able to assist those who are most risk of losing their children to the state solely due to poverty.

The needs are tremendous, but not insurmountable. In most of the country, adolescent suicide ranks as the eighth leading cause of death.  On the reservations in SD, it is the LEADING cause of death.  In a recent suicide intervention program on Rosebud the children were asked why they thought this might be. They answered that there was nothing to do.

There are no malls, no movie theatres, no shops or downtown areas for them to meet.  Gas is expensive and travel from town to town may be a forty-five minute drive. There are dry dusty streets, long cold winters, virtually no sources of after school entertainment or even jobs.  Alcoholism is rampant, as are all of the other expected social ills that accompany extreme poverty and hopelessness.

The rates of poverty on some of the reservations in South Dakota is at least 52.3%, and most believe it is closer to 70%.  Unemployment on some of SD’s reservations is about 80%.  The Native high school drop out rate in Rapid City, SD is about 60%.  The average age of death for a Native American man in SD is about 50 years old.  However, we did our own study and followed the obituaries in Pine Ridge and found that it was closer to 42 years old.  Many in the obits, of course, were children.

Children need hope.  They need to feel there is a future that will be exciting, stimulating, rewarding, and relevant to their culture.  The lack of resources for children on the reservations are overwhelming.  Changing Winds has begun to address this on several reservations, but is focusing right now on The Boys and Girls Clubs of Rosebud which has been given an old bowling alley that needs a complete refurbishing.  We are looking for volunteers who will go out and lend their talents to rebuild, and also to teach skills that will enable the children to visualize a life that is relevant and sustaining.

Our programs have always been aimed at helping the children visualize a future where they can live a full life, free of the sting of racism.  This future must be one that allows them to maintain their cultural identities.  Reservation public schools  completely ignore the Native perspective of history, making the children feel they are in the wrong school.  They will learn about Columbus, but not Wounded Knee, even on their own land.  One of our many goals is to bring classes onto the reservation that will enable students to become web artists, authors, broadcast journalists, and any other position that they can do to earn an income from the land they live on.  

Changing Winds has always maintained that the most gratifying way for people to donate is to provide the requested materials themselves, rather than donate money.

This past winter, with promotional support from Tiokasin Ghost Horse of  WBAI radio, 99.5 fm in New York, we were able to provide children with warm clothing and/or coats to help the tribes prove to the state they CAN take care of their children.  In the last four years we have supplied warm clothing and/or coats for thousands of children. This year, we purchased 200 pairs of brand new shoes at wholesale prices, sewing machines, electric heaters, diapers and baby formula.  We are now providing books for the first public library on the Rosebud reservation, to be held within the Boys and Girls Clubs of Rosebud.  These books will specifically be by and about Native people, and particularly the Lakota people, who we predominantly serve.

When people provide materials, their hand touches the goods that are welcomed by the needy recipient.  However, we also take financial donations which are utilized approximately 93% towards goods and services, 7% towards administrative costs which are solely gas funds to deliver the goods,  and maintaining the website and promotional materials to get the word out.  Those are the extent of our costs, making donations benefit the children 100%.  The Changing Winds staff is all volunteer, no one gets a salary and no one personally benefits in any way.  If you are interested in strengthening and joining our efforts, please visit Warming Hearts on the Changing Winds website, at http://www.changingwinds.org or call 203-256-9720 for more information about the most recent request for tribal assistance.  You can also email us at [e-mail] or visit www.changingwinds.org to see all of the work that we do.  JOIN US!  Be a part of the circle!