The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon
PRESENTATIONS: ANNE FIELDS
Finding and Fulfilling a Dream
The Dreamer
Oh dreamer of a noble dream
who’d do great things another day:
life becomes a fantasy
you sit and dream your life away.
Visions pass still unfulfilled
promises grow stale and cold
hope by inaction has been killed
while life slips by and we grow old.
If great men in days gone by
had spent their lives in thought alone
their names, their thoughts would with them die.
Great things would never have been done.
Oh dreamer of a noble dream
who’d do great things another day:
life is not a fantasy.
Don’t sit and dream your life away.
I wrote this poem when I was young, not knowing what my dream was or would be. Many years later, after my daughter married a Lakota Sioux Indian and went to live with him on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, I saw their cultural richness and the dire economic poverty and started to dream of finding assistance for the Lakota people that I met. On Pine Ridge, unemployment is around 85%. Many homes have no running water and/or electricity, and school children cannot study properly because they are hungry. After several lengthy visits, I concluded that it was useless to expect worthwhile help from any form of government (federal or tribal) and that meaningful change would come only with direct support to Pine Ridge residents who were already creating their own projects to address the issues they saw around them.
Among such people were my friends Theresa and Jerome High Horse, who live in the small village of Wanblee (Lakota for Eagle) and who, for many years, have been making a positive difference in their community. I watched what the High Horses were accomplishing with nothing but their own resources and wanted to give other people a chance to support their work.
In 2014 I created a non-profit organization called “Lakota Friends Circle” to assist the projects of the High Horses and other trusted Pine Ridge community activists. For six years we have provided much vital assistance such as food, shelter, heat, warm clothing, and baby supplies. These needs are so great they have been our priority. Our new dream goes beyond this gifting to find projects that will create long-lasting positive change.
When a journalist asked a group of school children what they wanted to be when they grew up, he was met with blank stares, the first time he had ever encountered this reaction. We believe we need to work with the young people who will one day be the leaders of Pine Ridge. Our current challenge is to give the students a dream, along with motivation and support, so they can be prepared to do great things in the future.
For example, since 2014 we have worked with the teacher of a 5th grade class in a reservation school. Her name is Cheryl. The school has no library, so we have sent bookcases and many books for the class. Each year Lakota Friends Circle sponsors a writing contest on topics such as “What I Can Do for My Community” and provides small cash prizes for the winners. We are currently sending each student a copy of a book called Bullied, But Not Broken: When the Bullies Don’t Win by bullied teenager Nate Neustadt. This will be followed by a writing contest on bullying, which is a huge problem on the reservation, as it is in schools nationwide. One year we sponsored a class field trip to the Journey Museum in Rapid City, more than 100 miles away. I rode on the school bus with them and saw their interest in the exhibits that showcased Lakota culture and their involvement with hands-on projects. They had an amazing time and each wrote an article describing what they had experienced.
One of their cultural traditions is the beading of beautiful objects, such as jewelry, leather pouches, dreamcatchers, and horse regalia. Cheryl’s son is an amazing beader and makes truly lovely items. He wanted to thank me for all that our group has done for his mother and made me a wonderful keychain with my name beaded into it.
This fall and early winter, the four 5th classrooms had no heat when temperatures outside were below freezing. The kids were very cold and could not concentrate on their work. Lakota Friends Circle provided all 80 of them with blankets, hats, gloves, and scarves - many handmade. Over the years we have provided many warm jackets for the children, who often have to wait for the school bus in sub-zero temperatures.
We trust that among these young people there will be those who are inspired to further their education, take leadership roles, and be willing and able to assist their communities in creating long-term positive change based on the dreams that are taking shape now.
Lakota Friends Circle website: www.lakotafriendscircle.org.
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Anne Fields was born and educated in England, where she received a PhD in physics. She met her American husband-to-be while on a research fellowship at Cambridge University. They moved to Maryland in 1978 and both worked as scientists at the National Bureau of Standards. When Richard retired in 2004, they came to Georgia, where Anne started volunteering for six theaters and wrote short stories.
Their eldest daughter lived with her husband on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation until his death at age 40 following a long illness. She and their two daughters now live in Georgia with Anne and Richard. Anne spent more than two years on Pine Ridge, spread over several visits. During the winter of 2010/11 she taught at the Oglala Early Head Start program and lived in a trailer home with no indoor toilet. Her experiences led her to start the non-profit organization Lakota Friends Circle whose mission is “Providing resources to Native American led organizations on Sioux Reservations, including support for education, food security, women and children’s issues, housing, and native culture.”
Copyright 2020, Barbara Knott. All Rights Reserved.