[Danielle Balocca]: Hey, Mad for Bites listeners. Today's episode includes an interview with the Lakota Youth Stay. This project focuses on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. My guests wanted me to mention that because it is often the incredible trauma associated with Pine Ridge, including the Massacret Wounded Knee, that is most focused on, our conversation today was intentional in celebrating the Native people on Pine Ridge. I also wanted to start today's episode with a land acknowledgement that was written for me by Joy Harris, one of today's guests. This podcast was recorded in the city of Medford, Massachusetts. Medford is located on the traditional ancestral homelands of the Massachusetts and Wampanoag peoples, past and present. We acknowledge, honor, and respect their ongoing presence and deep and abiding connection with the land, water, plants, and animals. We thank them for their stewardship over many generations as they continue to protect this land and practice their traditions. I hope you enjoy the interview. All right, so thank you both so much for being here with me today. If you could introduce yourselves and say your name and pronouns and anything else about yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Well, thanks for having us. My name is Joy Harris. My pronouns are she and hers. And I'm a resident of West Medford and a retired occupational therapist who has a long-standing interest in Native American culture and contemporary issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my name is Bruce Roberts. I'm Joy's spouse and he and him and I'm a retired psychologist and I also have a long-standing interest. It's interesting one of the things that we found out after we met was of our the history of our interest in Native American. I wasn't I was an English major undergraduate, for example, and I remember taking a number of independent studies in Native American literature. So we could both go pretty far back in that direction.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and I think that the interest in Native American culture and history is something that will be kind of our primary focus in the work that you all are doing today. But first, if we could start with a question that I ask everybody that I interview is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there?
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, well, this is pretty easy for me. I really like Snappy Patties, which is right down the street from us. And I love their fish tacos. And I have tried to have fish tacos in a number of different countries and restaurants. And Snappy Patties is the best. Nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say my favorite restaurant is Bistro 5. And you really can't go wrong with anything in there. That's also right down the street from us. Maybe that's why it's a favorite. And I like everything on their menu, actually. The cheeseburgers are good if you just want to get in and out. And they always have something new on the menu if you want to sit down for a nice dinner.
[Danielle Balocca]: Delicious. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. You guys are hyper local, then. So Westman. Great. So I you know, I think you are both here to talk about your work with Lakota Youth Stay. And if you don't mind kind of describing that program, telling us a little bit about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure. The Lakota Youth Stay Program is a summer home stay program for the Lakota youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. And the purpose or the mission of the program is to build sustainable, mutual, rewarding friendships between people in Medford or in the greater Medford area. and the Native American youth on Pine Ridge and their families with the purpose, I guess, of creating opportunities for the youth to see what life is like off the reservation and also to generate cultural awareness for families in the greater Medford area about Native history, about culture, and about contemporary issues and life on the reservation. And the program started as a result of our trips, our volunteer trips out to the reservation starting in 2012. We started going out there with a group of people from Medford to do building projects on the reservation and which was an incredible experience. And we've been going ever since then with different groups of people. And that really sort of awakened our interest in Native history. And from those experiences, we had the idea of starting sort of like a student exchange program or homestay program. So we started working on that in 2015 and it sort of grew from there.
[Danielle Balocca]: Anything you would add, Bruce?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I would add for folks that don't know too much about the Pine Ridge Reservation, it's in the southwest corner of South Dakota. And it's one of the poorest reservations in the United States, but also one of the poorest counties. It annually vows for either, vies for either first or second poorest county in the country. And it's large, it's a large, The 35,000 people that live there on a reservation about two-thirds the size of Connecticut. So it's large and spread out. And as you know, 35,000 is just over half of the people that we have in Medford. Can you imagine that spread over an area that big? So it's fairly rural. It's beautiful. There's a lot of diversity in terms of the landscape out there, but extreme poverty and there are lots of demographic facts about the reservation that are kind of chilling. Do you want to talk about some of those, Joy?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure. Pine Ridge is frequently cited as the sort of poster reservation, I guess, for those chilling statistics. But the annual per capita income is somewhere around $7,000 a year. They have a very high unemployment rate. It's around 85, 90%. There's a big issue with alcoholism and now even with meth distribution on the reservation and somewhere around 96, 97% of the families live below the poverty level. I think the high school dropout rate is somewhere around 75%. That might have gone down a little bit recently. And there's a number of I think 35 or 38% of the households don't have electricity or an indoor plumbing, which was really shocking to us when we went out there. I've traveled quite a bit to third world countries and One thing I always thought, well, at least everyone in the United States has electricity and running water until we went out to Pine Ridge and found out that that's not the case. And the healthcare, they have the Indian Health Services, but it's really for acute sort of emergency situations. And so their healthcare isn't great either.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of- And once again, we could just say there's one hospital on Pine Ridge, And if you could imagine something almost the size of Connecticut with only one hospital and folks generally don't have the same transportation opportunities we have here, they don't have mass transit there and not every family has access to a vehicle. So the healthcare, health concerns generally are a big issue on the reservation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they have high rates of diabetes and heart conditions. Because one of the other things we discovered when we started going out there is the food desert that sort of a food desert there's really only one grocery store in an area that's almost the size of Connecticut. you know, and the grocery store is pretty small. It's actually improved in the last couple of years, but sort of access to fresh food is an issue on the reservation. So there's a lot of processed food, which over a long-term leads to a lot of health disparities. I will say that Over the time, so it's been almost 10 years since we've been going there, we have seen a lot of really positive changes on the reservation. There's more people doing gardening and growing fresh vegetables. There's more access, especially during COVID, because of the funds that have come in. There's better access to some health care. We see more kids staying in school and graduating from high school. And the land out there is absolutely beautiful. I mean, we go out there and it's just like a breath of fresh air. Going out there, it's very different from the Northeast because you have your wide open expanses and it's just a beautiful, beautiful place with a interesting, fascinating history. So when we go out there, we really just enjoy it so much. And the people that we've met on the reservation are very welcoming after a while, after you get to know them a little bit. And so over the years, we've developed some really great friendships with people out there that we've met and with the youth that have participated in the program and their families.
[Danielle Balocca]: I imagine there's like a process of like trust building, right? Where like, you know, you're getting to know each other. I imagine some sort of element of understanding the culture. What was that process like for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was a process. I mean, we started going out there in 2012, you know, went every year. And then in 2015, when we were out there, there had been a increase in the number of youth suicides that particular winter. And when we were out there, there was definitely a sense of sadness and throughout the reservation. And we were talking with some young people out there about this. And just sort of brainstorming really, like, you know, what could be done? What could you know, as people that live in Boston, like, how can we help? What can we do? And we started talking about sort of student exchange programs, and whether there was anything like that on the reservation. And the youth that we were talking to, just got really excited about something like that. You know, many families don't have the ability to leave the reservation that often, or if they do, it's to go to Rapid City where there's a Walmart and things like that where they can get reasonably priced food. The youth got very excited about this, so we started talking more and more, and that's how we got the idea to start this program. Yes, there was a period of time where I think showing up every year, and going out to different families' homes and talking to them about the program and also getting their feedback. You know, what would make sense? Like what would you feel comfortable with? That, I think, went a long way to sort of creating a sense of mutual trust, you know, with the families. So we really worked on the program starting in 2015. And we had the first group of youth, we had 10 youth come in 2017 to Medford for a week. And we also had a lot of work to do on the Medford side in terms of introducing the program and talking to families here about hosting opportunities. So we went to different families' houses and talked to them about our experience and what we wanted to do. And that first year, I think we had seven families sign up to host the youth from Pine Ridge. Yeah. So then, you know, that's a whole process and matching up. We really tried to do it on a very individual basis. So really getting to know the kids on the reservation and what they were interested in and what their personalities were like, and then trying to match them up with a family that would be a good match. So we spent a lot of time doing that and we were very open and we were always going back to people on the reservation and saying, how do you feel about this? Do you think this is a good idea? We had a number of Lakota adults who were on our advisory board. So we really sought their input the whole entire way and continue to do so. How old were the group of kids? Like how old are they generally? Yeah. So our program is for kids 10 to 15 years old. And I would say the average age is somewhere around 12. And part of the reason we did that is that I guess one of our goals is we really want the kids to stay in school and graduate from high school. And we just thought, you know, working with younger kids and giving them the opportunity to see what life is like off the reservation, that maybe that would be an inspiration for them. Maybe they would discover something of interest to them that they would want to study in school. So that's why we went with the younger group and it really has worked out very well having the younger kids come. And we do try and match them up with families that have kids around the same age. And we have had host families that either their children are grown or they don't have kids. And usually when that is the case, then we have two Lakota youth stay with a family together so that they're comfortable. So that's really worked out very well.
[Danielle Balocca]: It seems like so part of the goal is like giving them an experience outside of the reservation to maybe build some sense of like hope or different options or just to sort of expand what they're seeing every day. And is the intention to sort of give them an option that is like leaving the reservation or is there some piece about like how like bringing things back home or, you know? Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: PB, David Ensign --"That's a good question."
[SPEAKER_01]: PB, Sarah Silver--"Yes. No, our intention is not for them to leave the reservation unless that's something that they want to do. You know, our idea was that the youth would stay in school, possibly go to college. One of the things that we do is we do take them on a tour of a college campus. And they get to meet some students. They get to hear about scholarship opportunities available to Native youth. And so we talk about that. And we have a Navajo woman that does the tours with us. And she talks about her experience in terms of going to school. So our idea really is to give the youth a sense of hope and that they can have whatever sort of future that they want and that there's opportunities to further their education so that they can bring some of those, that knowledge and skills back to the reservation and over time sort of implement change on the reservation for the families there. I think the other piece of this is that when we started going out to the reservation and came back, talked with people in our community about our experience. And, you know, there were, there were a number of people that was sort of surprised that there were reservations still on the in the country and even that surprised that there were still native people in this country. So that was part of our idea was to create that awareness and our own community about native history and about contemporary life on a reservation, and really to highlight all the positive aspects of that. So it wasn't just about creating opportunities for the youth on the reservation. It was also equally important to us to create awareness of native life and history for families here in the greater Medford community.
[SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly, on the flip side there, a lot of the kids that came out from the reservation were not really aware that there were still Native Americans on the East Coast. So they were very surprised we were able to arrange day trips down to Mashpee to spend time with the Wampanoag tribe who actually welcomed them. And they got to go to a council meeting and they held a little mini powwow for the kids. So they were right at home, right away with the native kids here. So that was interesting. I think there may be some persisting correspondence that goes on between some of those kids. from Massachusetts back to South Dakota.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. It seems like a very thoughtful plan that you've come up with for how to sort of give exposure to different things while also kind of helping to create a space here that they can feel accepted and normalized. What have been some of the challenges that you've noticed in doing this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, COVID's been a huge challenge. Yeah, the last two years have been a huge challenge because we had a group of 11 youth that were scheduled to come here in 2020. Very excited, you know, to come and we had to cancel that program. And then we had to cancel it again this year, this past year.
[SPEAKER_00]: So. You think about it. The families don't want their kids to go across the country to COVID during a COVID infestation. And likewise, host families here didn't want to be bringing somebody in that they weren't, they didn't really know, and couldn't be sure of the health status of them. And so it was, we didn't have a choice, really.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like a lot of organizations, you know, it really, it really affected us. And we Even though the program is for 10 days in the summer, it really takes all year to put it together. The youth on the reservation apply for the program, which is happening right now. We're hopeful that it's gonna happen this year. And in the fall, we're talking with host families and doing home visits and letting them know about the program. So it really takes all year to sort of put this together. And with COVID, everything sort of came to a standstill. And we sort of pivoted in the beginning of COVID and thought, oh, what else can we do given the circumstances with the pandemic? And we came up with starting a pen pal program, which we did. So we started a pen pal program in the fall of 2020, I guess. And we had over 100 matches between youth on the reservation and youth in the greater Medford area where they could correspond by snail mail. And so that worked out really well. And we've tried to think of other things that we can do during the pandemic to provide some assistance and connection with the youth and the families, because also we haven't been able to go there in two years either, which you know, has been very sad, but we've tried other ways to stay connected with the youth and the families up there. I think some of the other challenges, I mean, as you can imagine, there's a lot of logistics that go into a program like this, because we're flying the youth from South Dakota to Medford and- And by the way, there's no direct flight from Rapid City to Boston. Right. And we're, you know, 100% volunteer organization. And we're a program at the West Medford Community Center. So there's just a lot of coordination that goes on between the families on the reservation and the host families. And everything that we do is done pretty much in a group because that is what the youth is most comfortable with. So they do stay with host families, but every morning we get together And we have activities planned throughout the day. So we do everything as a group. The youth are totally fascinated by the ocean. So we do a lot of things around the ocean. We go to the beach. We do a rail watch. We go out to the harbor islands. And I swear, if we just went to the beach every day, they would perfectly happy because they just love the water. But we also do a lot in terms of, we do a photography workshop and then we give all the kids a camera and we encourage them to take pictures throughout the week while they're here. And then at the end, we have a photography exhibit where we, like an art gallery, where we display, you know, one or two of their most favorite photographs for the community to come. We do an art workshop. We do the college tours. And one of the big events that we do is something we call teepee day, which we do down on the Mystic River in back of the West Medford Community Center in Duggar Park. And the kids love that. We have an 18 foot teepee and the kids put up the teepee. We have the Wampanoag. drum group come up from Ashby with their dancers. And a lot of the youth are powwow dancers. So they bring their regalia with them and they will dance during teepee day. So it's a wonderful community event and it gives the youth an opportunity to really share their culture, their dance with our community. So That was sort of the highlight, I guess, of the Youth Stay Week.
[SPEAKER_00]: That and going to Fenway Park. Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We take them to Fenway Park, which they also love. Yeah, so we try and create opportunities. We actually talk to each group of youth every year and find out what they're interested in exploring. Like, what do you want to do? And then we sort of build the activities around their interests. It sounds like a busy week.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is very, it's an exhausting week.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't get a lot of sleep.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I imagine. And it's, I mean, my other question was about like the most rewarding parts and it sounds like there's a lot that comes out of it that is enjoyable as well. Bruce, would you add anything in terms of challenges or rewards?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think the biggest challenges are logistical, uh, both, you know, Part of what we do in preparation is go out to the reservation and get the kids together because they don't necessarily know each other in an area that vast. You can imagine some of them do. And because it's a reservation, some of them are even distantly related. So they'll know each other. Oh, you're so-and-so's nephew, right? So getting them together on the reservation Uh, when it's not like we, we have a van that we go out there with or anything, we have to rely on volunteers to get kids together and find central locations where the kids can, can meet. Uh, we take them on field trips like to, uh, you know, they're really group, um, uh, group building exercises, taking them to a water park and in a rapid city, which is two hours away. you know, go out for ice cream, different things that, so they get to know each other and feel comfortable getting on a plane and then getting them either through Chicago or Minneapolis here to Boston. So that requires having volunteers on the reservation, adult volunteers that can accompany them, because we can't do all that. And then of course, meeting them at the airport and picking them all up and distributing them to their various host families. And then transportation while they're here is also an issue. We've had people volunteer to do driving and so on. So there's a lot of logistics to be worked out, as you might imagine, since every day is pretty busy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do a lot to sort of build group cohesion and comfort on the reservation a couple of weeks before they come. We spend a week out there. visiting all the youth and the families, getting them together, as Bruce said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Answering their questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Answering their questions so that by the time they get to the Rapid City Airport, they sort of know who their group is and they have a sense of trust and comfort within the group. And then we usually have two adult, Lakota adult volunteers who travel with them and spend the week here with us, acting as co-leaders and facilitators for all the activities that we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of these kids, as you imagine, have never been on an airplane before. So we do a day trip in advance of coming here to the airport. The manager of the airport has been very good about taking them around, showing them the big jets and the fire extinguishing equipment they have for the runway. And they get excited about that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I didn't think about the sort of group cohesion element and how that, hopefully when they return after the trip, they've created some bonds with each other that I would hope would be another sort of source of support and hope and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. And they do. And a month or so after they return to the reservation, we do a get together out there. So we bring them all together and we seek their feedback, what went well, what didn't, what you think we should change. And so they do develop friendships with one another. And the reservation is very remote. Um, and so they may not see each other that often. They may run into each other at basketball games or something like that, but they, they do stay connected in various ways. So that's, that's really nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. That may be a surprise to most people in this area, but basketball is like the craze on the reservation. They've always been great basketball players and fans. They support their kids. Um, you know, the high school teams are kind of the big leagues of basketball on the reservation. both the girls and the boys.
[Danielle Balocca]: Cool. How are you all funded? How do you fund this work?
[SPEAKER_01]: Good question. So we do all our own fundraising. So it's totally run based on donations from individuals. We have applied for some grants, which we've been fortunate and we've been able to be awarded those, but we do a lot of fundraising throughout the year. We have different events that we do. We were planning on doing sort of a big event in April of 2020, which we ended up having to cancel. So it's totally funded by individual donations and grants.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even like grassroots opportunities like Bake sales, we've had bake sales cookie, the cookie walk we did for a couple of years, we've had silent auction. Right. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a challenge on top of, you know, just running the program and every year setting up the host families, the youth applications. A lot of the youth on the reservation may not have access to the internet. In fact, I read a statistic that I think only 48% of households on the reservation have broadband compared to like 80% of the rest of the country. So even the youth applications, a lot of times there's a lot of hands on that we need to do in terms of trying to figure out how to get the application completed, you know, how to get their references and that kind of thing. So that can be, you know, quite time consuming trying to get through that process. So there's a lot of logistics that we may not think about in terms of Medford, but present sort of a challenge on the reservation.
[Danielle Balocca]: It sounds like there's a, there's an opportunity for residents of Medford to sort of like become involved or come to the events that you all host when, when the kids are here. Is there any, like, are there any hopes that you have in terms of like an impact on Medford or the values of Medford? How, you know, how this relates to the work that you all are doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. I mean, as we talked about before, you know, one of our big goals was really to increase cultural awareness of Native history and of the land that we're on, even here in Medford, you know, we're on the ancestral traditional lands of the Massachusetts and Wampanoag people here in Medford. And a lot of people aren't aware of that. So that's one of our goals is just to increase awareness and to have more understanding and respect for the impact, the history, but also the current impact of Native people. I've been very pleased over the last couple of years, I think since Standing Rock, that that seems to be coming more to the forefront. And certainly with Secretary Holland's appointment in the Interior Department, I think there's more awareness that Native people are here. They've been here all along or on their land. And So I think there's more interest in learning more about that. And I think that's true of them in Medford to a lot of the host families learned a lot from hosting a Lakota youth for the kids and the kids to and a lot of them have continued that friendship. Some of our families have actually gone out to the reservation to visit the kids that they hosted, which would not have happened, I'm sure, in the past. And some of the youth that they hosted were invited back by the families to come for a visit. So those sort of relationships have really taken root. And we're really happy to see that because they're both learning a lot about each other. And, you know, and the country sort of bringing together diverse groups of people to increase sort of understanding sort of on that personal level, really can go a long way, I think, and, and healing, you know, some of the the history of this country. So That's been a very, very positive thing in terms of the Medford families. And I also think the teepee day that we do, I mean, probably not many people in Medford have an opportunity to meet a Native person. And because we don't have large reservations here like they do out West, even if you do, you may not know that. So I think this sort of gives families in Medford an opportunity to really get to know somebody from a different background than they have.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I think you did a good job.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, it sounds like there's a lot of power in those individual relationships or even families relationships to these kids. I wonder what you hope people will do with that. So with what they're learning about Native people, are there any sort of macro hopes that you have for your program?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a response for that. One year when we were down at the Wampanoag, The Mashpee, it's not really a reservation. It's more like what needed land. That's, you know, it's a small area, but Wampanoag make good use of it. We visited one of the older chiefs. Actually, he was a retired chief. I think he was in his eighties or something like that, which is remarkable. And that the kids were there. And one of the kids had his camera that day as they all did probably. And he took a picture. in the backyard of this chief's home. And it was a wood carving that was hand painted. And it said, we are still here. And that was a significant image for him. And he took that picture and it ended up in one of the photography exhibits we had one year. So I think for people in Medford to realize that Native Americans are still here, they didn't all die from, chickenpox and armed conflict and that sort of thing. There are many, many people still surviving and they have, they're proud people and they have their own history and culture that they cherish and that's available to us and we should be aware of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they've been, you know, stewards of this land and the plants and the animals for generations and continue to do to do that. And we owe them a lot of respect for that. And I think we're learning now that we need to incorporate that more. I do want to say that, you know, the city of Medford has been very supportive of the Lakota You Stay program in terms of lending resources and being, coming to a lot of our events. And I even think in the last couple of years, you know, with the name change at the Missittuck School, You know, I think that was really exciting to us that there were so many people in support of changing the name of that school, and also acknowledging during a lot of the discussion about the name change, acknowledging the lands that inhabit now. So that was, that was an exciting thing for us to see so many people in support of that in the city of Medford. And we'd like to think that we have some part in that by, you know, the Lakota You Stay program. And we hope that that continues. You know, we'd like to see land acknowledgements at the city council meetings and the school committee meetings. And we'd like to see more recognition of the land that we're on in terms of signage or events that happen in Medford. So that's sort of our, I guess, our hope for the future.
[Danielle Balocca]: So great hopes and in process, it seems like some of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it does. You know, I think there's a lot that, you know, Medford has such a strong art community. And I think there's ways of bringing in Indigenous art in some way into our community in that way. You know, we're hopeful that we're going to be able to have the Lakota Youth Day program this summer. We're sort of going forward like
[SPEAKER_00]: As if.
[SPEAKER_01]: As if we're going to be able to do that. And we'll see what happens with the pandemic. But, you know, we're hoping to bring the kids here again in the summer. And we're already talking with the Mashpee Wampanoag about doing the teepee day again next summer. So we have a lot of hopes that things will progress.
[Danielle Balocca]: I hope so, too. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you want to add before you wrap up?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think we just are very grateful to the, you know, host families in Medford and beyond. We've had host families in Arlington and Malden and Winchester too. And also just to the city for really supporting us like we're very appreciative of that. And we hope it continues.
[Danielle Balocca]: How can folks find you if they want to know more information or get in touch? What's the best way to do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: We do have a website, lakotayoustay.org, and all our information is on there, including information about hosting and a host application. And we're on Facebook and Instagram too. And so we update that periodically as new things. I try and keep sort of information about Native issues on our Facebook page, so if you're curious about what might be going on in Native country that's a good place to look for information so.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. And I'll be sure to put that in the show notes so people can access that easily too. Well, thank you both so much for the time today. It's really informative and good luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your interest.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh yeah, of course. And I hope things do improve for you all in 2022 and you're able to have this, that you stay in, in the summer. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for the invitation. We'll see you at teepee day.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yes, definitely. Thank you so much to Joy and Bruce. If you're interested in learning more about Lakota Youth Stay and staying up to date on their work, please check out the show notes for links to their website. If you follow Medford Bites on Instagram, you may have seen that Medford Bites stickers will soon be available. More to come on this soon. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. And as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening.