Travel Week!

SO this past week was an intense week of traveling around the state, from Brookings all the way to Rapid City (the other side of the state about 7 hours away) and even a trip into Wyoming. There was so much to see and experience, I am overwhelmed at where to begng writing about it. Every night I would process what we learned and saw, everything from such a different perspective than I am used to, and everything was so powerful to me. Starting from the first day, this is everything that happened!

1. Monday!
The trip started out with getting our fill of hoaky South Dakota tourist traps, AKA THE CORN PALACE. What young woman from a city doesnt want to experience such a place? Carly could not wait, and I was just kind of indifferent. It was what you expected...a palace made of corn. The only one in the world though. Oh, South Dakota.
Next we headed down to the Yankton Dakota Reservation where we met my host family for lunch at the Yankton Casino. I am so exicted to move in with them sunday! It sounds like I am going to be more than busy and involved, which I am completely ready for!
The rest of the day was spent driving from the eastern part of the state to the Western part of the state, crossing the Missouri river. We ended our evening in Wall, South Dakota, named so because it is "the window to the west", where the literal geologic wall of the badlands begins. Hence, Wall, South Dakota. Unfortunately it has become a tourist trap and its just a hoaky little "western" town full of places to shop. We simply ate dinner then went to our hotel.

2. Tuesday!
We got up SUPER early and headed out by 8 am to get our day started. We began at Badlands National Park, which was such a beautiful place. It is literally so different than any natural place I have ever seen - it looks like the surface of some other planet, or the moon. We drove a scenic byway through there, looked at some fossils and spent some time at the nature educational center. It was interesting, and I got some awesome pictures. After that we headed to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Wounded Knee. This was an experience I won't forget. The second picture up there is a little museum thing at Wounded Knee, and other than that and a little plaque describing the events of the 1890 Masscre that is all that is there. Standing there was an intense experience. I was overwhelmed by the events that happened there and how tragic it was, how it literally embodies the genocide that the USA is founded on. Standing outside a mass grave of murdered Lakota women, children and men I could feel this was a hallowed ground, a place that isnt the same as most place. Also, knowing that in 1973 AIM activists occupied Wounded Knee and stood up to the US governments continued mistreatment of indigenous people was intense because I have learned so much about AIM in my studies at school. If you are reading this and do not know the story of Wounded Knee please look it up and read it. Its too long to type but extremely important to know.
Then we saw Pine Ridge, what is considered one of the poorest communities in the entire country. It is a dry rez bc of all the alcohol abuse and subsequent problems related to it, but I found out there is a town of 22 people right on the border of SD and Nebraska that makes ALL of its money off selling alcohol to the people of pine ridge that can walk there. I think that is completely disgusting, and I was sad as we drove through that little town. My teacher and I discussed how if those people didnt have the almighty dollar in their eyes the people of pine ridge wouldnt have access to alcohol so readily and problems may be alleviated.
We had lunch at the Pine Ridge Casino then headed to the Red Cloud Indian School and saw a museum there which has some gorgeous Indian art and artifacts. I enjoyed that, I am a fan of art.
Then we finally made it over to the Black Hills and drove the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. We saw many deer and buffalo! One blocked our car for a while as if he was in a stand off with us. I swear we made eye contact. I love Bison. They are definitely my favorite animals. The Black Hills are absolutely gorgeous and we drove through some really intense parts of them. I got kind of car sick, but it was worth the view. We drove past mount Rushmore but it was a total bust, and none of us really cared about it, ahaha. After this LONG day we finally FINALLY made it to Rapid City, had dinner and just crashed in the hotel. Long but wonderful day.

3. Wednesday!
Saw Bear Butte and Devil's Tower, two places sacred to Lakota people and many other Native Nations. These are beautiful places used for ceremonies, sweat lodges and Vision Quests.
Also saw the Crazy Horse Memorial today, which I have extremely mixed feelings about. It is not the Native way to build something new, especially to blast the sacred Black hills to commemorate a leader that didn't really ever want his identity known...but the center is a non-profit that has many humantarian aims that they pay for using the admission fee to the monument, and it does make a statement about the native history of the US. We had dinner at the Mongolian Grill, went back to the hotel and crashed once again after a long long day.

4. Thursday! Last day of travels
We spent the morning shopping at Prairie Edge, a shopping place, bookstore and lovely place. Then we went to the Journey Museum, pretty much a museum of the history of the Black Hills, people that live there etc. Then we drove ALLLL the way home. and I slept a lot.

Now I am tired of blogging. Keep reading!