South Dakota is home to many Native Americans who lived and hunted in the Black Hills. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse called this area home until we finally put them on reservations, and killed them, but not before they inflicted many causalities, including General Custer and a bunch of his men. Today life for the Native American varies from tribe to tribe and reservation to reservation. Many have heard of Pine Ridge in endless news cycles a few years ago.
I had a couple of conversations, one with an educated man who was adopted by a white couple when he was a young child. He landed in technology and then served as a liaison between Natives and the government. He was the token Native, as he described it. Yet he felt some good came of it. He later was part of the Rapid City police force, again a token.
The other conversation was less formal, and just happened on the street. Marlin was working the street looking for handouts, to buy more to drink. There is a thread to both conversations. It is all about tribal politics. This recording is not edited, just my pocket recorder on the street. Marlin added to my understanding of the Native American. I also gave him a twenty dollar bill. We tend to dismiss this kind of person we encounter, without knowing their story. We all have a story.
I talk about my travels and conversations in my just released book. BOOM! It’s a Big Country for an Old Man, by John Van Dyke, available now on Amazon.
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