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Kendrick’s Dream

Kendrick’s dream is “Mni Wiconi (Water is Life) Traditional Knowledge Camp” which he describes as being designed “for helping Native youth align traditional tribal knowledge and contemporary science around issues of the environment.”

Kendricks’s Home and Community

Kendrick, 25, is from three different tribes:  the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, the Three Affiliated Tribes (Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara Nation), and is an officially enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

He was raised in Cannonball on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota and attends Bismarck State College. Although he now lives on campus, he has always maintained his strong connections with his family and the Cannonball community.

“My hometown community of Cannonball is very small with very little for youth to do because there are not enough resources to do anything,” he says. “Our community has lost a lot of our elders and connections to our culture.

“Cannonball is a very beautiful place and if we just have some mentors and leaders to come in and show the kids what to do and show them how to do things besides play basketball, that town would be great to live in.”

What motivated Kendrick to develop this dream?

Following the death of his father and stepmother, Kendrick at age 19 was awarded full custody of his four younger brothers (ages 10, 9, 7, and 6). “They have been with me since,” said Kendrick, adding that he is grateful for the support he receives from his mother and other relatives.

Kendrick told us that it is because of his close relationship with his little brothers that he believes his dream is so important.

“I want them to be able to have the positive experiences of my reservation that I had growing up – like being able to ride a horse, pick chokeberries, pick wild turnips, swim in the river, and just enjoy being in our environment which is clean and unpolluted. I would like them to set down their electronics and listen to the older guys tell stories about how they grew up.

“My life was changed a lot after keeping the boys,” he continued. “It was also changed when President Barack Obama came to visit the Standing Rock reservation and he was told of my story. Since then, I’ve been able to meet incredible people and raise awareness about Native American youth issues.”

The Dream as a Solution

Kendrick, whose mentor organization is the Sacred Pipe Resource Center, a longtime partner of Running Strong, is currently involved in in a project called “Wohamble” (Dream).

“The idea behind this project is to help youth on the Standing Rock reservation connect back to the culture to stay away from the negative influences of drugs, alcohol, suicide and others,” he explained. “I think my idea is needed because it connects Native youth from on-reservation and off-reservation and connects traditional Tribal knowledge with science concepts.”

His dream is to have a five-day event the bring together Native youth, and perhaps even non-Native youth, to tour sites in North Dakota and South Dakota to help them understand the importance of the environment.

The camp will feature traditional speakers who would present on topics including traditional plants and medicines, traditional foods, water, Lakota Star Knowledge and apply Native science concepts to all topics. Camp participants would travel to various locales such as the Fort Berthold, Standing Rock and Turtle Mountain reservations, as well as the Black Hills/Bear Butte area to discuss traditional stories and Lakota Star Knowledge.

The Potential Impact in the Future

“I believe it is important for us to be able to form new ways to help youth understand our views of science and living in balance with the natural world and be able to share it with others.

“My idea will impact our community in a positive way because our world is dealing with things like climate change and natural disasters, and pollution of our air, water and land is at an all-time high. It is up to us to change the course of the future by raising our voices about why it is so important to live with the land and protect these valuable resources.

Lauren’s Dream

Lauren’s dream is “Manuhe Kuri” (Our Good Earth) in which she will revitalize traditional Catawba foods and medicinal plants.

“I will create an environmental education curriculum for tribal youth and citizens so that they can learn about these plants and how they were used,” she told us.

Lauren’s Home and Community

Lauren, 17, an enrolled member of the Catawba Indian Nation (the only federally recognized tribe in the state of South Carolina), lives in Rock Hill on the Catabwa Reservation.

Her community struggles with low high school graduation rates and even lower college matriculation rates than those of surrounding communities. Until recently, many of the houses on the reservation did not have adequate water and sewer utilities. “Thankfully, there has been great strides in correcting this tragedy,” she says.

Access to healthy foods is also a major issue for her tribe. The closest place to buy food is a gas station about 10 minutes from her house, where they only food available are fried foods, hamburgers, hotdogs, potato chips, and candy.

Although the closest actual grocery store is about 20 minutes from her house, which may not seem far – “many tribal members don’t have a car making it very difficult for them to access healthy foods for themselves and their family.”

There is also a prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse among the youth in her community.

“I have made it a point to live my life in a manner that sets an example for other youth that shows them that not participating in the health-destroying activities opens so many more positive life opportunities.”

“I have lived and grown up on the reservation my entire life. It is my home, and I find comfort from simply stepping foot on these ancestral lands.”

What motivated Lauren to develop this dream?

Many of her tribe’s known traditional, cultural and medicinal plants and trees “are on [her] tribe’s endangered list and unfortunately in some cases are no longer growing on our reservation.

“However, just growing these plants is not enough! Our tribal members need to know what these plants look like, what they were used for, how to plant them where they live on the reservation and why they should be harvesting and using the products of these plants and trees,” Lauren said.

“I thought of this dream when I noticed the lack of available nutritious food materials on the reservation and felt that a garden of indigenous plants and  food would not only open my community up to healthy eating, but also enable our tribal members to learn more about our culture.”

The Dream as a Solution

As part of her Dreamstarter® project, she will create an outdoor nature classroom at the end of the Catawba Cultural Center’s Historic Wagon Trail which will be a learning lab for not only tribal youth and adults, but also all visitors to the Cultural Center.

In order to educate others on the importance of these traditional plants and their uses, she will produce an informational booklet on the plants, create signage to place beside each grouping of plants in the outdoor lab as a visible form of learning while walking along the Historic Wagon Trail.

“I also want to establish an environmental education curriculum for tribal youth and citizens so they can learn more about these traditional foods and plants, how they are used, and how to cultivate them “like our ancestors did.”

The Potential Impact in the Future