10 Years of Ministry!
May 25th marked a decade of ministry for me in Whiteclay, NE, and Pine Ridge, SD, with the Lakota people! I moved to the reservation at age 20. I’m 30 years old now, and I’m reminiscing over the rollercoaster of euphoric triumphs and gut wrenching defeats, joyful moments with friends and heartbreaks.
Though many of Iglutheca’s supporters have been part of my work from the beginning, many are new to our cause and may not know much of the history that led up to what Iglutheca has become today. To celebrate 10 years, here are ten things worth celebrating!
1. Whiteclay Liquor Store Shutdown
In 2015, I started doing street ministry in Whiteclay, a tiny town just outside of Pine Ridge. Whiteclay was a place of intense suffering and poverty. Opportunist liquor stores profited off keeping people addicted, selling 11,000-13,000 cans of beer per day! The homeless and down-and-out lined the streets of Whiteclay because it was easy to panhandle and drink oneself into oblivion. With virtually no law enforcement, there were beatings, murders, and rapes. There was little access to medical care, and untreated wounds festered to the point that limbs were lost. There were no public restrooms, so the whole town stank. The people in Whiteclay would often be stigmatized and become outcasts.
I would go out in the morning when the street people were less drunk, with no agenda other than listening and offering prayer. Over time, relationships developed, and I could provide socks, blankets, and food. I was able to care for wounds to prevent infection. In 2017, some miraculous circumstances allowed me and other activists to challenge the liquor licenses in Whiteclay, and after bringing a case forward all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court we were able to SHUT DOWN the predatory liquor stores.
2. Opening The Homeless Shelter
After the beer stores closed, I still wanted to do something for the homeless and street people! There were a lot of people on the streets after the beer stores closed. There was a lot of violence and even murders. Homeless people froze to death. There was no place where the homeless could be safe.
We formed Iglutheca in May of 2021 with a mission “to provide a pathway for homeless Lakotas out of addiction and poverty.” Just 7 months later on December 31st, 2021, we opened for our first night of shelter! The story of how God made all this possible is a long story! God has been providing for us ever since.
The first time we ran a shelter was 3.5 years ago, and we’ve grown rapidly to where we are offering both 24/7 sober and as-needed transitional shelters, managing casework for our shelter residents, and connecting with resources for the long-term goals of our clients, like finding jobs and permanent housing. With the homeless shelter finally in place, we can now provide a way out of addiction and poverty!
3. Graduating With A Degree in Social Work
In 2021 I graduated with a degree in social work with an emphasis in chemical dependency! Oglala Lakota College (OLC) prepared me excellently for the work that I do now. My professors in the Social Work department were all Lakota and had lived and worked in the community, so we weren’t taught from an ivory tower perspective.
My core classes and electives included Lakota Language I, II, and III; Lakota Culture; and Lakota History I and II. These classes were hugely helpful in my work in the community.
I also don’t know if I would have graduated if it weren’t for my professors! I went through homelessness and several huge ministry setbacks, but my professors worked with me so I could catch up on my coursework and graduate. My degree took a lot of hard work, but I use my education daily in the work I do at the shelter.
4. Getting Commissioned As A Pastor
This year, I was commissioned as a Pastor at Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church! I had decided I would be a pastor when I was just six years old! It is cool how God fulfilled that old dream. One of my biggest struggles on the reservation has been finding a healthy spiritual community; now I am able to help build that spiritual community that I longed for.
Having a healthy spiritual community is important to the shelter. Iglutheca is a Christian organization, but we don’t believe in forcing or even incentivising spiritual activity. Pine Ridge Presbyterian has been the church where the shelter guests have been welcomed. We invite the shelter residents before each church service, and we invite them to Bible Studies.
We worship in English and Lakota. Our mission has been to be a place of healing for the poor, addicted, and grieving. I feel super blessed to get to be a spiritual leader in a church like this!
5 Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Grief Groups
I helped start AA meetings when almost every meeting had died out! It was after covid and the only recovery meeting on the Reservation that I was aware of was in Wanblee, SD which is almost 2 hours away!
An AA member from Hot Springs came and helped us start our first meeting. An AA member from Hot Springs got us started, now meetings are largely run by me or by another community member! We have AA and NA and we had some fairly successful grief groups as well! When we had all the people-power we wanted, we had 7 meetings per week at our peek, but with some of our original help gone we are down to just three meetings per week!
We have seen many members succeed and reach a year or more in sobriety and we have seen a lot of healing take place in our groups!
6. Standing Up Against Persecution and Prejudice
Something I’m proud of (and a recurring theme throughout the past decade) is being in the right place at the right time to be an advocate for the homeless. I’m going to be intentionally vague on some of this for the sake of diplomacy. There have been several instances where different individuals or groups have tried to exclude or shun the homeless community. Fighting to have them be respected and offered dignity and a place in the community has made me a few enemies and even led to eviction from my home with less than two weeks to move out! I was housed by the wonderful folks at the Reconciliation Center, where I lived for a year and a half! My little room was my house, office, and shelter warehouse all at once, but I was proud to be in that rough situation because I was there because I stood up for the homeless.
7. Withstanding Pressure to Shut Down The Shelter
If you follow Iglutheca on Facebook, you’ve likely seen me post about attempts by our Tribal Council to shut down Iglutheca’s homeless shelter. We were shutdown once before with disastrous results back in spring of 2023.
Thankfully, this time, we had much stronger community support, and we were able to demonstrate that they did not commit the crime attributed to our shelter clients, thanks to that community support and our presentation to the council. The resolution to close the shelter failed. These attempts at shut down, however, put a spotlight on the work we do to save lives and transform lives everyday. It gave us a platform to show the truth about homelessness in our community and to address some misconceptions about the sheltered homeless being a cause of crime.
8. Building Community Trust
When I showed up 10 years ago, I was just an outsider. A white kid with very little exposure to the hardships and struggles of life that I came to know on the reservation. I didn’t know much about Lakota culture, and I was often viewed with distrust. Through the years, I have been lucky enough to win the trust of the community. I’d attribute that to being the same person for 10 years, showing up consistently, and maintaining patience. I’ve made do with very little and roughed it at times, living in my car, or without heat in freezing temperatures. Being part of the struggle helps me to be part of the community rather than an outsider.
9. Continuing Iglutheca’s Work Without Major Funding.
When Iglutheca first started, we benefited from COVID-era grant funding. After covid, those grants ended and with current cuts to many government and private programs there is a much smaller chance of getting a new grant. We have survived 10 months with no grants and are rapidly building a solid base of financial support. Coming into this year, I knew that it would be the hardest year of my life so far. Running the shelter AND fundraising the entire budget is so much work, but I am proud and so grateful that we are making it work!
10. Creating Our Own Unique Program
No other program exists that is exactly like the program we’ve created for Iglutheca. I knew that the unique set of struggles on the reservation would require a specialized approach that works for our context and our community. We wrote our own casework handbook, our own training manuals, and more! We created a casework process that has been effective in motivating our shelter guests to complete their GEDs, attend recovery meetings, find employment, etc and I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished.
I have so many dreams and goals for the next 10 years of Iglutheca and ministry with the people of Pine Ridge. For now, I’m grateful to have the shelter running and stable and to be doing the work I’m called to do.