Post by Historian on Aug 17, 2009 10:02:37 GMT -5
Students bridge cultural divide with common ground
By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff
Rapid City Journal - 17 August 2009
www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/08/17/news/top/doc4a88f0b8115c0148963559.txt
HOT SPRINGS, South Dakota -- They stood blindfolded in a sun-drenched field, joined only by the rope between their hands.
"I don't know where anybody's at," said Alex Lammers, a Stevens High School student whose mouth curled into a smile as he spoke.
The instructions were simple: Holding onto one long rope, the six blindfolded students needed to move themselves into a square.
The exercise focused on communication, taking small, unsure steps even when you're uncomfortable. Mainly, it was a metaphor for the larger mission of the Badlands International Participant Encounter and Community Engagement Program -- commonly referred to as the PEACE Program -- in which three Native American high school students met with three non-Native high school students to help bridge the gap between the two cultures and races.
"There's a lot of miscommunication, or lack of communication, (between) two cultures who live in each others' back yards," Mackie Stephens, a 15-year-old Stevens High School student, said.
Stephens, Addie Maierhauser and Lammers, from Stevens High, and Billie White, Tiarra Little and Kiley Weston of Red Cloud Indian School stayed for five days last week at Jess and Joyce Riddle's Shangrila Ranch, an oversized hunting lodge overlooking rolling fields and framed by the Black Hills, near Hot Springs.
The project was staffed by Seeking Common Ground, a nonprofit organization out of Denver. The project was started after Badlands National Park Superintendent Paige Baker heard of Seeking Common Ground's program that joins American, Israeli and Palestinian students together. He asked the organization to create something similar in the Black Hills, but to tailor it for native and non-Native students.
The staff members who worked with students last week were the alumni of the Middle East program.
Local students will work together on community service projects throughout the next year and then take a trip to the Middle East next summer, Seeking Common Ground executive director Erin Breeze said.
Duane Lammers, a member of the Badlands Friends Group, said his group will raise the money for the students' trip. They hope for the project to continue and grow to more students from different schools next year.
The inclusive retreat at the ranch and the small number of students for the project is a good way to approach the challenge of cultural and ethnic divides, Lammers said, rather than try to do a one-day workshop with lots of students.
"This is to explore in depth and create leadership with the young people," he said. "You can't get in depth with a full auditorium."
Students from both backgrounds said it took some time to get comfortable with each other, but a lengthy discussion one night about stereotypes was eye-opening.
"A lot of it is they don't know what's going on at the reservation," said Little, 15, of Red Cloud when asked about what kind of barriers exist between Rapid City and Pine Ridge. "There's a lack of education. They don't teach it in the schools. It's an hour and a half away."
Weston, 17, said he is learning how similar his life is to non-Native high school students -- including the shared disappointment of friends who choose to drink and do drugs.
Stephens said the work so far has been amazing.
"We've been talking and learning," she said. "It all stems from education. The more you know, the less biased you are."
Adva, one of the staff members from Israel, agreed with that.
"It's getting the connection of how their realities are so different but so affected by each other," she said.
The Israel/Palestine conflict is different from the conflict between natives and non-Natives, she said, but the lessons are the same when the students leave the comforts of the week-long retreat and go back to their respective communities. Keeping in touch is the most important thing, she said.
And hopefully, they take to heart what they learned from the exercises at the retreat -- which ranged from heartfelt discussions in the cool basement of the ranch, to the blindfold trust games in the middle of a grasshopper-infested meadow.
"We're not trying to change anybody," Adva said. "We're not imposing opinions, but we want to create a safe space where youths can talk about what they feel and where they come from. Not necessarily to accept the other side, but to understand."
Mohammad Pakri, a staff member from Jerusalem, agreed.
"I just hope they learn to be curious about their neighbors."
Editor's note: For security purposes, the last name of a staff member from the Middle East was omitted.
For more information about Seeking Common Ground, e-mail Erin Breeze at: erin@s-c-g.org
By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff
Rapid City Journal - 17 August 2009
www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/08/17/news/top/doc4a88f0b8115c0148963559.txt
HOT SPRINGS, South Dakota -- They stood blindfolded in a sun-drenched field, joined only by the rope between their hands.
"I don't know where anybody's at," said Alex Lammers, a Stevens High School student whose mouth curled into a smile as he spoke.
The instructions were simple: Holding onto one long rope, the six blindfolded students needed to move themselves into a square.
The exercise focused on communication, taking small, unsure steps even when you're uncomfortable. Mainly, it was a metaphor for the larger mission of the Badlands International Participant Encounter and Community Engagement Program -- commonly referred to as the PEACE Program -- in which three Native American high school students met with three non-Native high school students to help bridge the gap between the two cultures and races.
"There's a lot of miscommunication, or lack of communication, (between) two cultures who live in each others' back yards," Mackie Stephens, a 15-year-old Stevens High School student, said.
Stephens, Addie Maierhauser and Lammers, from Stevens High, and Billie White, Tiarra Little and Kiley Weston of Red Cloud Indian School stayed for five days last week at Jess and Joyce Riddle's Shangrila Ranch, an oversized hunting lodge overlooking rolling fields and framed by the Black Hills, near Hot Springs.
The project was staffed by Seeking Common Ground, a nonprofit organization out of Denver. The project was started after Badlands National Park Superintendent Paige Baker heard of Seeking Common Ground's program that joins American, Israeli and Palestinian students together. He asked the organization to create something similar in the Black Hills, but to tailor it for native and non-Native students.
The staff members who worked with students last week were the alumni of the Middle East program.
Local students will work together on community service projects throughout the next year and then take a trip to the Middle East next summer, Seeking Common Ground executive director Erin Breeze said.
Duane Lammers, a member of the Badlands Friends Group, said his group will raise the money for the students' trip. They hope for the project to continue and grow to more students from different schools next year.
The inclusive retreat at the ranch and the small number of students for the project is a good way to approach the challenge of cultural and ethnic divides, Lammers said, rather than try to do a one-day workshop with lots of students.
"This is to explore in depth and create leadership with the young people," he said. "You can't get in depth with a full auditorium."
Students from both backgrounds said it took some time to get comfortable with each other, but a lengthy discussion one night about stereotypes was eye-opening.
"A lot of it is they don't know what's going on at the reservation," said Little, 15, of Red Cloud when asked about what kind of barriers exist between Rapid City and Pine Ridge. "There's a lack of education. They don't teach it in the schools. It's an hour and a half away."
Weston, 17, said he is learning how similar his life is to non-Native high school students -- including the shared disappointment of friends who choose to drink and do drugs.
Stephens said the work so far has been amazing.
"We've been talking and learning," she said. "It all stems from education. The more you know, the less biased you are."
Adva, one of the staff members from Israel, agreed with that.
"It's getting the connection of how their realities are so different but so affected by each other," she said.
The Israel/Palestine conflict is different from the conflict between natives and non-Natives, she said, but the lessons are the same when the students leave the comforts of the week-long retreat and go back to their respective communities. Keeping in touch is the most important thing, she said.
And hopefully, they take to heart what they learned from the exercises at the retreat -- which ranged from heartfelt discussions in the cool basement of the ranch, to the blindfold trust games in the middle of a grasshopper-infested meadow.
"We're not trying to change anybody," Adva said. "We're not imposing opinions, but we want to create a safe space where youths can talk about what they feel and where they come from. Not necessarily to accept the other side, but to understand."
Mohammad Pakri, a staff member from Jerusalem, agreed.
"I just hope they learn to be curious about their neighbors."
Editor's note: For security purposes, the last name of a staff member from the Middle East was omitted.
For more information about Seeking Common Ground, e-mail Erin Breeze at: erin@s-c-g.org