The Barbara Schneider Foundation
Report date
August 2017
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
We built relationships with individuals in our partner communities that allowed us to deepen our work with them. We went back to the same communities over and over to demonstrate our interest in taking them seriously. We held community conversations with small and large groups. We provided trainings as requested. We participated in Inipi ceremonies. We visited sacred sites. We made it a practice to provide a meal at each gathering. We were invited to people's homes to converse individually or to participate in ceremonies. We supported their own efforts to bring healing to their communities. Building trust over time helped us partner with many individuals to work through difficulties their communities are facing.
We used our community conversation cycle which has become the core of our Indigenizing CIT model. This cycle goes beyond typical brainstorming by putting the ideas that emerge in the conversation into practice. This allows for ever deeper practice by the group as they respond to the underlying causes of trauma and crisis in their communities and create innovative solutions that allow them to make real breakthroughs. So in each community their was a different conversational process with different ideas emerging, different projects and learning taking shape. The conversational cycle allows for each individual to feel respected, to feel heard, to feel taken seriously. This in itself is a healing practice. And out of the conversations, many concrete projects have emerged.
We utilized Lakota words to define the objectives of each conversation and encouraged participants to utilize their own Native language to do the same. This helped us make the conversations a stronger cultural experience and to tap into the deep reservoir of cultural memory. So for example in the first conversation in the cycle we call it Discovery. We ask participants to tell us the word in their language and to explain what it means. They describe picking up a rock, looking at the bottom, looking at it from all possible angles, exploring every aspect of the rock. It becomes an exercise in connecting the language to their culture, to childhood memories to grandparents. They break out of the straight jacket of the English language that was forced on them. They see clearly the innate genius in their own indigenous culture. This is healing.
Key lessons learned
I learned the wealth of knowledge of pre-colonial indigenous governance that exists in some elders in the community. I learned about the indigenous Lakota legal system, criminal and civil. How society was structured in different historical epochs. This is very helpful because we work with justice officials who are steeped in the US legal system but are unaware of the indigenous thinking regarding law. Exposing Natives and non-Natives to this information is an important step toward eliminating racism in the justice system. The US system can learn from the Indigenous system. They didn't realize that was possible. And indigenous people can see the wisdom of their own culture that was robbed from them and that was replaced with trauma, stress, and dehumanization at the hands of the US system. This learning brings healing, for all. We advocate for CIT and find that the traditional indigenous system has much in common with CIT.
I saw how the success in one community in the creation of progress inspires those in other communities. The energy from the No DAPL Mni Wiconi encampment at Standing Rock inspired so many. But the innovation teams we developed and that made meaningful progress toward responding to the underlying causes of trauma had a powerful impact that was not as appreciated by the wider public. Both have developed a growing constituency in the communities. The struggle for water rights at Standing Rock continue but mainly in the courts now. The innovation teams live on in the communities. It is a lesson of the importance of the slow steady transformation that conversation can bring, and that is very different from the victories of mass organizing.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
Inclusiveness has helped build Native/nonNative relationships, alliances and collaboration. It has opened up the possibility of new resources. This has inspired many in both communities who did not see a way forward other than through struggle. Our conversational process has created a space for initiating and strengthening these relationships with substantive, respectful, inspiring work. Particularly in Rapid City where a breakthrough emerged around over 1000 acres of Native land that was misappropriated by the city. All recognize this is an issue that can be resolved in a way that benefits all. The Oceti Sakowin vision has taken form in Rapid City in these conversations where all the Lakota nations are represented. Now the vision of an Indian Center, He Sapa Otipi is becoming a real possibility. Natives and nonNatives are seeing the possibility of a stronger Native community as an asset for the entire city and region. The other communities we are working with in Fargo, Minneapolis, Rosebud, Pine Ridge are inspired by their progress and are seeing new possibilities for themselves in relation to the nonNative community.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
Culture has been a powerful part of the work. We utilize the traditional Lakota song, drum and prayer in our activities. We think of the conversations as taking place in our living room, with all the hospitality, generosity and caring that we show to guests in our own home or when we visit them in their homes. This brings a spiritual element into the work that allows us to listen more intently to each other and to share what is really in our heart. This makes the work energizing and refreshing rather than draining and demoralizing as the usual meeting and town hall formats do.
Understanding the problem
When we began we were thinking about responding to crisis with de-escalation training and conversations to help communities identify their own path to healing and recovery. We have surfaced the relationship between the CIT model of collaboration among: public safety, mental health and community advocacy and the traditional indigenous justice and health models. They share a similar spirit even if they emerge from different communities and different cultures. Both Native and nonNative justice and mental health systems can learn from and benefit from each other. The power of Indigenous culture to heal has become much clearer as I have seen it work in practice. The intentional destruction of cultural memory and practice by US society has done great damage and left deep scars. But the flower of Indigenous culture continues to thrive and is spreading. It is bringing healing as it is allowed to flourish. Cultural practices are useful in this concrete work and are not museum pieces or historical relics. They are living treasures and are the key to healing, recovery and wellness.
If you could do it all over again...
I have read many books on Lakota and Indigenous culture, thought and history as we have done this work. I would have benefited greatly from having more of that knowledge at the very beginning of this work. I would like to have a curriculum that I could share with my board, with others who do not have a connection to the Native community. The past of our country is rooted in abuse, disrespect, dehumanization of Native peoples. Current events demonstrate the limits of the progress made since the Trail of Tears, the genocide of peoples across the Americas. We have a lot of work to catch up to the image we have of ourselves as thoughtful, informed, caring people. We can't go back and have known what we have learned. But that lack of insight, lack of knowledge about the nations that have lived here since time immemorial is a huge hole in the character of our country. As someone who is a product of that history, I regret that I have been even a small part of these historic injustices. That is the learning I would like to have had.
One last thought
Thanks to the Bush Foundation for trusting us to do this work and for not micromanaging us. I feel strongly that the freedom you give us to do this work has been an essential element of our successes.