Whether we're on a volunteer service trip in one of the Native communities we serve, closing out a youth workday at our Lafayette Hub, or gathering at camp following a 4 Directions Ride, a day with the Tipi Raisers is almost always punctuated with a call to "Circle Up!"


What happens when we "circle up," you may ask?


Inspired by the Indigenous tradition of the Talking Circle, each volunteer, youth, and community member gathers into an unbroken circle - no one in front of or behind another - and shares their truth, one person at a time.


As the sharing goes around, this can often look like a recap of the workday. Many times, it takes the form of a raw and real reflection on race relations, on trauma, on the prejudice that divides so many communities and the humanity that unites us all.
Here are some of the transformative moments of reconciliation we've witnessed in the Circle over the years:​

•  A volunteer from the University of Georgia coming to understand that historical wrongs committed against Indigenous communities by people who looked like her are still echoing into the present, and that she must find her unique role in healing this history
• A young Lakota woman from Pine Ridge, face-to-face with a white youth from Colorado Young Leaders, realizing that she was carrying prejudice towards white people
• Waylon Belt, a community member living on Pine Ridge, placing Colorado volunteer Joe Loetscher at the opposite side of the Circle to demonstrate the chasm he felt between himself and the white world - a potent visual lesson on the legacy of a fraught history and a divided present
• Elders and youth, both Native and non-Native, admitting to projections such as "I thought the elders would look down on us and see us as a nuisance," and "I assumed the young people would be disrespectful and unwilling to help," then being joyfully proven wrong over the course of side-by-side work and play

Our Executive Director often reminds us: "There is so much going on under the surface of the circle."

When a young person, an elder, a non-Native volunteer, or a Native community member step into courage and share what is true for them under the surface of it all - something magical happens. Barriers fall down; assumptions and stereotypes are admitted, explored, and dismantled. Sometimes tensions rise. Often, tears are shed. It's messy, it's hard, it's beautiful - and it is necessary if we are to move forward together towards reconciliation.​

In friendship,

The Tipi Raisers Team

You may have seen pictures of Bison on our Facebook, Instagram, or email newsletters over the past few months and wondered: “Bison?? Have the Tipi Raisers gotten into ranching?!”​

While we’d love to spend our days herding bison on the range, what we actually do with them is even more fulfilling and deeply tied to our mission!

For several years, we have partnered with Hester’s Buffalo Meat Company in Kremmling, CO to provide high-quality, culturally-relevant sustenance to the Lakota families we serve. A package of Hester’s Buffalo Meat accompanies every monthly delivery of food to each of the Pine Ridge families with whom we work.
But our work with the Buffalo Nation goes beyond efforts to address food insecurity on Pine Ridge - earlier this year, a partnership emerged between The Tipi Raisers Gen7 Youth Program and the Colorado State University Agricultural Extension.

Thanks to the folks at CSU, several Native and non-Native youth - as well as adult community members from the Oglala Lakota & Diné nations - have been able to work face-to-face with the bison that comprise the Laramie Foothills Conservation Herd in various capacities, and to earn a wage as they do so. Throughout the spring, Pine Ridge youth were able to learn from the veterinarian team at CSU about safely catching, vaccinating, blood testing and tagging bison. See footage from one of these “Buffalo Days” here!

Perhaps the most powerful development in this burgeoning partnership was the transport of five buffalo donated by the Laramie Foothills Conservation Herd to the Knife Chief Buffalo Nation, a Lakota-led herd on Pine Ridge that supports food sovereignty and cultural preservation efforts on the Oglala Lakota Nation.

On one beautiful morning in April, five sacred animals were loaded into our trailers with the help of youth and friends from Pine Ridge, the Navajo Nation, and Colorado. A prayerful and steady five-hour journey north culminated with the return of these powerful beings to their ancestral lands on the grasslands of what is now Porcupine, SD. The image of these sacred four-legged relatives breathing life into the soil upon which their predecessors once roamed is something that will stay etched on our collective memory forever.

As is the case with all that we do, youth are the life force behind the healing, learning, and connection which drive our bison initiatives. Trayton, one of the young people from Pine Ridge who joined us at CSU for a “Buffalo Day,” said the opportunity to work with animals so sacred to his Lakota culture was “a gift,” stating: “I can really feel the buffalo’s energy - it’s good energy. It was a great experience.”

We look forward to more "Buffalo Days" ahead and more opportunities to work with and learn from the Gen7 youth who bring our mission to life, in all that we do!

Wopila,

Mackenzie

If one pays attention, the view back into history -- and into the way a community used to thrive -- is as clear and inspiring as what one can see with the eyes. While working alongside community members recently, I would occasionally hear a tribal member in one of the plazas, call out to no one in particular: “Askwali!!”  Within seconds, someone from a different part of the plaza or mesa, would echo back: “Askwali!” And the call would reverberate from each direction, sometimes for ten seconds -- sometimes for as long as a minute. Interspersed within the female’s calls of “Askwali!”, I would occasionally hear a male pick up the call: “Kwakwhay!” “Kwakwhay!” It was hard not to stop what we were doing and enjoy those words echoing around the mesa.

It was a beautiful . . . and gentle . . . . back and forth with no apparent reason understood by a visitor in this enchanted and ancient village. No one in particular would start the chain, or end it. Just every now and then: “Askwali!”  “Askwali!”  “Kwakwhay!” “Kwakwhay!” When the echo stopped and we returned to our work, I wondered what the words meant, and occasionally would try to understand the context behind them. When the call would start, it was comforting in some sort of way – and once quieted, I would await the next call, if only to be reassured that the people were still there. It became almost a song. . . . a window into the past . . . and then a prayer . . . . and then a beautiful lesson on the power of living in a community rooted in Indigenous wisdom.

During one of our breaks, when we sought shade in the scorching desert heat, I inquired of one of the local residents as to the meaning behind the two words. Both words, my friend explained, meant the same thing – though one was spoken by the females (“askwali”) and the other by the males (“kwakwhay”). Like so many first languages, the words themselves were more expressions of content, and are gutted if one attempts to translate them directly.  “Askwali”/”kwakwhay” might be quickly (and improperly) translated simply as “thank you”, though that translation barely describes what happens on the mesas when those calls go out. The elder explained to me that the words are expressions of gratitude but not simply just a thank you. The words -- when the call is echoed and carried forward -- reverberates as encouragement and then gathers power in their song and then as a prayer.

I remember now sitting on the hot roof that day and hearing the words – being soothed, encouraged and inspired to continue the work. Having left the mesa now, I oftentimes want to call out “kwakwhay” as I move about my day in gratitude for those of you who support the work we do.  But also, for those in my community (the first responders, the teachers, those working on the roads and infrastructure, our medical providers, our friends and family whom we walk with, and all of the others). I imagine if the world echoed in that same way, how different it could all be.

Kwakwhay,

Dave

This story is the first of the four-part Our Mission in Action series! Honoring Indigenous Wisdom is one of four pillars of our mission - and the spirit of gratitude that permeates the Hopi & Tewa communities of First Mesa embodies the ancient teachings we seek to acknowledge and amplify in all that we do.
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Your support for our mission will help us continue uplifting Indigenous wisdom and serving Native communities in a variety of ways!