This is our WHY -- By Lori Ventimiglia

This year we've seen first hand that even in the darkest times, maybe especially in those times, the best of humanity can be easily found. We count ourselves blessed to witness this more often than can be counted. While, this has been an extraordinary year in so many ways, what stands out the most is the kindness from our Tipi Raiser's family. YOUR support this year helped us pivot and find our way, from a calendar packed with in-person events, to an immediate and ongoing response to a complex and fluid situation that was - and is - unfolding on Pine Ridge and other Indigenous communities.

Our commitment to you, as stewards of your hard earned resources, is born from the same place as our commitment to the Indigenous communities we serve. It comes from a moral obligation to answer when there is a call for help, to listen deeply and work alongside those we serve to restore self-determination, dignity and healing.

The real magic of this work is our WHY - and it is not easily quantified. Of course, we are proud to share that you have helped us achieve the following outcomes in 2020:

• We have provided consistent employment to eight Tribal members 
• Six Gen7 youth ambassadors hold or have held paid internships. 
• We responded to 750 family's requests for home repairs, provisions of warmth, food and PPE (spanning four Indigenous communities).

But our WHY is buried deeper inside those outcomes, it is less measurable and it is what drives us every day!

• Our WHY is the dignity born from earning a living wage to support a family.
• Our WHY is the insight gained about one another (Native and non-Native) after a day spent working side-by-side fixing a roof and then sharing a meal.
• Our WHY is the high school student who returns home from Pine Ridge with a newfound commitment to seek the wisdom held by her elders.
• And our WHY is the young Lakota child who grows up seeing his mom and dad working, laughing, circling up, having hard conversations - even crying - with returning volunteers year after year!

Lakota relative, Waylon Belt, said it best last week on Facebook (reprinted with his permission):
"There is a story that I have told that involves a hummingbird, as I look at the smiles on my children and then the reason why, I would like to thank The Tipi Raisers for the opportunity to meet and make connections with people all over the place, from England to the West coast. Each of those connections made are seen by me as pin holes of light. As I look back over some of them connections made go beyond the title of Friend and goes straight to family. I looked around and see that in my own way I'm the hummingbird in my own story. For those that have been lucky enough to have made that connection we are blessed".

We've said it before; this is slow work- the fruits of which won't likely be seen in this lifetime. But we believe that a layer of mistrust and wounding, passed down through generations, gets peeled back when we're in our WHY and that is when a little bit of healing can happen. And, ultimately, we believe it is that healing that might be passed down to future generations.

Please know that YOU, too, are at the center of our WHY. Our Tipi Raiser's family is the special sauce, it is where the magic happens and makes all of this possible. We look forward to working and playing alongside you again in 2021 and thank you for the sacred trust you have endowed in us.