Pine Ridge Poster Campiagn-by Aaron Huey-Emphas.is from Emphas.is on Vimeo.

Check out Aaron Huey’s amazing project: Pine Ridge Billboard Project

I met Dan when I visited Pine Ridge. A great teacher with a big heart. I also met some of his talented students from Little Wound High School. Dan started a drama club, which is not common on the reservation and students really responded to it. Some students had their first exposure to performance art, and many has expressed that it helped them tremendously both in their communication skills and personal development.

This is quote from Dan’s project from DonorsChoose:

“My students are involved in performing arts activities. They want to be able to video their oral interpretation practices to actual see and hear what they are doing well and not so well. They feel this will enable them to improve thus becoming more competitive in contests. Several of my students are involved with the National Poetry Out Loud Competition. In order to be considered, our school must send in a DVD of the school winner. One year I nearly missed the deadline because we lacked this technology. That year one of my students placed in the top 5 in the nation. She nearly missed this opportunity because the technology was not available. This year I took several students to the SD State Film Festival. Here they watched several movies and were inspired. They want to make their own movies. Several of my students auditioned for a movie and several others wish to submit their own recorded auditions. My students will also use this equipment in drama. Several of our events require burning a DVD.

Communication skills are the most important skills our youth can develop. Performing arts is a viable way of building and improving these skills. I believe activities such as oral interpretation, drama, film making, original oratory and poetry out loud all contribute to the betterment of the individual involved. If awarded this video technology, my students will become even more involved in character building activities and will positively make a lasting impression in their community and world.”

Dan is right and I know it well in my own experience. With each film I make, I find myself bettered in many ways. Filmmaking isn’t just a creative outlet, it’s also a tool for me to learn more about the world and about myself. I hope to help in as many ways as I can when I go back to Pine Ridge to encourage more students to get involved in creative projects.

Check out Dan’s project: High School Drama Students Go Hollywood

Feeding doggies everywhere. A tradition I do when I travel. Arlin was nice enough to give me a name: Wayi Suka Woyute – Dog Food Woman.

The boys were nice enough to take me ghost hunting. This picture was taken in pitch black. After the creepiest sound came from a classroom, we searched it inside out and found nothing. Our expressions said it all.

Happy Native American Day!

An inspiring quote from a great man:

Breath in the breath of life, the steam from the sacred stones is healing, the steam from the sacred stones are our ancestors breath of life.

-Sitting Bull

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Website

“The Native American Suicide Prevention Organization (NASPO) aims to educate the youth, parents, schools and Native American tribes of the state of South Dakota about the prevalence of suicide among the Native American peoples, the warning signs indicating a person is at increased risk for attempting suicide, strategies for intervening with those at risk for attempting suicide and the availability of resources on and off the reservations, in order to reduce the risk of suicide in the state of South Dakota.”

I had the pleasure of meeting a filmmaker named Brandon Ferguson while visiting Pine Ridge. Check out his latest work – a PSA for suicide on the rez.

“Challenging us with stunning images, Aaron Huey relates the fight for survival on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Aaron began photographing on Pine Ridge Reservation as part of a story on poverty in America, but it has captured his passion for five years. A quintessential example of the failures of the reservation system, he and we cannot turn away from what we see at Pine Ridge.”

Check out the short documentary at his website.