Day 9: Bury My Heart at Pine Ridge

Our first day in South Dakota was a full one. We left Ellsworth early to go get some breakfast at the greatest roadside stop in the world: Wall Drug. Located in the town of Wall, Wall Drug is a drug store with every type of store and attraction you could imagine in one building. The famous gimmick of Wall Drug is that it has billboards and signs all over the world. On my road trip last year, Liz and I began seeing signs for Wall Drug in Iowa. As photos inside Wall Drug show, there are signs all over the world, including the Great Wall of China, the South Pole, and military bases in Iraq. Inside the Wall Drug, there are stores, a restaurant, a cafe, an ice cream parlor, jewelry shops, leather shops, and a free ice water store. Out back, there is a plastic Mt. Rushmore, a piano-playing gorilla, jackalope, more free ice water, 1500 historical photos, and a giant T-rex. All you could want and more.

We decided to eat breakfast in the Wall Drug diner. We ordered our food, then picked up a five-cent cup of coffee and free ice water and sat down at a table. We all ordered different food, but we each bought one of Wall Drug's renowned homemade donuts. After breakfast, we spent about thirty minutes looking through the stores before we decided to move on. My parents promised we would come back to get souvenirs.

Our next stop was Badlands National Park, which is my favorite of all national parks (#2: Arches National Park, #3: Mesa Verde National Park). Our plan was to do what Liz and I did last year when we visited: first, visit the Ben Reifel Visitor's Center to pick up some information and check out the gift shop, then check out a few hikes, then do the 27-mile scenic drive through the park.

On our way to the Visitor's Center, we noticed a couple cars pulled off to the side of the road and people looking through binoculars. We pulled over to see what was going on.

At first, we didn't notice anything. Just empty Badlands, stretching for miles. Then...we saw them! Two big-horned sheep, the animal we had been waiting for! Big-horn sheep are awesome.

The Visitor's Center was awesome, too. There was a small exhibit that displayed some of the dinosaur fossils that had been found in the park and also what the park looked like during the time of the dinosaurs. There were also displays of different wildflowers and animals that could be found in the park today. In the gift shop, we found a couple great posters of the Badlands that we decided to purchase.

Our first hike was at the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail, which had a frighteningly high number of warning signs for rattlesnakes. As we walked along the trail, we saw great views of the park, tall trees, and a pile of animal bones. When we stopped to look at the bones, a little boy walked past us, not even noticing what we were looking at. When his little sister walked by, she stopped dead in her tracks and turned slowly to look at the bones. Seeing that her brother had not noticed the bones, she shouted his name, making sure he saw them. "Uhh...Kyle?" she said, slowly pointing to the pile.

We finished the hike sweaty and most likely sunburned. The temperature was in the high 80s, which is not terrible for the Badlands (it was high 90s last year), but the sun was beating down on us the entire time. Back in the car, we reapplied more sunscreen and drank water and Gatorade.

Our next hike was on the Notch Trail, which the Visitor's Guide describes as "moderate to strenuous. After meandering through a canyon, this trail climbs a ladder and follows a ledge to "the Notch" for a dramatic view of the White River Valley. Watch for drop offs. Not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights. Treacherous during or after heavy rains."

Coming into the canyon, some people heading back to the parking lot informed us that they had heard "tons of rattlers" in the grass alongside the trail. We walked for a few more minutes before Emily and I started hearing them. They sounded like shaking maracas. We couldn't see them, but we heard them everywhere we walked from that point on. There is probably a rattlesnake somewhere in this picture.

Although the ladder looked pretty steep, it was actually fairly easy to climb. The next part of the trail was not so easy. It involved sidestepping across open rock cliffs. We debated whether or not we should continue, but I told my family that the cliffs would be over soon and the rest of the hike was not nearly as dangerous.

The rest of the hike was fine, although we did stop a few times for water and to reapply sunscreen. When we reached the notches, there was one more steep climb before we could stand comfortably and look out across the badlands. After gazing for a while, we turned around and headed back to the parking lot. There were two other trails, Window and Door, that began at the same parking lot. These trails were only about a hundred meters or so, so we hiked them quickly. The Door Trail opened up to some beautiful badland scenery. It was like walking into a giant nature playground.

Praying to the rain gods.

After the hikes, we decided that we should come back to do the scenic drive the next day. It was getting late and we still wanted to visit the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre before it got dark. It was about fifty miles from Badlands to get to the site, but it was one of the places we really wanted to visit during our trip. Wounded Knee is located in the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is for the Oglala Sioux, which contains the two poorest counties in the United States.

As we drove through the reservation, we noticed some historical signs that lead up to the Massacre at Wounded Knee. When we arrived at the site where Wounded Knee was supposed to be (according to the GPS), we couldn't find the monument or the cemetery, so we pulled over to ask someone.

The woman we asked was named Kathy and she is a lifelong resident of the Pine Ridge Reservation. She was selling some Oglala jewelry and dreamcatchers, so we looked through them and the girls bought some. After she told us where the Wounded Knee site was, she told us more about the history of Pine Ridge and described many of the problems that they face. I highly recommend that you check out the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation website, which will tell you ways you can help out the people of Pine Ridge. They always have lists of things you can donate (school supplies, clothing, blankets, etc.) and if you check out the blog here, you will see the latest projects that need items.Kathy's jewelry stand

After saying goodbye to Kathy, we walked across the street to the site of Wounded Knee, where we read a sign about what happened 120 years ago. Notice that the word "MASSACRE" has been nailed onto the sign. It used to read "BATTLE" before it was regarded by the United States government as a massacre. From the sign we walked up the hill to the cemetery, which has since been expanded into a town cemetery. In the middle is the mass grave for all those who were killed during the 1890 massacre. The rest of the graves were newer and they were very nice to look at because they were all so different and had such colorful decorations (see the grave at the beginning of this post).

When we left the Wounded Knee site, we went into the town of Pine Ridge, where we got food and gas. From there, we went to the Red Cloud Indian School, a Jesuit school where one of my friends will be teaching for the next two years. It was a beautiful school. We met a Jesuit named Brother Bill and my mom met a priest named Father Mike. After we looked around the school, we walked up to the nearby cemetery which is where the famous Chief Red Cloud is buried. The cemetery looked similar to the Wounded Knee cemetery with the colors and assorted types of gravestones.

Next, we walked back down to the school church. The old school church burned down in the late 90s but the rebuilt a gorgeous new church. Brother Bill told us that the Stations of the Cross were all painted by different Oglala artists from Pine Ridge. When we finished looking at the school, we went back to the car and headed back to our hotel, after a very long day.