respected authority on West Virginian
drew attention to the issues. She says,“One of the
music history. Once sparked, her interest
best things to come from the project is the
in dance took her traveling around the
relationships that have been formed between
state to learn other traditional dances of
activists and community members. Some of the
Appalachia. Soon she was performing
activists who had gone to the community to work
with groups across West Virginia.
on the project ended up permanently relocating
In the summer of 2005, Hanna
there, so they could continue the battle against
took part in Mountain Justice Summer in
Massey and mountain top removal.”
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Hanna went on to work for the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia where she spent a year and a half working with the West Virginia Cultural Heritage Development From Sun Dance to
Program conducting surveys. She smiles as she reflects on how much she enjoyed the job.“I got to travel between seven West Virginian communities to talk with the ‘movers Community Plans
and shakers,’” she explains.“I was meeting the people who are really trying to create change. . . . I loved it!”.
After her work with the Preservation Alliance, Hanna began thinking about what issues were especially important to her. The search to find an issue that deeply spoke to her brought Hanna back to her childhood passion: her love for traditional south dakota : nick tilsen
dance. That led her to Friends of Old Time Music and Dance (FOOTMAD).
Based in Charleston, FOOTMAD is the primary traditional dance and music organization in West Virginia. The volunteer-run organization was created in 1981 by a In late 2006, the pillars of a new ceremony house rose into the vast small group of individuals interested in tracing Appalachian sounds to their roots in Irish South Dakota sky, crafted by the hands of Lakota youth and families music. The organization soon broadened to include all forms of traditional music, blues, who had never built such a structure before. Medicine man Jerome and bluegrass. FOOTMAD hosts various events—dances twice a month, six concerts a Lebeaux, thirty, looked on with pride as his friends and members of year, and an annual festival called the Fall Fling.
the Thunder Valley Tiospaye (pronounced “tee-oh-sh-pie-ae”) helped Hanna had been attending FOOTMAD dances since college, but later assumed construct this community and ceremony house that has been long in a more central role as vice president of the organization. In this role, she organized the making. With little funding, but an abundance of helping hands,
“I got to travel between seven West
volunteers, filed reports and wrote grants. In her year as vice president, Hanna worked the building represents not just a new resource for young Lakota Virginian communities to talk with the
diligently to involve young people because of her concern that so many young people people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, but also a leap of faith
‘movers and shakers.’ I was meeting the
are moving away from West Virginia.
for the whole community.
people who are really trying to create
Hanna moved to Morgantown in August of 2007 and is currently pursuing a A tiospaye is the most basic unit of Lakota society—the
change. . . . I loved it!”
masters in public administration and social work at West Virginia University. The change extended family network within a tribe that the U.S. Government
in location has only served to strengthen her passions. While she may not be able to tried hard to destroy. Tiospayes in Lakota country now slowly
take as active a role in FOOTMAD, folklore preservation, or fighting mountain top regenerate, like the American buffalo whose presence on the Great removal, she is now mobilizing the University’s resources to broaden her horizons and Plains grows stronger with each passing season. Lakota activist Nick to continue networking on these issues. Hanna still serves as a member of the Tilsen, twenty-six, recognizes strong links between the restoration of FOOTMAD board, and, along with activists Michael and Carrie Kline, has recently the Great Plains ecology and Lakota culture. While a traditional recorded a CD.
tiospaye includes only blood relations, in Thunder Valley a diversity of Hanna dreams of one day creating her own business to work with families family, friends, and community members are united by a passion for struggling to get their parents and grandparents into better situations as they age.“My rejuvenating Lakota culture.
goal,” she says,“is to help the elderly feel like they’ve resolved their lives, so they won’t The Lakota (or Sioux, as they and related tribes were named
be scared of leaving the world.”
by their enemies) have a history of producing powerful spiritual and Regardless of where her new degrees lead her, Hanna will remain actively community leaders. From Black Elk and Fool’s Crow to Chief Red
involved in music and dance and in working to alleviate the problems that plague her Cloud and the legendary Crazy Horse, their descendants now
beloved homeland. She explains,“I feel a strong need to help this state. There’s a lot of struggle to rebuild a nation that was pushed to the brink of physical negative press associated with West Virginia. It’s really time to do something positive.”
and spiritual destruction. Nick explains,“Rather than focus energy on what our government is not doing, we’re focusing our energy on what we should be doing. We’ve decided as a community to take ownership of our own future.” Ceremony by ceremony, project by project, prayer by prayer, they have made remarkable progress in recent years.
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The ceremony house marked Nick’s transition from leading the activism-based young Lakota to Inipi (sweat lodge) and other ceremonies, he does so to help them see Lakota Action Network to joining with others to create the Thunder Valley Community who they are inside, develop pride in their culture, and reconnect with the power and Development Corporation (CDC), a nonprofit that will nurture a new generation of Lakota guidance of their ancestors.
leaders. Throughout the last three years, rounds of community meetings and gatherings Recently, Thunder Valley CDC applied for and received a $300,000 grant from the have kicked off an enthusiasm like never before, as the Thunder Valley Lakota take their federal government to plan a new type of community building that will house a much future into their own hands and begin forming a twenty-year community development needed youth emergency shelter, community fitness center, and local business incubator.
plan. The Thunder Valley CDC mission statement involves the words of over fifty Lakota Remarkably, this grant earmarks money for land acquisition, enough to buy one hundred youth and elders and aims to create a rebirth of traditional culture, values, and ceremonies acres on which to house this facility.
that will offer youth the opportunity to build leadership skills—and stay away from drugs.
Now, the ceremony and community
Thunder Valley CDC plans to use this money to design the center and put a plan Addressing social problems and planning for the future are especially critical on Pine center brims with life five days a week
in place that will raise around one million dollars to construct and operate the center.
Ridge, where more than half of the population is under twenty-four years old.
hosting everything from sacred
Nick points out the urgent need for another youth crisis center on Pine Ridge. The Now, the ceremony and community center brims with life five days a week ceremonies and dances to baby showers
average three-bedroom house currently has fourteen to fifteen occupants, and some hosting everything from sacred ceremonies and dances to baby showers and community and community suppers.
youth and their families struggle with drug and alcohol abuse problems. Youth suppers. A group of local mothers finally has space to organize and coach a modern hip-sometimes have to leave home, or have no home, and desperately need a safe place to hop dance group of their daughters and other young women, called the Thunder Valley receive emergency food, shelter, counseling, and referral to a cultural treatment program.
Dancing Divas. They have performed at major events across the reservation and South Thunder Valley CDC is also beginning to make a long-term community Dakota. A group of young men has formed a traditional drum group that performs both development plan that addresses economic, cultural, and ecological concerns. Nick says, at public powwows and Lakota spiritual ceremonies.
“We want this community to be one of the greenest communities, not just in Indian Nick and Jerome have seen many important programs blossom from the Country, but in the whole United States. We are making huge strides to actually do it, not community center such as the Youth Leadership Program, which coordinates mentoring just talk about it.”
in the schools, offers local leadership workshops, runs a sacred sites program, and Nick traces this spiritual and community renewal to when medicine man Jerome provides a Lakota language program. Last year, twenty-five youth participated in LeBeau and his family started a Sun Dance in Thunder
ceremonies at the four sacred sites in the Black Hills (He Sapa in Lakota): Bear Butte, Valley eleven years ago. Sun Dance is one of the most
Harney Peak, Devils Tower, and Reynolds Prairie. This experience helped them learn powerful and ancient ceremonies in which Lakota dancers
firsthand about the power and importance of Lakota culture.
worship in sweltering heat for four days with virtually no
On the reservation, youth-led movements can be politically controversial modern trappings, food, or water. Amidst drums, songs,
because respect for elders is the cornerstone of Lakota ways. When Nick leans into the and ceremonies with their families, the dancers praise the
microphone at Pine Ridge’s famous KILI radio station for a public service Creator and invoke the guidance of their ancestors with
announcement, tradition dictates that he first respectfully ask permission to speak their suffering and devotion. Across Indian Country, and
before his elders. Nick strives to honor the elders and explains that Thunder Valley CDC
especially at Thunder Valley, Native youth are losing their
creates a vital space for elders to come share their wisdom and knowledge of Lakota fear or disdain of the Sun Dance and becoming inspired to
ways with eager groups of youth.
learn the old ways. To be a Sun Dancer means returning to
Likewise, Jerome reveres all the elders and ancestors who have helped him true Lakota values such as swearing off alcohol among
become a medicine man and who instructed him in Lakota spiritual rites and other things.“People that make change in their own life
ceremonies, since he was seven years old. His work would not be possible without these want to see change in their communities,” explains Nick.
teachers. As a medicine man, Jerome devotes his life to the community, focusing The Sun Dance set the context in which Thunder
especially on the youth. He sees great value in fostering spiritual growth in young Valley CDC could flourish with renewed youth enthusiasm
people, and aims his efforts at teaching traditional Lakota ceremonies. He has had great and involvement. As the season for another Sun Dance
success attracting young people to the ceremonies, as evidenced by strong youth approaches, more and more Lakota youth are working to
participation in the annual Sun Dance. This ceremony is quintessential to Lakota spiritual rebuild the Lakota Nation one project, one ceremony, and
ways and has endured despite generations of repression. When Jerome introduces one prayer at a time.
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A Sustainable Catch
demand. John, who works as the co-op’s manager,
envisions opening a retail store nearby and driving a
delivery truck to places like New Jersey, where the co-op’s
“boat price” could reach thirteen dollars per pound.
Lobsters, like lobstermen, are secretive and little
understood. They can live for more than a hundred years
and migrate many miles across the sea floor in trenches,
usually going farther out in winters and crawling closer to
maine : john jordan
shore in summertime. This tendency makes winter
lobstering especially dangerous. Lobsters reach harvestable
maturity by around seven to eight years, quite different from
Lobstermen on Chebeague Island, near Portland, Maine, wake up early in the most livestock. Maine’s lobster fishery self regulates with a
morning and spend much of the day checking traps marked by bright buoys dotting the vengeance, each lobsterman dutifully throwing back all
glistening inlets of Casco Bay. Chebeague (pronounced “sheh-beeg” or “sheh-big” by breeding females and juveniles so the population remains
locals) boasts a year round population of about three hundred fifty residents, but that sustainable and vibrant. A governing body sets trap limits
figure balloons to more than two thousand in the summer when outsiders flock here to according to zone. New lobstering licenses are about as easy
enjoy Maine’s laid-back coastal beauty.
to come by as an advanced medical degree.
John Jordan, thirty-four, and his sternman Mark McGoon, twenty-nine, ply these John “fishes” eight hundred lobster traps, which he lays out in strings of eight or chilly waters not just as independent lobstermen but as members of the newly formed sixteen, marked by a buoy floating above each end of the submerged trap string. Each Dropping Springs Lobster Cooperative. In the fiercely traditional lobstering culture, forty-pound metal trap may yield from zero to more than a dozen lobsters, depending on Dropping Springs presents a new sales and marketing option for lobstermen who if it was well maintained, baited, positioned, and visited by lady luck. A winch hauls the sometimes stay loyal to one buyer for their entire lives.
heavy traps up from the sea floor at which time John and Mark rapidly pull lobsters out John hails from the less-than-coastal state of Ohio, where his father was a and measure them. If it’s a keeper, they disable the lobster’s powerful claws with a thick college professor. Summers brought him and his family to Chebeague Island, where he rubber band and store it in tanks on the boat. They then re-bait the trap with fish and heft experienced Maine’s tight-knit communities and lobstering culture throughout his it onto the boat’s stern, where the re-baited string of traps will be jettisoned back into the youth. John studied at Colby College in Maine, and in 1990, he started working as a water once the boat gets moving.
sternman on a lobster boat where he helped a captain bait and haul traps. Whether it John comments,“One of the many dangers of lobstering involves getting was the fresh air and freedom of working the seas, or the $120 a day he was earning for entangled in the line connecting the weighted traps as they fly off the open back of the his backbreaking labor, this maritime trade worked its way into his blood.
boat.” Lobstering with a sternman not only improves productivity, but can also prevent After graduating from Colby, John applied for jobs on Wall Street, thinking his In the fiercely traditional lobstering culture,
fatal accidents. Having traversed the islands of Casco Bay countless times, John knows his path lay among glowing computer screens in air-conditioned buildings. Despite the Dropping Springs presents a new sales and
boat and surroundings so intimately that in fog, he can navigate by how the sea floor financial allure of a Wall Street career, he decided to return to Maine, trading stock ticker marketing option for lobstermen who
looks on the sonar.
screens for sonar screens and the dangers of a lobster boat.
sometimes stay loyal to one buyer for their
Each lobsterman paints their buoys in specific patterns, whether it be pink polka Maine’s ruggedly independent lobstermen rarely share the secrets of their best entire lives.
dots or a single stripe. Lobstermen pass the creative patterns down through generations.
yielding traps or the exact amounts of their catch. This tight lipped atmosphere allows John’s boat, the Katarina (named after his wife as tradition dictates) is thirty-four-feet long, wholesale buyers to set a low “boat price” for competing lobstermen, such that they sixteen-feet wide, and boasts two radars, sonar, GPS, and autopilot. It holds 300 gallons of earn about four dollars per pound, or less, for lobster that lands on plates at prices many diesel fuel for forays far out into rough water. The boat’s small cabin and heater provide an times higher.
essential cover from freezing rain and water during the bitterly cold months when, John helped found Dropping Spring Lobster Co-op in 2004 with nine other motivated by higher prices, lobstermen continue to operate.
lobstermen. Their goal was to get higher prices via collective bargaining. In 2006, the Mark McGoon was born into lobstering on Chebeague and was on the boats by co-op grew to nineteen members and had to buy lobster from nonmembers to fulfill the time he was eight. He attended the Chebeague Island Elementary School, along with 76 : o u t s t a n d i n g y o u t h
u n c o m m o n w i s d o m : 77
only thirty-two other students. Mark worked on the boats during high school, and after attending college for architectural drafting, he decided that his fate lay with lobstering. In Ranching Poetic
1998, he joined the Navy, forfeiting the lobstering license he had held for fifteen years.
Upon his return from Iraq, he enrolled in Maine’s lobsterman apprentice program and completed the required one thousand hours of boat time. That put him on the waiting list to get a license, which could mean a wait of as many as three years.“For every five retiring lobstermen, about one new license is granted,“Mark explains.
John lives in the nearby mainland town of Yarmouth with his wife, Katarina, a primary school teacher. Mark also lives on the mainland, in the town of Gorham, with his nevada : kathi wines
wife. Like John, he was unable to afford the high property taxes levied on island homes. As Maine’s coastal communities gentrify with the second homes of wealthy New Englanders, John fears for the fate of working waterfronts in Casco Bay.
Organizations like Dropping Springs may just help lobstermen maintain their Organizations like Dropping Springs may
place on the islands by guaranteeing that more money stays with the lobstermen and just help lobstermen maintain their place
their crew. When Mark is eligible for a license again, he expects to join the co-op because on the islands by guaranteeing that more
it’s simply a better business model. Each lobsterman (and the few lobsterwomen in the money stays with the lobstermen and
area) earns the same percentage that he or she catches. The co-op even divvies up a their crew.
Christmas bonus to all its members based on profits.
Dropping Springs has a social element too, hosting an annual party for workers and their families. John plays harmonica and sings in a band called the Pollack (a type of fish) with a local member of the merchant marine and a worker from the bait shack where the co-op members go to unload lobster and refill bait. Performing, however, has taken a back seat with the addition of children to the family. And during the winter, when the Katarina may only go out once every two
weeks, John drives a plow truck and digs
eighty-seven clients out of their snow-
filled driveways.
By logging long hours in some
of the most physically and mentally
challenging conditions possible, Maine
lobstermen not only follow a time-
honored tradition, but they also create
Imagine a small rural community in northeastern Nevada. The air is thick with one of the world’s few truly sustainable
the smell of sagebrush, and beautiful aspen and willow trees provide shade for fisheries. By organizing groups like
passersby. Visitors may look up and find themselves staring in wonder at the Ruby Dropping Springs and promoting young
Mountains. Yet behind these sights and smells lies an old and important tradition: lobstermen and women through the
ranching. Such is Lamoille, Nevada. Traditionally a prosperous ranching community, apprentice program, people like John
this area, as well as its famous Lamoille Canyon, attracts visitors from near and far.
Jordan and Mark McGoon hope to keep
As populations grows in this region, so do competing land pressures.“People Casco Bay a working waterfront filled
are discovering that land is worth more money as real estate than as ranching with lobstermen for many generations—
land,”says Kathi Wines, a fourth generation rancher from Lamoille.“They don’t and buoy pattern permutations—
to come.
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understand that if we keep going in this direction, we’ll be importing all of our food.
“When I’m trotting my horse on a circle looking for cows on our summer We’ll also lose the unique ranching heritage that makes up the American West.“
range,” Kathi says, ”I can’t help but think that this may be the same path my grandfather Kathi is dedicated to preserving this cultural heritage.“What makes took when he rode looking for his cows years ago. And I hope someday to have a northeastern Nevada so special is the tradition it holds true to,” she explains. One effort grandchild who will ride this path in fifty or sixty years looking for her cows.”
she works on is the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which takes place every January Kathi and her family raise commercial crossbreed Black Angus cows. The day-to-at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, about twenty miles from Lamoille. Kathi helps day routine is constantly changing. In the spring the calves are born, branded, and organize this event that draws people from across the U.S. and around the world. The vaccinated against disease. A time of togetherness, friends, family, and neighbors all gathering celebrates life in the rural West through contemporary and traditional arts, come out to get the work done.
including music, poetry readings, and storytelling.
“When I’m trotting my horse on a circle
By late April, the cows are turned out in the summer range, comprised of In addition to this event, Kathi works year round to share her culture with looking for cows on our summer range, I
federal land allotted to the family for grazing. The area offers large expanses of others and educate them on the ranching lifestyle of the past, as well as the present. She can’t help but think that this may be the
sagebrush and native grasses. Then, in mid-May, the cows are bred to the bulls.
knows some information circulated about ranchers puts them in a bad light, and wants same path my grandfather took when he
After the hay gathering is complete, the cattle are brought back to the pastures.
to make sure that her side of the story gets told.
rode looking for his cows years ago. And I
Many of the calves are sold and shipped off in late October, weighing between 400 and Born and raised in Lamoille on her family’s ranch, Kathi grew up riding horses hope someday to have a grandchild who
600 pounds. Those that remain are weaned in November, and the whole herd is fed and tending to baby calves.“It’s a pretty unique bond with nature. That’s where my will ride this path in fifty or sixty years
throughout the winter before the cycle starts again in the spring.
heart is,” Kathi says.
looking for her cows.”
Kathi attended the University of Nevada-Reno where she majored in journalism Her love for her community was nurtured in 4-H and Future Farmers of America with an emphasis on public relations. Now back in Lamoille, she serves as president of (FFA). On the ranch, Kathi loves helping irrigate the meadows in the spring and summer, the Elko County Cattlewomen. This is another venue for educating the public about and cutting down the hay in July—a tradition she has taken part in ever since she was ranching culture and the beef industry. Among other things, the group does cooking eleven years old. According to Kathi, many chores haven’t changed throughout the demonstrations in grocery stores and presentations to school children. Kathi likes years, though technology has made it much easier for both ranchers and cattle.
visiting with kids and talking to them about the food they eat. She says,“It’s kind of scary when kids think their food comes from the grocery store.”
Kathi attributes much of her success to her family and to people at the Western Folklife Center. The most challenging part of her work is combating misinformation.
There has always been some tension between environmentalists, animal rights activists, and ranchers. By getting the right information out, Kathi feels she has been successful in persuading people that ranching is important to America’s culture.“If I convince one person, it’s worth it,” she says.“That is one person that goes home and has more respect for ranching and the people who are doing it.”
The ranch has taught Kathi responsibility, the importance of family, integrity, and the reality of life and death. She has learned to love nature, and respect the animals that provide her livelihood. Kathi treasures the rural life, and cherishes the memories and values it has instilled in her. Deeply rooted in this area, she has no plans to leave.
“The younger generations will determine the future of ranching,” she says. So to foster their interest, she helps with the local 4-H club and participates in her old FFA chapter. She also helps organize the Elko County Fair.
“The truth is, everything in ranching is about the kids,” Kathi says. She hopes to be blessed with children of her own, and envisions a ranching future with them: horses just outside their backdoor and 4-H steers in the barn. With this dream in mind, and a passion for what she does in her heart, Kathi will continue to renew her rural community.
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