Members of the Northern Province Racial Justice Team (RJT) spent the week of September 16-20 on an initial immersion experience at the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Pine Ridge is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation, and the Reconciliation Center is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The purpose of the immersion experience was to listen to the stories of Lakota people and learn about their work to teach and reclaim their spirituality, culture, and language; and efforts to address the complex struggles facing people living on the reservation today, largely resulting from the legacy of colonialism and its atrocities. The RJT met with those working to end homelessness and a housing crisis, unemployment, and domestic violence; with artists using their gifts to tell and record the stories of the Lakota people; with Elder and Spiritual Leader Basil Brave Heart; and with staff, residents, and clients of the Center. One day was spent visiting sacred sites, concluding at sunset with a Lakota prayer at Wounded Knee.
The immersion was celebratory for the RJT as they officially welcomed new members Jessica Espinoza and Erica Rios from the Morongo Moravian Congregation in California.