Weblog «Pathways To Spirit»

A $1000 donation was given to Pathways before Christmas, making it
possible for Marlene Rouillard, Director of the Native American
Women's Empowerment Circle, to buy Christmas dinner groceries for 58
families. Marlene was able to provide the families with both turkey
and ham and 3 bags of groceries. And the Pepsi Center provided
wonderful brand new toys for the children of these families--battery-
operated toy cars for the boys and Barbie dolls and toy ponies for
the girls. This is the first time Marlene has had the resources to
give such a complete Christmas gift to some of the Indian families in
Denver. She sends a great big THANK YOU to the donors. The joy this
brought to everyone is tremendous.

This is our first project. The story of our beginning. The story of 4 people who drove to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and saw something we could never forget. We saw little ones with no shoes and clothes that did not fit. We met beautiful people who live with little or no furniture, many times no beds and not enough blankets. People with very bare cupboards and little ones pouring water on their cereal instead of milk. We could never drive home and leave it all behind us. It would stay strong in our memories every day. What would/could we do? We would load pickups and horse trailers with every kind of household thing imaginable and off we went to deliver our gifts. Hundreds and hundreds showed up to receive these gifts. We needed more pickups! Instead we bought ourselves a 48ft. semi trailer by selling burgers and hot dogs in front of Sam's Club stores and they matched our earnings.

That first year we went to the reservation 11 times. Now we are averaging 4 times per year. We no longer take clothing because that is the least needed of all things. We are always desiring your good condition donation of furniture, mattresses, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and all things kitchen. We just returned from delivering a load of building materials such as used doors, windows, kitchen cabinets. Many scrambled for these items. It was a lot of fun.

Of course you do have to live in the Front Range of Colorado. But others could send funds for the fuel. This project also needs a "Project Manager" who will coordinate pickups and drop locations.

Dave Hanson and Eric Iverson completed the first Pathways' sponsored strawbale home in August of '07. We are very grateful to them for their expertise and willingness to drive all the way from Washington State 3 times during the summer to do this pilot project. Each of them has been in the home construction business for many years.

The home was built in a remote location of American Horse Creek. Look under the Summer "07 newsletter for pictures of the home. It is truly a beautiful home.

Dave and Eric are not yet convinced that straw bale is the way to go on the reservation - especially with cost incurred when the builders are coming from so far away. The home had a materials cost of $22.07 per squ ft. The per diem cost was about $16.20 per square foot. So, the total cost of the projects was $38.27 per square foot. Dave feels that is too high for that building and if donated labor was added in as a cost it would be impossible. Also, these costs do not include power or septic. On the rez, these are usually free but take anywhere from 2 - 5 yrs to get installed. We have no control over that fact.

In order to continue with straw and clay building we would have to reduce the per diem costs of the builders which would mean a lot of help from the local people in that community. Another way would be to have a team living from RV's.

The best way for this type of building to continue on the rez would be for strawbale builders to commit themselves to workshops on the rez that could train local people. This would mean builders donating their time to train the Lakota people who are interested.

Dave and Eric feel that earh-bag construction may be even more appropriate on the reservation. Much education and training for the Lakota people for this concept must take place.

With all this in mind, we would like your input and suggestions. We want to hear from builders as to a way to improve housing - in a green way - on the reservation. If you have building experience and a lot of compassion, we would like to hear from you.

An amazing gift has come to Pathways to Spirit for our Library project. As many of you know, we have been trying to put together the library for many years. Many of you have donated beautiful books and wonderful suggestions. Still we were not moving forward. Putting all the pieces together such as "Project Manager" and "Sight Manager", etc. were just not coming together in an easy way.

Then, last year, the miracle began to put itself together. I want to share with you all how that happened.

The town of Erie, Colorado has a Children's Library that took many years (11) to put together. Well, they have outgrown their library and the Board decided to build a library that would include the children's collection. They were looking for a new home for their original library. One of our supporters called and asked if we would like their library. Not just the books, but the entire contents, including shelving, computers, card catalog, everything. We couldn't pass up this unbelievable gift. The new questions began. Where can we put this because they want it to go directly into a building?

The next miracle began. Our friends on the reservation, Carolyn and Eli Tail began to put together a Lakota School. This school would be for the children who just don't do well in the regular system. It would also focus on Lakota language and culture as well as regular subjects. The tribe gave them a building in the town of Porcupine. This is the town we wanted to build in because it is in the center of the Pine Ridge Reservation. To look at their website go to: www.cokantisopaye.com and learn about them. They will house the library from the town of Erie.

We are awaiting word to begin the process of packing and loading that entire library into our 48 ft. semi and head off to the reservation and put the library back together in its new home. We believe this will happen in January or February.

If you are a librarian, carpenter or lover of children and books, we invite you to join us in this huge undertaking and be a part of bringing the first Children's Library to the reservation. We also ask you to donate a new Native American children's book to the library. We want to increase that part of the collection.

Call or email us if you can help in any way. 970-282-8573 or pathwaystospirit@comcast.net