At the end of the school year last year, I was invited to join the Adolescent 1 (A1) Odyssey trip that headed West starting the 3rd day of school. I agreed to jump on the Odyssey train, not really knowing what I was signing up to do. I love working at Great River School, the Montessori/International Baccalaureate 1st grade through 12th grade school at which I substitute teach and help out in other odd ways. I used to take groups of teenagers on all sorts of overnight adventures, so tent camping for 7 nights with 50 7th and 8th graders didn’t seem like that big of a jump in my experience wheel.
The six adults and 49 students in our group, and the five adults and 50 students in the other group, we all departed Great River School on Thursday, September 8th by 9 AM. One bus headed in one direction, our bus headed in the other direction. We met in the middle at Devil’s Tower campground and had pizza for dinner and shared the campsite on night 4 of the trip.
We started with a stop in Mitchell, South Dakota where the next morning we visited The Dakota Discovery Museum. Karen was my small group guide. She told me she was 81! She looked and moved like a woman much younger! One of the presenters showed us old style guns and clothing. I’m glad I live today.
Then we visited Bear Butte State Park in Sturgis, South Dakota. When we arrived, Park employee Georgia welcomed us to the group campsite. Tami asked me to go with Georgia to get us registered. On the way, Georgia and I connected. She was amazed that none of the 7th and 8th graders had electronic devices or phones with them on the trip!
Georgia enjoyed hearing about all the students were learning. She showed me a mini heard of buffalo. Way cool! She also offered to ask her husband Mike, who is Native, and a descendent of several well-known Lakota Chiefs, if he would be willing to address our group. Mike agreed, and he recruited another Native man, Jim, the Park Manager, to also speak to our group. Both Mike and Jim were an incredible addition to our experience.
On that day, we hiked up to the very top of Bear Butte, which was some super slow steady walking as the young people we were with navigated the challenge of stamina and consistency on such a hot, sweaty, steady hike upward. I was very proud of the young women who persevered and made it to the top. They wanted to give up, and instead they found their strength and the made it!
We then went to Devil’s Tower in Crook County, Wyoming. What a magical place. Ranger Joe gave us an awesome tour of the trail that looped around the base of the tower. This was the first declared National Monument in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt made it so in 1906.
We continued on, cooking over a gas camp cook stove every night and putting up and taking down our tents most nights. We then went to Wind Cave
National Park, which is in Hot Springs, South Dakota. WOW!!! It was so cool to dive down into Mother Earth and see the incredible calcite formations known as boxwork. Approximately 95 percent of the world’s discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave. I was astonished at every turn.
Along the way heading back to St. Paul, MN we drove by Wounded Knee. I felt my heart pull in deep sadness to realize that the 7th Calvary of the U.S. Army on December 29th, 1890 killed somewhere between 150 and 300 Native people, mostly unarmed women and children. Some of the men of the Calvary were awarded Medals of Honor for their participation in this horrible event. Is it any wonder that people of color in the United States are distrustful of the police and other government agencies? We have a LONG history in this county of systemically squashing people of color. This was a big reminder for me.
Our next stop was The Mammoth Site, a pretty amazing museum and archeological dig of prehistoric bones and fossils. Again, another WOW! Watching the A1 students explore and discover was amazing to watch.
We then made our way, with Earl our steadfast retired Army Colonel bus driver, to Oglala Lakota College. Amazing research is being done by the students and staff at this outstanding learning institution that is located right on the reservation.
Onward home via The Badlands. What an amazing place! The Native people call the Badlands the Heart of Earth. I believe it is. By this time on the trip, I was wearing down pretty badly. Night after night of only getting about 6 hours of sleep had caught up big time. All of us staff, Michael, Tami, Sarah, Alexis, Scott and me, agreed that we felt like we were hallucinating.
Luckily as a staff team we had bonded strongly, starting out all wearing tie-dye shirts the first day, and we kept our respect of one another intact and we were able to laugh at nearly everything. Our unity was reflected in the good behavior and positive energy of the young people on the trip. Never doubt that young people are watching everything the adults are doing! They model us constantly.
At the Badlands, we hiked and explored. Then we boarded the bus and the van that carried our food, and did the last long drive back to school. We arrived happy, ready for showers and excited for our beds at 6 PM.
As our colleague Scott said in a Facebook post, “Talk about Experiential Education… nailed it!”
