DaVinci Waldorf Students Off to Lakota Reservation in SD

Da Vinci Waldorf School students have left the comfort of their suburban homes in Lake Zurich, Barrington and other northwest suburbs for a week service trip to the Lakota Nation Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

While there, students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade will help clean and repair homes on the reservation. The students will also provide service at the Lakota Waldorf School.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is situated within Shannon County where the per-capita income makes it the second poorest county in the USA with an average annual income of $3,700 and an unemployment rate of 80 percent.  

Almost 50 percent of the residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation live under the poverty level. There are still residents on the reservation without plumbing facilities, without kitchen facilities and no electricity. Residents suffer from serious illnesses; diabetes, heart disease and chronic health conditions occur at levels vastly disproportionate to the national average. The life expectancy rate on the reservation is 48 years for men and 52 years for women. The school dropout rate is over 70 percent; the incidence of teen suicide is 150 percent above the national average. 

Despite these harsh conditions, despite of poverty and suppression, the Lakota people still proudly live a rich culture, work toward maintaining the cultural heritage and toward the revival of their language. 

The Lakota Waldorf School is a pilot initiative; it is the only Waldorf School on a Native American reservation and offers the children assimilation of traditional Lakota language and culture through the Waldorf curriculum and teaching approach. 

See: The Lakota Waldorf School: Our children must walk the Lakota language and Lakota way of life.

Submitted by Da Vinci Waldorf School.