Omaha Nebraska, Dec 2nd, 2010
This is exciting stuff, as it was a first in relationship to Boys Town. They invited us in to provide cultural sensitivity training to their staff that work with native American Indian youth. Note; over 50% of all their students that have come through their institution have been of Omaha ancestry. We now have plans of building a sweatlodge on campus this spring for the students to utilize. The first four sweats will be run by members of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and then it will be given to the faculty to offer other tribes to use. Father Steven Boes has really opened the door for interaction and positive, pro-active dialog, which is a blessing in itself and unprecedented to say the least. We hope to do more similiar types of trainings in the future at Boys Town.
UPDATE: Well last weekend 7/23, we completed our project of building a sweatlodge down at BoysTown. As I said I believe this to be an unprecedented step for the Native American Indian students. Pierre Merrick leader of the Omaha Tribe's Big Crazy Society poured the water, Calvin Harland and I helped build the sweatlodge with the kids actually doing most of the work. I was impressed with their interest and respect for what we were trying to do. Father Steve of BoysTown has opened the doors for the Indian community in Omaha and surrounding area, I hope and pray they sieze the moment. Big Crazy will host the first four sweats and then it will be the responsibility of the students themselves to clean and maintain and use the site. Harley Upton the house parent for the Boys Town Indian Home has been a valuable asset to this whole process, without him I doubt it would of ever happened. Some might say that it is risky business building such a sacred thing at BoysTown. I myself firmly believe our children are worth the risk. Over the years, half the Indian students that have gone to Boy Town have been Omaha Indian children. We owe it to them to assist in anyway possible in their spiritual growth. We can only hope that it will be used in a good way for all of our relations. Anyway it was a good day and we feel we did something good for the people and only time will tell that story.