Nebraska and South Dakota

On Sunday, we made it back to Missouri after a week-long trip to Alliance, Nebraska and then to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We went as co-sponsors for a mission trip with our youth group. We put on a vacation bible school in Alliance for the Native American kids whose families work in Alliance, but have family or ties back to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

We went to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which was interesting, but depressing. In the center of the cemetery is the mass grave in which 87 Sioux women, children, and men were buried on January 2, 1891, 3 days after the massacre.

The most beautiful part of the trip for me was the Black Hills of South Dakota. I think I could live there.

I think I'll write a story or three that involves the discovery (by whites) and settlement (illegally) of the Black Hills. They have such a unique history that I don't think has been fully explored.