Safety and Joy for Indigenous Youths This Winter

Thanks to your incredible generosity, Phase 2 of Medicine Wheels Youth Leadership Initiative that launched in Spring of 2022 was a huge success!

Tiana, our Medicine Wheels Youth Leader planned, promoted and hosted skateboading meet-ups on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. 

The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota is 3 hours from a major city and in the center of oil country with man-camps placed for industrial oil workers. The Reservation faces chronic high rates of human and drug trafficking, violence, and land decimation brought in by the oil boom, creating unsafe environments for our young people. Native youth and young LGBTQ2S2S+ people have little to no resources and safe spaces. Substance abuse, depression and alcoholism rates are critical.

At the Medicine Wheels skate meet ups, it was so exciting to see kids from the reservation and even from miles away gathered at the local reservation skate park to receive free skateboards, safety gear, pizza, cold water, and a platform for them to speak and listen to positive sober role models.

While 10 youths from the reservation were expected - 51 youths showed up! The youngest was 9 years old! 

The focus was on freedom and acknowledging the creativity and expression that our Native youths possess through positive engagement with great mentorship and peer support just at the moment when school let out, youths are bored and isolated, and few opportunities exist on the Reservation for young people who can fall into depression, self harming, and substance abuse. Youths connected to their bodies and minds and the land we love and respect through physical activity and in partnership with the local addictions resource center.

Medicine Wheels Youth Leader Tiana shares their excitement as they "prepared, coordinated, organized, and hosted the event, as it is this type of project that makes my heart full and grateful to have the opportunities to do what I do. Some parents had traveled over 40 miles for their kids to attend. It was beautiful to see some of the kids who had never skated before to build up their confidence and jump on a board and realize that this was something exciting and thrilling to do. The youth had asked if this was something we could do every day! Also, when the next event was. The first event charged my motivational battery and really reminded me that my efforts do matter because creating space spaces for the youth in my community is essentially positive mental health empowerment and substance abuse prevention! Seeding Sovereignty provided boards and safety gear in a donation to those who did not have any. Even the kids who didn’t skate came!  A once-vacant skatepark was soon booming as youth skated by on boards, bikes, and roller skates. Echoing with laughter and questions on how to put their safety gear on and the excitement yet nervousness kids had when they jumped on a board for their first time!"

June's Pride month event was very important to Medicine Wheels. Tiana shares that "it was essential for me as the initiative coordinator to honor this month and for our LGBTQ2SIA+ relatives to feel safe and honored at every event. Our reservation is in a red state that is not so kind to queer people, with minimal spaces where they are protected and accepted, which is why Medicine Wheels will always provide that safe space. The flyer included that Medicine Wheels was a safe place for our LGBTQ2SIA+ relatives to come, and a few of the youth painted over harmful language that was graffitied around the park covered over with a rainbow hearts. The boys and girls club from Mandaree, 38 miles away, came up, and they led a dance battle with the kids, some were shy at first, but the more kids that joined in, they felt comfortable dancing and soon were laughing. A few of the boys practiced doing Ollies while an older youth was leading them, as it was a prime example of the beauty in sharing and the muscle memory needed to perfect a skating skill! There was also a gear distribution for the youth that came to the event with no boards or safety gear. I also got to help some who were first-time skaters find their balance on a board and the differences between a longboard and a skateboard, who were skating on their own by the end of the event. Lunch was served catered by Pizza Pie on the Fly, our local pizza place, with no single slice left after the event." 

Thanks to your donations, Medicine Wheels on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation rolled full force!

Tiana shares: "It is clear that mental health support and substance abuse prevention for young people starts with a safe community where empowering and interactive engagement can take place. Having an inclusive and accepting environment for Native LGBTQIASP+ youth is the foundation Medicine Wheels skate on. Medicine Wheels is for young people learning about themselves, those exploring their identities, and those struggling with substance abuse. It is to give our differences and uniqueness power and learn how to love, support, and nourish not only ourselves but one another."

We are so thrilled to have been in community at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation! Thank you to our GlobalGiving donors for supporting the free distribution of dozens of skateboards, safety gear, food and snacks and paying our incredible youth leader Tiana, who continues on studying to become a substance abuse counselor!

This Fall, Medicine Wheels is now rolling into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We are now sharing this leadership experience and skateboard distribution, community mental wellness and leadership building program with a new Indigenous youth leader - Hope Flournoy! 

November 1, 2022 marks the start of Native American Heritage Month. This month, please join us in your continued support to this life saving programming. We have so much more to do! Please receive our thanks for your support that has aleady saved lives and inspired futures. Our youths are the future - and their present must meet them with joy, support, love and belief in that future. 

In Community, 

The Team at Seeding Sovereignty