Travel Volunteering - Pine Ridge Reservation (Days 1-3)

I recently moved back to Muskegon, Michigan for the summer and while cleaning my room at my Dad's house, I found one of my old travel journals. Inside, I kept a day-to-day account of what happened during the first of two trip my friends from First Congregational Church in Muskegon to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. We traveled with the Re-Member non-profit organization, based out of Grand Haven, Michigan, who makes it their priority to work with the people of the Oglala Lakota people to, as their website puts it, "[help] to rebuild relationships, homes, and lives." Re-member makes week-long trips to the Reservation (the Rez) to help with any number of projects, but most of the time is spent on basic home restoration projects. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is consistently listed as one of the poorest areas of the United States, and while many volunteer groups visit regions in need and leave, Re-member has made it its mission to continue working year after year, building a stronger community on the Rez. I transcribed my writings from my journal and copied them below. I was 14 years old at the time, so please excuse my lack of writing skills at that age!

Day 1 - August 11, 2000

We left Titus’ house at 8:30. We’re taking four cars. Rev.’s Keith and Ginny Titus, and their daughter Kirstina, are in the first truck with the trailer. We’re behind them. In our van is Keith Koeble, Mrs. Hunt, Meagen, Amanda, Lee, Mellissa, and I. Then betsy and Crystal are in Betsy’s truck with camper. Then in the last car is Cindy Novoselick, Sigrid, Ian, Ben, Brennen, Marc, Alissa, and Becky. We stopped a little bit after Gary, IN, for bathrooms and gas. We stopped in Minooka, IL, for lunch at Subway. I’m pretty bored so I’m listening to my musicals and talking to Amanda and Brennen over the two-way radios. We stopped at a rest area 100 miles east of Des Moines; after all, our four cars were separated. Now we’re back on the road headed for Des Moines. I think we all have got just a little taste of the western heat. It was probably around 95°F and it will only get hotter! We finally arrived in Des Moines. We found the Plymouth Congregational Church, unpacked the trailer, and set up our sleeping bags. All the boys and girls were in the same room. We went around in the vans looking for a place to eat. We ended up at...HARDEES! The food was good, and there weren’t as many flies. After dinner, we had a little devotion time, and then I went down to the gym and played soccer. In doing so, I was barefoot, and slipped on a puddle and fell, and slammed the back of my head into the floor.

Day 2 - August 12, 2000

After showers, a five-minute devotion time, breakfast, and packing the trailer, we got on the road at 7:00am. It is 10:09am, and as I’m listening to my CD player, and now, it’s raining! We ate a hearty brunch at Perkins while Alissa found a bee in her salad! We’re going by the Lewis and Clark expedition’s monument. It looks like the Washington Monument.

Mississippi River

We drove straight through to the Reservation. As we entered the Reservation, we drove through a little bit of the Badlands, and drove through the Indian communities of Kyle, Porcupine, Sharps Corner, and finally Wounded Knee. We are staying at a small church, separated into two rooms (boys and girls) and then there’s a kitchen, and two bathrooms.

Driving through the Badlands

Amanda W. reading in the vans

There aren’t as many bags as I thought. I have confessed my arachnaphobia and “bug-phobia,” and have been constantly teased afterwards. We then, after unpacking, we drove to Pine Ridge (city) for milk and Pizza Hut. There was a group of like five little Indian kids were asking us for breadsticks. After we got back to our church and were told the rules. The hot water is not working so we’ll have to take five-minute, cold showers. Tomorrow morning, we’ll probably get up and going to clean up the Wounded Knee Cemetery. But now only 10 people are still awake.

Day 3 - August 13, 2000

I got up this morning unharmed by bugs. (lol) After breakfast, we drove up to the Wounded Knee Cemetery. We got a little bit of history of the area. We had a communion service with hot dog buns and cherry flavored juice. Then we toured the cemetery. There was a fenced-in area where there was a monument with the names of at least 25-30 Indian Braves who died in the Massacre of Wounded Knee. There was also the grave of Lost Bird, an Indian girl who survived for four days in the snow and when found, she was adopted by an Army official. After being physically, mentally, and sexually abused, she moved to California and became a prostitute. After she died, some of her relatives brought her body back to Pine Ridge [Reservation] to be buried.

Memorial stone in the Wounded Knee Indian Reservation

Our whole group at the entrance to the Wounded Knee Cemetery

Then we came back to the church for lunch (Tacos. Eww!). After lunch, Brennen, Betsy, Keith Keoble, Ian, Lee, Ben, Marc, and I went to St. Albin's Church to organize bunk bed materials. After two hours of vigorous work, we took a half-hour tour through the Rez. We came back to a wonderful dinner of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, lima beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls, chicken, and stuffing. Then we "unpacked" (talking about the day). Then we went inside for free-time.

Sunset over Wounded Knee

Another Ash Cloud Ruining Flight Plans: Thanks, Iceland

We had three nights left in Greenland, each in a different city: Narsarsuaq, Nuuk, and Kangerlussuaq - in that order. But if you remember, while eating dinner on our last night in Narsarsuaq we saw a C130 airplane land and a bunch of NATO troops got off the plane, which had been rerouted to Narsarsuaq because the Grimsvold Volcano in Iceland erupted sending microscopic particulates into the air above the North Atlantic.

Immediately, we checked our flight plan for the next day. We were supposed to leave Narsarsuaq for Nuuk at 4:30pm, but when we checked the hotel's flight status screen, our flight was not even showing. It's not that it was there but cancelled or delayed; it was just not there... The airport was, of course, closed for the evening and the Air Greenland customer service offices were closed. There was nothing we could do, it seemed, so we took a few minutes to sit down in the hotel lobby and discuss everything that we had seen so far, making sure our scientific expectations, observations, and hypotheses were all in line. Then we went upstairs and lined up all 50-some samples we'd collected thus far in a row, making sure they were all there, and then putting the sample bags into more bags, taped them shut, and stuffed them in two coolers to bring back on the plane with us...if we even were going to get a plane.

The next morning, Paul got up around 6am and went to the airport to see if we could change our reservation to an earlier morning flight. Air Greenland granted us the seats but said that the furthest we could get that day, based on ash-cloud monitoring maps, was Nuuk. In the meantime, the Polar Research Support Staff in Kangerlussuaq was trying to get a hold of us, telling us to get back to Kanger as soon as possible because there were only three C130s and they were all leaving as soon as they possibly could. We hurried and packed the rest of our luggage to check in for our flight.

By the time we got to the check-in counter we had a lucky surprise: we were going to be booked on flights through Nuuk all the way up to Kangerlussuaq, getting us in later that evening. The caveat was that our Nuuk to Kanger flight was dependent on the ash cloud. We would find out upon landing in Nuuk if we could get to Kanger. Earlier that day, all flights in and out of Kanger were cancelled because the ash cloud was heading directly toward it.

With as much concern as there was over the ash cloud, our flight from Narsarsuaq to Nuuk was totally smooth.

View of the Narsarsuaq glacier on our departure flight

Nunataks sticking up through the Ice Sheet with some ice falls and longitudinal crevaces

Buildings and a harbor in Nuuk

Downtown Nuuk

 In Nuuk, we were in the airport for no less than ten minutes when an announcement, made in Danish and Greenlandic, came over the PA system. A nice woman, also an academic, translated for us, telling us that the air over Kangerlussuaq was ash-free, but we would have to fly in from the west after making a detour stop in the coastal town of Sisimiut. And sure enough, in less than two hours, we were landing in Kangerlussuaq....right as one of the three remaining C130s was taking off, which meant there were two left, and we needed to be sure to secure our spot on one of them!

West Greenland coast

Coastal mountains

Large town of Sisimiut

Harbor in Sisimiut

Sisimiut Airport

Sisimiut Airport landing strip

Once we landed in Kangerlussuaq we found out that the next flight back to the US was not leaving until the next morning. We then had the rest of the afternoon to collect a few more samples, but not before a bite to eat.

I was told that I could not leave Kangerlussuaq without trying the Musk Ox Pizza, which is exactly what we did and it was delicious! The guy who ran the pizza place was very friendly and energetic, shouting at the soccer games on the television he had in his shop! Though really greasy, the pizza was some of the best I'd ever had.

Musk Ox pizza with red chiles and onions

One of the few actual restaurants in Kangerlussuaq

We split up our group and collected a few more samples, Paul and I by bike and Jeremy and Dylan by truck. Unfortunately, by the time we met back up, the airport cafeteria was closed and our only food option was back at the Thai food restaurant, which we ate while continuing our trip-summary conversations. We got word that the second of the three flights back home was leaving the next morning and we were on it, so around midnight, we pulled on our eye-shades and went to bed.

The next morning came quick and before we knew it we were back on the canvas and cargo-strap netting seats with about three other scientists and about thirty Air National Guardsmen/Air Force Personnel. These guys had been up in Greenland for a long time already and anxious to get back home and were not fooling around about our takeoff. It was a close call, our flight home, and other Arctic researchers may not have been so lucky.

The last C130 flight back to the US was waiting for the air to clear so they could try and retrieve about 20 scientists stuck up at the Summit Research Station in the middle of the Ice Sheet, directly underneath the ash cloud. They were going to wait one more day to see if they could get the researchers, and if they could not, they were leaving - meaning that the researchers at the Summit Station, who were excited to come home after 3-6 weeks up on the ice, would be stuck for another 3 weeks!

I consider myself lucky not only to have the chance to go to Greenland and experience the wildlife and landscapes it has to offer, but as we were flying away back to the US, I thought how lucky the Summit Researchers were if they did get stuck in Greenland for another three weeks. It's not the most lively place to be stuck, but I can think of hundreds of other places that would be much worse to be stuck.

I plan on returning to Greenland someday, in some fashion. It's not the easiest place to get to, but it's not impossible; it's not the cheapest place to travel, but it's manageable. And I urge anyone who has read all the way down here, at the bottom, to make it a point to get there sooner rather than later. The local culture is still in tact, but with mining companies starting various operations in Greenland, I cannot imagine it will be long before the economic disparity between the European mining executives and local Greenlandic workers becomes so big that the local culture will be dampened.

So to my friends, Sarah and Steve: Yes, people do travel to Greenland and I suggest you get there, too!

Vikings: Gardar and Brattahlid

The next two days in Greenland were more simple than the previous days, yet at the end of the day we were still exhausted!

We were greeted in the breakfast cafeteria by Jacky, our go-to-guy who runs the Narsarsuaq Museum, boat tours, camps around the fjord, and other properties in the surrounding towns. A stockier guy from the French Alps, Jacky meant business, and I really got the feeling that a group of geologists were not at the top of his list. He always seemed rushed and very frank. Nice guy, though. So Jacky came into the cafeteria and asked why we weren't ready yet. He was chartered to boat us across the fjord to the town of Qassiarsuk and then pick us up later in the day. He was very hurried, however, to get to the town of Igaliku where all of the Greenlandic Government Ministers were having a planning retreat. Sometime during the night, the heaters in the Ministers' cabins broke and they were left in the cold. We were planning the next day to go to Igaliku, so we asked Jacky if it would be better if we did our Igaliku day first and the Qassiarsuk day second. Clearly is was alright by him and he hurried us to get our stuff.

The boat ride across the fjord did not take very long as Jacky was determined to get there as soon as possible. He dropped us off at a little dock and then drove off to put his boat in deeper water. The weather was chilly, but not terribly cold and we started off on our 3km trek across an isthmus between two fjords. The countryside here was beautiful and drastically different than other places we'd hiked so far in that you could tell farming was the main operation - sheep farming, to be specific - and while it was at times smelly, the hike was not difficult.

Our transportation unit for the next few days

Just an iceberg. No biggie

Climbing up from the boat to the dock

Probably the biggest sheep farm in the area

Igaliku

Igaliku is more famously known as Gardar, a Viking establishment settled in AD 985. Gardar is where the first Epicopal Bishop set up shop in Greenland in AD 1124. The town is literally built up around and built using the Gardar ruins, which include barns for cows (which seems to be a must-have for the Vikings), a cathedral, the Bishop's residence, storage warehouses, and the legal and ceremonial courts. The Vikings settled this area during the time of the Medieval Warm Period, a time when the climate in these reaches of the Arctic were warmer than they currently are. This allowed the Vikings to use the land for crop-farming. However, the Norse left the region in AD 1450 as the climate began cooling during the "Little Ice Age." When the Vikings left, Inuit Greenlanders settled the area and used it as home-base for fishing and sea-mammal hunting. The Norse took over the area again in the late 1700s and crop-farming was relocated to other areas in Greenland and sheep-breeding and farming became the predominant trade...which is why our walk was a little smelly....

Sheep and cemetery on the way to Igaliku

Igaliku

Viking ruins at Gardar

The Bishop's Tomb at Gardar

Footprint ruins of the Cathedral at Gardar

Paul, Dylan, and Jeremy at the Gardar ruins

Gardar

Igaliku

Eating lunch on the ruins at Gardar

After a brief lunch on the ruins, shared with the sheep who seem to have free reign of the town, we started a short hike around the end of the fjord to collect some sediment from a stream emptying into it. Sheep were kind of everywhere. If polar bears were wise, they'd not even worry about hunting seals through sea ice and come here. We found a series of old beach deposits that were at one time right at sea level but are now well above sea level. This happens naturally as the ice sheet recedes and the land kind rebounds from being pressured down from the weight of the ice.

We were on a deadline to get back to the hotel's cafeteria by 7:45, after which they closed. We got sidetracked a bit taking samples, during which time the weather kicked up and we experienced our second Greenlandic snowstorm. This one did not let up, and an hour later our gloves were soaked and we realized we were going to be late for our rendezvous back at the boat docks. Jacky was not going to be happy. So with backpacks full of bags of sediment and rocks, we started hoofing it back the 3km to the boat docks. It was absolutely the most tired I felt the entire time we were in Greenland, but as luck would have it, Jacky and two women and a dog came driving down the road from Igaliku and offered us a ride back to the boat. Again, he didn't really seem very happy to help us, but his women-friends were very nice and chatted with us as we bumped our way back down the road. We made it back to the cafeteria with few minutes to spare, and luckily, the kitchen was still open! We all showered and went to bed exhausted.

Our sampling stream

The fjord with some buildings from the town in the lower right

More sheep

Snow storms over the fjord

Snow over Igaliku

Igaliku before the snows

Igaliku during the storm

We took our time the next morning, knowing that we really did not have much left to do. Jacky was nowhere to be found, but we had arranged to meet him around mid-day. So in the morning our group split up to get two more samples from the immediate Narsarsuaq vicinity. Jeremy and Paul hiked up to the glacier to get some sand while Dylan and I climbed a little ridge to get some rock. Dylan and I were finished first, so we went back into town to arrange our boat ride to Quassiarsuk with Jacky. He still was not around, but we left a message with a Danish backpacker who was also waiting on Jacky. We figured we would then go to the grocery store to find some boxes we could use to ship all of our samples back. The funny thing about buildings (and I assume people, too) in the Arctic is that they look so unassuming from the outside because they are weathered and worn but when you go inside, it is like you never left the modernized world! The grocery store had your typical Greenlandic fare, but also had kiwi fruit, green peppers, zucchini, and apples and oranges - not to mention the DJ Hero video game system and wine from all over the world!

Ruins of an old US Army base in Narsarsuaq. It was rumored that during the Korean War, injured soldiers were brought here to recuperate rather than in the US to keep negative sentiment toward the war low.

The outside of the Narsarsuaq grocery store.

The inside of the grocery store. Not too unusual.

We finally found Jacky and threw our bags in the back of his van and braced ourselves for the short, but death-defying, drive down to his boats at the harbor. Imagine going 60 mph in a 20 zone and taking sharp corners! The boat ride was quick and we made plans for Jacky to pick us up further down the fjord later in the day. Jacky was excited when he saw us because he had a story. Just a few hours earlier that day in Igaliku, the town we were in the day before, people came across a polar bear sleeping down on a rock sticking out into the fjord. It was suspected that the bear was living in the area, feeding off of sheep...sheep in the farms we were walking through to get our samples. The bear, though docile when it was found, endangered the local people and their livestock, and so it was shot and killed since it could not be relocated. I asked Jacky if this happened often and what they do with the animal. He said it was extremely rare in Igaliku but not unheard of and that a professional butcher was already en route to Igaliku to cut up the animal and parts of it were shipped to all of the smaller coastal town nearby. So even though we didn't get to see the polar bear, had we kept to our original plan and sampled in Igaliku the day after Qassiarsuk, we would have seen it! Instead, I like to think that while we were collecting the samples, the bear was hunting us through the snow storm!

Qassiarsuk is a very small town whose main source of business is sheep farming...so it smelled terrible! Other than sheep farming, Qassiarsuk is also famous for being the site of Erik the Red's original settlement, Brattahlid. Right in town there is an extensive Viking ruins complex as well as the site of the first church built in North America.

Monument to Erik the Red in Qassiarsuk

Statue of Erik the Red watching over Qassiarsuk

Walking around the ruins at Brattahlid

A modern art exhibit attached to the rocks at Brattahlid representing various Norse symbols and patterns of building foundations at the ruins.

Looking down over the Brattahlid ruins

Brattahlid

Just across the street from the Brattahlid ruins is a reconstruction of a traditional Greenlandic hut. We had lunch there and drank our near-beers (1/2% alcohol), using the rocks of the building as bottle openers! Also nearby is the site of Thjolhilde's Church, the first church built in North America. An archeological dig nearby found the remains of some of the first Christians. Nearby, there is a reconstruction of what the church would have looked like next to a reconstruction of Erik the Red's house.

The foundations of Tjoldhilde's Church in Qassiarsuk

A reconstruction of Tjoldhilde's church

Reconstruction of Erik the Red's house

The walk from Qassiarsuk down the fjord was beautiful and we made it to our destination in a few hours and Jacky came to pick us up. The tide was out and there were no docks so we used a little rock jetty that got us out into about two feet of water. Jacky was not pleased that he had to put his boat into such shallow water, but we made it and were soon back at the cafeteria in time for dinner.

As we got back to Narsarsuaq, we saw a C130 land and a bunch of NATO men exiting. As it turns out, their plane was destined for a different city in Greenland, but due to the eruption of the Grimsvold volcano in Iceland, the plane was rerouted. The eruption also affected our return plans to Kangerlussuaq and threatened to strand us for another few weeks.