Lakota Kevin
The Lakota Indians have strong cultural and spiritual ties. For the most part, the Indians strive to preserve their way of life. From youth, parents train their children in the values and morals of their tribal group. In an effort to better understand their background, many Indian-Americans of Lakota descent may acquire resourceful information on the Lakota Indians, as well as visit the Lakota Indian reservation. This is a great way to become knowledgeable of the philosophy, customs, and history of the Lakota tribal group.
This is Kevin. Kevin camped right next to me.
I had left my camping spot to go skate, get some grocories, and refill on water. When I came back it was night time and noticed there was a small tent setup next to the spot I had been using the past two days. It was late, I was tired, I didn’t want to make too much noise to the unknown at the time new neighbor. However, when I woke up the next morning I took Mr Van out for a walk and noticed the the tent was gone. So Mr Van walk around the site when one of my other neighbors came up to ask about my neighbor to see if I had talked to them. I hadn’t.
Nicole ( above ) a French Canadian that live on an island ( Havre-aux-Maisons ) five hours away from Prince Edwards then tried to describe to me the person that was there. He description was priceless. She said in her best english, a young tough muscle man with tattoos on his face with a mohawk came around earlier to ask how safe this area was. Was is ok to camp. Do you think it’ll be ok to camp around here. Nicole thought it was interestingly funny that such a young tough looking guy would be so cautious about the area. Surely he could take care of himself. So, now I’m like who is this guy?
As the day went by I took a few hikes with Mr Van, ate some dinner, then hung out with some new neighbors when I noticed a man walking back towards the spot where there was a tent the previous night. I walked over, introduced myself. He said with a HUGE smile, “Hi my name is Kevin.” I kind of laughed and told him he’s not anything what I thought he was going to be. I imagined a 6’5″ body builder that was on the run from whoever. A loner that doesn’t want to be bothered by others. Uhm, nope.
We sat down at the picnic table where he explained to me that he is Lakota and is traveling around the country as an activist. He was at the North Dakota Pipe line protest where he was saying that the media, per usual was showing the 1% of the crazy going on there while the rest of the 99% was a peaceful protest. He also talked about his tattoo and how funny it was how Nicole was describing him. He told me that his tattoos are his passage to the afterlife when he meets the elder leaders. The tattoos are his honorary tattoos. We talked about medicine men, Catholicism, millennials, and how Indians talk. He explained to me how Indians can frustrated with with people while talking to them. Indians talk in a circle. They like to talk in a way where they are telling you story that starts form a beginning, has a meaning and then brings you back to the original discussion. Where they get frustrated is when we ask a questions in the middle of the story that takes the discussion in 10 different directions. He said that is why elder Indian tribesmen get frustrated and tend to stop talking or lose interest in white people’s interests.
We talked for a long time but I could tell Kevin wanted to get some rest. We finished up out talks, said goodbyes then he walked up into the hills where he setup camp to finally get much needed downtime.
