Couple partners with PC(USA) and others to help the Pine Ridge Reservation
December 16, 2022
Elders from the Native American community get interviewed by young people who visited during a mission trip. Reservation Outreach and Southminster Presbyterian Church in Wisconsin brought people together for the trip, which included distribution of donated items, including quilts, food and supplies. (Photo courtesy of Gloria Klomsten)
For the greater part of a decade, Gloria Klomsten has been traveling to the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota to spread love to Native American communities while working hand-in-hand with mission partners, such as Southminster Presbyterian Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Klomsten and her husband, Steve, travel to Pine Ridge with fellow volunteers to distribute food and supplies, deliver quilts, serve meals and even assist with some building upkeep as part of an organization they call Reservation Outreach.
“It’s been a godsend,” Klomsten said. “I’ve learned probably more, and my faith gets stronger, from going out there than anyone can even imagine.”
Klomsten developed a soft spot for Pine Ridge, home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, several years ago when she went there to assist with a holiday party and noticed that living conditions were tough due to poverty and that some kids lacked cold weather gear.
Donated items were distributed at the Pine Ridge Reservation. (Photo courtesy of Gloria Klomsten)
From childhood experience, “I can empathize with them,” she said. “For us, it’s mostly about the kids and the elders — giving them some hope and (showing) that people are out there that care, and that God is watching over them.”
Southminster, where Klomsten attended church before moving to Arkansas, serves as a base for collecting donated items to take to Pine Ridge. Klomsten also does some packing out of her garage, with help from others.
“I just can’t emphasize enough that any project we do is a ‘we’ project,” Klomsten said, stressing the importance of teamwork and collaboration. “Even the people that don’t give material things, they pray for us. The prayers and the moral support — to me that’s just as important, if not even more important, than any monetary or material donations that we get.”
Brian Falk, a member of Southminster who collaborates with Klomsten, remembers well a trip they took to Pine Ridge in the summer with a core group of about 15 people.
“It was a Monday,” he said. “We had a caravan of four vehicles,” and “we had a big, huge 20-foot U-Haul truck full of donations, including backpacks.”
Future trips to the Pine Ridge Reservation are being drawn up. (Photo courtesy of Gloria Klomsten)
Items come in from various sources, including Southminster’s congregation and Klomsten’s network, Falk said. The Presbyterian Mission Agency recently awarded a grant from the Native American Leadership Development Fund to help with supplies.
The Rev. Irvin Porter, Associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support in the PMA, has interacted with many of the Native American Leadership Development Fund grant applicants, including Klomsten, while they were going over budgets and finalizing paperwork.
“The best part of my job is being able to say we’re able to fund this grant for you,” said Porter, whose office is part of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries at PMA. “That’s extremely rewarding.”
When it comes to Pine Ridge, the Klomstens’ “heart is there,” Porter said. “They’ve got people who travel all the way over there” to volunteer.
The most recent effort, involving the Klomstens and Southminster, included helping to fix up a multipurpose building of the Makasan Presbyterian Church in Oglala, South Dakota, and distributing supplies to help people in that area as well as in other communities, such as Red Shirt, which is in the northern part of Pine Ridge.
To spruce up the multipurpose building, “my husband and I and two other people went out in June and started” replacing lights and fixing parts of the ceiling that were coming down and doing some painting, Klomsten said.
The building is used for community events, such as birthday parties, funerals and other gatherings, and “their goal is to use it for homeless and for after-school programs for kids, so that was the other reason why we decided to get involved and help them fix it up and kind of keep it in a good state,” Klomsten said.
Food bags were distributed at Makasan and in Red Shirt, Klomsten said. Also, “we purchased shelving and food for a Red Shirt food bank.”
The families that received supplies were “very grateful,” said Caroline Two Bulls, an elder in Red Shirt who serves as a community health representative. “Every little bit helps.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency
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PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
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Let us pray
Compassionate God, help us to shine your light through the darkness of despair and suffering. Open our eyes and our hearts so that we might see and respond to those who are in need. Amen.
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