35 years ago I sat across the table from a kindly, soft-spoken woman on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation as she told my students about how when she had been in boarding school the children had been forced to stand in a row while a dentist walked down, made them each open their mouths, and pulled out diseased teeth with a pliers without the use of any novocaine or pain killers.
Last week, 35 years later, I sat in a folding chair on the Standing Rock Lakota reservation serving as a scribe for volunteer dentists and dental assistants from Smile Network International as they applied sealants and temporary fillings to the teeth of 270 children who for lack of funding and availability of dental services on the reservation have lived without basic dental care for most of their lives.
It was full circle for me and it warmed my heart. But for the people on the reservation, as on all reservations, it was just a drop of assistance in a sea of need.
The decay, the abscesses, the shy soft-spoken words of sweet kindergartners and elementary schoolers as they covered their mouths and whispered, almost as if ashamed, “Yes, it hurts all the time.” and “Sometimes I can’t sleep it hurts so bad” — these haunt me as I write.
These are our children. These are America’s children. These are the same hopeful eyes and innocent hearts as my children and yours. But they are ignored. Just up the road and across these hills people came in the thousands from across the country to protest the Dakota Access pipeline. And rightly so. But just a few miles away these children sat, unnoticed, and in pain so constant and familiar that they didn’t even give it a name. It was just the way they thought life was meant to be.
I’m happy to be here. Not just because I am happy to be doing some immediate good where the need is so great. But because I love it here. I love it on Red Lake. I love it in Pine Ridge. I love it in the towns and lonely backroads of the reservations all across America.
This is why I do what I do. These places fill me with peace and satisfaction I feel nowhere else.
People ask me, “Why aren’t you teaching in a university?” “Why don’t you promote yourself and your books more?” “Why don’t you hang out with the literary community?”
Because that is not who I am.
This is who I am.
I hope I have been able to bring these people and places alive for you in my books. I hope I have been able to help you love them as much as I love them.
It has been a long journey from the kind woman sharing her story of the boarding school dentist to this place where a frightened child feels a moment of relief from a pain so constant that she doesn’t even know it as pain.
We all do what we can. You, me, each of us. I write books, and that’s important. But no more important than the work of the kind dental hygienist from the suburbs of Minneapolis as she holds the hand of a frightened little six year old girl here in the high plains of the Dakotas and gently swabs medicine on an aching tooth so that maybe, just maybe, this little girl can fall asleep deeply enough tonight that her world can, at least for a moment, be filled with peace and dreams.
I GOT LONE DOG YESTERDAY!!!! I am BEYOND excited!!!! Thank you!!! Bonnie Rose
Love your books and your good, good heart.
Kent, I deeply appreciate your books…especially the Neither Wolf Nor Dog series. I, too, though a white woman, have felt such a deep resonance with the worldview and spirituality of Indigenous people. When I’ve been in the Black Hills, I feel that peace you speak of here. I have been involved with facilitating and teaching Restorative Justice philosophy to educators for many years. I am humbled and so grateful for the wisdom Indigenous People are sharing with the world despite the incredible harm and suffering they have experienced because of white people. I thank you for the way you have been a bridge with your stories.
A heartfelt and much needed post. I admire your restraint in not bringing the current political catastrophes into your letter. You could easily have done so; however, perhaps the better road is to get out there and do something, as you are – not just the support of healthcare, but also the inspiration and wisdom you gift us in your writing. / After a much-needed deluge of rain is over for the moment up here in NW Minnesota, and Beltrami Island Forest is glowing green. / Be well. Be at peace – CatherineS // P.S. Steve R and I continue to write in our own ways, doing our best to contribute to the heritage of authors.
I’ve been reading,”The Artist’s Journey: On Making Art & Being an Artist,” and I want you to know you have not betrayed my identification of you serving the people there as you are. I recognize you as the flesh of your words: “You have walked through the door of my heart,” and in doing so proved you are who I think you to be.
I loved this piece. May we all find ways to meaningfully contribute to these underserved communities. I worked for Indian Health service 1 day a week as a physical therapist for many years. The native community taught me way more than I taught them.
I live in Mesa, Arizona and I am going to find out how to volunteer on a reservation here in Arizona.
I finished my reading and review of The Lone Dog yesterday. It was a book I have long waited to read.
To me the story was like a gift wrapping for a ‘narrative’ that took all your experiences and thoughts and gave them ‘voices’ and characters that needed to be told by you for all your years of learning what many needed to hear.
Well done
Doug
Kent, you said, “I hope I have been able to bring these people and places alive for you in my books. I hope I have been able to help you love them as much as I love them.” You have! And through your stories we have learned to love you as well. Many thanks.
When I was a child in Pennsylvania, I was on welfare. I remember my mother and I walking downtown to the dentist office and he pulled my tooth without any pain killer at all. I screamed and cried, and he yelled at me. It was a horrible experience and then we had to walk back home. It was many years later until a very kind dentist helped me out even though I had a medical assistance card. Prejudice is everywhere and unkindness is everywhere. I am glad the children are getting dental care. It is so important. Bad teeth killed my mother causing her a blood infection. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness.
Well put and very insightful, Doug. Sometimes it takes an outside eye to show you what you have done. You’ve done that for me. Thanks so much, Doug.
Your latest book arrived a couple of days ago. Congratulations to all who were part of the process to see this book in my possession. Thanks Kent & Crew!
It has been a long and twisted road, but I think it has been worth it. I hope you agree. Please write a review on Amazon (you can do so on the 2oth) and Goodreads (you can post one there now). I’m really excited about this book and am so appreciative of those of you who have stayed with me during the process.