Lakota Exchanges, by Jacquelyn Whitworth

Jacquelyn Whitworth (seated at right in the photo below) is a participant in the UUSC Lakota JustWorks camp in South Dakota.

I wasn't sure what to expect coming to this camp, and I was a little nervous. I even had some second thoughts in the weeks leading up to it, but it has turned out to be a fun and eye-opening experience.

We've started making a video with some of the Lakota youth on the Rosebud Reservation in St. Francis, S.D. Spending time with these youth, working on this video and learning about media, has increased my realization of how Native Americans and others are represented in the media.

If anything, we tend to see images of traditionally dressed Native Americans that make them seem completely different from other cultures in the United States, which promotes the idea that they should remain isolated on a reservation, an hour and a half drive from anyone else (as we have found) with no need to form community with people from the other cultures, while we "honor" them in obscure ways.

Actually, the Lakota youth live a lot like the youth I've grown up with in Rockford, Ill., and many of the struggles they go through -- drugs, racism, school -- are the struggles that youth of all cultures deal with as well.

On the way here, a man told me that the Rosebud Reservation was "a dump, but one of the nicer reservations around." I wasn't sure what he meant by that but I didn't see a dump when we drove through Rosebud to the youth center where we're staying. The reservation is different -- less developed I guess: there isn't a gas station on every corner, and instead of having five Wal-Marts in town, there's a Paul-Mart a few minutes drive from the youth center. There's also a nice corner store about a block from here. I think the poverty rate is high here, but for the most part there's no more development than is necessary -- a fact that could lead the average American to call a place a "dump."

So far, we've done a lot of driving (like I said, Rosebud is about an hour and a half away from everything else). But I've enjoyed the ride for the most part. The landscape is interesting, especially compared to the flat Illinois land I'm used to.

Here at the youth center, we've worked with Susan and Dan of Youth Voice Collaborative and the youth who live here to make self-portraits. On the first night, we discussed basic media principles, the main one I think being that the person behind the camera always decides what the viewer sees, which is important to remember both when creating and consuming media.

Also, when in front of the camera, it's difficult to not censor thought and actions, which a lot of us have found during self-portraits and interviews. We had fun in front of the camera yesterday too, though, when we had a spontaneous dance and soul train. It was fun, although it's kind of embarrassing to watch on video. I don't care too much though.