Volunteers unclutter reservation

By Andrea J. Cook, Journal Staff Writer | Friday, September 29, 2006

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ALLEN — Bag by bag, a squad of volunteers steadily removes trash from a cluttered draw on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation north of Allen.

“This is something I know our people can do,” said Bobby Sullivan, the reservation’s solid and hazardous-waste coordinator. “It makes me feel wonderful.”

People have used the tree-lined draw as an unauthorized dumping site since at least 1973, according Sullivan.

Over the years, running water has washed trash down the draw and onto the banks of a small stock pond below the draw.

Clean-up efforts started more than a week ago at the site seven miles north of Allen. The project is manned completely by volunteers, Sullivan said.

The volunteer cleanup crew includes trustees and staff from the tribe’s Department of Public Safety, with help and equipment from other tribal agencies.

Sullivan and the Department of Public Safety are working together on the project, which gives prisoners something to do and a sense of pride, she said.

And by using donated labor, the work gets done faster than waiting for federal grants, Sullivan said.

Incarcerated trustees must earn the right to volunteer for a cleanup detail.

The trustees have impressed Sullivan with their enthusiasm for the project.

“It’s rewarding to see them care so much,” Sullivan said. “And it’s nice to know that the families around here appreciate it.”

Several people, including landowners and area business owners, are providing food for the workers.

Sullivan has asked people who can’t help financially to do what they can, even if it’s simply providing hot coffee and cookies for the inmates.

To someone serving time in jail, there’s nothing like a home-cooked meal, she said.

“It’s made the fellows feel good,” Sullivan said.

Large items such as washers, old beds and furniture were pulled out of the draw, and the cleanup requires a lot of hand work.

Trustees are bagging garbage and toting it out of the draw, Sullivan said. The work could continue into next week.

Metal items are sorted from household waste. The household garbage is taken to a tribal garbage-handling facility, where it is sorted and bailed for disposal.

Sullivan estimates that as many as 200 similar dumping sites are scattered throughout the reservation.

“They range in size from a minimal amount to very large areas that we’ve actually had to apply for grants to clean up,” Sullivan said.

The cleanup project has recovered a few keepsakes, Sullivan said. So far, the rewards have included a flawless hand-painted ceramic egg dated 1973, pieces of very old beaded buckskin moccasins and a can containing $8 and some change, which the lucky finder got to keep.

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Sullivan quipped.

Sullivan hopes to do similar cleanup projects in other areas on the reservation.

Anyone interested in helping with the cleanup can contact Sullivan at the tribe’s Office of Environmental Protection at 867-5236.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com