Date night opportunites

TGIF!! =) That means tomorrow is date night. The daycare that my youngest son goes to does "parent's night out" on the last Saturday of every month. This is the first time we're going to do it because by the time the weekend comes, we are so exhausted from work and school. The weekends usually end up being devoted to family time, lounging around the house, the beach, or sleeping. So when we do have opportunities to go out, we try to make the most of them.

We still have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow night, but thinking about it made me think of two other things: where young couples on the reservation might go for date nights and a discussion, which was mentioned at the NALS conference. (A few people from the conference and I talked about how the reservation land was divided up among the different tribes and if some tribes just got completely cheated out of that deal.)

In my profile information, I mention that I love watching documentaries. My favorite series of documentaries include; True Life on MTV and Our America with Lisa Ling on OWN. On one episode of Our America, Lisa Ling visits the Pine Ridge reservation. Pine Ridge is the reservation I happen to be affiliated with and after watching that documentary, I wondered what date night opportunities exist there. Ofcourse there's always the movies. The first movie theater on Pine Ridge opened up late, last year, November 9, 2012. Aside from the movies though, there are no bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, miniature golf courses, or laser tag places. So how does date night happen? According to the documentaries, many turn to drugs or alcohol, and tout the lack of resources as a reason. But when there are no places to go, sometimes the best date nights can come to life with natural surroundings. Bonfires, star gazing, long walks, and camping are all options. One of my favorite, romantic movie scenes is from the 80's movie "Space Camp." The two main characters are sitting on the back of a truck looking at the stars and talking about their future as astronauts. Why wouldn't the young people take advantage of these options? Could bitterness be the reason?

This brings me to the second thought; Were some tribes cheated out of the reservation land arrangements? Our conference for example, was held at a casino on a reservation, where the tribe was able to bring in a lot of money. It was nothing like the reservations constantly shown on documentaries. Business seemed to be booming and the houses were beautiful. All I could think was, "How come Pine Ridge didn't get this kind of opportunity?" It was nice to see the other side of Native Americans, the ones who are doing really well, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Shouldn't they have some sense of obligation to give back to the other Natives? This awareness of my disappointment made me feel like I also have some sort of obligation to give back. I don't have the money that the casino does, but maybe this particular blog post will make people realize how lucky they actually are and they'll stop for a moment to think about others, even when it's on their date night.