evangelization
Evangelization through
friendship and service C
ould you live on a salary of $2,600 to$4,000, or even $8,700, annually?
The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,
created by the 1889 Act which officially opened the Unassigned Lands to white settlers under tenets of the Homestead Act, is the eighth-largest U.S. reservation and one of the poorest. The Black Hills location encompasses more than 5,000 square miles where about 20,000 Oglala Lakota Sioux subsist in generational poverty.
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Catholic Key • February/March 2022 • catholickey.org
By Marty Denzer Photos courtesy of Jim Grechus
For years, parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in St. Joseph worked to alleviate what they could of the poverty and hopelessness inherent in the reservation. Jim Grechus, one of the parishioners, took a class in travel studies through Missouri Western University, learning “about our heritage through the stories of Native Americans.” About 25 years ago, several other parishioners became interested in Pine Ridge Reservation and its people, wanting to reach out to befriend, help and comfort as Our Lady of Guadalupe would. They formed a Faith in Action ministry team facilitated by parish Pastoral Associate Kathy Powers and Grechus. The team began collecting food, necessities like bedding and coats and monetary contributions for utility assistance. Several times a year, they would load large U-Haul trucks
