Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal
PORCUPINE, S.D. — Music and laughter filled the Pine Ridge Girl’s School over the week of July 10, as the sixth annual Rock the Rez summer camp allowed a dozen local youths to learn how to express themselves through music.
“Ring around the rosie, ring around the posie, stray kids out for breakfast, Red Bull every morning. Boxing in the bedroom, boxing in the basement, Stray Kids Eating Pancakes, Fry Bread in the evening,” sang Julie Martinez, 17 and Oglala Lakota, to the tune of “Ring around the Rosie” for their band “The Stray Breakfast Kids”.
Rock the Rez is an annual summer camp that allows Indigenous girls, two-spirits, nonbinary youth and transgender youth to learn to express themselves through music. Every day, the camp provides two different creative workshops, musical lessons, a performance from a local Indigenous band and two free meals. Rock the Rez is an adaptation of the Girls Rock programming that aims at empowering youth through music.
April Matson, citizen of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud) Nation and Tanana Athabascan, said that creating music and listening to music can be a daunting task, but it’s actually relatively simple.
“We’re teaching them, 2, 3 or 4 chords, what rhythm is, and they’re writing their own songs using those chords,” Matson said. “It’s simple and they’re accomplishing something on the first day. On the first day they all had a song written, they’re creating community within a community.”
During Rock the Rez, campers get to name their own bands and create their own songs.
“Music is really powerful, there are a lot of things you may want to say, but if you say them out loud it’s too scary or too intense or too silly, but when you put it into a song, then I think everyone can relate to it,” Matson said. “Everyone listens to music in their own way, but we’re all taking it in as something that’s personal to us, and even that brings us together.”
Martinez (who uses they/them pronouns) is the vocalist for the band, “The Stray Breakfast Kids,” which is one of four bands created over the four day summer camp. Martinez, along with several other campers, had never been part of a band before Rock the Rez, but had played the piano since their freshman year of high school. They decided to be a vocalist because one of the camp counselors recognized that they enjoyed singing and pursued them to be a vocalist.
“They saw my talent,” Martinez said.
Martinez said they decided to attend Rock the Rez this summer to have some fun before heading off to college this fall at Western Dakota Tech.
“Music makes me happy,” they said.
Another camper, Zola Davenport, 14 and a citizen of the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa, was staying in Pine Ridge when she heard about the camp. Davenport and two of her friends, Kai Cylee and Bella Killssmall, all decided to join the camp, looking for something to do.
Davenport decided to pick up a guitar and learn to play.
“I like doing hands-on-hands when you play the guitar,” Davenport said.
Davenport and her friends are music fans, the group said they like HipHop and KPop music the most.
Davenport and her friends said they’re anxious about the showcase on Friday. Davenport has never performed before. Martinez, on the other hand, is ready.
This year is the first year that Rock the Rez will expand to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and Matson hopes to expand to even more Native Nations in the future.
“One of our big goals for the last few years before the pandemic hit was to expand,” Matson said. “That’s [Rosebud] the tribe I’m enrolled in, so it was important for me to get representation there as well.”
The Rosebud camp will take place July 17 through 20 with a showcase on July 21.
Matson said there are always more camper spots available and more opportunities for volunteers. The camp is also seeking a therapist to help provide emotional support to campers or whatever they may need.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
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