New Perspectives

Climbing: It took some effort to hike up there…

Montana has provided us with a change in scenery. While Pittsburgh is pretty nice and fairly scenic this time of the year, nothing beats the rolling Montana hills with snow-covered mountains towering over the landscape in the distance. It all sounds pretty perfect and picture-esque, but there are a lot of hardships on the reservation. As another immersion participant, Abraham, questioned, "how can a place so beautiful have such poor living conditions?" I think that seeing this stark contrast to the way we live has given us all a better sense of perspective.

...But the view sure did pay off

While the living conditions are often difficult, the De La Salle Blackfeet school serves as somewhat of a silver lining on the reservation for children that might not otherwise have much opportunity in their future. Brother Ray, the DLSBS immersion coordinator, says that two graduates of the DLSBS have even gone on to attend Stanford. Just being here the past two days, I've witnessed the connection that the students have with each other and the self-sacrifice that all the teachers have for their students. It's really incredible the things that this school is able to provide for the Blackfeet children.

My partner Joe and I have been assigned to fourth grade, and while it was a little uncomfortable yesterday when we first got here, the students quickly got to know us, and they really enjoy having us here just as we enjoy spending time with them. I got to work one-on-one with a few different students yesterday, and later on we had a Q+A session in which the students asked us questions ranging from, "what's your heritage?" to "what's your favorite food?" The DLSBS has grades 4-8, and since we're the first immersion group here this school year, the fourth graders had never experienced having an immersion group in the school before and were especially curious.

Aside from spending time in the school, all of us in the immersion group have spent some time getting to know each other and talking about how this trip has affected each of us so far. We've also had a few opportunities to explore the land. On Sunday, we hiked up the steep hillside beneath some cliffs known as the "buffalo jump," because it was off those cliffs that the Blackfeet Indians herded buffalo. The view from the top was breathtaking, and although I got some good pictures, those certainly don't do the landscape justice. Last night, Brother Ray drove us out to the "edge of the middle of nowhere," a very remote area where we could see millions of stars.

Overall, our time here thus far has been good and very eye-opening. Throughout the rest of the week, I look forward to getting to know the fourth grade students better and continuing to gain new perspectives into their lives and my own.

Patrick Connolly '14

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