When Rochelle Ripley was a child, she was the victim of a violent crime. Following this event, Ripley stopped speaking. During this time, she went to visit her grandmother, a Native American. “My grandmother performed a healing ceremony for me,” recalls Ripley. “We then spent the rest of the day together. She talked to me a lot about our culture.”
Ripley was born one-quarter Lakota. She is half New York Jewish. On this day with her grandmother, Ripley made a promise. “My grandmother made me promise to go home when I grew up. She asked me to help our people. I promised I would.” At that time she didn’t realize the impact of this promise on her life and the lives of many others.
A forgotten promise revisited
The promise that Ripley made to her grandmother was forgotten until 45 years later when she became a grandmother. “When my daughter told me that I was going to be a grandmother, I remembered the promise I had made to my grandmother,” says Ripley. “I knew it was time for me to do something.”
Ripley took a trip to Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. “I knew the situation was bad,” she recalls. “I was shocked to find that it was worse than I could have imagined.” She was then inspired to start hawkwing.
Bringing hope to the Native American community
Poverty, alcoholism, and diabetes are a normal part of life for the members of the Lakota tribe living on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Ripley is working to end this cycle through hawkwing, her non-profit.
Ripley began by providing children on the reservation with a holiday gift box. Approximately 2,600 children received the gift box from hawkwing that included personal care products, books, new clothes, toys and school supplies. “We used the gift boxes to the children as a way to build and establish a relationship with the community,” says Ripley. “We still provide these gift boxes during the holidays.”
The non-profit has since added various other services including dental and medical clinics, youth activities and construction work. The non-profit’s mission is to provide solutions for housing, education, job skill creation, employment and health within the community. Over 16 years of operation, hawkwing has delivered over $9 million worth of goods and services to the people of the Lakota community.
“We work in close collaboration with the communities we go to,” says Ripley. “I do this in order to honor my grandmother and our people. We’re all the earth’s children. We should work together to ensure that all people have a chance at a decent life.”
