Restoring the Buffalo, Feeding the Hungry, and Empowering the Lakota

Opportunity, dignity, financial security, job security, and hope. Well-paying and meaningful jobs create economic opportunity and break the cycle of poverty on Pine Ridge Reservation. For years, the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation and One Spirit have been working on the Charging Buffalo Meat Processing Facility, a beacon of hope in a food desert and a community that needs employment opportunities.

Charles Bamm Brewer, a.k.a. Captain Oglala Nation, and his staff are starting the final phase of construction on the meat house. When all is said and done, the completion will allow the meat house not only to process the meat brought in but also to package and sell it, pending government approval. Self-sufficiency is the goal for Bamm and the staff (as well as One Spirit), which would mean steady work for dozens of community members, not to mention better access to healthy food. The staff working on the construction may be building just a structure for processing meat to some; but, for others, they are building the foundations of hope.

Bamm empathetically advocates for second chances, and he has enlisted the help of one society's most forgotten demographics. The fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters incarcerated in the local prison have been lending a hand in the meat house through the work release program.

A lot of these inmates have suffered due to inadequate housing, food, medical and child care, education, and, of course employment opportunities. In many cases, these factored into the paths their lives took that led to their incarceration. Gainful employment not only changes the lives of those workers, it gives them a sense of purpose as they improve their community for future generations as well. The men and women who participated in the work release program pushed to better themselves and even learned how to process meat. When construction is finished, and they are no longer in prison, Bamm wants to hire those who showed great aptitude.

For more than a century, the Lakota have been determined to survive on the Pine Ridge Reservation despite the many systems working against them and the loss of their sacred buffalo. The Charging Buffalo Meat Processing Facility brought buffalo harvesting back to the reservation. It represents a second chance for all of the Lakota people, not just those in the work release program. With the return of the buffalo and the final phase of construction, the meat house has become a symbol—a symbol of hope, self-sufficiency, and pride. If you'd like to be part of this second chance and this return, please consider making a donation to One Spirit today.