Br. Simon begins an ordinary workday walking down an ordinary corridor where he turns the knob to an ordinary door. On the other side, bright track lighting illuminates a breathtaking display of paintings, clothing, craft work, star quilts, and other artifacts that is anything but ordinary. Collectively they reflect more than 150 years of Lakota life and tradition in a setting that is part museum, part art gallery, and part beacon of hope.

Br. Simon takes care of administrative tasks for the Center.

All are on display in The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. A sprawling exhibit area, archives, and gift shop comprise the center. Among the first visitors this day is a woman in her early 20s who decides to do a little Christmas shopping in the gift shop. “Hopefully the money goes back to the community,” she says. “It does,” Br. Simon assures her.“Most of it goes directly to the artist.”

Br. Simon possesses encyclopedic knowledge of everything on display or archived in back rooms. Several items catch the woman’s attention from among a selection of books, jewelry, beaded items, and hand-painted parfleche, a craft that uses treated rawhide to make leather boxes and other rigid packs and containers.

“This was used as sort of a suitcase. They’d store food and clothing in it,” Br Simon explains, removing a flat piece with tied flaps. Historically the colorful surface owed its bright design to berry juices and minerals. Current craftspeople use acrylic paints and permanent color markers. “We’ve joined the 20th century,” Br. Simon deadpans, quickly correcting his statement to include the early years of the new millennium.

He removes a fan made of eagle feathers from the showcase. Alvin Pipe on Head, the center’s associate director, created the fan and decorated the handle with an intricately beaded design.

“There are fewer than 10 people on the Pine Ridge Reservation now who do this kind of beadwork,” Br. Simon informs another visitor, one of about 12,000 people who will pass through the center from May through November. Also on display in the gift shop is a variety of colorful sweatshirts and T-shirts promoting the annual Red Cloud Indian Art Show, which originated in 1969 and is where The Heritage Center has its roots.

Every year Indian artists from throughout the continent are invited to enter paintings, graphics, sculptures, and other works in the show, which runs from mid June to mid August. Admission is free and all the show artwork is for sale, providing an excellent market for Native American artists.With assistance from several generous benefactors, The Heritage Center is able to purchase some of the prize-winning works and add them to its permanent collection.

Located in the historic old mission building constructed by Jesuit priests, brothers, and local Lakota craftsmen in 1888, the center found a home in 1982 in what had been an old kitchen, dining room, and one-time infirmary. The space became available when new school facilities were built. A fire destroyed the adjoining church in 1996. “This place was so full of smoke that we had to tear out the carpet and take the fabric off the walls and ceilings.We decided to completely renovate and do it nicely while we had the chance,” says Br. Simon.

The center includes a replica of a 1940s classroom and a wide range of artifacts, among them the rifle belonging to Chief Red Cloud – the great Oglala leader and statesman – leader shirts, cradle boards, and other historically significant items.

True to its name, the center’s collection and its artistic and literary archives exude a sense of heritage, and that, says Fr. Peter Klink, SJ, Red Cloud Indian School president, is as important to assuring the future of the Lakota people as it is to preserving the past.

Br. Simon and a piece of art from the Center.

“The historical is determinative of so much for Native Americans. There is so much pain associated with that history. So much life-altering experience that is a part of it that I don’t think any Native American can live today without an abiding awareness of how the past 150 years shaped their life and continues to have effects,” says Fr. Klink. “What they live today is, to a great extent, a product of the Indian wars, the frontier, the genocide that was a part of all that.”

History and preservation become entwined in a way that creates self-confidence, cultural pride, and a catalyst for hope.

“A student might come to the center and see a heritage worth preserving and building upon. It is an opportunity for them to realize that not only are their talents beautiful, but the talents of the Lakota who have gone before them are beautiful in the product of the works that you see at The Heritage Center. They all can’t be artists, but the more lasting impact is that the things they see tell them ‘some of my ancestors have been great artists. They dreamed a dream and were successful. I too have a dream. It may not be art, but I too can do beautiful things with my gifts.’ And I think that is the more lasting effect of the center.”

As for Br. Simon, he tirelessly continues to work on the art show, improve the quality of the center’s collection and displays, and do his part to create a link between a proud past and a bright future. It is a future, he predicts, that will “be bigger and better than ever” for the center and the people whose heritage makes it possible.