Canku Ota - May 22, 2004 - Pine Ridge Woman Beat the Odds to Earn Degree

Rae Ann Red Owl is the first Lakota to graduate from the nursing program at UND. She is also the first woman from the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota to complete her master's degree in nursing.

When I was told about this extraordinary woman, I was expecting someone strong and bold. What I found was an unassuming, pretty and petite woman who wore her waist-length, coal-black hair tied back with a simple tie.

As we sat in her small apartment in student housing to talk about her journey, I walked with her on that long road from the South Dakota reservation to Grand Forks. From our conversation, I don't think she realizes how special her achievements are. I could see she is grounded in her culture and family, and that family especially is one of her strengths. Home still is Pine Ridge, and she plans to return.

As a teen, she had problems with alcohol and drugs. One hundred percent of her family has been affected by alcohol, and 95 percent of the deaths in the family have been alcohol-related - accidents, cirrhosis or suicide, Rae Ann told me.

But she remembers exactly when she knew she would go to college. When she was in the fifth grade, she overslept and missed the bus. She woke up her grandfather, Kenneth Red Owl, who was a paraplegic, to drive her to school. She could tell he was disappointed with her by his serious tone. Education is the most important thing in life, her grandfather told her. That statement stayed with her ever since.

Another influence was seeing a relative who was quadriplegic get put in a nursing home because there was no place for him on the reservation. He was too young to be in a nursing home, she thought.

Her first choice was to be a physical therapist so she could help people like her relative, but physical therapy schools were hard to find. Then UND popped up as a place with that field.

"My mother gave me her only car," she said. It was in poor condition; the car had to be babied, cajoled and prodded. Repairs would cost $200, which Rae Ann couldn't afford. So without the repairs, she set off driving at about 30 mph down the interstate. The car smoked and complained all the way. She had her 3½- and 1-year-old daughters with her and a niece as babysitter.

She hadn't even heard of Grand Forks before she started her search for a college and certainly never had been here.

When she pulled into Grand Forks, she had a smoking car with a spare tire tied to the roof and commodities - U.S. Department of Agriculture canned food - in the trunk. That night, the car blew up and died. Rae Ann had little money and was thankful that UND's Indians into Medicine or INMED people helped her get settled.

"I didn't know if I belonged in INMED," she said. She could hear the medical students talking about complicated math problems and felt intimidated.

It was a culture shock. She was used to being on the reservation and was very homesick. She knew her family didn't have the money to visit her, and she didn't have the money to go home. With a laugh, Rae Ann said when she got her first Indian Health Service stipend, she paid her fees and bills and had $20 left over and thought that was great.

She graduated from UND in 1989 and, as promised, returned home to work in the Indian Health Service or IHS hospital. It was an eye-opening experience. IHS is a government system and a place where it's hard to make changes.

After 12 years, she realized she needed more education. She needed to leave before she got that "beaten-down" feeling like so many she knew.

She returned to UND in 2002 for her master's degree. With that diploma on the wall, she'll be moving to Albuquerque, N.M., to pursue a law degree. There are things that need to be changed in the reservation and Indian Health Service systems, and one way to do that is with a law degree, she said.

Statistics say Pine Ridge is the poorest reservation in the nation. The media's only news about Pine Ridge describes the alcoholism and poverty. But quietly, Red Owl is reshaping that image. She is emerging as someone to watch - someone who will change Pine Ridge reservation.