When it comes down to Kyle and other Oglala communities, spirituality, culture, and nature all go hand in hand. We believe we are from the earth so it is our job to protect it. Many people from the community traveled to North Dakota to protest the pipeline, and many respect the land for it’s natural resources such as sage, choke cherry trees, and tinpsilas which are used in ceremonial and spiritual acts or gatherings. Nature plays a big part in our spirituality, culture, and art as well, for example many native dancers make their ceremonial dresses and shawls from raw materials such as buckskin, and bead work made with porcupine quills, while drums are made with dried cow or buffalo hide, and drumsticks are also wrapped with rabbit and other various furs. The dancers move to the music and songs the drummers play at a place of ceremony called pow-wow’s, most towns in oglala county have pow-wow grounds which are easy to find because of the arbor that’s commonly placed in the middle. The arbor in Kyle has been in the same place since before I could remember, and it stands with a fresh coat of paint and trimmed grass. It is a place for spiritual and cultural recreation, where the whole community young and old can congregate and clear their minds of negative thoughts and stress. It is definitely a sense of place in that it reminds us that we are a spiritual people, and we are all connected, which is so important in todays culture not only because of high suicide rates and bullying which has affected the community and caused great sorrow for many families, but because it is our job as Oglala Lakota to look out for one another in our community, as out ancestors said, we are all related.
Kyle powwow ground 
Wamblee powwow
