Sioux elder, prisoner, earns G.E.D., named 'Student of the Year'

Graduation Speech of Gary Crowe-Student of the Year

Elder and Member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe

Fort Thompson, South Dakota



Current Resident-Federal Medical Prison Camp

Butner, North Carolina

Prison Reg. No. 11659-073



Good Day My Relatives:


I would like to start by gratefully acknowledging Ms. Cook-Chavis for encouraging me to take one more test to complete my G.E.D.  Also, I would like to thank her for selecting me as G.E.D. Student of the Year.  At first, I was reluctant to accept this honor.  However, after going back to my housing unit, I thought and prayed about it and realized that it was an honor for me as well as an opportunity for me to pass on to the youth of my tribe the important information that I will be talking about today.  With the honor of being named the Student of the Year comes with it the responsibility of making this graduation speech.  Thank you again, Ms. Chavis, for both opportunities.



I am a member of the Great Sioux Nation, which is made up of seven tribes who live along the banks of the Missouri River in central South Dakota.  I am 71-years old, and Elder of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe.  The Tribe’s name was taken from my great-great grandfather, Alfred Crow.  One of the greatest honors and responsibilities of a Sioux Elder in our culture is the passing-on of our wisdom to our children and encouraging our youth to be the very best they can be.  As a Sioux Elder, I now know how very important it is to get a high school diploma and/or a G.E.D. diploma.



Like so many other elderly members of the Great Sioux Nation, I am an example of the generation that quit school in order to support my family.  Thousands of other members of the various tribes did the same thing.  It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s an eighth grade education was sufficient, as long as you could read and write.  Later in the 1950’s and 1960’s it became painfully obvious that a high school diploma was required to get and hold a decent job.  With this necessary increase in educational requirements, the G.E.D. program was instigated to help us all catch up on the necessary understanding to continue to support our families.

Now, with the way science and information technology has affected our lives, it is not unrealistic to grasp the idea that in the years ahead a member of my tribe will need anywhere from two to four years of post- high school (college or technical college) education just to earn what I earned without a high school education in the 1940’s and 1950’s.  As your tribal Elder, hear the words from my lips.  Do not expect to earn a decent living for your current or future family without a high school diploma and at least two years of post-high school education.  There simply will be no future for you without this very valuable attainment.



As your tribal elder also hear this and please, please learn from what I am about to say to you.  There is no future for you in either using and especially abusing alcohol and/or drugs in your life.  I was finally able to break the cycle of alcohol abuse in my life in the early 1990’s.  It was not only a struggle of monumental proportion, the alcohol abuse cost me thousands of dollars and several wonderful relationships before I realized that it had to stop.  Within a few years thereafter I started to use and abuse marijuana. By the mid-2000’s I was selling small amounts of marijuana which resulted in a federal conviction for selling this substance.  For some reason it almost seemed as though I had the right to use and sell marijuana.  I didn’t.  This type of thinking was a terrible mistake and a personal weakness.



By 2008 I had been caught a second time selling marijuana (two (2) ounces of marijuana and a second conviction) and I was sentenced to five-years in a Federal Penal Institution.  I am sorry for my past.  However, as your Elder, I must try and guide you past the failings of my life.  Stay in school.  Get both a high school diploma and some form of higher degree from either a college or technical college. Please, please, please, stay away from both alcohol and drugs.  Both of these substances will lead you to more pain than you should have to bear.



So I say to you, as an Elder, I am getting my G.E.D. today to help set a positive example for other member of my tribe.  As your Elder, a job which will continue until the last day of my life, I beg you to do better than I did.  Stay in school.  Stay away from alcohol and drugs.  Finally, I pray that you will know that the kingdom of your God is within yourself and all around you.  You have the right to be happy, healthy, and successful in your life.  Make it happen for yourself.



Thank you.

Garry Crowe, Elder, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe