Neighborhood Connections

By Mia Feroleto
I was born at Mary Fletcher Hospital in February of 1956. My father was a first year medical student at UVM and I am the only sibling of five children who was born in Vermont. Proudly, I am NOT a “flatlander.” Upon my father’s graduation, my family return to Connecticut and it was not until many years later that I returned to Vermont the year I turned 50.

Activism has always been a part of my path. While living in New York City, I became deeply concerned about the issue of homelessness and created two events. The first, “A Shelter From the Storm: Artists for the Homeless of NYC,” was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1987. Eight years later, I would create ARTWALK NY for Coalition for the Homeless which raised over 25 million dollars for the homeless of New York and went on to be copied around the country.

I was born with a heart murmur and in April of 2021 my condition worsened to the point where I needed open heart surgery. The surgery itself lasted for nine hours and six weeks later, I was driving out to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to work with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, my second family.

As some may know, the Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the poorest places in our hemisphere on an equal par with Haiti. The average person on Pine Ridge lives on less than $5,000 a year. My modest Social Security stipend looks like wealth compared to the challenges faced on the reservation. Drugs,

suicide, unemployment at more than 85%, are only a few of the extreme hardships faced daily by these extraordinary people.

Pine Ridge is home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, one band of the Lakota Nation. The Lakota are a proud people who live close to the earth and in communion with everything that walks, crawls or flies on the planet. One of their most commonly used phrases is “mitakuye oyasin,” which means, “to all my relations.” The people consistently give more than they receive and count their own value by how much they give away. It is an extraordinary experience to visit them on the Pine Ridge Reservation and see the precepts of real brotherhood at work in the world.

This past June, I planned to leave for my annual trip to South Dakota. When my car was taken into my local garage to be checked out for travel, I was told that the bottom was completely rusted out and that, in fact, it was dangerous for me to drive.

Since the end of December of last year, I have been spearheading the efforts to return to the Lakota people the artifacts and remains stolen from the dead killed at the Wounded Knee Massacre. For 130 years, they have been housed in a small museum in Massachusetts. For decades, the Oglala Sioux Tribe has come to Massachusetts, asking for their return, only to be rebuffed. Most likely, by the time this newsletter is published, the results of my efforts and the many people who have participated in this process will be known all around the world. And the news is good.

This is not the type of work one is paid to do and the emotional cost is significant in revisiting such horror and pain in the process of seeking justice and the return of sacred objects to the people who are their rightful owners.

Although I do not live in Londonderry, I was referred to Neighborhood Connections for assistance by my own town’s community support group. There, I met Lois, who provided me with the assistance and understanding I needed in my efforts to find an inexpensive vehicle that could transport me back and forth from Vermont to South Dakota. It took over three months to locate a suitable car that I could afford but through grants, gifts and a loan from Neighborhood Connections, I was able to secure safe transportation which will enable me to return to Pine Ridge in November. Words cannot describe my gratitude to Lois and Neighborhood Connections.

The work I have been doing impacts the lives of several tribes and thousands of people in the Dakotas directly and the lives of Indigenous People all over the world. We will all see the results of this effort in the next couple of years and I predict it will be significant.

A few words about Vermont…

It takes a good deal of fortitude to live in Vermont. The winters can be brutal and finding good employment can be challenging. The population is almost the same as it was the year I was born. Something else that remains the same is the steady response Vermonters exhibit to those in need. People come out of the woodwork in times of crisis to help their neighbor then quietly slip back into anonymity once they are no longer needed.

Vermonters have much to be thankful for during the holidays and all throughout the year. We live in extraordinary beauty in one of the cleanest and healthiest states in the country. That external beauty is reflected in the interior lives of Vermonters as well. Vermonters are “woke,” in the best meaning of the word.

We cannot forget, no matter how high the cost of gas or groceries, that there are people in our own country living without running water or heat. I know some of them personally. If someone reaches out to you asking for help, please ask yourselves “how can I help,” and not “if I can help.” The request alone is proof the need is there and money is not the only way to give. Perhaps you have a friend with deep pockets.

We are our brothers keepers…

Mitakuye Oyasin!

https://www.neighborhoodconnectionsvt.org/