Carter Oosterhouse and I (2017)
2017
Carter Oosterhouse and I (2017)
Roughly five years ago, I wrote a letter to Carter’s Kids inquiring about building
playgrounds on the tribal reservations that desperately needed them.
Carter’s Kids is a non-profit started by Carter Oosterhouse that builds custom-built playgrounds throughout the United States. Within a week, they called me back, interested in helping my tribes design and build custom playgrounds, but I’d have to raise the money and have the communities build the playgrounds in three days.
The community involvement was the fun part, meeting and working with people who want more for their children, fills my soul. Raising the money was more difficult
than I thought, BUT I did it. In fact, I’ve built two, so far!
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Check out the video that we made in Crow!
Carter’s Kids--Crow Agency MT
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The Crow tribe, whom call themselves the Apsaalooke, are one of 12 Montana
tribe’s. They are located about an hour South of Billings. Their playground is
centrally located by the tribal building in downtown Crow Agency. Forty hard-
working Crow coal miners, volunteered their time to build the playground in
temperatures that surpassed 100 degrees.
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The Leech Lake Band of Chippewa tribe, are one of 11 Minnesota tribe’s, is located three hours North of Minneapolis, MN. Their playground is located by the
community center, beside the tribes solar energy farm in Cass Lake, MN. Local
community members and high school students volunteered their time to build the
playground.
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I’m currently working with more tribes to build more playgrounds for our tribal
kids, our future tribal leaders.