EAGLE BUTTE, SD (January 8, 2008) - The Cheyenne River Youth Project® in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, is one big step closer to serving gourmet espresso and cappuccino in its Cokata Wiconi Internet Café, thanks to well-known Sicangu Lakota artist Lynn Burnette Sr. and his partner, Lorie Sturmer. Burnette and Sturmer, who ran a coffee shop for six years near their home in Loveland, Colorado, recently donated two professional espresso machines, valued at $4,000, and all the necessary accessories.
"One was smaller, what we call a 'pour over,' which we didn't use but once a year," Burnette said. "So we thought it would make a good addition to the Internet Café. The person responsible is Lorie; the small machine belonged to her.”
"The large machine was donated by Stephanie and Mark Stauder at the Anthology Book Co.," he continued. "We sold it to the book store. They made a few changes and didn't need it anymore, so we asked if they would be interested in donating the machine. They said they would, since it sounded like a very good program."
CRYP is planning to operate the Internet Café as part of its Social Enterprises Initiative. This initiative also includes a large gift shop, across the lobby from the Internet Café in the youth project's Cokata Wiconi Teen Center.
"Any revenue generated by the café and the gift shop will go right back into CRYP programs, and the two businesses also will offer employment opportunities for our youth," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "With Lynn and Lorie's help, we're much closer to making our vision a reality in the Internet Café."
Burnette and his son, Lynn Burnette Jr., also provided training on the small espresso machine so each member of the CRYP staff would be able to make espresso-based coffee drinks.
"We wanted the machines to go to the youth project because Julie Garreau has constructed the best program for the community of Eagle Butte, South Dakota," Burnette explained. "This is a program that other communities can use as an example and implement its usefulness for themselves. In short, it's the best program to ever come down the pike."
A year ago, Burnette made another significant donation to CRYP's Social Enterprises Initiative. After listening to Billy Mills, Oglala Sioux Olympic champion and spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth®, speak about the virtues of the Lakota people at the Cokata Wiconi dedication ceremony in August 2006, he created a special tea painting for the youth project - and gave CRYP the copyright for the work so it could sell prints in its Cokata Wiconi gift shop.
This painting, titled "The Four Horsemen of the Lakota," depicts the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, dressed in traditional Lakota regalia and riding in tight formation on colorful horses. Yet the horsemen are not harbingers of war, famine, death and pestilence. Burnette said they represent the Lakota virtues of Spirituality, Integrity, Courage and Wisdom, "riding hard and fast as victors in the battle between complacency and achievement." The horsemen have come from the four directions to centralize their power, according to Burnette, and the four horses represent the colors of the four directions.
While today's challenges for young people - and for their communities - are present and real, Burnette said he believes that a person can choose to face them with courage and integrity rather than with fear and disillusionment. He commented that this makes him consider the Lakota way of life before the colonial period, one that embraced new challenges with bravery. Lakota men and women did not balk in the face of danger; rather, they drew on the strengths of the community and on spirituality to overcome that which can be overcome and to accept that which cannot. For him, this important lesson from Lakota cultural heritage must be passed on to future generations.
"I've been a starving artist for more years then I care to mention, but art has been good to me," Burnette said. "The paintings I do are, more or less, a way for me to teach history to the people who have grown up reading history from a book that never told the truth. I don't want anyone to forget the reasons that we're existing in the areas the United States has so generously 'given' to us and how the U.S. obtained the land it calls 'America the Beautiful.'"
Burnette was born north of Mission, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and he raised his family on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Although he sketched whenever he had time, his adult life was devoted to ranching and working as a rodeo cowboy; his artistic calling came much later.
Burnette said he is inspired by stories and history passed down to him from his grandfather, and his artwork is fueled by his passion for creativity and self-expression. He works in a variety of media, from watercolors, oils and acrylics on canvas to bronze sculptures. Most unique, however, are his tea paintings - as the paper soaks up the tea, it leaves distinct markings that help the artist realize his complete vision for the artwork.
"The Four Horsemen of the Lakota" by Lynn Burnette Sr. can be viewed on the CRYP Web site at www.lakotayouth.org, and the prints are available for purchase in the CRYP gift shop at Cokata Wiconi. Each 12" x 12" print costs $35, while 14" x 14" prints are $50 apiece.
Additional original work by Lynn Burnette Sr., including works for sale, can be found at: www.spiritriderart.com
