Spirit Lake Indian Reservation tribal court officer Darla Thiele, and UND community researcher Jessica White Plume, Ph.D., M.P.H., work with horses and young people in an innovative alternative learning program.

Saddle leather and fresh hay smells filter through Ed Solwey’s barn on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation near Devils Lake. The horses sense something’s up—the kids just arrived. Soon they’ll all be working out in the neighboring barn.
 

Doesn’t sound anything like research, does it? But this charming rustic setting—and the reservation youngsters who’ve showed up to be with the horses—are part of a research project for Jessica White Plume, Ph.D., ’06, MPH, post-doctoral fellow at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research.

White Plume works with a tribal program—run by tribal court officer Darla Thiele—that refers minors into reservation-based equine-assisted learning program. Part of that program is on Solwey’s ranch.
 

“That means the kids work with horses,” White Plume explains. “This is a behavioral intervention that helps these young people learn about themselves in a very positive way. The horses they work with and care for help them learn all about accountability in a culturally appropriate way.”
 

White Plume, an enrolled member of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, says the program works because horses don’t lie. And because they are prey animals, they’re sensitive to people’s moods. So the young people working with them learn to understand themselves, to be accountable for their feelings and how they express them.”
 

Before climbing on their charges, the kids must learn about the animals—how to groom, feed, and handle them, and understand who each horse is, notes Solwey, a group facilitator of the program. 
 

“You can’t bring attitude in here,” Solwey says. “The kids soon learn self-understanding.”
 

For many, a trusting relationship with a horse may be one of the first good relationships that they experience, Thiele says.
 

“Horses respond best to calm leadership and clear communication, so participants develop these important life skills in an interesting real life setting,” notes White Plume.