Brown prairie grass hid headstones and decaying wooden crosses with chipped white paint that bore scrawled names of those long gone. A tree branch held a tattered American flag, an improvised staff, the only thing that rose high enough to distinguish the area from any other.
A prairie rattlesnake was a more likely visitor to this sacred land than a mourning family member.
That day in July 2007 wasn’t the first time Larry Cortez had seen the rundown graveyard on the Crow Creek Reservation in western South Dakota.
He had been restoring bits and pieces for most of his life, having visited the cemetery nearly every Easter since he was in diapers.
When he was a boy, his family would do small things to maintain the grave sites, and in 2007, Cortez joined a group that spent time setting, gluing and cleaning the cemetery’s monuments, work that sometimes included moving 400-pound bricks.
But that fall, when Cortez enrolled in Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical’s welding program, he discovered an opportunity to do much more.
Larry Cortez and classmate do some welding
In the welding program, each student must complete a series of metal projects. While most students weld projects for personal use, the 34-year-old Cortez, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, saw the projects in a different light.
“I decided it’d be a good idea to take advantage of it and do something for the people who can’t,” he said.
So Cortez chose his project: Welding new crosses for the cemetery.
Crosses that wouldn’t rot, wouldn’t decay, wouldn’t burn in the grass fires routinely used to clear the cemetery grounds.
Since beginning work last fall, Cortez has completed 20 crosses. He hopes to replace as many cemetery markers as he can with one of his crosses in the time he has left at Southeast Tech.
Cortez isn’t marketing his talent on the side — his is an entirely charitable venture.
”I‘m not trying to get something out of it,” he said. “It just gives you a good feeling to help your community.”
His road to Southeast Tech was at times unpredictable. It initially led Cortez, originally from the Rapid City, S.D., area, to work as a cook in hotels and restaurants from New Mexico to Canada.
Cortez, a longtime fan of metal-fabrication shows on television, returned home last July after hearing about Southeast Tech’s welding program from a friend.
He expects to graduate from Southeast Tech next semester. In the meantime, he plans to complete more grave markers over the summer.
When he graduates, he hopes to earn a welding apprenticeship and become a journeyman welder, a road that could again lead him all over the map.
No matter where he goes, though, he won’t forget what’s important to him.
“Just knowing who I am and where I came from,” Cortez said. “I can’t explain it.
“It’s just being proud of who you are.”
NOTE: The Diversity Foundation wishes to thank the people from Rochester's Trinity Presbyterian Church for helping us to support Larry's on-going educational endevors and for buying the material needed in order to manufacture the crosses.
