Crow Creek Reservation
Service Project 2024

Iowa State University faculty, alumni, veterinary students, and community volunteers who organize and carry out the Crow Creek Reservation Service Trip invite you to contribute to their project. The team members have traveled to Fort Thompson, South Dakota, for fourteen years to offer veterinary services to tribal members of the Crow Creek Reservation.

Veterinary services are not easily accessible or affordable to many animal owners on the reservation. Most years, more than 300 animals will be seen during the small animal and equine clinics. When the project first began, it was common for dogs to present with heartworm, mange, and tick infestations. Now, our veterinarians who provide services for the trip have noticed a marked decrease in the incidence of these medical problems.

Members of the Crow Creek Reservation look forward to the yearly veterinary trip as an event to meet with veterinarians and veterinary students, discuss their pet’s health concerns, have their pets vaccinated, and have their dogs and cats spayed and neutered. At the community's rodeo grounds, a group of veterinarians and veterinary students work with community horse owners to provide preventative health care to their horses.

In the last four years, this service trip has become part of the two-week fourth-year veterinary student rotation Clinical Practice in Diverse Communities. Participating students will spend time organizing equipment for the small animal and equine veterinary clinics at Fort Thompson before the trip. They will devote time to learning about working in diverse communities and studying Dakota and Lakota history and cultural traditions. 

Your contributions can help provide the following:

• Medications to prevent heartworm infection and flea and tick infestations
• Equipment and medications to provide safe surgeries and anesthetic recoveries
• Medical supplies for the equine and small animal clinics
• Dental care for equine patients
• Transportation for volunteers to Fort Thompson, South Dakota

                             photos by Patricia Howard, Kayla Stomack, and Claire Duncombe

                                                         videos by Lawton Herbert and Claire Duncombe