LWS Students Present “Heart of All” Project
AMANDA TAKES WAR BONNETT
LT CONTRIBUTOR
KYLE – A student-led oral history project “Heart Of All” is nearing completion and will provide knowledge of vast amounts of Lakota history and stories for future generations using accessible technology.
The project has been in the making since 2018 with guidance from students, elders, knowledgeable community members and others who provided technical support. The goal of the 7-part audio series is to keep important historical information intact for future generations. KILI Radio will debut the project in its entirety before it becomes available on podcast platforms. The episodes will also be accessible through the project website which is being continually developed and can be found at www.heartofallohp.com. Currently the website features student artwork and an 18-minute video introduction to the project, but more content will be added in the coming months.
Little Wound School’s HEART OF ALL Oral History Project has been funded through a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and is being coordinated by Mark Hetzel who has also been a high school instructor for the past 8 years. Hetzel said, “For over 2 years, I have been both humbled and honored to lead the charge on what I think is one of the most important projects of recent times. Not just here on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but anywhere.”
In the 18-minute video, which is just a small example of what this project has in store, elders talk about the significance of the project and the importance of knowing the history, the language and identity. Author and historian Joseph Marshall III, who is the project writing advisor as well as a narrator along with LWS students, emphasizes the importance of telling our own stories. He says, “The narrative being told by us is off-the-scale important for a lot of reasons, but simply because we’re telling our own story and we haven’t done that on a large scale ever.” Of course he means this in reference to the historical narrative that has predominantly been created by outsiders.
Marshall goes on to say, “Life before the Europeans was totally without the concept of owning land, without the concept of money…or being rich, being materialist.” He says we had our illnesses, but we had our healers; we had our differences, but we had our own forms of governing. “We had our social values and we had our norms that mitigated any problems. We were cruising along being Lakota and being Indigenous generation after generation. Life was good; it wasn’t perfect, but it was good.”
Then came colonization, different lifestyles that were forced on indigenous people, the establishment of reservations, broken treaties, boarding schools, disease, alcohol, and federal policies enacted in an attempt to erase our culture. Some of those policies were intended to break the Indian family. Richard Moves Camp says, “The government attempted to ‘kill the Indian and save the man.’ That was their federal policy…To break the Indian family, that was the whole purpose. To break the Indian circle.”
Stella Iron Cloud, tribal historian and project participant, says, “Boarding schools just took away everything. They were trying to make us more white.” Iron Cloud also shared her extensive knowledge of genealogy and platte maps with the project. Much of this information can be heard in Episode 3 which covers the arrival of Europeans through the Dawes Act. “There are so many misconceptions and so many stories, every person has a story that needs to be told,” she says.
“When we’ve learned our own history, it’s been taught to us by the Europeans, or their version of the interactions between Europeans and indigenous people. So this project gives voice to our perspective,” says Marshall.
Moves Camp added, “The younger generation is realizing that the dominant version of history isn’t always the truth. What is written about many of our people through anthropologists or non-Indian writers isn’t always the way it is.”
Marshall emphasizes that young people need to start seeing the importance of history as a way to better know who they are. Why it matters, he says, is “because identity is important. We have to know where we come from…and who our ancestors were. It doesn’t matter who you are…identity is crucial to human beings, and especially to us as Lakota people because our land was taken away from us, our language was taken away from us.”
“Know who you are and where you come from, but also look forward to where you are going. Because if you don’t know where you’re coming from, you don’t know where you’re going,” project participant John Haas said. “If you want to lay out a destination, you have to know where you are starting from.”
Jessie Pulliam, another project participant, wants the younger generation to be proud of who they are. She says, “I think what we’re trying to do is come back to that time when we spoke Lakota and we became like a close-knit family… I think that’s what I want them to know, that they’re Lakota no matter what.”
Hetzel said that over the past two years there have been over 50 students who have contributed to the project in some way. Most of them were in a class that listened to interviews, helped decide which stories needed to be shared, researched and wrote the project narration, and gave their valuable input throughout the process. Other students contributed artwork with the project’s themes and content in mind through a school-wide art contest. To date, seven additional students have participated as the project’s narrators.
Jada Good Crow, a Little Wound senior who is currently working on the project, said it has already made an impact on her views of history. The long segment on the Wounded Knee Massacre featured at the beginning of Episode 4 rekindled a childhood memory. “Growing up, I listened to my Ina tell me the stories of my Gaka Daniel White Lance and his brother Dewey Beard(Wasu Maza) who were survivors of the massacre. She told me how my great Unci Ella Good Crow/Bush would look out the window and cry every time they drove through Wounded Knee,” she said. “Still today, I look at the area and down into the banks of the creek with a heavy heart and lump in my throat,” Good Crow added.
Tionna Pourier, one of the project’s narrators, said, “In every family, there is always a storyteller or historian, and this is where we learn the stories and knowledge throughout the years growing up. The stories impact us by making us think about our people’s history.” She continued, “I think that I learned more about life, hardships, and Lakota ways from my Unci Gloria Two Crow. She has shared so many stories and lessons. I find it important for me to always turn towards her when I am questioning something related to our Lakota culture and history.”
The main audience of the HEART OF ALL Oral History Project is Lakota youth with the goal being to pass on this valuable information to future generations, Hetzel said. The project was inspired by some Little Wound students over the years who were not hearing these stories in their homes. The information is meant for the public and the unedited interviews will be housed at the Oglala Lakota College Archives for the community to access. It is also the project’s goal to develop educational resources related to the episodes that can be used by teachers across the reservation, Hetzel added.
At the time of this printing, there are 40 elders and community members who have contributed to the project. In alphabetical order, they are Bryan Brewer, Darrell Brown Bull, Sr., Marcel Bull Bear, Cornell Conroy, Amanda Thunder Bull Christensen, James Christensen, Tawa Ducheneaux, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Mario Gonzalez, John Haas, Benjamin Hollow Horn, Bernadette Hollow Horn, Joyce Hollow Horn, Anne Hunter, Richard Iron Cloud, Stella Iron Cloud, Ramona Jean Janis, Keith Janis, Birgil Kills Straight, Earnest LaPointe, Harold Salway Left Heron, Dawn Little Sky, Lynore Long Man, Manuela Maldonado, Dick Marshall, Matilda Montileaux, Richard Moves Camp, Ervene Palmier, Jessie Pulliam, Earl Tall, Robert Two Crow, Richard Two Dogs, Wayne Weston, Lisa White Bull, Alex White Plume, Joseph Whiting, Wilbur Witt, Vina Yankton, Corey Yellow Boy, and Clarence Yellow Hawk, Sr. It is probably noted that some of these participants are no longer with us, which further illustrates the importance of the project. Prayers for the families left behind. The Project Advisors are James Christensen, Jace DeCory, Tawa Ducheneaux, John Haas, Joseph Marshall III, Richard Meyers, Matilda Montileaux, Jessie Pulliam, and Harold Salway Left Heron.
The project’s 7 episodes explore significant stories and events of the Lakota people of Pine Ridge. The first episode looks at different origin stories and emphasizes that these can vary according to different tiospayes or communities. The second episode focuses on the time before the arrival of Europeans, highlighting important cultural teachings as well as the importance of the Lakota language. LWS senior Ohiyesawin Ramirez said, “The segment about Lakota language is by far my favorite because of the different aspects it covers. The language connected everyone and everything, from the grass we walk on to the sky we look upon. Our children are getting swallowed by the greater society, learning values of someone else’s culture. This project provides important teachings from generations before that can be passed down to our own children.”
In the third episode, we see the arrival of the Europeans and are reminded of Winter Counts as well as the Doctrine of Discovery through the contribution of Shawnee/Lenape scholar Steve Newcomb. This episode also looks at such things as the effects of intermarriage, the so-called “Indian Wars,” the Fort Laramie Treaties and how they were broken, the slaughter of our relative the buffalo, and the creation of the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses which banned many cultural practices. It ends with a discussion of the Dawes Act.
The fourth episode starts with the creation of the state of South Dakota as well as the establishment of the current boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Wounded Knee Massacre segment is followed by actual testimony from the Emery Collection of survivor Wasu Maza along with English translation by narrator Antonio Rojas. This episode also covers the suppression of Indian-ness, how land continued to be taken from the Lakota, and the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. It ends with a segment on the Bombing Range.
Episode 5 starts with the end, that is the Termination policy of Relocation. Both positive and negative experiences from the dramatic move to cities are seen here. This episode then largely focuses on the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation in 3 segments: The Road to Wounded Knee, The Occupation, and The Aftermath. Because there were students from both sides of the political fence, they decided to tell the story in neutral terms, looking at both the victories and heartbreak of the event.
The project is currently finishing up the final two episodes. Episode 6 will cover major changes following the Wounded Knee Occupation, mostly related to federal policy. It will explore the Education Acts, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act(ICWA), the Black Hills land claim and related cases, and ending with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act(NAGPRA). Episode 7 is still being developed, but it will take a look back at how life used to be through participants’ childhood stories. It will also cover the current state of Lakota language before turning to today’s challenges. The project will end with words of encouragement for future generations.
Related to the current state of the project, senior Kansas Clifford said, “We are working on our social media campaign which includes Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok. We want as many Lakota youth to be exposed to our project as possible and it’s also important that our story is finally heard.”
The first episode is supposed to air on KILI Radio on Thursday, March 17th at 5 pm depending on the state tournament airing schedule. The rest of the episodes will follow, every Thursday at 5 pm, until May 12th when all of the episodes will have been played. For more information on the project, check the website at www.heartofallohp.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/heartofallohp