Workshop Schedule
HEART MOUNTAIN WYOMING FOUNDATION:
NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture 2023 Workshop
Session I: June 18-23
Session II: July 23-28
A more detailed schedule with readings and assignments will be released at a later date.
DAY 1: SUNDAY - JUNE 18 / JULY 23
Echoes of the Past: An Introduction to Japanese American Incarceration at Heart Mountain
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
What is the power of words? Why is the language of incarceration important?
Why did members of the Japanese community immigrate to the United States?
What was Executive Order 9066? Why were members of the Japanese American community targeted for incarceration following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor?
Participant Check-In @ Thomas the Apostle Center, 2 - 3:45 p.m. , TAC Main Lodge
Echoes of History: The Legacy of Heart Mountain, 5 p.m., Coe Auditorium, Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Welcome from Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Echoes of History: Why is Heart Mountain a Compelling Story?
Introduction of Heart Mountain Workshop Participants
The Power of Words -- Tyson Emborg
The History of Yellow Peril in the American West -- Aura Sunada Newlin, interim executive director, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Dinner, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Pavillion, 6:30 p.m.
DAY 2: MONDAY - JUNE 19 / JULY 24
The Road to Heart Mountain
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
What long-standing fears and overt racism were used to target the Japanese American community?
What were the wartime experiences of the Japanese American community at Heart Mountain?
How did incarceration affect family and community dynamics among Japanese Americans?
Bus departs for the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center (HMIC), 8 a.m.
Welcome to the Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site, 9 a.m., HMIC
Personal Stories: Before, During, and After Camp
Sam Mihara, HMWF board member, former incarceree and author of Blindsided.
Synopsis: This session examines the day to day experiences and effects of the incarceration experience from first person experience. This lecture will take place in the restored barrack at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Site..
Free time at HMIC
WATCH: "All We Could Carry"
TOUR: Heart Mountain Museum
EXPLORE: Heart Mountain AR: An Augmented Reality Experience
(1) Welcome to Heart Mountain, (2), Farming at the Root Cellar, (3), Armed Guards and Towers, (4) Life in the Barracks, (5) George Hirahara's Darkroom, (6), Recreation and Entertainment, (7) Going to School, (8) Making Mochi
Echoes of History: A Family Case Study -- Aura Sunada Newlin
Synopsis: Newlin will use storytelling to communicate how her “Japanese Wyomingite” background guides her teaching, advocacy, and research.
Lunch at HMIC
Heart Mountain Juxtapose Walking Tour with HMWF staff
Synopsis: This session will focus on using the power of place to understand the lens of history. Participants will visit key locations at the Heart Mountain Historic Landmark Site including: Heart Mountain Camp Site, the Setsuko Saito Higuchi Interpretive Trail, along with the Honor Roll, Hospital, and Smokestack. This also includes the AR tour, Heart Mountain Eagles football team, activities, Boy Scouts with Norman Mineta and Alan Simpson, the Honor Roll, and the Swimming Hole.
Transport to Thomas the Apostle Center, 2 p.m.
Japanese Culture at Heart Mountain and the Heart Mountain Bungei -- Cally Steussy, Ph.D., HMWF museum manager
Relocation and the Splitting of the Japanese American Community - Erin Aoyama American Studies doctoral candidate at Brown University
Synopsis: This session will focus on the War Relocation Authority’s efforts to spread Japanese Americans around the country during the war, a policy that allowed some prisoners to escape confinement while also eroding the familial ties that characterized the prewar Japanese American community.
Explore on your own: Hosted by Tyson Emborg and Ray Locker
(Podcast) Look Toward the Mountain: Stories from Heart Mountain Incarceration Camp
(Newspapers) Heart Mountain Sentinel
(Magazines) Kokoro Kara
(Artwork) The Art of Estelle Ishigo
(Literature) Various authors
DINNER - BBQ @ Thomas the Apostle Center w/ Special Guests , 6 p.m., Main Lodge, TAC
DAY 3: TUESDAY - JUNE 20 / JULY 25
Intersectionality
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
What histories of the American West are inscribed among the landscapes in, and around, Heart Mountain?
How does the incarceration of Japanese Americans echo the experiences of First Peoples?
How can artifacts be used to gain a deeper understanding of the wartime Japanese American experience?
Bus departs for Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 8 a.m., TAC Main Lodge
Welcome to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 9 a.m., Buffalo Bill Center of the West main entrance
Gretchen Heinrich Director of the Education and Interpretation Division, and Chief Educator, Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Cultural Genocide & the Extermination of the Buffalo
Session 1: Plains Indian Museum -- Gretchen Henrich, director of education
Session 2: Buffalo Bill Museum -- George Miller, outreach educator
Session 3: Whitney Gallery -- Karen McWhorter, Scarlett Curator of Western American Art
Tribology of Apsáalooke (Crow) Cultural Heritage
Dr. Mary Keller, Associate Lecturer, Philosophy and Religious Studies; Adjunct, African American and Diaspora Studies
Synopsis: This session will examine this contested land that was once home to the Apsáalooke or the “Children of the large beaked bird,” also called the Crow Nation. Dr. Keller will focus on the Crow’s history on the land, drawing from her oral history research and study of Native American culture in Wyoming.
Watch: Return to Foretop's Father
Voices from Foretop’s Father
Noel Two Leggins, Enrolled member of the Crow (Apsaalooke) Tribe
Synopsis: Two Leggins will be talking about the cultural significance, connection, and personal origin he has with Heart Mountain. He will also discuss the endurance, physical health and ability it takes to reach its summit in connection with Crow cultural aspect of self-encouragement to fulfill and conquer the vision quest within one’s self to summit the peak. Foremost, he will also explain the respect the Crow Nation has for mother nature as Plains Indians are tied to the land, elements, environment and surroundings.
LUNCH, on your own, 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon free
DINNER, on your own.
Echoes of History: German Americans, World War I and Montana's Sedition Act
Dr. Keith Edgerton, Montana State University - Billings
Synopsis: In this address that will also be open to the public, Edgerton will discuss how Montana's Sedition Act was used to silence members of the state's German immigrant community and became a model for similar oppression nationally.
DAY 4: WEDNESDAY- JUNE 21 / JULY 26
Echoes in Democracy & Freedom
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
What were the constitutional issues surrounding Japanese American incarceration during World War II?
What can we learn about the ideas of citizenship, patriotism, and nationalism through the responses to incarceration?
How were reactions to the Loyalty Questionnaire both mixed and long-lasting?
Bus departs for the Heart Mountain Incarceration Center, 8 a.m., TAC Main Lodge
STOP: Veterans Memorial, Cody, Wyo.
We Hereby Refuse: The Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and other camp resistance, 9:15 a.m., HMIC
Frank Abe, author, journalist, filmmaker
Synopsis: We will examine mass resistance in all the camps to the government’s administration of a loyalty questionnaire, and organized resistance at Heart Mountain to compulsory military conscription from inside camp. Special Guest Takashi Hoshizaki (Formerly incarcerated at Heart Mountain) will be joining this presentation.
Free time at HMIC
WATCH: "All We Could Carry"
TOUR: Heart Mountain Museum
EXPLORE: Heart Mountain AR: An Augmented Reality Experience
(1) Welcome to Heart Mountain, (2), Farming at the Root Cellar, (3), Armed Guards and Towers, (4) Life in the Barracks, (5) George Hirahara's Darkroom, (6), Recreation and Entertainment, (7) Going to School, (8) Making Mochi
The Role of Religion in Surviving Incarceration: Patriotism Through Religious Freedom
Krist Ishikawa Jessup, editing and research manager, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Synopsis: We will examine the role of religion in the lives of the incarcerees at Heart Mountain, particularly the Buddhists, who suffered religious and ethnic discrimination.
Transport to the Thomas the Apostle Center, 12 p.m.
Lunch at the Thomas the Apostle Center, 12:30 p.m., TAC Main Lodge
Educational resources at Heart Mountain, Daphne's House, TAC
Q&A with Karen Korematsu: Challenging the Incarceration: Korematsu v. U.S.
Dr. Karen Korematsu Founder and Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute
Synopsis: This session will focus on the constitutionality of the incarceration in 1942 to the most recent ruling with highlights of the new materials available at the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.
DINNER, on your own
DAY 5: THURSDAY - JUNE 22 / JULY 27
The Legacy of Heart Mountain
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
How did the federal government try to tame the land in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin?
What role did Japanese American incarceration play in shaping the landscape surrounding Heart Mountain?
How has the wartime incarceration of the Japanese American community created multi-generational trauma?
How might the experiences of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain help shape the 21st century?
Bus departs for the Heart Mountain Incarceration Center, 8 a.m., TAC Main Lodge
Tour Heart Mountain Root Cellar
Cally Steussy, HMWF museum manager
Synopsis: This session will discuss the accomplishments of the Heart Mountain incarceree farmers who turned the dusty high desert into rich farmland and stored their produce in two football field-sized root cellars.
Free time at HMIC
WATCH: "All We Could Carry"
TOUR: Heart Mountain Museum
EXPLORE: Heart Mountain AR: An Augmented Reality Experience
(1) Welcome to Heart Mountain, (2), Farming at the Root Cellar, (3), Armed Guards and Towers, (4) Life in the Barracks, (5) George Hirahara's Darkroom, (6), Recreation and Entertainment, (7) Going to School, (8) Making Mochi
Bus to Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., 11:30 a.m.
LUNCH at Northwest College, 12 p.m.
The Legacy of the Land: Homesteading, Irrigation and Reclamation
Dr. Amy McKinney Associate Professor of History, Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming
Synopsis: This session will introduce participants to the federal efforts to irrigate and farm the Bighorn Basin. This started with the 1902 Reclamation Act and the Shoshone Irrigation Project, which began to send water to the farms started by the post-World War I homesteaders. This created the conditions that made the area appealing to the WRA for a Japanese American camp.
The End of the Camp: Where did it all Go?
Dr. Eric Sandeen Professor Emeritus, American Studies at the University of Wyoming [Introduction from the George Dairy - CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION]
Synopsis: In this session Dr. Eric Sandeen will engage participants in a discussion about the dispersal of the camp’s buildings for $1 apiece and the influence of incarceration on the local communities since the war. He will draw on his decades of experience studying the cultural landscapes of Wyoming, including his survey of the area surrounding Heart Mountain.
Depart from Northwest College, 2:45 p.m., NWC Yellowstone Conference Center
WWII German POW Site: The Homesteader Museum, 3 p.m., Homesteader Museum, Powell, Wyo.
Brandi Wright Homesteader Museum Directory (Powell, Wyoming)
Crown Hill Cemetery in Powell, Wyoming, 3:45 p.m.
Return to Thomas the Apostle Center, 4:15 p.m.
DINNER, on your own
DAY 6: FRIDAY - JUNE 23 / JULY 28
Echoes down the Generations
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
How has the wartime incarceration of the Japanese American community created multigenerational trauma?
What lessons have we learned from the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans?
Echoes of History: Multi-Generational Trauma 8:15 a.m., TAC, Daphne's House
Dr. Gordon Nagayama Hall Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon
Jeanne Nagayama Hall M.Ed., Sr. Instructor I, Department of Educational Studies, University of Oregon
Synopsis: This session will focus on the multi-generational effects of the incarceration from a psychological perspective.
Participant Share Out
What are you taking home from Heart Mountain?
Final Thoughts
Checkout @ Thomas the Apostle Center, 11 a.m.
Optional Day 7
(Saturday, July 29, 2023)
Heart Mountain Wyoming Pilgrimage
For an additional reduced fee, the participant may join the third day of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Pilgrimage.