Sites with more info:
Tourism site:
https://www.ndtourism.com/articles/north-dakota-american-indian-heritage
History, Culture etc. directly related the Dakota and Spirit Lake Nation (Mni Wakan Oyate)
http://indianaffairs.nd.gov/image/cache/History_and_Culture_Spirit_Lake.pdf
Dakota Values: https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/7-lakota-values-that-are-difficult-to-adhere-to-today-loYrZi0Ijka48WJX297pnw/
Spirit Lake Nation's site:
http://www.spiritlakenation.com/
84 % of Native women experience some sort of violence in their lifetime. On some Reservations, they are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average. #Not Invisible seeks to raise awareness and attain protection for these women. See:#Not Invisible: Why are Native American Women Vanishing? https://www.apnews.com/cb6efc4ec93e4e92900ec99ccbcb7e05
The Value of Perseverance and Math: http://www.spiritlakeconsulting.com/d/2019/01/the-value-of-perseverance-usin.html
A short article written by a Jesuit campus minister/teacher on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that addresses the obstacles faced on the Reservations and the Colonialism that caused those conditions but he directs the focus on the perseverance, strength and hope that co-exist:
https://thejesuitpost.org/2016/05/a-stolen-past-is-just-the-beginning/
Recommended Books
Neither Wolf Nor Dog, by Kent Nerburn. In this 1996 Minnesota Book Award winner, Kent Nerburn draws the reader deep into the world of an Indian elder known only as Dan. It’s a world of Indian towns, white roadside cafes, and abandoned roads that swirl with the memories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. Readers meet vivid characters like Jumbo, a 400-pound mechanic, and Annie, an 80-year-old Lakota woman living in a log cabin. Threading through the book is the story of two men struggling to find a common voice. Neither Wolf nor Dog takes readers to the heart of the Native American experience. As the story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the difference between land and property, the power of silence, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. “This is a sobering, humbling, cleansing, loving book, one that every American should read.” — Yoga Journal (There are two other books in this series: The Wolf at Twilight, and The Girl Who Sang To The Buffalo. They are well worth reading.) This book is often used as required reading in high schools on the Reservations.
Lakota Way-Stories and Lessons for Living by Joseph Marshall III. Rich with storytelling, history, and folklore, The Lakota Way expresses the heart of Native American philosophy and reveals the path to a fulfilling and meaningful life. Joseph Marshall is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Sioux and has dedicated his entire life to the wisdom he learned from his elders. Here he focuses on the twelve core qualities that are crucial to the Lakota way of life--bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion. Whether teaching a lesson on respect imparted by the mythical Deer Woman or the humility embodied by the legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse, The Lakota Way offers a fresh outlook on spirituality and ethical living. It was recommended by Shane Red Hawk after some of us spent a week on the Rosebud Reservation in 2011. Our group visited again with Shane in 2016. It is a great book!
The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn by Joseph Marshall III. Award-winning historian Joseph M. Marshall presents the revisionist view of the Battle of the Little Bighorn that has been available only in the Lakota oral tradition. Drawing on this rich source of storytelling, Marshall uncovers what really took place at the Little Big Horn and provides fresh insight into the significance of that bloody day. It continues from there into an engaging lesson in history. You will learn about Wounded Knee, the effect of government policies, the "conqueror's" mentality and the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog. Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopeless of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies. Mary eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the American Indian Movement's chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance. Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national best seller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a unique document, unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, of the cruelties perpetuated against American Indians, and of the Native American struggle for rights. Working with Richard Erdoes, one of the twentieth century's leading writers on Native American affairs, Brave Bird recounts her difficult upbringing and the path of her fascinating life. In 2011, a couple of us were at the Sundance hosted by Leonard Crow Dog.
Moon of the Popping Trees, by Rex Alan Smith. This book is more academic. The last significant clash of arms in the American Indian Wars took place on December 29, 1890, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Of the 350 Teton Sioux Indians there, two-thirds were women and children. When the smoke cleared, 84 men and 62 women and children lay dead, their bodies scattered along a stretch of more than a mile where they had been trying to flee. Of some 500 soldiers and scouts, about 30 were dead—some, probably, from their own crossfire. Wounded Knee has excited contradictory accounts and heated emotions. To answer whether it was a battle or a massacre, Rex Alan Smith goes further into the historical records and cultural traditions of the combatants than anyone has gone before. His work results in what Alvin Josephy Jr., editor of American Heritage, calls "the most definitive and unbiased" account of all, Moon of Popping Trees.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown. This is Dee Brown's comprehensive, classic, eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold over four million copies in multiple editions and has been translated into seventeen languages. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the series of battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them and their people demoralized and decimated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was won, and lost. It tells a story that should not be forgotten, and so must be retold from time to time.
Lincoln's Bishop: A President, A Priest, and the Fate of 300 Dakota Sioux Warriors, by Gustav Niebuhr. In the tradition of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals comes Gustav Niebuhr's compelling history of Abraham Lincoln's decision in 1862 to spare the lives of 265 condemned Sioux men, and the Episcopal bishop who was his moral compass, helping guide the president's conscience. More than a century ago, during the formative years of the American nation, Protestant churches carried powerful moral authority, giving voice to values such as mercy and compassion, while boldly standing against injustice and immorality. Gustav Niebuhr travels back to this defining period, to explore Abraham Lincoln's decision to spare the lives of 265 Sioux men sentenced to die by a military tribunal in Minnesota for warfare against white settlers—while allowing the hanging of 38 others, the largest single execution on American soil. Popular opinion favored death or expulsion. Only one state leader championed the cause of the Native Americans, Episcopal bishop, Henry Benjamin Whipple. Though he'd never met a Native American until he was 37 years old, Whipple befriended them before the massacre and understood their plight at the hands of corrupt government officials and businessmen. After their trial, he pleaded with Lincoln to extend mercy and implement true justice. Bringing to life this little known event and this extraordinary man, Niebuhr pays tribute to the once amazing moral force of mainline Protestant churches and the practitioners who guarded America's conscience. Lincoln's Bishop is illustrated with 16 pages of black-and-white photos.
Movies: We also recommend that you view these movies so that you can learn more about the culture. They can be found online and are free.
Urban Rez: Documentary about the relocation of American Indians to urban environments. The Voluntary Relocation Program, spanning from 1952-1973, was the greatest voluntary upheaval of Native Americans during the 20th century. Urban Rez, explores the lasting legacy of the relocation policies that encouraged Native Americans to leave their homelands and relocate to urban areas across the country.http://www.rmpbs.org/urbanrez/
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: This film adaption can be viewed online (or downloaded) for free at https://vimeo.com/112639971. (This movie can take some time to buffer, so please be patient.) Here is the Wikipedia summary...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee
Dakota 38: In the spring of 2005, Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. "When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator... As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn't get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it's one of those dreams that bothers you night and day." Now, four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota, to Mankato, Minnesota, to arrive at the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. "We can't blame the wasichus anymore. We're doing it to ourselves. We're selling drugs. We're killing our own people. That's what this ride is about, is healing." This is the story of their journey - the blizzards they endure, the Native and Non-Native communities that house and feed them along the way, and the dark history they are beginning to wipe away. From the film’s creators: “This film was created in line with Native healing practices. In honoring this ceremony, we are screening and distributing “Dakota 38” as a gift rather than for sale. This film was inspired by one individual’s dream and is not promoting any organization or affiliated with any political or religious groups. It was simply created to encourage healing and reconciliation." It is available here...https://vimeo.com/45619690 Interview with the director http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=318Here is an explanation of the history of the Dakota 38 https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/the-traumatic-true-history-and-name-list-of-the-dakota-38-3awsx1BAdU2v_KWM81RomQ/
Neither Wolf Nor Dog - The movie version of the book described above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKFw7jxRPk Dakota Wicohan. Between 2008 and 2012, Dakota Wicohan interviewed dozens of elders about their life experiences, Dakota language use, and traditions. The video-recorded interviews were part of a Minnesota Historical Society-supported oral history project intended to preserve the words and wisdom of Dakota community elders. In addition to elders, interviewees included Dakota Wicohan staff and Dakota language speakers. In total, Dakota Wicohan gathered 24 hours’ of oral history interviews with the elders. In 2011, they began editing the interviews to create the documentary, Dakota Iapi Teunhindapi: We Cherish the Dakota Language.
Bruce Vento Sanctuary, Wakan Tipi video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ibEiqakDo and https://bdote.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/bruce-vento-sanctuary-video-with-jim-rock-and-his-father/ Learn the history of this sacred site in St. Paul, Minnesota.