Earlier in the project, we heard that the tree was the first and most important symbol ever to be taught when we were young. In learning about it, we would find guidance on how to live a good life and where we should look to remain firmly grounded. Episode 7 Part 2 starts with a new and strikingly different perspective on our relative the tree by recent Little Wound graduate Pte San Win Little Whiteman.

The next section turns to a discussion of the contemporary challenges facing our Lakota Oyate. This includes the issues of language revitalization, racism, mining, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women(MMIW), education, the influence of Western culture, and the neglect of Unci Maka.

The third segment is devoted to woksape, or words of wisdom, for all Lakota youth. Here, through the voices of twenty of our project participants, we take in diverse views that tie together the past and present while offering valued guidance for facing the future in the best way possible.

In the fourth and final section - in what can be seen as the project’s epilogue - we hear a passionate appeal from recent Little Wound graduate Zoey White.    

Episode 7 of our series is the culmination of our project and also its ending point. Over the past two-plus years, we have done our best to put together a detailed look at the story of the Lakota Oyate -  from origin stories to time before contact with Europeans; from feelings of wonder at the new arrivals to fatal clashes over land and resources; from supposed agreements to genocidal attacks on us, our relative tatanka, our language, and our way of life; from standing up for who we are to finally having our voices heard.

In this final episode, we will take a different look at the past to see how we arrived here in the present and what needs to be done as we move into our collective future.

Part 1 begins with a vivid look at the current state of the Lakota language and its importance to our future as an oyate. The second section - our longest segment by far - is an intimate journey through the early lives of many of our beloved project participants. Through it, we will better know these relatives that have so generously shared their lives and stories with us. 

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty created the “Great Sioux Reservation” - comprising the western part of South Dakota including He Sapa - which was to be reserved exclusively for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of the Sioux Nation. By 1877, after the discovery of gold by George Armstrong Custer’s sanctioned expedition, this treaty was swiftly broken when the Black Hills were confiscated by the U.S. Congress. Episode 6 Part 2 begins with a detailed explanation of the cases related to the Black Hills land claim that culminated in 1980’s United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians Supreme Court case.

The next and final segment of this episode discusses 1990’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act(NAGPRA) which was enacted “to establish the rights of Indian tribes and their lineal descendants to obtain repatriation of certain human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony from federal agencies or museums.”

Episode 6 of our series explores some of the major changes that came about starting in the 1970s - most of them policy changes - that were signs of brighter days ahead. While we heard many times that these new policies would take quite awhile to have an actual impact, they still represent something to celebrate, as all progress should be celebrated.

The first section of Part 1 looks at changes within the field of education following the 1972 Indian Education Act and 1975’s Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

The second section covers the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act that overturned the 1883 Code and Court of Indian Offenses which banned indigenous spirituality under risk of severe punishment and even death.

The third section turns to the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act which was a response to strong evidence that indigenous children were being removed disproportionately from their families and placed in non-indigenous homes even when “fit and willing relatives were available.”

Episode 5 of our series focuses on the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement(AIM). It starts with a segment about how Wounded Knee, a place of incredible historical importance, got its name.

We then turn to a discussion of Termination policy which “eliminated much government support for Indian tribes and ended the protected trust status of all Indian-owned lands.” The focus here is the process of Relocation where it was hoped our relatives would assimilate into mainstream American society.

The next three parts of this episode look at the event that some people call Wounded Knee II, a tense affair that pitted AIM against Tribal President Dick Wilson and the U.S. government. First, we hear about some of the important factors and events leading up to the 71-day Occupation. Next, we hear about the Occupation itself from individuals who were both inside and outside Wounded Knee. Lastly, we hear about the extremely volatile years following the Occupation which were depicted to us as both “a civil war” and “a revolution” on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Episode 4 Part 2 starts with a discussion of the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses that was introduced in Episode 3. Clinton writes, “[It] was not an early criminal code for Indian Reservations…but, rather, the clearest evidence of a deliberate federal policy of ethnocide - the deliberate extermination of another culture.”

We then move on to the issue of land, namely some of the ways that Lakota territory continued to be whittled away after the creation of the Pine Ridge Reservation in its current form. The next segment turns to the so-called “Indian New Deal” which was a response to the 1928 Meriam Report that made clear that the U.S. government’s approach to its indigenous people - namely allotment and assimilation - was failing. The resulting Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and its impact until the present-day is discussed.

Lastly, this part ends with a look at a geographical area known to most Lakota simply as “The Bombing Range,” a 341,726 acre portion of the Reservation that was seized by the Department of the Army during World War II.

Episode 4 of our series picks up after the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 which, along with the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses, dramatically marked the U.S. federal government’s new policy of forced assimilation against its indigenous people.

Part 1 of the episode begins with the 1889 establishment of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a much-diminished version of the Great Sioux Reservation established under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The next segment starts our discussion of the worst “mass shooting” in American history - the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29th, 1890. Referring to the Massacre, the well-known Black Elk said, “I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” After an extended montage of participants’ stories, we hear archival testimony from survivor Wasu Maza(“Iron Hail”), otherwise known as Dewey Beard.

This part ends with a lengthy section on boarding schools, the first of which forcefully established the assimilationist philosophy of “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

Episode 3 Part 2 starts with George Custer’s foray into He Sapa just four years after the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty recognized it as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, which had been created for the Lakota’s exclusive use. It goes on to discuss the “Sell or Starve” rider to the 1876 Indian Appropriations Act and the rider to the 1877 Indian Appropriations Act that seized the Black Hills in direct contradiction to the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty.

After looking at creation of the White Clay Extension, we highlight the inception of the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses, which forcefully restricted the traditional cultural practices of Keya Wita’s indigenous people for the next 95 years. We then turn to the culmination of a devastating process that began with westward expansion, the near-annihilation of our relative the buffalo as a means to eradicate our main source of survival.

This part ends with a discussion of the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 which dramatically marked the shift of U.S. federal policy from colonization to assimilation.