Video
Oglala Lakota - Early Encounters with the Westward Migration
Transcript
[DRUM AND CHANTING] CRAIG HOWE: AMERICAN INDIANS AND, THEREFORE, LAKOTAS HAVE BEEN HERE A LONG, LONG TIME. AMERICAN INDIANS HAVE BEEN HERE IN NORTH AMERICA 12,700 YEARS. NON-INDIANS HAVE BEEN HERE, AT BEST, IN NORTH AMERICA 300 AND SOME YEARS, 300 AND SOME VERSUS 12,000 AND SOME. CAROL IRON ROPE HERRERA: OCETI SAKOWIN TETONWAN, THAT'S US, THE OGLALAS. WE ROAMED ALL OVER. I THINK THE HOMELAND WAS PROBABLY FROM MINNESOTA ALL THE WAY TO THE ROCKIES. LEONARD LITTLE FINGER: THE FIRST ENCOUNTERS THAT EXISTED WERE ENCOUNTERS THAT CAME FROM PLATTE RIVER, AND THE PLATTE RIVER WAS RIGHT IN THE AREA WHERE FORT LARAMIE HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED. I THINK THE FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH THE WHITE MAN WERE PEOPLE THAT THEY'D NEVER SEEN BEFORE. NEVER HAD THEY SEEN ONE WITH LIGHT SKIN, SO THEY WERE VERY CURIOUS. I THINK THE THING THAT DIFFERS FROM LATER TIME IS THAT THEY WERE MORE WILLING TO BEFRIEND EACH OTHER, AND THEN IN THAT BEFRIENDMENT, THERE WAS TRADE. THE FRIENDSHIP WAS REALLY THE ORIGINS. ROBERT TWO CROW: THEY WERE INTERESTED IN WHAT WAS GOING ON. THEY THOUGHT, "IF THEY JUST WANT TO GO BY, WE'LL LET THEM GO BY," BUT WHEN THEY STARTED COMING IN NUMBERS, THEY BEGAN TO QUESTION IT. THEY SAID, "WHEN WILL THAT STOP?" AND STILL ASKING THAT QUESTION, YOU KNOW. WHEN WILL IT EVER STOP? THESE IMMIGRANTS WERE COMING ACROSS ON THESE TRAILS DOWN SOUTH OF HERE ALONG THE PLATTE RIVER, AND THEY ALSO CUT UP THROUGH THE BIGHORN MOUNTAINS, AND SO THESE TRAILS BROUGHT ALL THESE VISITORS. BIRGIL KILLS STRAIGHT: WHERE THEY DUG FOR GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS, THEY JUST WERE-- I GUESS, WERE FRIENDLY INITIALLY-- I MEAN, THE LAKOTA WERE-- AND THEY WELCOMED ORIGINALLY THE WHITE PEOPLE. AS THEY'D COME IN AND MORE CAME IN, LOT MORE, INTO THE BLACK HILLS AND THEY START TAKING OUT THE GOLD AND ALL THAT STUFF, THAT'S WHEN THEY STARTED TO HAVE PROBLEM LITTLE FINGER: IT STARTED LIKE, I GUESS, A RIVER STARTS. THERE'S A GENTLE FLOW, AND THEN IT GETS LARGER, AND IT GETS LARGER AND LARGER. THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY, THERE'S A MIGRATORY ROUTE OF THE MAINSTAY OF THE TETON PEOPLE, AND THAT'S THE BUFFALO. HOWE: THIS IS WHERE WE HAVE THESE WASI'CHUS COMING THROUGH ALONG, LIKE, THE OREGON TRAIL, FOR INSTANCE, AND THE DENUDING OF THE LANDSCAPE BY THESE WAGONS AND BY THE OXENS AND BY THE HORSES AND ALL THE OTHER LIVESTOCKS THAT ARE JUST EATING EVERYTHING IN THIS WIDE SWATH AND THEN BY THE MEN, THE HUNTERS WITH THESE EXPEDITIONS OR THESE WAGON TRAINS. THEY'RE OUT HUNTING ALL OF THE GAME WITHIN MAYBE 20 OR 30 MILES ON EITHER SIDE. THEY'RE JUST KILLING EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO FEED THEMSELVES, SO THESE ARE HAVING THESE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES ON LAKOTA SOCIETY, AND NO ONE TRIBE WAS SELF-SUFFICIENT. THE WHOLE IDEA WAS THIS INTEGRATED NETWORK, AND SO YOU HAD TRADING GOING ON, SO LAKOTAS COUNTED ON THE BUFFALOS, AND WHEN THESE WAGON TRAINS CAME IN AND DISRUPTED THE HERD, BASICALLY, YOU CUT THE HERD IN HALF, AND SO THEN LAKOTAS CANNOT OBTAIN THE RESOURCES TO TRADE WITH THESE OTHER TRIBES, SO THIS HAD DISASTROUS EFFECTS ON LAKOTA SOCIETY. WE HAD NO CONCEPT OF WAR. WE HAD TERRITORIAL FIGHTS, YES, BUT YET AT THE SAME TIME, WE COULD LIVE WITH ONE ANOTHER, BUT HERE WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS ENCROACHING ON THE PEOPLE'S USE OF THE LAND THAT WAS THERE, AND SO THERE BECAME A RESISTANCE, SO, TO ME, THE WORD "RED CLOUD WAR" WOULD BE BETTER ADDRESSED AS "RED CLOUD'S RESISTANCE." WE DON'T HAVE LAKOTA WORDS THAT CAN TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH WORDS "VIOLATIONS" AND "VIOLENCE." WHETHER WE, AS LAKOTA PEOPLE, ARE WARLIKE, SAVAGES, OR A BARBARIC PEOPLE, WE AREN'T. AND SO HISTORY AGAIN IS COUNTER TO THE PERCEPTION AND THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE LAKOTA. HERRERA: THE WHITE MAN TRIED TO CHRISTIANIZE OUR PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY WITH THIS MORMON TRAIL THAT PASSED THROUGH, AND THE MORMONS ESPECIALLY, YOU KNOW, TRIED TO INFLUENCE AND TOOK MANY OF OUR CHILDREN, RAISED THEM IN UTAH AS MORMONS, BUT THEY CAME HOME. THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAT WE HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND RESPECT IS LANGUAGE. WE SPEAK LAKOTA. IT'S NOT JUST THE LANGUAGE WE SPEAK, BUT IT'S ALSO WHO WE ARE. WE ARE NO LONGER NOMADIC. OUR BUFFALO HERDS ARE GROWING. OUR LAND IS STILL SHRINKING. WE STILL HAVE OUR LANGUAGE. WE ARE STILL HERE. WE SURVIVED ALL THESE YEARS, ALL THESE CENTURIES AND EONS, SO AS LONG AS WE BELIEVE IN THE WAY WE DO, WE WILL BE HERE FOR A LONG TIME. [DRUM AND CHANTING]
Description
What started as a gentle flow soon turned into a river of Euro-American emigrants traveling through Lakota lands to Oregon and California country. The great northern plains of South Dakota were the traditional homeland of the Oglala Lakota people. In the mid 1800’s, thousands of settlers traveled west on the California, Mormon, and Oregon trails. Prospecting for gold in the Black Hills led to a flood of encroachment and settlement of traditional Lakota homeland. Oglala Lakota tribal elders tell of their traditional nomadic lifestyle and social structure, how that was challenged and influenced by American westward migration, and how their people and beliefs endure.
Duration
6 minutes, 48 seconds
Credit
NPS/Humboldt State University/Ogala Lakota College
Date Created
10/23/2018
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