Words & Images are the ©Copyright of Villayat 'Wolf' Sunkmanitu 2009
I spent some time at the Porcupine Reservation Pow-Wow and then photographed the Badlands area for a couple of days before heading off toward Hermosa.
The majority of people in outlying areas still seem to be living in poverty. Drug and alcohol abuse, as well as diabetes still wreaks havoc amongst the Lakota. There seems to be deep division in the tribe between traditionalists and the modern day Lakota. It was only relatively recently that the tribe were allowed to learn their language again in schools. It seems to me that the church still exerts a lot of control over some of the tribe. At the Red Cloud School, students are taught about Lakota spirituality but only in the last year of school. The tribe is still involved in land disputes with the American Government over treaties that the Lakota were forced to accept in 1851 & 1868.
Are they the Lakota or the Sioux? I knew about the background of the word Sioux but I didn’t want to write about it from my perspective without first speaking to a member of the tribe.
A website had this to say:
The name “Sioux” is a French version of the Ojibwa word nadewisou, which means “treacherous snakes”. The native names for the Sioux mean “An Alliance of Friends”, which is Dakhota in the Santee dialect, Nakhota in the Yankton dialect and Lakhota in the Teton dialect. There are a number of different spellings of these names.
On this trip to South Dakota, I respectfully touched on the subject with Jay White Hawk, who works for a care institution.
He said that the word Sioux was given to the Lakota by the french as an insult. He went on to say that if any of the senior members of the tribe are asked who they are in terms of a tribal identity, they will tell you that they are Lakota, Nakota or Dakota; depending on where they originate from geographically.
I asked him why the tribes continue to allow themselves to be referred to as the Sioux and he said that it’s an educational issue and a huge task to get the rest of the world to address them by their correct titles.
History has a way of making things stick. From my own experiences of tackling discrimination in the UK, I would say that nothing is impossible and every journey starts with one step. If you truly respect members of this tribe, don't address them as 'Sioux'. Instead, talk to them and ask them who they are. The young can falter and carry an insult forward in ignorance. Let's hope that the elders can guide them and help them to know their history.
Education is still a controlling issue for the US government. I visited one of the leading schools in the area that proudly state that they teach the Lakota children attending the school about their spirituality and the Lakota religion. However, this isn't taught until the final year of education and that leaves a question in my mind: 'why are they denied knowledge and experience of something that is at the heart of their existence? Why are they still being forced to follow christianity?
I was left with the feeling that the tribe is as controlled now as it was in the past and that the US Government are still acting dishonourably with regard to to treaties made with this and other tribes throughout the United States of America.
