{"id":9391,"date":"2019-10-16T17:25:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T22:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/reconciliation-and-wounded-knee\/"},"modified":"2019-10-16T17:25:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T22:25:52","slug":"reconciliation-and-wounded-knee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/reconciliation-and-wounded-knee\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconciliation and Wounded Knee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cDakota Daughters\u201d performance takes place at West River History Conference in effort to \u201cspread the word on healing racism and building a shared inclusive future.\u201d (Photo by Talli Nauman)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DEADWOOD \u2013 The theme of intercultural reconciliation took center stage here at the 37th gathering of the West River History Conference Oct. 12, as Gov. Kristi Noem proclaimed this date in 2019 as James Aplan Day.
\nThe City of Deadwood Historic Preservation Department raised a flag to dedicate a pole in the late Great Plains historian\u2019s name, and the audience watched the performance of \u201cDakota Daughters.\u201d
\nThe five-act stage play, subtitled \u201cWounded Knee \u2026 Three Lives, Three Women, Three Stories\u201d, was enacted in the Olympic Ballroom of the 1898 Victorian-style Martin & Mason Hotel, where the conference was held.
\nThe Wounded Knee Massacre took place just about 100 miles southeast of here in 1890, inspiring each of the four women who collaborate on the play to research and write her part in the historical interpretation of the events leading up to the tragedy for which the U.S. Congress eventually expressed \u201cdeep regret.\u201d
\nIn program notes, the collaborators explain, \u201cOur goal is to help spread the word on healing racism and building a shared inclusive future.\u201d
\nOglala Lakota performer Geraldine Goes in Center from Wamblee plays the role of Sitting Bull\u2019s daughter Kimemela, who travels with him to Canada and to Standing Rock in search of safety, before ending up at Wounded Knee on a visit to her Uncle Spotted Elk.
\nMeanwhile, Chadron State College teacher Lillian Witt portrays Sadie Babcock who moves with her husband and children from Texas to Lakota Territory to start up a cattle operation on \u201cfree land\u201d held out by the federal government.
\nAt the same time, Mattie Elmira, played by Black Hills State University graduate Joyce Jefferson, is reveling in newfound freedom from slavery and following her fianc\u00e9\u2019s exploits as a post-Civil War Buffalo Soldier, which eventually leads her west to become Sadie\u2019s live-in housekeeper.
\nThe letters from her fianc\u00e9 and the news in Sadie\u2019s outdated periodicals spooks them with stories about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the Black Hills gold rush, cattle rustling, the Ghost Dance, and finally the horror of the massacre in which Kimemela\u2019s daughter is killed.
\nThe episodes culminate in a song and prayer, \u201ca blessing and image of reconciliation,\u201d as the creators describe it.
\nNarrated by former Native Sun News Today contributor Kat Holmgren, \u201cDakota Daughters\u201d raises awareness by illustrating the vastly divergent points from which Western History Conference goers have come together on what the playbill describes as \u201cthe timeless land.\u201d
\nThe production took place immediately following a simulated gunfight in the street outside the venue, provided by reenactors of a Wild West gambling brawl and shootout in \u201cDeadwood Alive!\u201d that the City of Deadwood offers the public during summer months and brushed up for conference goers on this occasion. The theme of this year\u2019s conference was \u201cThe Way Out West.\u201d
\nCity of Deadwood Historic Preservation Officer Kevin Kuchenbecker earned the West River History Conference\u2019s most coveted honor with the 2019 Herb Blakely Award presented by conference President Peg Aplan, widow of James, who garnered the award in 2018 during the tenure of former President Shebby Lee.
\nConference goers boarded a trolley courtesy of the city for a ride to the Adams House Museum, where Kuchenbecker raised a U.S. flag to honor James. The Historical Preservation Department, with support from private donors, located a plaque at the base of the flagpole in commemoration of \u201cJames O. Aplan, Friend \u2013 Historian.\u201d
\nWest River History Conference Vice President Donovin Sprague thanked donors. A Minnicoujou Lakota from Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Sprague was quoted in a September issue of the New Yorker as an analyst of Crazy Horse Memorial history. He is a direct descendant of Crazy Horse\u2019s uncle, Hump and a visiting professor of history at Sheridan College in Wyoming.
\nAmong Native American history topics and presenters on the schedule were: \u201cA Historical Geography of the State\u2019s American Indian Reservations,\u201d by Donald Berg; \u201cMemories of an Extra in \u2018Dances with Wolves\u2019\u2013 30 Years Later,\u201d by Jeff Mammenga; \u201cCrow Dog: End of Tribal Sovereignty,\u201d by Wayne Gilbert; and \u201cUnci Maka Tells Her Story,\u201d by Jace Decory.
\nDue to winter weather and related challenging travel conditions, not all the expected presenters and guests arrived, however. James Aplan\u2019s granddaughter Irene read Noem\u2019s proclamation while his oldest son, her father, was stuck in snow at the Denver airport.
\nAt a brunch provided by Black Hills Corral #8 of the International Westerners, a fellowship of history buffs, Director and Curator of the South Dakota State Railroad Museum Rick Mills delivered a keynote speech entitled \u201c150 years of Railroading on the Northern Plains.\u201d
\nPeg Aplan conveyed the awards for 2018 original research papers. They went to Ken Vogele for \u201cAnti-German Sentiment in World War I South Dakota\u201d; David Strain for \u201cGrowing Up in White River, South Dakota\u201d; and Joselyn Vifquain for \u201cHe Was One of Them: World War I Soldier.\u201d
\nThe new Sago Conservation Merit Award, named after the conference\u2019s late executive director, Roberta \u201cBobbi\u201d Sago, went to Richard Carlson and Joanna Jones.<\/p>\n

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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\u201cDakota Daughters\u201d performance takes place at West River History Conference in effort to \u201cspread the word on healing racism and building a shared inclusive future.\u201d (Photo by Talli Nauman) DEADWOOD \u2013 The theme of intercultural reconciliation took center stage here at the 37th gathering of the West River History Conference <\/p>\n

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Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> October 16, 2019<\/p>\n

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