Heart of All Oral History Project

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, ...

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 ...

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 se...

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 Relocatio...

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, namel...

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 Ind...

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 co...

Episode 3 of our series continues to explore the story of the Lakota which became much more complicated with the arrival of Europeans to Keya Wita.

Part 1 of the episode begins an in-depth look at the process of colonization that can be said to have started with the Doctrine of Discovery. After investigating our first interactions with European migrants as well ...

Episode 2 of our series explores who we were as part of the Pte Oyate, or Buffalo Nation, before contact with non-indigenous people. It starts with a segment that highlights our close relationship with Unci Maka Read more