Blood Memory Project Update |
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Dear friends and relatives, THAT'S A WRAP! After three weeks on the road, we've officially wrapped on principal photography! There's still a lot to process, but the long-story-short is that our August trip spanned from Minneapolis, Minnesota to the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota and down to Rosebud, South Dakota, with lots of memorable stops in between. It felt good to be back in the places we've grown to love, where we've built friendships and learned so much over the course of developing this film. |
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Understanding the Boarding School Era A key moment on this trip was the day we spent with Vernon Lambert, a Dakota elder who "retired" to teach tribal sovereignty, Dakota philosophy, and Spirit Lake oral history at Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Fort Totten, North Dakota. Vern showed us around Spirit Lake Nation and took us through the former Indian Industrial School at Fort Totten State Historic Site. |
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Vern and his classmates were among the last to attend gradeschool at Fort Totten - he graduated in 1957 and the school closed in 1959, before being designated a North Dakota Historic Site in 1960. After serving as a military base from 1860 to 1890, the barracks were converted into a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Indian Industrial School from 1891 until 1935, closing within a year of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act. The facilities were then used to house a Tuberculosis Preventorium until 1939 when it re-opened as the Fort Totten Community School - a 'new' educational institution, again staffed by BIA employees. |
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Vern hadn't visited the grounds in years, despite the fact that Cankdeska Cikana is located just next door to the fort, the properties barely divided by a chainlink fence (shown above). |
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We were all disappointed (but not entirely surprised) to find that the State Historical Society of North Dakota chose to focus on pre-Boarding School military history. More here. After touring Fort Totten, we ventured up to the Turtle Mountains of Belcourt, ND where we were honored to interview Dr. Denise Lajimodiere, whose voice will be critical in defining the timeline and impact of the Boarding School Era in our film. |
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Dr. Lajimodiere's work is centered on bringing truth and accuracy to the untold history of American Indian Boarding Schools, including the experiences of her own relatives. She sits on the board of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and serves as an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at North Dakota State University. At this time, her research has proven the existence of upwards of 332 American Indian Boarding Schools, several of which remain active still today. |
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Indian Child Welfare During a production trip to Seattle, WA in Spring of 2016, we met and interviewed a Native foster family with ties to the Turtle Mountains. The family spends time with relatives in Turtle Mountain each Summer and we were fortunate to catch up with them during that window. Together we explored the legacy of previous generations of family members, the lasting effects of colonization in their community, and the important role that traditions plays in everyday life. |
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When we took a pit stop in Eagle Butte, SD to visit a friend who works with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman, we were thrilled by her offer to introduce us to the director of the community's Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Program, Diane Garreau. We were so taken by Diane's selfless activism and deep affiliation with statewide and national ICWA cases that we decided to come back and film with her when we had more time the following week. We're grateful for Diane's commitment to meet with us on her day off to discuss the children's shelter, the everyday struggles of being an ICWA caseworker, and how her own traumatic experiences inform the ways in which she addresses lingering trauma in the community. |
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The highlight of the trip was when we made our "final pass" through Sicangu Nation, home of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and birthplace of our featured storyteller, Sandy White Hawk. After roughly 7 years of working with Sandy to develop this film, we were grateful to spend a little extra time in Rosebud and to finally capture the finishing pieces related to Sandy's earliest memories and reconnection experiences. |
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Community Healing This year, at the 141st Annual Rosebud Fair & Wacipi - an annual celebration of victory in the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn) - we were fortunate to revist several adoptee-advocates who are continuing to reconnect with their Sicangu relatives and to promote community healing. Administrators and volunteers for the Tiwahe Glu Kini Pi (Bringing the Family Back to Life) Society of Care at Sinte Gleska University were instrumental in events surrounding the first-ever Welcome Home Ceremony in 2015 and also hosted a space for returning adoptees, fostered individuals and relatives at this year's Rosebud Fair. |
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In other news... Photographer Doug Michaels and composer Bill Stankay joined in on the fun this year. They spent time with us in Rosebud and did a little venturing of their own in pursuit of the supplemental vistas and sounds that will help to define the scope and landscape of the stories in the film. Bill worked specifically to record experiential sounds that will be used in his development of an immersive film score. We were all excited and honored to collaborate with friends Dyani White Hawk and Deidre Whiteman in Bill's effort to capture elements of the unique soundscape produced by Jingle Dress dancing. |
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What's Next? The connections we've made over the past few years are invaluable, and trips like this one make it clearer than ever that the work it will take to truly acknowledge these historical traumas is far from over. |
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It's good to be home, but there's no signs of slowing down for the Winter. We're in the midst of confirming our post-production schedule and in negotiations for a few new and exciting collaborative opportunities that will ensure the film's completion and longterm impact. |
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