Sota Iya Ye Yapi, Dec. 12, 2001 - The Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribal Council has set aside $50,000 as a "challenge grant" toward production of a series of educational resources to set right the historical record of the European settling of the west and displacement of indigenous people.
The series concept originated in discussions of Dakota elders in the early 1990's. It will be produced and funded through Diversity Foundation, Inc. of St. Cloud, Minn., whose leaders were also a party to those initial discussions.
Diversity Foundation chair and CEO Edward Lohnes, jr., of Minneapolis, Minn., a member of the Spirit Lake band in North Dakota, said the multi-media series will be built around accounts of the lives of Dakota chiefs, beginning with Wapasha, whose band occupied the present-day Winona area before the coming of white settlers.
Edward Lohnes said the central goal is to strengthen historical interest and awareness among all ethnic groups in the U.S., and especially among young people.
The theme, "Mitakuyapi Owasin ("We are all related")- The Story of the Great Dakota Nation," underlines a deeper dream offacilitating reconciliation and to
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reunite the Dakota bands now scattered throughout the upper Midwest and Canada.
SWST Chairman Andrew J Grey, Sr., and Vice-Chairman Jake Thompson, announced the funds were being committed from tax revenues and are intended "as a funding challenge for other eastern Dakota tribes, funding agencies, foundations, and organizations to co-sponsor the historic project."
The Diversity Foundation's immediate goal is to raise $500,000.
Chairman Grey noted that the Sisseton-Wahpeton community is also developing a visitors center, museum and cultural center along I-29 at Sisseton, to feature Dakota history and culture.
The center will be situated adjacent to the Tribe's Dakota Connection Casino and C-Store.
Diversity CEO Lohnes said his organization has already received committments of support and collaboration from a variety of Native American and other educators, historical societies, civic and community leaders in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. He particularly credited Lyle Rustad, Diversity Foundation's executive director, asthe persistent organizer of the project and "bearer of the dream
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articulated to him by Dakota elders over the past decade."
Topics expected to be covered in the series include: pre-historic evidence of Native American culture on the North American continent from the east to the Mississippi River valley and upper Midwest; timeline of indigenous settlements derived from studies of Indian mounds, archives, picture writing, cave pictographs, early maps, photos, drawings and writings of Native American and white historians and other scholars; early Siouan culture, history and language; movements from eastern areas, especially from what are now the states of Virginia, South and North Carolina, and Georgia, westward into the Ohio valley, then the Mississippi valley.
The series will reveal the magnitude of the once great Sioux Nation and the process that led to its division and dispersion.
Production will be made in video, print, and CD-Rom interactive formats, targeting secondary schools but also attracting adult level interest.
For more information, contact Diversity Foundation, Inc, P.O. Box 2013, Maple Grove, MN 55311; telephone (612) 481-4461 or (763) 757-2990; fax (320) 253-6432; e-mail crossett@cloudnet.com or elohnesjr@yahoo.com.
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