Bridging the Gap between people and cultures Documentary Proposal Reconciling with History: Vision of The Diversity Foundation, Inc.: The nationwide struggle to improve educational standards in the USA is an urgent challenge for government, business, non-profit organizations and private citizens, alike. The effort faces one major challenge that has not yet been widely articulated. Historical failings that undermine success in learning exist not only in the lives of many children and families, and in the performance of some teachers, but in the very substance of the history that is studied and that frames attitudes among various groups of people. Studies have documented the destructive influence upon children of other than European descent in the USA of the false teachings that implicitly and explicitly demean their ancestors while celebrating Euro American achievements. White students are misled, by the same history, into belief that white experience is normative. The air remains haunted - especially in the American West - with bitter memories and persistent systems and symbols that undermine relationships, impair problem-solving, limit human and economic development, and distort hopes for the future. The self-image of conqueror or victim has been deeply stamped in the consciousness of youth in this country, in the past, and the struggle to transform this reality has barely begun. Conscious struggle to transform this reality has barely begun. Conscious of the pitfalls in this struggle, in the recent past, some schools have forgone serious teaching of history.

Now, high School content standards in Minnesota include closely related dimensions in the thematic areas of US history and citizenship, diverse perspectives, human geography, institutions and traditions in society, and community interaction. Each of these teaching areas has experienced pressures for change or new development, in recent years, as new consciousness has emerged of the differing perspectives of people derived from diverse histories, cultures and physical or social geography. Educational accountability must include exposing children and adults to the truth of our own heritage and the remarkable achievements of each US subculture in its own social context.

The Diversity Foundation, Inc. proposes to respond with an innovative multi-media educational program, grounded in a series of video documentaries that will recall the early experiences of people in the Upper Midwest, drawing upon the stories and memories of living elders. When white settlers first came to this region, the principal group indigenous to what is now southern Minnesota were the Dakotah people, who became commonly known as the Great Sioux Nation. The Ojibwe people, known in treaties with the USA as Chippewa but, in their own language, as Anishinabe, predominantly occupied the northern woodlands. Both tribes, although accustomed to migrations following food supply, had been driven westward by forceful expansion of the US frontier.

The educational series will begin with documentaries built upon interviews with elders in these tribal communities, dispersed throughout the Upper Midwest. A related series will draw from African American elders, recalling the unique experiences - and, often, the dashed hopes of their ancestors moving to this land. Perspectives reflected in oral accounts of elders will be complemented by historical photos and dramatizations. The series will encompass an analysis rare in popular education. As it unfolds, some Euro American elders likely will be drawn upon, as well. The initial episode sets the tone for the series.

Episode #1: Wapasha's Prairie

the chief who fought for the British in the War of 1812, hoping to win peace with Washington - and whose community was replaced at mid-century by a settlement that became Winona. Derived as "Wabasha," his name became among the most repeated for Minnesota places, but his memory and vision are only now being recovered, with aid of his sThe initial episode, already in production, will feature the story of eventh and eighth generation heirs.

Wapasha's Prairie will support a series of interactive educational modules designed to stand alone or to be used as a series. These modules will be accessible through digital website technology, interactive CD Rom, or traveling kiosk equipment. The modules will be accompanied by detailed teachers' manuals with printed copies and supplementary resources, web links, and audio/video recorded interviews as well as listings of potential speakers. These formats will strengthen choices available in new educational standards and will enhance the capacities of school districts. This will be especially important for school districts otherwise lacking resources to address some of the new objectives toward which they are being asked to prepare students.

Each module will focus on a phase of history, designed around the personality of a particular leader and/or the culture and experience of a certain group. It will address issues of family, governance, economics, natural resource usage, and world view. It will compare these areas of indigenous life with those that emerged in immigrant communities. A primary source will be the stories and memories of living elders, as well as more traditional records of history, archeology and anthropology. Many of these stories have never been told to a general audience. Others have been misrepresented both in popular culture and general education.

This educational production obviously will be of special interest in tribal schools and colleges, helping to bolster educational tools available on reservations. Preliminary contacts have identified strong interest among tribal educators. Plans have been initiated to translate resources into the Dakota language, to reinforce cultural recovery efforts among Dakota youth.

The Background

During the 19th century, European immigrants to the USA swept westward, often with little or no concern for the people they were displacing on the land. As railroads broke open the territory with high-speed travel and commerce, millions swarmed into the expanding frontier for new agricultural and industrial development. They were motivated by the opportunities before them but, mostly, also by memories of poverty, misfortune, or political chaos or tyranny left behind in Europe. They were further inspired by a national doctrine of "Manifest Destiny." Descendants of Chief Wapasha relate oral tradition and personal experience illustrating the encounter between these "frontier" settlers and the communities that had been here long before.

A few African Americans were among the new arrivals, with generations of history in the country, predominantly descendants of slaves who had achieved freedom. Some of them also became soldiers and settlers in the developing West. In spite of a few early success stories, they commonly found themselves culturally isolated, politically ambiguous, and restricted in access to the riches of the land. Asian immigrants were isolated to the West Coast, and to mountain mining, railroad building and other narrowly defined occupational prospects. Non-Europeans generally were denied citizenship until the mid 20th century.

The diverse immigrants to the USA had been preceded by Spanish, French, British and Dutch explorers, traders, adventurers and exploiters who vied for indigenous allies in their various economic, political and military competitions. The Native nations, tribes and clans struggled to preserve their livelihood in the woodlands and plains increasingly threatened by the invaders. Often, under cultural or military threat, they moved westward, away from the white settlers, until they encountered another tribe, whereupon competing use of the limited resources of land and water often led to inter-tribal conflict.

By late mid-19th century in the northern plains, indigenous communities, thinned by military action and infection with diseases transplanted from Europe, also saw the central resource in their economy, the buffalo, destroyed. The white hunters often saw the animals only as trophies or even, obstacles, as they cleared a path for the railroads and space for white farmers and ranchers. Eventually, the people of the great, loosely confederated Dakotah Nation were forcefully exiled from Minnesota, dispersed, divided and ultimately fragmented in their culture and their sense of place and community. Some of them became Lakota or Nakota, or identified with their band or reservation names. The woodland-based Ojibwe people less often resisted militarily, but also were dispersed among designated reservations.

During the last half of the 19th century, more than 1,000 indigenous nations throughout the USA were subjected to successive federal programs of forced exile, relocation and assimilation, as alternatives to the earlier national goal of genocidal extermination. Upon assignment by the federal government, assimilation was administered primarily by the faith-based systems and institutions transplanted from Europe. The aim was to fully separate subsequent generations of indigenous people from their collective history and culture.

Today's heirs to this destructive history, whether of Indigenous, European or other geographical/cultural roots, inherit the pain of separation, division, prejudice and racism, rubbed raw by mis-education, selective economic deprivation, and by cultural and political suppression. Among those who have internalized the oppression, the pain is especially intense; and, correspondingly, is the need for healing and reconciliation. Among those empowered and privileged by this history, there is an equal need for honest acknowledgement, and for a renewed commitment to "liberty and justice for all" as a source of freedom from the prison of systemic racism.

A basic component of this reconciliation with history is to recover the stories, traditions, the memories which were stamped out by assimilation. This work in Minnesota was given official encouragement during the Year of Reconciliation proclaimed by Governor Perpich in 1987

At the 125th anniversary of the executions of 38 Dakota people at Mankato, following what is now called the "Dakota Conflict," The Diversity Foundation videotaped a number of events and interviews with elders, intended to resource a subsequent episode in this series.

The Diversity Foundation has built a strong networking base among Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and Ojibwe communities in reservations and urban centers in Minnesota, Canada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, and among African American people in the Twin Cities. It has heard repeated pleas among these peoples for collaboration in behalf of peace and reconciliation, health and wholeness, social stability and economic vitality, and in behalf of acceptance by each other and their cultural neighbors. The Diversity Foundation is inviting collaborators from among production firms and like-minded non-profit organizations, as well as tribal and community groups. Eventually, public sector involvement and support may be pursued, as well.