$1.2M grant helps tribes preserve traditions (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

$1.2M grant helps tribes preserve traditions

By MARY PICKETT
Billings Gazette
http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2004/01/17/build/tribal/tribe-project.php?nnn%20=%205

BILLINGS – With the help of a new $1.2 million grant, a history project
is “reawakening the memory of the Northern Cheyenne,” a member of the
tribe said Friday.

The American Indian Tribal Histories Project at the Western Heritage
Center will help preserve threatened culture and traditions of several
Montana tribes.

Instead of disappearing, that knowledge now can be passed on to future
generations, said Rubie Sootkis, a field director for the project.

The project is rescuing traditional and contemporary tribal history by
transferring it into books, educational DVDs and museum exhibits.

The project was recently awarded the $1.2 million by the U.S. Department
of Interior to fund its second year. Last year, the project received $1
million to start work on Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations.

The new grant will help the project expand to the Fort Belknap
Reservation home to Gros Ventre and Assiniboine-Sioux tribes, said
Francine Bear Dont Walk, director of the program.

During its first months, the project hired two field directors, Sooktis,
a writer and filmmaker who has spent years documenting Northern
Cheyenne culture, and Mardell Plainfeather, a Crow historian who has
worked for the National Park Service and Little Bighorn College at Crow
Agency.

Six students from Montana State University-Billings, Rocky Mountain
College, Little Bighorn College and Chief Dull Knife College have been
hired as interns. The students are being trained in interview and
research techniques and in how to use audio and video equipment.

Interviews with current tribal members, “the meat of the project,” will
begin in February, Bear Dont Walk said.

The tribal members interviewed will be those who are knowledgeable in
many areas including lullabies, classic stories, art, music and
traditional skills such as tanning hides.

The information will be used to create a DVD for each tribe that can be
used in schools both on and off reservations.

The DVD, which may be available as soon as November, will be an
encyclopedia of primary sources of Indian traditions.

If a teacher wants students to learn about a sun dance, for example,
students can listen to a tribal expert talk about the ceremony.

Because each tribe’s culture is continuing to evolve, information about
21st century music, athletics and rodeo will be included.

Interviews and music recorded in the past that Sooktis and Plainfeather
have tracked down also may be incorporated into each DVD.

Exhibits of each tribe’s unique history and culture will be presented at
the Western Heritage Center in February 2005.

A book on contemporary members of each tribe is expected to be published
in November 2005. The book will be a snapshot of “who we are today,”
said Bear Dont Walk.

The tribal history project has been a dream come true for Bear Dont
Walk.

Less and less cultural information is being passed down to younger
generations each year.

Bear Dont Walk, who is in her 30s, doesn’t speak Northern Cheyenne and
knows of few young people who speak it fluently.

Even the Crow language, considered one of healthiest among all tribes in
the United States, is in danger of disappearing, Plainfeather said.

Many parents now work and don’t have time to talk about traditions with
their children, Sooktis said. Extended, multigenerational families,
once the norm in Indian country, are beginning to disappear.

Not only is the project helping American Indians learn more about their
own tribes, but about other tribes as well.

Even though Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes have lived side by side on
neighboring reservations, Sooktis is learning new things about Crow
history and culture.

Jona Charette, a Northern Cheyenne who is the administrative officer for
the project, said it has special meaning for her family.

Charette’s 7-year-old daughter, Savannah, is half Crow and will be able
to learn of about both sides of her family with the project’s help.

Saturday, January 17, 2004