As Esther and Laura Between-the-Lodges boarded an overnight train for a weeklong visit to Washington, D.C., they were excited and a little
apprehensive. Neither of the women, who live on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, had ever been on a train before, nor had they traveled much farther east than Omaha. Esther and Laura, accompanied by granddaughter Julie Lakota, were headed for a springtime visit to the Smithsonian Institution-but they were on a different kind of sightseeing trip.
The journey was Julie`s idea. As an anthrophology student at the University of South Dakota, she was interested in documenting the oral history of the Lakota Sioux people. It occurred to her that her Lakota
”grandmothers” (actually, her paternal grandmother`s first cousins) could help her learn more about the traditional women`s arts among the 2,300 Sioux artifacts housed at the National Museum of Natural History.
The project Julie designed called for the women to examine selected items from the museum`s collections and to talk about the knowledge the objects represent, while their comments were captured on video and audio tape.
To start the project, Julie contacted JoAllyn Archambault, the director of the museum`s American Indian Program. Archambault arranged an internship for Julie that provided funding for her to bring her grandmothers to Washington. ”The Smithsonian was as delighted about Julie`s project as Esther and Laura were,” Archambault said. ”We have always made our collections available to Indian people. What is unique about this project is that it was designed by a young woman to learn more about the knowledge of elderly women.”
Some of the ethnological material the grandmothers examined was collected in the early 19th Century by various exploring expeditions, explained Candace Greene, collections manager for the museum`s Department of Anthropology.
”Most of the objects, however, were collected in the latter part of the century by missionaries, educators and other `outsiders` who worked on the reservations. These artifacts were supplemented at the turn of the century by items collected by anthropologists working primarily with the Bureau of American Ethnology, an arm of the Smithsonian. A large number of these articles, such as clothing and tepee furnishings, were made by women.”
Julie knew that some of the traditional Lakota art-the cradle board, for example-is no longer produced on the reservations as it was when Esther and Laura were young. ”It was my hope,” she said, ”that seeing this art would bring to life their memories of a time gone by when these objects were in everyday use.”
Sharing the lore
Many of the men`s arts-feather work, for instance-are well documented.
”I wanted to hear more about the objects meant only for women`s use,” she continued. ”The sewing techniques that were the basis of making many of these traditional arts are of great interest to me.” During the oral-history project, Esther and Laura detailed the Lakota names for certain sewing stitches and shared the lore about the reasons for their use. ”We need to learn all we can from our elders so their knowledge, combined with ours, can be passed to the future Lakota people,” Julie added.
Both Laura, 71, and Esther, 69, are accomplished craftspersons in the Lakota tradition. Laura does beadwork, and Esther beads, crochets and sews star quilts. Although some traditional crafts, such as buckskin tanning, are not practiced as frequently as in earlier years, beading and quiltmaking are still popular at the reservation.
Women who are proficient beadworkers are kept busy making beaded moccasins, headbands, belts and other items for nieces, nephews and grandchildren to wear on special occasions. Star quilts, made from solid and calico print cotton cut into diamond shapes and sewed together to form eight- pointed stars, are given to relatives and friends at traditional celebrations during the year.
During the week, Esther and Laura saw thousands of objects made and used by Lakota women-including dresses, belts, moccasins, leggings, dolls, pouches, hair pieces, amulets and cradles. As the video and audio tapes rolled, the women looked over the articles, talked about when they had last seen them, what they were used for and their relationships to Lakota thought and philosophy.
The grandmothers demonstrated how porcupine tails were used for grooming hair in the days before mass-produced combs and brushes. As they examined a beaded-and-quilled baby cap, they noted that the Lakota people made bonnets only for their first-born child in the days before reservations were established ”when families were small.”
Stories of the old days
At the Smithsonian, Laura and Esther recalled their childhoods in the years after World War I, when they were raised by their grandmother, White Mountain, after the deaths of their mother and father. White Mountain, who lived to be 97 years old, told them stories of the old days. She was born in 1850, when the Sioux were still a nomadic tribe of equestrian buffalo hunters, living in tepees and roaming the open prairie in search of game. Esther and Laura`s earliest memories are of White Mountain`s cabin along a creek near Manderson, S.D.
As the women pored over Sioux artifacts, they told about White Mountain`s recollections of the extermination of the buffalo and the establishment of the reservation system in the 1870s and how that began a very difficult era of change for the Sioux. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was in charge of most aspects of Indian life at that time. Its goal was to assimilate Indians into non-Indian society.
The bureau took Lakota and other Indian children from their homes and sent them to boarding schools. ”In 1926, when I was 5 years old, Grandmother told us that we were going to enter the white world,” Esther remembered. ”A black car came to our home and took my sister and me to Pine Ridge Boarding School.” We didn`t want to go, but Grandma told us we had to. It took two days to get there.”
It was a harsh experience. ”We didn`t speak or understand anything but Lakota, and they severely punished us if they heard us speaking our language,” she continued. ”We learned to speak, read and write English; to sew, embroider, crochet and cook. The boys lived in a separate building but attended classes with us. They were taught carpentry, shoe making and other trades. We stayed at the school nine months of the year and went home in the summers.”
Esther recalled that the summers were happy, even though she and her sister worked very hard. ”We washed everything by hand; hauled wood; and picked wild cherries, grapes, plums and beans. All our food was dried and kept for the winter, including the meat. We didn`t farm or keep livestock. We could get the vegetables and meat we needed from neighbors. We kept two horses and a wagon for transportation.”
The grandmothers agreed that White Mountain was a great repository of knowledge and taught them many things. ”She knew how to cook, sew, bead and embroider with porcupine quills,” Esther said. ”She showed me how to use the skin scraper to tan hides. When we went off to school, she made a dress for me decorated with elk teeth and beaded moccasins and leggings. It was highly honored clothing. When we got to the school, our clothes were taken away from us and we were given uniforms and shoes that hurt our feet.”
One of the most exciting moments of the week for the women was a visit to the museum`s National Anthrophological Archives where they discovered a photograph taken in 1898 of a man they believe may have been Afraid-of-Hawk, White Mountain`s father.
Esther graduated from Pine Ridge Boarding School in 1939, married Bud Condon and raised nine children. Following Condon`s death, she married John Buck Elk Thunder, and they had two children. Laura married Bud`s brother Silas, and they had nine children. Silas died recently, and Laura now lives with one of her daughters.
”Our children all speak the Lakota language,” Esther said, ”but now we have grandchildren galore who don`t speak the language. It worries us. At the Lakota senior center at Cherry Creek, we talk all the time about the loss of our traditions. Something has to be done about it. And that is why we are here with our granddaughter.”
Julie`s oral-history project was a boon to all involved. Copies of the tapes will be placed in the National Anthropological Archives. ”Just as Julie benefited by being able to listen first-hand to her grandmothers talking about these objects, the Smithsonian benefited by documenting them,” Archambault said. ”And the younger Lakota people will benefit by having access to the tapes and learning about their traditions.” –
