Heart of All Oral History Project

This Spring, Little Wound School in the Pine Ridge Reservation released the seven-episode audio series "Heart of All."The Lakota Oral History project features dozens of interviews with elders in the community. The goal was to preserve oral traditions of Lakota people and share them with a new generation.

Throughout the series, elders have shared experiences of pain and loss, joy and triumph. Although work for justice, equity, and reparations continues, elders make it clear that through community and perseverance there are no challenges the nation can't overcome.In this final segment, you will hear "Woksape," or Words of Encouragement, for all Lakota youth, present and future.

This interview posted above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.Only two episodes of the audio series remain. It is perhaps fitting that the final episodes deal with the Lakota language and its role in building a future for the oyate.Today, there are an estimated 2,000 speakers of Lakota. Richard Moves Camp explains why it is important to keep the language alive.

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty pledged that the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, would be "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians."In the 1980 case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, the U.S. Supreme Court found that 1868 treaty had been repeatedly violated by the U.S. government and white settlers.

For two months in 1973, Wounded Knee, in the Pine Ridge reservation, was occupied by members of the American Indian Movement. Leaders of the siege declared the territory an independent Oglala Nation. Members of AIM set up barricades in opposition to racism, corruption, and the policies of then-tribal president Dick Wilson.

Following the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, there were conversations over what sort of support the federal government should give to reservation schools. In a new episode of the oral history project, educational administrator John Haas and former Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan Brewer talk about changes in education and how schools often had to cut corners with their budget.

In a new episode, elders remember land lost to "the bombing range," a 341,726 acre portion of the Pine Ridge Reservation that was seized by the Department of the Army during World War II.

The Heart of All Oral History project is an audio series developed by Little Wound School with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project aims to preserve the oral traditions of the Lakota people and preserve the stories of elders in the community.In a new episode, elders share memories of time at Indian boarding schools, and how those experiences shaped their childhoods.

The Heart of All Oral History project is an audio series developed by Little Wound School with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project aims to preserve the oral traditions of the Lakota people and preserve the stories of elders in the community.

In the latest Heart of All Oral History episode, Marcel Blue Bird and students from Little Wound School tell the story of what some historians call the "Grattan Massacre."