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05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0030. Imported source record; individual Elder status and tribal affiliation are not inferred.
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Interview transcript
Actually, in 1924, it became legal. It's called the Indian Citizenship Act. We became Americans then. So, we have two identities. We are Lakota and we are Americans again. Then 10 years later, the 1934 Act, the tribal government, then the schools had to learn how to speak the English language. We are Lakota, but then when you're conquered, I guess you've got to learn whatever the language, whatever you own, it's gone. They owned it. We don't own it anymore. And there are a number of Pioneer Indian Reservations, number 344, POW Camp 344. So, that's where our grandpas were. You can live here the rest of your life, I guess, but then it's not yours, it's ours. So, then we become Americans, Indian Citizenship Act, 1924. It's called the Indian Reorganization Act.