Watch the original interview video · Open this interview in the learning workspace
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0091. Imported source record; individual Elder status and tribal affiliation are not inferred.
Reviewed JAG competency and OSEU connections
No reviewed JAG–OSEU–interview connection is published for this record. Search matches alone do not establish an alignment.
Interview transcript
You know, over 500 nations of people, and there's very few tribes that are actually still in their original location of where they were before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. And the reason why I bring that up is because as the people have moved to different areas, it's you lose a lot of your culture, your history, your sense of kind of connection to that land, the land base. Even though our people were people that followed the buffalo, you know, are very moving in terms of following that and connected to the stars in terms of how things were set. But for the most part, being moved from one place to another had a significant impact on our people. So, the connection to the land was lost. And it's important to know that it's important for our students to understand this history because it helps them kind of kind of create why… maybe why am I in a position I am today? Why? Why is my life the way it is today as opposed to maybe if we had a stronger connection to the land… maybe if we still had our strong value-based society where we were living in a healthy home, you know… healthy, you know, day to day life… things will be a little easier in terms of your basic needs are met. Maybe your goals are a little easier to attain. So that's kind of my viewpoint on that.