Friday, May 20, 2011

Rochester heard some real singing last night

Battle River, my brother's drum group sang some great songs last night at Native American Day sponsored by  Rochester Public Schools.  Rochester had a taste of Native American drum music that it has not heard before.  Great attendance though few native students came and not the 61 families we hoped to reach.  It will take time.  I attribute this to the relatively few indigenous peoples that reside in Rochester and because Rochester does not appreciate the rich Native American heritage that it once had.  I guess that will take time too.

Thanks Glory of the Morning.  Your history though largely unknown has helped me have courage.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Celebrate Dakota Week Proclamation


All this in an effort to save Indian Heights Park from being desecrated by people who don't understand why a burial site used by the Dakota should be kept sacred.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Research begins

Just got the okay from the IRB at Lesley University and now my study of GOM can officially begin.  I still need to make a few changes to my consent form.  I didn't realize that filling out a questionnaire can cause stress in people, but I guess it can.  1/7 questionnaires have already been returned.  At this rate it is going to be a LONG process.  I am so glad that I began early with the initial okay from the IRB.


Already surfacing from the initial paper on GOM is the need for oral history to take a more prominent role in my research and in research in general, especially when it involves research with indigenous peoples.  Very exciting.  


While there is no school in the summer, I will be busy researching GOM, treaties, Ho-Chunk history, interviewing people and studying qualitative research methods and ways of knowing.  Summer looks to be busy and hopefully productive as well.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Glory of the Morning: With new eyes...

Glory of the Morning: With new eyes...: "Beginning graduate studies to examine GOM's role in Ho-Chunk history has been an awakening. I see things with new eyes. I see how much of ..."

With new eyes...

Beginning graduate studies to examine GOM's role in Ho-Chunk history has been an awakening.  I see things with new eyes.  I see how much of our history has been colorized by colonialists, imperialists and historians.  I see how invisible these people think we were and still are. In fact, I was just reminded of it today in my attendance of the Rochester Park Board's Steering Committee Meeting.  There were several caucasian people there, save myself attempting to skirt the real issue of Indian Heights Park; it was once used as a burial site by the Dakota Nation.  Plans were being bantered about.  Ideas were being created and nurtured along.  Sides were being taken and a BIG line was drawn by the City's Park Director and the sports enthusiasts group who are very much ONE.  It was as if the Dakota were never in Rochester.  It was as if the token Indian on the board was not there.  Actually he wasn't, something better to do I expect.  It was as if I wasn't there.  I wasn't, because I am not officially on the committee.  Talk of trails, signs, plants, park hours, verbiage and more verbiage and yet NOT ONE WORD about the native peoples that once used Rochester as its hunting and burial grounds.  How sad.  It looks like Rochester is just too progressive, too busy, too "white" to acknowledge that a park located on its highest point was once used as an Indian burial site.