00:00:00.000The silence is broken by somebody crying, trying to be heard, never a word, always the attitude, sort out your own, always alone, wishing for something the world is denying.
00:00:25.000Out in the wilderness somebody's crying
00:00:29.800Somebody wishing for something to happen
00:03:55.940And so I took it a step further when I became involved in tribal government where I was in positions where I could work with others to make a difference, to change that.
00:04:11.400But first of all, we had to educate our own people because of the colonization, the generation that came forward.
00:04:23.980A lot of our traditions, the meaning of our culture and our traditions, our sacred ceremonies, even other ceremonies, right?
00:04:37.620They talk about throwing the ball and what girls do when they become women, what boys do when they become men.
00:04:45.040All of that education has kind of been put in the back of our minds because of the colonization.
00:04:52.540And so today, there's a lot of our people that learned all of this through our ancestors, through our grandparents, but really never spoke about all of this.
00:05:06.560But now they're bringing everything out.
00:05:08.740And I really applaud them and thank them for having all this knowledge about our history and our culture and our traditions to bring up forward now.
00:05:18.120Because this younger generation is really eager to learn.
00:05:21.900They want to know who they are, where they came from.
00:05:26.280You know, we always say that because of the trauma of the boarding school days, all of that history was kind of put on hold, put in the back of people's minds.
00:05:35.360And they weren't allowed to talk about it or to practice, so that just carried on throughout the years.
00:05:41.120And so now coming to our generation, we realize that, you know, the battle of the Wounded Knee, there's other battles, a little Bitcoin battle, you know, there's more battles than what is put down in the white man's history that our people know about, our nation, the great nation knows about.
00:06:00.820And so we're hoping that all this comes out now so we can start educating our younger generation and our younger children to be proud of who they are and where they come from and be proud of being a Lakota.
00:06:16.880And that's where I've stepped in working with Loretta Cook and different people to educate our people.
00:06:25.660You know, we grew up, we watched a movie, we were cheering for the cowboys instead of the Indians.0.93
00:06:31.680You know, that's how colonized we became.0.95
00:06:33.800And I myself was guilt-tale that I was cheering for the cowboys, you know, when I was in grade school and watching movies and stuff.
00:06:40.360But as I got older, you know, we're just as equal as them.
00:06:45.200We have history, and we need to bring our history forward.
00:07:53.560His family were survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre, and he really had a lot of knowledge and experience.
00:08:03.080He was a little boy when that happened, and he told us that we talk about going back to the old ways.
00:08:10.020You know, that's impossible. We can't go back to living in teepees and hunting the buffalo because the government already took the buffalo away from us.
00:08:19.440But we can educate each other, our families and our relatives and our nation on how they live back there in harmony and in peace and helping each other and not this hate and jealousy and what's going on today where we fight among each other and among ourselves.
00:10:42.180And it really makes me feel good when you hear these younger children here speaking our language.
00:10:49.220My mother was from the eastern part of the state, and she'd spoken a B dialect.
00:10:55.020And my father was from here in primary reservation, and he spoke the L.
00:11:00.220And there really wasn't that much difference in the meanings of the words, but there was a little difference.
00:11:06.380And I was kind of third to the youngest of nine children, and my oldest siblings talked and understood, and then the middle ones understood, and us younger ones, we didn't.
00:11:18.900I wished I would have learned how to understand and to speak the language, but we didn't have that opportunity.
00:11:25.280My mother was working for the government.
00:11:29.340My father was working for the government.
00:11:31.460He worked for the Bureau of Utilities here in Pine Ridge.
00:11:35.760And so they were working parents and we went to school every day and our language, our culture wasn't taught in the school those days back then when I was a young child.
00:11:45.440So being married to a fluent Lakota speaker, he really helped me to where I could understand, but not to speak the language.
00:11:56.160And we fear that once we lose the language, we're no more.
00:11:59.460but today they do have Lakota language in our schools,
00:14:43.080especially working here today in the health care field.
00:14:46.300We're seeing that a lot of our people are suffering and are dying from diabetes, cancer, a heart, you know, just because there's no money available.
00:14:57.200There's just little enough money, but not enough to help our people to have better health care.
00:15:04.100We're trying the best we can, but it also has to go back to the federal government.
00:15:09.940I've expressed my concern on the billions of dollars they give to the foreign countries.
00:15:15.840and I know they have money at the end of the year, surplus money.
00:15:21.580You know, why can't they give that to the tribes across the United States
00:15:25.280and Alaska to help instead of keeping us down, you know, under their thumb?
00:18:50.840I really thank them for that, you know, bringing the awareness, and that's part of why the Unity Concert was developed, was to bring everybody to one place, to the Sacred Black Guild, you know, have this concert to talk about and sing about Uchimaka, our ways, our traditions,
00:19:16.660and let the people know internationally and nationally that we are a nation
00:19:23.760and we need to work with each other and other nations in order to survive here on Uchimaka.
00:20:08.920And that needs to be clear across the board with everybody.
00:20:18.120This Unity Concert has opened a lot of eyes to the outside people, knowing that we're here, we're willing to work with everybody.
00:20:31.220We want to make life better for not only ourselves and our future generations, but for all mankind.
00:20:38.920That's how it was in the past and it could be that way today if we just put our heads together and came up with solutions and how we can make this big, big change.
00:20:53.140I'm not blaming just the federal government, but we are south of the nation, the Great Sioux Nation.
00:21:00.460And, you know, we have different bands.
00:21:02.820We need to all work together and learn how to get along and help each other.
00:21:10.120When I was tribal chairperson, we have the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association, which I was chairwoman of.
00:21:18.640And I talked to the other chairmen and chairwoman, and I told them, I said, you know, we need to start looking at not what the federal government wants,
00:26:25.340We could go to the sacred Black Hills and pray and do our ceremonies.
00:26:29.780And there was even Lionel Bordeaux, chairperson of the college in Rosebud, wanting to open a university free to our children so that they could get education that they wanted and, you know, become doctors and lawyers and scientists and whatever, you know, even astronauts or surgeons or whatever.
00:26:55.680We had meetings in all the reservations here, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock.
00:27:03.280We went around to these reservations and we had meetings and we invited the elderly, the treaty council, the youth.
00:27:09.820We even invited tribal councils, let's put our heads together and we put paper on the walls and we divided them in groups.
00:27:18.320You talk about the land, you talk about the water, the air, education, law enforcement.
00:27:25.320We had all these topics, and they had such good ideas on what they wanted to do, what we could do.
00:27:32.540Once we got those lands returned back to us, and we did that throughout the reservations.
00:27:39.260And, you know, it's sad when you're trying to do something, and then your term as tribal president or whatever runs out, and you're not reelected.
00:27:49.400But our plan, since I wasn't re-elected in 2010, we went ahead and continued on the vision that I saw where we were all going to work together.
00:28:02.600We're going to all come together and work on getting the Black Hills back.
00:28:08.520But we had to be in unison on how we were going to do that
00:28:12.720because in 2008, when the Sioux Tribes met with President Obama's people,
00:28:19.060the message he gave us was that, you know,
00:28:21.300he would consider giving them Black children back.
00:28:24.220But first he wanted us all to be in agreement,
00:28:27.340to come up with one plan where we were going to all work together
00:28:30.800and what we were going to do once we got the Black children back.
00:28:34.140and that we tried to work towards, but because of this colonization
00:28:39.340and because of the jealousy and distrust,
00:29:33.160You know, we included them in every effort that we put forth to getting the Black Kemp back.0.99
00:29:43.140And believe me, it's really a struggle.
00:29:48.500It's really a struggle working with our own people on getting them to see the vision of how it would be if we got that land back, what we could do with it.
00:30:00.320Because all these years, the timber, the water, the land, you know, the federal government taking all of that away from us, you know, and not giving us one red cent of it instead of giving it to the county, to the state, to everybody but the rightful owners of the Black Hills.
00:30:20.660and it's discouraging but yet it makes you want to work even harder on how can we come up with
00:30:28.260these ideas and these plans. My vision is it's going to happen one of these days
00:30:35.360and the reason why I say that is because before we started this effort in 2009,
00:30:42.600my staff and I were sitting there in the office and we were talking about this, how we're going
00:30:47.360to go about it you know that the tribal council took action in 1980 to support mario and filing
00:30:56.120those lawsuits and they passed a resolution saying that the black hills were not for sale
00:31:03.400and that's where it ended in 1980 and there was no action in between the treaty councils met
00:31:09.380they came up with resolutions they sent them to dc but never once did we ever hear word back on
00:40:32.880And so he gave me his blessings and he said, good luck.
00:40:36.560The next time I met up with Chief O'Reilly, he came into my office and he sat down and he looked at me and he looked away and he said, you know, I went across the reservation this weekend and I talked to different people, he said, and we all feel it's time for a woman to run for this position.
00:41:13.720and the spirits gave me my Lakota name
00:41:16.900which was first to stand with a feather.
00:41:22.320And the meaning behind that is that I was the first woman
00:41:26.820to be placed in a position that was held solely by the men.
00:41:34.080And I really carry that name with honor because, like I told the women,
00:41:42.360at a women's meeting, and I told them, I said, you know, I opened the door.
00:41:49.720What I wanted to do was open the door for the women0.97
00:41:52.440so that they could be in the place leadership roles1.00
00:41:57.820to be able to voice our concerns, our issues, our solutions,
00:42:03.320you know, just to work with the men on doing all of that.
00:42:08.500And so I said, you know, I'm not here to say I'm better than anybody
00:42:12.080or, you know, I'm going to do a better job.
00:42:15.120I'm just here to say that I'm opening the door for the women.1.00
00:42:19.660And that door opened because the next two administrations later, the first woman president was elected, Cecilia Firefender.
00:42:30.660So I know deep in my heart that what I've been doing, my actions, just working a little at a time, brought the trust from the people to give us women a chance to be in these leadership roles and to show them that we can make changes, we can make life better.
00:42:49.660and I really am happy that this is the path that gosh love put for me to follow
00:42:57.560because there was time I didn't know what I was doing with my life.
00:43:13.520I turned to alcohol and I abused alcohol for like four or five months my mother was raised
00:43:21.760and my other daughter and that's how I turned to grief and I think that's common here on the
00:43:27.540reservation is I turned to alcohol and drugs when you're grieving or there's this hopelessness
00:43:34.320there's this fear that you know where am I gonna go where am I gonna live where what am I gonna
00:43:41.560especially when you have children you know that that's what was brought among us by the federal
00:43:46.760government by the colonization that they put us in this situation but then my mother never drank
00:43:53.580alcohol and she just told me one day you're her mother you need to get your life together
00:43:59.260she's suffering you're suffering but you can overcome that grief and realizing that your
00:44:06.440daughter's in a better place she's with the creator and you need to think about this daughter
00:44:12.320so that really made me think and so I got my daughter back I got a job I quit drinking
00:44:20.480and I've been sober ever since and like I said this path that Takasha laid out for me
00:44:26.720was something I never ever expected I never ever dreamt that you know I would be a state
00:44:32.720I'd be secretary of the tribe for four terms.
00:44:37.100I was first woman vice president, second woman president.
00:44:42.220You know, there's just all these accomplishments that I had accomplished
00:44:48.060was because of my faith in Tukashla and because of the people.
00:44:53.840The people knowing me and trusting me and working with me.
00:44:58.220And, you know, it makes me feel good when these younger women come up to me and they want to meet me and shake my hand.
00:45:06.640And, you know, I really stress education because that's going to help you go a long ways.
00:45:12.040And that's what my mom expressed to myself and my siblings.
00:45:15.980You know, you need to get an education.0.95
00:45:17.880We need to compete with the white world out there and we can do it.1.00
00:45:23.140And I see that with a lot of our people that are, you know, going to college and getting their master's degree and, you know, just making their life better.0.99
00:47:12.600You know, the story, I really like, I want you to know the story that in 2009, when we took upon this project on the Black Hills, like I said, we were sitting around my table and we were talking and we all agreed we really need to bring spirituality in it.
00:47:33.780If it's going to work, we need to bring spirituality in it.
00:49:43.980And he said, you know, it makes me feel good that I know it's not going to be
00:49:48.040right away, but eventually we are going to get the Black Hills back.
00:49:52.860So I really wished everybody would keep that in their mind,
00:49:57.740in their heart, and help us work with us.
00:50:00.040If not us, you know, if there's other groups out there working for the same thing, you know, help them.
00:50:08.300Join them and help them and get this done.
00:50:13.540Like I said earlier, the creator put this path in front of me and he's helped me everywhere.
00:50:19.740But also the tribal leaders, the elderly, you know, everybody that crossed my path has helped me one way or another to accomplish things for them.
00:53:14.900In the river is our sisters and our brothers
00:53:26.120Well, thank you so much for sharing your story
00:53:33.640And when you were speaking about the Black Hills and getting the Black Hills back, I kept thinking about the future generations of Native youth who could steward these lands again and all of the struggles that teens are facing, especially teens, you know, growing up entrenched in this intergenerational trauma and this web of injustices.
00:54:01.140And I know that a lot of times it leaves youth debilitated with despair and some turn to suicide.
00:54:10.340I know so much so that suicide state of emergencies have been declared in the Oglala Sioux Nation.
00:54:16.840How do you envision this path out of hopelessness for them?
00:54:21.500How do you feel a unity concert can help uplift the youth?
00:54:26.860And how can other people support them that aren't in that region?
00:54:32.120Well, I think that the music that's provided at the Unity Concert really sends a message.
00:54:39.220And if you come to the Unity Concert, you're going to see all the youth that are there taking part,
00:54:45.040you know, listening to the music, even performing.
00:54:49.540We try to get our Native American youth up there on the stage.
00:54:56.460You know, everything is through music.
00:54:58.340Like, we had music in our culture and tradition, and, you know, there was a flute and our songs, the drum, the beat of life, the drum beat, and that's in us.
00:55:12.840And, you know, when I was president, it was really hard because that's when the suicide started here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
00:59:12.320I know they want that, that they want a change.
00:59:14.580They don't want to be going a bit hungry, going home to alcohol and drug abuse in their homes.
00:59:22.860They want the education, but they don't have the school clothes.
00:59:26.880You know, there's so much that our youth are going through.
00:59:30.120But that also goes back to we as adults, we as parents, we need to change our ways too and recognize their needs and try to help them.
00:59:41.700So it involves the whole family, the children, the community, your relatives, it involves the whole nation that we need to open our eyes and see that we can make a difference where we have to be in this together.
01:00:00.120Thank you so much, Teresa, and if there's anything else that you would like to add or anything you'd like to close on, please feel free, but otherwise, thank you so much for sharing stories and so much insight into your life and to the Lakota people.
01:00:22.100It's been a really touching conversation.
01:00:30.120You know, I was always told to speak from the heart.