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(gentle music)

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-: This is my family crest.

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I don't know what I think about this, O'Davoren.

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It comes from, I believe sometime in late medieval times.

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These family crests got created.

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And everybody was very proud to have one.

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And it says "Nunquam non paratus."

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It means never unprepared.

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(gentle music)

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My name is Rita Davern, and I live in St. Paul.

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My family at one time owned Pike Island,

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in the Mississippi River near Fort Snelling.

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And, the more I learned about the history of that land

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and what happened there, and how sacred it is

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to Dakota people.

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I have been very, very interested

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in the concept of restorative justice

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and restoration of land rights and land.

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I thought I'd just start by stopping by, and saying hello.

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(upbeat music)

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♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

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♪ Happy birthday ♪

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Rita: We all know that family reunions can be wonderful.

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But also awkward.

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Especially when I've decided to bring up

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some information about my family history

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that might make some relatives uncomfortable.

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But first, a look at who's here.

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That's my oldest brother Bill.

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He's one of five generations of "William Daverns."

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There's my sister Margaret.

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She looked out for me when I was young.

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We're close.

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And there are my grand nieces who I adore.

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Boy: Kinda just like a family reunion, kind of thing.

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Girl: Yeah.

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Boy: Or you just gonna see your family,

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you don't usually get to see very often.

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-: And you eat food.

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-: I like the US.

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-: Yes.

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Okay, you gotta teach me that one.

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Interviewer: So, do you know where you're from?

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Like, where your ancestors are from?

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-: I'm pretty sure Ireland.

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-: Yeah.

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And maybe from here, too.

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-: Assuming they're somehow related to us.

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Cause, they probably wouldn't just hang up

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a picture of someone you already know.

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-: And they're a lot older now.

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So I can never tell who it is.

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Cause old people tend to look alike.

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-: What?

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-: Yeah.

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Rita: And my husband Bob, is also here.

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He and my brothers like to "rib" each other

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about their golf games.

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Bob likes hanging around my large Catholic family.

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Most of them live within miles of this house.

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Which is close to where I grew up,

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in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Sometimes family members will talk about my son Chris,

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who died 10 years ago.

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We all still miss him terribly.

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There's a wall in my living room

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with a 1200 year timeline of our family history.

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I guess you could say I'm passionate about my roots.

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But for a long time, I didn't know much about my heritage.

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All I knew growing up is that I was Irish.

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But I didn't know what that really meant.

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When I was young, my bedtime prayers always ended,

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"God bless grandma Anne and grandpa Bill,

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aunt Margaret and uncle Pat."

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But they were just names without stories.

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-: Whoever came here first changed their name.

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As most people who immigrated do.

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From O'Davoren to Davern.

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That's what my understanding is.

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I know they came from Ireland.

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And I could probably point out on a map where it is.

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But probably couldn't.

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I don't know exactly where it is.

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I'm actually kind of excited to learn some stuff.

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It doesn't define me individually.

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But, it is interesting stuff.

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And I mean, it's not going to hurt me by knowing.

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-: My greatest wish for today is that

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this is just a beginning of a new conversation

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about our family and our history, and what it means now.

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It turns out in my own mind

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what's been going on a lot lately is,

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wondering about how our people could come from Ireland

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and have their land taken away

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over centuries there, you know.

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Oppression from the British Empire and famine and all that.

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And they came here and, here they kind of did the same thing

00:04:52.630 --> 00:04:54.690
to the native people here.

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They took land, that was Dakota land.

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They forced the Dakota out, not our family in particular.

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They were just part of a big movement.

00:05:02.483 --> 00:05:05.198
But, kind of bothers me.

00:05:05.198 --> 00:05:08.561
And so I've been sort of processing that

00:05:08.561 --> 00:05:10.570
and trying to figure out what the hell

00:05:10.570 --> 00:05:12.610
I want to do about this, now that I know.

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Do you ever think about this?

00:05:13.840 --> 00:05:18.530
Do you ever wonder why we never ever heard

00:05:18.530 --> 00:05:21.750
that there was a native person in Minnesota?

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I never heard anything, growing up.

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That there were Indians on the land

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great grandpa settled on, nothing.

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(upbeat music)

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-: My path was art.

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And, when I got my bachelor's in Dakota art and culture.

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I was able to get a job in Indian education.

00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:48.991
My kids were bigger, they were in school.

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I was, at home mom.

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So I took this job.

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And it was teaching culture, art and culture.

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The mission of my work is to enhance

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the cultural identity of the native child.

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And then as I learned more about our education system.

00:06:04.550 --> 00:06:09.550
How Minnesota is, it ranks 49 and 50, always.

00:06:11.460 --> 00:06:15.533
Unsuccessfully educating black, brown and indigenous kids.

00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.740
And knowing that, and knowing that

00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:20.750
this is a systemic problem.

00:06:20.750 --> 00:06:23.446
I went back and got my master's in education.

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And certainly not to know more about our system

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but to know enough to interrupt it.

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(speaks foreign language)

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Good morning my relatives.

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It was awesome to hear your introductions.

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I like to make mine in the Dakota language.

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That is the language of Minnesota for over 12,000 years.

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So here we are, at historic Fort Snelling.

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This is a place that is a really popular spot

00:07:08.766 --> 00:07:11.353
for teachers to bring students.

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In 1862, our grandmothers and women and children

00:07:15.564 --> 00:07:19.560
were rounded up in Lower Sioux, Morton, Minnesota.

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At the Lower Sioux Agency.

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And, there were over 2000 women and children

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and elders who were rounded up and forced marched

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here to Fort Snelling, to a concentration camp.

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Some had no shoes.

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Many had no food to eat.

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It was no blankets, or any way to keep warm.

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And they were brought here to a concentration camp

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right down the hill, here.

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There's many pictures of that camp.

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And every time I see them I think about,

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my own great-great-grandmother, Pazahiyayewin.

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Who, on the evening before they started that walk

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had a baby, her name was Wanske.

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And, she had a baby.

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So she walked with that baby and her children,

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here to Fort Snelling.

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(upbeat music)

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Who are my people?

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Where do I come from?

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And what is my dream?

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When we begin that lesson with our indigenous kids.

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I say, "You already know the answer to that, don't you?"

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"How many of you already know?"

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And they all know.

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(upbeat music)

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My people are at the Dakota.

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I come right here from the Bdote,

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and the Minnesota River Valley.

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But what they don't realize when

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they answer that question is,

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if you go to the rest of your teachers in your community

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or people who are not native.

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They do not know the answers to those questions.

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They don't know who are my people,

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and where do I come from.

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And knowing the answers to those questions

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creates such a solid foundation for identity.

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(update music)

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-: How am I supposed to grow up

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and have a picture of who I am?

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If I don't know who I come from.

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I don't care what is in my history.

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I don't care, what's good about it.

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I don't care, what's hard about it.

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I don't care what secrets are there

00:09:36.230 --> 00:09:38.270
that I wouldn't want anybody, I don't care.

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I want it all.

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(upbeat music)

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I grew up with a lot of blank in my past.

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A lot of unknowns.

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A lot of secrets.

00:09:56.361 --> 00:09:58.921
There were people that they wouldn't talk about.

00:09:58.921 --> 00:10:02.480
There were questions they wouldn't answer.

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I had 19 years of education,

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and not one day of Irish history.

00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:10.063
(upbeat music)

00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:24.240
Thank you for coming.

00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:26.830
It's a great honor for me.

00:10:26.830 --> 00:10:30.720
Like some of you in this room, I've had this bug.

00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.930
I think that came from growing up and knowing nothing about

00:10:33.930 --> 00:10:38.160
Ireland or The Burren or my family.

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We just, none of it got passed down.

00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:45.520
And it was like being given a puzzle with maybe two pieces.

00:10:45.520 --> 00:10:47.460
And you didn't even have enough pieces to see

00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:49.380
what the picture looked like.

00:10:49.380 --> 00:10:51.070
And it just didn't work for me.

00:10:51.070 --> 00:10:54.281
And I sort of set out with my dad and his cousin

00:10:54.281 --> 00:10:55.730
and my siblings.

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And we set out in the 1960s and 70s, and on.

00:11:00.401 --> 00:11:03.701
To reconnect with this place and people,

00:11:03.701 --> 00:11:06.463
and the stories and the family.

00:11:09.071 --> 00:11:11.373
-: Hi, I can't even imagine finding your here.

00:11:13.800 --> 00:11:17.954
-: This is my grandmother Anne Davoren's house that

00:11:17.954 --> 00:11:21.830
she was born in, in 1868.

00:11:21.830 --> 00:11:24.160
And, I was there last night.

00:11:24.160 --> 00:11:25.510
We've stayed connected.

00:11:25.510 --> 00:11:27.280
There's been actually letters going back

00:11:27.280 --> 00:11:32.280
from that farm to my house in St. Paul for 130 years.

00:11:32.310 --> 00:11:33.920
And they're still going back and forth.

00:11:33.920 --> 00:11:36.130
And we're connected to the people who live there now.

00:11:36.130 --> 00:11:38.193
Even though they're not relatives.

00:11:38.193 --> 00:11:41.480
(upbeat music)

00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:44.293
Like many Americans, my ancestors crossed oceans

00:11:44.293 --> 00:11:47.720
to escape difficult living conditions.

00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.960
Their land had been taken away by the British Empire.

00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.030
They were forbidden to speak their native language.

00:11:54.030 --> 00:11:56.513
Own property or vote in elections.

00:12:01.770 --> 00:12:03.820
So these are my son's baseball hats.

00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:06.943
He wore them constantly, Minnesota Twins.

00:12:08.394 --> 00:12:09.227
(gasps)

00:12:09.227 --> 00:12:11.020
This is a record of transpire events.

00:12:11.020 --> 00:12:14.314
In 1993 my son had a heart transplant and,

00:12:14.314 --> 00:12:16.520
this is a record of day-to-day

00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:18.050
what we were up to and what we did.

00:12:18.050 --> 00:12:20.850
And, one day before they were going to intubate

00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:23.543
and put him into a coma to save the last bit of his heart.

00:12:23.543 --> 00:12:26.705
The beeper went off and we got the call that

00:12:26.705 --> 00:12:31.240
a little girl lost her life.

00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:33.840
Ran out into the street and got killed in Minneapolis.

00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.390
And her family decided to donate her heart.

00:12:36.390 --> 00:12:40.913
And, that little girl's heart ended up in my son.

00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:45.320
And because of it, he had 17 more years of life.

00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.258
And the most amazing thing is that that child

00:12:48.258 --> 00:12:53.258
and that family was a native family from Minneapolis.

00:12:53.570 --> 00:12:57.203
And, we wrote to them later and they said

00:12:58.853 --> 00:13:02.600
that their five-year-old daughter was the most

00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:04.570
generous human being you've ever met.

00:13:04.570 --> 00:13:08.180
And so to them, it just made huge sense

00:13:08.180 --> 00:13:10.615
that they donate her organs

00:13:10.615 --> 00:13:12.950
so that other young people could live.

00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:15.673
And, those organs saved seven lives.

00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:20.343
Yup.

00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:26.070
Chris was just four months old when we adopted him.

00:13:26.070 --> 00:13:27.813
He was a bundle of joy.

00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:30.550
But it wasn't easy adapting

00:13:30.550 --> 00:13:32.713
to a brand new life in Minnesota.

00:13:33.660 --> 00:13:36.070
And then when he was just five years old,

00:13:36.070 --> 00:13:38.710
he was diagnosed with cancer.

00:13:38.710 --> 00:13:40.250
There was just so many unknowns.

00:13:40.250 --> 00:13:41.083
That was the hard part.

00:13:41.083 --> 00:13:43.340
When you know what it is at least,

00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:46.270
you can get a handle on the fear.

00:13:46.270 --> 00:13:48.520
But not knowing was real hard.

00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:50.520
Later, he had more health struggles.

00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:52.580
Including a heart transplant.

00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:54.280
But he lived large.

00:13:54.280 --> 00:13:57.705
Making many friends, enjoying nature in the Northwoods

00:13:57.705 --> 00:13:59.263
and traveling.

00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:03.785
After he graduated from college, I invited him to Ireland,

00:14:03.785 --> 00:14:08.785
hoping he might feel the connection I felt to my homeland.

00:14:09.810 --> 00:14:11.650
And he agreed.

00:14:11.650 --> 00:14:13.943
He walked in, it's like he was at home.

00:14:16.900 --> 00:14:17.733
Yup.

00:14:17.733 --> 00:14:19.227
Swinging in the swings.

00:14:19.227 --> 00:14:20.060
(gasps)

00:14:20.060 --> 00:14:20.893
-: He was amazing.

00:14:20.893 --> 00:14:23.007
He was a lovely young fella, wasn't he?

00:14:23.007 --> 00:14:26.500
And the patience he had with the kids at that stage.

00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:28.560
They died and went to heaven.

00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:31.450
Because, he did everything they wanted him to do.

00:14:31.450 --> 00:14:34.270
On the swings with them and everything.

00:14:34.270 --> 00:14:37.093
Oh my God, outside our kitchen window.

00:14:39.430 --> 00:14:43.348
-: Sometimes I go on a walk late at night and I talk to him.

00:14:43.348 --> 00:14:45.075
-: Of course, you do, yeah.

00:14:45.075 --> 00:14:46.058
-: I do.

00:14:46.058 --> 00:14:47.327
-: Yeah, of course.

00:14:47.327 --> 00:14:50.360
Rita: And is it the Irish who believe the dead

00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:51.360
aren't really gone.

00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:53.010
They're just at on a different plain.

00:14:53.010 --> 00:14:55.237
Anne: They're in the next room.

00:14:55.237 --> 00:14:56.758
(all laugh)

00:14:56.758 --> 00:14:57.781
-: Is that what they say?

00:14:57.781 --> 00:14:58.930
-: Yeah, yeah.

00:14:58.930 --> 00:15:00.430
-: Oh, my goodness.

00:15:04.429 --> 00:15:07.012
(upbeat music)

00:15:15.414 --> 00:15:18.723
-: This sound is being like (mumbles) in hip hop right now.

00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:21.269
And I'm like finding my place within it.

00:15:21.269 --> 00:15:24.602
(hiphop music playing )

00:15:30.257 --> 00:15:32.674
-: Reuben, he's got education.

00:15:34.649 --> 00:15:36.040
He can make a difference.

00:15:36.040 --> 00:15:40.800
And he can stop passing that trauma.

00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:41.949
-: We have this like super huge

00:15:41.949 --> 00:15:44.750
"Internet Decolonization Movement."

00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:46.670
I made this CD called, "Know The Name."

00:15:46.670 --> 00:15:49.567
Being native, I always thought that there was an expectation

00:15:49.567 --> 00:15:51.980
of what kind of artist I was going to be.

00:15:51.980 --> 00:15:54.520
And I bucked so hard from that idea

00:15:54.520 --> 00:15:55.995
because being a native artist,

00:15:55.995 --> 00:15:59.296
our own people put us in boxes and it's not intentional.

00:15:59.296 --> 00:16:04.296
But undeniably being a Dakota in 2020

00:16:05.002 --> 00:16:09.120
walking in, "Wasichu" world, the white man's world,

00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:09.953
being an American.

00:16:09.953 --> 00:16:12.667
My experience is different than a lot of native people.

00:16:12.667 --> 00:16:14.419
And a lot of other native rappers,

00:16:14.419 --> 00:16:17.821
native rappers come out of the Indian reservations.

00:16:17.821 --> 00:16:19.320
And I'm a native rapper coming

00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:23.569
out of the urban metropolitan of Minneapolis.

00:16:23.569 --> 00:16:24.402
♪ To prevail ♪

00:16:24.402 --> 00:16:26.754
♪ Many of our people are going uneducated ♪

00:16:26.754 --> 00:16:29.332
♪ Many of our people are getting incarcerated ♪

00:16:29.332 --> 00:16:32.270
♪ Alcohol addiction, they make us intoxicated ♪

00:16:32.270 --> 00:16:34.660
So I have this song called "Dear My Future Son."

00:16:34.660 --> 00:16:36.970
Something I worked on for more than a year.

00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:39.282
It took actually about two years to

00:16:39.282 --> 00:16:41.819
fully compose the lyrics.

00:16:41.819 --> 00:16:45.151
And, I even kept the lyrics for a long time

00:16:45.151 --> 00:16:47.835
knowing that whatever I did with this,

00:16:47.835 --> 00:16:50.710
it's gonna to have to be perfect.

00:16:50.710 --> 00:16:52.120
It's almost like an organic conversation

00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:56.630
with me and the next generation of my family.

00:16:56.630 --> 00:16:58.293
The next generation of my people.

00:16:58.293 --> 00:16:59.401
♪ People like novelty ♪

00:16:59.401 --> 00:17:01.679
♪ Bu they'll keep us in their cycle of poverty ♪

00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:03.462
♪ Not my president agenda ♪

00:17:03.462 --> 00:17:05.112
♪ Doesn't benefit my people ♪

00:17:05.112 --> 00:17:06.310
♪ Or my future kids ♪

00:17:06.310 --> 00:17:08.450
Yes trauma is in our DNA, but so is strength.

00:17:08.450 --> 00:17:11.518
And so this is us, and this is our people.

00:17:11.518 --> 00:17:14.253
I think that this song to me is,

00:17:14.253 --> 00:17:17.120
let's walk forward together.

00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:18.120
Let's heal together.

00:17:18.120 --> 00:17:20.991
This song to me is like motivating our people to heal.

00:17:20.991 --> 00:17:22.706
♪Cause I ain't even a father ♪

00:17:22.706 --> 00:17:23.871
♪ But I gotta change the world ♪

00:17:23.871 --> 00:17:25.523
♪ Before I bring you in it ♪

00:17:25.523 --> 00:17:27.006
♪ I will never rest and sell ♪

00:17:27.006 --> 00:17:28.188
♪ My work is finished ♪

00:17:28.188 --> 00:17:31.056
♪ Love your world and all of the people in it ♪

00:17:31.056 --> 00:17:32.163
♪ Cause it's gonna to be the view ♪

00:17:32.163 --> 00:17:35.450
♪ But I promise it ain't the limit ♪

00:17:35.450 --> 00:17:39.290
-: Today is my birthday, it's my 70th birthday.

00:17:39.290 --> 00:17:44.290
And, I am spending a few hours making contact

00:17:45.020 --> 00:17:48.137
with an organization that I heard

00:17:48.137 --> 00:17:50.870
is doing good work in the world.

00:17:50.870 --> 00:17:55.283
Related to returning land to native people.

00:17:57.370 --> 00:17:58.770
Could we give Pike Island back?

00:17:58.770 --> 00:18:00.830
Could we give it back?

00:18:00.830 --> 00:18:03.740
There's no reason, it's part of a state park.

00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:05.270
It's not being used for anything,

00:18:05.270 --> 00:18:07.200
but people going and hiking.

00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:08.450
Could it be given back?

00:18:08.450 --> 00:18:09.283
I don't know.

00:18:09.283 --> 00:18:11.023
But I'd like to find out.

00:18:13.040 --> 00:18:18.040
150 years ago, this Island in the Mississippi River

00:18:18.955 --> 00:18:23.300
was bought and then sold by my great-grandfather.

00:18:23.300 --> 00:18:25.773
That was not good.

00:18:27.070 --> 00:18:29.649
If it's possible to put something right

00:18:29.649 --> 00:18:33.193
about that piece of land, I will do it.

00:18:34.190 --> 00:18:37.452
Can't tell you why, but why not today?

00:18:37.452 --> 00:18:38.830
(laughs)

00:18:38.830 --> 00:18:40.770
Sorta like excited about it.

00:18:40.770 --> 00:18:42.820
It's like, why not today?

00:18:42.820 --> 00:18:44.630
Might us well be today.

00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:47.630
(types on keyboard)

00:19:01.540 --> 00:19:03.571
I wanna call the Land Tenure Foundation.

00:19:03.571 --> 00:19:06.360
Find out when their next meeting is,

00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:07.510
so that I can go to it.

00:19:12.970 --> 00:19:16.024
Does it ever happen that a body like the

00:19:16.024 --> 00:19:20.950
State of Minnesota would consider turning over

00:19:20.950 --> 00:19:23.910
public land, back to a tribe?

00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:25.180
Is there precedent for that?

00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:28.490
I know that Grand Portage National Monument was turned over.

00:19:28.490 --> 00:19:31.950
But I don't know if that's ownership or just running it.

00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:32.783
Responder: Administration?

00:19:32.783 --> 00:19:33.758
-: Yeah.

00:19:33.758 --> 00:19:34.591
Responder: I don't know off-hand either.

00:19:34.591 --> 00:19:37.680
Generally speaking it doesn't happen too often.

00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:38.744
A lot of things like that

00:19:38.744 --> 00:19:41.010
would take acts of the legislature.

00:19:41.010 --> 00:19:41.843
-: Right.

00:19:41.843 --> 00:19:44.336
Responder: And legislators aren't necessarily

00:19:44.336 --> 00:19:45.680
friendly to Indians.

00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.503
And even the ones who are, still worry about getting

00:19:48.503 --> 00:19:51.650
blowback from their constituents about,

00:19:51.650 --> 00:19:52.893
"Why are you taking public land

00:19:52.893 --> 00:19:54.880
and giving it to a private party?"

00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:55.713
-: Right.

00:19:55.713 --> 00:19:56.966
Thank you very much.

00:19:56.966 --> 00:19:58.353
Bye bye.

00:20:02.030 --> 00:20:04.280
Ruth Bader Ginsburg keeps me going.

00:20:04.280 --> 00:20:05.270
She's an elder.

00:20:05.270 --> 00:20:06.790
She's a powerful female.

00:20:06.790 --> 00:20:09.670
She started when nobody knew that

00:20:09.670 --> 00:20:11.304
there was a problem with women

00:20:11.304 --> 00:20:13.920
needing laws that protected their rights.

00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:15.610
Nobody believed that.

00:20:15.610 --> 00:20:16.877
And she just said,

00:20:16.877 --> 00:20:18.387
"Forget your anger."

00:20:20.627 --> 00:20:22.329
"Just build a case."

00:20:22.329 --> 00:20:24.912
(upbeat music)

00:20:28.020 --> 00:20:30.487
That key to everything, is you just don't give up.

00:20:30.487 --> 00:20:31.420
You keep at it.

00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:33.053
Sooner or later, you get it.

00:20:34.090 --> 00:20:36.366
We're on North 35 E, headed toward

00:20:36.366 --> 00:20:39.823
the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

00:20:40.970 --> 00:20:44.819
They're extraordinarily effective organization.

00:20:44.819 --> 00:20:48.810
All about, "Indian lands in Indiana hands."

00:20:48.810 --> 00:20:49.734
That's their motto.

00:20:49.734 --> 00:20:52.317
(upbeat music)

00:20:58.110 --> 00:21:00.360
I just wanna build connections, that's all.

00:21:00.360 --> 00:21:02.113
Who knows where it'll go, they get to decide.

00:21:02.113 --> 00:21:03.666
I'm not in charge here.

00:21:03.666 --> 00:21:06.550
They get to decide, but I have options.

00:21:06.550 --> 00:21:07.680
I have ideas.

00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:08.723
So, we'll see.

00:21:09.810 --> 00:21:11.316
-: Our mission is to recover all the land

00:21:11.316 --> 00:21:13.740
inside the reservation boundaries.

00:21:13.740 --> 00:21:15.540
That was lost to Indian ownership.

00:21:15.540 --> 00:21:18.584
And through treaties and executive orders

00:21:18.584 --> 00:21:22.320
that had been guaranteed to exclusive use

00:21:22.320 --> 00:21:24.183
and occupation by Indian people.

00:21:26.210 --> 00:21:29.230
So the mission is, to get back the 90 million acres

00:21:29.230 --> 00:21:32.028
that we lost inside the reservation boundaries.

00:21:32.028 --> 00:21:34.899
And those places outside the reservation

00:21:34.899 --> 00:21:38.593
that are important to Indian people

00:21:38.593 --> 00:21:41.209
culturally and religious purposes.

00:21:41.209 --> 00:21:45.510
To know who you are, and to know the land history

00:21:45.510 --> 00:21:48.571
that goes with it is important for all non-Indians

00:21:48.571 --> 00:21:50.623
to get some grasp on.

00:21:53.080 --> 00:21:54.780
They stole our land fair and square

00:21:54.780 --> 00:21:56.088
and they don't want to give it back.

00:21:56.088 --> 00:21:57.490
(laughs)

00:21:57.490 --> 00:22:00.705
And you know that pretty much sums it up.

00:22:00.705 --> 00:22:05.705
But we see more and more, at least some conversations

00:22:06.690 --> 00:22:11.690
around places that are important to Indian people.

00:22:12.170 --> 00:22:14.604
We helped a small tribe in Oregon,

00:22:14.604 --> 00:22:17.600
recover their original village.

00:22:17.600 --> 00:22:20.540
Which in fact had been taken over by the coastguard

00:22:20.540 --> 00:22:22.243
for lighthouse station.

00:22:22.243 --> 00:22:26.440
And, they got their original village back.

00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:30.088
We had a young guy come in, who does artwork for us.

00:22:30.088 --> 00:22:33.210
And, so he was asking if we had any art for him to do.

00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:35.183
And the night before, had done a presentation

00:22:35.183 --> 00:22:37.500
to a group and showed them

00:22:37.500 --> 00:22:39.382
the picture of "Manifest Destiny."

00:22:39.382 --> 00:22:43.201
And I said to him, you know what I'd really like

00:22:43.201 --> 00:22:47.630
is for you to paint the reverse of "Manifest Destiny."

00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:49.532
So what you'll see at the top of the stairs,

00:22:49.532 --> 00:22:51.765
is the picture he painted which just

00:22:51.765 --> 00:22:54.680
kind of reverses the whole thing.

00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:58.990
And it's become, actually quite a popular picture

00:22:58.990 --> 00:23:00.940
for folks to rally around.

00:23:00.940 --> 00:23:05.028
If we could get all non-Indians to recognize, who was there,

00:23:05.028 --> 00:23:09.860
who got this place for you to be there.

00:23:09.860 --> 00:23:11.413
If we can get people just to understand

00:23:11.413 --> 00:23:13.720
the history of their land.

00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:17.090
That would be a remarkable accomplishment.

00:23:17.090 --> 00:23:19.661
Because most people never stopped to think about it.

00:23:19.661 --> 00:23:21.463
-: A pleasure to meet you.

00:23:21.463 --> 00:23:23.099
-: Yeah, same here.

00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:24.349
Really, really.

00:23:30.150 --> 00:23:34.790
It was a really fun, interesting way

00:23:34.790 --> 00:23:38.600
to understand what the Indian Land Tenure Foundation

00:23:38.600 --> 00:23:40.750
is about, and who they have working there.

00:23:40.750 --> 00:23:42.850
And what they're up to in the world.

00:23:42.850 --> 00:23:47.653
From video games, to multi-million dollar land purchases.

00:23:50.470 --> 00:23:54.500
Is really, really amazing organization.

00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:56.640
Always, the welcome.

00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:57.950
The welcome.

00:23:57.950 --> 00:23:59.040
It's just like in Ireland.

00:23:59.040 --> 00:24:00.950
It's like that's the number one thing

00:24:00.950 --> 00:24:02.270
that happens is welcoming.

00:24:02.270 --> 00:24:07.050
And that's bottom line, and it makes such a difference.

00:24:07.050 --> 00:24:08.630
I felt very welcomed.

00:24:08.630 --> 00:24:11.380
And, like I had something to share.

00:24:11.380 --> 00:24:14.163
And like I had something to learn, both.

00:24:15.670 --> 00:24:16.503
Yeah.

00:24:17.428 --> 00:24:20.283
(upbeat music)

00:24:20.283 --> 00:24:23.310
We're in Highland Park area of St. Paul.

00:24:23.310 --> 00:24:26.640
Which used to be called the "Town of reserve."

00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:29.940
Was land claimed by Fort Snelling.

00:24:29.940 --> 00:24:33.748
We're very close to where my great-grandfather's farm was.

00:24:33.748 --> 00:24:36.331
(upbeat music)

00:24:38.230 --> 00:24:39.510
Well there's two rivers,

00:24:39.510 --> 00:24:43.390
the Minnesota River and the Mississippi River.

00:24:43.390 --> 00:24:46.950
The two rivers come together right here.

00:24:46.950 --> 00:24:51.227
And, that's where Wita Tanka or the Big Island

00:24:51.227 --> 00:24:54.250
or later known as Pike Island, is right there

00:24:54.250 --> 00:24:55.600
in the middle of the river.

00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:59.440
And my great grandpa's farm was right up in here.

00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:01.155
Right here, actually.

00:25:01.155 --> 00:25:03.738
(upbeat music)

00:25:09.600 --> 00:25:12.995
I invited Ramona here because, I want to know things

00:25:12.995 --> 00:25:16.390
about this place that she knows that I don't.

00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:19.383
And she's very graciously willing to share.

00:25:20.510 --> 00:25:23.820
At this place, treaties were signed.

00:25:23.820 --> 00:25:25.230
Settlers came.

00:25:25.230 --> 00:25:28.391
And the government removed native people.

00:25:28.391 --> 00:25:31.120
And my great grandpa was here during it all.

00:25:31.120 --> 00:25:33.875
He was here during the 1862 Dakota War.

00:25:33.875 --> 00:25:37.960
We don't know what he did, what he was part of.

00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:41.440
But I'm sure the settlers were all terrified.

00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:44.409
And the native people were terrified, and starving.

00:25:44.409 --> 00:25:49.409
And, had been pushed beyond survival.

00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:52.293
So, it was a desperate times.

00:25:56.563 --> 00:25:57.396
-: Hello my dear.

00:25:57.396 --> 00:25:58.646
Rita: Hello.

00:26:00.460 --> 00:26:02.220
Very good to see you.

00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:03.180
-: Good to see you too.

00:26:03.180 --> 00:26:04.280
-: I wish you drive up.

00:26:16.540 --> 00:26:19.404
-: The entire Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers

00:26:19.404 --> 00:26:22.230
contained villages of Dakota people.

00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:25.940
And so, we called that area, Bdote.

00:26:25.940 --> 00:26:27.271
It's not a spot on the map.

00:26:27.271 --> 00:26:29.859
It's a large area of land that spanned

00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:33.100
on miles, and miles of these rivers.

00:26:33.100 --> 00:26:34.210
But, they were the waterways.

00:26:34.210 --> 00:26:37.670
And they were the, highways of the Dakota.

00:26:37.670 --> 00:26:39.254
This spot is the confluence

00:26:39.254 --> 00:26:42.000
of the Mississippi and the Minnesota River.

00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:43.950
So we call this area, Bdote.

00:26:43.950 --> 00:26:47.570
Cause it means that place where things are coming together.

00:26:47.570 --> 00:26:49.640
Where things are crossing.

00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:52.020
Where the energy is.

00:26:52.020 --> 00:26:53.904
But because of the confluence of these rivers,

00:26:53.904 --> 00:26:56.936
many of our Dakota women and families would come here

00:26:56.936 --> 00:26:59.150
to give birth to their children.

00:26:59.150 --> 00:27:03.300
In 1859, my great-great-grandmother,

00:27:03.300 --> 00:27:05.270
her name was Pazahiyayewin.

00:27:05.270 --> 00:27:10.270
And her name means, "She radiates in her path like the sun."

00:27:10.370 --> 00:27:13.830
So Pazahiyayewin made her way from our village,

00:27:13.830 --> 00:27:16.500
which is about 40 miles South.

00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:18.584
She made her way in the late stages of pregnancy

00:27:18.584 --> 00:27:22.440
to have her baby, her third child here

00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:25.610
at Wita Tanka, which is this Island here.

00:27:25.610 --> 00:27:26.681
Currently Pike Island.

00:27:26.681 --> 00:27:30.342
Of the last 150 some years.

00:27:30.342 --> 00:27:34.215
He was born there, and they went back to their village.

00:27:34.215 --> 00:27:39.215
Three years later, he came back as a prisoner of war.

00:27:41.470 --> 00:27:43.670
Here at the concentration camp.

00:27:43.670 --> 00:27:47.170
At the most powerful place to the Dakota,

00:27:47.170 --> 00:27:49.350
to suffer for six months.

00:27:49.350 --> 00:27:52.021
Only recently have they looked at the definitions

00:27:52.021 --> 00:27:55.892
of concentration camp and renamed that place.

00:27:55.892 --> 00:27:58.475
(upbeat music)

00:28:03.560 --> 00:28:06.480
This is not such an unusual place.

00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:08.164
If we look all across America,

00:28:08.164 --> 00:28:11.384
where indigenous people were removed from their land.

00:28:11.384 --> 00:28:14.190
It was a very systematic approach.

00:28:14.190 --> 00:28:15.873
By the time it happened in Minnesota,

00:28:15.873 --> 00:28:19.143
it was very swift 53 years.

00:28:19.990 --> 00:28:21.233
From start to finish.

00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:24.890
But it happened all across the country.

00:28:24.890 --> 00:28:27.300
So, there were a "Trail of Tears."

00:28:27.300 --> 00:28:28.760
There was the "Death March."

00:28:28.760 --> 00:28:31.624
There were all kinds of ways of removing people.

00:28:31.624 --> 00:28:34.650
Because they knew that connection to the land was powerful.

00:28:34.650 --> 00:28:37.891
And they had to get them off it.

00:28:37.891 --> 00:28:40.930
(upbeat music)

00:28:40.930 --> 00:28:45.490
-: My great grandpa farmed just over there, a mile or so.

00:28:45.490 --> 00:28:49.943
And in 1873, he bought Pike Island from Franklin Steele.

00:28:50.830 --> 00:28:52.905
And he owned it for six years.

00:28:52.905 --> 00:28:55.420
(mumbles)

00:28:55.420 --> 00:28:59.210
But, that Island has always been part of my story.

00:28:59.210 --> 00:29:03.642
And I never knew, it was no word said

00:29:03.642 --> 00:29:05.970
about anybody being here before him.

00:29:05.970 --> 00:29:08.970
-: Well, they're pretty much still isn't Rita.

00:29:08.970 --> 00:29:10.870
-: It's bizarre.

00:29:10.870 --> 00:29:13.950
-: when people learn this story, it changes them.

00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:16.618
It helps them to think of our space in a different way.

00:29:16.618 --> 00:29:20.230
When you think about the systematic approach

00:29:20.230 --> 00:29:22.090
to land theft and genocide.

00:29:22.090 --> 00:29:24.040
The land was sold to immigrants,

00:29:24.040 --> 00:29:27.280
who gave their very last cent to get here.

00:29:27.280 --> 00:29:28.738
To escape an oppression.

00:29:28.738 --> 00:29:33.738
Not knowing, they knew what they were told.

00:29:34.280 --> 00:29:37.053
And they were told that we were dangerous.

00:29:37.053 --> 00:29:41.023
And, when you consider that Alexander Ramsey also

00:29:41.023 --> 00:29:42.981
put a notice in the paper.

00:29:42.981 --> 00:29:47.974
And it said, "For every Sioux Indian sent to purgatory,

00:29:47.974 --> 00:29:52.107
we will pay you $200."

00:29:53.808 --> 00:29:58.808
Now $200 in 1862 would have purchased 35 acres of land.

00:30:03.220 --> 00:30:04.393
So what would you do?

00:30:05.270 --> 00:30:07.951
And so the only way of healing a space like this,

00:30:07.951 --> 00:30:10.704
and healing through guilt,

00:30:10.704 --> 00:30:12.720
and healing through all of those things.

00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:15.197
Is to know the story, and walk through all the ways

00:30:15.197 --> 00:30:16.890
it makes us feel.

00:30:16.890 --> 00:30:19.968
Because I can't change that Rita, except by this.

00:30:19.968 --> 00:30:21.720
And you can't either.

00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:24.551
Except, by doing what you're doing.

00:30:24.551 --> 00:30:27.983
And, I didn't open myself up for this conversation

00:30:27.983 --> 00:30:30.020
if I weren't ready.

00:30:30.020 --> 00:30:33.045
And if I didn't understand the people that come to me,

00:30:33.045 --> 00:30:35.693
why they need to have it.

00:30:36.900 --> 00:30:41.440
And for us doing this, it is a way of leadership.

00:30:43.180 --> 00:30:44.013
And leading.

00:30:44.013 --> 00:30:46.195
And saying, this is a conversation that

00:30:46.195 --> 00:30:49.170
needs to come out of your spirit.

00:30:49.170 --> 00:30:50.143
All of ours.

00:30:52.128 --> 00:30:53.578
And so I'm grateful for that.

00:30:54.420 --> 00:30:55.963
I'm grateful to you for that.

00:30:59.500 --> 00:31:02.210
-: And I'm grateful to you because,

00:31:02.210 --> 00:31:04.659
the disconnection is what hurts.

00:31:04.659 --> 00:31:07.373
Not just from the land, but from people.

00:31:08.630 --> 00:31:11.560
And I won't live with it anymore.

00:31:11.560 --> 00:31:15.563
So, whatever I have to face or figure out to do.

00:31:21.224 --> 00:31:24.566
You're a beautiful human being.

00:31:24.566 --> 00:31:26.490
-: Thank you my dear.

00:31:26.490 --> 00:31:27.323
You're too.

00:31:27.323 --> 00:31:29.784
(upbeat music)

00:31:40.760 --> 00:31:44.002
So you see some Dakota signage here, that's pretty cool.

00:31:44.002 --> 00:31:46.585
(upbeat music)

00:31:54.750 --> 00:31:58.030
Rita is one of thousands of Minnesotans

00:31:58.030 --> 00:31:59.313
that have that story.

00:32:00.350 --> 00:32:03.673
That own land, that were not for sale.

00:32:05.051 --> 00:32:08.957
That we're on the backs of my relatives.

00:32:09.860 --> 00:32:14.860
And that's, a really difficult thing to acknowledge, right?

00:32:16.771 --> 00:32:21.653
She's not different than many Minnesotans.

00:32:24.760 --> 00:32:28.480
Except that she acknowledges it.

00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:29.502
-: Yeah.

00:32:29.502 --> 00:32:31.330
(upbeat music)

00:32:31.330 --> 00:32:33.450
I mean, I knew what happened there.

00:32:33.450 --> 00:32:36.907
But I never met anyone whose great grandma

00:32:36.907 --> 00:32:39.389
was there and lived through it.

00:32:39.389 --> 00:32:41.806
So that was really, humbling.

00:32:48.477 --> 00:32:51.060
(upbeat music)

00:33:10.570 --> 00:33:12.400
-: We're still doing it.

00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:13.655
We have Indians in movies,

00:33:13.655 --> 00:33:16.623
and they don't let the Indians play the part.

00:33:17.870 --> 00:33:19.490
So we're still doing it.

00:33:19.490 --> 00:33:20.563
We're still-

00:33:22.610 --> 00:33:24.110
Woman: We're still racist.

00:33:24.110 --> 00:33:26.719
-: Well, we're still removing them from the center part

00:33:26.719 --> 00:33:29.203
of their own stories.

00:33:30.090 --> 00:33:31.683
But things are getting better.

00:33:32.800 --> 00:33:35.600
-: I don't know that our family took land

00:33:35.600 --> 00:33:37.054
from Native Americans.

00:33:37.054 --> 00:33:38.640
I don't know that they're any Native Americans

00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:42.313
living on the Davern farm and Highland Village.

00:33:43.490 --> 00:33:47.330
When great-grandpa settled there.

00:33:47.330 --> 00:33:49.667
Woman: It was Fort Snelling land.

00:33:49.667 --> 00:33:52.050
(talking over each other)

00:33:52.050 --> 00:33:54.590
-: I don't want the next generation to forget,

00:33:54.590 --> 00:33:58.700
there's a story here that we're sitting on.

00:33:58.700 --> 00:34:03.473
And, there might be something we need to look at today

00:34:03.473 --> 00:34:07.830
and not pretend it didn't happen.

00:34:07.830 --> 00:34:08.789
-: I fully agree.

00:34:08.789 --> 00:34:10.250
And, I think it's important that we listen

00:34:10.250 --> 00:34:11.550
to these people now.

00:34:11.550 --> 00:34:13.820
Because we didn't listen to them at all back then.

00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:14.810
We just pushed them away.

00:34:14.810 --> 00:34:17.050
And that's what caused most of the problems.

00:34:17.050 --> 00:34:18.038
We need to listen to them.

00:34:18.038 --> 00:34:20.006
Because we didn't listen to them before.

00:34:20.006 --> 00:34:22.284
And, they're repercussions for it.

00:34:22.284 --> 00:34:25.260
(upbeat music)

00:34:25.260 --> 00:34:27.960
-: What's pike Island doing now, in the middle of a river?

00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:32.105
-: It's pretty much, it's a tourist site, is what it is.

00:34:32.105 --> 00:34:35.880
-: It's not populated by anything.

00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:37.430
Why couldn't we give that back?

00:34:40.870 --> 00:34:43.620
-: We have really, cool conversations

00:34:43.620 --> 00:34:46.470
about a lot of different things.

00:34:46.470 --> 00:34:49.320
And Emma always remembers my son who died.

00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:52.950
And always asked me, about him.

00:34:52.950 --> 00:34:55.680
-: He was actually my cousin.

00:34:55.680 --> 00:34:56.513
-: That's right.

00:34:56.513 --> 00:34:57.990
-: Adopted from Korea.

00:34:57.990 --> 00:35:00.740
Who died in Hawaii, from a heart attack.

00:35:00.740 --> 00:35:01.573
-: Yes.

00:35:03.300 --> 00:35:04.133
Yep.

00:35:04.133 --> 00:35:06.380
Interviewer: So what did you like about today?

00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:10.705
-: I liked all the family talk in one room,

00:35:10.705 --> 00:35:14.260
talking about the family history.

00:35:14.260 --> 00:35:17.536
And we're always unraveling the mystery.

00:35:17.536 --> 00:35:18.369
-: Exactly.

00:35:20.120 --> 00:35:22.446
-: When my mom and I were talking out front,

00:35:22.446 --> 00:35:24.635
she brought up a similar thing

00:35:24.635 --> 00:35:26.475
that I heard you brought up of,

00:35:26.475 --> 00:35:28.990
maybe seeing if there was some way to give

00:35:28.990 --> 00:35:32.491
the Native Americans some sort

00:35:32.491 --> 00:35:35.683
of property ownership of Pike Island.

00:35:36.950 --> 00:35:38.520
You're very empathetic person.

00:35:38.520 --> 00:35:43.520
And I see why you wanted to do something about this.

00:35:44.460 --> 00:35:47.020
And I heard you were a bit hesitant.

00:35:47.020 --> 00:35:48.801
But I don't think it would be disrespectful

00:35:48.801 --> 00:35:53.801
to go and talk to a leader and say,

00:35:54.348 --> 00:35:57.172
"Is there anything that we could do?"

00:35:57.172 --> 00:36:02.172
"Could we set up something for at least awareness."

00:36:02.556 --> 00:36:05.790
Because this is something that's important.

00:36:05.790 --> 00:36:08.090
And something that not many people have thought of doing.

00:36:08.090 --> 00:36:09.833
Not many people have done.

00:36:11.660 --> 00:36:12.493
-: Awesome.

00:36:12.493 --> 00:36:13.950
-: And I think it's a beautiful idea.

00:36:17.240 --> 00:36:20.450
I hate to say it, and I hate that it's even a thing.

00:36:20.450 --> 00:36:23.190
But, because of our racist society,

00:36:23.190 --> 00:36:25.125
we do end up having more of a voice.

00:36:25.125 --> 00:36:28.540
Which is very unfortunate.

00:36:28.540 --> 00:36:31.509
Because so many white people are so ignorant

00:36:31.509 --> 00:36:34.680
including myself, about a lot of things.

00:36:34.680 --> 00:36:35.530
I'm not going to pretend

00:36:35.530 --> 00:36:37.380
like I'm any better than anyone else.

00:36:39.543 --> 00:36:41.540
-: But, that doesn't mean you can't do something.

00:36:41.540 --> 00:36:42.380
Girl: Yeah.

00:36:42.380 --> 00:36:45.763
-: I think about these things all by myself, in my head.

00:36:51.030 --> 00:36:53.250
And sometimes I try to bring them up,

00:36:53.250 --> 00:36:55.520
they don't necessarily go anywhere.

00:36:55.520 --> 00:36:58.840
So in a setting like this, where there's a lot of people.

00:36:58.840 --> 00:37:01.453
There's new stuff being talked about.

00:37:01.453 --> 00:37:06.453
I think there's more, maybe it's more attention.

00:37:06.900 --> 00:37:10.920
More opening for people to feel safer

00:37:10.920 --> 00:37:12.240
to talk to each other about

00:37:12.240 --> 00:37:14.150
their own thinking about, my thinking.

00:37:14.150 --> 00:37:17.005
Instead of having to just listen to my opinion

00:37:17.005 --> 00:37:19.632
and have something to say about it.

00:37:19.632 --> 00:37:21.950
It's better, it's really better.

00:37:21.950 --> 00:37:22.965
Interviewer: What is this now?

00:37:22.965 --> 00:37:25.780
-: It's a Navajo poem, about stories

00:37:25.780 --> 00:37:27.999
and the power that they hold.

00:37:27.999 --> 00:37:29.500
And how important it is

00:37:29.500 --> 00:37:31.750
to pass them down through generations.

00:37:31.750 --> 00:37:36.750
I've had this since 1976, when I was in my twenties.

00:37:37.390 --> 00:37:38.936
I didn't know then that I had stories.

00:37:38.936 --> 00:37:42.160
That I had stories, I didn't know that I needed to learn.

00:37:42.160 --> 00:37:46.293
But something resonated with me.

00:37:49.390 --> 00:37:51.656
At this stage of life you got to get rid of things,

00:37:51.656 --> 00:37:53.760
that don't matter.

00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:57.038
And keep the things that do, and does matter.

00:37:57.038 --> 00:38:01.813
What jumped out is that as I tell my own stories,

00:38:04.050 --> 00:38:06.520
it's like a secret trust.

00:38:06.520 --> 00:38:11.520
These stories are important and I want to do well by them.

00:38:13.160 --> 00:38:14.813
And by my ancestors,

00:38:17.560 --> 00:38:19.020
That's what I want.

00:38:19.020 --> 00:38:22.260
Says, "For long years I have kept this beauty within me,

00:38:22.260 --> 00:38:24.917
It has been my life, it is sacred."

00:38:24.917 --> 00:38:27.547
"I give it now the coming generations."

00:38:27.547 --> 00:38:29.517
"They know the truth about my people."

00:38:31.790 --> 00:38:34.857
We have a lot to learn from Native Americans.

00:38:34.857 --> 00:38:37.440
(upbeat music)

00:38:40.190 --> 00:38:45.190
My family is good and, they were part of despicable things.

00:38:46.748 --> 00:38:49.477
And despicable things were done to them.

00:38:49.477 --> 00:38:50.649
Before they came here.

00:38:50.649 --> 00:38:53.760
(upbeat music)

00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:57.763
I wanna do something, but where do I start?

00:38:59.910 --> 00:39:02.543
I'm gonna start by speaking to my brother, Bill.

00:39:03.470 --> 00:39:06.163
He was so angry with me after the family reunion

00:39:06.163 --> 00:39:10.400
that I didn't speak to him for several days.

00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:12.056
He thought I was blaming our family

00:39:12.056 --> 00:39:14.167
for stealing Dakota land.

00:39:14.167 --> 00:39:17.885
And I was terrified that this would ruin our relationship.

00:39:17.885 --> 00:39:20.468
(upbeat music)

00:39:26.610 --> 00:39:31.610
I'm heading West, Solid Avenue to go see my brother.

00:39:33.330 --> 00:39:35.910
I invited him into a conversation,

00:39:35.910 --> 00:39:39.916
which we've been working at for the last few weeks.

00:39:39.916 --> 00:39:42.500
And, we're learning from each other.

00:39:42.500 --> 00:39:45.283
And I wanna keep that going,

00:39:45.283 --> 00:39:48.085
cause it seems to me like that's the best outcome

00:39:48.085 --> 00:39:50.842
of everything that happens

00:39:50.842 --> 00:39:52.970
in looking at your family history.

00:39:52.970 --> 00:39:54.940
Is that you get closer to people.

00:39:54.940 --> 00:39:56.440
And that's what I want.

00:39:56.440 --> 00:39:58.233
So, we're going to do that today.

00:40:08.620 --> 00:40:12.830
-: You also mentioned that our great-grandfather

00:40:12.830 --> 00:40:14.290
sold it for a lot of money.

00:40:14.290 --> 00:40:17.330
If he owned it for six years, and I didn't know

00:40:17.330 --> 00:40:18.546
how long he owned it.

00:40:18.546 --> 00:40:21.210
I wouldn't think he made a huge profit on it,

00:40:21.210 --> 00:40:22.420
but, I don't know.

00:40:22.420 --> 00:40:25.000
-: We're trying to find out how much he bought it for

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:26.290
from Franklin steel.

00:40:26.290 --> 00:40:28.550
There's no records so far that we found.

00:40:28.550 --> 00:40:30.937
If you look at the trajectory of what happened

00:40:30.937 --> 00:40:34.304
because we had the benefit of coming here

00:40:34.304 --> 00:40:37.787
and buying land, and settling

00:40:37.787 --> 00:40:40.487
and using all the resources here.

00:40:40.487 --> 00:40:43.387
How do you make sense of that dichotomy

00:40:43.387 --> 00:40:46.373
that we came here, we didn't have anything.

00:40:46.373 --> 00:40:47.569
We got things.

00:40:47.569 --> 00:40:51.080
And then we got to do well because of it.

00:40:51.080 --> 00:40:52.540
And they didn't.

00:40:52.540 --> 00:40:55.050
And so, it's more in my own mind

00:40:55.050 --> 00:41:00.050
that I'm trying to come to some peace with that.

00:41:00.870 --> 00:41:03.285
-: Well, that happened.

00:41:03.285 --> 00:41:07.253
I don't feel bad about it, but it's history.

00:41:09.900 --> 00:41:12.569
I know some things happened and were wrong.

00:41:12.569 --> 00:41:16.290
And it happened all over the world.

00:41:16.290 --> 00:41:17.123
-: Right.

00:41:17.123 --> 00:41:18.069
-: Continues to happen.

00:41:18.069 --> 00:41:18.902
-: Right.

00:41:19.760 --> 00:41:20.593
Yep.

00:41:22.290 --> 00:41:23.123
Yeah.

00:41:24.937 --> 00:41:28.450
In that moment, I knew if I started arguing with Bill

00:41:28.450 --> 00:41:31.910
we might never be able to talk about this subject again.

00:41:31.910 --> 00:41:34.480
So I listened.

00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:38.037
The day after our conversation he called me and said,

00:41:38.037 --> 00:41:40.754
"You know Rita, I want you to know that I understand

00:41:40.754 --> 00:41:44.221
terrible things happen to native people,

00:41:44.221 --> 00:41:47.160
and that was not right."

00:41:47.160 --> 00:41:50.033
He's never said anything like that before.

00:41:51.300 --> 00:41:52.680
I have some power here.

00:41:52.680 --> 00:41:54.750
I've some agency.

00:41:54.750 --> 00:41:57.001
I've got some privilege I'm sitting on

00:41:57.001 --> 00:41:58.990
that could be put to good use.

00:41:58.990 --> 00:42:00.013
And why not?

00:42:01.071 --> 00:42:03.654
(upbeat music)

00:42:16.560 --> 00:42:19.483
I also want to confront my own racism.

00:42:23.223 --> 00:42:25.700
I took a child out of a culture.

00:42:27.670 --> 00:42:32.670
Paid a lot of money to get the right to adopt this child

00:42:32.853 --> 00:42:35.890
from out of his culture and brought him here.

00:42:35.890 --> 00:42:37.300
And then tried to raise him.

00:42:37.300 --> 00:42:39.113
And it was so obvious from day one,

00:42:39.113 --> 00:42:41.620
what was wrong about that.

00:42:41.620 --> 00:42:42.952
Because I could see it on him.

00:42:42.952 --> 00:42:47.577
And I could see it on me when I tried to make connections

00:42:47.577 --> 00:42:50.200
in the Korean community, and learn enough

00:42:50.200 --> 00:42:51.840
to be able to be smart about them.

00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:56.493
And it was all fraught with uncomfortable, awkward things

00:42:56.493 --> 00:42:58.324
that mostly didn't work.

00:42:58.324 --> 00:42:59.760
(laughs)

00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:01.960
And I learned, and I learned over years.

00:43:01.960 --> 00:43:05.397
And then I feel so blessed that I got to have conversations

00:43:05.397 --> 00:43:07.780
with him about all this.

00:43:07.780 --> 00:43:09.640
He loved going out to eat.

00:43:09.640 --> 00:43:11.683
So once a week or so, we'd figure out a time.

00:43:11.683 --> 00:43:13.160
And we go out to eat.

00:43:13.160 --> 00:43:14.273
Even when he was in college.

00:43:14.273 --> 00:43:18.033
And I would always suggest let's go

00:43:18.033 --> 00:43:21.494
to some restaurant on University Avenue

00:43:21.494 --> 00:43:23.313
such fabulous Asian restaurants,

00:43:23.313 --> 00:43:25.333
and there's Korean restaurants.

00:43:25.333 --> 00:43:27.360
He loved Korean food.

00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:29.210
And I would suggest this.

00:43:29.210 --> 00:43:31.053
And every time he would say no.

00:43:31.053 --> 00:43:35.100
And finally, this is about being white and clueless.

00:43:35.100 --> 00:43:37.467
So finally, one day I said to him,

00:43:37.467 --> 00:43:39.727
"Chris, would you tell me what this is about?"

00:43:39.727 --> 00:43:43.767
"Why don't you want to go to the Korean restaurant with me?"

00:43:43.767 --> 00:43:46.067
"You love the food, we love going there."

00:43:46.067 --> 00:43:47.070
"Why is it?"

00:43:47.070 --> 00:43:50.394
He said, "Mom, what do you think it's like for me

00:43:50.394 --> 00:43:55.394
to walk into a Korean restaurant with Korean people

00:43:57.375 --> 00:44:00.277
all over with my white parents?"

00:44:00.277 --> 00:44:02.030
"What do you think that's like for me?"

00:44:02.030 --> 00:44:05.640
And I'm like, "Oh my God, of course."

00:44:05.640 --> 00:44:08.195
of course, it's terrible.

00:44:08.195 --> 00:44:10.210
It's hard.

00:44:10.210 --> 00:44:13.250
So that's the kind of conversations we had.

00:44:13.250 --> 00:44:17.253
I was so clueless, but I learned.

00:44:18.860 --> 00:44:22.630
Later when Chris was 26, he went back to Hawaii

00:44:22.630 --> 00:44:24.770
where he was the happiest.

00:44:24.770 --> 00:44:26.870
-: Hawaii is my connection.

00:44:26.870 --> 00:44:28.520
He looked like he was from Hawaii.

00:44:28.520 --> 00:44:29.680
I know he loved it.

00:44:29.680 --> 00:44:31.160
He felt comfortable there.

00:44:31.160 --> 00:44:32.560
He dressed like a Hawaiian.

00:44:32.560 --> 00:44:33.810
He looked like a Hawaiian.

00:44:33.810 --> 00:44:36.833
And then in the end, that's where he ended up.

00:44:36.833 --> 00:44:39.960
So that was like a connection I had with him

00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:43.130
that I'll always remember him in that way.

00:44:43.130 --> 00:44:45.187
And when I'm there I always think of him too.

00:44:45.187 --> 00:44:48.110
(upbeat music)

00:44:48.110 --> 00:44:49.703
-: He died among friends.

00:44:51.600 --> 00:44:53.810
-: When he passed away, and you guys let us

00:44:53.810 --> 00:44:56.270
take stuff from his room.

00:44:56.270 --> 00:44:59.830
I took a pair of his shoes that were really worn.

00:44:59.830 --> 00:45:02.968
And I know he had traveled all over the world,

00:45:02.968 --> 00:45:04.550
I think wearing those shoes.

00:45:04.550 --> 00:45:07.093
So I would see him every day.

00:45:08.330 --> 00:45:10.507
-: After Chris died, I went to South Korea

00:45:10.507 --> 00:45:13.660
to bring his ashes home.

00:45:13.660 --> 00:45:16.840
I also hope to connect with his birth mother.

00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:20.333
After several days of searching, I was not able to find her.

00:45:21.240 --> 00:45:23.737
I often wonder how that early separation

00:45:23.737 --> 00:45:28.737
from his mom and his culture affected Chris later in life.

00:45:28.970 --> 00:45:30.550
What did I learn?

00:45:30.550 --> 00:45:34.120
It's hard on any human being to be taken away from home.

00:45:34.120 --> 00:45:36.050
Identity is important.

00:45:36.050 --> 00:45:38.960
Having that taken away is traumatic.

00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:40.687
Even if intentions are good.

00:45:40.687 --> 00:45:43.270
(upbeat music)

00:45:59.167 --> 00:46:00.000
-: Hello.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:01.517
-: Hello, we found you.

00:46:01.517 --> 00:46:02.420
-: Welcome.

00:46:02.420 --> 00:46:03.427
Welcome, how are you?

00:46:03.427 --> 00:46:05.117
Good to see you.

00:46:05.117 --> 00:46:06.357
-: Very good to be here.

00:46:06.357 --> 00:46:07.190
-: Come on in.

00:46:07.190 --> 00:46:08.727
-: Oh, what a lovely place.

00:46:08.727 --> 00:46:10.070
(gaps)

00:46:10.070 --> 00:46:10.903
Ramona: Thank you

00:46:10.903 --> 00:46:11.736
-: So beautiful.

00:46:11.736 --> 00:46:14.968
I guess they were given this trade off.

00:46:14.968 --> 00:46:17.817
They were promised, "Okay, we'll give you land."

00:46:17.817 --> 00:46:18.727
"We'll give you whatever."

00:46:18.727 --> 00:46:22.021
"If you just be with us and forget all

00:46:22.021 --> 00:46:24.097
that you came with."

00:46:24.097 --> 00:46:27.418
"And don't notice too much about what's going on here."

00:46:27.418 --> 00:46:30.447
"And we'll give you your 80 acres."

00:46:30.447 --> 00:46:33.910
And so that's what I'm like, "Okay."

00:46:33.910 --> 00:46:37.240
So given all that I can't change it.

00:46:37.240 --> 00:46:38.528
Not what?

00:46:38.528 --> 00:46:39.777
Now what?

00:46:39.777 --> 00:46:41.113
-: And we have to consider too,

00:46:41.113 --> 00:46:42.700
when we ask those questions.

00:46:42.700 --> 00:46:47.700
Is, everyone is here for a different reason, to escape.

00:46:48.850 --> 00:46:50.640
Some were forced here.

00:46:50.640 --> 00:46:51.473
-: Yeah.

00:46:51.473 --> 00:46:54.860
-: Some people don't know the answers to those questions.

00:46:54.860 --> 00:46:57.638
Because they were stolen and brought here.

00:46:57.638 --> 00:47:00.164
But the answers to those questions

00:47:00.164 --> 00:47:03.760
I think are integral to our humanity.

00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:05.408
Understanding the strength and the foundation

00:47:05.408 --> 00:47:08.323
of the place that you come from is very important.

00:47:09.860 --> 00:47:11.708
Rita: One thing I've learned is this.

00:47:11.708 --> 00:47:15.148
Finding and sharing our stories, not just a pain

00:47:15.148 --> 00:47:16.177
but also beauty and strength.

00:47:16.177 --> 00:47:21.177
Is an important part of healing from trauma.

00:47:22.723 --> 00:47:25.306
(upbeat music)

00:47:26.590 --> 00:47:31.160
-: If you are parented by a person who has trauma.

00:47:31.160 --> 00:47:33.649
Then it passes to the next generation.

00:47:33.649 --> 00:47:36.980
(upbeat music)

00:47:36.980 --> 00:47:39.930
We weren't allowed to speak our language.

00:47:39.930 --> 00:47:43.070
It is not just a communication.

00:47:43.070 --> 00:47:44.630
It is a way of knowing and understanding

00:47:44.630 --> 00:47:47.710
the world by denying that.

00:47:47.710 --> 00:47:50.170
Creates like a lack of coping.

00:47:50.170 --> 00:47:51.520
You don't know how to cope.

00:47:52.740 --> 00:47:55.560
And so when that happens, generation to generation

00:47:55.560 --> 00:47:58.313
there has to be a time that you stop that.

00:48:00.070 --> 00:48:01.494
I feel like our boarding school kids.

00:48:01.494 --> 00:48:05.880
They probably had just suffer and get through it.

00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:08.136
My ex-husband is a boarding school.

00:48:08.136 --> 00:48:11.640
He's my age, right?

00:48:11.640 --> 00:48:14.870
Him and his four siblings all went to boarding school.

00:48:14.870 --> 00:48:17.360
They all suffered those atrocities

00:48:17.360 --> 00:48:18.520
that I'm talking about.

00:48:18.520 --> 00:48:19.940
That happened there.

00:48:19.940 --> 00:48:22.120
So it's not like something that happened a long time ago.

00:48:22.120 --> 00:48:24.420
It's people my age that it happened to.

00:48:24.420 --> 00:48:25.580
And what do they do mostly?

00:48:25.580 --> 00:48:27.655
They don't rock the boat.

00:48:27.655 --> 00:48:30.322
(phone ringing)

00:48:32.031 --> 00:48:33.410
Responder: Good morning, (mumbles).

00:48:34.300 --> 00:48:36.260
-: Hi yes, my name is Rita Davern

00:48:36.260 --> 00:48:38.500
and I'm from St. Paul.

00:48:38.500 --> 00:48:42.760
And I'm doing some work around the concept of reparations.

00:48:42.760 --> 00:48:47.350
And, I've been talking to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

00:48:47.350 --> 00:48:49.811
And I'm a settler descendant trying to sort

00:48:49.811 --> 00:48:54.811
out a piece of land down here called Pike Island.

00:48:56.422 --> 00:48:59.200
And I know a bit of this.

00:48:59.200 --> 00:49:01.610
My grandpa was interviewed in the early 40s.

00:49:01.610 --> 00:49:03.326
He was maybe almost 80 years old.

00:49:03.326 --> 00:49:06.202
And they interviewed him about his early life

00:49:06.202 --> 00:49:07.930
in pioneer days.

00:49:07.930 --> 00:49:09.963
Cause he was born in 1863.

00:49:11.330 --> 00:49:14.610
He was born the same winter that

00:49:14.610 --> 00:49:16.460
the concentration camp was happening.

00:49:16.460 --> 00:49:18.330
And he was right across the river.

00:49:18.330 --> 00:49:20.610
He was a baby then.

00:49:20.610 --> 00:49:24.082
If my grandfather didn't get interviewed,

00:49:24.082 --> 00:49:27.203
and if he didn't pass on the story of Pike Island

00:49:27.203 --> 00:49:30.156
and how that's connected to our family.

00:49:30.156 --> 00:49:33.340
I never would have been interested in all this.

00:49:33.340 --> 00:49:35.472
It wouldn't have registered as something that important

00:49:35.472 --> 00:49:37.963
what happened in 1862.

00:49:41.600 --> 00:49:44.080
I just not that connected to here.

00:49:44.080 --> 00:49:47.270
But because we had this family story

00:49:47.270 --> 00:49:50.520
and place, and land that we're deeply connected to

00:49:50.520 --> 00:49:53.010
and have passed on these stories for.

00:49:53.010 --> 00:49:55.530
It's a fourth generation now.

00:49:55.530 --> 00:49:57.760
When I learned what happened at Pike Island.

00:49:57.760 --> 00:49:59.210
It meant something.

00:49:59.210 --> 00:50:01.120
It really hit me.

00:50:01.120 --> 00:50:02.320
It hit me hard.

00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:06.140
And so I think the lesson for me is

00:50:06.140 --> 00:50:11.140
how important talking to our family members is.

00:50:13.110 --> 00:50:16.860
About who we are and our history and those things

00:50:16.860 --> 00:50:20.880
the Irish passed down orally for thousands of years.

00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:22.671
And they still have some of that.

00:50:22.671 --> 00:50:26.591
We have to pass on who we are and what we know

00:50:26.591 --> 00:50:28.330
and where we come from.

00:50:28.330 --> 00:50:33.330
I keep hearing something from my fellow, European Americans.

00:50:35.340 --> 00:50:37.061
Every once in a while I hear this.

00:50:37.061 --> 00:50:40.460
And it's sort of stopped me in my tracks for a while.

00:50:40.460 --> 00:50:44.930
And what I heard was, "Well, this happened everywhere."

00:50:44.930 --> 00:50:49.930
Conquests, take over of land, people being moved, displaced.

00:50:50.410 --> 00:50:52.630
It's been all throughout history.

00:50:52.630 --> 00:50:56.083
So as if that was a justification.

00:50:57.080 --> 00:50:59.990
And I'm trying to figure that out in my head.

00:50:59.990 --> 00:51:04.990
And to me, it would be fine to just let that be.

00:51:06.310 --> 00:51:10.380
And say, "It's history, why are you worried about it today?"

00:51:10.380 --> 00:51:13.930
Except for the fact that trauma happened.

00:51:13.930 --> 00:51:17.360
And when trauma happened, it got passed down.

00:51:17.360 --> 00:51:19.580
So it's not over.

00:51:19.580 --> 00:51:21.098
It's not a dead done issue.

00:51:21.098 --> 00:51:23.120
It's not in the past.

00:51:23.120 --> 00:51:27.293
I need healing as much as the people who experienced it.

00:51:27.293 --> 00:51:29.612
I need healing on why do I feel

00:51:29.612 --> 00:51:32.251
like I deserve things that aren't mine.

00:51:32.251 --> 00:51:36.760
Why do I think I deserve the resources that are here.

00:51:36.760 --> 00:51:38.500
When other people don't have them.

00:51:38.500 --> 00:51:39.530
What is that?

00:51:39.530 --> 00:51:43.393
It's a fallacy in my own mind that I need healing from too.

00:51:44.510 --> 00:51:46.770
And we're all gonna live different lives

00:51:46.770 --> 00:51:48.880
if we figure this out.

00:51:48.880 --> 00:51:52.442
It's a change that's coming.

00:51:52.442 --> 00:51:54.683
And, I want to be part of it.

00:51:54.683 --> 00:51:57.266
(upbeat music)

00:51:59.290 --> 00:52:03.611
-: I think anytime we have the opportunity

00:52:03.611 --> 00:52:07.290
in Indian country to have non-native step up

00:52:07.290 --> 00:52:10.320
and say, "This needs to go back to the tribes."

00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:13.493
I think that's a good thing.

00:52:15.080 --> 00:52:17.260
-: America doesn't own up to

00:52:17.260 --> 00:52:19.480
land theft and genocide in any way.

00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:20.921
And the only way to raise

00:52:20.921 --> 00:52:23.781
the consciousness of America, Americans.

00:52:23.781 --> 00:52:27.120
Is to remember who you are.

00:52:27.120 --> 00:52:29.140
-: When people talk about our history, boom.

00:52:29.140 --> 00:52:30.280
First thing, boom.

00:52:30.280 --> 00:52:31.520
Trauma.

00:52:31.520 --> 00:52:33.350
Boom, like the US Dakota War.

00:52:33.350 --> 00:52:34.420
Boom, them taking the land.

00:52:34.420 --> 00:52:36.470
Them doing this and that.

00:52:36.470 --> 00:52:38.464
What we can't do is hyper sensationalized,

00:52:38.464 --> 00:52:40.946
like small part of our history.

00:52:40.946 --> 00:52:44.040
Being Dakota is humongous.

00:52:44.040 --> 00:52:45.040
This is our history.

00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:46.600
And this is where we are right now.

00:52:46.600 --> 00:52:50.160
Let's claim it and own all of ourselves.

00:52:50.160 --> 00:52:52.426
Not own just this piece that we can't get over.

00:52:52.426 --> 00:52:55.009
(upbeat music)

00:53:01.538 --> 00:53:02.636
-: So, you know, I've had this idea

00:53:02.636 --> 00:53:04.930
in my head for a long time.

00:53:04.930 --> 00:53:09.930
About somehow turning our house or cabin something.

00:53:13.620 --> 00:53:17.259
Giving it back to the original peoples here,

00:53:17.259 --> 00:53:19.800
like the Grand Portage (mumbles).

00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:21.700
-: We've talked about that for a long time.

00:53:21.700 --> 00:53:23.476
-: Wita Tanka, so I'm still thinking about it,

00:53:23.476 --> 00:53:25.531
but I'm getting serious.

00:53:25.531 --> 00:53:27.230
-: Yeah, I think it's entirely possible.

00:53:27.230 --> 00:53:29.590
Cause you have a connection too.

00:53:29.590 --> 00:53:33.187
And then my great grandfather, my grandfather homestead,

00:53:33.187 --> 00:53:35.923
160 acres too.

00:53:35.923 --> 00:53:36.819
-: Native land.

00:53:36.819 --> 00:53:37.670
-: Native land.

00:53:37.670 --> 00:53:40.628
So we both have some connection there.

00:53:40.628 --> 00:53:42.256
Some start.

00:53:42.256 --> 00:53:45.744
Came off of, native land for both of our families.

00:53:45.744 --> 00:53:48.327
(upbeat music)

00:53:59.350 --> 00:54:01.530
Ramona: We live in a society that really has a value

00:54:01.530 --> 00:54:03.890
about showing weakness.

00:54:03.890 --> 00:54:06.540
We don't want to admit that we don't know something.

00:54:06.540 --> 00:54:08.090
It's about humility.

00:54:08.090 --> 00:54:08.960
Okay.

00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:10.100
You know what, I don't know this.

00:54:10.100 --> 00:54:11.290
And I need to know it.

00:54:11.290 --> 00:54:13.290
Is gonna create a different way

00:54:13.290 --> 00:54:14.913
of thinking from here on now.

00:54:17.150 --> 00:54:22.150
-: So the farm that my grandpa grew up on

00:54:22.250 --> 00:54:26.480
would have been straight that way across the river

00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:27.803
a couple of miles.

00:54:28.730 --> 00:54:32.080
And across the river from Fort Snelling.

00:54:32.080 --> 00:54:37.080
And I can probably see the trees from here,

00:54:37.550 --> 00:54:39.283
from that piece of land.

00:54:40.140 --> 00:54:41.800
And it is my home.

00:54:41.800 --> 00:54:42.900
It's not my homeland.

00:54:42.900 --> 00:54:43.921
But it is home.

00:54:43.921 --> 00:54:46.000
That really matters to me.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:48.520
And it really matters that I know as much

00:54:48.520 --> 00:54:50.840
as I do know about it.

00:54:50.840 --> 00:54:53.552
It's gonna change my life and the way I live it.

00:54:53.552 --> 00:54:56.894
Because I feel more connected to this place

00:54:56.894 --> 00:55:01.363
and the story that I didn't know before.

00:55:01.363 --> 00:55:03.946
(upbeat music)