Transcripts For CSPAN3 History Of The Black Hills 20240713 :

CSPAN3 History Of The Black Hills July 13, 2024

Nonnative americans. Stretching about 110 miles long and 70 miles wide, the black hills of south dakota rise up from the plains, just to the west of rapid city. The black hills are very important to the native American Community members. They are referred to as the heart. And thein pine trees elevations that we have that surround that area thinking of where rapid city is at, we are positioned at the gateway to the black hills, where it is kind of how we have always build ourselves, billed back to the earliest founders of rapid city. I am doniphan donovan sprague, i come from the lakota ise family and my tribal affiliation, from ,cion river sioux reservation , a veryacred bear butte spiritual place where not only lakota, but people of Many American Indian Tribes and nationalities visited. Aroundhe time period of 1800, we will say up to the wins as a time period, our henota and cheyenne are w lakota and cheyenne dominated this area. They moved with the buffalo and game, which supplied them with food, shelter, and everything that the people know was provided by the creator. Spiritual,ificant you know, area. If you look at the bigger picture, you see bear butte surrounded by prairie, but the black hills are about 80 miles long. It is totally surrounded by prairie itself, so it just rises veryt of the prairie, unique area. Very beautiful. Very sacred. Taking you back a few years to the fort laramie treaty signed in 1868, everything in the black hills was treaty land for native American Community members. A few years later in 1874, the custer expedition cuts through on officiallls orders of seeking a passageway for immigrants into the montana area. In their way through the black hills, they discover gold. That is the game changer. The fort laramie treaty in 1868 and now we discover gold. So that really led to the gold rush here in the black hills, and it is the turning point in the event. From there, the spaces go through a bunch of different treaty reorganizations, land allotment acts and things of that nature. But had that goal not been not beend gold discovered, it might have been a different story. But we can only conjecture. The black hills being lost through the politics of the gold discovery in 1874, the custer all of that was a craving for land, which eventually led, you know, to the five reservations. Pine ridge, rosebud, standing rock, Cheyenne River, and lower utte being created. Basically a concentration camp. You could not leave in the early days. You had to get permission. There is about 12 native American Population in rapid city, which is significant. 8000 to 9000 native american residents here. But we are within nine miles of the pine ridge indian reservation, which by all accounts is one of the poorest places to live in the nation. Where the Life Expectancy is very low. Where the infant mortality rate is very high, where the addiction rate is very high and where the unemployment is very high as well. It is a very challenged part of the country. County i come from on the ,eservation, Cheyenne River its today the poorest county in america. Itis last alphabetically, has the highest unemployment rate, the Lowest Per Capita income. If you look at all the other theyre goingons, to be at the bottom 20 in the United States. Conflict is a good way to describe the relationship between the early nonnative settlers and the current native american inhabitants of this area. There was conflict then and conflicts today, but not as much a direct conflict as it was influenced by historical trauma. So there was development here that was not in the best interest of the native people, certainly not in the same style, the same intended use of the land as the original native people. Of course, we are 20 miles from Mount Rushmore, the largest president monument in the world. Mount rushmore memorial in the heart of south dakotas black hills. There it is, the 60 foot head of george washington. Ee other units to follow jefferson, lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt to be honored in unveiling ceremonies. There was some controversy right from the start carving in the black hills. That controversy came from tribal people as well as people today we would call the ecologists. The tribes, they were looking at a place where they would come in and honor and have honor, ceremonies, spend some time. 1925, thate period, was not looked at the same way we look at today. Our people,t of ,specially more traditionalist are not in favor of doing anything with the rocks, because what, rocks are believed to be part of our system and living, not to blast those and carve them and make a mountain and that sort of thing. Those were things that were decided by nonindians, you know, a long time ago. What we did was we studied the history of Mount Rushmore, the four president s there, and then some ofwas to explain the American Indian policies that washington had or lincoln had or that roosevelt had as jefferson. Still do have tribal people who are concerned about the black hills being carved, People Living in the black hills. That, some of it through our interpretive programming, but we also have a place that we set up in the park that is called the lakota heritage village. We hire cultural interpreters. These are people who are lakota. They come in and they talk about the lakota story. So we are trying to share the importance of the black hills for all of these people, as well as what that sculpture means. It is a balance. [speaking native language] grandfather, thank you very much for my so. That is like Mount Rushmore. Same thing with the rocks, you know . Disturbed. A Family Member myself, i would not support that as far as from the crazy horse and the other families. Some native americans i have spoken with, one of the issues they have with this memorial and Mount Rushmore is that it is taking the native geology of the ands and the rock up there changing it from something the creator had there before. What are your thoughts on that . Well, the creator created human beings to do things. That is one thing. To carve thed mountain in montana, not in the black hills. Thats the indian people said, you have to carve it in the black hills. So he was invited here by the native American People to carve the mountain in the black hills. We are the story telling, we are telling the history of the native American People. We are telling the future of native American People, and present day. Andave lots of artists performers that come here and share their knowledge and their withiences and their life our guests, our visitors. If you have knowledge, you have everything you need. Toas crazy horse began become a young warrior, a young, mighty warrior we have different ways we can honor our people, and we have our own accurate history that differ from some of the history they present. Crazy horse was all through this area. We are about five miles from the sacred bear butte, and we are about two miles from the port that was established, fort meade, and so we are in an area of minicamps of lakota, including all through this valley where we are at right now. Here was also aware, ironically, the remnants of custers calvary ended up. This was their patrol area. They would be involved in later years, you know . With little bighorn, but by 1890 was the wounded knee massacre. And patroleir job area, to go clear down there, miles,ere probably 140 right now, from wounded knee. The black hills have always been a big issue, you know, and the u. S. Court of claims was formed in the 1940s to take claims to land, and that is when the lakota files for loss of their black hills, you know . So there is a whole history of unsettled case, you know, which continues to this day, because the tribes did not accept money. They wanted land. All of that continues to this day. In essence, the laramie treaty is still in effect today. It has not been rescinded, theres just been legal different changes, theres just been legal, different changes to wear native american spaces are set aside for. There are legal activities pending in terms of who owns the black hills right now, and i know there are native American Community members who do not want to take a settlement for the black hills, because they do not believe the black hills are for sale. They are sacred. South dakota has had a lot of problems with the relationship between tribes. They can say what they want, but the record shows its been a tough go. There is a long way to go. Of still,lot hurt feelings are passed from generation to generation, and there is discrimination. Partly real, partly perceived, but discrimination nonetheless. Even if you do not understand your culture completely, you can beautiful and how wonderful the black hills are, and i think i can really respect and understand all of that from that viewpoint too. The legacy of the black hills continues to this day. It is always going to be a sacred and spiritual place and an important place for ceremonies. A lot of people that come here and visit, they are drawn back just by what they remember from experiencing the black hills. I think one of the power points here. World is it is magnetic, i think. Our look at some of the highlights from the last year continues as we take you to lansing, michigan. We are at the Michigan History Museum here in downtown lands hang. We are part of state government, so our museum tells the stories of michigan, all of michigan, including lansing, and today we are going to walk a little bit through our gallery. Our museum is set up so it is a walkthrough time. We Start Talking about the first Indigenous People who lived in michigan and go all the way up through the end of the 20th century. We are standing in our first exhibit, and it talks about the Indigenous People who lived in michigan for thousands of years before the arrival of europeans. It is one that we just recently renovated. The focal point of this exhibition is the gigantic mural we have that is painted. What it does is shows the story of the people through four seasons. To big picture we want convey in this, what an advanced civilization they had before , and that theyl had very sophisticated social structures, but it was just a little different than the western civilization. Off the land live and not try to control the lands, and they engaged a lot of their time really working in harmony with the land to meet all their basic needs. So in this mural, some things to point out. The structures, there is a lot of misconceptions that native americans all lived in teepees, but in michigan, they lived in structures called wigwams. They would use saplings from birchbark or maple to build this frame, and they would overlay it with strips of birchbark, sometimes woven reed mats. They would fill it in with grasses for a bit of insulation and living here year round. They are pretty compact and pretty mobile, so they could take the birch bark off and move from place to place as the seasons changed. We have now moved into the gallery that talks about how michigan became a state. Settle dues slow to to the swamp and other thing like that. The opening of the erie canal really helped spread migration from the eastern area. By 1835, the territory of michigan felt it had reached the requirements for becoming a state. We had the right population members, we had a written constitution from 1835 in our governor and our governor appealed to congress to become a state and it was rejected because there was some unsettled business between the state of michigan and the state of ohio as to who was going to own toledo. Both states saw it as a valuable port on lake erie that would help with transportation, so it took about two years. They call it the toledo war. Michigan finally agreed if the country would live to become a state, they would let toledo become part of ohio and as a consolation prize, michigan. The western half of the Upper Peninsula. Everybody, ohioans and michigans agree, that michigan ,efinitely got the better deal because that is where they found the iron ore and copper ore deposits that really helped michigan become the manufacturing state that it did. Were rich with native forests, largely times, but also explorersurveyor douglas houchin discovered unnatural iron ore and copper deposits there. In the last half of the 19th century, most of the lumber in the lower part of the peninsula andcut down and harvested full mining efforts began in the Upper Peninsula for the copper and iron ore. When you are extracting the copper and the iron ore, it rarely comes out perfectly pure, so this is some copper or that has other impurities in it. Necessitated the building of some of michigans first factories to process, fours, take these Raw Materials and purify them, remove the impurities to make the p or usedr moved pure copper ,n candlesticks, ingots, pots and other things. This is one of the things that set michigan up to become a. Ajor Manufacturing Center some of the earliest Manufacturing Industries were related to transportation. We had carriage companies, rail Car Companies operating out of detroit, and shipbuilding in bay city and detroit. One of the biggest early andfacturing successes michigans history was the fact that michigan by 1900 had become the stove capital of the world. Jeremiah and james to iron were two brothers who founded three of the four most successful stove companies in detroits history. Here are examples of the castiron stoves they made in their factories out of iron mind in thepeninsula mined peninsula. So michigan really became known for the industry it is still known for today, the manufacture of automobiles. In order for that to happen, we had to have the successes from the earlier industry. Money and capital that can invest in these new companies from the former industries of mining. G and we also have the infrastructure and factories that made the stoves and transportation vehicles. They could be repurposed for the new phenomenon of the gasoline engine. The last piece that really helps michigan become the motor city was the ingenuity of some of the early founders of modern mobile industry, from henry ford, Whose Assembly line is to Walter Chrysler and william durrant, who founded general motors. This exciting boom in any fracturing and the Automobile Industry was huge in the southern part of michigan, particularly southeastern michigan. At the same time, the northern part of michigan was so largely farming as a main industry, but technology,ents in particularly the gasoline engine, resulted in automations like the motorized tractor. New eraped usher in a of farming in michigan and enabled family farms to grow into sustainable businesses. Early in the 20th century, almost 25 of Michigan Farmers were dairy farmers. That was a Huge Industry for us. Are movingactories in southeast michigan, weve got farming on a larger scale happening, so both worlds existing simultaneously. We have now moved into the part of the museum which talks about michigan during world war ii, and particularly, the war production that took place. In 1940, right before the u. S. Entered world war ii, president Franklin D Roosevelt put out a call. We must be the great arsenal of democracy. We need to create a product that would help the allies win ii, and michigan and detroit in particular were very quick to answer the call. In fact, most factories or Production Companies making Consumer Products switched over morere manufacturing manufacturing, including all the automobile factories. One of the most successful factories that was built to make products for the war was ford motor companys willow run plant. A gigantic girl behind us shows the innovation and the making planes the assembly line, which had never been done before. Construction began in 1941, and by 1943,1942, 40 1000 people were working to build airplanes 41,000 people were working to build airplanes in this plant. At one point, they were rolling a bomber off the line every 63 minutes. Most of the young ablebodied men who worked in factories had gone off to serve in the war, so in the willow run plant in particular, there was mass migrations of people coming up from the south to work. Detroit was so overcrowded, people were living in tents in vacant lots. That the warown gave opportunity to win it and people of caller, particularly africanamericans, to get the part,y jobs for the most for the first time in history. So the workers that are working on top of the airplane, there are a couple of women working that. Women worked as realtors, assembling things at other factories that were not making the big products like the jeep or the vehicles. Michigan made a lot of ordinates so building shells, the shelves that would be used in can attend guns and bullets shells that would be used in canons and guns and bullets. We will end our tour at the 1957 detroit auto show. It is fitting, because it shows how over the last century and a half, the manufacturing in michigan made michigan a very prosperous state in the mid20th 1950s. In the from michigans addition his people to our lumber to our miners to our early manufacturers and Auto Industry giants, these individuals have worked with, lived with, and use Michigan Natural Resources in a way to benefit themselves and help our state grow. Making 24 stops in the last year, the cspan cities tour explores the history and literary life of selected americans these. Next up, look at one of our segments from bozeman, montana. A wonde

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