2008 Overview Schedule Application Statement of Responsibility

About the Seminar

L98 479 AMCS: On Location: Exploring America: Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Sunday, May 18 through Friday May 30, 2008
Not including travel time to and from Wingsprings Ranch, near Martin, South Dakota

Faculty: Craig Howe, Ph.D. (Anthropologist and Lakota Scholar) with Wayne Fields, the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Chair in English and Director of American Cutlure Studies

Curricular Overview

The idea of being “on location” grows from the premise that peoples, histories and environments are inextricably linked in a complex symbiotic relationship that can be studied intellectually and experientially. The geographic focus of this year’s seminar is the traditional homelands of the Lakota people. Lakotas are one of the seven nations of the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, more commonly referred to as Sioux. Their traditional homelands are centered in the Black Hills, and encompass lands in what are now the states of South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Today, there are five Lakota reservations, all in South Dakota. Home to Oglala Lakotas, Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota is perhaps the quintessential Indian reservation in the United States. It was home to Crazy Horse and Red Cloud, Vine Deloria, Jr. was born in one of its border towns, and Oglala Lakota College, one of the first tribal colleges in the U.S., was established here in 1970 and is now the largest college of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. On reservation land at Wounded Knee in 1890, Lakota children, women and men were massacred by U.S. forces in what is often cited as the last of the Indian “wars.”

At that very same site in 1973 grass roots people and the American Indian Movement protested reservation conditions by occupying surrounding buildings and holding off U.S. forces for 71 days in one of the most dramatic of the Red Power Movement events. Now 35 years later socio-economic statistics of reservation residents remain startlingly appalling. Nevertheless, the people of Pine Ridge choose to continue living in and protecting the homelands of their ancestors.

The first half of this seminar examines Lakota history, culture and land, from the beginning of time to the present. This Lakota historical trajectory will explore selected important events, such as the two Wounded Knees, and study them in-depth from multiple perspectives. Participants will also go “on location” to schools, government offices, ceremonial grounds, and business establishments in Pine Ridge Reservation, and learn from residents who will share their perspectives on reservation life.

The second half of the seminar goes “on location” to prominent Lakota places beyond the reservation boundaries. These include Badlands National Park and Bear Butte State Park in South Dakota, Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and Fort Robinson State Park in Nebraska. Each of these sites is important in Lakota history, but also in the histories of other American Indian and non-Indian peoples. Field exercises at these sites will engage participants in careful observation and recording of the land, the sky, the built environment, and the interpretation of natural and cultural events that occurred in the vicinity. At Devil's Tower and Fort Robinson, night-time observations will also be conducted. Participants will use drawings, written reflections, maps, photographs and even audio recordings to document their research.

The overarching intention of the seminar structure is to encourage us to think critically about the intersections of Lakota history, culture and homeland on the one hand, and non-Lakota perspectives of these places and events on the other. In so doing, we are striving for a more nuanced awareness of the broader historical and contemporary relationships between American Indians and non-Indians. Pine Ridge in many ways represents a remarkable location within which to engage the landscape, skyscape, historical experiences, and diverging and converging perspectives that shape the constantly shifting and complex meaning of American culture.

Craig Howe earned a Ph.D. in architecture and anthropology from the University of Michigan. He is director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS) and is a faculty member in the Graduate Studies Department at Oglala Lakota College (OLC) on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Prior to these positions, he served as deputy assistant director for cultural resources at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, and director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library in Chicago. He has developed innovative hypermedia tribal histories projects and creative museum exhibitions, taught Native studies courses in the U.S. and Canada, and authored articles and book chapters on numerous topics, including tribal histories, Native studies, museum exhibitions, and community collaborations.

His current work at the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies, focuses on advancing the knowledge and understanding of American Indian communities through innovative projects that acknowledge and incorporate tribal perspectives. Dr. Howe and CAIRNS hosted the American Culture Studies On Location seminar in 2006. CAIRNS has also hosted two institutes for South Dakota teachers in 2007 that explored approaches to teaching Lakota culture. In addition to his duties at CAIRNS and OLC, Dr. Howe delivers Native American awareness training to South Dakota state employees and in-service training to South Dakota school districts. Howe was raised and lives on his family's cattle ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Logistics

Costs: Tuition: $2,295 (Undergraduate) $2,745 (Graduate) Fees: $750
This costs includes three credits (through Arts & Sciences) and lodging, meals, curricular materials and site trip expenses. Students, however, are responsible for the cost of their travel to and from South Dakota as well as any additional purchases they may want to make during the seminar. We will have one if not two vans leaving from St. Louis if you are concerned about not having transportation to South Dakota.

Lodging for the first week of the seminar will be at Wingsprings ranch near Martin, South Dakota. In that beautiful and austere setting, students will begin to understand the experience of living on a ranch in the high plains as they live communily in tepees, tents and meet in the mainhouse. During most the second week, participants will travel in small vans to site locations and stay either in hotels, state park cabins, and/or campgrounds. Lodging costs and meals for the entire seminar are included the seminar fee. Please see the day-by-day schedule for more detailed information about activities.

Students must apply if interested and enrollment is limited to 12 participants. Please call or visit with us to discuss any questions you may have. Contact Deborah Jaegers at 314-935-4912, djjaeger@wustl.edu or come to the American Culture Studies office (McMillan Hall, Room 151, in the southwestern tower entrance). To apply, fill out the Application and Statement of Responsibility forms and send to Deborah Jaegers in American Culture Studies (Campus Box 1126) or djjaeger@wustl.edu.

Summer Financial Assistance is limited and only available through the Student Financial Services office. You can find the Summer application and requirements on the Student Financial Services website.