A Truthful Journey Home
for the Dakotah People (2)
Gloria Bauske
Dakota Journal Correspondent
U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen compared the healing circle to a courtroom, stating that the same flag waving atop the T-pees, also hangs on the wall of the courtroom. She explained that in the courtroom it is the jury, not the judge that determines the verdict after the facts have been presented and she asked the group surrounding the healing circle to act accordingly. "A jury is a group of people and if you are here today and you want to speak the truth, that you feel the pain, and that you’ve heard the stories that have been spoken here today, I would ask that you stand now as a representation of your verdict,” U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen said. Empty chairs surrounded the elders, embraced by the standing verdict that their words of truth were evidence of a great injustice to the Dakota people.
An historic game of Winona Canadian-American Moccasin continued throughout the weekend. The game began as a result of two hunting parties nearly colliding in the pursuit of wild game. The Warrior to select the moccasin with a hidden item under it was the winner and could have not just the game, but the life of the other Warrior if he so chose. For some Dakota people the trip was like coming home to family.
"They’re of course old friends and relatives,” Ernest Wabasha, 75, said. Wabasha lives on the reservation near Morton, Minn. and he is a descendent of a Dakota Chief. Others came to tell the truth.
"I’m here to tell about how our people were treated long ago, an oral history that my grandfather and grandmother told me,” Ambrose Littleghost, 72, said. He went to Catholic School when he was 6 years old and remembers the abuse inflicted upon himself and others by the Catholic Sisters. "The sisters used to slap us on the head, pull our ears, pull our hair, and say 'don’t you understand?’” You know that hurt! After a few weeks of the torment Ambrose ran away to the safety of his grandmother’s home. When she heard about the story she would not allow the Catholic Priest to take him back to the school. He then attended a government boarding school for two years. "They would say kill the Indian and save the man,” Littleghost said At other boarding schools a simple mistake earned him and others a beating. "That hurt, but that wasn’t the learning process, we got bitter and some times today when I see a Roman Priest, and I used to feel a long time ago that I’d like to go out and punch them in the nose for the things they have done to us.... me, and I lived with that for many, many years. When someone hurts you again, and again you can’t forget!”
A somber spirit of those who came before whispered through the trees, soaring skyward to the great rock of Sugar Loaf, (formerly Wabasha’s Cap) on the southern horizon, echoing a promise of forgiveness and regret, rekindling a hope that history will be remembered as it was told by the Dakota people, the way it really happened, and it will not be repeated.
