2023-02-18 08:00:00
High eagle beats rhythmically on a snare drum and sings, while his son, Black Cloud, with a magnificent headdress, dances as if in a trance. A brief insight into a centuries-old culture and way of life. One that often remains hidden not only from distant Europeans.
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This also applies to residents of the American Midwest. The United States is built on hard work—and, in many places, exploitation. This resonates with the descendants of the indigenous people who still live in large numbers in the reservations that were once created. Racism also plays a role.
Creating understanding for the indigenous people
But High Eagle, whose identity card bears the name Gary Snow, wants to inform and create understanding regarding the life of his tribes. In New Town, North Dakota, he is a supervisor at the MHA Nation Interpretive Center.
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Hoher Adler, who has the name Gary Snow on his US passport, poses with his Native American pearl medallion.
© Quelle: Jonas Szemkus
Exhibition provides information regarding the history of the First Nations
MHA – that stands for Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. Three tribes shaped by a similar past. The center, which is a bit off the beaten path, has the right exhibition. It’s regarding language and ancestors, regarding diseases and expulsion – and regarding how people kept rebuilding their lives despite everything.
Outside, visitors can see how Native Americans once lived in the Fort Berthold Reservation area on the Missouri River. Snow proudly shows the village with authentic earth huts, the Earth Lodge Village. He sees himself first as a Native American, then as an American, he says. “That’s how I grew up. I would call myself American Indian.” American Indian.
A replica of a Native American mud hut stands at the MHA Interpretive Center at Four Bears Bay in New Town, North Dakota.
© Quelle: Jonas Szemkus
Change of location, similar thoughts, similar worries. Rose Williamson also reports that racism is “still the order of the day” outside of the reservations. In the Midwest, time and views have often stood still. But the proud woman is undeterred.
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Tour guide Rose Williamson recounts the battle nearly 150 years ago at the Little Bighorn Battlefield.
© Quelle: Jonas Szemkus
Williamson is a little star here on Crow Reservation, Montana. As a tour guide at the Little Bighorn National Battlefield, she casts a special spell over visitors. Here, in June 1876, Indians fought off the advancing troops of US General George A. Custer. Custer was to evict them from their hunting grounds where gold had been found. A perfectly normal horror in the Wild West.
Many dead in the so-called Indian Wars
Williamson is now, almost 150 years later, standing on a small, grassy hill and pointing down into the valley. There, she says with gestures, was the Indian camp. With warriors, women, children. And from there, half a turn in the opposite direction, came Custer’s men. What followed was the US Army’s greatest military defeat in the so-called Indian Wars. With many dead on both sides.
The sculpture with the silhouettes of three warriors is dedicated to the sacrifices of the different tribes in the battle for the Little Bighorn.
© Quelle: Jonas Szemkus
As early as 1879, the battlefield was designated a national cemetery, and in 1946 a national monument. If you don’t have a tour guide like Williamson, you’ll find history plaques along the winding streets detailing the battle.
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Not everyone likes Mount Rushmore
One of the Lakota leaders back then at the Little Bighorn: Crazy Horse, who achieved almost legendary status. A monument in his memory dedicated to Native American culture is a five hour drive away in South Dakota. Near the town of Custer, of all places, and a few miles from Mount Rushmore.
The four heads of former US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are carved in stone on Mount Rushmore – a shame for the Lakota Indians.
© Quelle: Jonas Szemkus
The presidential heads carved in stone there are a disgrace to Lakota Indians who hold the area sacred. The Crazy Horse Memorial currently under construction can certainly be understood as a huge protest: the image of the Indian warrior with horse will eventually be ten times higher than the heads on Mount Rushmore and many times wider.
Crazy Horse Memorial is meant to commemorate Lakota leaders
However, that will probably take another century. 80 years following the start of construction, only the face is finished, but that alone takes your breath away. Mainly because, unlike Mount Rushmore, visitors can drive up to the stony face for an extra charge. In 1948, Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, commissioned by Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear, first climbed the mountain to work on it. He used climbing skills, jackhammers and explosives. “It was a hell of a trip,” reports daughter Jadwiga Ziolkowski.
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This is what the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota’s Black Hills will look like once it’s complete.
© Those: IMAGO/ZUMA Press
Nowadays, technical progress allows for much larger steps. Five days a week, 13 workers with oversized circular saws work on the rock, currently on Crazy Horse’s arm and his horse’s mane. For the Ziolkowski family, the monument, which is financed by donations, became a life’s work.
It’s regarding more than a sculpture
Children and grandchildren took over the planning, and a small university for natives and a large museum were built at the memorial. It’s regarding more than the sculpture in the mountain, says Ziolkowski’s daughter. “It was always regarding offering people a place to learn something regarding the culture of the natives.” The trick: “The sculpture attracts people – then they learn so much more.”
The plans do not please all descendants. But “especially when young people of Indian origin come, their backs get a little wider, they stand a little prouder,” reports Jadwiga. The memorial attracts around a million tourists a year.
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JJ Kent, award-winning musician and Native American guide at the must-see little Tatanka – Story of the bison museum near Deadwood, South Dakota, wasn’t there yet. But he likes the idea. “It is an honor that they bestow upon his memory. As someone who was dedicated and determined to protect his people,” says Kent. And determination, you can feel it, connects many indigenous people across tribal borders.
Tips for your trip to the Midwest
Getting there: Direct flights to Great American West doesn’t exist – but via gateway airports like Denver there are many uncomplicated ways to get to your destination quickly.
Entry: Germans must at least 72 hours before departure online apply for an Esta entry permit. Cost: $21.
Best travel time: A road trip through the Great American West States is worthwhile from April to October, but not everything is open outside of the classic tourist season. It begins on Memorial Day (last Monday in May) and lasts through Labor Day (first Monday in September).
Attractions: Little Bighorn Battlefield: 756 Battlefield Tour Road, Crow Agency, Montana. Open: daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (high season), otherwise until 4.30 p.m. Admission: 25 euros per vehicle.
Crazy Horse Memorial: 12151 Avenue of the Chiefs, Crazy Horse, South Dakota. Open all year round, times vary as do entrance fees.
MHA Nation Interpretive Center: 9386 Lake Sakakawea Road, New Town, North Dakota.
Open: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Tatanka – Story of the bison: 100 Tatanka Drive Deadwood, South Dakota. Open: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (high season), otherwise 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children.
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The trip was supported by The Great American West. The editors alone decide on the selection and orientation of the content.
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