Earlier in the project, we heard that the tree was the first and most important symbol ever to be taught when we were young. In learning about it, we would find guidance on how to live a good life and where we should look to remain firmly grounded. Episode 7 Part 2 starts with a new and strikingly different perspective on our relative the tree by recent Little Wound graduate Pte San Win Little Whiteman.

The next section turns to a discussion of the contemporary challenges facing our Lakota Oyate. This includes the issues of language revitalization, racism, mining, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women(MMIW), education, the influence of Western culture, and the neglect of Unci Maka.

The third segment is devoted to woksape, or words of wisdom, for all Lakota youth. Here, through the voices of twenty of our project participants, we take in diverse views that tie together the past and present while offering valued guidance for facing the future in the best way possible.

In the fourth and final section - in what can be seen as the project’s epilogue - we hear a passionate appeal from recent Little Wound graduate Zoey White.    

Episode 7 of our series is the culmination of our project and also its ending point. Over the past two-plus years, we have done our best to put together a detailed look at the story of the Lakota Oyate -  from origin stories to time before contact with Europeans; from feelings of wonder at the new arrivals to fatal clashes over land and resources; from supposed agreements to genocidal attacks on us, our relative tatanka, our language, and our way of life; from standing up for who we are to finally having our voices heard.

In this final episode, we will take a different look at the past to see how we arrived here in the present and what needs to be done as we move into our collective future.

Part 1 begins with a vivid look at the current state of the Lakota language and its importance to our future as an oyate. The second section - our longest segment by far - is an intimate journey through the early lives of many of our beloved project participants. Through it, we will better know these relatives that have so generously shared their lives and stories with us. 

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty created the “Great Sioux Reservation” - comprising the western part of South Dakota including He Sapa - which was to be reserved exclusively for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of the Sioux Nation. By 1877, after the discovery of gold by George Armstrong Custer’s sanctioned expedition, this treaty was swiftly broken when the Black Hills were confiscated by the U.S. Congress. Episode 6 Part 2 begins with a detailed explanation of the cases related to the Black Hills land claim that culminated in 1980’s United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians Supreme Court case.

The next and final segment of this episode discusses 1990’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act(NAGPRA) which was enacted “to establish the rights of Indian tribes and their lineal descendants to obtain repatriation of certain human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony from federal agencies or museums.”