I am very grateful for all you are researching and sharing with us about the Indian culture. This is so important for us to know. I feel like late in my life I am being exposed to so much "real" history. I wish I had been taught these things as a younger person.
Thank you for these recommendations. I'll look for all three. You have enriched my knowledge about your heart-place so much--I feel as if I have begun to know a place I have never been and now would like to experience!
Jill, I know how I will be celebrating Easter Sunday this year. Thanks for the heads up. There was a reason I had not canceled Netflix! And PBS streaming. Will be on the lookout for Bad River. Profound thanks, and Happy Easter.
I need to locate "Indian Horse". I recently saw "Bad River" in Minneapolis and around the same time viewed the PBS series "Little Bird", a 6-episode series on the Canadian history of Indigenous children forcibly taken from their homes to live with white families. I followed this with "Stolen", the current struggles of the Sami people living in Northern Sweden, trying to hold onto their traditional ways of caribou herding, under threat by peoples of other ethnicities and cultures, climate change, their stories so similar for Indigenous peoples all over the world. Their children also had been taken, not allowed to maintain their language and culture. My first viewing of "Electric Indian" was at Hockey Day in Warroad.
All of these films expand my awareness and sadness of what has been done and how we have gotten here, what price was paid, what was lost. Like you, Jill, my great grandparents and their siblings came to the area from from Sweden and Norway. We grew up with stories that didn't necessarily fit, but we didn't have any particular way or even consideration to dig deeper. Now you are, peeling back layers, finding documentation. It is time to open up/clarify these difficult chapters. Thank you .
I have yet to be able to stream "Little Bird" here in Wisconsin, though it is on my list to see. White families adopting Indian children continued until they passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1972 here in the US. Sandy White Hawk has written about being an adoptee in her memoir A Child of the Indian Race (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2022). "Indian Horse" is a beautiful film, but you might enjoy Richard Wagamese's novel by the same title. The Electric Indian is a tribute to Henry but also his tribute to his hometown. I hope more people are able to see it. We share the heritage of our immigrant great-grandparents and in learning about their history has meant I had to learn more about the broader context of the times and place in which they lived but it has also meant meeting the people who make it their home now and hearing their stories. It truly is a special place.
I am very grateful for all you are researching and sharing with us about the Indian culture. This is so important for us to know. I feel like late in my life I am being exposed to so much "real" history. I wish I had been taught these things as a younger person.
I'm grateful to you for your interest in this material as I find myself like you learning late in life new lessons from the past.
Thank you for continuing to write these posts, Jill. And CONGRATS on your pub in Thunderbird Review. Ever inspired …
Thanks! Thanks for continuing to read....
Thank you for these recommendations. I'll look for all three. You have enriched my knowledge about your heart-place so much--I feel as if I have begun to know a place I have never been and now would like to experience!
That means a lot to me, Susan. Thanks for your feedback as I hope to convey how special this place is and not only to me.
Wallace Stegner said in a lecture once that every place needs a poet. I believe you are the poet of Warroad and that whole Lake of the Woods area!
Thanks, Susan. At my best, I try to inscribe the poetics of the place.
Jill, I know how I will be celebrating Easter Sunday this year. Thanks for the heads up. There was a reason I had not canceled Netflix! And PBS streaming. Will be on the lookout for Bad River. Profound thanks, and Happy Easter.
Best wishes to you on this holiday morning. Enjoy these healing stories.
I need to locate "Indian Horse". I recently saw "Bad River" in Minneapolis and around the same time viewed the PBS series "Little Bird", a 6-episode series on the Canadian history of Indigenous children forcibly taken from their homes to live with white families. I followed this with "Stolen", the current struggles of the Sami people living in Northern Sweden, trying to hold onto their traditional ways of caribou herding, under threat by peoples of other ethnicities and cultures, climate change, their stories so similar for Indigenous peoples all over the world. Their children also had been taken, not allowed to maintain their language and culture. My first viewing of "Electric Indian" was at Hockey Day in Warroad.
All of these films expand my awareness and sadness of what has been done and how we have gotten here, what price was paid, what was lost. Like you, Jill, my great grandparents and their siblings came to the area from from Sweden and Norway. We grew up with stories that didn't necessarily fit, but we didn't have any particular way or even consideration to dig deeper. Now you are, peeling back layers, finding documentation. It is time to open up/clarify these difficult chapters. Thank you .
I have yet to be able to stream "Little Bird" here in Wisconsin, though it is on my list to see. White families adopting Indian children continued until they passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1972 here in the US. Sandy White Hawk has written about being an adoptee in her memoir A Child of the Indian Race (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2022). "Indian Horse" is a beautiful film, but you might enjoy Richard Wagamese's novel by the same title. The Electric Indian is a tribute to Henry but also his tribute to his hometown. I hope more people are able to see it. We share the heritage of our immigrant great-grandparents and in learning about their history has meant I had to learn more about the broader context of the times and place in which they lived but it has also meant meeting the people who make it their home now and hearing their stories. It truly is a special place.
Thanks for these great suggestions!