Dakota Women's Work: Creativity, Culture, and Exile

Acknowledgments

Dakota Women’s Work stands as a testimony to the many Dakota women and men who have provided much assistance and guidance for this project, starting with Edith Bickersta¤ at Santee and William Beane at Flandreau, who spent many long days introducing me to friends and relatives, helping arrange interviews, and participating in many themselves . In addition, William Beane most generously shared with me vast amounts of materials that he has gathered on the history of his family and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. Many other Dakota men and women contributed time, knowledge, and insights to this project, including Wyatt Thomas, Thelma Thomas, Jim James, Mary Johnson, Bernice Medina, and Virginia Mackey at Santee; Roberta Williamson, Beverly Wakeman, Sidney H. Byrd, Myrna Weston-Louis and David Louis, and J. C. Wade at Flandreau; Jerry and Brenda Lytle, Hester and Lorenzo Fleury, Hilda Longcrow, and Rose Ducheneaux at Fort Thompson, South Dakota; Dorothy Thomas, Elaine Provost, and Ramona Frazier at Sioux City, Iowa; Emily L. Smith at Winnebago, Nebraska; Joe Campbell at Prairie Island, Minnesota; Teresa Peterson at the Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota; and Janice Bad Moccasin, Virginia Bad Moccasin, Reuben Kitto, Rod Steiner, and Vernell Wabasha. I am very grateful to Kenneth James, Sr., and to Margaret Daniels for displaying and allowing me to photograph the 183 acknowledgments quilt made by their great-grandmother, Mary Mitchell. Waziyatawin and Diane Wilson read early portions of this work and made valuable suggestions to which I returned repeatedly. Ramona Kitto Stately and William Beane, in addition to all their other contributions, read through a complete draft of this manuscript and helped me fill in many gaps. Studying the Dakota language became integral to this project. Cantemaza Neil McKay and Glen Wasicuna made every single lesson about Dakota language a lesson in history and survival. Lisa Elbert’s years as a teacher were far too few, but she nevertheless inspired many of us through her full embrace of learning and teaching. Numerous scholars generously shared research materials, knowledge, and insight gathered over many years. I am particularly grateful to Patricia Albers, Carolyn Anderson, Annette Atkins, Raymond Demallie, Donald Fixico, and Bruce White. Over ten years of research and writing, Herbert Hoover provided unstinting encouragement as well as access to his encyclopedic knowledge and vast collection of research materials and photographs. The positive response to my Minnesota History article, “Survival at Crow Creek,” was very energizing and helpful; I want to thank in particular Leonard Wabasha, Chris Mato Numpa, and Marybeth Faimon for their comments. Curators at many di¤erent museums made possible a focus on material culture in this research, including Marcia Anderson at the Minnesota Historical Society, Tilly Laskey at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Laura Mooney at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Susan Kennedy Zeller and Nancy Roso¤ at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Felicia Pickering at the National Museum of Natural History, and Katerina Klapstova at the Naprstek Museum in Prague. They were very gracious in educating and accommodating a scholar more used to dealing with books and letters. Archivists provided thoughtful and insightful guidance through innumerable collections of documents and photographs in a dozen libraries and historical societies, including the Nebraska State Historical Society, the New-York Historical Society, the South Dakota State Archives, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Anthropological Archives, the New 184 Acknowledgments York Academy of Medicine Library, the Center for Western Studies at Augustana College (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), the University of Minnesota Library Special Collections, the Sioux City (Iowa) Public Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Moody County Historical Museum. Debbie Miller and all the librarians and archivists at the Minnesota Historical Society continue to make MHS one of the most welcoming libraries for researchers. Colleagues at Winona State University have been completely integral to this project. Librarians Russ Denison, Kathy Sullivan, Vernon Leighton , Joe Mount, Joe Jackson, Mark Eriksen, Kendall Larson, and Allison Quam have been invaluable partners in scholarship, as has Susan Byom in chasing down materials through interlibrary loan. The sta¤ of Teaching Learning & Technology Services has provided essential assistance with numerous technological dimensions of this project. I would particularly like to thank Ken Graetz, Joan Bernard, John Sta¤ord, Margaret Welshons, Chad Kjorlien, and Elissa Hall. Cindy Killion organized the Native Studies discussion group that allowed me to work through some of the ideas I was developing in my research...