CHADRON, Neb. — Two producers from Roja Productions who were on the Oglala Sioux reservation this week found themselves riveted to television broadcasts early Tuesday morning as the attacks of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon unfolded.
Jacque Jones and Sindi Gordon had flown into Sioux Falls from their homes in New York Sept. 9 to start a journey through the reservation as part of their research on a series for a PBS documentary called “Matters of Race.”
When they arose to set out on their mission Tuesday they turned on the television set and watched in shock as commercial airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers.
The two spent much of the morning contacting their New York office, worried family members and friends might have been in danger in the city.
As they watched, they worried about further attacks and how they might get home with airlines shut down.
“I’m not sure I want to get back on a plane,” said the producer who flew in from South Africa before heading to the Pine Ridge reservation.
A full schedule for research had been set, but the producers stepped away from collecting information for much of the day captivated, waiting and watching to see what happened.
“It was beyond belief,” Jones said talking about a part of New York she knew well.
Gordon, originally from Great Britain, worried about people she knew whose work places were near the World Trade Center. The two heard tales from people in the city who had walked from their work places through a cloud of dust to get home because public transportation was at a stand still.
Others talked about finding shelter in underground shelters underneath the buildings in New York City.
Far removed from the city in the middle of the Great Plains, they waited to see if further attacks might take place in other areas of the nation. They were frustrated by the lack of news about an attack on Kabul, Afghanistan.
The two debated about what they would do in the event they couldn’t fly home and considered driving across the nation to get back before embarking on another flight to Hawaii to do research.
They thought about the events as they traveled to the burial site of tribal members who died during the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Saying they were feeling paralyzed by the event and having difficulty concentrating with minds were still spinning by the events that unfolded, the pair interviewed people and looked at the countryside piecing together documentary groundwork.
Clogged phone lines and closed financial institutions prevented transmissions for credit card approval made simple gas purchases impossible.
Jones said the day’s events left her feeling drained and that the event somehow diminished humanity.
Although still faced with uncertain travel arrangements they continued their journey through the reservation Wednesday, saying they hoped to catch up with tribal members who could help them get a clear picture of life on the reservation and the racial disharmony that complicates their daily lives.