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ICT
As we head into the new year, let’s take a look at the top ICT stories of 2023 that caught readers’ attention.
‘War Pony’ film: Gritty, realistic, ultimately triumphant
The ICT article that received the most views was on a film about two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota: “War Pony: Dark Tale from the Rez.” The story was published in July.
The film is by Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, and Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough. Executive Producer Pte Cante Win Poor Bear, Oglala Lakota, said Keough got the story idea from hearing stories about reservation life from two extras in an earlier film she worked on. The film features actors who are from and live on Pine Ridge.
“She became family so fast. I don’t know how to explain it,” Poor Bear said. “It wasn’t like she was this big movie star; she wanted to be my friend and talk to me. I think she just fell in love with how we live and what we do down here and the energy around us.”
As ICT contributor Sandra Hale Schulman reported, the film won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It was released in the United States starting on July 28. A sample of film reviews shows some of the praise it received.
“South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation has often been depicted in film but rarely from the inside. Gritty, realistic, ultimately triumphant,” wrote Jake Coyle of The Associated Press.
“A moving experiment in collective narrative filmmaking — an example of how stories can honor instead of exploit,” wrote Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter.
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Supreme Court decides in favor of Indian Child Welfare
The second most popular article and probably Indigenous peoples’ most important story of the year in terms of impact was “Supreme Court Affirms Indian Child Welfare Act,” by ICT’s Montana Bureau Chief Kolby KickingWoman, Blackfeet and A’aniih. In June, the court affirmed a law that has been widely used by tribes to express their sovereign authority, in this case, over their children.
As Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “In adopting the Indian Child Welfare Act, Congress exercised that lawful authority to secure the right of Indian parents to raise their families as they please; the right of Indian children to grow in their culture; and the right of Indian communities to resist fading into the twilight of history. All of that is in keeping with the Constitution’s original design.” Before ICWA made it an official federal policy in 1978 to keep Native children with their families, Indian children were removed from their families through adoption at rates many times higher than for non-Native children.
“For nearly two centuries, federal policies promoted the forced removal of Indian children from their families and communities through boarding schools, foster care, and adoption,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo. “Those policies were a targeted attack on the existence of tribes, and they inflicted trauma on children, families and communities that people continue to feel today.”
In commenting on the Supreme Court ruling upholding ICWA, President Joe Biden issued a statement saying,
“Our Nation’s painful history looms large over today’s decision. In the not-so-distant past, Native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families—all with the aim of erasing who they are as Native people and tribal citizens,” the statement reads. “These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act was our Nation’s promise: never again.”
Our children came home with moccasins
Another story, which engaged readers for the most time spent on the article, deserves mention: “Our Children Came Home with Moccasins,” by ICT contributor Charles Fox. The article was published in October.
The return of a pair of moccasins prompted an in-depth story about the trauma of boarding schools. The article also tells the story of a woman who had been adopted out from the tribe, and whose sense of emptiness was being filled as she reconnected with her biological family and tribe.
The beautifully beaded moccasins were taken from an unknown Plains Indian boy who entered Carlisle Institute in the late 1800s. A non-Native Pennsylvania man who had inherited them returned them to their rightful tribal owners. Tamara St. John, a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate historian and South Dakota state representative, said the moccasins hold special significance.
“To ‘keep one’s moccasins’ is said to mean that a Native person did not give up their traditional way,” she said. “Our children came home with moccasins.”
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