Woyakapi Kin Ahdipi "Bringing the Story Home": A History Within the Wakpa Ipaksan Dakota Oyate

Abstract

This dissertation relates a history within the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and traces one family group back to the Indigenous homeland of Minnesota. Key points of reference focus on the village of Chief Cloud Man and the lived experiences of his great-grandsons John and Charles Eastman, as well as his descendant Grace Moore. This family survived the forced exile of the Dakota from Minnesota after the Dakota War of 1862 by assimilating to white culture in part, but in staying true to their Dakota roots as well. Issues of survivance and identity, especially in regards to assimilation, and the effects of this exile on the Dakota experience at Flandreau are analyzed throughout my research. This project uses oral history and primary document research, specifically personal family collections, to chronicle an Indigenous family experience during and after a time of war. In doing so, the Dakota perspective of these events is uncovered and given precedence over binary narratives that have predominated the historical narrative in the past. Topics of relevance to both American Studies and American Indian studies include: ancestral memory, language revitalization, Indigenous survivance, and nationhood.