Good Talks

Merle Locke's Ledger Art

By Blog Editor Trace Hentz

I had warned last year that the news was becoming less frequent, that not many stories are being written about adoptees, 60s Scoop and Stolen Generations.   Mostly because the internet has changed and is slowly eroding with a.i. slop, it's harder to find relevant articles to share with you.  But I will keep looking.

I wish you could have been with me at the kitchen table in Porcupine, South Dakota, in the early 1990s.  First, I met Lakota ledger artist Merle Locke at an art show in Oregon, and told him I was trying to write children's stories about a Lakota boy named Redman. He told me to go meet his sister in Porcupine, and she might be able to help me.

Merle's sister Ellowyn was a traditional Oglala, a descendant of Crazy Horse's people, and she was fluent in Lakota.  She was traditional in every way.  I wrote to her, since she didn't have a phone, and asked if I could visit. She wrote back, "yes."

Like meeting anyone new, it takes time and good talks to get to know one another.  I had not met my birthfather Earl yet; that happened later in 1994.  I was honest with her:  I didn't know what tribe or tribes I was, and was still searching for answers.  I explained all that.

Thankfully in Seattle, I was going to "good talks" given by Steven Little Coyote, Northern Cheyenne, who was also traditional. His tribe are "brothers" to the Lakota, so they share many teachings. I learned from Steven, and he helped me to contact the Sundance Medicine Man in Rosebud, to get permission to come to the Sundance in August. I planned to go there first then drive to Pine Ridge and Porcupine to meet Ellowyn.  It was necessary I find out what I needed to do and what not to do, and bring food, gifts and money, etc.

After meeting Ellowyn, I went back every year to see her.  Sitting at her kitchen table, I took pages of notes, writing down "history" from her perspective, and history she had saved on paper to share with me.  The version of history we are given in "school" is either false, wrong, or simply made-up.  I didn't know that.  I knew so little. I still am learning. 

My entire world changed at that kitchen table. I do this blog so you can sit with me, and I'll share what I find.

Mitakuye Oyasin, Ellowyn told me, means we are ALL RELATED.  All of us.  She said that was the most important teaching of all.