Voices of the Marchers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4039169 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Angela Cavender Wilson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 293-334 |
| Publication date | 2004-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Indian Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0095-182X • E-ISSN: 1534-1828 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1353/aiq.2005.0029 |
| OpenAlex | W1979543093 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
When you start it with a vision, every step that you take should be for a relative... every step you take is mitakuye owas'in. Art Owen (November13, 2002) The Commemorative March in 2002 transpired through the efforts of hundreds of individuals: those who helped in the planning; those who supported the march either through prayers, monetary, or food donations; those who contributed their time and energy; and those who participated in the commemorative event.1 Many of those individuals shared their perspectives either while on the march or shortly after the march at one of the gatherings held to discuss the event. While some of them might not have felt comfortable enough to write an essay to include in this collection, their voices are nonetheless equally important and extremely valuable. The majority of comments contained in this article were transcribed from the tapes I made along the course of the journey, and others came from transcriptions from video or audio recordings of meetings after the event. A few others are from newspaper clippings or comments people wrote to me after the event was completed. We felt it was important to try to document as unobtrusively as possible the thoughts and feelings of participants, as most of us were deeply affected by our participation and felt transformed by the end of the experience. [End Page 293] Why They Came Most of the people who ultimately participated felt called to the event, or at least drawn to the event, for a variety of reasons. For some it was because they were distinctly aware of their own lineage and knew they had ancestors who were on the forced march in 1862, or because they were descendants of the condemned men who were moved to Mankato and kept in the concentration camp there. For example, Neil McKay, the Dakota-language teacher at the University of Minnesota, commented the evening in New Ulm that it was an honor for him to participate and stated, "I'm descended from Sleepy Eye and Cloudman's people. So I have relatives who were on the march and relatives who were on the run during the war also. But I'm doing this also because I'm Dakota and I know our relatives who went on before us are proud of what we are doing. And also, so I can tell my children about this, in Dakota." Marisa Pigeon also had a direct connection to the Dakota on the forced march of 1862. Through tears, toward the end of the march, she shared with the group why her family decided to participate: "We got ready and we knew we wanted to be here for my great-great-grandma. Her name was Wicanhpi Ota Win [Many Stars Woman], that's who my daughter is named after. She was three years old at the time of the march. She'd already lost her parents so she was with her grandmothers. They carried her most of the way...." Marisa's voice then trailed off as she was overcome with emotion. Others were not certain whether they had direct ancestors who were part of the forced march in 1862, but that did not dim their desire to participate. For example, Carol Noel from Beulah, Manitoba, in Canada commented upon first arriving that evening in New Ulm: "My grandparents were here also. I don't know if they were involved in what happened here. All I know is that they were from here and I want to support them. I want to be here for all those people, the people who had to walk." Because of the diaspora of our exiled population after 1862, there has not been a way to collectively maintain the body of knowledge surrounding events from this traumatic period in our history. In addition, whether or not an individual today is a direct descendant of someone on the march, there still is a sense of connection with the sufferings of all our people, the
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| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,18 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2016 (2) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |