Interview · South Dakota · Whitney Rencountre · OSEU 2
Themes: Language & revitalization, Kinship & family, Identity & belonging, Education & learning, Values & generosity, Culture & continuity, Community & responsibility, Listening & observation, Children & young people
Learn About questions
What are the traditional values of the Oceti Sakowin?
How did the family structure support the needs of the community?
What is the IRA form of government? In what ways did moving to this form of government impact the structure of the Native communities?
What was the role of the chief historically?
What are some examples of how society has changed in its structure over time?
What would it mean to redefine the culture of the Oceti Sakowin?
Learn From questions
What are examples of values my family holds as important and defining?
How does the government impact me and my family? Locally? State? Nationally?
Does society mirror my personal values? Why or why not? How do I hold true to the values that are important to me?
Transcripts
Traditional Values - Whitney Rencountre - OSEU #2
Watch this interview on YouTubeThrough this process of change that our people have endured over the last hundreds of years, there is a kind of redefining of our identity. And a lot of that…through the process…a lot of the traditional values…whether its language…whether it’s carrying on our ancestors…the way our society used to live in terms of…long time ago, the chief of our tribe was the person that gave everything he had. His most valuable belongings were always given to his people. He took care of people. But with the change in that IRA form of government, really has changed our whole society because now very few…like the tribal chairmen, the individuals of the council…they are taken care of in terms of financially and their basic needs. But at the same time, the individuals in the community rely on that. When in reality, the form of government is way different than it used to be. Whereas it was set up to…we took care of one another. There was never an orphan because the aunts in traditional Lakota, Dakota way, the aunts are considered mothers to that child…the fathers, the father’s brothers were also fathers to that child.
So the way the society was set up, everybody was taken care of. But nowadays, it’s kind of turned more to a society where it’s more individualistic. And so that really has created cross-boundary in terms of…we are redefining our identity. A lot of times it is really hard to redefine that when its not something apart of our history. And so our students struggle with that…our family's struggle with that. And so on the reservation, there’s a lot of those challenges. We almost have to redefine that for ourselves and take the good and leave the bad in order to give ourselves a chance. But I think we are doing that with a lot of our youth today.
Resource text
Learn ABOUT Learn FROM
(deep listening, information) (deep sharing, transformation)
1. What are the traditional values of the 1. What are examples of values my family
Oceti Sakowin? holds as important and defining?
2. How did the family structure support the 2. How does the government impact me
needs of the community? and my family? Locally? State?
3. Whatis the IRA form of government? In Nationally?
what ways did moving to this form of 3. Does society mirror my personal values?
governmentimpact the structure of the Why or why not? How do! hold true to
Native communities? the values that are important to me?
4. What was the role of the chief
historically?
5. What are examples of how the society
has changed in its structure over time?
6. What would it mean to redefine the
culture of the Oceti Sakowin?
OSEU 2: INTERVIEW WITH WHITNEY RENCOUNTRE
WoLakota Project
From the current WoLakota source page:
Traditional Values
Whitney Rencountre
Transcript
(deep listening, information)
(deep listening, transformation)
Some indexed text was extracted from scanned material. Check the original source for exact wording and spelling.
Source materials
Supplied transcript document. Text preserved as supplied; spellings and transcription uncertainties have not been corrected.
Additional source transcripts
Traditional Values
Traditional Values - Whitney Rencountre - OSEU #2
Through this process of change that our people have endured over the last hundreds of
years, there is a kind of redefining of our identity. And a lot of that…through the
process…a lot of the traditional values…whether its language…whether it’s carrying on
our ancestors…the way our society used to live in terms of…long time ago, the chief of
our tribe was the person that gave everything he had. His most valuable belongings
were always given to his people. He took care of people. But with the change in that
IRA form of government, really has changed our whole society because now very
few…like the tribal chairmen, the individuals of the council…they are taken care of in
terms of financially and their basic needs. But at the same time, the individuals in the
community rely on that. When in reality, the form of government is way different than it
used to be. Whereas it was set up to…we took care of one another. There was never an
orphan because the aunts in traditional Lakota, Dakota way, the aunts are considered
mothers to that child…the fathers, the father’s brothers were also fathers to that child.
So the way the society was set up, everybody was taken care of. But nowadays, it’s
kind of turned more to a society where it’s more individualistic. And so that really has
created cross-boundary in terms of…we are redefining our identity. A lot of times it is
really hard to redefine that when its not something apart of our history. And so our
students struggle with that…our family's struggle with that. And so on the reservation,
there’s a lot of those challenges. We almost have to redefine that for ourselves and take
the good and leave the bad in order to give ourselves a chance. But I think we are doing
that with a lot of our youth today.