Ft. Laramie Treaty, the Dawes Act, and Elouise Cobell with Dyan Fox

The two that the two that we talked about in tribal government the first is our treaty that outlined our reservation is 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty and that’s one that you know it and it’s a big one you know and not only for our reservation but further surrounding Plains Indians you know I tell them it went all the way to part of Montana Wyoming all the way through Nebraska South Dakota North Dakota and it came all the way around and that area they said okay that’s the area that those made of Americans in that area that’s that’s their treaty so all the tribes are infected and are affected by that treaty in the area so we do talk about that one a lot and I also have a film a really good film that goes with it bury my heart at Wounded Knee and it talks about the Dawes Act it talks about how we became to be on reservations it talks about the relocation it talks about the renaming project you know the simulation when we came off and one of my students before oh I seen this in North Dakota studies but when I kind of explained it and I broke it down because we kind of did a little background to it first you know and we talked about the Fort Laramie Treaty we talked about the Dawes Act and this is what put us on the reservations they went outline these things for us because they did ask me well how did they just how did they figure out where we were gonna be and then so we talked about it and I said now we’re gonna watch this film and they sat there just really attentive to the and a couple of them cried after that and they’re like now I understand was Fox now I understand what our people went through it and then that one of my male students he said you know people did stick up for us and I said yes they did yes they did they tried to do the best they can that’s why I go back to that tug of war relationship you know they took from us they gave took gave to gave it back you know and so they understand that I think a part and part is kind of giving them that background to it so now they understand that we’re all affected by the 1851 the ones here on the Northern Plains the other one that I will talk about and the tribal government is Cobell lawsuit the Elouise Cobell lawsuit and i must have been 19 years old and i remember getting an $800 check i didn’t know what it was about and I remember my mom kind of talking to me about at that time I wasn’t really involved and you know I was going to college at the time and my mom’s like you got this check there’s this big lawsuit that this woman went and did for all Native Americans so if you’re part of one of those you’re gonna get this I just remember getting this 800 dollar check and thinking wow you know because I was in school at the time so I was like you know these are all the snacks that I can get his money and some of my dad so I can go but you know as I got older and start learning more about it you know and then we do have a film that I also show them and she talks about in there and they’re like oh there she is this woman that’s the woman that did that for us and I said yes she fought and she won and as a Native American woman that’s a big thing you know and she fought for every one of you and every one of your ancestors for that because it was wrong what they did to us and she wanted you know she is now passed on and we talked a little bit about that too but that is a big one of the big lawsuits that I Cobell versus Norton whoa just a little description about it I don’t know all the details but when I talked to the kids about is the land that was taken away from us and what she did was she filed this lawsuit against the United States government to get back some of that land that was taken off that compensation that was owed to us you know and it wasn’t specifically different areas it was all areas and it went on for a couple years you know and she didn’t back down she fought for everyone like I said and then with going back to sticking to the law part of it you know I believe that’s the reason that was why she wanted and it was a big victory you know and we talked about National Congress of American Indians so we have our own Congress and this has been going on for years it’s funny to say the 1900s but I’m gonna say the 1900 but I you know and I have them we don’t go through everything in the lawsuit but we do have a copy of it and we pick a little bit of parts of it and that’s some of the things I talk about