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Behind the scenes with Taki
Telonidis and Hal Cannon, producers of Healing the Wound
of Wounded Knee.
> What was your main motivation for making this story?
Taki and Hal: We wanted to tell a story that exposed listeners to the cultural
side of Native American life. Usually reporters ignore the richness of Indian
life and only see the burning issues such as gambling, poverty, alcoholism,
etc. As students of folklife and traditional culture, we wanted to explore how
the painful history of Wounded Knee shapes the modern identity of the Lakota
people.
> How did the Lakota Indian community first react to your ideas about
making a radio story out of the Wounded Knee history? Was there any initial
caution or doubt on its/their part?
Taki: We knew that the repatriation of Chief Big Foot’s lock of hair would be a
very emotional and potentially painful event for the Lakota people. We slowly
earned the trust of Leonard Little Finger over the course of several extensive
telephone conversations. Once he felt comfortable with us, Little Finger was
actually pleased that we wanted to tell this story. He felt that our piece
would serve as a document of what he knew was a seminal event for his people.
He also thought it was important for a national audience to hear a story that
conveyed the power of Native culture and spirituality.
Hal: Interestingly, Little Finger was strategic about who he allowed into the
inner circle of documentation. He asked a couple of documentarians from Germany
to videotape and he asked Taki and I to record. Taki and the Germans were
selected because they are "first peoples" in their respective countries,
Germany and Greece. He felt they would bring less bias to their portrayal. I
guess he agreed to let me come along, from a long line of colonials, because I
showed up with Taki.
> How did the community feel about the story after hearing it?
Taki: Reaction to our report was overwhelmingly positive. Little Finger is
trying to raise funds for a cultural center and library on the Pine Ridge
Reservation, and has played our piece to potential supporters. We have stayed
in touch with him and his family, and expect to travel to Pine Ridge again in
the future.
> What were your feelings, when you first saw Chief Big Foot's lock of
hair?
Hal: When the lock of hair came out during the repatriation ceremony, it was
gray and seemed lifeless. The next time it was brought into view a few hours
later at a peace pipe ceremony on a four-acre reservation in the suburbs of
Worchester, the hair had transformed. It was a rich dark chestnut color and
looked like it was freshly cut. Granted, the first time I saw it was under
florescent lights in an old New England library, the next time under sunlight
on native ground. How did I feel? I didn’t feel like someone had done a
switcheroo. I had the profound feeling that a person, a spirit, had been
rescued from a hundred years of imprisonment. By the way, we recorded other
people who saw more visionary things than me.
> What was your most memorable experience in making this radio piece?
Taki: Simply being alone in the teepee with the lock of hair and the other
treasured artifacts that belonged to Chief Big Foot. Gazing at this object was
like coming face-to-face with the entire history of the struggle between
America and the Indians. It was a humbling experience that was both uplifting
and unsettling.
Hal: For me it was feeling the personal responsibility for the legacy of
conquest in America and what it has meant to Native people today. From this
experience I have made my own personal vows.
> Are there any additional resources relating to the Wounded Knee
history that you would recommend to people who are interested in finding out
more?
Web sites:
Books:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown
The Res, by Ian Fraser
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