Deana Dartt

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Native museum professional dedicated to making public history and art venues reflect the perspectives of the first peoples of this continent. Committed to rewriting museum narratives that exacerbate intergenerational trauma, transforming them into sites of healing. Scholarship, teaching and professional, curatorial background all emphasize “decolonizing” methodologies and an indigenous worldview.

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Noel B. Salazar

KU Leuven

Josiah Heyman

University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

Jeff Corntassel

University of Victoria

Richard Medina

University of Utah

Andromache Gazi

Panteion University

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Barbara Voss

Stanford University

Karen Ruebens

University of Reading

MARGO TAMEZ

University of British Columbia

Laurajane Smith

The Australian National University

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Awake: A Dream of Standing Rock. Directed by Myron Dewey, Josh Fox and James Spione, 2017, 1 hour 29 minutes

Journal for the anthropology of North America, Oct 1, 2018

we will not go gently into the darkest of days. grandma's here and she says persevere take a walk... more we will not go gently into the darkest of days. grandma's here and she says persevere take a walk in her moccs, taste a trail of tears and our fears, are the same as they ever were LOVE LETTERS TO GOD ~ NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE The film opens with water imagery accompanied by an erratic, dissonant violin. The combination sets the stage for what will unfold as the narrator's journey, both physical and spiritual through the months that came to be known as simply "Standing Rock." Floris White Bull, mother of five, is Standing Rock Sioux. She leads us through her dream into wakefulness. For Floris and her relatives, the advent of the Dakota Access Pipeline is a tribal issue, one that is very personal and that has deep roots in the colonial exploitation of Native land and resources. But the threat of a pipeline to stretch the width of the river is an issue for all Lakotas who share the painful history of colonization and destruction of Native lands. The Missouri River or Mni tsosi is the only source for clean water for the reservations, as well as the primary source for the 17 million Americans downriver. This river represents literally and figuratively the source of life. The Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as the Bakken Pipeline is a 1,172-mile-long underground oil pipeline that stretches from northwest North Dakota, continues through South Dakota and Iowa to Patoka, Illinois. The narrator asserts that this fight, which represents the commoditization of resources and those who seek to protect them for our future generations, has never been more vital. Floris's voice leads us from the dreams of her Lakota children, dreams of gratitude and love, and their hopes for the future through the explosive awakening that comes from the realization that her children will have no future if their water is poisoned. Her analogy is a poignant one: the battle for the future is between the black snake which represents greed, violence, death; the water representing love, peace, and life itself. Mni Wiconi, Lakota for "Water is Life" became the mantra for the protest. "It is up to the youth, the mothers, the warriors to fight it before it brings death to us all," she cries. Their commitment however, she says, "is to fight only with love and care for each other and the earth. The community of water protectors believes that it will be only through a fierce love that they will maintain their identity as protectors and continue to heal. In the 9-month long peaceful protest, resisters (called protectors) were incarcerated for protesting on their own lands, both reservation and historic ceded lands, sacred sites, and public roads. They were "treated as criminals," shot off horses, forced into and held in cages. Much of this abuse came at the hands of National Guard and American public funds-to protect the activities of a private corporation. The artful style of the film is effective. To date, it is the only produced, full-length feature on the Standing Rock occupation-an event that changed the way the world thinks about Native Americans. It was vital that a film come out written and directed by Native people themselves, furthering the

Deana Dartt

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