Warrior Women Project

PRESS RELEASE:

The Warrior Women Project presents the homecoming screening of the award winning documentary Warrior Women and the WWP “Tell your Story!” Oral History Tent at the CRST Labor Day Weekend Celebration 2022

The Warrior Women Project will be hosting a series of Labor Day events on Cheyenne River, between August 31st – September 4th. The purpose of these events, which will include a homecoming screening of the Warrior Women film as well as an interactive oral history tent at the CRST Labor Day Celebration, is to recognize and celebrate the modern history of the Wakpá Wašté Oyáte, and the power of Lakota matriarchy.

The event series is being organized by the Warrior Women Project, which combines activism, archiving and oral history to highlight and uplift histories of Indigenous matriarchy and resistance to injustice with a focus on the Red Power Movement of the 1970s. The project grew out of a series of oral history interviews with key Red Power activists which Dr. Beth Castle undertook over several decades working with CRST tribal members Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert who together launched the Warrior Women Project. Both Thunder Hawk and Gilbert are known for their involvement with the local Waságiya Nájin Grandmothers Group and the Nažó Society.

These oral history interviews also formed the basis for the Warrior Women documentary, co-directed by Christina D. King & Castle. While the film focuses on one family’s story of American Indian Movement activism, it carries the history of many extended movement families who fought the U.S. government for recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. It also addresses the intergenerational impact of the flooding of the Old Cheyenne Agency in creating the Oahe Dam under the Pick-Sloan Act of 1944 and the importance of that history.

The Cheyenne River Lakota Nation has an important place in the documentary. The Old Cheyenne Agency, the Missouri River, the Land and its people are the starting point for a story of struggle which spans the U.S. and the world; starting in Swiftbird and reaching the United Nations. This August, the Peabody-Nominated, award-winning PBS feature documentary is coming home to Cheyenne River Lakota Nation, to honor the land and people whose history serve as its main inspiration.

The homecoming film screening is free and will be held at Seventh Generation Theater on August 31st at 6pm, and will begin with a meal and giveaways, followed by a discussion about how local people are carrying on this legacy as flood survivors, boarding school survivors and the next generations still protecting and defending Indigenous sovereignty. The Warrior Women Project asks that people interested in attending the homecoming screening please register how many people are coming to provide meals by going to warriorwomen.org/crst.

Additionally, the Warrior Women Project is partnering with the Nažó Society and Working Films to host two other “Solar Cinema” evening screenings focused on young people but open to all (though because it is a documentary, the film is not necessarily recommended for those under 12 years old). The film will be showing on September 1st at 8pm in the grassy park area beside the Legends Basketball Court. This outdoor screening will be powered by a solar generator, which will light the projector and provide sound on a 12 foot inflatable screen. Also showing will be the Peace Pipeline film, a powerful and hilarious parody of the double standards at play in the fossil fuel extraction industry.

The most ground-breaking event will be the first ever onsite “Tell your Story” Oral History tent on Saturday and Sunday, September 3rd and 4th on the Wacipi grounds from 11am – 5pm. The Oral History tent will feature interactive displays on the history of Cheyenne River and Red Power, an exhibition of historical memorabilia, fun activities including button making. There will also be opportunities to view samples of completed oral histories, talk to the WWP team and the matriarchs and gangster grannies. Please contact us at oralhistory@warriorwomen.org or through warriorwomen.org/crst to sign up now to take part in an oral history interview that will be done onsite. Or you can walk-in to the tent to arrange it!

Special note: We invite anyone local who may be interested in learning more or sharing skills about the oral history process, community based archiving, filmmaking, digital storytelling and community organizing to collaborate with WWP. Contact oralhistory@warrirowomen.org

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Contact Ryia LeBeau at 605 200 2246 with questions or email oralhistory@warriorwomen.org