During the week of Sept. 13, elders from the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma will be making a historic homecoming journey to Pipestone National Monument, Good Earth State Park at Blood Run, and other ancestral sites in the region. The Iowa were early keepers of the pipestone quarries, working and trading the stone extensively through places like Blood Run.
For many elders, this journey is a lifetime or more in the making. “We are looking forward to returning to our former homelands after almost 500 hundred years." says organizer Joyce Big Soldier. “We come as goodwill ambassadors and official representatives of the Iowa Nation. I think that our Old Folks would want us to stop, and honor their memory, and give thanks to the Creator for bringing us back to a special place. We return to put our footprints alongside theirs after so many years!"
Media opportunities are below and must be arranged in advance by contacting the park. Media expressing interest will be provided with additional details prior to the event.
* Tuesday, Sept. 13, 5pm: Pipestone National Monument visit
* Friday, Sept. 16, 10am: Good Earth State Park visit
Between 1824 and 1838, the Iowa Tribe was forced to cede much of their land to the United States. The People of the Grey Snow, as they called themselves, left their homelands in southeast Iowa to an area along the border of Nebraska and Kansas. Once a nation whose lands encompassed areas of present-day Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, they found themselves with a strip of land ten miles wide and twenty miles long. In 1878, some Iowa tribal members left the Kansas-Nebraska reserve and moved to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, in hopes of better living conditions.
The elders from the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma will end their historic homecoming journey by celebrating the fall encampment and powwow with their relatives from the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska in White Cloud, Kansas.
Contacts
Lauren Blacik, Superintendent, Pipestone National Monument, lauren_blacik@nps.gov, 402-637-2036
Jen Stahl, Park Naturalist, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, jen.stahl@state.sd.us, 605-213-1036
Joyce Big Soldier, Elder Leader, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, 405-614-2414
Tags: midwest midwestnps minnesota american indian culture american indian history american indian heritage native american culture native american heritage native american history indigenous indigenous history indigenous heritage homecoming homecoming celebrations tradition culture
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
