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SALT CAMP: HerStory - Lakota Living Treasure

by Ollie Napesni

258 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0707; ISBN 1-4120-0338-5; US$22.95, C$32.95, EUR21.50, £14.90

SALT CAMP is the autobiographical narrative of South Dakota's 2002 Indian Living Treasure, Ollie Napesni, Lakota Sioux from Rosebud Reservation. It contains thirteen legends including "How Salt Camp Got Its Name."

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About the Book      About the Author      Sample Excerpts      Catalogue Info

About the Book Beginning at the time of her birth in the cemetery at St. Francis, South Dakota, on June 8, 1917, Ollie Napesni captivates readers with colorful details of her life. She is a natural storyteller intriguing us with descriptions of events beginning in the 1920s and continuing into the 21st century, including how she became a renowned maker of star quilts. Descriptions of the Depression, Dust Bowl and the impact of World War II provides important information about that era and its effect on the lives of people living on the Rosebud Reservation. Ollie's adventuresome spirit took her to many areas of the country but always with a longing for Salt Camp, her childhood home. When she settles for good back on her land she begins to learn the value of Lakota religion. Traditional ceremonies saved her life, yet her ability to harmonize two worlds and two religions demonstrates her strength of character and wisdom.

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About the Author Lakota language teacher, storyteller, traditional beader, doll maker and renowned quilt maker, Ollie Napesni continues teaching classes at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She has spoken at the United Nations at the Cry of the Earth Conference in November 1993. She received the National Indian Education Association's Elder of the Year Award in 2002 and also the 2002 South Dakota Indian Living Treasure Award. She has made over six hundred star quilts since 1980 and her Veteran's Quilt is on display at the Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

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Sample Excerpts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgment

Map of Area

Introduction

1. Kikta yo (get up now)
2. Inahni po (hurry up)
3. Mah piya wan u we (there's clouds coming)
4. Unsikicila po (take care of your families)
5. Yuwipi (medicine ceremony)
6. Wiciyela (Yankton)
7. Okaspe yamni (third district meeting)
8. Wico un tokca (a time of change)
9. Le wopila tanka (a big thank you)
10. Mi cinksi (my son)
11. Lakol wapiyapi (Lakota doctoring)
12. Wicahpi owinja (star quilt)
13. Wayasu pi (courthouse)

Photos

The Black Tailed Deer
Toad Mother
Meadowlark and Rattlesnake
Iktomi and Iya
Iktomi and the Ducks
Iktomi and the Crances
Iktomi and the Stone
Crazy Crane
Legend of Bear Butte
Deer Woman
Lakotas and Crows
Grandma's True Story
How Salt Camp Got Its Name

Afterword

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CHAPTER ONE - Kikta yo

I was born right here in St. Francis at the Cemetary! My older sisters Emily and Alice went to school here at the St. Francis Mission Boarding School and my folks lived out at Red Leaf and my Mom was expecting me when they came over here to the campground. Where the new part of the cemetary is now, that was a campground, so while they camped there, I was born on June 8, 1917. After that, my father, Paul Napesni was sick already and had rheumatism really bad and so he died when I was one year old. He died in 1918 and two years later we moved from Red Leaf. We had been living out at Red Leaf and it was really hard for my Mom because all she had was girls to haul wood and water. It was so hard for them that she bought a property in Parmalee. That's when I began to remember things that happened.

My Mother as I said, bought this property in Parmalee. So we moved there. When we lived there I had three older sisters. The one next to me was Nellie. She was five years older than I was. And then there was my sister Alice who was teenager already then. My oldest sister was Emily. She got married soon after we moved from Red Leaf.

We lived in Parmalee. I don't know how long we had lived there, but the thing that they always say is that when a child gets scared they never forget, even if they are really young. What I remember is that we lived in a one room log cabin and I was asleep and then I heard loud voices and I looked toward the table and I saw two men there and I saw my sister there and my Mom and these two men who were really loud. And then I saw a gun. The gun was thrown down on the table really hard. It was a handgun. These men went out and I guess I started to cry because I was scared. As soon as they left, we ran away. My Mom carried me and we hid all night. We finally went to a neighbor's house and we spent the rest of the night there. Later I found out it was two men that were doing some transaction from the land sale. I think some of the money was gone and that's what the problem was about so where all that shouting went on that's when one of the men drew that gun on my Mom. He tried to make her sign some papers that she didn't want to sign. So they threw the gun on the table and said, "We are going to go and when we come back, you better sign that paper," and they took the gun and went out. After they left, that's when we ran away and hid all night.

Well anyway my Mom, reported it. She went to an attorney in Valentine, Nebraska. This attorney's name was Oliver Walcott and she reported these guys. I guess the money was from the land sale. It was my Dad's land that she sold, and she still had a lot of money in there. She had kept an accounting of the money. I think at the time she still had sixteen hundred dollars. But when those guys (they had the patent on the land) came there that night, they said it was all gone. But she had a record of what she bought and what she had left. So anyway later they had some hearings and those guys (who had access to the money) had to pay back that money to my Mom. But that was the first thing that I remember that really scared me.

Soon after that, I don't know how long for sure, but about three years after my Dad died, my Mom remarried. So from Parmalee, we moved to Salt Camp east of Parmalee, between Rosebud and Parmalee. This community was a large community and it was Spotted Tail's Clan that lived around there and that's where my father was from so we moved there and that's where I grew up. So most of my life, most of my telling about my life has a lot to do with that place where I grew up.

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CRAZY CRANE

The cranes come up north in the spring. One particular crane he really liked it up here. When fall came and they were getting ready, gathering, ready to take off any day now, he didn't join them. He just sat on a hill. When they were gonna leave, he said he wasn't going to go. "I'm going to stay here. I like it here. I'll see you when you come back in the spring." "No," they told him, "you have to go with us. You don't belong here. Some birds can stay here, but we cannot stay here. We have to go back where it's warm." "No," he said, "I like it here, I'll survive." Different birds came and talked to him, little birds and big birds that stay around here all winter, they talked to him and finally one of them said we better get the wise one to talk to him. Maybe he will listen to him. It was an owl. So the owl came to him and he called him friend. "Kola," he said, "you better go back with your people. It gets really bad here in the wintertime. So you better go. Look at me, my legs are hairy." (Remember they have feathers all the way down to their feet). So he said, "See how thick they are. You know there comes a time in the winter when the smoke from the campfire goes straight up and it looks like it is standing still. That is the middle of the winter, the hardest part of winter. Even if I'm dressed like this I go to the camps to the tipis and I crawl under the flaps and lay there to keep warm so you better go." "No," he said, "I'll stay." So all the other birds left him. Sure enough he hid inside of a tree, he made a little nest and he laid there. A snowstorm came. It snowed and got real cold and he just huddled there. The next morning the sun came out and the snow started to melt right away so I guess he came out of there hopping and stretching his long legs. So when the other birds came by he said, "See, I told you, I told you I could survive here. I have strong legs." One told him the snow gets pretty deep. He said, "Oh that's all right I have long legs and I can walk in deep snow." So he is pulling his legs up and showing off, "See, I'm surviving." But they didn't say anything to him. So when the real thing came he went back to that little place where he was before. Some bird went by and said,"Well how are you doing in here." The crane said, "Could you bring me some firewood? I'm getting cold." "No," he said, "You are supposed to do that. You are supposed to get ready if you are going to stay here all winter. You have to take care of yourself." So he froze to death.

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Catalogue Information

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