St. Cloud State University

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Untold story

Monday, November 2, 2009

Craig Howe is an Oglala Lakota teacher and researcher from South Dakota.

Craig Howe will re-tell American history from a unique perspective.

Howe, an Oglala Lakota, presents "Hate Speech, Horses and Hostages: The Untold Story of Lewis & Clark in Teton Territory" 7 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Miller Center Auditorium. A reception will follow. View the flyer (PDF).

He is director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS), on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Martin, S.D.

Howe co-edited "This Stretch of River," a book about Lakota, Dakota and Nakota responses to the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition, which crossed lands where people in those divisions of the Sioux Nation live.

The expedition traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific northwest and back, providing the United State government and the outside world with cultural and scientific first glimpses of Native communities and the natural wonders of the plains, plateaus, deserts and mountains of the region.

The trip was chartered by President Thomas Jefferson, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and guided by Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian woman.

Howe, who holds as doctorate from the University of Michigan, teaches at Oglala Lakota College.

He served as deputy assistant director for cultural resources at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Howe has developed hypermedia tribal histories projects and creative museum exhibitions, taught Native studies courses in the U.S. and Canada, and authored articles and book chapters on topics such as tribal histories, Native studies, museum exhibitions and community collaborations.

Howe was raised at and lives on his family’s cattle ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The presentation is part of the "Lewis & Clark and the Indian Country" exhibit hosted at St. Cloud State through Dec. 11. 

The 1,000-square-foot exhibit discusses Indian country prior to 1800, the complexities of intercultural relations during and following the expedition's journey through Indian country, and how that encounter resounded throughout Indian country and across the United States for the next 200 years.

View more information about the exhibit at http://www.newberry.org/lewisandclark.

"Lewis & Clark and the Indian Country" is supported by the following St. Cloud State divisions: The American Indian Center, the College of Social Sciences, the Office of Academic Affairs, Learning Resources & Technology Services, the Multicultural Resource Center and the Department of History.

The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the 4th Avenue Parking Ramp across the street from the Miller Center.

- Jeff Wood

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