- This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

As Europeans moved into the plains, tensions with Native American tribes increased, and the US military responded by creating several fortifications in the mid 18 hundreds.

They were mostly built along the Missouri River.

First came Fort Pier in 1855, then Fort Randall.

A year later, Fort Sully was built in 1863, then Fort Dakota, followed by Fort James, sweat Stone, Bennett Hale, and finally Fort Mead.

Most of these outposts were short-lived, some disappeared completely.

Others had town spring up around them, and they live on.

Soon after Fort Dakota was established.

It was renamed after Clark w Thompson.

He was superintendent of Indian Affairs.

However, Fort Thompson's namesake turned out to be an unscrupulous man with a checkered past.

The Fort Thompson was built at the mouth of Soldier Creek along the Missouri.

It opened in 1864, but the military closed it just three years later.

However, the settlement of Fort Thompson lives on today.

As a matter of fact, it's the largest town on the Crow Creek reservation with a population of about 1300.

Now, for reference, we're about 25 miles upstream towards Pier from Chamberlain.

Nearby is the big band Dam, and of course, lake Sharp, which extends upstream all the way to the OA Dam, northwest of Pier.

The Big bend on the Missouri River is about seven miles north of here, July and August means powwows across the region.

Fort Thompson comes alive for three days in August during the annual Crow Creek Dakota Nation, WPE Powwows are a coming together that celebrate native culture with dancing, singing, food, and crafts.

It means renewing old friendships and making new ones.

There is the traditional grand entry and prayer the eagle staff, followed by flags and dancers, singers, and drums.

Thousands of people from near and far celebrate Dakota Tribal heritage, past and present.

And there are competitions in various dance divisions like Drum and singing contests.

2023 Mark the 160th annual Crow Creek, Dakota Nation.

Wpe.

Welcome to Dakota Life.

Greetings from Fort Thompson.

Let's head across the dam and see it.

- Support for Dakota Life is made possible with your support.

Thank you.

And by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, a proud people eager to share their culture and history.

Visitors to Fort Thompson Cano, joy hunting and fishing, colorful bluffs and historic waterways.

Once explored by Lewis and Clark and by the load star Casino and Hotel featuring more than 200 slot machines, table games, a restaurant, and live entertainment.

Big things are happening at the L Star Casino in Fort Thompson.

- Fort Thompson hosts the Crow Creek Sioux Tribal headquarters.

The community also has its share of notable people.

For instance, Olympic medalist.

Billy Mills has family here.

He's - Passing morning.

Look at Bill.

Look at Bill - Elizabeth Cook.

Lynn grew up here and she taught Native studies for 20 years.

She was known as an author and poet and received the lifetime Achievement Award from the native writer circle of the Americas.

Others remember Cook Lynn for her outspoken views on Native American politics and tribal sovereignty, or remember her as a dancer on the powwow circuit.

Her life was emblematic of the strong native women that are so vital to this tribe, not only as caretakers, but also as leaders for their people.

Oscar Howe was born on the Crow Creek reservation in 1915.

He pioneered a new era in Indian art.

Howell received many honors throughout his life, including being named artist laureate for South Dakota.

When he died in 1983, Howe left behind a legacy of cultural heritage and pride.

More than 20 of his original works are on display at the Oscar.

How Art Center in Mitchell.

Coming up more on the dedication to military service here in Fort Thompson, from Code Talkers to ongoing support for native veterans, and we'll also tell you more about horse camps.

But first I want you to meet one of the interesting people that is a lifelong resident of Fort Thompson, a Navy veteran and shares his art across the country.

- Van St. John's interest in art began at an early age, inspired by a classmate.

- Well, I started getting into art in third grade.

My brothers and sisters and I that one year went to St. Joe's.

While I was there, this boy was drawing the warrior and a horse, and I thought it was the greatest thing.

- But like most skills, any of us learn in life, drawing didn't come easy at first.

- So I started drawing the warrior in a horse, but it was like, I know it was disproportionate and it wasn't even close to being right, but I kept at it.

You know, it's just like anything else.

The more you practice it, the better you're gonna get.

So I started drawing it, just doing those whenever I could.

- Fans' dream of becoming an artist.

Stayed with him throughout his school years and it was even put on hold while he served his country, but that was only temporary.

- Then when I got out of the military, when I was in, I just said, I'll go back to school.

But I got out and I bought some acrylic paper and paints and started in again, started painting.

Then eventually went back to school and then took all the classes in it for an art major, art education major.

I had to take all these classes of different fields and art, you know, drawing 1 0 1, painting 1 0 1, design, photography, sculpture, jewelry.

- After graduating fan would put his education to work, teaching a new generation.

And it's there where he found his next journey in art.

- I went down to the Marty Indian School.

I was there for nine years, but when I was my sec, first year or second year there, I found out about the Northern Plains Tribal tro.

So the following year, I took some students on the field trip to go there that weekend, but it doesn't work out well when it's on a weekend, like a Saturday.

So I really didn't have a lot of students show up.

So I thought, well, next year I'll cut myself.

So next year I went to myself, spent the day with the artists, talking to them, looking at all the artwork, and the following year I got in the show.

So I was in the show and I started doing all the shows as as many as I could while I'm still teaching, you know, still in the classroom - While Van still hits the shows, he has transitioned to working with his daughter, getting his art out to the world through technology.

- I don't really care to travel now, but I figured, well, I'd do the website and get that going.

And then I'll, I could put more work in there when I'm retired here, when I gave up teaching, I could do that.

And then my daughter, I work with her.

She's good with all that stuff.

You know, she does the Venmo, PayPal.

I don't know how to do all that.

I could learn if somebody just showed me and I was doing it a bit, you know, but I didn't bother.

I figured I'm doing other things.

She could do that.

Anyway, - While Van typically works with Canvas, he's also made his mark on a larger scale giving back to his community.

In the process, - The, my first cousin called me up, he's the chairman down at Peter Link, and he said that they're gonna have Lyle Lyle Miller do this painting at the casino on a casino fence there.

So I was thinking maybe you could do something like some ledger horses on that fence in front of the commodity building.

Well, yeah, I could do that.

And I put their bright colors on it.

So when people see it, I thought, well, maybe it could brighten up their day.

It's like at the time we lost a lot of people from Covid.

- You can count on seeing original Van St. John pieces - For many years to come.

- It's like for me to do the artwork, I'll do that all my life, you know, long as I could do it, I'll just do my artwork.

So it's like, because for me it's fun and it probably house my blood pressure.

You know, - The people of the Crow Creek suit tribes are descendants of a Dakota tribe whose historical lands were in, what is now present day, central Minnesota.

The forebears were expelled from that area, along with the Santee Dakota and HoChunk Nation.

Following the Dakota War of 1862.

The Ko Creek reservation was founded then as its own entity.

You see, the original Great Sioux Reservation encompassed most of the land west of the Missouri River.

But Crow Creek has always been separate.

Crow Creek included bottom lands along the Missouri River, which had been the home to the Mandan, URA and others.

Those tribes were decimated by disease epidemics.

In the 18th century, the survivors formed the affiliated tribes and move northwest to what is now the Fort Behold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

But several former Mandan Anica villages within the Crow Creek reservation are preserved as an archeological site.

The tribe operates the load star casino and hotel in Fort Thompson.

They like to entertain visitors along with the historical sites and the great fishing and boating on Lake Sharp for the young people of this area.

The Crow Creek Head Start provides childcare and early learning.

The Crow Creek tribal school system combines K 12 grades at Stefan about 10 miles north of town, and the new Tota Youth Center is open.

It provides a safe and stable environment modeling biblical principles and Dakota yata values.

There are two more extraordinary artists I'd like you to meet.

Their roots are also in the Fort Thompson area, and their body of work has become a story about tribal history, traditions and culture.

- It's about storytelling.

It's about representing a, you know, presenting a story.

So I I, I think we both kind of subscribed to that.

- It's basically culture and tradition of, of my people.

You know, it's the, it's so rich that, you know, a lot of people don't realize it when they see an artist, you know, they, they see a great, wonderful Native American artist and they think, oh, beautiful.

But, you know, that comes from deep inside the heart and blood of us people, you know, that we are talented.

We have that talent, we are blessed with it, and we portray it and exploit it through our art.

And it's easy way of talking.

You don't have to say nothing.

You put it on the wall and there you, you're gonna listen.

- And, and that's kind of what we do with art, is we, we look within and, you know, look at that blank canvas and, and try to figure out, Hey, how, how can I bring this picture to life?

It just comes from, you know, that, that those ancestral origins that make us a little bit different.

It's more circular in, in nature and, and in our way we say, which means we're all related.

And so it, it's more nature based and, and that understanding that there's a spirit in everything.

You - Know, I, I give everyone a turn past, present, and future.

You know, there's not too much I can do at the future right now as it's going and the past.

There's always so, so much plentiful of our history.

History speaks through my pictures.

But, you know, what goes on right now with the murdered and missing indigenous women, our tribes, the way they're suffering, you know, and I try to establish things that tell that part that it does exist.

Boarding schools, you know, institutions, haha, - I think every artist, at least every tribal artist is, is, is a storyteller.

When we, when we sit down and we, we, we put a, a piece together, the the colors are the symbology of, of, of a direction or a power and, and the animals, and, and you try to elicit that spirit of the animal.

We're painting a story that's got a spirit unto itself that, that whole process of, of, you know, the, the ceremony involved in, in painting, the greatest artist of us all is creator.

- A lot of my pieces are basically history.

You know, one first thing I think of is something from the past, and then I go to create it, and sometimes it journeys off into just a nice piece of art, or if I sit with it good enough, it becomes a piece of history.

It's basically on the storytelling aspect of it.

You know, I, I I consider myself an artist, but I also try to consider myself as a teacher, a teacher of our people's past and our history and our traditions and culture.

And if I can get that across to the people, whether they purchased it or not, I feel like I have accomplished something.

- It's been art that, that has allowed me to, you know, recognize that some something of beauty can come, come from within.

We grew up together in central housing in Fort Thompson, and I remember just as a little guy, I, I'd be, you know, mesmerized by, by his art, just watching him as the older brother and, and he'd be doing cool stuff.

I mean, crazy things like Mount Dakota, but that's how it is in Indian country.

We, we kind of follow the lead of our older siblings.

It, - It is a native American country, God's country, Han's country, you know, it's, it's a place that we look to call home.

A place that we, you know, at one time in our history made our stand and we still stand and, you know, and giving that up and going to California or something, you just seem to get lost in a big city here.

You got some roots to pull.

- It's huge in terms of preservation.

We live in a day and age of, Hey, forget about that history, you know, and I'm not gonna be that guy.

We're gonna, we're gonna preserve through the art, through the dance, through the song Most people play are visual learners.

It's the best communication tool I can think of - When we say I'm doing art.

The other one will say, Whoopi la and good going way to go.

- No other ethnic group in our country has offered a greater percentage of its young men and women in military service to the United States at the annual Crow Creek, Dakota Nation with cheapy military veterans are honored and held in the highest regard.

Veterans lead the parades into the arena.

They're given the opportunity to dance in their own traditional styles.

They wear the uniforms of their various military branches along with tribal attire to identify their tribal heritage.

There's also a deep connection between the people of Fort Thompson and the animals on the Crow Creek reservation, but no other animal shares a bond quite as strong as that of the horse.

In fact, horses are not considered animals at all.

They're a relative and a connection to the spirit world.

And collectively, they are all members of horse nation.

- That means that with the horse nation, we're, that che means that we, I depend on you, you depend on me.

I believe in you, you believe in me that we can depend on each other and we can believe in each other.

We help each other.

They call it, you know, we can help each other where we won't leave no one behind or no one left out.

That's how all that process goes with the, our teachings, how we apply it to our horses, which the horse already showed us how to do that by how they kind of go with their herd.

So we started kind of going off of that, and that's how we kind of came about with our program that we took to the school.

The chairman, Peter Linky at the time was trying, - And him and I designed this horse program that we have now in our school out of necessity.

The pandemic hit in 2020.

Later that year, the kids got back in the classroom, and we can see instantly that there were definitely some things that had to be worked on.

So my background is mental health and, and behavioral health.

We, we couldn't get a counselor here, couldn't hire a counselor, couldn't contract any counseling business to come in.

And so we just, well, we have these relatives here.

- He looked at me and said, why don't you try?

He said, I've been trying for the past few years.

I said, okay.

So I tried, - You know, a lot of these children, they lost their, the guardians, their parents, their grandparents that they lived with.

And so we could just see the grief in the morning.

And our youth, we knew we had to do something.

- We help with their, their day, you know, to help them navigate it through the day.

There was a time in my life where I lost my father.

You know, I, I, I thought I couldn't, couldn't live even though I was, I was young.

Before he died, he gave me some horses, and after he had passed, the uncles told me, they said, the horse is what's gonna help you heal.

The horse is gonna help you do all these things that you wanna do.

Just let them know what what it is, and they'll help you.

So through the horse, we're able to go through that process.

When you don't know about yourself as a human being, where I come from or who am I, the horse helps you identify yourself as a human being.

And, and you can do that.

You can recognize who you are or recognize your family.

Now you look at each other, oh, hey, you're my relative, our Dakota way on how we bond with the horse.

They call it, you know, we, we, we make a bond, we make a connection.

And one of the ways I was told about how we bond with a horse is if you were to look at your thumper, it's got a swirl.

If you look at the top of your head, there's a swirl right there, and you're born and you carry it throughout your life.

But if you look at a horse, you know, right on the forehead, there's a swirl on the forehead, or it could be on the neckline or the points of the shoulder or the hip.

There's a swirl.

So we connect that this to that swirl of the horse, and then we're able to connect those two.

And the horse helps carry our prayers.

They say up to the heavens, the, they say the star nations, where our galaxies up there are swirls.

So we connect all of that together to get, to get our prayers to creator.

So far so good.

It's been doing, it's what it's supposed to be doing for our students.

- We, as Lakota people are, because of that return of the horse nation, we, we have this understanding now that we have a pass to hu we have a road now, and these horses are gonna take us down that path and they're gonna help us.

- Predating the native horse culture are the Fort Thompson Mounds, the largest burial mound complex in the Great Plains.

They stretch for six miles along the Missouri River and include archeological discoveries of stone hearths and tools and some of the oldest pottery fragments ever found in the region.

These sites were known but not really studied until the late 1950s, because that's when the Army Corps of Engineers began planning the construction of the big Band Dam.

Beginning in 1957, archeologists made a series of takes using radiocarbon dating on the found artifacts.

Researchers confirmed nearly 5,000 years of native settlement.

The burial mounds are believed to have been constructed in the plains woodland period.

Basically beginning in the eighth century.

The human remains in the mounds indicate that they were primarily a burial site.

The site was declared a national historic landmark in 1964, and visitors are reminded to treat these sacred burial lands with respect.

The native warrior culture here spans generations, and it's represented in part by code talkers.

Now, I know you're probably thinking of the famous Navajo or DNE code talkers from the Pacific Theater during World War ii, but there are more than 200 tribal members from South Dakota that used their language to send covert messages during wars.

- You got a letter in the mail.

So I came, I went, came back to the house and said, you drafted.

So then went to church that Sunday.

And my, my grandparents never said that.

Along with our families, 14 of us cousins all volunteered to go, says, your turn.

- Don LOLer grew up in Fort Thompson, and to him, it's your turn meant continuing a tradition to serve the country in the military as a native speaking code talker.

During the Korean War, - We were trained and if we were needed, we were there to become court talkers.

- Native American code talkers were the individuals who spoke very well in their native tongue, and in doing so, they could communicate across radio lines and so forth without the concern of the Germans or the Japanese being able to intercept and know what the commands were or the directions being be told were.

So, these code talkers during World War II in particular, really saved a lot of American lives.

But, but it, it was a case of where after years of the, you know, the United States government trying to make young Native Americans not speak their native language, it seems ironic that speaking their native language became one way in which they really contributed to the success of our army operations.

- In his role, both as governor and Senator Mike Rounds is part of this story of military service from the Crow Creek tribe, as are many others, like tribal chairman Peter Lenke.

- You know, the very first co-talk ever come from here in the end of World War I, his name was Sam Crow.

That's when they were first gonna, you know, start looking into that program.

And then of course, world War II came and they kind of refined it a little bit, and they took, took my grandfather from here, made him a code talker.

His name was Edmund St. John.

I've talked to other code talkers here in South Dakota.

'cause all these reservations, we all have code talkers on them.

- These unique language duties are just one part of the deep commitment to military service among tribal members.

- We, here at Fort Thompson, we have a level of service unrivaled amongst our tribes, amongst other ethnic ethnicities that are present here in the United States.

You know, it's common knowledge that indigenous people volunteer at a higher rate than any other ethnicity in this country.

And it's more so here.

We have a high service level here.

- Even at age 93, Don Ladner is still a tireless advocate for veterans.

He still represents over 500 recognized tribes in the US working to achieve a charter, to work directly with the Veterans Administration.

- Well, would that be important?

Yeah, because nobody's telling you their needs issues, concerns that the Indians have that are may be different than what the BFW and DB and m all in.

- My dad, he introduced me to Donny, but Donny, one thing he wanted was, is, is there any way you could help us get this charter put together and get it in?

And but this year, with the help of Ben Ray Luhan, a member of the Senate from New Mexico, we were able to get it into the National Defense Authorization Act passed president cited in the law, and now our Native American veterans have their charter as well.

- It's a charter that made history because there has never before been an organ organization like this.

To receive a federal charter and to give it to, you know, the National American Indian Veterans Association is, is huge.

Really huge.

- Two things, I think.

First, our Native American tribes were never treated in battle.

They were treaty tribes, very proud of their heritage.

Second of all, they are a warrior society.

They, they, you know, they appreciated courage and that carries through in the traditions.

Today - We have a dedication, a loyalty to the greater good of all as a lawyer, as a, and I was raised that way as a warrior.

- We're back at the big Band Dam once again.

The waters from Lake Sharp up above are coming down through the turbines, making electricity and moving on down into Lake Francis case.

We're here at Fort Thompson that has so much for you to learn about the native habitation from up to 5,000 years ago.

A little further downstream towards Chamberlain is the Crow Creek site marking the place of an historic battle between native groups along the Missouri in the mid 13 hundreds.

Today recreationally, there's good Soldier Creek, Fort Thompson, and North Shore recreation areas giving you great opportunities for camping, fishing, swimming, and other outdoor recreation.

You can make a stop at the Load star casino and hotel, or take in the cultural celebration of the annual Crow Creek Dakota Nation.

What Sheeping, thanks for coming along to visit Fort Thompson with us.

You could see some other stories that are exclusive on our website, stories about Crow Creek Reservation, Fort Thompson and the other communities that we visit throughout the year.

You can watch 'em again or click and share them with a friend that's at sdpb.org/dakota Life.

Thanks for watching and joining us in Fort Thompson and on the Crow Creek Reservation.

I'm Larry Roar for all of us at SDPB.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.