NCompass Live - Sept. 7, 2016 http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ncompasslive/ The third annual Trading Stories: a Native American Film Festival was hosted at the Chadron Public Library in July. Library Director Rossella Tesch and Marguerite Vey-Miller, from the Chadron Public Library Foundation, will talk about the 5 day event which included presentations, movies, food, discussions, guest artists, and a story time in Lakota. The highlight of the festival was the premiere of the Nebraska Public TV film Medicine Woman, a documentary that interweaves the lives of Native American women healers of today with the story of America’s first Native doctor, Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915). The film will air nationally on PBS in November.

1. The Story
of
Trading Stories

2. Chadron Public Library
Trading Stories, a Native American Movie Festival ©

3. Where we are located

4. Chadron

5. Facts about Chadron
• Population 5,775
• Agriculture, services, tourism
• Chadron State College
• Headquarters of the Nebraska and Samuel R. McKelvie National
Forests, and the Buffalo Gap, Fort Pierre, and Oglala National
Grasslands.
• The Museum of the Fur Trade is located at the site of the
American Fur Company's former Bordeaux Trading Post.
• In the Lakota language, Chadron is known as čhápa wakpá
otȟúŋwahe, meaning "beaver river city".[

6. Fur Trade Days Second Week in July

7. Chadron Public Library

8. Pine Ridge, S.D.

9. Facts about Pine Ridge
• Tribal Government records show 38,000 enrolled members living
on Pine Ridge Reservation
• The poverty on Pine Ridge can be described in no other terms than
third world. It is common to find homes overcrowded, as those
with homes take in whoever needs a roof over their heads. Many
homes are without running water, and without sewer.

10. Pine Ridge facts
• Pine Ridge Statistics as of 2007
• Unemployment rate of 80-90%
• Per capita income of $4,000
• 8 Times the United States rate of diabetes
• 5 Times the United States rate of cervical cancer
• Twice the rate of heart disease
• 8 Times the United States rate of Tuberculosis
• Alcoholism rate estimated as high as 80%
• 1 in 4 infants born with fetal alcohol syndrome or effects
• Suicide rate more than twice the national rate
• Teen suicide rate 4 times the national rate
• Infant mortality is three times the national rate
• Life expectancy on Pine Ridge is the lowest in the United States and the 2nd lowest in the
Western Hemisphere.

11. The beginning…It was a dark and cold day
2013
• A question from the Fur Trade Days Committee: can you help to
bring new programs to the “Days”
• Three activites: a movie festival, a ghost hunt, and a quilt.
• First Committee
Annette Bellu, Rossella Tesch, Marguerite Vey-Miller

12. The First Movie Festival
July 2014

13. Why a Native American Movie Festival?
• Native American culture is an integral part of Chadron history
• Many of Chadron Public Library users are Native Americans
• Many Native American art form are vibrant and interesting
• Native American Culture was part of Fur Trade Days in the past
• Many, from all over US and abroad, are interested in Lakota and other
Native American Cultures and come to North West Nebraska to study
them
• A good fit with Chadron Public Library’s Indigenous People of North
America collection
• Bring hope and highlight the positive, discuss issues

14. The First Movie Festival July 2014
• Search for titles: internet, other festivals, friends and family
• Copyrights
• Search for guests: friends and family, twitter
• Hunting for money: library budget, Friends, Foundation
• Publicity: posters, flyers and brochures, radio shows, city council, new papers.
• Distribution of publicity materials and public relations (traveling miles)
• Build a reputation for the brand
• Finding partners: Museum of the Fur Trade
• Honoring the Native American Traditions (everyone welcome/food and
refreshments)
• The amking of a Brand and its Logo

15. Why a logo is important:
Focal Point
Easily Recognizable
Possible uses
Prestige

16. “Expect the unexpected and go with the
flow…”
• We welcomed unexpected guests
• Ironed the movie screen
• Kept on the look out for possible protesters and trouble makers

17. The 2014 movies
• A Thick Dark Fog
• Young Lakota
• Ishtima
• Crazy Horse (the way things were)
• Sitting Bull’s Voice
• Smoke Signals

18. Guests
• Scott Means actor and activist
• Cecilia Fire Thunder activist and politician, first woman president
of Lakota Tribe
• Ernie LaPointe great-grand-son of Chief Sitting Bull
• Bill Matson art director
• Jim Kent journalist

19. Scoring Big
•Article in Rapid City Journal
•South Dakota Public Radio
•Native American Radio (US & Canada)
•Local Radio Stations
•Local newspapers

20. Second Edition
July 2015

21. Departure of one of the commeettee members
Digging down deep/finding our personal whys
Renewing the format: adding presenters
Partners': Chadron Arts Center
Museum of Fur Trade
Rotary
Heritage Center Pine Ridge
Dawes County Traveling Board
Friends of the Library
Fur Trade Days Committee
Chadron Public Library Foundation

22. Happenings
Finding a theme: The horse in Native American Culture
Adding visual arts

23. The Movies and Performances
• We are a Horse Nation
• Pow Wow Highway

24. Guests
• Joyzelle Gingway Godfrey Ethnologist and performer
“When Lewis and Clark Met the Sioux)
Jerome KillSmall
“Herbs and Medicines of the Lakota”

25. More things going wrong
The lost performer
… the one who arrived late…
…the one who got sick…
...and more misunderstandings (the artist who did not know, maybe)

26. Attendance
2014
96 people attended the festival
2015
195 people attended the programs
2016
560 people in attendance

27. Third Edition
July 2016

28. Highlights
The Committee: Crystal Ferris-Gybson, Rossella Tesch, Marguerite Vey-Miller
Divided the Festival in two parts: Highlighted Medicine Woman and built a full program around it, Kept the
other part of the Festival separate
Medicine Woman July 6, 2016
NET Nebraska
Partnership with CSC Herbarium,
Presentations about Native American Healing Herbs: Jerome KillSmall (grant from Nebraska Humanities)
Steve Rolfsmeier, Director of CSC Herbarium, Dr. Susan Rolfsmeier
Musical performance by Native American flute player Michel Murphy
(grant from Nebraska Arts Council)
Reception
Medicine Woman

29. Posters

30. The themes
• Healing in the Traditional Way
• Arts as healing tools for the people
• Crafts as economic tool for sustenance of Lakota

31. Partners and Sponsors
• Dawes County Travel Board
• Chadron Public Library Foundation
• Chadron Public Library Friends
• Dawes County Travel Board
• Fur Trade Days Commettee
• Heritage Center/Red Cloud School
• Nebraska Arts Council
• Nebraska Humanities
• NET Radio
• Petersen Drug Store

32. The Movies
Medicine Woman (Susan LaFleche Picotte and Susan Reifel)
The Revenant
Great wolf and Little Mouse Sister
Rez Bomb
American Interior
More Than Fried Bread

33. Other Programs
• Beading demonstrations by Stephanie Sorbel
• Photographic Show by Tom Swiftbird
• Musical Show and Lab by Michael Murphy
• Art Showing by Crystal Ferris-Gibson
• Story Time in Lakota by Vana Bannan
• Fry Bread and Chocke-cherry Syrup
• Jewelry and artifacts displays

34. Medicine Woman
Susan La Flesche Picotte (Photo Credit: The Hampton
University Museum and Archives)
What does it take to heal a people? That’s the
question at the heart of Medicine Woman, a new
one-hour PBS documentary interweaving the lives of
Native healers of today with that of the first Native
American doctor. Born on the Nebraska frontier in
1865, Susan La Flesche Picotte studied medicine at
a time when few women dared. She graduated first
in her Philadelphia class and returned home to a
shattered world. She spent the rest of her life
working to help her people become whole again.

35. The Revenant
• Dr. Jim Hanson historical consultant for the movie
• Chasing a FOX
• DiCaprio perhaps?

36. Now
• Working toward next year festival.

37. Thank you for
participating!