“Telling Our Story” discusses how oral history has played a role in preserving the Eastern Shawnee historical narrative and keeping cultural traditions alive.
Chapter 5: Shawnee Resilience: Eastern Shawnees and the Boarding School Experience – Robin Dushane, Eastern Shawnee Tribe Cultural Preservation Department, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
In this chapter, Robin Dushane (wife of Lawrence Dushane, great-great grandson of Keenefease Jackson) eloquently and poignantly discusses Shawnee resilience in the face of the horrible boarding school experiences that many/most tribal children had to contend with throughout the late 19th/early 20th century. She traces the history of these institutions beginning in 1817 with a school established by Chief Louis Rogers in the region known as the highlands of Missouri. Interviews and first-hand accounts are sprinkled throughout the chapter providing insight into the lives of the Eastern Shawnee who attended these boarding schools. Her self-articulated hope is to provide “historical context for discussions that families will have concerning their relatives that attended Mission/Boarding Schools and how their experiences affected families and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, as a whole.”
Chapter 9: Becoming Our Own Storytellers: Tribal Nations Engaging with Academia – Benjamin Barnes
This chapter discusses how the three federally recognized Shawnee tribes synthesize the work of academics and tribal-citizen scholars through partnerships in their ancestral homelands. It is the hope of the author that tribal citizens “can use these networks to rediscover and further understand our past and present.” Yet, for the Shawnee people, ancestors are a living memory. They live on through the collective memory of the tribe which is sometimes a culturally difficult concept for non-Native readers to understand. This leads to many conflicting emotions – for both Natives and non-Natives. However, it is a moral imperative for collaborations between indigenous peoples and universities/cultural institutions to occur. As the author suggests, “…we have an opportunity to re-contextualize the misinformation of the past and we become our own storytellers.” The digital age is making Shawnee history more accessible to its citizens. Tribal engagement with these primary sources can offer superior understanding and explanation when combined with cultural context – a perspective which can only be acquired through indigenous voices.
Chapter 11: ’As I Remember’: An Oklahoma Memoir – Elsie May (Sis) Captain Hoevet, Introduced and transcribed by Chief Glenna Wallace
Introduced and transcribed by Chief Glenna Wallace, this chapter is a narrative memoir told by Elsie May (Sis) Captain Hoevet. As Chief Glenn tells us in her introduction, Sis was one of the first to leave Oklahoma and make Oregon her home. Her monograph entitled ‘As I Remember’ was provided by her sons Frank (Bo) and Doug for posterity and was written by Sis later in her life. In this, Sis recounts her childhood which by today’s standards was very difficult. However, as she herself states, “Life is not a bed of roses, it’s a book of experiences; and if you really weigh them against each other, the good seems to overbalance the bad.” Her first memories begin at the age of four and follow all the way though her school years at the “Mission School” (the Seneca Indian School in Wyandotte, Oklahoma) and the Haskell Institute. The text is full of stories and memories that give a real insight into her personality and sense of humor. It also gives the reader a deeper understanding of what life was like for the tribal communities in Oklahoma in the early 20th-century. Her narrative ends with the birth of her son, Bo, shortly after graduating from the Haskell Institute in 1939.
Chapter 13: Larry Kropp Oral History Interview – Interviewed by Stephen Warren and Eric Wensman
In this interview Larry Kropp, an Eastern Shawnee tribal citizen and member of the Business Committee of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, reflects on his life and memories of growing up in Quapaw. He is the grandson of Thomas A. Captain, the third Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Mr. Kropp begins his interview with his birth in 1948 saying “I tell everybody my first ride was in [a] hearse and my last ride is going to be in a hearse.” Born in Joplin, Missouri in the post-WWII era, the hearse belonging to the undertaker in Baxter Springs, Kansas also doubled as the ambulance at the hospital where Kropp was born. Due to postpartum fatigue, Mr. Kropp and his mother were transported home in the ambulance/hearse. As the interview progresses, the reader is pulled deeper into more serious topics such as discrimination, identity, and culture. Mr. Kropp gives insight through sharing his experiences and memories to contend with these topics, but with the same flair and humor as when speaking of his birth.
Chapter 14: Brett Barnes and Annie Winifred “Winkie” Froman Oral History Interview – Interviewed by Stephen Warren and Eric Wensman
This interview begins with Annie Winifred “Winkie” Froman. Born in 1935, she recounts her memories and experiences growing up in White Oak, Oklahoma. Reared by her grandmother, Winkie discusses her grandmother’s garden and the importance of food and its role in the powwows. She also discusses the idea of Indian identity and discrimination. Joined later in the interview by her son, Brett Barnes, both discuss the importance of the Quapaw Powwow and how it brings tribal communities together.
Chapter 15: Shawn King Oral History Interview – Interviewed by Stephen Warren and Eric Wensman
Shawn King is the Ceremonial Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe. Born in 1971, Mr. King’s interest in powwow dancing was due in large part to the influence of his grandmother. He wanted to be able to dance for his grandmother and other family members and as he grew and became more serious, he also found that it kept him out of trouble. As he states, “…when I earned my first eagle feather I was sat down and I was told that you know you can’t drink, you can’t do drugs, you can’t do these things and dance. Because you don’t take that into the circle it doesn’t belong there.” His discussion of this spiritual connection with the social dance segues into working with children and his main goal and passion: suicide prevention. Additionally, his greatest hope for the future of the tribe is to “…see our people be more unified. His incredible heart and care for the tribe is inescapable throughout the interview.
Chapter 16: Norma Krause Oral History Interview – Interviewed by Stephen Warren and Eric Wensman
Norma Krause was born in Oklahoma in 1938. When she was six years old, she and her family moved to Oregon. Her mother took a job as a welder at a shipyard while she and her three siblings picked fruit to help make ends meet. She discusses her memories of discrimination and her first experience of “being Indian”. At age eleven she was taken away from her family and adopted, though she always remained in contact with her natural parents. In 1959 she joined the military as a clerk typist. She served two of her contracted three years which were cut short by her becoming pregnant. At this point she moved back to Oklahoma to be with her birth family where she says that she reconnected quite profoundly with her people. She began working with the tribe as a receptionist and also sat on the Business Committee.