‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’ doc is a head-on view of history
Abraham Lincoln, in the fall of 1862 as the Civil War raged, ordered the hanging of 38 indigenous Native Americans in a bloody conflict known as the Dakota War or the Sioux Uprising.
“It remains the largest mass execution in the United States,” said Jesse Short Bull, the co-director with Laura Tomaselli, of the expansive new documentary “Lakota Nation vs. United States.”
That’s certainly a shocking chapter in this most revered president’s life that was omitted from Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.”
“And that’s why, when you come to South Dakota and you come to a reservation,” Short Bull said, “Lincoln’s not really well thought of.”
Adding insult to injury: Lincoln looms among the four presidents enshrined on the Mount Rushmore monument, which stands in the middle of long-disputed Lakota sacred lands.
“Lakota Nation” covers
America’s blighted history with the sovereign nation but much more.
“This film we made is certainly a documentary — as opposed to an argument — but I think that there’s room in the film for what we’re trying to do, which is change people’s minds. It necessitates,” said Tomaselli in a joint Zoom interview, “having both sides heard.”
“I definitely look at it as a device,” Short Bull said. “We look at history, assimilation was a device. That’s how I want this to be — a tool, a device. Growing up here in South Dakota, being around the Oglala Lakota nations, to see everything that I poured into this film alongside Laura, my prayer is that my relatives and people in the communities that I’ve been around, and not just those two reservations, but all of the reservations in South Dakota and surrounding area, will have a better quality of life coming to the future.”
“Lakota Nation” began with a newspaper article detailing the tribes’ dismissal of a financial settlement — now said to be worth $1B — by the Sioux who await the return of their sacred ground, the Black Hills.
Reading about that financial refusal by the Sioux, Short Bull said, “was the catalyst. Me, growing up here in the Badlands, being interested in storytelling and filmmaking, I recognized the curiosity and passion in this story and understood that maybe other people across the country might also have the same level of curiosity. Or might not even know it exists.
“And then the magic of Laura” — a veteran editor — “came shortly after. We met and clearly understood that we were like a pair of gloves. I always a left hand, she a right hander. First up, we execute this project as best as we could. With the best of intentions.”
“Lakota Nation vs. United States” is currently playing at the Amherst Cinema Arts Center, and at the Nantucket Dreamland Theatre on Aug. 30.