New America: How America Could Have Happened. An Alternate History

Part 4: New France (Indian Territories). Aurora Macha

JASON: The Dakotas, Minnesota, and much of Nebraska and Montana are the ancestral home of the Lakota Indian nation. And they are now part of New France. I have decided to meet with Aurora Macha a full-blooded member of the Lakota. We meet in the great room of her Lodge near Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She has the tan skin, strong profile, and dark eyes that speak of her family heritage. I will start with her current situation – family, job, aspirations. And then we will talk about past generations and experiences.

AURORA: ""I am a 40-year-old single mother with three children: a 19-year-old boy, and two girls aged 16 and 14. We live here just outside of Grand Rapids in this hundred-year-old "Chapa Akahpe", or Beaver Lodge, which we operate with the help of my brother who lives with us. I am a full-blooded Lakota as you know. This Lodge has been in our family since the time of my great grandfather. He built it on this two hundred acre parcel of pastureland back in 1920. He wanted to have a place where people could come and stay, to explore the land, and learn about the way of life and traditions of the Lakota, the Plains Indians.

It started with just six rooms for guests. And it stayed that way through the hard times of the depression and into the post war years. In the 1950's the war was over, there was a renewed interest in travel, and the new highways brought more visitors than ever. We had to turn some away until my grandfather built the additional rooms and this dining hall that you see now.

There are many kinds of guests, and just as many reasons for coming here. This is not Disneyland or the California beach, but we do have tourists, lots of them. Some are students or professors of history and want to learn about the Plains Indians, the culture, and history. They do this by experiencing the land that is so important to our culture. We do not use history books, videos, or bus tours. We assign a local guide for each family or group for the duration of their visit. – Oh yes, the visit must be at least three weeks, no less. This discourages some, but for those that come, we want them to have the necessary time to live the life and feel the experience. During the day, there are trips to and through the territories that our people have travelled for hundreds of years"".

JASON: ""I know there were hundreds of tribes living in North America at that time. Some were woodland tribes, some lived in the desert territories, and some like the Lakota were known as Plains tribes living in the rich grasslands of the north west"".

AURORA: ""You know even the Plains Tribes, the Lakota, Pawnee, and Arapaho were all different. The Lakota were mostly nomadic, living in teepees that could be easily moved to the next place while they followed the herds of game, small game and deer, but mostly buffalo. The Pawnees were villagers, and lived in earthen huts that were substantial in size and permanent. As many as a thousand lived in a village and they planted corn and other crops. However, for months on end, their men would also live the nomadic life, hunt and bring home fresh and cured meats like pemmican for the village.

We have always lived in concert with the land – it has provided a wealth of food and a constant beauty of birds and animals, lakes, rivers, and creeks. Our languages reflect this feeling. Our indigenous languages are verb based, not noun based, as your European languages. Consequently, we have two categories of entities – those that are alive and those that are inanimate. Our living group includes humans, but also all animals, fish, plants and trees. Whereas your European languages refer to plants and trees with the pronoun "it", the same as inanimate objects.

Our men were skilled hunters and fishers. Our women set up and managed the camps. We Lakota did not stay in one place for long as the land needs to rest after a time. So, we would move on to new lands just as the herds did. Our women did not make a lot of handcrafts like some of the Woodland and stationary tribes. We had no need for these possessions that would weigh us down. We made the practical necessities – clothing, teepee hide covers, and cooking instruments. There was just the land and us"".