FLANDREAU – When Daphne Richards-Cook from Rapid City and Maureen Murnan from Essex, United Kingdom (England) met in 2004 at a Wacipi (Powwow) in Lower Brule, South Dakota, little did they realize the significance of that first encounter.
Four years and three tour groups later the pair have collaborated authentic Native American Cultural experiences for hundreds of foreign visitors to all nine reservations in South Dakota.
Richards-Cook, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Tourism Advocates (ATTA) has been working with tribes in South Dakota for more than a decade, affording them the opportunity to share the history of the Oceti Sakowin (the seven council fires of Great Sioux Nation) from a native perspective.
Visitors have gained first hand experience in quillwork, beadwork, shawl making, danced in the arena at Wacipi’s, tasted authentic native cuisine, stayed under the stars in authentic northern plains tipis and even petted tame buffalo.
“This is the first place that I’ve been to – that I didn’t want to go home from,” said Debbie Archer from East Sussex England, who was on her second visit to South Dakota.
This year visitors were able to add a new chapter to their knowledge of the Oceti Sakowin, the tragic history of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Oyate who were exiled out of Minnesota after the Dakota Uprising of 1862.
In years past, through collaborative efforts between Tribal tourism groups and ATTA, visitors came as far east river as the Yankton, Lower Brule and Crow Creek Reservations as well as the usual stops on the Cheyenne River, Standing Rock, Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations.
However, this year’s tour included two firsts, a trip to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation and the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.
Ten tourists from the United Kingdom and seven from Geneva Switzerland arrived in Sioux Falls on Tuesday July 1st and were met by Richards-Cook and Norma Lone Hill who escorted them to Flandreau, where they spent the night at the Royal River Casino. Norma Lone Hill, ATTA staff person, toured with the group from Flandreau on to the other South Dakota reservations.
Visitors included: Maureen Murnan, Sheree Adams, Debbie Archer, Diane Walker, Claire Archer, Eileen Archer, Alan Macrobert, Julie Macrobert, Marion Jones, Yvonne Eyre from the United Kingdom and Denis Hertz, Silvana Hertz, Rene Clerc, Moniq Clerc, Zelda Chauvet, Lydia Lancia-Conte and Yolande Schmiedt from Geneva, Switzerland.
Tuesday night, artists Jackie Byrd, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Myrna and Sara Weston, both members of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, led the group in a round dance and  demonstrated the arts of quill working, shawl making and quilting in the Royal Room at the casino.
The tour group’s excursion through the reservation began Wednesday morning when FSST tribal member Ray Redwing was the guide and led them through the Historic Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone, Minnesota.
They watched as Redwing and Solomon Derby demonstrated the ancient art of carving from stone the Sacred Pipe, then went on a nature walk through pristine native tall prairie grasses, active quarry pits, Winnewissa (Jealous Maiden) Falls and Old Stone Face where Indian men used to prove their valor by leaping from rock to rock and placing an arrow in the cracks along the cliff line.
“You can tell it is a very special area. We could just feel the energy,” Denis Hertz said of his first time visit to the monument and added that he hoped the tradition of pipe carving would be passed onto future generations and not be lost to time.
After their visit to the quarry pits they met up with tour guide Sam Allen, an ATTA board member and the FSST Economic Development Resource Coordinator, who along with Carol Robertson, FSST Economic Development Assistant Planner/Editor of the FSST Newsletter and Amber Allen, Economic Development Clerical Assistant, organized the Flandreau visit.
 A tour packet was provided to the group by the FSST Economic Development staff, which included a map of South Dakota Indian reservations, a Gordon Weston Indian Veterans Post brochure, History of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe brochure, an article on Dr. Charles Eastman written by Bill Bean, Wanted poster of Little Crow, Intertribal Bison brochures on traditional uses for Buffalo, an Article on Ray Redwing FSST member and traditional pipe maker, a copy of the July FSST Newsletter, History of the First Presbyterian Church also written By Bill Bean and a copy of “An Experiment of Faith, A Journey of the Mdewakanton Dakota Who Settled on the Bend of the River”
Sam rode on the tour bus with the group and as they drove through the reservation provided a commentary on the features and history of the tribe and the reservation. Their first stop was the North pasture where they were able to get a glimpse of the tribal buffalo herd. Sam explained the tribe also has another herd that are kept in a pasture located in the southern  part of the reservation.
Then they arrived at the home of Kim Brown and Art Schmidt, where they met Susie, an orphaned buffalo calf the couple raised from birth. While viewing Susie, one of the tourists, Debbie Archer, who has dubbed herself Buffalo Woman, because of the close connection she feels to this spiritual animal, was able to reach through the fence and pet Susie on the nose. She was thrilled when the gesture was returned and Susie licked her hand.
“When I was here two years ago I had bought a buffalo hide and took it home with me,” she said. “I was talking to my niece and nephew at the time and they asked what it would have been used for. So I said the children would sleep on it. So I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and when I returned they were curled up on the floor on the buffalo hide. I said, ‘what are you doing’ and they said, ‘we are slee ping like the children do.’”
The next stop on their visit was to the historic First Presbyterian Church, the oldest church in the state that is still in use. While there, they viewed the gravesite of Chief Little Crow, Taoyateduta, (His Red People) and learned a little bit of history about this great warrior who led the Dakota people in their fight for freedom in 1862. The remains of Little Crow were returned to his grandson Jesse Wakeman in 1971 and were buried at this site.
They also viewed the headstones of many Santee Dakota Tribal members, whose eulogies written in the Dakota language remain visible, including that of many relatives of the late Dr. Charles Eastman.
As Maureen Murnan, principle organizer for Europeans on the tour, was leaving the gravesite of Little Crow, a black crow feather fluttered in wind and landed at her feet. As she picked it up she gasped and asked, “Do you think this is a good sign.”
Murnan is a Tutor at Finley College, Essex, UK; a college of private study where many of the members of the tour group are students studying cultural sensitivity and taking courses in Psychic Studies. Native Americans are of interest to the students she said because of their spirituality and beliefs. They study auras given off from a person’s psychic, sensitivity to spirituality.
“I have always had a special connection with the Lakota,” said Murnan whose interest in Native people began when she was a child. “My idea was to join forces and get people out here to meet the real people and get the real story about Native American life and the Native American Culture.”
After leaving the First Presbyterian Church the group was met by FSST Member and historian William “Bill” Bean and 89-year-old FSST elder Sidney Byrd at the “Tipiwakan Wakpaipaksan” Bend in the River Meeting House.
“This building was actually the first church for the Dakota Indians when they came into this area,” Bean shared. “They were originally in Minnesota, they rose up against the federal government because of certain circumstances and went to war with the federal government and lost the war.”
He explained that after the war the Dakota people were exiled from Minnesota and imprisoned. During imprisonment at Davenport, Iowa and Crow Creek, South Dakota they gave up their culture and converted to Christianity. The Dakota were eventually united at Santee, Nebraska where they stayed for about a year before coming to this area.
“Many of the families were homesick and didn’t want to be under the government,” he said and came to this area because it was close to their original homelands in Minnesota without actually being in Minnesota.
Carol Robertson then turned on an audio recording, which gave a brief history of the preservation of this historical building. It once sat on the grounds of the Flandreau Indian school where it served as a schoolhouse and was set to be demolished. Members of the tribe who had organized under the name “Historical Building Preservation Society” stepped in to save the structure and moved it to its present site near the Moody County Museum.
Byrd, who is one of a few remaining tribal members still fluent in the Dakota language, brought many of the foreign visitors to tears with his explanation of the War of 1862 from the Dakota’s standpoint. The group appeared to be in awe of the Dakota elder’s knowledge and expertise and spent almost an hour visiting with him after his lecture asking him questions.
The last stop on their visit to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian Reservation was at the Moody County Museum where they received a brief education about beadwork from the Director of the Museum Roberta Williamson and a brief history of pipe making from Bill Bean. Bean also explained that another reason for the Santee Sioux’s selection of this site at Wakpaipaksan was its close proximity to the pipestone quarries in nearby Minnesota as the Dakota had a long history and connection to the sacred site.
After their visit with the Santee in Flandreau the tour group was off for tribal experiences with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, the Hunkpapa on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, the Minnecoujou, Siha Sapa, Itazipcola and Oohenumpa on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, a visit to Bear Butte in the beautiful Black Hills, then on for visit with the Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation before their departure back to London on July 10.
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