Native American Heritage at the Hall of Fame

November is National Native American Heritage Month in the United States. Here in South Dakota, there is a rich culture and nine Native American tribes. The South Dakota Hall of Fame is just down the road from the beautiful statue, Dignity, a 50-foot sculpture of an indigenous woman in Plains-style dress, receiving a star quilt. This sculpture was created by Hall of Fame Inductee Dale Lamphere and funded by Norm McKie. In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we wanted to highlight some of the many indigenous inductees and all they have done for the state of South Dakota.

Bruce Long Fox has dedicated his life to the belief in the power of education to change lives. As the Executive Director of Rapid City-based Rural America Initiatives (RAI), he has developed and managed educational programs that have impacted the lives of approximately 9000 at-risk Native American children, from newborn through high school. He accomplishes this through educational programming that is grounded in the traditional Lakota values of respect, compassion, honesty, generosity, humility, wisdom and a relationship with a higher power. Bruce works to break the cycle of poverty by giving vulnerable children a sense of identity, pride and belonging and the tools to succeed in school. He understands that the work of recovery, the work of change for both individuals and communities is not immediate or flashy but is slow and steady. The world is changed, and the future is forged child by child. Bruce’s work, grounded in compassion, is based on this, the idea of changing lives through education.

James Emery’s legacy is vibrant and historic. Making the most of his humble beginnings amidst poverty and discrimination, leveraging his many natural talents and rare ability to form relationships, he preserved an invaluable part of the state's heritage as his permanent gift to South Dakota and the region. Emery combined his natural gifts, great creativity, and desire to succeed with education and had accomplishments in many areas. One of those endeavors that will continue to give back to Natives and non-Natives was his project of several decades, resulting in over three hundred hours of taping to record the culture, history, language, and songs of Native Americans. His earliest technology was an early record-making machine that recorded onto blank discs. He was given an old Edison cylinder phonograph, and he re-recorded some of those cylinders on his machines to preserve the oldest recording in his collection. Later, as technology became available, he used a reel-to-reel tape recorder to record the important events of his people.

JoAnne Bird is a member of the Dakota Sioux and was raised on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Indian Reservation in eastern South Dakota. JoAnne knew she was destined to be an artist since early childhood. After high school, she received art training at Dakota State University, Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Santa Fe Institute of Indian Arts. After working several years for the 3M company, she decided to leave the commercial art field to devote herself to a full-time professional art career. In addition to painting, JoAnne is an accomplished sculptor working in bronze. Her sculptures, many larger than life, can be found throughout the United States and Europe. Among them are commissions of the Indian leaders "Shakopee", located in the Minnesota State Capital Building, and "Sleepy Eye", located in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.

Nicholas Black Elk, the great Lakota spiritual healer, was born into the Oglala Lakota tribe of the Great Sioux Nation in December 1863 near the Little Powder River, in what is now the state of Wyoming. His life as a spiritualist was foretold in a dream he had as a nine-year-old while he lay in a coma, gravely ill. In this vision he was taken by spirits into the clouds to meet with spiritual powers which he called grandfathers; these represented the six directions: North, South, East, West, earth, and sky. These grandfathers gave him sacred objects representing each of the directions and the responsibility of maintaining their circle of life, which he called the "sacred hoop." In the dream he was taken to what is now known as Black Elk Peak, which he described as the Center of the World; and from this vantage, he viewed the entire world, the two-legged, the four-legged, the winged ones, and those that swim.

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve is a well-respected teacher and the author of several children’s history books and adult non-fiction about Native Americans. Born February 21, 1933, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Sneve has worked to dispel the common stereotypes of Native Americans and to document their proud histories through her writings, often drawing from her ancestors’ own experiences on the reservations. Sneve is a graduate of South Dakota State University, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in 1954 and 1969, respectively. She has taught in the South Dakota public school system as well as on the Flandreau Indian Reservation and at Oglala Lakota College. Among her most popular works are Jimmy Yellow Hawk (1977), High Elk’s Treasure and Completing the Circle (both 1995), When Thunder Spoke (1974), and The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman (1975).

These are some of the many amazing indigenous people who have changed South Dakota for the better with their work and culture. To read about more Hall of Fame inductees, visit the Inductee Directory here.