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Bob Burnette, oral interview
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Title
Bob Burnette, oral interview
Place
Montana
,
Nebraska
,
North Dakota
Subject
Dakota Indians
,
Indigenous peoples
,
Journalists
,
National Geographic
,
Oral histories
Description
Bob who was born 1/26/1926, is now 56 born in a town called Rosebud. Parents were both Frostbud Sioux. Name Burnett came from France from his great grandfather who was a trader in the 1830’s/40’s. He joined with a tribe after trading with them and another tribe. Married a woman in the tribe and stayed with them for most of his life minus the times he went to get supplies. Talks more about his family which is quite large. He has family in multiple Sioux tribes. Talks about different languages in the different Sioux tribes. After high school Bob joined the Marine Corps at the age of 17 and went to South Pacific as an anti-aircraft operator protecting submarines. Was in the Corps from 43-46 and retired as a colonel. When he returned to the reservation, he was disappointed because nothing had changed. Discusses the difficulty in getting things like bank loans, had to go to Bureau of Indian affairs to get anything. Had no idea of what to do when he got back to the reservation besides working with his father on his cattle ranch. Up until the crash in ‘29 there were lots of successful ranchers on the reservation, lots of whom paid taxes despite being on reservations. After the crash lots of white people came to the ranches. Lots of land that was originally on the reservation fell into white ownership due to a law passed by the Supreme Court. Talks about how there was a misconception from the government on who was poor and who just seemed to be. People living in log houses or tents would not consider themselves to be poor because they liked living in tents even if they had houses. Talks about Indian spiritual practices after the introduction of Christianity to the reservations. There was a man named Horn Chips who was the greatest medicine man to ever exist. Talks about ceremonies and vision quests which were still happening. Talks about medicine men and if they are still actively practicing. Discusses education of Indian traditions like language. Speaker discusses why he got involved in politics, says it was in large part due to his father and grandfathers part in starting and developing the Rosebud reservation and were very involved in state politics. Married just after the war and had 9 kids, the oldest is now 34. 3 of them went into the Marine Corps. Discusses how leadership selected people to the governments. ¾ of all adult men in each district had to agree on something to decide on what to do. Speaker joined a cattle and farm association in addition to ranching, became president of the association. Government wanted to liquidate the association because they were doing too well according to the speaker. Government raised taxes for the Rosebud reservation by more than a dollar more as opposed to other reservations to try and drive them from their land. Talks about BIA and TLE organizations.
Duration
1h1m50s
Archival Collection Title
Edward E. Ayer Collection
Rights Status
Copyright Not Evaluated
Newberry Open Access Policy
The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to
these terms and conditions.
Link to Catalog
View record
Call Number
Ayer Modern MS Josephy
BibID
9911612434105867
Size
141.56 MB
Original file name
9911612434105867_00000_00031.mp3
Unique Identifier
NL1V6HU
Visibility Class
Public
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