When we first came to the reservations we didn’t
know what to expect. None of us had ever been to a
reservation before.
We guessed that we wouldn’t be welcome. Being
non-Indian, journalists and fairly uneducated on the
current situation of the Indian community, wc knew
people might be hesitant to talk to us.
What we encountered was one of the most educa
tional and enlightening experiences of our lives. We
also discovered that the struggle of the American
Indian is far from over and in many ways, it is
beginning all over again.
After the first day we knew that we could never
fully and accurately describe the situation of Ne
braska Indians. We hadn’t grown up on the reserva
tions. We didn't know what the Indian people knew.
And despite many personal interviews and much
reading, the so-called “inside story” of how the
people had survived against the odds remained a
mystery to us.
What we have put in The Sower is what we
encountered from the outside with the help of people
on the inside.
It is important to remember that these articles were
written from the outside and provide only a “taste” of
many years of struggle, hope and work. We are not
Indians and we do not claim that we know die whole
story. The Indian people did not come to us looking
to tell their story. Tney did not "owe” us these
interviews. Given the often one-sided views of the
non-Indian community in the past, we understood
when some were reluctant or refused to be inter
viewed.
What was surprising was the number of people
who did let us in, if only for short time, at the risk of
being misunderstood again. Most of the people in the
Indian community were receptive, friendly and help
ful.
To those people we owe great thanks — for their
time, their congeniality and their cooperation.
Special thanks go to Funk LaMere, Richard Kitto
and Steve Provost of the Nebraska Indian Commis
sion as well as Barry Blackhawk of the Winnebago
reservation.
We also learned from communication that went
unspoken. For that reason, we'd like to thank the
c who didn’t want to be interviewed,
te to lack of time and conflicting schedules we
were unable to interview many people from the
Omaha reservation, for that we apologize. Time and
space restraints also prevented us from covering all
the issues surrounding the Indian community at the
present lime.
There are reasons the Indian community is strug
gling. There are no easy answers. One thing that we
learned, however, is that without a unified people,
without help and without understanding, all the great
history of the Indian people, their culture and tradi
tion will be lost forever.
And that is a loss to everyone.
— Lee Rood, The Sower editor.
The Sower is a depth magazine of the Daily
Nebraskan. Special thanks also go to DN reporters
Amy Edwards, Mick Dyer, Connie Sheehan; photog
rapher Butch Ireland; artist John Bruce; and DN
editor Curt Wagner.
