Famous From Crow Creek
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In the news: By Karin Eagle, Native Sun News |
Who says Indians don't have a sense of humor? Humor has been utilized throughout the generations, from gentle teasing amongst in-laws and siblings to ribald songs and anecdotes passed down from generation to generation. As part of the storytelling process, Indian humor has become its very own art form. Indian comedian Mylo Smith, of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, has been exposed to not only the humorous side of Native life on the reservation but to the darker side, as well. Raised by his grandmother in Wakpala, as well as on the Crow Creek Reservation, Smith acknowledges his grandmother's influence on him as a comedian. Describing her as a very funny lady, he admits to inheriting the comedic gene from his grandmother, who also happens to be the mother of one of the most well-known and respected Native American comedians, Jr. Redwater. |
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In the news: By Karin Eagle, Native Sun News |
Crow Creek Sioux woman earns Bronze Star A Crow Creek woman who earned the Bronze Star speaks on experiences of women soldiers abroad. Major Stephanie R. Griffith, USMC, an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, has been awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service to her country. She has served in the Marine Corps for 13 years.
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| Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, was born November 17, 1930 in Fort Thompson, South Dakota, and raised on the reservation. She is Professor Emerita of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. She comes from a family of Sioux politicians - her father and grandfather served on the Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Council for many years - and from Native scholars. Her grandmother was a bilingual writer for early Christian-oriented newspapers at Sisseton, SD, and a great-grandfather, Gabriel Renville, was a Native linguist instrumental in developing early Dacotah language dictionaries. Elizabeth did her undergraduate work at South Dakota State College (now South Dakota State University) in English and Journalism, graduating with a BA in English and journalism in 1952. She studied at New Mexico State University in 1966 and at Black Hills State College in 1968. She obtained her Masters of Education from the University of South Dakota in Education, Psychology and Counseling in 1971. She was in a doctoral program at the University of Nebraska in 1977-78 and was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at Stanford University in 1976. Elizabeth has taught high school in New Mexico and South Dakota. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Davis. She spent most of her academic career at Eastern Washington University in Cheney from 1971 until her retirement, where she was Professor of English and Native American Studies. She became Professor Emerita in 1990. With Beatrice Medicine, Roger Buffalohead and William Willard, she was one of the founding editors of Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies (Red Pencil Review). She is also a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, and the Authors Guild. Since her retirement, Elizabeth has served as a writer-in-residence at universities around the country. In the fall of 1993, she and N. Scott Momaday held a workshop at South Dakota State University for Sioux writers. From this workshop came a journal, Woyake Kinikiya: A Tribal Model Literary Journal, introduced by six of Elizabeth's poems. | As a child, Oscar Howe drew in the dirt with sticks because he did not have paper and pencils. He overcame many such troubles to become a great artist. Howe was a Yanktonais Nakota (Sioux). He was born on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation in 1915. He started school at the Pierre Indian School. Then his troubles began. His mother died. An eye disease nearly blinded him. He got a painful skin disease. He went home to his grandmother to recover. She taught him many Nakota traditions and symbols. He used these in his paintings.
Howe later went back to school in New Mexico. Here he began studying art. He graduated second in his class from the art program at the Santa Fe Indian School. His work was shown in cities across the United States. Howe came back to South Dakota during the Great Depression. He began working for the Artists Project of the New Deal. He painted murals in Mitchell and Mobridge.
The Second World War (learn about this in Unit 9) ended the New Deal. Howe served as a United States soldier. He went to North Africa and Europe. When he came home, he began to work at the Mitchell Corn Palace. He created murals of corn for this building. Howe also started his college education. When he was done, he worked as art director for the Pierre schools. Later he became a teacher at the University of South Dakota. Howe's art is known around the world. He was artist laureate of South Dakota. He died in 1983, but his art lives on.
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