International Center for
Ethics, Justice, and Public Life

The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and the Department of Sociology presented Louis Garcia, Honorary Tribal Historian for the Spirit Lake Dakota. Mr. Garcia discussed the relationship between the Dakota people, for whom place was paramount, and the surrounding communities of Euro-American settlers. On the Great Plains, American Indian place names have for the most part been wiped away. The North American midwest was a new land to the immigrants and, according to Mr. Garcia, they kept it new by renaming all the places. In contrast, American Indians for the most part kept the names and passed them on to the next tribe.

Mr. Garcia teaches Dakota culture, and carpentry, at Little Hoop Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota. He has devoted much of his life to documenting Dakota Sioux history, and has published numerous articles on Dakota crafts, rituals, and cultural practices.

Eugene Sheppard, of the Brandeis NEJS department, commented on the parallels and divergences between the situation faced by the Dakota Sioux (and other Native American nations) in the 18th and 19th century, and that faced by Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East today.