The Alexis Nakota History and Culture Program

The Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation is the most northern member of the Siouan language family. Although closely related to their Cree neighbors through intermarriage and centuries of neighborly interaction, Alexis’ maintained its cultural uniqueness as a Nakota Nation. Following the success of the Stoney Language Program at the school, Alexis’ elders identified the need for a Nakota History and Culture Program that would develop school curriculum material that accurately represents Alexis’ unique history and culture. In 2001, the Alexis Nakota History and Culture Program was born.

 

The purpose of the program is to document Alexis’ rich oral history and supplement it with well founded social scientific research. The oral history documentation focuses on digital video recording, which allows for the development of audio-visual curriculum material that permits us to stay within the long-established storytelling tradition. All interviews are translated and transcribed and imported into the qualitative data analysis program QSR*Nvivo, where they can be coded and analyzed in depth. The video and text archive will be the foundation for the development of specific historic, social, and geographic curriculum material for all grades.

 

Current research themes include:

 

·          Alexis’ pre reserve history (general)

·          Alexis’ early reserve history (general)

·          Family tree research of the different families composing the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation (general)

·          Traditional skills documentation (general)

·          Culturally-founded waste behavior education (Grade 4)

 

The project further assists other departments in Alexis’ Traditional Land Use and Knowledge documentation and archivation.

 

Our program has sparked wide community interest and continues to receive the support of our elders. For the future we plan to develop specific local classes in Alexis Nakota History that aim to install a sense of heritage and cultural pride in our students.

 

Tanja Schramm, PhD

Alexis Nakota History and Culture Program

Box 337

Glenevis, AB, T0E 0X0

Phone: (780) 967-4878 ex. 4

The origin of the Alexis Stoney lies far to the east, where the Assiniboine group detached themselves from the rest of the Siouan family. Sioux is an abbreviation of Nadouessioux, a French corruption of the name (Nadowe-is-iw) given them by the Chippewa; it signifies snake or adder, and metaphorically enemy (Blair 1969, Vol. I: 277). The Jesuit Relations of the seventeenth century document the schism within the Sioux parent stock and the existence of a subdivision, warriors of the Rock, who were called Poulaks and lived on the western shore of the Mississippi River. Inhabiting the country between the Poulak and the Assinipoulak were the Nadouechi or eastern Sioux.

Download Alexis General History (5.3 MB .pdf file)