• Ortiz’s book, “The Great Sioux Nation” has been re-released in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Wounded Knee. The book stems from her time with AIM during the standoff in 1973 and its aftermath.
TULSA, Okla. – Author and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz brought a slice of the American Indian Movement to the University of Tulsa last week.
Through a partnership with the University of Tulsa and the Tulsa City-County Library System, Dunbar-Ortiz spoke to a standing room only crowd April 29 at TU’s Chapman Hall. Her first book, “The Great Sioux Nation: An Oral History of the Sioux Nation and its Struggle for Sovereignty,” was published in 1977 and was later presented as a fundamental document at the first international conference on Indians of the Americas, held at the United Nations’ headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Going to the UN was somewhat controversial,” she said. “Some of the elders thought it was rash, but it needed to be done.”
The book stems from her time with AIM during the Wounded Knee standoff in 1973 and its aftermath. Dunbar-Ortiz was among those called to testify during the December 1974 hearing on whether the United States government had jurisdiction over actions committed on Sioux land.
“It was packed in the courtroom,” she said. “There wasn’t a jury, so we filled the jury box with elders. There was an encampment outside the courthouse with at least 4,000 people.
“I was surrounded by Vine Deloria and Lakota elders who told me I’d have the ‘privilege’ of converting the court transcripts into a book.”
In conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Wounded Knee, Dunbar-Ortiz’ publisher, University of Nebraska press, is re-releasing her book with a new forward, along with a new edition of the autobiography of the judge who heard the case Dunbar-Ortiz’s book is primarily based on.
All royalties from the sale of the new edition of “The Great Sioux Nation” will go to the Defenders of the Black Hills, a non-profit organization based out of Rapid City, S.D., that works to ensure all the provisions of the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868 are upheld by the federal government. The treaties guaranteed the Black Hills in perpetuity to the Sioux Nation and were the subject of the 1980 Supreme Court decision United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, which awarded several million dollars to the tribe. To date, the Sioux Nation has refused to take the money on the grounds it would terminate its claim to the property.
“They’re not exactly an organization that can go get foundation money or federal grant dollars,” she said.
All royalties from the sale of the new edition of “The Great Sioux Nation” will go to the Defenders of the Black Hills, a non-profit organization based out of Rapid City, S.D., that works to ensure all the provisions of the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868 are upheld by the federal government.