Tribal Elder Joyce Big Soldier-Miller and granddaughter Shayla Miller.
Tribal Elders from the sovereign nation of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma are returning to their native homeland to attend the Iowa Independent Film Festival and participate in Q&A following the screening of Emmy® nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle’s Lost Nation: The Ioway 2. The film, an official selection at the festival, is the second in a three-part documentary series and will be showcased on Saturday, October 26, 2013, 2:00 p.m. at the Historic Park Inn, 7 West State Street, Mason City, Iowa.
When the Ioway were forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland of Iowa in 1837 to a reservation on the border of Nebraska and Northeast Kansas, Ioway leader White Cloud (The Younger) believed his people must relocate to survive. But intermarriage, broken treaties and the end of communal living led to a split in 1878 and the establishment of a second Ioway tribe in Oklahoma. Both tribes endured hardship and challenges to their traditions and culture to achieve successful land claims and self-determination in the1970s. Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 & 3 brings the dramatic Ioway story full circle.
“I believe all the tribes had their trail of tears, said Tribal Elder Joyce Big Soldier-Miller. “They all suffered--all those Indians who made those treks away from their former homelands.”
Tribal Elder Big Soldier-Miller will appear at the film festival screening with Tribal Elder Linda Big Soldier, both representing the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.
Ioway Elders and tribal members join other Native scholars, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists to tell the dramatic and true story of the small tribe that once claimed the territory between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Pipestone, Minnesota to St. Louis. The state of Iowa takes its name from the Ioway Tribe.
7th Annual Iowa Independent Film Festival in Mason City, Iowa.
The special screenings of Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 will take place Saturday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. followed by Q&A with the Ioway and the filmmakers; and on Sunday, October 27 at 3:00 p.m. For film festival ticket information visit http://www.iowaindie.org/.
Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3 continue screening throughout the U.S. The films have been released nationally on a single full-featured DVD, which includes an alternative soundtrack in the nearly extinct Ioway language. Broadcasts on Midwestern PBS stations are slated for 2014. For more information about Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 & 3 visit www.IowayMovie.com.
Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3 was partially funded by grants from Humanities Iowa, and Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Kansas Humanities Council, the Oklahoma Humanities Council, the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the South Dakota Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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