Lost Nation: The Ioway

Mae Murray Sine Walks On

 

We are deeply saddened by the recent passing of our friend Mae Murry Sine. We had the privilege of interviewing Mae for "Lost Nation: The Ioway 1" in 2006, and again in 2012 for Parts 2 & 3. We are very grateful for her wisdom and kind counsel as we produced these documentary films. She cared deeply for her people and their ways, and was an unceasing advocate for the history and culture of the Ioway people.

 

Mae Murray Sine (second from the left) and others attend a showing of "Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 & 3" in Miami, Oklahoma in December 2013.

 

Mae's official obituary: https://strodefh.com/book-of-memories/4826178/Sine-Mae/obituary.php

 

Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma Loses Their Eldest Member, Mae Murray Sine ÑíkigreMi (Where Waters Meet Woman), Bear Clan.

 

Iowa Tribal member Mae Murray Sine passed away Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the age of 92. Funeral services will begin at 11:00 a.m. Friday, January 14, 2022 at the Strode Funeral Home Chapel in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Interment will follow at the Iowa Tribal Cemetery in Perkins.

 

Mae was born in Poteau, Oklahoma to Franklin M and Martha McGlashin Murray on September 5, 1929. She married Riley “Papa” Sine in Stillwater and was a tribal leader. As a member of the Native American Church, she was in service to others and enjoyed growing beautiful flowers.

 

She was raised in Ioway Indian Country. The Ioway traditional, spiritual, and cultural values instilled in her early childhood provided points of reference, balance and harmony in our way of life.

 

Mrs. Sine comes from a family of Tribal leaders. Her interest and contributions have been in Tribal government, and the interest and welfare of the Ioway People. Her six elected terms of Office to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma Business Committee has provided her the opportunity to serve her people. In 2002, during an interview, she was quoted as saying:

“Our traditional ways, cultural values and spirituality has given us strength and created a balance and harmony in our way of life. The Iowa people had a traditional and social structure of understanding, respect, compassion, humility, caring and generosity for one another. Some may say the tradition is of times past, and that is right for them. For others it is the oral history of who we are as Iowa people. To disregard these teachings could lead to the disorder of the balance and harmony. The language is almost extinct. Eventually, we may become a society with no power and authority.”

 

Mrs. Sine was an active participant in strategic planning efforts of Iowa Tribal business programs, and in developing educational, health, cultural, and Tribal Assistance Programs.

In 1977, she assisted her father, Franklin M. Murray in preparing his Ioway language classes and booklet titled “IOWA TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA LANGUAGE.”

 

In the “Year of the Indian 1992” she was one of Native American Indian women recognized by the State of Oklahoma and was presented a Citation of Recognition for “Indian women who serve as elected tribal officials in tribal government.”

 

In addition, Mrs. Sine was selected as the first Iowa Tribal woman to receive a Medal of recognition in 2009 at the 1st Annual AARP American Indian Elder Honorees banquet.

Survivors include children Jackie Nell Young-Daugherty, Rickford Ross Sine (Kaye) and Gabrielle Sine; nephews Perri Ahhaitty, Frank J Murray; niece Donna Murray Reichanbac; grandchildren Patrick Rosse Daughtery (Tracy); great granddaughter Paige Riley Daugherty; and adopted daughter Jill Primeax-Hunter.

 

Serving as pallbearers will be Patrick Daugherty, Perri Ahhaitty, Frankie Jo Murray, Curtis Washington, Eagle McClellan, and Deon Joseph. Honorary pallbearers are Rickford Sine and Elwood McClellan, Jr.

 

The family would like to express their appreciation and thanks to friends, Strode Funeral Home and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma for their care and concern during this difficult time. And a special thank you to sister Noel Gover and niece Ashlee Jacobsen.

Ioway Tribe Elders Reflect on Family Separations at Nebraska Boarding School

 

"The Boarding School" - An Excerpt from "Lost Nation: The Ioway 2"

IowayMovie.com

 

Government policies that forcibly separate children from families are not new, as noted in this article by Deann Gayman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln:

Near the end of the 19th century, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs decided that the indigenous American people should be assimilated into Euro-American culture.

The best way to do so, they reasoned, was by educating Native American youths in boarding schools, where the students had to use English, were taught Christianity and were called European names. School administrators often tried to force the youths to abandon their culture.

By 1900, more than 150 of these schools had opened with more than 21,000 students enrolled — sometimes through force or coercion.

One of the schools was built in Nebraska. The Genoa Indian Industrial School opened in 1884 and enrolled students from more than 40 Native tribal nations. When the school closed in 1934 — much like the other American Indian boarding schools — little care was taken to keep records and materials together.

Now, through funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources, Margaret Jacobs, professor of history and director of women and gender studies, and Elizabeth Lorang, associate professor of University Libraries, have launched a project to compile, digitize and make accessible records and other materials from the Genoa school. They are working closely with Nancy Carlson and the Genoa U.S. Indian School Foundation in Genoa. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities will host the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project.

“Genoa was one of the largest American Indian boarding schools,” Jacobs said. “The records are dispersed all over the United States and are very difficult even for a trained historian and archivist to find. We want to recover that history.

"Finding materials that help us to understand and learn from what happened to children in the boarding school and the long-term implications of those experiences, is the first step in a truth and reconciliation project."

The project presents unique research questions for Jacobs and Lorang.

“Some of the records are of a very sensitive nature,” Jacobs said. “The student files might talk about disease and death or describe the student without the needed context.”

Deann Gayman's story continues HERE.

Three members of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska visit Genoa U.S. Indian School Museum.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the one remaining building serves as an interpretive museum operated by a foundation as the Genoa U.S. Indian School Museum. It is located at 209 East Webster, Genoa, Nebraska.  It is open Thursday through Monday 1pm-5pm, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Click HERE for more information.

A segment of Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 features Ioway Tribe members Lyle Kirlin, Annie Assefa, and Sarah James visiting Genoa Indian School. They discuss the life-changing and lingering effects of a U.S. government policy that separated children from their families--Assefa and James' mother was forcibly removed from her family and home to attend the boarding school.

 

VIMEO.COM

 

 #familiesbelongtogether

 

To purchase Fourth Wall Films' award-winning Lost Nation: The Ioway DVD series, click HERE!

The Ioway Indians and "Les Misérables" - How are They Connected?

Courtesy Universal.

The separation between the new hit film Les Misérables and the Ioway Indians isn't six degrees.

It's Victor Hugo.

Hugo's French historical novel Les Misérables was published in 1864 and the fictional story he told starts in 1815 and ends in 1832 with the June Rebellion in Paris.

But how and where do the Ioway and Victor Hugo intersect?

In 1844, fourteen Ioway Indians and an interpretor set sail for Eurpope.  In England they ran into their old friend, artist George Catlin.  Catlin was traveling with his Native American portraits and a group of Ojibwe.  But the Ojibwe were gone and Catlin asked the Ioway to join his exhibition.

Hugo first met the Ioway after their arrival in France and later attended the funeral of the wife of Ioway Little Wolf.  His baby son and his best friend Roman Nose also died while the Ioway were in Europe.

Catlin published a two-volume account of his European travels entitled Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection.

It's hard to watch Les Misérables without recalling similar depictions of extreme poverty observed by the Ioway during their time in Europe.  Catlin documents the generosity of the Ioway who he said gave "...many pounds sterling..." to the poor they encountered on the streets.

More details regarding the Ioways' dramatic trip to Europe are featured in the new historical documentary films Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 & 3.

Preorder the new Ioway films here: http://iowaymovie.com/dvd.htm

Native Ioway History Week - 2008, No Heart Statue Dedicated

Article and photos submitted by
Ioway Elder, Mae Murray Sine

The early recorded history of the Ioway dates back to the 1600's.  During the periods of movement, the Ioways recognized land rights in land and boundary lines of occupancy.

Faced with a language barrier, our noble leaders had innate perception, intelligence, and wisdom to negotiate treaties for the land they occupied. They wove the threads of traditional, spiritual, and cultural values that serve as points of reference in the Ioways' unique way of life.

One of these leaders was the distinguished Ioway Chief Nacheninga, No Heart (1797-1862).  One of his most historical achievements is the 1837 hand-drawn map of Ioway Indian villages and rivers illustrating where the Ioways moved and lived.

When a delegation of Ioway Chiefs went to Washington, D.C. in 1837, he presented this remarkable map to the U.S. Government in his plea for compensation from the government for Ioway land.  He was a visionary leader who contributed to the sovereignty of the Ioway Nations.

In the years following, discontent grew as the Ioway endeavored to survive on a small land base in Kansas.  In 1878 some of the Ioway moved to Indian Territory.  The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma reservation was established by Executive Order dated August 15, 1883.  They were now Southern Ioways and settled on land within their boundaries south of the Cimarron River, one mile south of Perkins, Oklahoma.

The Dawes Severalty (Allotment) Act enacted in 1887 was to assign to individual Indians tracts of land and to pay them for surplus reservation land after allotment was completed.  In 1890 the Ioway sold their surplus reservation land which was soon settled by white settlers who entered the reservation on September 22 in the Land Run of 1891.

After the land run of 1891, the Old Settlers, Sons~Daughters Association was organized  on September 22, 1923.  The Ioway Indians were to be members of this association as long as the water flows and the grass grows.  The recognition, association, and friendship was a meeting of two worlds.

In 2002, the city manager of Perkins, Oklahoma approached the Chairman of the Ioway Tribe in reference to bronze statues that would be placed in a proposed plaza project and asked for selection of an Ioway Chief to be included with Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Perkins Cowboy and Oklahoma State University Mascot. The plaza is a joint project of the City of Perkins, the Perkins Community Foundation and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

A bronze twelve-foot statue of Ioway Chief No Heart by Wayne Cooper now stands in the 'Oklahoma Territorial Plaza."  The plaza was recently dedicated on September 20, 2008.  The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma has given the highest honor in remembrance to this prestigious chief who made the road good for the generations to come after him.

Does Vintage Iowa Map Show Where Ioway Leader Mahaska Was Killed?

We spotted this map in a Des Moines antique shop.  It is fully illustrated, dated 1934, and seems to indicate the site of Ioway Chief Mahaska's death.  He is also known as White Cloud.

Mahaska was assassinated in 1834 by Ioway warriors angered by his cooperation with the American goverment.  The exact site of his death is a mystery, but it is thought to be near the Nodaway River in either Montgomery or Cass County Iowa.

Click on the map above to view a larger image.

Were the Ioway Attacked by the Sac & Fox in Iowaville?

Lucas Countyan photo of the Iowaville cemetery.

The link below leads to an interesting meditation on the Iowaville village site near the Des Moines River.  Some historians don't believe the attack mentioned in the article on the Ioway by the Sac and Fox ever happened.

I wonder if there are stories in Ioway oral history that confirm or deny the event?

Here is the link to the blog entry:

http://lucascountyan.blogspot.com/2008/07/view-from-iowaville.html

1836 Ioway Treaty with Andrew Jackson: Anniversary

Ioway leader Frank White Cloud (above) and others signed the treaty of 1836.  Painting by George Catlin.

The Treaty of December 20, 1836 was also known as the "Platte Purchase."*

As an Ioway tribal member we interviewed for "Lost Nation: The Ioway" said, "We had our own trail of tears."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7470.html

More on the Treaty on the Ioway Cultural Institute's website.

Read the Treaty here.

*Source: Ioway Cultural Institute Website

Joann Comer - I Am Ioway (In Memoriam)

Joann Comer passed away on December 15, 2007. We knew her as a beautiful person who was devoted to her family and the Ioway people.

As a Tribal Elder and cultural advocate, Joann played an important role in our Ioway history documentary film project.

This video clip from her interview for "Lost Nation: The Ioway" captures the Joann we knew...and will miss.  Thank you, Joann for telling us your portion of the Ioway story.