Orrdinary People

For those involved with "In the Land of the Assiniboine" – the Valley County Historical Society's admirable and strikingly professional new documentary – the wait is over.
Good things come to those who wait.
This production, long-anticipated in some local circles, deserves comparison to Ken Burns' PBS efforts and the History Channel's biographies. Should you question such praise, consider this:
– The Montana Office of Public Instruction plans to distribute copies to schools statewide.
– The Smithsonian Institution has approved sale of the documentary at its museums in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
"I'm really thrilled," says executive producer Mary Helland, the historical society's president. "The first thousand copies are almost gone. I'm going to have to order again, real quick."
Above all, the program enables this region's Assiniboine Indians to share stories of their heritage, pride, suffering and survival from perspectives grounded in family experiences and  memories. Combine their powerful yet soft-spoken contributions with the award-winning Camera One company's high-end cinematography and you've got hundreds of years of a native people's culture that seem to pass even more quickly than the running time of about 55 minutes.
Mary describes her labor of love as “primarily educational, not so much 'Dances With Wolves.'”
Like the familiar Burns' documentaries, the finished product is a skillfully woven tapestry of archival and fresh images and video, on-screen interviews, voiceovers, re-enactments and subtle music that enhances the story being told. Director Gray Warriner adds smooth narration. And one particularly effective technique – the frequent use of partially transparent images of re-enactors moving about on unaltered video of natural settings  – lends to the spiritual motivation so important to those involved.
“We want the forefathers, the ones who died, to be proud of it,” Mary says. “We want it to stand the test of time. We want their stories to be saved for posterity, for researchers 100 years from now. I think it's important for the Indian people to know that their history matters to the rest of us, that we genuinely care about their history.”
Local viewers will recognize some of the interviewed Assiniboines and local settings in Wolf Point and along the Missouri River between Nashua and Frazer.
As with the Assiniboines themselves, the making of the documentary met conflict and required resolve.
Mary began gathering stories for the documentary about eight years ago, a process that ended with a year of litigation over whether the historical society or Camera One director/principal Warriner should hold distribution rights to the documentary. The society sued for breach of contract and, Mary says, Warriner ultimately sent the master copy to the society a few months ago.
She promptly duplicated the master and began distribution. DVDs are sold locally at Valley County Museum from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Gordon's, Albertsons, Nels Kent, Holly & Co., and the Glasgow Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, and she plans to expand the sales to Amazon.com, eBay and Barnes & Noble. Proceeds go to maintaining the museum's collection.
Mary was inspired to gather stories for the documentary to go with the museum's considerable collection of Assiniboine artifacts. Three National Park Service project grants totaling $60,000 helped set her on her way.
“This museum does a wonderful job of preserving the history of pioneers that have come through this valley, but we didn't have the histories of the Indian families still living in Frazer and Oswego. If we're going to represent the entire county, those stories have to be included.”
One such story led to the historical society's 2003 film, “Chief Rosebud Remembers Lewis and Clark,”  which was shot along the Missouri River south of Frazer and featured 54 Assiniboines speaking their native language. Mary was project director.
The new documentary showcases pivotal stories in Assiniboine history. Elders interviewed include Peter Bigstone, Selena Ditmar, Tuffy Hegleson, Harris Rock and Tom Shawl from the Fort Belknap Reservation, and Gladys Jackson, Robert Fourstar, Dean Blount and Wallace Runs Through from Fort Peck. Also featured is Loren Yellowbird from Fort Union.
“The best part of the project was bringing back to life the voices of the old (Assiniboine) buffalo runners, the ones who lived the nomadic life,” Mary says.
This was accomplished through having descendants read from depositions that their long-deceased forefathers read some eight decades ago in the Assiniboine lawsuit against the United States for violating a treaty, taking reservation land and causing death by starvation that resulted from the treaty violation. A court awarded nearly $3.24 million to the tribe, but the court later dismissed the case because the federal government proved that its monetary claims offset the judgement.
Over the course of her research, Mary became particularly close with Gladys Jackson – so much so that the Assiniboine elder adopted Mary.
“She said, 'If I can't get rid of you, I better adopt you,'” Mary shares. “When a member of the tribe says that, it's for life. It's a priceless thing for me. She instinctively knew I was the one who came there to collect her stories and preserve them. She was probably my primary resource for the old stories. She said, 'I always knew that you'd come by, but I didn't know that you'd be white.'”
“In the Land of the Assiniboine” is dedicated to the Assiniboine people and those who contributed and passed away during production.
The Orrdinary People column appears in the Glasgow Courier. To suggest special people to write about, please contact Jim Orr at 406-228-9301 or publisher@glasgowcourier.com.