Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994 TV Movie)
Irene Bedard: Mary Crow Dog
Photos
Quotes
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Mary Crow Dog : Long ago, to end the Indian Wars, the United States made a treaty with Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, the leaders of the Sioux Indian Nations. The paper gave this great Sioux Nation to our grandfathers alone. Our lands began in Canada and stretched south into the Badlands of what would become the Dakotas. At its heart were the Black Hills, sacred to our tribes. We were promised this land was ours, as long as the grass grows and the waters flow. The treaty was signed by President Ulyssey S. Grant. Then General Custer announced there was gold in our Black Hills. He led his Seventh Calvary to protect the miners and the white settlers who swarmed in, and the railroad men, the saloon keepers and the lawyers who followed. They ripped the heart out of our Black Hills, they slaughtered our buffalo and drove our people off the rich prarie into the Badlands. It began for us a time of great darkness. All the dreams of our people seemed to die here, at Wounded Knee, where Custer's men shot down 300 Lakota men, women and children, and threw their bodies into a mass grave. This is where I came to find my soul, which I had lost and which had wandered by itself for many years. This land will be yours the white men said, as long and the grass grows and the waters flow. As long as the grass grows and the waters flow.
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Mary Crow Dog : We were poor, but I didn't know it because we had love and respect.
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Charlene : Sister Maggie's gonna kill us.
Mary Crow Dog : Ah they'll never miss us besides that fat German sina capa can never catch us.
[having snuck out on their own]
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Webster : I'm Webster. What's you name baby?
Mary Crow Dog : It ain't "baby," baby.
Webster : So what is it?
Mary Crow Dog : Mary. Hey this is the first car I've been in years that the radio worked!
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Archeology Professor : This is an archeological site. Could you stand back please? We don't wanna displace the remains.
Mary Crow Dog : Ask him where his grandmother is buried at.
Archeology Professor : What?
Spencer : We said where's your grandmother buried at? We got shovels. We want to get at her, so we can put her in our museum.
Archeology Professor : Who are you people? What do you want?
Spencer : We walking scientific specimens. We're quaint tourist attractions. We're living fossels. We're your conscience, if you have one.
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Post Reporter : Excuse me Miss. What's the real reason you people are here?
Mary Crow Dog : You should probably talk to Dennis Banks or Crow Dog.
[tries walking away when reporter grabs her]
Der Stern Reporter : We uh... we eh... we wants to know as you think.
Mary Crow Dog : See that guy over there? He's a Mohawk from New York City. We have Cheyenne from Montana, Nisqually from Washington State, Ojibway, Oneida, Paiute from Alaska and Canada, all over. The Red Nations, they were like this...
[holds up her open hand]
Mary Crow Dog : ... now we're like this.
[makes a fist]
Mary Crow Dog : We are here.
Post Reporter : Could you do it again. Just one more
Der Stern Reporter : Hold it up.
Post Reporter : Could you make it more like a fist. That's great!
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Mary Crow Dog : In the next days, they prayed for me and my baby. They gave me a new name: Mary Brave Woman. It was then that I found my voice. I was a Lakota woman. I was happy. I was free.
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Mary Crow Dog : Jesus. Where'd you come from?
Spencer : I'm not Jesus. And you're drunk kid.
Mary Crow Dog : If you're not my savior then who the hell are you?
Spencer : Spencer, like the rifle. It was a good rifle.
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Mary Crow Dog : Ow-wee! Someone's gotta lose weight! Get off.
[laughs after men cover her when gunshots sound]
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Mary Crow Dog : I had a baby. Does that violate some kind of law?
[after being arrested]
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Mary Crow Dog : After 73 days, the siege at Wounded Knee was over. Once we put down our guns and the television and the news reporters went home, the arrests began. They could say anything they wanted. Whatever we said was gone on a cold Pine Ridge wind. Here, where I found my life, my center, my people - where I found my first-born - nearly everything is gone now. The government tried to extinguish all signs that Indians once made their stand here. It will do them no good, because the world saw, the world heard. Even though, in time, Annie Mae Aquash and Pedro Bissionte were murdered by GOONS. Even though once again the government lied and betrayed us. Even though some of our leaders are still in jail, in the end it, will do them no good at all to try to hide it, because it happened. Today is still not ours but tomorrow might be because of that long moment those short years ago at Wounded Knee where we reached out and touched our history. I was there. I saw it. It happened to me. So that our people may live. So that our people may live.
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Mary Crow Dog : This is my story. Compared to many of my people's heroes - Red Cloud, Crazy Horse - it is only a little one, but it is mine.
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Mary Crow Dog : The years passed as they tried to turn us from Lakota to white. They took away our langauge and our history, and our memories grew dim. They replaced the the comfort and joy of our religion with the thunder and agony of theirs. They took away our souls every day and our pitctures once a year. I don't have any of the pictures...
[talking about boarding school]
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Hippie : You guys are Indians?
Charlene : Last time we checked.
Hippie : Where you from?
Mary Crow Dog : He-Dog.
Hippie : Cool name.
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Mary Crow Dog : I was here last week
Grocery store owner : Oh yeah.
Mary Crow Dog : Any jobs open up?
Grocery store owner : I had to hire the boss' son.
Mary Crow Dog : Aren't you the boss?
Grocery store owner : Yeah.
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Mary Crow Dog : So what's your big, bad, irritating A.I.M. gonna do?
Spencer : We light the spark. We're gonna take it all back! And then we're gonna set it free.
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Mary Crow Dog : This hurts! I didn't think this would hurt so much.
Pedro Bissonette : Well, well what can I do? Let me do something here.
[tries fixing her bedding]
Mary Crow Dog : Would you go boil some water or something isn't that what you're supposed to do! It's a good thing for a guy to do, boil some water!
[going through her labor pains]
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Carter Camp : They need you Mary... to bring Buddy out with some honor.
Mary Crow Dog : I'm not leaving Wounded Knee.
Leonard Crow Dog : Yes you are. You are all the family he has here. He gave his life. You can give this.
[after her uncle is killed]
