Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Orginal Publication Date
1989
Journal Title
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Volume
9
Issue
ess/vol9/iss1
First Page
74
Last Page
75
Abstract
From 1869 to 1870 many Oglala and Brule Sioux lived together on their first reservation, the Whetstone Agency, on the Missouri river near Fort Randall, South Dakota. Poole was the reservation agent from 1869-70, and his memoir of that period (published in 1881) introduces the drama of cultural conflict that persists to the present day. The agent had been ordered to use persuasion of every possible kind to induce the Lakota to abandon their way of life and to turn to farming. He had been instructed to regard his wards as children, but he often expresses admiration in many of his descriptions, though rarely in overt statement. Like a novel narrated by a persona whose views differ from that of the author, Poole seems to be expressing conscious limitations that his narrative somehow transcends.
Rights
Copyright, ©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1989