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(Piano music playing)
Voiceover: Mary Louise Defender Wilson grew up in a family
of Dakotah / Hidatsa storytellers on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.
Today, she'll tell us a story about the woman who turned herself into stone.
(flute music playing)
Mary Louise: I live in a rural area from a village called Porcupine,
which is 30 miles west of Fort Yates, North Dakota.
I have lived a long time.
I was born in 1930 and I think during that time,
I should have learned something and I should be able to use that.
I guess some of my recollections go back to sitting on top of this hill,
which is to the south of where our house was.
My grandfather was born in 1845 and he lived till I was seven
and I can remember sitting up there on that hill because we herded our sheep every day.
It wasn't like now, where you turned them loose and you didn't pay attention to them.
We herded them every day and brought them back to the corral every night and of course,
we had dogs that helped us.
Some of the things I remember is him talking about something,
something in the environment that maybe to me could have been insignificant at the time,
but he would tell about it and would sometimes do things
and build little structures with sticks in the earth.
Because of my grandfather's age, older people always came to visit.
I was really really into telling stories, but I always thought, all my life,
these people are so wise and they have such profound thinking and they would tell,
you know, we have two kinds of stories.
A [hukaka 02:08], which are more like what, is in English, you would say mythical events
and the others then were [Wichoyaka 0:02:13], accounts of the people,
which would be like our history.
Usually, the men would tell kind of like the historical things
and the women told a more mysterious kind of thing that they used to teach us with.
At the time you hear those stories,
you don't think about the valuable lessons
or maybe you don't even understand it or think about it, but after you get older,
well then, you realize that there is a wealth of wisdom, knowledge,
and philosophy that you'll have for your life.
(flute music playing)
The woman who turned herself to stone.
She went through all of her years.
She got to be a teenager and then her family began
to think that she should have her own family and live in her own lodge
and they began to talk to her about that,
but she said, "[foreign language 03:14]. I'm going to live in a different way,” she said.
But they insisted and they arranged a marriage for her
because she was a very desirable person, a hard worker, kind,
all the things that we value.
So she married this man and went to live in her own lodge.
Then, she came back and grandma said, "[foreign language 03:46]"
"Goodness!" She said, "Isn't he good to you? (foreign language"
"Grandmother," she said, "he's a fine man.
He treats me very well, but I told you I'm not meant to live like everybody else.”
And she left the lodge.
It got to be toward evening and she didn't return and grandma got concerned.
"(Foreign language)," she said, "She is not back."
She was kind of mad, but she is not like that. She should come back.
She never came back.
The next morning then, grandma said, "You know, we have to go search for her. (foreign language)."
She gathered all their relatives and friends and they went off
in the four directions to search for her.
It was getting toward evening and there was this little hill and grandma said,
"(Foreign language). That's my grandchild."
She was so happy.
"I can tell, because she is sitting properly."
She ran up the hill and she embraced her granddaughter,
who she could feel that her hip felt like stone.
"(Foreign language). Grandchild, what's wrong with you?
What's happening to you?
We'll take you back to the village and maybe somebody can help you.
You feel like you are stone."
"Grandmother," she said,
“I told you I was supposed to live in a different way
and I'm turning myself to stone so I can stay out here forever
and all of these creatures that I think a lot of will all come by me.
The coyote will come by and maybe rub up against me and the birds will come
and sit around me.”
She named all the creatures.
“Because I think that they really are powerful and they're so good,
so I'm going to become stone, but before I become stone, I'm going to tell you something.
If you ever have troubles, problems,
bring me something that has a root and put it beside me.
Tell me what it is that you're having difficulty with and if I can, I will help you."
She said that and she turned to stone and that's the end of the story.
(flute music playing and birdsong)
Voiceover: Prairie Mosaic is funded
by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund,
with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
The North Dakota Humanities Council,
a non-profit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities;
the North Dakota Council on the Arts;
and by the members of Prairie Public.