Syd grew up dislocated from his ancestral home of Mni Sota. Over time, diaspora and disconnection have become common.“ Many of us in America can relate to that. The American Indian story is so critical because it relates to that process of relocation, disconnecting from place. “The process of disregarding history and place disintegrates us as individuals. Recognition, Syd says, leads to reconciliation: The absence of significant pieces of the story depletes us as humans. “The idea that ‘This story is better than that story’? To that I say, ‘No way,’” Syd offers. Less known to him were stories told in the Dakota voice. Being of mixed heritage – Scottish, French, English and Dakota – Syd says the story of his non-Dakota lineage was “well documented,” celebrated in textbooks and in the movies. We need to understand place, and if we don’t, then we cannot understand ourselves, we cannot understand others.”Īs a schoolboy, Syd recognized that his Dakota story was largely untold. The only way we can connect with the invisible is through the visible, through place: the place where we were born, where we live. The invisible shapes our character, our overriding sense of who we are. We then connect the visible with the invisible. “ In order for us to understand ourselves and each other,” Syd says, Central to his story is Mni Sota, the place the Dakota call the “Land Where the Water Reflects the Clouds.” As a storyteller, Syd draws the energy of his Dakota ancestors and explores how place elicits individual and collective value: He is a filmmaker, historian, documentarian and Dakota elder in the Twin Cities.
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