Well, it’s been quite a  year.  We moved to Minnesota, and built a strawbale house.  More of a cabin than a house.  It seems big, but it’s really only 460 sq. feet, so I suppose that isn’t the biggest thing a person could build.  Wow, what bunch of work, but totally worth it.  So much fun, and so much beer.  You know, I am just amazed to think that it could be so much fun to be living in a town of 860 people.  Honestly, we had more visitors, and spent more time socializing than we have in the last 10 years.  So crazy.  And Jamie’s family is just wonderful.  Her brothers are so helpful, and insightful that I would go to bed at night just shaking my head.  How could these guys know so much, and be so good and helpful.  Rick, Jeff, and Jim Baird were there whenever we needed.

Well, we are back in Rapid for few months – unfortunately we didn’t complete our house before winter set it, but come April, we’ll be back.  Can’t wait – I’m counting the days.

The American Experience segment – Wounded Knee is coming up soon, and I thought it might be a good time to listen to a documentary on WK that we did in 1993 – 20 years after the takeover.

This piece, A Song For Wounded Knee, won a Golden Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. It was produced by Milt Lee and Jamie Lee for PRI, KILI Radio in Porcupine SD, and aired on AIROS. The hour long documentary looks at the background surrounding the takeover and goes deeply into the tribal politics that served as the stew that AIM ( the American Indian Movement) was brought into. Gerald One Feather, tribal Chairman from 1970 to 1972, remarked that in 20 years, we were the first people who had ever done an interview with him, which I found amazing since it was the actions of his administration that led to the 71 day siege at Wounded Knee.

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I’ve been working on a new trailer for Video Letters From Prison.  We went to a wonderful workshop with Fernanda Rossi who told us about how to make a good trailer. I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know what you think about it.

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Last week, we started an interview of Jackie Swanson, an 8th grade writing teacher at North Middle School, in Rapid City,  South Dakota.  During the interview, Jackie told us how she started using The Writer’s Workshop as a model for teaching her students.  This week, we get to see the actual students, as Jackie interacts in class.  It’s amazing to see, and I hope that this could be come one of the ways to transform our educational system.  Next week, a short piece on what it would take to actually change the way that our children are taught.  But this week, let’s just be inspired.

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Jackie Swanson has been teaching for 31 years but the first 25 were not what she wants people to know about.  Calling herself a “traditional” teacher, after 25 years she made a change and started using a pedagogy called “Writer’s Workshop”  The results and changes for her and her students are both amazing and inspiring.  It is a model that could be used by our entire education system.  In fact, her school, North Middle School, in Rapid City, SD is in the process of doing just that.  Today, Jackie tells the story of how she came to the Writer’s Workshop.  Next week, we will see how this process works, and what the students are doing in her classes now.

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Yep, it’s over – IT’S OVER!!!!  One more year written in the history books, and this year, I did a post every week on my blog and on Semanal.org.  So in the spirit of everybody else under the sun, here’s a short review of what happened – at least here at Hollow Bone Films.

Happy New Year!

Milt 

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 Jamie and I went to Colorado Springs to celebrate our son-in-law’s graduation.  Nate Walla got his masters degree from Colorado Technical University, and it was a blast.  All of Jamie’s kids were there, although we missed Brian Millard, Lisa’s husband, but Lisa came with Kaiden-our newest grandson.  Nicci, Nate’s wife, came with all 5 of her kids – Gavin, Jaaren, Kelsey, Korah, and the youngest of her brood, Adrien.  Tom and his wife-Erica drove down from Denver.  The next day we all gathered again in Denver and celebrated Christmas.  But we would not have all gotten together if Nate hadn’t worked his butt off and gotten his Masters.  It was a lot of fun, and I’m so proud of Nate.  Father of five, working full time at the University of Nebraska, and still taking the time to work like a beaver for fifteen months and get an advanced degree-it’s beyond anything that I would want to do-that’s for sure!  Congratulations Nate!

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We just couldn’t help it.  The Bead People have been traveling like crazy this year, spreading their message of inclusion and peace, but they decided to come home for  Christmas.  They told us they wanted to be on the Christmas tree so we got out our Lakota Christmas Carols, and did some decorating.  Merry Christmas!

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My youngest son got married to a beautiful girl this last month.  Here’s to you guys!  It is just wonderful.

Love,

Milt

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Warning – this video has pictures of me giving blood, so if watching needles and such bothers you, DON’T watch it.  But having said that, i hope that you can get a sense of what it’s like to give blood, and maybe you’ll say – “Well, that’s not so bad- maybe I should give some blood myself – I mean people always need it, and it’s easy and I’ll be you get some really fun food when you are done!”

All of which is true – hope you like it.

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Jamie Lee has been busy again!  She designed a pack of 64 cards that expand what the Bead People do and mean.  Each card has a task that you can do.  Every day, you draw one card, and that’s your task for the day – something to keep you connected with your self, your family, the earth, and the plants and animals.  Each one is a way to help you look at the world around you, and make it a better place.  You can get these wonderful little packs at The Bead People’s website.  

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Yep, last night a blizzard blew in.  So far we have 13 inches of snow, but who knows what will happen.  The electricity is still on! Yea!! So I can post this.  On the rez, the power is out all over so Kili Radio is down, and of course, the college is closed so Jamie is home – messing with Bead People (of course!)

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Today, I did my duty and was a poll worker for 4 hrs this morning.  And to be honest, I was totally surprised.  Now a little bit of background – I am what is known as a “yellow dog democrat” – I would vote for a yellow dog is he/or she was a democrat.  So the truth is I don’t hang around many republicans – I just don’t have a lot to talk to them about.  But this morning I was working a precinct that is about 70% republican, and I have to tell you, I was amazed.  I think there were maybe 5 people out of the 260 voters that came through that I would have thought of as typical republicans.  The rest of the folks were just regular working class folks.  And yet they were registered republican.  I was amazed at what I saw.

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I just had to shoot some leaves – they were coming down like crazy and they were so nice.  Nothing special – just some nice leaves.

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Last week, a friend of mine wanted to give my easy racer-XI – equipped with the Ecospeed mid drive electric assist a little spin.  So I thought I would get his reaction.  Remember – this is a first time rider.

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We are working on a rather large project on the history of education, the path of learning, and the school systems in the United States.  When it is completed, it may end up being a series of several hours, but that will become clearer as we move along.  Today, I thought I would post a short demo reel of some of the folks that we have interviewed over the last year.  This will give you an idea of where we are going, but please understand that this does not include any of the pieces that show how long it takes to learn “anything”, and it also does not include any of the students that have suffered from Neurogenocide, and it certainly does not include any of the school rooms where neurogenocide is happening, and of course it does not include all the wonderful things that we want to show folks about how education could be done – that would let people grow up excited about learning, and totally engaged in the process of learning.

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Yep, my bike came on Friday, and I love it!  I really do.  Friday night when I came home, it was raining,  and Saturday morning it was still wet, but I couldn’t wait.  I had to go for a ride, and I’m so glad I did.  What a bunch of fun! Finally on Sunday, the sun came out, and it was really sweet.  I rode up a couple of big hills in town without any problem.  How?  Well, it’s an electric assist bike.  What that means is that you have a motor that you can use whenever you don’t feel like pedaling, which for me is a lot.  But here’s the crazy part – I have found that I actually end up pedaling a bunch more than I would ever do otherwise.  Frankly, if I didn’t have the electric assist, I wouldn’t be on a bike at all.  Yes, that’s right.  I am not a health freak.  I don’t try to find extreme sports to do, or actually do much of anything to really keep myself fit.  But this bike is so much fun – recumbent so that my butt doesn’t get sore.  You can lean back – relax and then here is the crazy part.  I find myself pedaling as I’m crusing down the road.  Yes, you heard me.  I actually use the pedals and actually end up getting exercise.  Amazing but true.  I know I’m going to do more on this as I go along because this is such appropriate technology.

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I got a little light the other day to put into our Straw Bale cabin model.  And each night we turn it on and dream about being in Minnesota, snuggled into our little place, living, loving, and generally being blissed out folks.  I’ve also been making some furniture so that we can get an idea of how much space there is going to be.  Take a peak – it’s pretty fine in there.

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My dad used to call people who he thought were dumb “squirrel-heads”.   I think it had something to do with nuts – as in “he’s nuts”.  Anyway, I’ve always thought squirrels were a very fun animal.  Very resourceful, they seem to have a good time, and they are fluffy, and really – they are pretty cute.  On the other hand, they go whereever they think they can get some food, and being rodents, food seems to be right at the top of their list of good times.  I decided they had eaten enough of my bird food, and it was clear that what I needed was a way to discourage their daily food run.   Besides, I needed something fun to do.

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Jamie is really an amazing “hunter/gatherer”.  Most weekends she gathers beads, and so when you gather beads, you want to get them ready to make new Bead People – what else??