March 28, 2019
“We Are Still Here”on the big screen
By Jerry W. Kram
In 2016, Benji Goodbird, Valerian Three Irons and several dozen riders rode the hundred miles from the Fort Buford Historical Site to the Earth Lodge Village in Four Bears Segment. The ride marked the the March of the Xo’shga, what Three Irons called, “North Dakota’s Trail of Tears.”
The Xo’shga (pronounced Hushka or Hoshga) are a band of Hidatsa who, under the leadership of Chief Crow Flies High, left the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the 1870s to live their traditional lifestyle near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. In 1894, the military at Fort Buford forced the Xo’shga to march all the way back to Fort Berthold in winter conditions. Many of the Xo’shga perished on the march and the rest settled in the area called Shell Creek.
Making a movie
Goodbird and the other organizers of the 2016 ride thought the event and the story of the Xo’shga should be preserved for future generations. They asked Three Irons to find someone who could video the three day ride and the evening story telling. Three Irons said that while he didn’t know people in the film industry he “knew people who knew people who knew people.” He contacted Sylvia Donnelly, a documentary filmmaker from Missouri, who brought together a crew of camera operators and other technical people to record the ride.
The Xo’shga (pronounced Hushka or Hoshga) are a band of Hidatsa who, under the leadership of Chief Crow Flies High, left the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the 1870s to live their traditional lifestyle near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. In 1894, the military at Fort Buford forced the Xo’shga to march all the way back to Fort Berthold in winter conditions. Many of the Xo’shga perished on the march and the rest settled in the area called Shell Creek.
Making a movie
Goodbird and the other organizers of the 2016 ride thought the event and the story of the Xo’shga should be preserved for future generations. They asked Three Irons to find someone who could video the three day ride and the evening story telling. Three Irons said that while he didn’t know people in the film industry he “knew people who knew people who knew people.” He contacted Sylvia Donnelly, a documentary filmmaker from Missouri, who brought together a crew of camera operators and other technical people to record the ride.
