Jesuit and Lakota: A Documentary Short Film about Red Cloud Indian School from America Magazine

This excerpt is from an article originally published in America Magazine 

By Jeremy Zipple, SJ
Director/Cinematographer at America Magazine & America Films


This past May, 2014, 38 young women and men walked across a stage set up on the basketball court of Paul “Dizzy” Trout Field House and received their diplomas, heirs to Red Cloud’s vision. It was surely a graduation ceremony unlike any at the other 61 American Jesuit high schools, replete with traditional Lakota ritual and pageantry. To make it to this moment, the graduates had navigated hardships and cultural complexities surely unlike any faced by their peers at the other Jesuit high schools. Pine Ridge comprises the second poorest county in all of the United States, and the legacy of maltreatment and racism against America’s native people is still felt acutely here. The relationship between the school’s western, Christian past and a present which lays greater emphasis on Lakota language, spirituality, and culture is also a source of tension for students and faculty.

But the graduates of 2014 are most certainly beacons of hope. This [fall], nearly all of them [began their post-secondary education] at prestigious universities around the country, having been decorated with Gates Millennium scholarships and a host of other honors. This short documentary — the inaugural installment of our new “America Films Docu-Shorts” series — was filmed last May over four days of graduation festivities. We immerse you in the sights and sounds of graduation week, while letting the 2014 graduates speak for themselves — about the challenges they’ve overcome, and the hopes they dream moving forward, for themselves and for their people.


 READ MORE!

Learn more about Red Cloud's unique educational initiatives

 

Learn more about the unique culture at Red Cloud and how the school celebrates their graduates

 


← BACK TO NEWS


 Originally published in the America Magazine and online at www.AmericaMagazine.org
Photos and video are copyrighted ©Jeremy ZIpple/America Magazine