The Census Powwow

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2021

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cheyenne Brady knew next to nothing about the US census when she was given the job of counting everyone on her reservation. Writer Julian Brave Noisecat follows her through the ups and downs of the 2020 census, culminating in the first-ever Census Powwow.

This story features descriptions of genocide and historical trauma, sensitive listeners please be advised.

A big, big thank you to everyone on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Especially Cheyenne Brady and her family: Novi Runs Above, Holy Rope, Tayvin, Poncho, Tookie, Uncle Thomas, and Grandma Florence.

Thank you also to Charlie Moran, Tavares Fimbres, Gabrielle Wilkinson, and Braedyn Taft, and Jazz Bearstail. Thanks to our friends at KMHA radio: Anne Morsette, Will Maguire, Ricky Raine, and Shelley Krueger for administering a rapid COVID test. And big thanks to the whole Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.

Sincerest thanks to Dr. Cheryl Ann Kary, Cheryl Keepseagle, Logan Davis, Barb Anguino, D’Vera Cohn, Byard Duncan, David Rodriguez, and Lycia Ortega Maddocks.

This story was produced in partnership with Type Investigations.

The original score was by Cheflee and Pat Mesiti-Miller

This story was produced and reported by Julian Brave NoiseCat and John Fecile

It was written by Julian Brave NoiseCat

Season 12 - Episode 24

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if everything you've seen, everything you've learned, everything taught you that the
0:20.7	power that be, want to make you, your family and your community they want to make it disappear.
0:30.6	What do you do?
0:33.6	But today my heart is swelling because we're going on a journey.
0:41.3	Following one woman who decides to take responsibility for counting everyone she holds dear,
0:46.5	a very special staff judgment, years in the making, we proudly present the Census Power.
0:56.7	And understand because this is real life, the story includes descriptions of genocide
1:00.8	and historical trauma.
1:02.7	Since the flisters please be advised, our story begins in a conference room, early 2020
1:10.1	at a tribal government building in North Dakota.
1:14.0	My dear Julian Brave noise cat, takes us there.
1:18.8	Snap judgment.
1:27.4	Cheyenne Brady stood before the Mandan, Hadatsa and a Rikera Nation tribal council.
1:33.8	The leaders of her people who had, in generations past, led the warriors, signed the treaties,
1:42.4	imposed for those stoic photos.
1:46.8	Those guys, they meet in the tribal building on the opposite side of the four bears casino
1:52.9	parking lot.
1:53.9	It's not the biggest room in the world.
1:57.1	They sit on the north side and they're kind of just all in a little row, like a little
2:01.0	horseshoe almost.
2:02.6	And then there's a little tiny table up at the front.
2:06.0	At the table, there's a mic.
	...

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