Editor's note: The following is an unedited release from the National Park Service.
In honor of National American Indian Heritage Month, Homestead National Monument of America will be hosting Jerome Kills Small on Sunday, November 13, at Homestead’s Education Center. Kills Small will give a presentation describing medicinal plants and foods that can be found growing on the Great Plains, in the Missouri River valley, and in the Rocky Mountains.
This presentation, which begins at 2 p.m. at park headquaters in Beatrice, Nebraska, will also describe the Native American legends and history associated with various plants. This program is sponsored by the generous support of Nebraska Humanities and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Kills Small is an Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He holds an M.A. from the University of South Dakota, where he taught Lakota Language, American Indian Thought, Siouan Tribal Culture, and Early Native American History for 20 years. He has also taught the Dakota Language and American Indian cultures at the Nebraska Indian Community College. He has many talents, as a traditional storyteller, powwow organizer, and singer of ceremonial, sweat lodge, powwow, and other Lakota songs.
“Jerome Kills Small is a gifted oral historian and we look forward to learning a great deal from his presentation,” said Superintendent Mark Engler. “Our native tallgrass prairie contains many plants with medicinal properties that were used by Native Americans and homesteaders alike. It will be fascinating to hear more about prairie plants.”
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