Former journalist Beccy Tanner had always had a knack for history. As soon as she noticed there was not any written history of Native Americans in her small central-Kansas town of St. John, she knew she could join her talent with other journalists to educate her community about their history. Tanner, joined by photographer Bo Rader, videographer Auriel Hathaway and local historians, created the “First People of Kansas” documentary series, highlighting the history of Native Americans in the St. John and Wichita area. “We didn’t really have stories of diversity,” she said. “We had a lot of stories, and we still will tell those stories, of the prominent white people who settled here and did well. But there were also many other people who didn’t always make our history books.” The St. John community on Oct. 19 will celebrate the project’s completion with a showing of the documentary at the St. John Homecoming Hall and Museum. Native American women will make fry bread, and Don Blakeslee, a Great Plains Native American archeologist, will give artifact presentations.
Source: Kansas Reflector
