Unbroken: Indigenous Peoples Today

Richard Flittie, Lakota drum maker, 73 years old

"All my life I knew I was Lakota, but it didn't mean anything to me when I was young because I was never raised around it. I finally got involved in 2009. I was a heavy drinker but decided to change and I started visiting sweat lodges. Then I went to a drum making workshop in Mount Shasta and have been making them ever since. It's now been 8 years. Since then I went back to the reservation and found many of my relatives."

When I asked Richard about the drum that he was holding, he said "This is my interpretation of Crazy Horse's war shield. The drum's beat is the heartbeat of 'Unci Maka' [Grandmother Earth]."

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