Documentary: The Thick Dark Fog

Walter speaks to students at Colorado University

From director Randy Vasquez comes the story of Walter Littlemoon (Oglala Lakota), and his traumatic attendance at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation boarding school. According to an article by Stephanie Woodard at Indian Country, throughout his adult life Littlemoon alternated between painful flashbacks and sensations of numbness, which he described as a "thick dark fog", without knowing the reasons why. A psychological-trauma expert at Harvard Medical School was able to shed some light on Littlemoon's condition, explaining that he suffered from complex post traumatic stress, which is caused by childhood traumas. "Once his fear had a name," Littlemoon told Woodard, "[he] could fight it and win."

From the film's website:

Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were not allowed to be Indians – to speak their language or express their culture or native identity in any way at the risk of being severely beaten, humiliated or abused. What effects did these actions cause?

Many Indians, like Walter, lived with this unresolved trauma into adulthood, acting it out through alcoholism and domestic violence. At age 58, Walter decided to write and publish his memoirs as a way to explain his past abusive behaviors to his estranged children. But dealing with the memories of his boarding school days nearly put an end to it.

The Thick Dark Fog tells the story of how Walter confronted the “thick dark fog” of his past so that he could renew himself and his community. 

Littlemoon has said that, “Several younger people told me seeing the film helped them better understand their parents or grandparents. One guy was crying after the panel discussion and saying he now realized it was his boarding-school experience that had caused him to fight so much with his parents.” And the catharsis extends to other peoples as well: “A Japanese man who’d been imprisoned as a child in World War II concentration camps told me he could now explain to his children how that affected him. I felt the film had impact. We got our message out, and it felt good.”

The film was winner of "Best Documentary" at the 2011 American Indian Film Festival.

Alaska Native children were also forced to go to boardings schools and endure the process of "deculturalization". For more information on the Alaska Native experience, please read this paper published by the National Resource Center for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders at UAA. Walter Littlemoon has also published a book on his experiences titled They Call Me Uncivilized: The Memoir of an Everyday Lakota Man from Wounded Knee, available on Amazon, or through your schools Interlibrary Loan Service.