photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Dustin Stumblingbear holds up his new children's book on Friday, September 13, 2024 that will be published on October 1st.

A year ago, at a pageant put on by the Lawrence school district’s Native American Student Services, Dustin Stumblingbear watched a young woman stand up and talk about being disconnected from her culture and not knowing Native ways.

For Stumblingbear, a Lawrence school district alumnus and member of the Oklahoma Kiowa tribe, that was a call to action.

“That hit me, hit me in the heart,” Stumblingbear said.

It was an experience that helped inspire Stumblingbear to write his new children’s book, “I Am Kiowa,” about his own history of sharing his Native culture with kids in Lawrence’s schools.

When he was a student at Schwegler Elementary, Stumblingbear and his family would actually go out to schools in Lawrence and teach students about Native culture at special presentations, showing them traditional clothes and dances and even teaching them a dance. One of those experiences, a presentation at Sunset Hill Elementary when he was in fourth grade, is what Stumblingbear narrates in the book.

In it, he recounts how he and his family told the students a story about Saynday, a trickster from Kiowa mythology who teaches moral lessons to children. They taught the students about different Kiowa outfits, and then came the dancing — something the family had plenty of experience with.

“Prior to that, we had done dancing. We knew our powwow ways,” Stumblingbear told the Journal-World. “We’d gone and done all that, but we never did anything in a school (before).”

Stumblingbear himself demonstrated the Straight Dance, also known as the Southern Straight Dance, a style of powwow dancing thought to have originated with the Southern Plains tribes of Oklahoma, including the Poncas, Pawnees, Omas, Osages and Kiowas. His brother, Andy, performed a northern traditional dance featuring an eagle bustle.

Following these demonstrations, Stumblingbear and his family taught the students a two-step dance.

“In the powwow world, that’s just what it’s called,” Stumblingbear said. “Two people dance as a pair, and everybody lines up behind them in pairs, and it’s like a big follow-the-leader dance.”

After the presentation, several students asked Stumblingbear and his family about their clothes and how they learned the dances. Stumblingbear said it was a bit overwhelming to stand in front of kids who were close to his own age at the time, fielding a barrage of questions. But the presentation was a success, and he and his family would go on to share their Kiowa heritage across numerous elementary schools, even beyond the Lawrence school district.

“We did every elementary school in the (Lawrence) school district that was open at the time,” Stumblingbear said. “We even did schools that weren’t in the school district. Over three years, we did at least 20 (schools).”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Dustin Stumblingbear holds open the first page of his book, ‘I Am Kiowa’ on Friday, September 13, 2024.

Stumblingbear said another part of what inspired him to write “I Am Kiowa” was a book by Thomas King called “The Inconvenient Indian.” In that book, King offers a personal reflection on the meaning of being “Indian,” exploring the historical relationship between Natives and non-Natives since the 15th century. King also examines how popular culture has influenced perceptions of Indigenous identity and shares his own complex experiences with activism.

“He talked about the concept of, do we allow people to look at us as when they first came to the Americas and report to us and talk to us in that manner?” Stumblingbear said. “… Or, do we show that we have adapted just like our ancestors and we’re here, we’re now, we’re a part of this society? We contribute to our culture — not just Native American culture, but American culture — in a variety of ways.”

Above all, Stumblingbear hopes that his own book — like the presentations he and his family gave when he was a kid — can help people understand that Native culture is still here and is still making those contributions to American life.

“We are not a remnant of the past,” Stumblingbear said. “We are here, we are now and we participate equally in society.”

“I Am Kiowa” is a collaboration between Stumblingbear and illustrator Tokeya Waci U, a Haskell Indian Nations University alumnus and member of the Oglala Lakota and Haliwa-Saponi Tribes. It will be available for purchase at the Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St., starting Oct. 1., and will also be available at other major book retailers.