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How Time Out Wacipi began … and how it changed UND

Inspired by national discourse, UND students looked at issues closer to home — creating enduring changes on campus for all

UND’s first Time Out that centered on American Indian issues took place in 1969, as the above front page of the Dakota Student from April 18, 1969, suggests. But there was an earlier Time Out devoted more to antiwar concerns, as shown in a photo further down in this story. Photo from UND’s Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections by Tom Dennis/UND Today.

It all started at the Time Out before the first Time Out.

As many will recall, 1968 was a time like no other. The Vietnam War raged, MLK Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, and giant protests and riots erupted, including one at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

No wonder Life magazine’s special issue about the era termed 1968 “The Incredible Year.”

Likewise, no wonder that in the fall of 1968, students at UND planned to take part in a nationwide antiwar event called “Time Out.”

A Dakota Student story put it this way on Oct. 22, 1968:

“The National Student Association is asking colleges and universities across the country to suspend classes on Oct. 29 so students can take ‘time out’ to answer the question, ‘Where do we go from here?’”

The nationwide Time Out of October 1968 came and went. Today, it’s almost completely forgotten.

But in North Dakota, the event lives on in one crucially important way.

That’s because a few months after the October event, student organizers at UND took the Time Out name when they launched the American Indian awareness event that continues to this day.

And so begins the history of the UND Time Out Wacipi Powwow, a standout event now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

In this story, we’ll describe the origins of not only Time Out but also the Wacipi, both of which started small. We’ll talk to someone who was there at the beginning and to others who’ve been involved along the way.

And we’ll also describe how the celebration has evolved, to the point where it is now, by all accounts, one of the most important annual events at UND.

This photo from the Oct. 11, 1968, edition of the Dakota Student shows the newspaper’s first known reference to an upcoming Time Out event. That event — which centered on national politics — inspired the Time Out event in the spring of 1969 that focused on American Indian concerns. Photo from UND’s Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections by Tom Dennis/UND Today.

‘Time out’ to ‘give a damn’

Suezette Bieri remembers 1968 and 1969 well.

Bieri, who was then a student and a student senator at UND, was active in organizing both the antiwar Time Out of October 1968, as well as the American Indian awareness event of April 1969.

She co-chaired the latter with fellow UND student David Gipp. Gipp, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, was one of only about 20 Native American students at UND at the time. “He would go on to form the UND Indian Association,” Bieri recalled.

“David’s perspective was broader than an anti-war movement in a far-away country, and we thought it would be a good idea to take a ‘time out’ from the widespread war protests to examine issues closer to home.”

Here’s how the Dakota Student told the campus about that spring-of-1969 event:

“University students and faculty, as well as high school students, are being asked to take ‘time out’ Tuesday to ‘give a damn’ about the American Indian,” the newspaper reported on April 18, 1969.

“The program, modeled after an earlier ‘Time Out’ held Oct. 29, ‘will focus on racism – North Dakota style,’ according to Mike Bailey, a member of the Time Out staff.

“‘If you care about the problems of the American Indian today,’ said Suezette Bieri, co-sponsor of the Time Out program, ‘then give a damn again.’”

Bieri earned her bachelor’s as well as her master’s degrees at UND. She later worked on the campus as deputy director of the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, a position she would hold for more than 20 years.

Gipp graduated to become a national leader in tribal education, specifically within the Tribal College movement of the 1970s. After serving as president of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck for more than 30 years, Gipp died in 2020.

“It was mostly my friendship with David that brought me to co-chair the event,” said Bieri about the first Time Out. “I suppose I was the ‘establishment’ contact that David needed to make this idea work. We remained close friends throughout his lifetime. I hope we enriched each other’s lives in all that time, as we surely did on campus.”

The powwow begins

On April 27, 1971, the Dakota Student dedicated its entire front page to this photo of a powwow dancer. That year’s Time Out and powwow corresponded to the opening of the University’s first Indian Cultural Center. Photo from UND’s Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections by Tom Dennis/UND Today.

The 1969 Time Out was mostly films, speeches and seminars, records suggest. But the following year’s Time Out not only included a powwow, but also unfolded during another especially turbulent time on campus: May 7-9, 1970, only days after the May 4 shootings at Kent State.

“Administration gets Indian demands,” the Dakota Student reported about the event.

“A group of about 50 Indian students confronted the UND administration Friday (May 8) with demands for over $130,000 in funding for an Indian studies program and an Indian cultural center.

“The Indians, from schools all over the state, were at UND to participate in an Indian student leadership conference Friday and Saturday.

“Two teepees had been set up in front of the University Student Center in protest of the lack of Indian programs. The teepees were satirically called the ‘UND Indian Culture Center,’ and a small piece of land was designated as ‘Indian territory.’”

As for the first powwow, it arose in the early hours of May 8, 1970.

“At about 1 a.m., the students moved to the two teepees that had been set up for the conference, and held a short powwow with George Whirlwind Soldier of the American Indian Movement,” the Dakota Student reported.

At the time, “a member of the one of the fraternities across the street began to make fun of the group by imitating an Indian whoop.

“The Indians, some of them with dancing bells still tied to their legs, ran across the street and confronted the person, who turned out to be drunk. He was quieted down by his friends.”

A unsettling beginning? Perhaps. But useful in seeing how far both the Time Out Wacipi and UND itself have come.

For one thing, the protest and the other events of the 1970 Time Out worked. UND’s first Indian Cultural Center opened the very next spring, in 1971. So “this year, there is a real, not a mock, Indian center,” the DS reported on April 20, 1971.

“Ken Davis, who graduated last May, is the Indian counselor. And, with a number of New School classes, an Indian Medicine class and an Indian Literature class, there are the beginnings of an Indian Studies program.”

For another, the events of 1969 and 1970 proved to be the start of an annual tradition that grew to take on enormous significance.

Leigh Jeanotte, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, earned three degrees from UND and worked at the University for more than 43 years. He’s shown here sitting for a UND interview in 2021. Web screenshot.

Leigh Jeanotte’s involvement with the Time Out Wacipi Powwow started some time after he arrived on the campus in 1970. Until his retirement in 2017, Jeanotte served as director of UND’s American Indian Student Services.

“I was doing some teaching and administering a teacher training program,” Jeanotte said. “At the time, there still weren’t a lot of American Indian students on campus, but there was a national movement – the American Indian Movement – that they took under their wing at UND. They pushed for having a powwow, and that was one of the most significant events for American Indians at UND at the time.”

At first, students wanted to have the powwow to show recognition – to create awareness by way of activism, Jeanotte continued. The focus changed over time to encourage the entire University to take part.

“The powwow isn’t well understood,” Jeanotte said. “It’s more of a social event, socializing in a fun way with a major purpose of creating awareness at UND. It’s about friendship and getting reacquainted.”

And as Jeanotte observed, UND’s Time Out Wacipi continued to grow, year after year. The pandemic resulted in cancelling the past two years of celebration, but this year’s event still is likely to draw people from across the upper Midwest, he said.

“UND was likely the first institution in the region to sponsor a powwow,” he said. “That’s caught on. Now they’re happening at NDSU and Minot State, but UND really led the way.”

Regarding the 50-year mark, Jeanotte called it “historic,” adding that he had little inclination that UND would be hosting a powwow for so long.

“It’s really unique and special,” he remarked. “The timing of the year, the history of having the powwow at UND – it’s remarkable.”

As are the facts that national speakers have been a part of Time Out events, and that students have done so well at planning events over the decades, he said.

UND archival image.

Keith Malaterre was a high school student in Belcourt, N.D., when he first came to UND’s Wacipi in 1983.

Keith Malaterre

He then enrolled at UND in 1991, and started working at the University in 1993. Now an American Indian success specialist with UND Student Diversity & Inclusion, Malaterre – a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa – has been part of every Wacipi since.

“It’s amazing that this is the 50th powwow,” he said. “It’s important for UND to keep this going forever, because you need to celebrate the Indigenous people of North Dakota. American Indians are the largest population of underrepresented people in our state.

“We have many students who attend UND that came from tribal communities and colleges, so it’s good to show that we care and that we respect Indigenous people.”

The Wacipi also serves to honor and recognize UND’s American Indian graduates from that year.

“I like everything about the powwow,” Malaterre remarked. “It’s a feel-good event for American Indian people. When you walk into the arena and you hear the drum, the dancers and the jingles from their regalia – just seeing people celebrating – that experience is like no other.”

Suezette Bieri agrees. And as the Time Out Wacipi Powwow has grown and evolved, so, too, have both the state and UND, she said. Today, in contrast to 1969, virtually every North Dakotan recognizes that Native Americans have been overlooked and deserve more attention.

That awareness has grown in part because of UND’s Time Out Wacipi Powwow.

“We celebrate the anniversary of Time Out Wacipi, and I am proud to have been present at the beginning,” she said.

If you go

This year’s event opens with Grand Entries at 7 p.m. Friday, April 8, and 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in the Hyslop Sports Arena on the UND campus. The powwow is free and open to the public. A free traditional meal also is planned for 5 p.m. Saturday. Learn more.

UND Today Editor Tom Dennis contributed to the reporting and writing of this story.