Minnie Bordeaux, not your typical powwow royalty PORCUPINE – “Basically, I was in a state of shock when they chose me,” said Clementine “Minnie” Bordeaux following her selection as Miss He Sapa Win during the 21 st annual He Sapa Wacipi in Rapid City, the first weekend of October, “of course you want to win but it’s a surprise especially when you can’t always have your expectations too high.” Bordeaux is the daughter of Chris and Deb Bordeaux and is enrolled at Rosebud. She grew up in Pine Ridge and went to school at Red Cloud. Chris, her father is the director of the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s new department of education while Deb is the principal at Loneman School in Oglala. “Many of my educational endeavors are because of my parents,” said Bordeaux. Minnie graduated from Red Cloud High School in 2002 as the valedictorian of her class. In 2006, Minnie graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha Wisc. with a bachelor of arts in theatre and a minor in religion. Following her graduation, Bordeaux attended a film institute at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe where she learned the basics of making films. She wrote, directed and edited a film called Rez Toll. "It was eight minutes and I learned so much from it and met a lot of great people." An earlier script got selected for production and in November of 2006, she went to Los Angeles for a week to participate in the production and filming of her script. “He can’t be caught” will premier at the American Indian Film Festival in L.A. at the end of November. “Down the road I want to go back to school and develop my writing skills,” said Bordeaux, “I’m looking around now, maybe in California, I need to learn more about film schools, maybe in the fall of 08 or 09.” Currently, Bordeaux is the youth minister for the Catholic churches on the reservation. Operating out of Porcupine’s Christ the King, she plans to expand the ministry to other areas around Pine Ridge. Bordeaux is working on setting up a variety of activities for youth, first in the Porcupine area and eventually beyond. She took four youth to a youth rally in Belle Fourche and has set up a movie night on Tuesdays. “I’m really honored and humbled to represent the Black Hills pow wow and Lakota people for the next year,” said Bordeaux. (who has already gone to the Native American Day celebration at Crazy Horse Mountain and did a keynote address to the Headstart Conference in Rapid City),“I’ll be attending a number of pow wows throughout the year, visiting schools in the area, working to be a positive role model for all of our youth and working to encourage and support more creative arts in our education system across the reservation and beyond; more opportunities in creative arts will give our youth more choices and a chance to choose something other than gangs, violence, drugs or alcohol.” Bordeaux remembers when she participated in the the Teca Wacipi Okolakiciye and would look up to all of the royalty. She thought it would be good to be a positive role model for our youth and to stay in touch with her culture. “This year will help me make a transition, to become an adult. I’ve been a student for 16 years of my life.” said Bordeaux, “This will help me grow as a person and as a woman, it’ll help me reach more kids and make more of a difference – if I have self confidence in myself, it will help more of our youth to realize or work for the same level of confidence.” To be eligible for the position of Miss He Sapa Win, you need to be between the ages of 18 and 25, be an enrolled member of a Black Hills area tribe, be alcohol and drug free, write and submit an essay and elicit a number of letters of recommendation. In the talent portion, Minnie read poetry, some of her own and some other authors; she was interviewed by a panel of judges about her future goals and about her platform and she was required to do an introduction during one of the grand entries and answer a question publicly. “I knew I was not your stereotypical “res” chick, it was nerve-racking though, to be judged,” said Bordeaux.“I wish I knew my Lakota language better though. We have such a rich culture and the language ties us to our ancestors.” Minnie said that "It wasn’t until I got my degree and went to the Institute in Santa Fe that I realized, I had a lot of passion for Native performing arts." “During this year, I want to a positive example for Native women, I see myself as a forward thinker, thinking out of the box at times,” said Bordeaux, “I really want to do film and I want to come back to the plains area and help network Lakota filmmaking, there are lot of really talented artists who just happen to be native, not only beads, feathers and horses, I want to be a screenwriter, write stories; there are a lot of stories out there and not just ones about abuse, drugs and alcohol – I’m a newcomer just wanting to figure out how to create my own path into that world.”
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