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“It was a much more profound thing than I realized,” explains Kevin, “I wanted to tell a story, and the story I wanted to tell was how I knew so little and learned so much.”

Kevin graduated college with a degree in English. Upon the beginning of this journey, he had a vague idea of what he hoped to accomplish by gathering this footage. He found his goal along the way, saying, “I didn't know what I was doing. I was very much like members of the audience who didn't know. So, as I learned something along the way in the film, I was hoping that the audience would learn that as well. I was a hitchhiker on history, and history took place in front of me.” He claims that while he already had his degree, this experience was where the learning really happened. “South Dakota was kind of my graduate school. I majored in English in college, and I had gone to graduate school in English as well. But I think South Dakota was my real education... I couldn't have learned any of that from a distance.” Kevin offers a take on the Wounded Knee occupation, explaining that while it was a territorial and violent battle, ultimately, it was a spiritual battle. “I think that a lot of people think of Wounded Knee, and they think of guns, and they think of fighting and that sort of thing. I learned that was a very small part of what was going on. The real center of that experience for me was a spiritual one because of the daily sweat lodges and the other ceremonies that took place there. People really understood that their religion was under attack. If you look around to all the tribes in South Dakota and other Western states, you will see there's a tremendous revival in terms of spirituality.” Kevin explains that while spiritual freedom was taken for granted regarding other religions, this occupation was a fight for Native Americans’ spiritual freedom. “There was a ten-day shooting war with federal agents, which made headlines worldwide. But you couldn't really see from the outside as a reporter. You couldn't see even if you had very strong binoculars, what was driving it on the inside. That was a spiritual change."

Kevin's aspiration for his documentary is to spark interest in Native history. “I hope that [viewers] learn and appreciate native history, which has never really been taught in this country until after the Wounded Knee experience. I hope they would be propelled by the story that that I was telling; the story of a stranger in a strange land.” Kevin wants to engage viewers and create a different view. “In the five decades since, a tremendous amount has changed in Indian Country. People have gone from shame to pride.”

Kevin McKiernan, whose work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has served as a foreign correspondent from Nicaragua, Iraq, Syria, West Africa, and Afghanistan. He has also produced the PBS documentary Good Kurd, Bad Kurd and co-produced the Frontline episode The Spirit of Crazy Horse

From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock: A Reporter's Journey airs on SDPB1 Monday, February 27th at 7pm Central (6 MT) - the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation.