Original subtitles

Where are you?

We stand and begin to sing, Indians of the Great Plains.

This is our song.

We were the first to face the challenge to make a home, build a culture and

shape a history under an endless expanse of sun and sky.

We came to love our freedom here, the rush of the wind and the drama of the

night.

We adapted and thrived.

Many tribes came to call the Great Plains their home, each with a

style and a powerful discipline.

We are many sovereign nations.

We honor the great mystery and in return receive the power to endure.

We are the Lakota, the people of the seven council fires.

The Cheyenne, who humbly call themselves our people.

The Comanche, respected as the fierce lords of the southern plains.

The Crow,

the bird people.

We are the Arapaho, the sky men, and the Kiowa of the southern plains who

worship the sun, the Omaha who go against the wind.

We are the Blackfeet, and the Groban,

And we are many other tribes who make the plains their home.

For centuries, we have honored the sacred form of the circle and come

in council for the sharing of oral histories.

In keeping with its tradition, members of five plains tribes met within the

circular boundary of a teepee in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Looking back how it was in them days, no maps, no roads, no interstates. You

just come over a ridge and you look down and this whole country is untouched.

And somehow you had to go in there and make a living for you and your family

your tribe.

George Horsecapture is from the Montana tribe known as the Grove On.

His great -grandfather was the last keeper of the tribe's sacred flat pipe.

He holds a master's degree in history.

In the sixth grade, I became Caucasian because it became very obvious that my

characteristics were different than Mongolian.

In junior high, I became an American Indian.

In high school, I became a Native American.

When I was working on my undergraduate education, I became an indigenous group.

Then when I worked on my master's degree, I became a sovereign nation.

Wallace Coffey is chairman of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma.

He has served as the director of the Denver Indian Center and chairman of the

board of the Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium.

It took me two years to learn English and to read those Dick and Jane

books. I could read C, Dick, Run, C, Jane.

But they made no sense to me because that curriculum was not culturally

relevant.

relevant thing about those Dick and Jane books was Spock.

Lawrence Hart is a former tribal chairman of the Southern Cheyennes of

a traditional peace chief and historian.

I always remember the idea that goes something like this. We come into this

world as Indian people and we'll go out of this world as Indian people.

Daryl Kipp returned to the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana after

receiving his Ph .D. in linguistics from Harvard University.

He is co -founder and director of the Pagan Institute.

When you're a person who belongs in a community, you have to know who you are.

Charlotte Black Elk is Oglala Lakota from South Dakota.

The great -granddaughter of Black Elk, Charlotte has worked for years for the

return of the sacred Black Hills to the Lakota people.

You have to know who your relatives are, where you came from. And as a tribe, we

have to know where we came from.

Our first memory came from deep within the darkness of obsidian night.

When our first embryonic movements explored the womb of our mother earth.

It was a time when the spirit of the buffalo and our ancestors were one.

From our first breath came the song of our heart, searching for freedom beyond

the darkness of the womb.

As our mother heard our cries for release,

She opened herself so that the buffalo people, our ancestors, could move out

from Wind Cave onto the Earth's surface.

We came out from Mother Earth, out of Wind Cave, out of the Black Hill.

When we lived underground, we were the buffalo people, the Padeo Oyate.

When we came up into the earth, we carried that experience with us.

Our lives became entwined with a buffalo.

These were times long before we acquired the horse.

Times when the dog was our closest helper in the animal world.

Our earliest memories tell us of the hardships and discoveries of our

journeys.

We humbled ourselves in the presence of the landscape around us so that visions

would be given to us.

Visions to teach us of all our relations and their meanings in our lives.

The animals, the plants, rocks and the rivers.

Visions we have never forgotten.

Memories we have kept alive.

Plains culture was a buffalo culture, and the buffalo was honored.

Their abundance was staggering.

As many as 60 million buffalo could have once roamed the Great Plains.

The Blackfoot Confederacy, and the Blackfeet Indians in particular, used

buffalo. for everything they needed.

We took everything from the buffalo that the buffalo had. We used the horns for

our spoons, our utensils.

The skulls we used in our ceremonies. We took the brain and we used that to tan

the hide.

When we took off the hair, we used that in our pillows and in our balls.

And then we used the bones for implements. We took the bone marrow and

that with our dried meat.

And so every single piece of the bison was utilized in one way or another.

Before we hunted the buffalo or any animal, we performed a ceremony.

We apologized to the spirit of that animal and told him, We're coming to get

of you.

We're coming to take your life.

But we're going to do it in such a way that your spirit will live on.

Our stories are still told of the buffalo and of the men who ran amongst

Men ran for miles across the endless grasslands for ceremony, for sport, for

transport, and for survival of the tribe.

The two greatest men in the Blackfeet oral tradition.

was Red Man and Red Old Man.

And what they were, were runners.

The hero stories of them was they lured the buffalo.

And they would go near a buffalo herd and as the buffalo would get curious

them and begin to follow them, they would begin to run. And the buffalo

follow them.

And they would run to this jump.

And many times this would be an exceptionally long distance.

And so their stamina, their endurance, their own perseverance would lead them

the jump and ultimately bring food and health and survival to the people.

Runners would lure the buffalo over great cliffs.

The buffalo gave their life that we might live, and we were grateful.

Hundreds at a time would sacrifice themselves, providing food and clothing

an entire year.

What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is a

little shadow that runs across the grass.

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Now back to the Native Americans on TBS.

In the old days, when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to

us from the sacred hoop of the nation.

And so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished.

The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four

quarters nourished it.

The east gave peace and light.

The south gave warmth.

The West gave rain, and the North, with its cold and mighty wind,

gave strength and endurance.

Black Elk.

That whole era, that whole period of time of our history, that we call the

Days.

I think this is the period of time that America doesn't know about.

I think the special element of stories, histories from dog days, is that it

reflects our true history.

And that the true beginnings of our tribes are so much part of the story.

At that time, we relied on the domesticated dog as a source

of helping us to move, but especially to hunt.

They were able to be animals of burden, to serve us,

and we have a very close, almost affectionate relationship

to the dog.

At the time of the dog, we were hunters and gatherers.

There is other really basic methodologies and activities that they

practice. how to utilize the ability to relate to an animal whenever you want to

hunt for a deer.

But they had something that was really basic, and that was this language of the

earth.

Knowing the seasons and the directions and the winds, they were able to utilize

that element in a manner to have a strong relationship with it.

We understood that our mother earth was a part of a universal order that

possessed a living breathing intellect All we needed to survive could be found

in a respectful relationship with the world around us

Everything

was possessed of personality

only differing from us in form.

Knowledge was inherent in all things.

The world was a library, and its books were the stones, leaves, grass,

brooks.

And the birds and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings

of the earth.

Luther Standing Bear

The earth has a heart, and her heart beats.

For Lakota people, we say that's the heart of everything that is. When the

universe was created, all of the universe was given a song, and each

the universe holds a piece of that song, but the entire song is only in the

Black Hills.

And when we go there and we perform our ceremonies, we revitalize the beating of

the heart.

All of our teachings of relationship go back to the initial relationship with

the earth, that the earth has four children.

And of the two -legged, she has the bear and humans.

And so we not only have to behave responsibly with each other, but also

the things that live, because they too are people, and they have a right to

live, and they have a right to a good life, and we have to treat them

respectfully.

All our relations shared our origins, and they were our lifeline to survival.

We observed them and emulated them, honored them and praised them,

Their flesh became our flesh.

Their spirit became our spirit.

We delighted in the workings of the natural world.

Nature was perfect in its complexity, its beauty and terror.

We saw ourselves actively involved with the process of living.

This land wasn't just a wild land where we went from plant to plant and ate

where we could.

In fact, it was a very well -managed environmental system.

The research is proving our oral traditions that all of this area burned

10 years, and that over a 100 -year period, the whole place was controlled

fire. And if you look at the amount of buffalo that the Great Plains supported,

300 years ago, 500 years ago, it's more than the number of cattle that can

survive with haying and with planted food.

And so, in fact, it was a highly managed environment that we lived on.

In the early days, in order to survive, it had to be a cooperative effort.

An individual could not survive alone.

I think the genius of the Indian people, you know, looking back in history, I

guess like any other group, there was specialists in various areas. Whoever

interested in something, they studied it.

They practiced it. They listened to their elders.

Maybe they prayed for it. And it was kind of a structural thing as you went

There was a leader for peace, negotiations.

There was a leader for the camp.

Everything was divided up, and there was a professional, if you will, or a

leader in that field to take charge of it.

Roles and responsibilities within our daily lives were specifically defined.

Rules of adherence were strict.

enormous value was placed on human life.

Some people have roles as teachers.

Some people have roles as artists.

Some people had a responsibility to shut up and listen.

And so we have some people who very seldom talk, and they keep our history.

We select young children who have auric memory, photographic memory for what

they hear.

These children are located at around age four or five. They're tested. Then

they're taught the story by rote. And so they're like tape recorders. They're a

library. And then we have other people that are taught how to interpret that

story. And that training begins later at maybe age 11.

They begin learning the symbolism.

Why does something mean this? So we say that when you really know the story.

You can take it from the origin legend, from the time of different motions.

The survival of a communal people is dependent upon both sexes contributing

fully to that effort.

In the Blackfoot people, both sides contributed, and women were not of a

role than men were.

Certainly men hunted and women took care of other things, but that does not

demean either side in any way.

And the fact that the Blackfoot language has no gender, I think is the most

illustrative and certainly the most supportive of the idea that the creator,

when he put us here, he put women and men equal because he did not

in the language between either.

For Lakota people, we have stories of when each society was brought into our

people. Yeah. And they followed the Kid Fox Society, the Trocala.

The Kid Fox is low -moving. It makes an attack.

It hunts in a pack. It knows when to fall back and regroup.

Mean little animal.

So our Trocala Society based themselves around that. They were the war leaders.

And then we have...

the badger and the badger because it knows how to go under those people were

responsible for food cackers we had the the bear lands owners and those

people were the ones who made the decision to sacrifice themselves so the

of the camp could get away through the centuries our ancestors developed

concepts and customs of government and justice

founded on the notions that leaders were in positions of responsibility, not

power, and that each and every voice must be heard.

Councils representing all aspects of our society made decisions of a political

or social nature, never forgetting the premise that no individual was greater

more important than the whole.

This is the foundation for today's tribal governments.

In the old days, there was no National Guard, no police force.

There was no authoritative body that would come in from the outside, put down

rules and govern everybody, all these little nations.

So we had to build it up in our own tribe.

We had to have societies for control.

We had to have warriors to go out and defend the tribe, to make it continue.

These warrior societies were kind of like the elite, that if you got to that

point, that something had to be done because of the behavior of this

with such correction was necessary.

So many times they would take that individual if they were not behaving in

appropriate manner. These individuals were put into a position that would put

their life on the line.

One of the ways that the Native American peoples maintained peace and

tranquility amongst themselves was they banished people.

They banished their members that were unable to live in a compatible and

cooperative way with their fellow tribesmen. You were banished. That was

worst thing that could happen to you, is to be banished from your own people.

If you did something in Lakota society, you went on the hunt before it was time

to go.

You were told once, they come and slash your teepee, beat you up.

The next time you did it, you were dead.

Because the life of all the people was more important than the life of one

person.

Sometimes you have to weigh all kinds of circumstances.

When that time comes and you make a decision, you have to be responsible for

that decision.

And because they didn't turn their back on the decision, whether it was right or

wrong, but you made a decision based upon what you would be in the best

of the tribe.

The words of wisdom of myth and legend often came to us to light the way in

times of darkness.

Sweet medicine was such a profit for the Cheyennes.

One of the teachings that comes to us from Mujaiyoy, from Sweet Medicine, is

that even if you see your own son killed right in front of your teepee,

you are to do nothing but to take your pipe

and go sit and smoke.

It doesn't mean that the perpetrator who has harmed

your son or anyone else in the family gets away with

it.

It means that you as a chief have a duty that is higher than

the use of force or violence or any form of retaliation.

You leave that up to the societies to take care of it.

There were only two role models for Comanche.

You either become a warrior, and if you cannot assume the responsibility of

being a warrior, then you take the woman's role.

And that was very difficult on some young men because they were on the field

battle when they were 11 years of age.

But very seldom would a young man shirk his responsibilities.

When the men came back from a war party or a raiding party, they would bring

back certain trophies. They had a scalp of a warrior.

The women would attach the scalp to their lamp, to their spears, and they

dance the scalp dance. The women would have no hesitation to show off a war

trophy that their husband or their loved one brought back.

It was dignified and glorified that a person showed prowess in battle.

Let it be demonstrated, you know, publicly.

And usually it's a woman that would demonstrate the prowess of their

They would attach a scalp or even sometimes an armament, or they'd capture

bow and arrow.

Well, when they did that, they would trill their tongue, you know, kind of

a... of that nature.

But we call it goth talking.

The woman of the east that lives in the morning star.

Look down and bless our people.

Look down and walk with our mother earth.

The women are sacred and we need their help.

We need their compassion and we need their beauty so that the earth will be

balance.

Grandmother,

Mother. Sister.

As you come into our lives.

Bring your grace.

Bring your happiness.

Bring your abundance with you.

Survival. I know how this way.

This way I know.

We have traveled this way, gauged our distance by stories, and loved our

children.

We told ourselves over and over again, we shall survive this way.

Simon Ortiz.

Now back to the Native Americans on TBS.

The non -native world has embraced a theory of origin which postulates that

first Native Americans followed a one -way migration route between 12 and 40

,000 years ago across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska and down into

North and South America.

The so -called Bering Strait theory has done a lot of damage to us as native

people. in that it has set in the minds of the American society that there's

only one version of this entire land, when in reality we know that

there's many versions, many stories of this area.

From Lakota, we have a different viewpoint. We say that all life of

know it started on this continent.

We have stories of being sent out, going into South America, going in... to

what's now Mexico, going back northward.

And that life started from here, that it started many places, that there was

some joining and some movement. But for our people, we've always been here. This

has always been home.

Our stories say, from forever, we have always been here. We were created here.

The Cheyenne migrated, and as they migrated,

had to make some adaptations, and they adapted quite well to

the changing environment.

When we were living as the sedentary people in permanent villages,

we constructed our homes out of logs and mud.

Likely we did some cultural borrowing.

How other tribes built their homes, we borrowed from them.

As our ancestors enlarged their world, they began to interact with other tribal

communities.

But each tribe has its own language or dialect.

Through sign language, they were able to communicate with each other.

Language is, you know, really, that's what we said to the kids, you know, this

means who, what, when, where, how much, how many, where you going, you know.

I always tease people, this Indian hitchhike like that, you know, which way

going, we don't care, we just want to ride.

When I began to become a more serious student of my tribal language, one of

things I found is that The genesis of all tribes is located, is found in their

languages.

You

cannot

have a culture without language.

Culture, all aspects of culture.

and everything about a living group emanate from the power and the dynamics

their language.

And the idea then is that if we lose our language, that we become a static

culture. Then we must just hang on to the remnants and the artifacts of our

culture. And we essentially then become a museum or we live within a museum. We

no longer have the dynamics to keep our cultures alive and growing and changing

and evolving and bringing in new songs and new experiences and new revelations

into our culture.

So people that speak native languages, and if you're thinking in a native

language, your concepts of time and space are radically different than they

in English.

Your concepts of gender, your concepts of the world around you is constantly

different, very radically different. The Blackfoot language contains only two

separations, the inanimate and the animate. So in the Native American

nothing can be dead.

There is nothing dead. In English, we go into the forest, we see a tree laying

on the ground, and we say, what is it? And they say, it's a dead tree.

And quite there, we put things into a category. Everything is dead around us.

And the idea then is that if you can think in a language that doesn't have

kinds of dead...

connotations to it that doesn't see things as being dead but seeing them

alive but only in inert or inanimate the idea is then is all things are alive

the world is alive around you there's many stories that could

be told with indian art

And in trying to educate other people, if you come on and tell all the horror

stories, the true horror stories that happen to Indians, often they turn off

guilt or denial and they won't listen.

But if you approach them with art, because most everybody sensible likes

if you begin to teach with art, you just show it and you tell how symbolic some

of the designs are and how meaningful the colors are.

difficult it was to do all of these things and the ingenuity that the people

utilized to make them. Before you know it, they're into it and they appreciate

it. And I believe there develops a relationship and understanding.

They say, wow, this is super stuff.

Then they understand that Indians made it. It's beautiful.

It was made by very skilled people.

And therefore, these people are Indians. So they get a new understanding of the

Indian people.

Plains history and stories are told through our earliest works of art.

Some date back thousands of years.

These mysterious symbols and designs are indelibly etched into the landscape

While

at the Cody

Museum in Wyoming George Horscapture studied these petroglyphs and

carved and painted into the rock walls of the northern plains.

He continues to share his knowledge with native youth.

These were done a long, long time ago. Nobody really knows when.

Archaeologists make their guesses, their theories, and Indian legends sometimes

refer to this idea.

But petroglyphs is a good way to see them merging, in a sense.

of archaeology and the real people.

Because they come up with these theories, but this is direct evidence of

people being here.

Here's a dog I was telling you about.

Dog days, huh?

Dog days, yeah. They say dogs were the very first animal friends we had.

Of course, I can't tell what kind this is, but we had a long association with

them.

That is a beauty.

They believed this. They got something out of it. Now, this is going to last

forever if nobody defaces it.

And how often do we get to do something that lasts forever?

On Wyoming's Medicine Mountain is a circle of stones known as the Medicine

Wheel.

It has long perplexed non -native scientists.

About 80 feet in diameter, It closely resembles the floor plan of sacred

medicine lodges, which are aligned with star patterns.

Here it

is.

This is a privilege to be here.

There's a number of... such circles, but none with the grandeur and size as this

one.

We usually give a tobacco offer.

Four directions.

Sacred places like Medicine Mountain were sought by Native people for vision

quests.

Their solo journeys of fasting and hardship to find spiritual guidance

to this day.

Some oppose this and seek means to limit our access to these sacred grounds.

They call these things cairns. And I think they're just locations where

had their quests.

They lay in there and they build these things to offer a little protection.

Right to this day people still use it so it's It's a living thing

Our complex

collective tribal views essential to survival had to be meticulously

from generation to generation They were passed on through symbols songs and

ceremonies

Many of our people are rediscovering them today.

Les Ducheneaux is from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.

He's reintroducing the buffalo to the Great Plains.

Reclaiming the legacy of the sacred relationship with them is an important

toward cultural survival.

Tukashila, I ask in some way that you help this winter to break and to ease up

to suffering that our people are enduring might end, Tukashila.

We ask that you come into their lives with your strength and endurance.

We ask that you come to them in a good way and show them there's a better life,

that there is hope, that there is a future for them.

If we come together with you, we help to make a future for our people.

She said this buffalo didn't die for nothing. It died so that it gave it life

so that you young people can see this.

Don't be afraid. This is our grandfather.

Many years ago, our people lived on these. This is the best kind of meat

is.

Conducting these ceremonies and rituals is an essential means of our cultural

continuity.

If our children experience our past, it will inspire them for the future.

You look in the lifetime, you can lose your home, you can lose your car, you

lose your life, you can lose your children.

Culture goes on and on. It doesn't have any life expectancy.

And it will never deny you access.

A person feels like they're down on out in their life, you know, laying where

they can get on their knees and give thanks.

Place their burdens in the good Lord's hands. I place my burden in your hands,

my Lord.

Pray that you will provide me with the direction and the wisdom I need in order

to make things come together and work more positive for us.

So that's what I like about culture. It doesn't wear out. It has no life

expectancy.

My folks tell me that when the teepee came to our Comanches, it was God

-inspired.

Sometimes they say you look at the horizon, you know, after a storm, you

the rainbow to the east, but to the west, you can see the sun and those rays

light. It's kind of like, you know, you can see that something's holding up this

earth. And those rays of light here, they had to have something that would

the people.

So whenever they looked at that, you know, they said that...

This teepee, this lodge that we have, you know, even the flaps are reaching

You know, look upon us in a good way. We're seeking blessings.

And you look at our teepee, there's no nails in that church, you know.

Not one nail, you know. Everything is structured in a manner. You've got

hides that are the covering. You've got these lodge poles that are here, you

know. And that stomp that goes into the ground, that teepee, that tent stomp, is

probably the most basic.

that holds our culture together.

And we have to be like that. We have to be strong.

Sometimes we might bend, we may give, but we still stay.

Today, our children are challenged by the complexities of the modern world.

As we continue to reshape our cultures,

It becomes increasingly apparent how priceless is our legacy and how

is its maintenance.

Our ancestors lived with integrity, knowing full well that one day their

would empower those yet unborn.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Native Americans will continue on TBS.