All language subtitles for Native.America.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD2.0.H.264-JJ666

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♪ ♪

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR:
The New World isn't new at all.

By the time Columbus arrives
in 1492,

this land is home
to 100 million people.

♪ ♪

Their ancestral roots
stretch back

more than 13,000 years.

They live in hundreds of nations
across two continents,

linked by social and cultural
networks.

(exhales)

They invent unique systems

of science, art, and writing;

build some of the world's
largest cities

aligned to the stars;

till he came here.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Native Americans create
another world.

♪ ♪

Then, the Europeans arrive.

♪ ♪

BEAU DICK:
They tried their best

to annihilate us completely.

NARRATOR:
Native Americans face a deadly
crusade to wipe them out.

(chanting)

We're often referred to
in the history books

in the past tense,

but we are not dead.

NARRATOR:
Today they number 50 million
across North and South America.

They maintain deep ties to their
long history in this land.

(horse neighs)

JHANE MYERS:
I can't walk these same lands
and be here where my people were

without trying to acknowledge
their existence.

NARRATOR:
To fight the forces of conquest,

Native Americans tap 10,000
years of beliefs and traditions.

At the intersection

of modern scholarship
and Native knowledge...

(blowing note)

...is a new vision of America

and the people who built it.

This is Native America.

If you have enemies
hunting you down,

the Rio Grande Gorge,
west of Taos, New Mexico,

is the ideal place to hide.

High mountain cliffs,
steep rocky slopes,

and deep valleys
covered in scrub brush

make this unwelcoming terrain--
except to bighorn sheep.

But the inhospitable landscape

is why Severin Fowles
and Jhane Myers are here.

They are on the trail of a
fearsome Native American people

that dominated the American
Southwest for centuries

and used this gorge
to elude capture.

thousands of people,

and across their lands,
tens of thousands of horses.

(horses neighing)

Yet this powerful people
are famous for disappearing--

quickly breaking camp

and leaving no sign
they were ever there.

(bird calling)

FOWLES:
For so many decades,
archaeologists have walked over

this landscape and
actually never found

any evidence of the Comanche
on the ground.

MEYERS:
Well, the Comanches,
by having the horse,

it made them so mobile.

They were able to just pack up
their camp and move.

FOWLES:
We just didn't have the eyes to
see their traces on the ground.

It took working with the tribe
to be able to identify this site

as a center
of Comanche activity.

♪ ♪

In the art is something

that changes the history
of Native America:

the horse.

You're looking at a swarm
of scratches,

but as you look closer,
you'll start to pick out

the way all of these horses
have been depicted

by these lines that sort of
swoop across,

and they're each being ridden
by these warriors

with feather headdresses
coming out behind.

(horse neighs)

(man calling
in Native language)

NARRATOR:
Today, the image of Indians
on horseback is iconic.

But Native Americans
never set eyes on a horse

before the 15th century,

when Europeans bring them
to America

as a weapon of conquest.

The Comanche
and other Native peoples

adapt the horse
as a powerful ally

in the fight to protect
their land and way of life.

WOMAN (in Native language):

(chanting, hooves pounding)

(horse neighs)

This rock art tells a story.

This is commemorating an event,
a very successful horse raid.

♪ ♪

We're looking at possibly
the beginning of our empire

as Comanche people
on horseback.

It's just amazing.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The panel is just one
of hundreds found in this gorge

created by Jhane's ancestors.

These images
and Comanche oral history

are rewriting the story
of Native America

in the wake
of European colonialism.

With the horse,

the Comanche
transform themselves

from small wandering bands
on foot

and expert horsemanship,

they dominate everyone
in their path

and rule an empire
across the American West.

FOWLES:
The Comanche didn't merely seek
to put up with colonialism.

They wanted to do more
than just survive.

They wanted to expand,
they wanted to grow,

they wanted to innovate.

They wanted to build
a new world.

NARRATOR:
And the Comanche are not alone.

(water rushing)

From the mountains in Peru...

(bell rings)

(chanting)

To the forests of California...

♪ ♪

To the plains
of the Southwest...

Native peoples
fight and survive.

♪ ♪

In the face of genocidal warfare
and devastating disease,

how do the Comanche
and other Native Americans

keep their beliefs
and people alive?

It is the end of
nearly a century of Aztec rule.

The Spanish force Aztec workers
to destroy their own temple,

on the same site.

NARRATOR:
This church marks

the military defeat
of the Aztecs,

but it is also the place

where the battle
for people's souls begins.

CARRASCO:
When the Spaniards came
to Mexico,

what they really wanted
was spiritual conquest.

They wanted to get inside
of the Aztec mind

celebrate the clash and fusion
of these two cultures.

(drum tapping)

Aztec beliefs do survive,

and the fight to keep them alive
starts here,

with powerful symbolic acts
of resistance.

Builders take a stone
with the face of an Aztec god

from their temple

and embed it into the church.

CARRASCO:
The masons who constructed
that church

reutilized Aztec stones
in the very foundation and walls

as a way of saying, "Yes, we may
be becoming Christians,

"but we're Christians
of another sort,

and we still believe in
and worship our gods."

NARRATOR:
But there is no place
for other gods or Native ideas

for the European invaders.

A year after contact, in 1493,
the Vatican attacks the Americas

with the "Doctrine
of Discovery,"

proclaiming Europeans can take
Native lands

and kill or enslave
so-called savages

if they don't convert
to Catholicism.

♪ ♪

The Spanish pillage
gold and riches

for themselves, their monarchs,
and the church,

and set out to eradicate
thousands of years

of Native beliefs.

CARRASCO:
This was the place

where Spaniards set up a school

in order to train
the surviving children

of the indigenous nobles

into education
of European style.

NARRATOR:
A Spanish priest,
Friar Bernardino de Sahagún,

takes a unique approach.

He believes the way
to destroy Aztec belief

is to first understand it.

He recruits Native artists
to write and illustrate

an encyclopedia
of Aztec culture.

His intention is to help priests
convert Natives,

but the Natives
have a different agenda.

(footsteps tapping)

Today, the manuscript
is a world away, in Italy.

It's called
the Florentine Codex.

♪ ♪

DIANA MAGALONI KERPEL:
It's 4,000 pages,
perfectly handwritten.

2,000 and more images,
dearly painted,

and it has kept its secrets
secret

until very recently.

NARRATOR:
For art historian
Diana Magaloni,

the 12 volumes of the codex

offer a unique firsthand account
of Aztec history and culture.

MAGALONI KERPEL:
It is a voice
that is never heard.

It is not our interpretation
of the indigenous people.

It is their voices,

their thoughts on history,

and their point of view.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The Native authors chronicle
the Spanish invasion.

♪ ♪

In 1519, Spanish soldiers

bring 11 ships, 500 men,
and 13 horses to Mexico.

♪ ♪

They plant the cross

and embark on a campaign
of conquest

for God and country.

The Native authors
write in Spanish on the left.

On the right, they use
their own language, Nahuatl.

When Diana compares
the two accounts,

she discovers the Nahuatl tells
a very different story.

The Native Nahuatl records
in gory detail

a massacre of unarmed Aztecs
by Spanish soldiers.

♪ ♪

VOICEOVER (speaking Nahuatl):

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The authors present a sanitized
version of the story in Spanish,

but in their native language,

they secretly chronicle
the bloody details.

MAGALONI KERPEL:
There's subversion
in the Florentine Codex,

a very intellectual and potent
subversion against colonialism.

NARRATOR:
The Aztec artists
use their own language

to preserve their history

and subvert the mission
of the church and Europeans

by chronicling the savagery
of the conquerors.

♪ ♪

(men shouting, swords clashing)

Almost 1,500 miles north,
and 150 years later,

the Comanche also leave
a firsthand account

of their clash
with the Spaniards--

etched in stone

in the Rio Grande Gorge.

♪ ♪

Each panel depicts a scene
as if from a movie.

A Comanche tracker follows
buffalo to a watering hole.

Warriors defend their village
in an action-packed battle.

There's even a classic
closing shot:

A Comanche rides off
into the sunset.

(horse neighs)

The panel we're heading to
is right over here.

NARRATOR:
The stories come alive
by deciphering the details.

I am tracing the lines

of what looks like the really
distinctive style of headdress,

with eagle feathers

coming out the top.

NARRATOR:
It's a style worn
by the Comanche.

So what we get here is
this great battle picture,

with pedestrian warriors

that Native people use
to depict a foreigner.

And then what gives us
a timestamp

for this panel

is what looks to be a gun.

NARRATOR:
The gun is a common
European musket,

carried by a conquistador.

MONTGOMERY:
We're seeing
the first encounter

between the Spanish here,
the Comanche,

and the horse.

NARRATOR:
The rock art may memorialize
a pivotal moment in history...

♪ ♪

a battle in which the Comanche
seize the horse.

(people chanting and drumming)

(horse snorts)

(men chanting and drumming)

♪ ♪

WOMAN (in Native language):

(chanting and drumming)

(hooves pounding)

(chanting and drumming)

(chanting and drumming)

FOWLES:
They took this agent
of imperialism

and entirely turned it around.

They became the most expert
horse breeders

in a remarkably fast period
of time,

within one generation of being
introduced to the horse.

(hooves pounding)

NARRATOR:
Before the Comanche
got the horse,

they were known by other names,
including Numunu, "the people."

Around 1706
was the first reference

of the people
that we call today the Comanche.

MORGAN TOSEE:
Hup!

ARTERBERRY:
The name implies
"those who like to fight."

The horse made us more mobile.

You know, it really sealed
the identity

of who we are today.

♪ ♪

(Tosee urging horse)

NARRATOR:
The Comanches' connection
to the horse

continues over generations,

with descendants
like Morgan Tosee,

just outside Lawton, Oklahoma.

TOSEE:
Get in the pen!

We're about the same two animals
come together,

(gate clanks)

Today, Morgan's getting horses
ready

to parade in tomorrow's
annual Comanche Fair.

TOSEE:
Treat them good,
and they'll be good to you.

(horse snorts)

(crickets chirping)

We'll breathe in their nose.

They know us from here.

Get used to us
and they smell us.

They know who we are.

(crickets chirping)

Well, here's your horses.

Oh, nice.

NARRATOR:
Jhane and her son Phillip

attend the fair every year.

TOSEE:
Phillip, this is your horse
right here,

which you're gonna ride.

His name is Blaze.

Ah, Blaze.

TOSEE:
This is your horse,
Blue Eyes.

MYERS:
Hey, Blue Eyes.

(Phillip and Myers
talking softly)

MYERS:
Your great-great-great-
grandmother

loved riding horses.

When people were driving
their cars

into town on Saturday,

she'd put on her buckskin

and get on her Paint Horse

and she'd ride to the town
of Apache, Oklahoma.

So just remember that tomorrow
when you're in the parade.

Ride with pride.

You're doing something

that our people have been doing

ever since the beginning
of our time.

(horse snorts)

NARRATOR:
Sharing stories and traditions
from generation to generation

binds people
and preserves culture

in the face of colonization.

Such seemingly small acts
are a strategy of resistance

that spans the continents.

(blows note)

PUMA QUISPE SINGONA:
People in the Andes

have been very clever,

in spite of all the conquest
and the colonization,

to maintain our traditions

thanks to the process

of interweaving
their belief system

with the new belief system
coming in.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The Spanish carry their cross
and campaign for riches

3,000 miles south,

and in 1533,

defeat the largest empire
in pre-Columbian America:

the Inca.

♪ ♪

But high in the Andes,

the conquistadors' quest to wipe
out indigenous beliefs fails.

An ancient tradition--
a technological marvel--

survives unbroken to this day.

(people talking softly)

(calling in Quechua)

NARRATOR:
Here in Q'eswachaka,

700 people from four villages
gather

to build a suspension bridge
made entirely from grass.

(man calling)

(rope strains and snaps)

NARRATOR:
Each year, the old bridge
is cut down.

(crashes)

And the villagers begin weaving
a new one

blade by blade.

♪ ♪

The villagers speak Quechua,

once the language
of the Inca Empire,

and still spoken today
by over eight million people.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(man calls)

(man talking)

♪ ♪

(calls)

♪ ♪

(men heaving)

♪ ♪

VICTORIANO ARIZAPANA HUAYHUA
(speaking Quechua and Spanish):

NARRATOR:
Victoriano Arizapana Huayhua
is a chakakamayoq,

a traditional leader
of the bridge builders.

HUAYHUA (speaking Quechua):

(speaking Quechua)

♪ ♪

(river rushing)

NARRATOR:
The three-day ceremony literally
bridges the past to the present.

It is still alive
and it's not a spirituality,

it's not a religion.

It's a way of life

that we are still living
in this way

in all of our communities.

FOWLES:
This panel is a really
extraordinary one.

What we're looking at are
a whole array of armored horses.

You can see the warriors here
with the war bonnet flowing.

Right.

The one thing

that we haven't been able
to understand,

there's a sort of
unusual figure over here.

It seems to be a kind of
shield bearer,

standing erect.

NARRATOR:
Sev is hoping

Jhane can shed light
on a mystery:

Among all these horses,
why is one warrior standing?

Well, I think if you take this

and you think about the context

and how Comanches
were great horsemen,

when you turn it like this,
the figure changes,

and you see that it's
another horse and rider.

♪ ♪

Well, that's a...

That really resolves,
actually,

a number of inconsistencies
in that figure.

The rock art depicts
a whirling attack formation.

U.S. cavalry reports
the Comanche used this tactic

to wreak havoc
among the mounted troops.

This is precisely the kind
of circle

that we see
in those 19th-century records,

which makes this
the earliest evidence we have

of that kind
of collective horsemanship.

NARRATOR:
From the early 1700s
to the mid-1800s,

the Comanche turn the horse
against the Europeans

to continuously defeat them
in battle.

FOWLES:
The Comanche took some
of the tricks of the colonizers

and turned them entirely
against them.

They did this by virtue
of their mastery of the horse

and the kind of equestrian
movement that that enabled.

The horse provided
an opportunity for the people

to really, you know, raid
and leave an area rapidly.

And the horse
was an exchange item.

It was currency.

♪ ♪

The Comanche transform the horse

from a weapon
of European conquest,

into the foundation of their own
military and economic power.

(Tosee urging horse)

NARRATOR:
If anyone needed a horse,
they had to buy it

from the Comanche.

♪ ♪

FOWLES:
They were moving
over vast territories,

to engage in a complicated
economy

that moved horses, captives,
guns

throughout the colonial world.

NARRATOR:
In the mid-19th century,
300 years after contact,

and for 75 years after the
formation of the United States,

the Comanche carry out raids

nearly as far as Canada
and Mexico City.

(horse neighs)

They rule an empire from
the Rio Grande into Oklahoma

and from eastern Texas
to the Rockies.

(birds chirping)

They earn the title
Lords of the Plains.

(horse whinnying)

ARTERBERRY:
American Indians
are always portrayed

as kind of this simple race
of people,

but when you think about
the fact that the Comanches

controlled a vast empire,

controlling other tribes
and other nations,

even European nations,

you know, that kind of puts it
in a different light.

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR:
Yet today, etchings on the rock
are some of the only

physical evidence
of their vast empire.

FOWLES:
A lot of these
squiggly lines.

The Comanche weren't interested
in building monuments.

They were interested in
commanding routes of movement.

And we see this in the rock art.

This is imagery
that is really about

the gestural movement
over the rock.

They're moving
lightly over the rock

as they moved lightly
over the land.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The Comanche's style of art--
with its quick, light gestures--

mirrors the way they live
on the land.

(crickets chirping)

And like the Comanche,
the Aztec artists

also find a unique way

to encode their beliefs

in the pages
of the Florentine Codex--

color.

Diana Magaloni

investigates the scene
of the death of Moctezuma,

the emperor who first meets
the Spanish.

He was not a human being,
he was a god,

and his cape was made
out of turquoise

and the feathers
of hummingbirds.

They used Maya blue,

this beautiful color
that is bright and powerful

and the color
of the Caribbean water.

But when they kill him,

his cape has lost the Maya blue,
the power.

He is as dark
as the dark waters.

He is dead and with his death,
his being god is lost.

NARRATOR:
The absence of Maya blue
evokes the physical death

of Moctezuma as man
and spiritual death as a god.

(drumming)

But there is more to the color
than meets the eye.

Through chemical analysis,

Diana finds this blue
is highly unusual.

16th century painters in Europe
make paint

with easily accessible inorganic
materials like minerals.

But the Aztec artists
create their paint, like blue,

from living things--
orchid stems, parasitic insects,

and extract of Brazil wood.

MAGALONI KERPEL:
What they are doing
in their paintings

is actually using paints
that have power.

They were actually
creating images

that had an energy
in themselves.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
There are over a thousand images
in brilliant color in the codex,

but in the final volume,
there are only three.

The death of Moctezuma
is one of them.

♪ ♪

The reason why
is found in their account

of the fall of the Aztec capital
in 1521.

♪ ♪

MAN (speaking Native language):

they bring disease...

♪ ♪

Smallpox, influenza,
bubonic plague, malaria,

and many more
to which Native Americans

had never been exposed.

The population plummets
from 100 million

to less than ten million.

♪ ♪

It is among the largest
population losses in history,

as high as World War I and II
combined.

♪ ♪

And as the Codex writers

document how their ancestors
succumbed to disease in 1521,

they are struck
by another deadly pestilence.

KEPLER:
While they were doing
these books in 1576,

there is this pestilence.

They don't know what it is,

but it's only killing
indigenous people.

And so, death starts to take
away all the people you know.

You are painting the book
and perhaps your mother,

your teacher, your best friend
were dying outside.

NARRATOR:
The stark,
black and white images

are more than just
an artistic choice.

The artists, sick and dying,
had no way to acquire

the materials to make paint.

KEPLER:
What they decided to do
is to continue painting,

use very little paint
in specific images

while the world around them

was actually disappearing,
like, in fact, disappearing.

♪ ♪

Many, many, many died.

NARRATOR:
The codex authors fight
to preserve their culture

in words and colors.

NARRATOR:
In the past, their ancestors

had created cities, temples,
statues.

They couldn't do that anymore.

What they had at hand was they
were the keepers of knowledge.

And if they would portray that
through paintings,

that knowledge will be kept.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Pestilence rips across
the Americas.

their horses.

(drums beating)

(men chanting
in Native language)

WOMAN (in Native language):

(gunshots, horse whinnying)

(gunshot)

(loud gunshot)

(horse whinnying)

WOMAN (in Native language):

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
After U.S. troops slaughter
the Comanche herd,

Quanah Parker, the last
free Comanche chief, surrenders.

♪ ♪

The Comanche are forced
from their homeland

onto a reservation
called Fort Sill.

They become one of the more
than 200 Native nations

the U.S. removes
from their land.

The original peoples
of the Americas

go from living freely
across nearly two billion acres

of the continental U.S.

into just 50 million acres
of reservations.

Nearly 98% of their territory
is taken from them.

That same conquest mentality
exists to this day.

As recently as 2005,

the U.S. Supreme Court cited
the 15th century

Vatican's Doctrine of Discovery

to deny land rights
of the Haudenosaunee,

the people who created
the first democracy in America.

TADODAHO SID HILL:
For them to use that

in the court of justice,

to us,
is exactly what justice isn't.

And we haven't lost those values

and those understandings

that are so ancient.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Native Americans survive
devastating disease

and a concerted effort
to kill them off.

How do they maintain
their communities

in the face of this
historical trauma?

♪ ♪

You all come over here
with me.

NARRATOR:
Hutke Fields is the Principal
Chief of the Natchez Nation,

in modern Oklahoma.

FIELDS (speaking
Native language):

So I want you guys to follow me.

We'll gather the medicine
while they watch the fire.

(speaking Native language):

ALL: (speaking Native language):

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR:
Hutke taps into knowledge
preserved from the past

to make medicine.

We need some green cedar,
so we have to go over this way.

Well, here's one.

Here's another one
we need.

Get a little bit
of this cedar.

You can get one, yes.

FIELDS:
These herbs, and plants,
and roots that we use

are important to keeping
our people healthy

while they're learning
our traditions and customs.

You guys
with those branches,

bring them around here
and put them by the pot.

There is a resurgence of effort
to maintain our customs,

and our traditions,
and our languages.

Now I'd like to honor
your families.

Hold your arms out.

♪ ♪

(puffs)

♪ ♪

(puffs)

(exhales)

♪ ♪

FIELDS:
I am going to offer a prayer
and cleansing medicine

so that these kids can continue
their interest

in their Native spirituality.

♪ ♪

The whole idea is to keep
our relationship

with our earth
and our universe strong.

♪ ♪

If you've been doing it
that way for 19,000 years,

you ought to continue it.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Ancient medicine-making
traditions

are healing the Natchez Nation.

♪ ♪

Other tribes are reviving
ancient practices to heal

not just themselves,
but also the land.

MAN:
Coming in right here.

Right on,
close on the edge of the line.

NARRATOR:
In Northern California,

the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
are reigniting a tradition

that stretches back millennia.

(fire crackling)

To fix the forest, they burn it.

Valentin Lopez is chairman
of the Amah Mutsun.

VALENTIN LOPEZ:
Our ancestors
burned these lands.

It would generate
tremendous seed germination

and seed growth.

And so it would attract
animals in

and it would be easier
for them to hunt.

NARRATOR:
But, for more than a century,

But what happened is the forests
are getting overgrown,

certain plants and animals
have taken over,

often from other countries,
invasive species.

And so the Amah Mutsun,

their practices, like fire,

was a huge part of how
they managed this landscape.

NARRATOR:
Now, after decades
of negotiation,

the Amah Mutsun
are burning again.

Creator, we are here.

Please hear our prayer.

(Lopez chanting in
Native language, tapping)

LOPEZ:
Creator, for thousands of years

our ancestors
traditionally burned, Creator,

and so today we have a fire
here.

and may those plants provide
for the birds, the insects,

the four-legged, and for
people themselves, Creator.

(blowing)

We've got a nice,
good controlled jump.

You just have to keep
your eyes on some of those.

NARRATOR:
California firefighters
manage the fire,

building what they call
a controlled burn.

If you can just maybe give it
a blast real quick, please?

Where do you want it?
Right up top.

There you go.

HELLER:
What we've been learning
is the way that

Native American people
were taking care of the land

was actually a huge part
of driving biodiversity.

♪ ♪

The fire keeps invasive species
at bay.

(tapping)

(Lopez chanting
in Native language)

LOPEZ:
Our people learned
by trial and error

and observing the patterns
of Mother Nature.

(chanting continues)

They learned about
the four seasons

and the traditions and ways.

(chanting continues)

And it was the power
of observation

that they acquired their
knowledge and passed it on.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Fire is medicine for the land.

♪ ♪

This ancient practice
rejuvenates the forest,

and reviving traditions
is resurrecting

the Natchez and Amah Mutson
people.

♪ ♪

(birds chirping)

Back in the Rio Grande Gorge,

the Comanche are reconnecting
with their ancestral land.

Severin Fowles and Jhane Myers

believe they are in
the landscape

that forged the Comanche.

Right over here.

NARRATOR:
Now, they may have the evidence
to prove it:

tipis.

This is a panel,
one of many panels up here

that's depicting tipis,

and this is a really excellent
example of that.

FOWLES:
We're looking at
two giant, oversized tipis.

Here we can see the strip
of the base of the tipi

down at the bottom,
the poles of the interior

rising up
all the way to the top,

the smoke flap is open and then
the tipi poles at the very top.

MYERS:
Beautiful.

we still use the four-pole
method that you see here.

Oh, right up here.

MYERS:
Yes, that's how
we frame the tipis up.

FOWLES:
From an archaeological
perspective,

it feels like
such a strong assertion

of presence in this landscape.

♪ ♪

MYERS:
Seeing this place makes me see
that my people were here,

this was our land,

probably overlooking the tipis

and an encampment down below
with horses.

So it really makes me happy
to see this.

NARRATOR:
These images raise
an incredible possibility.

FOWLES:
It's as if the artist
was sitting here

looking out
upon his horses,

playing in the midst
of a big tipi encampment

and then depicting
that scene on the rock.

NARRATOR:
Sev suspects the etchings depict
a Comanche settlement below.

There, Lindsay Montgomery finds
stones arranged in circles.

MONTGOMERY:
What we're finding here
are tipi rings.

and you can kind of
walk around it

and see all the stones
that have been placed

in this circle here,

which would have been used to
hold down the hide for the tipi.

FOWLES:
We've seen now
a number of images of tipis

scratched onto the rocks,

but here we're now getting
actual tangible evidence

of those tipis
on the ground.

NARRATOR:
The stones reveal
where tipis once stood.

FOWLES:
This is a lovely one.

This is quite large
in fact.

Yeah, it looks about
four meters or so,

and then you have
the kind of entrance here

facing to the east.

So would they have
horses here?

Yeah, so we would imagine
horses being kept

in the middle
of the tipi encampment.

MYERS:
Nice.

♪ ♪

because all of my relatives
were here.

They were here before us.

♪ ♪

MYERS:
They probably prayed for us
and, you know,

prayed that someday
we would be here

and our culture would continue.

♪ ♪

MYERS:
I can't walk these same lands
and be here where my people were

without trying
to acknowledge them

and acknowledge their existence.

So I want to offer
to the four directions

what I carry with me always.

It's a mixture of tobacco,
which takes our prayers

straight up to the creator,

it's a mixture of Indian perfume
which grows wild in our country.

♪ ♪

Thank you for praying for me.

(voice breaking):
Thank you for praying
for my children.

Thank you for having the courage
and the strength

to go through everything
that you did...

(sniffles)

in order for us to exist
and thrive as a people.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
This secluded gorge
was once a home

to one of the most powerful
people of the Americas.

At their height,

they roamed freely across
the American Southwest,

numbering 40,000 people and
tens of thousands of horses.

Half of their 15,000 members
live around Lawton, Oklahoma.

What was once a reservation

is now the center
of the Comanche Nation.

(tapping)

Thousands gather here each year
for the Comanche Nation Fair.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Like Jhane and her son Phillip,
the people honor traditions

by passing them forward
to the next generation.

♪ ♪

MYERS:
I know my grandmother
is looking down and smiling,

and all the things
that she taught me

I've taught my children.

And to be able
to wear my outfit today,

it just makes my heart happy.

♪ ♪

I want people to see us
and just think, "Oh, my gosh,

"that person is Comanche.

"Those people,
they're not historical,

"they're still alive today.

Look, they are thriving."

NARRATOR:
And the spirit of the horse

remains at the heart
of the Comanche Nation.

When the moon is full,
the Comanche believe

those mustangs massacred in the
Texas panhandle still run free.

WOMAN (in Native language):

♪ ♪

WOMAN (in Native language):

NARRATOR:
The Comanche and Native peoples

across the Americas
keep traditions alive

and tap ancient knowledge
to ensure their future.

(speaking Native language):

(speaking Native language):

♪ ♪

FIELDS:
It was our tribal beliefs,

our customs, traditions,
languages

that helped keep us together,

that helped us survive.

NARRATOR:
Even the Florentine Codex,

meant to convert indigenous
people to Christianity,

ends up preserving
Aztec culture.

MAGALONI KERPEL:
It is not only preservation,

it is almost
like a magical preservation.

Once you inscribe something
in a sacred book of time,

it was the belief

things would exist,
continue to exist.

♪ ♪

FOWLES:
When Europeans first came over
to the Americas,

the first thing they did
was to take the cross

and plant it in the ground.

And that sense of being able
to take

the rituals, the practices,
the relationships of one place

and transplant them whole cloth
into another landscape,

that's foreign, that's strange.

♪ ♪

For Native peoples,

when you move into
a new landscape

you become a new type of person.

You enter into a new kind
of religious relationship

with the land.

(exhales)

SINGONA:
The spirituality
of our Inca ancestors

lives in our way of life.

In the way that we remember
where we come from

in order to have a
stronger presence in this world.

(blowing horn)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
When Europeans
step onto these shores,

they are blinded by narrow ideas
of wealth and religion.

They don't see the richness and
true value of Native America.

♪ ♪

Thousands of years
of advanced knowledge

built into cities aligned
to the sun moon and stars.

♪ ♪

Experimental agriculture
producing new foods--

potatoes, corn, and more--

enough to feed
a hundred million people.

And radical ideas
about governments

that serve the people
that will later inspire

the U.S. Constitution.

Native Americans
create a way of life

that is both a scientific
understanding of nature

and a spiritual quest
to find their place within it.

♪ ♪

RONALD WADSWORTH:
We were taught to live
in balance with nature.

Each individual has tremendous
power to change his world.

We are a microcosm
of the universe itself,

so how we behave,
how we take care of ourselves,

reflects in the earth.

LEIGH KUWANWISIWMA:
We today live
under one life philosophy

which is principled upon
compassion, reciprocity,

stewardship,
and really about humility.

♪ ♪

JIM ENOTE:
The world lives with us.

We live with it.

♪ ♪

tens of thousands of years ago.

♪ ♪

(eagle screeching)

(chanting in Native language)

♪ ♪

The ideas that built
Native America are still here,

alive in the land
and the people.

♪ ♪