Original subtitles

You have penned your animals on sacred ground.

You walk up on the mountain and see some writing on an old stone

and come down here and tell me I've to tear down my barn?

I came here to tell you I'm sorry for what the whites did to the Indians.

Before I met you, I didn't know anything about the Indians.

I'd seen them in pictures in books scalping people and burning their houses.

Daddy! Daddy! Wake up, everybody! The barn's on fire!

Most of us tend to be convinced of the rightness of our heritage,

our traditions, our way of life

until some event happens that shakes our deepest beliefs to their foundations.

On a da y in 1939, two strangers came to our mountain.

A s a consequence of their visit,

we were to learn that others ha d roots there which reached deeper than our own.

I think she's sick, Daddy. She won't even get up to eat.

- She hasn't been eating much lately, huh? - No. Not much of an appetite.

Could be a touch of arthritis, honey. Maybe an infection.

If she's not better by tomorrow, we'll call Doc Culler.

Something I can do for you?

We need a place to spend the night.

Uh-huh.

Any chance you'd let us sleep in your barn?

- Where you folks from? - North Carolina.

- Just passing through? - Oh, we'll be on our way in the morning.

Make yourselves comfortable.

- I'm Matthew Teskigi. - John Walton.

- This is my grandfather, Joseph Teskigi. - Nice to meet you.

This is my daughter, Elizabeth.

- Are you really an Indian? - Really.

Something's wrong with her. Her name's Myrtle.

Could be bloat.

That's what I thought, but there's no swelling.

It doesn't always show.

Think you can make her well again, sir?

We will try.

Daddy? Elizabeth? Mama says supper's ready.

We'll be right in, son.

- Daddy, could we invite them to supper? - I guess we can handle that.

You men like to have supper with us?

Oh, we have our own food. We don't want to be any bother.

We know you have your own food,

but Mama thought you might like something warm.

You did not have to do it, but thank you just the same.

Why don't you bring the grain sack over here? We can use it like a table.

Great, honored spirit, giver of all life,

thank you for this nourishment and for kind friends.

Amen.

It's a pretty cup.

I had this since I was six. Made and given to me by my mother.

That's me there.

It must be awfully old.

I never did care for goat's milk, which was all we had to drink.

To get me to drink it, my mother made me this special cup.

She told me if I did not drink the milk,

I would always stay this size and never grow as tall as my father.

Was your father tall?

I was told he was. I never really saw him. He died when I was a baby.

Have you been sleeping out on the ground?

Yes, but I'd rather have a nice soft bed. Grandfather says I'm soft.

Even at home he always sleeps on the floor.

The old ways are healthier.

You know much about the old ways?

Do you think you could get Myrtle better again?

I'm not sure. I can try.

- What you need is goldenseal. - I know where there's some.

We'll look for it in the morning.

Good night, everybody.

- Where are you off to? - The Dew Drop Inn.

- Oh, yes. Well, give my love to Thelma. - All right.

Hey. I thought you said them Indians was over there in the barn.

I thought they were.

Everything all right?

My grandfather just wanted to look around.

Why don't you come up and sit a while?

Ben, move on down there, will you, son?

This is my father. This is Mr. Teskigi. Mr. Walton. My son, Ben.

- Good evening. - Have a seat, Mr. Teskigi.

And this is his grandson, Matthew.

- Matthew. - Hi.

- Hi. - Hi.

Have you seen our farm, Mr. Teskigi?

GRANDFATHER JOSEPH: It is good land.

Are you a farmer, Mr. Teskigi?

I have a very small farm. We are poor people.

We know something about that around here.

Mmm. You are of the Cherokee tribe, hmm?

I am.

Oh, the Cherokees once lived all over the Appalachians

and they were driven west.

I've always heard the Cherokees were great hunters.

Do you ever use a bow and arrow?

Grandfather taught me when I was a little boy.

- Did you ever hit anything? - The side of our barn.

Our people were good hunters. They were also very intelligent.

They were the first Indians to have a written alphabet.

A great leader named Sequoya invented it.

Sounds like those big trees they have out in California.

- They were named in his honor. - Sequoia giganteum.

And I read that in 1827 the Cherokees published a newspaper.

We did that last year.

You and your grandson have come a long way. Must be a reason.

I was born in this part of the country.

I have good reason to believe our sacred burial ground is on the mountain.

How you gonna find it?

My people left directions on a great stone.

- Do you know where the stone is? - Somewhere in the mountains.

How are you gonna find it?

There is a scar on the mountainside shaped like an arrow.

Framed between two pines, it points the way to a circle of stones.

There is written the way to the burial ground.

Indian Rock.

- Is it far from here? - Not far. Not far at all.

- Just up the side of our mountain. - Will you show it to us?

Would be glad to in the morning when it's light.

I thought you said we were gonna go look for the goldenseal.

If you made a promise, keep it.

You go with the child and I'll go up to the mountain.

I will see you all in the morning, sir. Good night to all.

Good night.

Slow down, young man.

Been a long time

since anybody said anything like that to me.

I'm old enough to be your father.

- Have a little respect for age. - Yes, sir.

Any of this land around here familiar to you?

I was an infant when our people left here,

but I was told that the land gave of itself...

- Yes. - And that game was plentiful.

Yes, there's still plenty of game all around here.

Well, we've lived through a war and the Depression by living off the land.

- You have had many wives? - Only one. And you?

Oh, I have outlived four wives.

Let's rest.

The first I married when I was 17.

It was an adventure.

Since we did not marry in our own tribe,

it was arranged that I was supposed to marry a girl in another reservation.

Only twice did I leave the reservation.

This time, now, and that other time when I went to take my bride.

Facing marriage is frightening enough,

but it didn't help when, at that same time, I had to face the outside world.

I was brave when I left home.

But on the way, I came to the first city I have ever seen.

I remember seeing a young couple.

The girl was looking adoringly at the man who wore his hair short.

My hair fell past my shoulders.

It struck me that if I wore my hair as short as his

that my intended bride

could look at me with the same favorable look.

Adoration.

The first barber turned me away

saying that they served whites only.

The second, a shop run by a negro, took me in and cut my hair.

When I got to the reservation where my intended wife waited,

all the men in the family laughed and said that I didn't look like a real Indian.

I thought I'd lost the young woman's hand,

but when she came closer and noticed the scent in the lotion

that the barber had put on my hair, she found it to her liking.

To this day, instead of bear grease,

I dress my hair with a potion called witch hazel.

Witch hazel, I know it well.

- Find some? - Not it.

- Do you live in a tepee? - No, I live in a house.

- Like ours? - Not as big. Not as nice.

Where is it?

On a reservation in North Carolina.

What's that?

Probably someone kin to me made this.

When my people still owned all the land,

we were free to hunt and fish and live however we wanted to.

- Can't you still? - As long as we stay on the reservation.

Well, we're almost there.

The Indian Rock. I hope you won't be too disappointed.

I've lived here all my life and I've never seen an Indian burial ground.

I have faith in our tribal legends.

I would like to go on alone.

She doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I agree with you, Elizabeth. No, she don't.

- We couldn't find the goldenseal. - Goldenseal? There's a lot of it.

There's a big patch of it right halfway up the mountain.

- Elizabeth knows where it is. - Someone dug it all up.

Well, that was a dumb thing to do as you might say.

I have found our burial ground.

Where is it?

It is here under your barn.

- Is that so? - Grandfather, are you sure?

You mean there are people underneath our barn, dead people?

My ancestors.

The writing on the stone leaves no question.

Well, now that puts us in sort of an awkward position, don't it, John?

This building must be torn down.

- Oh, now, come on. - It must be done.

You have penned your animals on sacred ground.

- The ground has been desecrated. - Now, wait just a minute.

You walk up on the mountain and see some writing on an old stone

and come down here and tell me I've to tear down my barn?

Like hell I will!

- The ground must be purified. - Now, you listen to me.

I'm not gonna tear down this barn for you or anybody else.

This is crazy.

There was nothing on this land when my pa came here.

- There was a burial ground here. - How was he supposed to know that?

There was no cemetery here, no tombstones, no grave!

Take it easy, John. We can work things out some way.

- We can tear down this barn. - No.

- Yes! - No!

Then we will find another way.

Now, listen here, I told you two you could stay,

but I've changed my mind. I want you to leave.

He's right, Grandfather. We should go.

- John, I think you're being too hasty. - I'm not being hasty, Pa.

This barn's as much yours as it's mine.

You put it up plank by plank. You wanna see it torn down?

- Daddy, listen to Grandpa. - Let's go home, Grandfather.

No. No. Let us sit down and talk over this thing until we find a solution.

- We can tear down the barn. - I told you to leave!

Come on, Grandfather, let's go.

John, we ought to look into what he's saying.

Look into what, Pa? He's not willing to talk.

He doesn't wanna sit down and talk about this.

When I first built here, there was nothing here

- but maybe a pile of rocks. - All he wants to do is tear it down, Pa.

There's no use talking to him.

I know. We could listen to what he says anyway...

Grandpa, isn't there something we could do for him?

What are we supposed to do? Tear down the barn?

There's probably a whole bunch of old bones under it.

Jim-Bob, don't talk about bones. This thing is creepy enough as it is.

Is the land really theirs, Grandpa?

The land was theirs once. Now it's ours.

- Well, who says it's ours? - I do.

Elizabeth, that's a big question.

People been trying to answer that for hundreds of years.

There's probably a million ghosts out there.

They all come out at night and do a war dance.

Jim-Bob, sometimes you are so juvenile.

Yeah, I guess.

Let's put it this way, Elizabeth.

Suppose some people with different colored skins is to come here and say

they wanted our place and told us to get off of it?

- Could they do that? - But that's never gonna happen.

Daddy, that's what we did to the Indians.

This is our land and it's gonna stay our land.

It's been a long day. Now, come on, off to bed. Come on.

- Good night, honey. - Good night.

- Good night. - Good night.

John, I had a long walk with that old man this morning

and I think I know what's in his heart.

Tearing down our barn is what's in his heart.

Well, maybe, but I think I know what's most important to him.

He wants to know that when he crosses over into eternity

that he can be buried where his people are.

I know that feeling real well.

I wanna be buried right up here on Walton's Mountain.

Only I'm a lot younger than he is, and will last longer maybe.

I understand all that, Pa.

You say you want our barn torn down?

No, I'm just saying it takes one old man to understand another old man.

Pa, we usually we see eye to eye on most things.

How come we're on the opposite sides of the fence in this?

Yeah, it's just so sad. Just think, all they've lost.

- We weren't the ones that did it. - Weren't we?

You can't turn back history.

Always the white man has shamed us.

- The Waltons were nice to us. - Don't be so quick to excuse them.

These are your ancestors sleeping under cow dung.

If the white man hadn't come, this land would've been all yours now,

and I didn't have to walk all the way from North Carolina to find a place to die.

- Let's go home, Grandfather. - This mountain is my home.

Grandfather, what are you saying?

The white man has told me where to live.

I will not let him tell me where to die.

Daddy! Daddy! Wake up, everybody! The barn's on fire!

Get Myrtle out of here! Get her out now!

Come on, get the buckets! Somebody get the hose! Come on!

Myrtle. Where's Myrtle?

Myrtle!

Come on, get out of here. I'll deal with you later.

Come on, Pa, bring those buckets over here!

Here, Daddy!

Hey, Ben!

Watch out!

Hurry, more water!

Good girl! Good girl!

I think we've put it out.

Well, we're gonna have to rebuild these walls.

Good thing the animals got out.

Lucky it didn't reach the house.

- You all right, Elizabeth? - I'm scared.

It's over now.

Did you start the fire?

I have done it.

Old man, get off this place before I do something I'll be sorry for.

The sacred ground must be purified with fire.

Next time I will not fail.

Jason, get the Sheriff.

- Grandpa? - Uh-huh?

- Why aren't you working on the barn? - Sheriff says to leave it for evidence.

Want some help?

Yes, I always could use some help from you.

Just hold this nail... No, you hold the board while I nail it.

What's gonna happen to Mr. Teskigi?

Well, he's in jail now, and he's likely to stay there for a while.

It's our fault, isn't it?

No, that old man got himself into that fix he's in.

- Yeah, but it's because of us. - No.

It's because of something that happened years and years before we was even born.

Still, I'd like to say I'm sorry.

Elizabeth, you mustn't go around blaming yourself for something

that happened so many years ago and that you couldn't help.

But I know your feeling, though.

I've been having some of the same kind of feeling all this morning.

Fence mended.

- I hear you're looking for me, Ep. - Yeah.

- What have I done this time? - Oh, I tell you, Judge,

I'd have to think twice, maybe three times before I arrested you.

Now, what's this about you locking up some old Indian?

No respect for age?

Yeah, well, then I guess you heard about John Walton's barn.

Mmm-hmm. You... You think the man's guilty?

Oh, he admits it, Judge.

In fact, he claims next time he's gonna burn her all the way to the ground.

Hmm.

What are we... What are we gonna do with him?

Well, Judge, it's up to you.

Yeah.

Jim-Bob, I need a ride to Rockfish.

- What for? - It's personal.

Well, next time I'm going over there, I'll give you a ride.

This has to be today.

Elizabeth, I'm not running a taxi service.

If you were, how much would you charge?

- How much do you have? - A quarter.

- That's not enough. - I did some sewing for Erin.

When she gets paid, she's gonna give me a dime. Thirty-five cents?

Still not enough.

All right, 50 cents, but I don't know how I'm gonna get it.

Well, 50 cents is enough to pay for that inner tube

they've been holding for me at the junk shop.

Okay, Elizabeth, you got yourself a taxi service.

Well, morning, Miss Elizabeth.

- I have to see Mr. Teskigi. - Yeah? What do you wanna see him for?

- I have to talk to him. - Oh.

- Your folks know you're here? - Jim-Bob brought me.

You haven't got any concealed weapons or any hacksaws

to help him escape, have you?

- No, sir. - Sure.

Come on.

Chief, you got company.

I'm sorry you're in jail.

Me, too.

I thought you might like a visitor.

Thank you.

It cost me 50 cents to come over here.

I've been in Sheriff Bridges' office, but I've never been back here. It's awful.

I came here to tell you I'm sorry for what the whites did to the Indians.

Before I met you, I didn't know anything about the Indians.

I'd seen them in pictures in books and in the movies,

but they were always on the warpath, scalping people and burning their houses.

But you're not like that. You're real people just like us.

Your skin isn't even red. It's tan like we get in the summertime.

I'm afraid you don't know what I'm trying to say.

In our legends,

it is told at one time all things living were in the sky.

They lived on sky rock, and this was before the world was made.

All the animals could talk to man and man understood them.

Then man dishonored the privilege

and he was stricken deaf from the talk of the animals and birds.

The Great One over the sky rock

punished man so that he could only understand his own kind.

And most tragically today,

man cannot always understand man.

Now, Mr. Teskigi, this is not a formal hearing.

You have caused considerable anguish to a citizen of this county

by trying to burn his barn down.

Now, frankly, I don't know what to do with you,

but maybe by the end of this hearing we will.

We've asked Mr. Cross to step in here to look out for your interests.

Mr. Cross, do you have any statement to make at this time?

Well, I've met with Mr. Teskigi, Your Honor,

and I'm sorry to say he's been completely uncommunicative.

- You mean he won't talk to you? - That's right, sir.

Do you have anything to say, Mr. Walton?

The harm's already been done, Your Honor.

I'd just like to make sure he doesn't come around my place anymore.

Well, sounds reasonable to me.

How does that sound to you, Mr. Teskigi?

The ground must be purified.

Well, surely not at the cost of John Walton's barn.

- It must be done. - No, Mr. Teskigi, it must not be done.

We here in Virginia are tolerant of a good many intrusions on our way of life,

but barn burning is savage and reprehensible,

and we cannot and will not allow that to happen.

May I remind you that your actions are no different

than when the settlers first came here and your forbearers pillaged and burned

and went on the warpath, burning and killing at will.

I was told by a young friend this morning

that she had found me to be a human being.

This came to her as some surprise because of the way she was taught.

Only she seems to be aware that I am not a savage,

nor were my ancestors.

I am 101 years old. I will not live many more years.

Go on, Mr. Teskigi.

When I was an infant, the white settlers came to Cherokee land,

a land rich in forest and game.

The white man decided he wanted those lands.

Laws were made forcing the Indians to leave.

Soldiers were sent against us,

and my people were forced at gunpoint to leave their land and their homes.

They were forced to march thousands of miles through forest and rivers

to resettle in a place called Oklahoma.

Though many dropped with hunger and exhaustion, the march never stopped.

Those that could not keep up, the old, the sick, the women with children,

were left to die beside the trail.

Seventeen thousand Cherokees started that march.

Four thousand died along the way.

They called it the Trail of Tears.

You did not go on that march, Mr. Teskigi.

A handful of people from my tribe escaped into the hills.

I was carried there in the arms of my mother.

My father was forced to join the march.

We never saw him again.

I remember nothing of this, but it is part of me.

I know that the bones of many of my ancestors

lie thousands of miles away along that trail.

My own father lies forever in some distant forest,

unburied, un-mourned.

It is the belief of the Cherokee that for his spirit to rest in peace,

he must be buried in sacred ground.

When my days on this earth are ended,

I would go to my death with a peaceful heart

if my bones could lie with those of my ancestors in sacred ground.

Mr. Walton, I'm sorry.

Is he dead?

I don't think so.

Thought I'd put her out in the sun here.

She doesn't seem to be getting much better.

Just have to wait and hope, honey.

- You all right? - I don't know.

So many sad things have been happening.

- I'll probably never see Matthew again. - Probably not.

When his grandfather gets better,

they'll probably send him back to North Carolina.

Grandpa, do you think they're really here?

Who's here?

- The Indian graves. - Maybe. Maybe not.

If they are here, their bones won't be any different

than the bones buried up there on Walton's Mountain, our own ancestors.

They've just been here a mite longer though maybe.

There's only one way to find out.

Pa, what are you doing?

I'm just satisfying an old man's curiosity.

Well, when your curiosity is satisfied, Pa, there's work to be done in the mill.

Grandpa, look!

This shows that there was Indians around here on this very spot.

- Some of their pottery. - Doesn't prove it's their burial ground.

Here.

Skull!

Grandfather Joseph was right. This is their Indian burial ground.

- Burial ground? - Yes, and this proves it.

Erin, we found a skull.

Sheriff Bridges called me at the switchboard.

Mr. Teskigi died.

You gonna sit up all night?

I'll be along, Liv.

You didn't cause that old man's death.

I don't know.

He was over 100 years old.

I've been thinking that...

I've been thinking about that day I chased him away.

Him claiming he was gonna tear down our barn,

me losing my temper, Pa trying to find a middle ground.

Maybe if I'd listened to the old man, he'd be alive today.

Stop blaming yourself.

He was right, Liv. This is their burial ground.

Pa found a lot more bones in that hole he started.

If you'd known that then, would you have torn down the barn?

I don't know.

What's the matter?

Someone's in the barn.

Grandpa!

What the thunder is going on, Livie?

There's somebody in the barn. John's out there now.

I'd better go, too.

Oh, no!

Pa, douse the fire!

- Thought you'd finish the job, huh? - I came back to treat Myrtle.

I found the root in the woods. I made a fire to boil it.

Goldenseal.

The goat is better now. I will go and I won't trouble you ever again.

Hold on.

Your grandfather was right about the burial ground. It's here.

I built this barn with my own hands when I was a young man.

- If I'd had known... - This was your sacred ground. We're sorry.

I understand.

Every burial ground begins with a single grave, a single loved one.

Up on Walton's Mountain, there's an unspoiled ridge near the Indian Rock.

We can begin a burial ground there if you like.

Pa, you wanna say something?

We have come here today for a solemn purpose.

We're here to grant Matthew Teskigi the right to this plot of land

in the hope it will serve as a fitting resting place for his grandfather.

Father Sun, Mother Moon, and your children, the stars,

I ask blessings on this mountain.

Let it be from this time forward an honored Cherokee burial grounds.

May its sheltering soil give comfort to those who come here to rest

before that last great journey to the unknown.

Hallowed land, earth of my ancestors, receive my grandfather.

I return him once more to your lasting embrace.

Who owns the land? Only the land knows.

We mortals are passersby

and our lives are but a brief moment in the great span of time and space.

We are born, we live out our lives, and most of us do the best we can with it.

But the wind is forever, and the rivers flow forever to the sea,

and all the seasons of the weathers will come and go after we are gone,

but the earth endures. The earth is eternal.

- Grandpa? - Yes, Elizabeth?

When Indians die, do they go to the same heaven as we do?

Very definitely, yes.

- Grandpa? - Yes?

If you get there ahead of me, will you look up Grandfather Joseph?

I certainly will.

Just tell him Myrtle and me will be along one day.

- I'll do that. - Thank you.

- Good night, Elizabeth. - Good night.

English -SDH