Surviving Columbus: The Story of the Pueblo People; Interview with Vera and Grover Bellson

We ripped and then they get a little cap, you know, we saved those cap. We eat those meat, you know, in the wintertime. We never have any trouble those farming. We used to raise our own corn, boys and girls. They used to really good, you know, they pay to order, you know, what it's been told to do. Now, you know, you turn around and start drinking the use. It's a really bold sport, a whole, a good presentation, drinking alcohol. We don't fall with those kinds, but now we have a lot of people, even the young ones fall into it. And then I always say, I thought the law stated you had to be 21 years old to drink. That's a big problem that everybody's having this problem, drinking some of them are open and they just leave the kids behind no support.

It's just something that somebody got to help us on these kinds of problems. Because we, we really, this reservation don't under any kind of government assistance. We are our own making jewelry business. We sell them, we go up, but sometimes it's hard, because they don't buy them, like it's rupee. And then if they buy them, they cut the whole prices down on us. It's a trouble too. The things are really not working out good around here. Where the Indians are really cheated, cheated out by the government or whoever that's going to run out there. But once you speak up and they know what you're going to say or do, and then they leave you alone.

But if you don't, they keep bothering. That's the, I always speak up for my whole community. If there's a, um, dinner meeting, someplace busted up and tell them what we should do and how should we go buy up on them, how should work together with the person that comes in from the other side, so they'll always think, but it's hard, they don't listen. They think they could just go ahead and do things like they, as they please, but when you go into the white society, they had all kinds of law to go by, you'll just step in and do anything. You'll have to go see the mayor, you'll have to go see the judge, these are the one I learned from, but over here, they think everything free, I think so. Do you, do you teach your grandchildren, or do you?

All our kids talk, oh, I'm sorry. They both know English and soon they had the never home, some of them talk three language. So, do you think that's important for them to know that they're still on language? Because when you don't know them, I learned this one one time, they had a big meeting for here at the, well, we always had our meeting and the person that works in that Christian reform, her kids, her guests, they learned nothing but English, so this was going on in a crowded public meeting, and then they asked the girl to stand up and say something to the people. She got up, all right, but she make all the mistakes on her own language. So, I don't think it's right for us Indians to forget our language. I know I can't because I'm going to keep on teaching people, and then again, when you

pick up a position like that somewhere that you're going to be interpreted, what you do, if you don't know their language, that's another thing, because I've been in the public meetings a lot of times, and I know what's going on. So, these are language of ours we would forget, but you trouble right now, like they're making a new language, they could say anything, you know, and then you turn around and look at the other side, the old side, it don't compare to that, almost like cutting off the language from one side, and pronouncing it's not really something that should be cut off, because I think all languages had all the important parts of it is the language for which we had to be completely likely to be found in pronouncing it, but these young

generations are cutting off all of it, so it's going to be up to the parents to teach, this is a home teaching, this is not going to be outside pieces. What do you think will happen if the language, if these young ones don't learn the language, they're going to be dead away, and like I said, I hear something in the public meetings, the young girls like 18 to 7 million, so they can get up and speak, but they're not really putting up the language, what it's supposed to be meaning. The way I understand, you know, and that training, we just only learn and just the endless, you know, like him, that's more, you know, he talks English and he talks to the mother and you know, Zuni language, you know, but if they completely forget their language, you

know, that's religions, that's part of it, they don't forget, you know, traditional way of living, you know, it's just going to go under quite society, we'll forget those, you know, we leave those behind, you know, it's not going to be carried on, they're on the Navajo side, you know, they'll teach their own language in the school to, you know, and what then those are, I think it's important, you know, what I'm seeing, you know, and this earth, you know, a whole earth, you know, the Bible preacher, you know, there's about close to 700 different church in the world, you know, now, which church is a really the first church that when it was beginning, you know, it's loud, you know, I always say, you

know, what they've got to school for, they learn it, you know, from the school and they take it their own way, what they think it's best in the heart, they could understand and they teach them, you know, that's the way I'm looking at you, you know, my, from my days, you know, I was poor, you know, my mother, she left me, you know, when I was a baby, my old grandmother, she raised me, you know, but she's about 114 years old finally, old age got her, you know, but her eyes was perfect, she's so good, her hair was still dark yet black, look at our hair, oh lady, she was wrinkle, but she could see long ways in there.

One time we visit them and they also hoken down to where she was sitting, they said, Janie, she could see so good, that was him, Janie all right. It seems like on a lot of pueblos, the elderly are considered with high regard compared to the white world, yeah, why is that, well, in those days, you know, from beginning, you know, those are old people, you know, they used to get together in different homes, you know, they used to talk about old days, you know, that's the way it was, you know, they used to be one person that they respect, you know, whatever he says, you know, it used to go like that to you. These homeless one of them, older people, folks, comes in, they get together and they talk about the things and they make up their plans and what they do, they come in next, this

home, what's that, they, older people, the one that's holding a higher position, now that thing is starting away, but I don't think we have any more that come because old folks started off and then they'd see, yeah, that's the way it used to be. But somebody's got to keep on continuing that thing in order to keep up our own, what we all believe so, but I don't know, I'm still doing my own question, still teaching the kids, some of these kids don't know their own language, not too good, and I don't know what they're trying to think of, everybody like these kids, they talk English, nothing but you, I don't go for them, my language is just as good as English, so we don't go

for that kind. When it's time for these kids to be in school, that's when they're going to learn their second language of English, you know, and old days, those old people, they used to talk about that, always, you know, they would be time, that's what they say, you know, and these kids, you know, look at the young ones, you know, they used to have their target, their hair trying to back, you know, when they're in a bit, everybody cut their hair off, it's going to be a chance, start changing, when they don't use moccasin, you know, it's coming out close to the end of it, that's what they used to see, and you see things, you know, what we never used to see, it will show up in different places like that, which one

can ever eat too, they're old, we're getting a hundred days old, just like a junk food, and we think our kids with it, and their health is ruined too, because we don't want for that kind, but in their life, it's what we could make our own meal, we go for all the meals, and to taste our one bread and all that, I still can cook all of those seeds on my side, to feed them out, so, but the lady she wants to just walk over there and buy a loaf of bread, I don't go for that one because the loaf of bread, it's it, it's it for my side, I don't like the bread, I don't want it to eat this stuff, so this is a kitchen, but a family should stick with their own, to teach their kids, so if they want this giant generation, it's going to pass out, but they weren't going to prepare it, and

these seeds won't go there, it won't, but if we don't teach their kids, well, that tree is going to come to the bed, and that's what I always think. You know what I was a small, you know, I used to work those flowers, they used to make a shirt on that one and make a pants out of it, and then those sheep skin, you know, they used to have our shoes that one, you know, like that, you know, what are Tommy used to be known, but that thing would be warm, you know, honey says he used to be our socks, you know, even it gets wet, you know, that's in warm, you know, he was like that, you know, we'd be hurting the sheep all day, you know, coming in, but these seeds are just changing a lot, a kind of quiet society, they want it to get rid of maybe ours, I don't know

what, but if you stick to your own, they won't get rid of it because you're born with it and blessed with it, raise with it, your belief, your belief inside your own heart, no one's going to take it away, you know, my old grandmother, but she was a baby, you know, just a tiny, you know, and her mother got killed by another Indians, you know, at that time, you know, they can't get alone, you know, mom, they're Indian, you know, and her mother died and they got nothing to feed her in. So the dog, she had a little one, you know, so they took those puppy away and then they tried that dog, you know, what they eat, you know, she used to get dog eats the same

thing and that dog raised her, you know, she used to drink milk while I'm that dog. That's why I always says, I wonder what the dogs got in better than that, I think it's better than the cow milk I was thinking here, because she never complained, I've got the headache, mom, I could also rather say something like that, she never used to complain, her eyes was perfect when she died with an old age, you know. There is something in there, like that too, you know, that's how I think what I could see on our Indians, we have to eat what we can eat, not getting from the stores of all those food, fancy looking stuff, I think that's what the rowing the body of the person, but if you see it and if you know, well, you could almost tell the things that we bought

them from the store, it don't feed us, but if I make my own meal, like corn, meal, blue corn, meal, and make tough tears, make oven bread, it's something that's better than buying from the store, because we don't mix our dough with water, you know, creates your stuff like what you could see them, to make that local good or taste good, we don't cook like those. So that's what the health is rowing, really, because we don't worry, we don't want those kind of stuff, in their life, it's alive what we bought, and our belief, what our meal and how we cooked our meal, look at me, I'm eating five, maybe you could believe that I was still going, could you believe that I still can cook, do more everything in the house,

what can do with my grandkids, feed them, and I'm still going, I'm healthy, I don't complain about my headache, oh my god, I don't go for the doctor, you know what, I was hot, I bought with my great, great grandfathers, my mother's mother and all I've done is, and when you make something like that, oh I got a headache, my son, don't make complain, because you are human being, anywhere you can help a pain, forget about those, this is what I was doing, and I believe it, I believe this, when I'm sick, I have a plan to let that thing go, it goes away, but a lot of times we get a pill from here and there, I can't go for

that one, because we don't want those kind of pills, what are they giving it to, what are they, how good these are, it's just rowing, the whole thing, government is doing that, I hope someday we're going to get rid of them too, I hate to say this one, but it's like, whoa, was it a lot different when you were this age here, it was, like I said, my grandparents, they got their mother still alive, and then they're all away from their generation, they were still here, and I came up with that one, and I used to, in what they make,

like corn, milk, blue, cornmeal, and all of them, which was tears and all of that, we never go to the store to buy a loaf of bread, and I'm healthy, look at me, I don't get sick eating those kind of good stuff on the store, I don't go for that, I never did, so I think what a person like myself had a good experience on how you're raised, what food you should eat, we don't have this kind of a teaching here and there that the young ones could learn, we don't have this kind, they just go for money and what they learned in front there, maybe went to school for that purpose of somewhere, and they pass it on to a young generation, they don't work, they never will, they just go for money that teaches what they get, you get paid to teach, I know I was one of them, I used to work with them, I never,

he said never, and I was soon, so two places I'm standing up, they used to work for the never homes, chapter houses, a chapter, a secretary, and today they want me, that said, I met more chapter person, and then he wants me and that said they need a chapter manager, and I decided I could go there, or I don't know, but I'm going to go, because I'm the never homes, so they sent you out to the different places, you know like a training part of it, you learn on that, or here there's nothing, that's what the students are not, that's the never homes are today, I hate to say this group, but it's true. Is the old way being passed on to, to the young ones here? We, we're going to, because if we don't our things, but we know we're going to

start away, so it's going to be up to the parent to keep on teaching their kids, what we know, what we want with it, what we bless with it, this is not something that we just know, grab that, what we born with it, we bless with it, and all that, our beliefs are just something like a strongly spiritual life, that's the way our homes put myself in. And I believe it, because I born with all my grandparents and our adults, and I teach things what I have, just pass it on to the young generation, to keep up with it. If we don't, that thing's going to die away. You know, that truck wasn't, our boy was in? He was a hitchhiking, you know, all the way into Utah from here. See, what I see in here, he told me.

No, he says. I think I've got the same thing on this side too, only he was a girl, you know, a small girl, you know, she was standing, you know, look at this boy. He's in that Tucson, huh? And this one, he was a boy, you know, little boy, that appeared to him, you know. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't get scared. He says, he just kept looking at me, he told him, you see? And then this other one says, yeah, I've got a girl standing here, that's what he told. And you know, God, give me, you know, with a better light, you know. That's the way I'm looking at that one. Just like on my side, don't know, second world war, you know, I wasn't working for the entry individually. We were going, we hit Salerno first, you know. And that evening, you know, there was some kind of bird, you know,

when the sun was just going down, here doesn't seem, you know. Every even light that that can be encouraged, you know, I've gone live the next day, that's the way I'm looking at it. There is something, you know, with you, you know, God, you're on, you know, like that, that's the way I'm looking at you. There's something, you know, I don't know what they are, you know. I never did see that bird, you know. Maybe it's just a spirit, you know. And in a way, you know, a spirit, it's actually what we pray, you know. Mostly it's amazing what we pray is the earth, you know. That's our mother, you know, Mother Earth. Because what it grows on the earth, you know, our mother and father, they eat that one day, make us through dressing.

That's why I always pray, you know, I'll come out in the morning. I'll pray to my Mother Earth. My old grandmother, she says, sleep, coaster, brown. Your mother will watch you, that's what she used to say. That's something, you know, a lot of things that we never just get to teach you. Maybe some of them did, you know. But me on my side, I had a hard time to make a living, you know. I used to hurt sheep all that time, you know. Coming in, even if there'd be no wood, I'd go out and pick up those dry beans, you know, and bring it in. And there'd be no water, I had to walk up what mile and a half to get the water. And then I'll come in there now. And then the whole rest of it, they could hold the money in the world, but the homes are without me there, they'd need for us. And here's a Vietnam curtain, all day.

We don't get nothing out of them, those could. We've got two boards of Vietnam curtain, and here's second wall photos. Come, let's see if we'll get them. It just doesn't help come from those places at all. Almost the washington could know what's going on. And what is the money? What is the good sweet promise they give it to us when the water was going on? It's one thing I can forget. When the water was going on, they kept telling us something really good, something that really think it's just like that that we could get it. After the war is over, the man's came home, nothing helped. I had two of it, and I'm afraid for this. They don't get nothing out of us. They don't get any help. What's happened to this coin, the young boys? And I hit the recent point, I like to fight these things out all the way to the list. I hit the only brother that was taking care of me.

All through his life, he got killed in action in Okinawa. I don't get nothing, penny out of it. What is the money supposed to go? Because I was under his care. Nothing. This is the way I work. I don't get a penny out of it. Nothing. But what I always always think, oh, if I some something little bit of good of what I can do for the other, I get more blessings too from the other side, spirit of blessings.

This is what I always think. And I believe in some way, some hope, I get to get something what I need. I can be blessed with it. This is never been told to them, like you brotherhood and the coin, but the belief, what I get is true. It is. I'm one of the religious leaders here from the community, and I stand up for you. What? Visual. All my grandkids coming up. Sometimes they come. Sometimes they eat. Sometimes they cook their own meals. Try to go. Yeah, it's time to go. I'm going to eat the cow. Hey, what the hell up there?

I'm going to eat the cow. I'm going to eat the cow. Well, it's been very nice to talk to you. My name is Doug, and this is Dale. And David. We had those grandkids named. Yeah. Yeah. Arches. Girl, my, she's Vera. Bellson. Vera Bellson. Um, girl, where? Bellson. B-E-L-L. That's a way. Yes, O-A. And Vera is B-I-E-R-A. B-E-R-A. B-E-R-A. And the best name is B-E-L-L. That's O-A. Vera and Grover Bellson. What's your grandson's name? David? Yeah. Yeah. David? The best name is a long one. Loco's Peanut. Uh-huh. It's still a left name. What's his first name? David? Oh, David.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. Two, three. What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on?