The Alabama Experience; The People

it's b oh yes when you may be new here again when arne duncan

called for the legends forgotten songs for the dance but they are coming back to their parents now people say that this has died that's died and it is gone forever it's never gone forever endeavour i think that as people become deepened and their knowledge of their heritage and as they seek not that first me where's your engine right to claim this land the native people were here before the horses guns and highest and the clinicians and the native people here and thousands of years before the so called new world was started

indian says they record holder it's well established cultural identity and customs the growth of a supposedly civilized society in this continent for the militants exhausted and policy practices of near a genocidal proportions all designed to fire a native population sustaining a cultural identity and passing it from generation two generations of the formidable task more difficult by living in a time when their history and identity is the story of it and twist of five nominees for the whole trip unfair stereotypes and obstacles still of native descent history was written forty and almost exclusively by non natives it is these stories which dominated learning about america's native culture but changes are taking

place more than ever or education serves as the foundation building bridges of understanding the new research all of my life about where the heritage we were not strongly immersed in that heritage there have been very diluted gone away with the forgotten man and from a very early age of that panel alan asked on a real costs are each for their heritage and it's carried me through to now some thirty avoid over the years you'd find bits and pieces here and there you never

find a lot of one a little is all there and it adds to their richness which is market and i think the startling drop walks are the lack of britain history new you go out and you seek this then the other in the final place where trends are you rely on technologist who were non indian in so many cases a few notable exceptions where those people got tremendously good jobs message in georgia injured extensively on sapping shenanigans and dime i think while of time and distance is another law we're able to go see certain people share a lot with us until perhaps the know would find their tents to wait so anybody who has entered their indian heritage and wanting more balanced and the tremendous amount of time travel tremendous amount we can so away from

home and small out of the way places meeting want to you and share it with them and wanting all i can share with you macri name is emo which means the gay group and learn from reporter pat of the slippery slope at them before i came here i was invited to come out because this is a cultural festival and this is about things to eat it's very very important for my people that we be allowed only been suppressed for long long term and its bad ideas then among landrieu we remained in florida so we had someone who we really were but now we're out in the open and are we have the ability to take to those who some of them in house their heritage they knew they me since i've been in there certainly are certain very hard for the truth

and so we're we're growing and our community we're growing in a spirituality we're going and language being spoken and it's it's a beautiful flying so when i know we have to learn to respect each other anything you want to believe it their voices wouldn't be in and teach me have no other traditions you don't get ten easy lessons not right in your lap it's a david a way of life with your spirituality is not a religion but a way of life you are what you live you say or if you do not be what you say and practised today in your flight and a lot of if you want it you have it must limit the ugandan care what anybody says he the worse on around you don't follow it does bleed your actions speak louder than words were torching when it comes and the

suspect in this with paul actions it's where it's at or you live it can be that you don't have to shout it yesterday at an excerpt of torture or if they don't have sales where cathy latham this and fellow laborers on north of town afloat in between person et faire atmosphere so and now fatima based to do the father and try to teach people the same way and have dropped a lot of people in atlanta a young couple have come to me ask me that the guy's happy about the plan to have bill about an hour one guy tell me dating believe in god and that of my head that believing that are so many per head finance arm of laughs my husband come through

sickness and math at baptist said that there was a an acid acid that still i hate airplane i see a milestone that was the the night i wanna hang onto our culture and mostly they gained in language that we have they won't do away with because everybody in the home are speaking english and now they add that to the people that and i knew that smoked the airplane didn't follow the town are turning into anger has an insane and that are so taking in line with an outfit of our hang onto it but that's what god gave us and sarah came out people were called legend keeping because native people have an oral tradition rather than a written a record a tradition in every village there was at least one person whose whole

job was to learn that agents to remember them and to teach them to the next generation that was our vision that's what we did and so i am i'm a legend keeper rather than just a storyteller we went through a period when our young people forgot the legends forgot the song's forgot to dance but they are coming back now no surprise that the new york state a city called salamanca it is on iroquois land ninety nine well more than nine nine years ago now the bureau of indian affairs police that land to some europeans for a dollar year when they started farming and they built the town they're quite a good sized town but two years ago a police ran out and all the sudden

the land belonged to your voice again and they began to call for back that we go to the courts now and we say we have rights and you're not going to deny them anymore carrying the message of cultural pride to people outside the tribal boundaries august break down stereotypes and confess to a largely non native the many facets of native american culture one popular method is to fold festivals would celebrate traditional indian ways and offer educational loans for breaking down the myths and misunderstandings and present american indians two such productions of allow american banks of the war irreverent in hale county and the red mountain museum southeastern native american celebration in birmingham well these annual events offer the public unique opportunities to experience traditional customs

crafts and legends of many southeastern tribes another pathway to enlighten the public as for the formation of organizations which promote an appreciation and deeper understanding of issues relating to the native american experience the southeastern indian heritage association the associations legend is to educate members anomalies and the richness and cultural and they're very of the southeast not just alabama hour we seek out noted the foreigners be they in the online and bring those people and to educate our members and the general public and it's very sort of party we

will we will have an expert in the field and our meetings who is a scholar amounts of our van and we have a press person we will also have a press person and demonstrates so we have five that we are constantly seeking out teachers for what they want to know our membership is in constant contact with a lot of new science and other groups were enraged the americans and we can't use those people a job selling the events at marvel and hear the news i am on just two significant events that we keep this baby let's go the southeastern native american celebration in birmingham provides an interactive program for schoolchildren which enhances the state's curriculum on alabama indians the aim is to help dispel the misconceptions concerning native history and traditions the multiple archaeological park

is nationally recognized as one of the best preserved prehistoric archaeological sites in north america located near tuscaloosa the park is the post's site for the annual festival visitors learn about them into custody art and culture of such writers as greek choctaw seminal saudi and charity in addition to the craft demonstrations and stage present patients of the festival the park is open for tory the famous mountains are located throughout the park and artifacts on display in the museum ongoing research conducted at this historic site reveals information which helps document the lifestyles of native people who live there many hundreds of years ago one of the reasons i came to ramble is because of the advantages backer and

financial among black people we still carry only alienating period of thousands of years our way of lapis simple yet beautiful i believe so simple but at the same time they are very very spiritual and so we have a connection with the manson because we know that it went and this was a spiritual place a spiritual time and they had a lot of people lived here who took part in the end they're really just like wondering in academia and said i think people should know is we rarely are not lenient unless we have the spirit to a lot of people look at the color of the porsche effect snow me it's all about in india it's a spiritual being a very spiritual being and make us and there's everything around him was connecting with his religion especially in a sign of the most about we begin in the mornings accomplished

last and this was part of our religious begins with a day and women and i'm one of those from being here with me took our manson creeps me and obscuring the women downstream this was a part of our religious among them that everything we've done was connected to the spiritual and this and this is something i think most people have forgotten and that we are so closely connected to mothers and fathers be the earth is our mother and if we don't care for her garden and i will have nothing to leave our children because we are destroying our mother this is a native american perspective so who is advancing i think people are dancing back to us on the reservation a life is very simple ok there's not as much income money but there's a very different way of life there is a very different sense of family

and for a long time we were taught to be ashamed of that that were beginning to remember who we are and what we are and take pride and then again there's nothing wrong it's being indian today nobody's ever tell us that again if you coined the indians up to nineteen sixty and even in the new film black schools you were not allowed to vote you are not allowed to gather together to be put in jail for unlawfully the normal out online so in the during the time after the civil war it was illegal to kill in some states and some western states even the day the law have nothing changes nothing has been taken or so people don't realize that now among other side which is showing a lot of banana know how she's actually use these half chickens

chicagoan up their own community but only in the tentative me out that i grew up the final four i'd say that allowed that i learned to help locate i used to cry like when people get this and start propping up his because they do you know when they were out there because i can have with or what i am or ma and sam right now announced a live bass to observe are painting sculpture because they say wayne white world than like i belt well what i'm saying is that we do away with what i've created it the death we should hang out of lack of creativity in the native american experience can be a religious experience and so much that anything you have long passion for religious experience i think that a lot of people are so in tune to the heritage that they

find a greater appreciation of the entire a lot more opportunity to love one another so to speak and i think this can translate into a religious experience i think that as people become deepened and their knowledge of their heritage and as they seek about the philosophies of that heritage that hands of irreversible effect on you can never go viral too and some of these speeches some of the things that has been talked about indians through the media and through is live in western indians you know everybody sees a new zone law for certainly all these big increases them know when they could get and it hadn't had the forces we didn't there was no horses illness come from the white house and naming indians out with solomon baseball one woman i needed

over the wide open spaces the weeks in southeastern indians the force was not as important thing we did use some of those things as we were farmers we stayed really of enhances it was a western indian who have to go after the buffalo who had the t peaks joe all unions did not going unpaid days all unions did not that horse is all unions did not have i mean and then very practical people that was not one thing's ad they did not deter but from every scotsman who came and so i'm interested in and wanted to use nothing count this business of the movement of your column that they were in court tv the media has played a key role in that when i was a kid it was not quite so popular to be ending

then a recount the only ourselves in the hands of pretty favorable was the lone ranger these were tv roh hit we were inundated with and watch religiously ah years later we say now about martin luther king malcolm x stand as symbols their rights then the indian people still are looking for leaders and of course we all of sitting bull and chief dog like hell we all know those indians with a lot of thousands and thousands of other significant indian characters in alabama when mourdock who knew was a mixed but we have not a lot we have a number of famous leaders here that our kids have a right to know about because of

significant our people who are significant and they're trying to sign a lot because of the roles that i played and that's changing we have to carry that on and we have to become aware of things that these leaders insist and that we have positive contributions to make yet we need to go out to the people and say listen we're still here they are native people of many nations all across this country into canada and share the lessons of the people up there at the same time i held the native people feel pride in who they are and began to bring out the old stories and to make them feel good about telling their legends and cherry salsa to a thing and it's wonderful for me one thing that the what the needs are trying to piece the white men were trying to teach the people they

knew to get respect respect for mother of respect for the trees but procreation respect for one another respect and self respect i think one of the biggest areas of focus is to show the diversity of the indian people in america that there are literally hundreds of travel units and they were as diverse as the eskimo and the troops somewhere or coastal dwelling and invalid lived and snow they had all different types of day to day koval i think that when kids can see this great diversity that perhaps helps them understand about the civil war or she was meant to be on the air in an american and japanese and chinese and russian and all of that

that we do have a pretty common goal as vivian and in the programs that we do in every school that we go into their children that come up and say my grandmother was an indian a nicer argue because they say yes it's not just a full native people on the reservations it's everywhere people are beginning to remember who they are and be proud of that i think the truth is important when the younger oh i have no intent of re writing history i tend to stay away from those things the areas we deal in the areas of steel crabs those sorts of things are very important to share because it gives the individual an opportunity if only for a brief moment in time to identify with those people i'm saying that someone thought that someone from

the brain for a relationship or if we will only name that exists here in st louis and we're not going to spend she says you know and so it would have respect for one another and i can respect your ability i don't necessarily have to believe what you do but if i can respect you and your right to your be a new respect now and then we can work together this is cheese oh yeah this is

if you have a question or comment about this program or if you like to purchase a copy of it please write the alabama experience box at seventy thousand tuscaloosa alabama three five forty seven please include where the people in your request may also call one eight hundred and eighty three ninety five to three three