Visions of the Past; Native Americans; Part 2

<v Pius Moss>That satisfied the old man. <v Pius Moss>And then as far as we're concerned, that's how <v Pius Moss>land was established. And that's how creation was established <v Pius Moss>as far as our instructions. <v Pius Moss>So the information has never been put out in such a way to where it's <v Pius Moss>stereotypes or has not been distorted. <v Pius Moss>It's simple. That's why I believe the elders <v Pius Moss>when they tell me that we were here all our time under those circumstances. <v Pius Moss>And, um, that was the origin of <v Pius Moss>the Arapaho, that we were here all the time <v Pius Moss>in the Great Plains area. <v Pius Moss>Now, anthropologists do state that we came from South <v Pius Moss>East Asia, crossed the land bridge between Alask and Siberia. <v Pius Moss>Then came into the North American continent, into the area of the

<v Pius Moss>Great Lakes. <v Pius Moss>Then on down into the area of New Jersey, <v Pius Moss>then westerly to the Great Lakes area, Minnesota, <v Pius Moss>and then eventually back to the Great Plains. <v Pius Moss>Now, that is what the anthropologist has come up with. <v Pius Moss>Now that time has evolved you pick up a book it says 2,000 <v Pius Moss>years. The next book will say 3,000, 4,000. <v Pius Moss>The information that I have received is simple <v Pius Moss>but true. <v Pius Moss>Now, um, we speak of oral instruction <v Pius Moss>and the elders say, and I myself believe that because of <v Pius Moss>the culture of the mainstream <v Pius Moss>of life that has enveloped us has a

<v Pius Moss>tendency to overcome our thoughts at times. <v Pius Moss>Thereby, we at times will <v Pius Moss>surrender to that other culture <v Pius Moss>and distort some of the oral information. <v Pius Moss>And that is why I say the old people <v Pius Moss>gave the instructions out orally. <v Pius Moss>And as simple as they were, they were maintained that way. <v Pius Moss>At one time for the Native American, that's including all <v Pius Moss>Native Americans, there was the land of plenty. <v Pius Moss>Actually, there was that time. <v Pius Moss>But then progress or whatever you might call <v Pius Moss>it very near 500 years <v Pius Moss>ago, the Western Hemisphere was discovered by a man named Columbus.

<v Pius Moss>Then I would say about 2 or 3 <v Pius Moss>hundred years later the acutal landing took place on the eastern <v Pius Moss>coast and that's where <v Pius Moss>the migration started as far as European people. <v Pius Moss>Now, when that time came the <v Pius Moss>Indians were very kind, <v Pius Moss>but in due time, because of the want of property, want of <v Pius Moss>land, the people that <v Pius Moss>came from the European country begin to want <v Pius Moss>this, want that. <v Pius Moss>A whole different nation <v Pius Moss>come into the country with a thought of this is mine.

<v Pius Moss>This will- this will be mine. <v Pius Moss>Whereas the Indian land belongs to everybody, not just <v Pius Moss>one, but to everybody. <v Pius Moss>That was the thought that all Indians <v Pius Moss>were instructed. <v Pius Moss>Now, because of the <v Pius Moss>influences, the sickness and disease being brought in by the immigrants, <v Pius Moss>the people, <v Pius Moss>as I say now- I'm speaking to the Indians when I say people, when <v Pius Moss>an Araphao talks about human nature, <v Pius Moss>he says people. That takes in everybody, <v Pius Moss>Indians, non-Indians, whatever. <v Pius Moss>They are, people we don't segregate by saying the Arapaho, <v Pius Moss>the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the white man, the Japanese <v Pius Moss>or what. They are all people as far as the

<v Pius Moss>Araphao is concerned. Now <v Pius Moss>it took quite a few lives as far as the smallpox <v Pius Moss>is concerned. <v Pius Moss>And then, the Indian dependent <v Pius Moss>on the buffalo which roam the vast North <v Pius Moss>American ?cleaned? area. <v Pius Moss>That was his way of life, the buffalo, complete <v Pius Moss>dependency on this animal. <v Pius Moss>Wherever the animal was that's where the Arapaho was. <v Pius Moss>If the animal moved, he moved. <v Pius Moss>He didn't wait to send scouts out to see where the animals were <v Pius Moss>at a moment's notice. You notified that the animals were moving. <v Pius Moss>He moved. And that is the reason why that the structure that we <v Pius Moss>call a teepee, but adopted by

<v Pius Moss>the Plains Indians are easily taken down <v Pius Moss>and easily put up. No time at all because of their migration <v Pius Moss>that had to take place and be being nomadic in <v Pius Moss>quest of buffalo from time to time. <v Pius Moss>Now, uh, <v Pius Moss>the Arapaho's moved all over the Plains area, the <v Pius Moss>eastern slope of the Rockies into Canada. <v Pius Moss>How far into Canada? There are no boundary. <v Pius Moss>East to the Mississippi River and south to the Mexican border wherever <v Pius Moss>the grass allowed the buffalo to roam in. <v Pius Moss>So- in so doing, <v Pius Moss>they ran into other tribes that also were in quest of this particular animal

<v Pius Moss>for their way of life. <v Pius Moss>And oftentimes skirmishes, small battles took place, <v Pius Moss>and that was understandable. <v Pius Moss>The Araphao did not look for trouble, but then did not <v Pius Moss>run away from it when it came <v Pius Moss>upon him. <v Pius Moss>He took care of his family, protected them the way <v Pius Moss>any one in the family, as far as a man <v Pius Moss>is concerned, would do. <v Pius Moss>Now, um, when we say they <v Pius Moss>depended on the animal entirely, yhat is just <v Pius Moss>what the Arapaho did. <v Pius Moss>We have supermarkets in this <v Pius Moss>contemporary era of living. <v Pius Moss>This was known also as a supermarket of the Arapaho and

<v Pius Moss>all the Plains Indians. <v Pius Moss>The Arapaho everything that he needed <v Pius Moss>came from this animal. <v Pius Moss>Now, when an animal is dependent on greatly <v Pius Moss>as a buffalo, when that animal with annihilated rubbed off by <v Pius Moss>the buffalo hunters from the face of the Plains area. <v Pius Moss>The Arapaho and the Plain Indians were <v Pius Moss>at a loss. <v Pius Moss>Their area of liveing, their area- <v Pius Moss>way of life was taken away. <v Pius Moss>They had to go into another area to find a way of <v Pius Moss>life that would take care of them. <v Pius Moss>And when that began, to <v Pius Moss>me, there had been changes coming in quite regularly.

<v Pius Moss>They start looking for the buffalo. But you've got nothing there. <v Pius Moss>Few scattered but not as plentiful as they were when they <v Pius Moss>really were dependent on the animal just about every day. <v Pius Moss>Now, uh, after the animal <v Pius Moss>was annihilated, the government went into the procedure of <v Pius Moss>starting to herd the Indians toward Oklahoma, situate <v Pius Moss>him in a central place. <v Pius Moss>Now, the Araphao <v Pius Moss>were moving all the time. Chief Black Coal, the Chief was moving his tribe <v Pius Moss>constantly. <v Pius Moss>Maybe not trying to get away from the soldiers, but in quest of the buffalo. <v Pius Moss>Always moving. <v Pius Moss>And maybe that is the reason why we are not down Oklahoma. <v Pius Moss>The reservations they started in 1878

<v Pius Moss>for the Arapaho when the U.S. <v Pius Moss>Army, soldiers caught up with them. <v Pius Moss>But in the meantime, Chief Black Coal <v Pius Moss>had his people going <v Pius Moss>back and forth, eastern Wyoming, western South Dakota, western Nebraska <v Pius Moss>and western Kansas back and forth through that area. <v Pius Moss>In due time, Chief Black Coal summed <v Pius Moss>the fact that he had to have a place for his tribe. <v Pius Moss>So when they were in the area of <v Pius Moss>Glen Rock, Wyoming. <v Pius Moss>Not necessarily at that town, but in the area, that's <v Pius Moss>where the camp was. Chief Black Coal called a meeting, an assembly was had, and <v Pius Moss>he informed the Arapaho there that he was going

<v Pius Moss>with to approach Chief Washakie <v Pius Moss>if he could have his tribe live <v Pius Moss>there in the same area. <v Pius Moss>And he wanted 10 or 12 volunteers. <v Pius Moss>No women, no children. <v Pius Moss>Now, I will go back here a little bit. <v Pius Moss>The reason for his nomadic status migrating to the area after <v Pius Moss>the buffalo was gone. He did leave his home area, <v Pius Moss>the Denver area, that's the home base for the Arapaho <v Pius Moss>Fort Collins, that whole area, Now, uh, <v Pius Moss>because of what happened in the state of Colorado, <v Pius Moss>the Sand Creek Massacre, the Arapaho left <v Pius Moss>the area because their belief and custom <v Pius Moss>is wherever death occurred

<v Pius Moss>they do not go back. <v Pius Moss>I have realized that in my growing up years, <v Pius Moss>my own family. <v Pius Moss>Now, when that happened, they never went back to this area no more. <v Pius Moss>They stayed completely away from it because of the massacre. <v Pius Moss>As far as history tells us and what <v Pius Moss>the Arapaho say, the women, children, <v Pius Moss>the old men and those men that were in camp were just about <v Pius Moss>completely wiped out from the U.S. <v Pius Moss>Army opening fire on a camp that had <v Pius Moss>the American flag and the flag of truce flying in camp. <v Pius Moss>Now, just whatever happened, why it happened that way has <v Pius Moss>not been actually or really determined. <v Pius Moss>So because of that happening the Arapahos did leave and never return.

<v Pius Moss>But that was their home- home country, Denver and Fort Collins and <v Pius Moss>the eastern slope of those rocks adjacent to that area. <v Pius Moss>Now we come into the area again with them roming back <v Pius Moss>and forth eastern Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. <v Pius Moss>Then finally wind up, like I said, in the Glen Rock area. <v Pius Moss>He then got his volunteers, the number he called for. <v Pius Moss>They prepared for the trek west to the Wind River country. <v Pius Moss>So those men left the camp, went west <v Pius Moss>through Casper. <v Pius Moss>Then on up toward the Wind River country, <v Pius Moss>came into the Hudson area, Hudson, Wyoming, then cut across northwesterly <v Pius Moss>until he came into the Hot Springs area.

<v Pius Moss>Now when they come to this area, those of you that have been in the area and noticed some <v Pius Moss>hills south of the hot springs. <v Pius Moss>That's where he brought his men. <v Pius Moss>When he overlooked the area, the valley there he noticed a big camp of Shoshone. <v Pius Moss>And the Shoshone were having a somewhat of a powwow, celebration, <v Pius Moss>lot of dust horse races. <v Pius Moss>And he told his men, well, this is what I came for. <v Pius Moss>I will now prepare myself to go down to <v Pius Moss>see my friend, Chief Washakie. <v Pius Moss>Now, Chief Washakie and Chief Black Coal were friends. <v Pius Moss>But the tribes were bitter enemy. <v Pius Moss>But these two men were friends. <v Pius Moss>One from one tribe and one from the other. <v Pius Moss>Now he prepared himself, put on

<v Pius Moss>clean clothes. He combed his hair and put on a traditional wrap <v Pius Moss>on one side of his braid and then the braid, traditional braid on <v Pius Moss>the other denoting that he was the chief. <v Pius Moss>So he told men after preparing himself, <v Pius Moss>cleaning up, puttin on his best. <v Pius Moss>He said, 'Give me enough time to go into camp. <v Pius Moss>And then enough time for me to come out into the open. <v Pius Moss>And if you see someone coming out in the open waving the buffalo robe <v Pius Moss>that's a signal coming from me for you to come down. <v Pius Moss>No danger for you to come down.' So <v Pius Moss>there are two meanings there as far as cleaningup is concerned, cleaing up his <v Pius Moss> hair, putting on clean clothes <v Pius Moss>in case that he did meet me death in the camp,

<v Pius Moss>that he'd be properly dressed <v Pius Moss>when death occurred. He would be clean. <v Pius Moss>And then as far as the Great Spirit receiving him in a clean manner, <v Pius Moss>clothing and all the like. <v Pius Moss>So he left his gun. <v Pius Moss>He left his knife. <v Pius Moss>Everything that concerned being <v Pius Moss>on the warpath. He left. He went down to the camp, clean. <v Pius Moss>He walked down. He left his horse. <v Pius Moss>So when he got to camp very close, no one noticed him until <v Pius Moss>he got within the bounds of the camp. <v Pius Moss>That's when the young people, the young Shoshone noticed him, that he was not one of <v Pius Moss>them. So right away they got around him, and they wanted to kill him. <v Pius Moss>But he kept making the sign that I want to see my friend the Chief. <v Pius Moss>So one of the young people took note of that and summoned Chief Washakie.

<v Pius Moss>But about that time, the threats going to Chief Black Coal <v Pius Moss>we're just about to be exercises to kill him. <v Pius Moss>Then Chief Washakie realizing <v Pius Moss>this told the young people whoever touches this <v Pius Moss>man will have to answer to me. <v Pius Moss>So then the young people hearing that dispersed. <v Pius Moss>So that's when the treaty began between these two friends, two Chiefs. <v Pius Moss>The treaty was on the terms of Chief Black Coal <v Pius Moss>asking Chief Washakie If he could bring <v Pius Moss>his tribe to live under the protection

<v Pius Moss>of his wing, so Chief Washakie allowed <v Pius Moss>that. So in the course of the treaty <v Pius Moss>Chief Washakie said your tribe will utilize <v Pius Moss>the area east of the spring, cling on to the western end- the eastern <v Pius Moss>end of the reservation. Then my tribe, the Shoshone, will utilize <v Pius Moss>west of the stream to the mountain known up toward the Crowheart country, Dubois <v Pius Moss>country. So that was the treaty made by these two men. <v Pius Moss>Now in the treaty also stated that any Araphaos who's coming in <v Pius Moss>to the Shoshone area would not be molested, <v Pius Moss>the same way with the Shoshone coming into the low lands of the Arapaho <v Pius Moss>area would not be molested or harmed. <v Pius Moss>And that's how the treaty was made and that's

<v Pius Moss>just how it stands to this day. <v Pius Moss>There were no congressional action or anything like that but two men. <v Pius Moss>Their word was their bond. <v Pius Moss>And that bond was recognized by the tribal members <v Pius Moss>of both Chiefs. That was the beginning of the <v Pius Moss>Arapaho living in the Wind River country. <v Mick McClain>?Pius? <v Mick McClain>Moss is a descendant of Chief Black Coal. <v Mick McClain>He teaches at St. Stephen's Indian School on the Wind River Reservation. <v Mick McClain>As the author of several books on Native Americans, Dr. Peter Iverson has explored the <v Mick McClain>cultures and traditions of Indians in the West. <v Mick McClain>He prepared and presents this historical essay. <v Peter Iverson>They were the first pioneers before the Oregon Trail, <v Peter Iverson>before the Union Pacific, before John Coulter or Jim Bridger. <v Peter Iverson>They blazed the first paths, and they knew this land <v Peter Iverson>and the sky of Wyoming.

<v Peter Iverson>Today, they, the Indian people, are but a fraction <v Peter Iverson>of our population. <v Peter Iverson>And yet their significance is very important for all of us. <v Peter Iverson>When we think of Wyoming Indians today, we think of the occupants of <v Peter Iverson>the Wind River Reservation, the Shoshone and the Arapaho. <v Peter Iverson>But other tribes also figure prominently in the history of this area. <v Peter Iverson>The Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Crow and other Indian Peoples knew Wyoming <v Peter Iverson>and recognized its resources. <v Peter Iverson>Tradition may be of recent origin. <v Peter Iverson>Special places may grow in importance through time. <v Peter Iverson>When we view Devil's Tower or some other remarkable land formation, we <v Peter Iverson>are not surprised that Indian peoples have stories about them, have assigned <v Peter Iverson>important or even sacred qualities to them. <v Peter Iverson>The Kiowas, now primarily residents of western Oklahoma at one time <v Peter Iverson>made the long migration to the southern plains, and they still speak of the seven sisters <v Peter Iverson>and their brother, and how the brother became a bear who chased the sisters.

<v Peter Iverson>How the sisters came to the stump of a tree, which, after they had climbed upon it rose <v Peter Iverson>into the air. How the bear scored the bark with his claws, and how the sisters were <v Peter Iverson>saved, and went up into the sky, where they became the stars of the <v Peter Iverson>Big Dipper. <v Peter Iverson>The Wind River country of the Shoshone and the Arapahos has a compelling quality to it. <v Peter Iverson>It is not surprising that Washakie, that Shoshone leader of the past century, <v Peter Iverson>was pleased with much of the land that the Treaty of 1868 promised <v Peter Iverson>to preserve for his people. <v Peter Iverson>Even though subsequent land sessions reduced the land base, even though <v Peter Iverson>two tribes soon had to share that land, the continuation of Indian community <v Peter Iverson>life within Wyoming primarily has been possible because of the existence <v Peter Iverson>of a reservation. This is not at all what the creators of reservations <v Peter Iverson>had in mind. Of course, such policymakers of a century ago would be amazed <v Peter Iverson>and probably appalled at the degree to which the Indians of Wyoming

<v Peter Iverson>have adapted to modern life and yet maintained a particular Indian <v Peter Iverson>identity. <v Peter Iverson>An Indian man once said to me, 'That something happened for Indians is more <v Peter Iverson>important than when it happened.' This insight is useful, <v Peter Iverson>for it helps non-Indians to appreciate that the events of a previous era <v Peter Iverson>may live on whether the living memory is of the Fetterman <v Peter Iverson>fight in the 1860s or the loss <v Peter Iverson>of land through the Bruno session of the 1870s. <v Peter Iverson>Of turn of the century, leaders such as Washakie or Black Coal <v Peter Iverson>events and people and actions maintain <v Peter Iverson>a vividness because of place, because of the importance of oral <v Peter Iverson>tradition, because what happened yesterday can and does affect <v Peter Iverson>today and tomorrow.

<v Peter Iverson>When we look back upon Indian history in Wyoming, it is tempting to perceive the days of <v Peter Iverson>100 years ago and more as a golden age with a certain freedom and glory <v Peter Iverson>attendant to it. When we look at the present, it's tempting to see only the difficulties <v Peter Iverson>and problems which loom. <v Peter Iverson>But it is more accurate and more telling to try to see <v Peter Iverson>how the past and present merge and how the past was filled <v Peter Iverson>with hardship and uncertainty. <v Peter Iverson>Just as the present day may also be replete with hope and courage. <v Peter Iverson>There is a richness and a depth to the Indian experience <v Peter Iverson>within Wyoming history that is there for all of us to discover, <v Peter Iverson>to appreciate, and to learn from if we are willing <v Peter Iverson>to do so. <v Mick McClain>That historical essay from Dr. Peter Iverson of the University of Wyoming Department of <v Mick McClain>History. And this has been Visions of the Past, produced with funds provided <v Mick McClain>by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, the Wyoming Historical Society

<v Mick McClain>and the University of Wyoming American Studies Center. <v Mick McClain>If you have comments about this program, we'd like to hear from you. <v Mick McClain>Write to Wisions of the Past, box 3984, <v Mick McClain>University Station, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071. <v Mick McClain>And if you'd like to read more about Native Americans, send along a stamped, <v Mick McClain>self-addressed envelope, and we'll send you a list of books so that you can learn more on <v Mick McClain>your own. The address, again, is Visions of the Past Box 3984 <v Mick McClain>University Station Laramie, Wyoming 82071. <v Mick McClain>Historian for this program was Peter Iverson. <v Mick McClain>Recording engineer for this program was Audrey Waldock. <v Mick McClain>Recording engineer for the series is John Mackey. <v Mick McClain>For Visions of the Past, I'm Mick McClain. <v Speaker>[Song: Song of Wyoming by John Denver] <v Speaker>This is Wyoming Public Radio.