Crowdog

<v Speaker>Funding for this program has been made possible in part by the Corporation for Public <v Speaker>Broadcasting. [nature sounds] <v Host>It is the morning of June 24th, 1976. <v Host>Leonard Crowdog, a Sioux Medicine Man is on bail awaiting a court decision that <v Host>could place him in prison for 8 years. <v Host>This is his story. The story of a day, a time, a <v Host>people and a vision. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Grandfather was a sacred altar. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Your Grandfather was a sacred way of living. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Grandfather being an Indian, being the Red Nation. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Teach my Indian people, the Nation, the sacred way <v Leonard Crow Dog>of our Indian forefathers. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Grandfather, let us live and let us understand <v Leonard Crow Dog>and lose. Our knowledge grows from you, grandmother.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>[singing] [bird noises] <v Host>The land called Rosebud, ancestral home of the Brule tribe of the Great Sioux <v Host>Nation. <v Host>85years ago, Leonard's Grandfather came to this place. <v Host>He spent a lifetime teaching his people the sacred ways and for this was imprisoned by <v Host>the whites. <v Host>Chankpe Opi, Wounded Knee, 300 women and children massacred, <v Host>his religion banned. <v Host>If there was to be a hope, it could only be in hiding the ways of his people. <v Host>He came here.

<v Crow Dog III>I'm Crowdog, the third, and Crowdog the fourth and five so <v Crow Dog III>that- that- picture I showed you with a man that pipe in the hand <v Crow Dog III>and p-e-a-c-e, he went peace. <v Host>Indians called the Crowdogs traditionalists. <v Host>They are the keepers, the holders of all that is and once was sacred to the Sioux. <v Leonard Crow Dog>With the American Indian way of doing things we have the sacred pipe. <v Leonard Crow Dog>This is the Red Nation I'm sitting with. This is the sacred power. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And this is the sacred way of our Indian people. <v Host>Since the first Crowdogs settled this place, Leonard's family has kept the promise <v Host>made long ago to keep the traditional ways. <v Host>[Speaking in a Native language] Their land has <v Host>remained a sanctuary, a sacred place where the traditional <v Host>language, religion and culture could be practiced and passed on to <v Host>the next generation. [bird noises] <v Diane Crow Dog>Leonard became a medicine man age of uh 13 and 14 right in there.

<v Diane Crow Dog>It was a day that they wanted to <v Diane Crow Dog>practice uh doing a sweat lodge. <v Diane Crow Dog>Continuously for about four days they had him in the <v Diane Crow Dog>sweat lodge and there was a day in the evening, towards the evening, he <v Diane Crow Dog>came home and, uh, spoke to my mother <v Diane Crow Dog>and said, 'Mom, somebody who spoke to me, somebody talked to me. <v Diane Crow Dog>Somehow it came to me and told me to perform a place where I have <v Diane Crow Dog>to communicate with them.' [singing] So my mother said 'My son got sacred.'. <v Host>To traditional people Leonard's voices were a sign that the Great Spirit had <v Host>marked him for a higher calling. <v Host>Leonard's father called the old medicine man, Good Lance, White Lance

<v Host>and Lance, the last of those who lived before the white man to prepare him to make <v Host>him ready for the day when he would speak to the spirits. <v Host>[singing and drumming] At <v Host>14 Leonard began a journey no white man has ever seen, songs, ceremonies, rituals. <v Host>The secret heart of a culture carried in hushed tones of its oldest survivors. <v Host>[Speaking in Native langauge] Links to a world almost forgotten, all to prepare him for <v Host>the most important time in his life, the time of [speaking Native language], the time <v Host>of the vision quest. <v Speaker>[Singing and drumming] <v Leonard Crow Dog>September, He said now its ready, he said so you feel the pipe. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I'll take you up to the hill and dream you. <v Leonard Crow Dog>He said, I will take you up to the hill. [singing and drumming] <v Host> On the sacred hill of his people, they gave him a pipe, wrapped

<v Host>him in a star quilt and put him in the mother earth alone. <v Host>He prayed for a vision. <v Leonard Crow Dog>'But you have tried to seek to vision,' he said. <v Leonard Crow Dog>'The power is already in you,' he said. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Then he said, look towards south. <v Leonard Crow Dog>So I look towards south. Then another world. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Another world that I see in many, many teepees, many, many horses. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I see the smoke. I see all the ?dry me?. <v Leonard Crow Dog>These are the people that used to be here in this planet. <v Leonard Crow Dog>'This power is going to be. It belongs to your Grandfather,' he said. <v Leonard Crow Dog>'But now it's going to belong to you,' he said. <v Leonard Crow Dog>'You must teach your people,' he said. 'And you must protect your people,' he said. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[singing] <v Host>There's no turning back from a vision. <v Host>To pray for a vision is to let the Grandfather decide the future. <v Host>Yet how was Leonard to teach the ways of a people hidden for 85 years?

<v Host>[singing and drumming] <v Host>The old medicine man, White Lance, Good Lance, and Lance, they took him, teaching him. <v Host>We are the last. You must remember this. <v Host>They told Leonard over time, long before the coming of the white man, when the Sioux were <v Host>a nation. <v Host>You are the last. You must remember this. <v Host>Chankpe Opi, Wounded Knee, 300 women and children massacred. <v Host>Your Grandfather was there. Crodog was there with Kicking Bear, dancing and <v Host>Pray. And you are the last. <v Host>You must remember them. They told him of his Grandfather, hiding sacred <v Host>ways, of missionaries, broken treaties, his nations who shattered <v Host>the people in despair. <v Host>And as Leonard grew to manhood, he came to realize that he was <v Host>alone. The last living link. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The sacred purification Grandfather.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>You are the sun of this whole universe, Grandfather, you are the great creator. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The fire, the water, the stone, the sacred <v Leonard Crow Dog>steam. Grandfather, I ask you to bless us, take care <v Leonard Crow Dog>of us Grandfather. In a sacred way, Grandfather. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I ask you. [nature sounds] [singing]. <v Leonard Crow Dog> <v Speaker>[Speaking in Native language].

<v Host> The ways of the traditional have <v Host>been practiced for generations. Yet in the last 85 years, those ways have <v Host>been challenged. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Well, since I was a spiritual man, how did the knowledge- how did the knowledge grows <v Leonard Crow Dog>into Crowdog. <v Host>The world in which Leonard grew to manhood was a world in transition. <v Host>The last of those who knew the old ways were dying. <v Host>Leonard's friends were being shipped hundreds of miles to boarding schools. <v Host>A way of life was ending. <v Host>Hiding Leonard from missionaries and truant officers, the old medicine man took <v Host>him far into the back country, desperately teaching him the old ways. <v Fool Bull>And there was a big circle. <v Fool Bull>They all singing, the ghost song. <v Fool Bull>They had on some shirts that they made our out of issued canvas, issued to them, <v Fool Bull>?inaudible? One <v Fool Bull>morning we heard the gunfire.

<v Fool Bull>Everybody come out of the teepee and run around. We heard the gunfire-rifle- every now and then heard a cannon. <v Fool Bull>Heard a ?gatling gun? ?inaudible? And they took a shot at him. <v Fool Bull>Killed everybody [music] children, and overnight they <v Fool Bull>froze up, you know. <v Fool Bull>And they hitched mule teams and threw 'em in the wagon. And they dig the long trench, and throw 'em in and cover them up. That's <v Fool Bull>where the Wounded Knee battlefield they call it. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Mr. White Man knows he- he can treat and treat us like a dog. <v Leonard Crow Dog>He could kill a dog. He could kill a bird. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Bird can- can do nothing so just fly around, so- so <v Leonard Crow Dog>you could kill him. Now Mr. White Man been treating- treat us like <v Leonard Crow Dog>that. <v Host>In the time since Wounded Knee, the traditional's land, language and religion were all <v Host>banned.

<v Host>In the late 50s, the policy of the government of the United States was called <v Host>termination. It was a last step in assimilating the Indian into the mainstream <v Host>of American life. <v Speaker>I thought everybody going to be on equal ways. <v Speaker>But they don't- in some ways don't- don't- don't turn out- turn out that way. <v Speaker>Right. My- my wish and my belief is <v Speaker>all American Indians can stand together. <v Speaker>They all know what's- what's In- Indian- Indian culture is. <v Speaker>So we're all gonna be equal. <v Leonard Crow Dog>For 10 years Leonard willl try to find a way to teach his generation the sacred ways. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[event announcer speaking] <v Host>It was in the late 60s they came. <v Host>Young Indians from the urban centers of Denver, Detroit and Minneapolis. <v Host>They came from prisons, universities, ghettos, all <v Host>hoping to find an identity that their parents had lost.

<v Speaker>People in this world are always searching it seems for something to give their life <v Speaker>meaning. All the time they're saying to themselves, 'there must be more to life.' <v Speaker>All that time that. I have been in conflict in my mind what the American Indian <v Speaker>people needed. <v Speaker>I had it all the answer in me. <v Speaker>And all they needed was the tradition and not conflicting with the white man world. <v Host>But the days of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are long gone, and the Indians, <v Host>the city dwellers found we're not the same as those told about in the legend or song. <v Speaker>Well- well you can't turn back the page or the time. But we made many changes. <v Speaker>You can't go back to the old ways. No- No way. <v Host>It's been 85 years since Crowdog took the nation's fire into hiding, <v Host>85years. Yet during that time the traditional has fallen <v Host>victim to a greater horror than the massacre of women and children, a horror

<v Host>of the spirit. Starved into submission with his religion banned, <v Host>the traditional fell victim to the missionary's claims of salvation, government <v Host>officials promises of welfare. <v Host>Those who remained suffered the barbs and backwardness, turning <v Host>their anger in to violence, alcoholism and despair. <v Host>[singing] <v Speaker>We all must be going through some kind of punishment right now for some kind of wrong <v Speaker>that we've done. <v Speaker>Because right now there's this hell. [singing] <v Host>85 years, if you can't go back to the old ways and if going the way <v Host>of the white man means only parading on weekends for tourists, what's there left to <v Host>being an Indian? <v Host>[singing] Since Wounded Knee, the American Indian has lived between two worlds <v Host>caught in a cultural no man's land that was not of his making.

<v Host>It's more than statistics. <v Host>It's the helplessness of having no hope. <v Host>[festival noises] They came together for many reasons, the need to find themselves, the

<v Host>need to fight injustice. But they came together, and Leonard becomes a bridge <v Host>between the old and the new, the young and the old. <v Host>Together they form a movement, AIM, the American <v Host>Indian Movement. <v Leonard Crow Dog>We're standing on the earth now. See, that's our grandmother. <v Leonard Crow Dog>That's our earth. That's our body there. <v Leonard Crow Dog>So when we stand on our body, do we have the voice of rights. <v Leonard Crow Dog>American Indian Movement is not an organization that was born or reincarnated <v Leonard Crow Dog>yesterday. American Indian Movement was here. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Crazy Horse is the American Indian Movement. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Crazy Horse is the one. <v Host>March 1972. <v Host>A Sioux man is forced to dance naked at an American Legion party. <v Host>But when he's found dead in the trunk of a Legionnaire's car and is described as a boyish <v Host>prank, Indians from all over the country, Crowdog and his pipe amongst <v Host>them, protest at the trial. [singing and drumming] It's the first time in 85 <v Host>years that a Sioux has stood up to a white man.

<v Speaker>The time has come when the Indian must fight, when the Indian <v Speaker>must stand up for himself. When the Indian couldn't stand up for himself, that's <v Speaker>when the Movement should come in. <v Speaker>Because after all, <v Speaker>the Indian is a human being too. <v Speaker>[singing and dancing] <v Leonard Crow Dog>I'm sure there is some place in this Western Hemisphere there is a good <v Leonard Crow Dog>white man in this world. <v Leonard Crow Dog>?which the cells? is still weak, in weakness and injustice. <v Host>January 1973, a Sioux named Wesley Bad Heart Bill was <v Host>killed by a white man. <v Host>And AIM begins a series of protests against towns bordering on the reservation. <v Dennis Banks>We're not going to let up on any of towns for one day.

<v Dennis Banks>We said that we would keep up the action and keep <v Dennis Banks>those people from sleeping at night. <v Dennis Banks>That's what we're going to do. [shouting] <v Host>Traditionals believe in cycles and generations. <v Host>With all roads blocked and federal charges of riot, there was no choice. <v Host>They would stand at Wounded Knee. <v Speaker>You guys are going to have to get behind us. There's more room over here.

<v Speaker>Two heads, four hands, open hearts? Our <v Speaker>Grandfather's days that time we don't have such a thing in 1973. <v Speaker>Them years, them centuries, those lives. <v Speaker>Today under this peace pipe, ?inaudible?, <v Speaker>I initiate the nation. <v Speaker>Decide tonight if you want to dance with me tomorrow. <v Speaker>Nobody can stop us. We're in Wounded Knee, and all around us are white man. <v Speaker>We're going to get killed, <v Speaker>?inaudible? [wind] We're going to be buried at Wounded Knee. [music] <v Speaker>[singing] <v Speaker>[mumbling] [gunfire]

<v Speaker>[singing]

<v Host>A people's fear. A secret dream, a nation reborn in <v Host>a hoop at wounded knee. <v Host>The siege of Wounded Knee will last for 71 days. <v Host>Two Indians will die. <v Host>The government will call it the actions of a small extremist minority. <v Host>The press will pay lip service to the Indian problem, but Wounded Knee will <v Host>raise questions for Indian people. <v Host>Questions that have lain dormant for decades. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The waterbird is this place to drink water. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And the forefathers told us this is very sacred to us. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[laughter. <v Interviewer>That a good sign? <v Leonard Crow Dog>That's a good sign. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[Off camera, Man: A Very good sign]. <v Interviewer>What do you think about that waterbird? <v Leonard Crow Dog> Good.

<v Host>They'll come to South Dakota to find the answers. <v Leonard Crow Dog>My knowledge is a-track. So I could switch on this side and talk about this <v Leonard Crow Dog>spiritualthing. Talk about the government's side and talk about the generation. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And talk about the medicine man and talk about the spiritual part and how about <v Leonard Crow Dog>the birth of this- control of this universe. <v Leonard Crow Dog>So you are the people. I'm out with you. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I'm free. Okay. You people come to come down to your- your act <v Leonard Crow Dog>and come to bring your answers to me now. <v Speaker>A lot of us younger people, you know, we heard you, you know, we come <v Speaker>to try and, uh- Some of us still know our language, you know, <v Speaker>[Leonard: yeah] and try to maintain this religion that we have <v Speaker>because it's real, you know. <v Leonard Crow Dog>It's very important. <v Speaker>I don't know- I just- We finally get ahold of the <v Speaker>person because finally show us the <v Speaker>way that we- we need to survive. <v Speaker>As me as a medicine man and spiritual man.

<v Speaker>I'm going to give you that knowledge, which I'm just interpreting the spiritual message <v Speaker>that I'm gonna interpret to you. Then the knowledge will grows in you, <v Speaker>then your generation. All sudden your generation is going to speak the Sioux <v Speaker>language, or you- your generation will speak your tribe language. <v Speaker>So reborn, you might say reincarnation, <v Speaker>reelevate your mind and your spirit back to your Indian people. <v Speaker>[drumming and singing] <v Leonard Crow Dog>We are called American Indians, but we are the- we are the Plains, the Red <v Leonard Crow Dog>Nation. We are the Ned nation that live here in this Western Hemisphere. <v Speaker>You know, the buffalo is gone. <v Speaker>We know that. Everybody knows it. <v Speaker>But we're going to take what is left right now in this society. <v Speaker>And we're going to turn it into an Indian society.

<v Speaker>We've got to think of- of mankind not only <v Speaker>Indian people, but for everybody,for your- you know the generations to come. <v Speaker>[singing] <v Speaker>Maybe there is a generation that will live in this world. <v Speaker>Maybe it's our generation. <v Speaker>[singing] <v Host>A medicine man is more than a religious leader.

<v Host>He is responsible for bringing his generation to the traditional ways. <v Host>Armed not with bullets, but with the power of the past. <v Host>Leonard began reviving ceremonies long dead and teaching his people <v Host>the ways of their ancestors, the ways of a nation. <v Host>[pipe music] [music] <v Leonard Crow Dog>The medicine people and the traditional people <v Leonard Crow Dog>and the head man and the Chiefs, Chiefs which now <v Leonard Crow Dog>I will not call a warrior, but the hunters. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The hunters used to hunt the buffalos. <v Leonard Crow Dog>But now we don't have no buffalos. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Now we have hunting the last- the last of our rights is hunting our <v Leonard Crow Dog>Indian power and our Indian language. <v Host>To build a nation requires more than symbols.

<v Host>People's lives, thoughts, actions must be linked to the knowledge <v Host>passed from generation to generation. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The knowledge is grows into us. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The knowledge is born in us. <v Leonard Crow Dog>We are the living generation. We are the example of our Indian people. <v Host>If everything belongs to the Great Spirit and to the Mother Earth, then the <v Host>only thing you have to offer is a prayer, is your body. <v Host>The Sun Dance preaches this way. <v Host>[music] <v Leonard Crow Dog>We are nation in this western hemisphere.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>That's why each tribe has his own language. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And each tribe has his own way of worshiping. <v Host>In six months, AIM has challenged the effect of 85 years of forced <v Host>assimilation. Survival schools teach young Indians their native tongue. <v Host>Treaty councils petition for land and water rights. <v Host>In January 1974, AIM tries to restore traditional government <v Host>by running Russell Means for Tribal Chairman. <v Russell Means>I have dedicated my life to getting our treaty rights <v Russell Means>because we are a nation. We are not a reservation any longer. <v Host>He is opposed by Richard Wilson. <v Richard Wilson>And if you think the federal government is going to listen to one long haired bandit, <v Richard Wilson>well, I think you're wrong. <v Richard Wilson>The guy belongs in jail. <v Russell Means>If Indian people do not attain true sovereignty, true independence <v Russell Means>that we as a people will be slowly strangled to death.

<v Russell Means>And that in effect, we will become red white people. <v Russell Means>We will become what the white man has forced the black man to become. <v Richard Wilson>When I win that will to me be a mandate from the Oglala Sioux <v Richard Wilson>people. And I think that probably I'll run AIM clear off this reservation. <v Richard Wilson>I've got no business here harassed and they have nothing to offer if I'm reelected. <v Host>Wilson will win by 200 votes. <v Host>It will take the United States Civil Rights Commission over a year to determine <v Host>18 violations. <v Speaker>Right now we're witnessing cultural genocide, you see. <v Speaker>A physical genocide, as we know, happened when when the Europeans first <v Speaker>got here. OK. That did not wipe us out. <v Speaker>We're still here. We've- we've been practicing our religion, our culture. <v Speaker>The cultural genocide if it is allowed to take place with the Indian, <v Speaker>then all other cultures that are now in existence, and there's only a few in the world,

<v Speaker>will cease to exist to. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Do you people outside the world, my Indian people, do you see it that way? <v Leonard Crow Dog>Are you all blindfolded and hard of hearing? <v Leonard Crow Dog>[music] <v Host>True to his word. Wilson's first act is to place on the government payroll <v Host>muscle man called the GOON squad whose sole responsibility is to drive <v Host>AIM off the reservation, Initiating a reign of terror unlike <v Host>any known in America. <v Host>In 1 year, there will be 23 violent deaths. <v Host>Fear and violence terrorize the people. <v Host>In March, a white drifter arrives at Leonard's claiming that the Great Spirit had sent <v Host>him. He will later be given immunity from criminal prosecution, claiming <v Host>that he was assaulted by Leonard. <v Leonard Crow Dog>We'd better put this man in a penitentiary so he could conquer, conquer <v Leonard Crow Dog>whole language. <v Leonard Crow Dog>We could conquer the whole Indian.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>We already control it. So let's conquer their mind and spirit. <v Leonard Crow Dog>So they're not gonna talk about spiritual things. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[music] <v Host>In June of 1975, a government postal inspector testifies <v Host>that a concealed pistol was taken from him at Wound Knee. <v Host>When Leonard is identified as having been in the same room, <v Host>Leonard is found guilty of interference with a federal officer. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And a rehearing is denied and a grand jury <v Leonard Crow Dog>investigations are denied. <v Leonard Crow Dog>The whole investigation of grand jury hearings, only fifteen minutes <v Leonard Crow Dog>to hear what Indian problem in an Indian reservation is denied. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Totally federal government is trying to kill- He's killing me now. <v Host>In 86 years, the government has broken the unity of Indian people. <v Host>Chankpe Opi, Wounded Knee, 300 ghost dancers massacred, their <v Host>religion, banned. For there to be hope, it can only be in <v Host>restoring the ways of the people.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>Look back to that time and look towards this time, <v Leonard Crow Dog>which are the ways that you're gonna take your people. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Sacred in spirit, take the message back <v Leonard Crow Dog>and teach your people the sacred of the ghost. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Teach your people in a sacred way, sacred way, sacred way. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[singing] <v Speaker> In the spring, Leonard took that power once <v Speaker>more gathering all the tribes, Navajo, Cheyenne and Arapaho all <v Speaker>came together in unity. <v Speaker>All came together to ghost dance. <v Speaker>[singing] <v Speaker>United holy man coming over the hill.

<v Speaker>Together, we will stand. We've been away, we've been away <v Speaker>too long. ?Our people don't know? This <v Speaker>is what I really like. <v Speaker>This is where I want to be. This feeling [bird noises and wind] Look at the eagle. <v Speaker>[mumbling and laughing] <v Leonard Crow Dog>[music] So that's where the ghost dance ?has been brought? So <v Leonard Crow Dog>you could seek to understand today no other human

<v Leonard Crow Dog>being can change the Indian life. <v Leonard Crow Dog>We was born to be a red man. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And we was born to know these things. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>This is the United States marshals, this is the FBI. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>Come out or we'll shoot. 185, close to 200 of them. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>They came in blazing, choppers, <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>about at least 16 FBI cars. <v Host>Past midnight two drunks in a car had crashed through the gates on Leonard's property. <v Host>AIM guards to disarm them and taken them to tribal court. <v Host>Although one of the intruders had a long criminal record and would later be convicted of <v Host>murder. It's Leonard that the FBI has come to get. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>But I said, 'What do you have this gun for? We don't kill nobody here. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>You want Leonard. You want my son to be in jail. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>They were all over the hills, all- all surrounding us. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>You could see 'em coming in the trees. They were- that door they broke it in,

<v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>and they broke that window when they came through. My baby Pedro was sleeping there, and <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>I said, uh, 'Is that that kid that was born in Wounded Knee?' And- and they picked <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>him, threw the covers off him and went from his sound sleeping they threw him across the <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>room, and he hit his head on the wall. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>Two FBIs put the two M-16's at my head. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>I went through an M-16 at my foot. I was standing there, <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>he put an M-16 at my foot and he said take it. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>So after my boy was gone, I don't know what to say and I don't know who I could depend <v Gertrude Crow Dog>on.Lonesome, <v Gertrude Crow Dog>crying, but I still pray with the pup. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>I'm Indian. I'm staying- still praying with the pipe <v Gertrude Crow Dog>all around, making ties, I'm Indian. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>And I said- I told the spirit with the pipe. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>I want my son to come back over here. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>And I want to see him.

<v Gertrude Crow Dog>And I want him to come in here when he come back in this house, because <v Gertrude Crow Dog>I raised him in here. <v Gertrude Crow Dog>[singing] <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>He's a healer. He's a spiritual leader. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>He's a medicine man. He's a- <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>all the knowledge is built into him. And without him <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>it's really hard to go on. [singing] There's medicine <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>around that could take care of certain <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>things for certain people, but Leonard takes care <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>of all things for all people.

<v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>To pray for our nation is something- something hard to do. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>You can't forget about your people. <v Mary Ellen Crow Dog>As long as your people are suffering, you suffer with them. <v Host>In three months, Leonard has spent time in 11 prisons. <v Host>He has lost both assault cases and with the charges from Wounded Knee he now <v Host>faces a total prison term of eight years. <v William Kunstler>Oh, there's no question that Leonard has become the focal point, more so, I think, than <v William Kunstler>other leadership, because he represents spiritual leadership. <v William Kunstler>And it's very reminiscent of the Ghost Ddance period when Wivoka <v William Kunstler>and other holy men were persecuted unmercifully <v William Kunstler>because the thought was that the power resides in the spirituality

<v William Kunstler>and that anyone who interprets or articulate that spirituality is going to be persecuted. <v William Kunstler>And so Leonard has been brutally assaulted by the federal authorities, <v William Kunstler>not only the absolute fabrication with reference to the Wounded Knee charges, <v William Kunstler>the postal inspectors situation, but also <v William Kunstler>the so-called assault charges on Rosebud, which <v William Kunstler>have been virtually recanted by the people involved. <v William Kunstler>And yet given extensive sentences to Leonard so that he's been immobilized. <v Sanford Rosen>The government in its great power to prosecute people <v Sanford Rosen>has the power to choose whom it will prosecute for every <v Sanford Rosen>felon who comes to court. <v Sanford Rosen>There are probably a hundred who are plea bargained out before they ever get to court. <v Sanford Rosen>There are probably another thousand who are never even brought up on charges because <v Sanford Rosen>the evidence too- is too thin or the effort otherwise is not worth- worth the <v Sanford Rosen>candle. And one has to ask the question, why Leonard?

<v William Kunstler>You push them off the land because of human greed <v William Kunstler>and then you fight every attempt, even though you may not think it <v William Kunstler>will succeed, every attempt to resuscitate themselves and come <v William Kunstler>back in some form and make demands that we all know are totally justified. <v William Kunstler>I guess you hate the people the most who make the most justifiable demands <v William Kunstler>because they go to the heart of our psyche. <v William Kunstler>We know they're right, and therefore you have to destroy them if you can. <v William Kunstler>And I think a lot of people are really worried about, uh, <v William Kunstler>justified ending claims to land resources and so on. <v William Kunstler>But I guess they're most afraid of the fact that the claims are morally right. <v William Kunstler>And when you're confronted with a- with a moral imperative, against a <v William Kunstler>immoral imperative on your part, you've got to hate the people who assert that moral <v William Kunstler>imperative- imperative. And I think there is a hatred now of it that goes back into <v William Kunstler>a psychological hatred that is probably beyond my ability

<v William Kunstler>to really diagnose or analyze. <v William Kunstler>But I think that, uh, is part of the essential problem with the Native American. <v William Kunstler>We hate them because their claims are totally justified. <v William Kunstler>And we know it. [singing and drumming] <v Host>On March 26, bail of 25,000 dollars is posted, and Leonard is released <v Host>pending the appeals of his cases. <v Host>[singing and drumming] <v Speaker>Why I'm holding this feather like this, these are bars- these are <v Speaker>bars. I'm looking through there. <v Speaker>My call is something like the government. He likes to say it loud and likes- <v Speaker>so once you teach him something, he said it back and forth over and over. <v Speaker>So since I was an Indian, and I'm talking to my Grandfather and all this, then <v Speaker>they realized, hey this man is bringing in about Indian people back together

<v Speaker>again. They might say well the only place to kill him, so let's put him in a <v Speaker>penitentiary. [singing] <v Host>There is no turning back from a vision. <v Host>And if the path to politics and protest leads only to despair, <v Host>there is a greater power. [singing] <v Speaker>The time that they arrest me, the time <v Speaker>when I was in the 7 days and 7 hours in <v Speaker>handcuffs, I was a medicine man. <v Speaker>When I got to be now standing on my <v Speaker>spiritual foundation, the United States government must <v Speaker>recognize our Indian religion.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>On bail facing 8 years in the penitentiary, Leonard decides to <v Leonard Crow Dog>travel to the world of the white man, preaching respect for the power of vision <v Leonard Crow Dog>begun on a hill long ago. <v Speaker>[Singing] <v Leonard Crow Dog> One day I said I have choice- I

<v Leonard Crow Dog>have choice to my people. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Which way I'm going to live? <v Leonard Crow Dog>So I said I'm going to take the Indian way. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Anyway, I never was. I'm crazy enough, but I never was in a white man's school. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[music] I never lied to no other country. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I never signed no treaty. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I never was baptized. <v Leonard Crow Dog>But all the things that my- my forefathers that went through <v Leonard Crow Dog>that I've been coming through 200 years now. <v Leonard Crow Dog>I used to wear the moccasins, but now I'm wearing this. <v Leonard Crow Dog>It is hard to walk on that. <v Leonard Crow Dog>[laughter] That don't mean it was a concrete, no it was injustice. <v Leonard Crow Dog>All white juries no- don't even know about the Indian power. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Don't don't even know about the medicine.

<v Leonard Crow Dog>Don't know even know about this spiritual power. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Still, they find me guilty. <v Host>Leonard's cases have drawn international attention. <v Host>The World Council of Churches holds fundraisers and press conferences. <v Host>Amnesty International petitions for his release and a team of top <v Host>civil rights lawyers work day and night on the appeals of his cases. <v Leonard Crow Dog>You are the people that's going to support the United States. <v Leonard Crow Dog>You are the people, your penny is going to go there. You <v Leonard Crow Dog>are the man that's going to be put in the new next president there. <v Leonard Crow Dog>And the American Indians are going to be standing there with open hands and mouth <v Leonard Crow Dog>wide open and getting murdered and killed every day. <v Leonard Crow Dog>So- which <v Leonard Crow Dog>I do not know what I'm going to do tomorrow. <v Leonard Crow Dog>What the government's going to do to me tomorrow. <v Leonard Crow Dog>Maybe he's going to put me in the penitentiary.

<v Host>It is the evening of June 24th, 1976, 85 <v Host>years ago, Leonard's Grandfather came to this place. <v Leonard Crow Dog>He said this- this will be my fire here. <v Leonard Crow Dog>This will be my home here. <v Leonard Crow Dog>This water will never have been end. And this <v Leonard Crow Dog>eagle will always fly through here. <v Speaker>[mumbling] <v Speaker>It says that, uth, the petition for a rehearing <v Speaker>of the trial on the Wounded Knee charges has been denied <v Speaker>today.

<v Speaker>Since I was the spiritual leader of the American Indians to represent <v Speaker>my Indian people in a way of worship in the Great Creator. <v Speaker>This is the Indian church that you are in here now. <v Speaker>The tem- temple of the Great Creator, temple of the Western Hemisphere, temple <v Speaker>of the Earth Maker that created the church. <v Speaker>This is the Indian church that has been given to the Indian people <v Speaker>generation to generation. <v Speaker>But today of our generation, the injustices that happened to the American <v Speaker>Indians, this religion must be recognized. <v Speaker>Indian religion must be recognized by the United States government. <v Speaker>The religion that had been created by the Great Spirit we still have. <v Speaker>So we're going to fill the pipe. <v Speaker>Grandfather this is how I pray to you Grandfather. <v Speaker>I ask you so I could be with my people Grandfather. <v Speaker>In the future Grandfather, I'm going into another trial Grandfather, hearing

<v Speaker>trials Grandfather. Don't let me be in a penitentiary Grandfather. <v Speaker>My Indian people need me Grandfather. <v Speaker>My Indian people the Indian always <v Speaker>want- I want my Indian people to learn this ways, Grandfather. <v Speaker>I ask you. <v Speaker>These are very sacred to me, Grandfather Father, I do <v Speaker>not to do this, but again, Grandfather, what I represent the white America must <v Speaker>understand. Grandfather, Grandfather, when I was in the penitentiary, I <v Speaker>need these things, Grandfather, I told you when I was in a penitentiary, take me back to <v Speaker>my home so I could teach my Indian people. <v Speaker>Grandfather. I say these things to your Grandfather. <v Speaker>I ask you, Grandfather many ways of our life. <v Speaker>Grandfather, I ask you to day. <v Speaker>Bless us. Take care of us. Grandfather, I ask you. <v Speaker>Bless my drummer. Grandfather, my brother. <v Speaker>Here. Tie this. Let him learn this good drum. <v Speaker>Grandfather, teach him the ways. Grandfather and my nephew is going to

<v Speaker>take care of thecedar. And my nephew, take care of the fire, Grandfather. <v Speaker>And the moon. Grandfather generation. <v Speaker>Many Indian people prayed here. Grandfather. <v Speaker>Our forefathers. The moccasins, our Grandfather's moccasins trails are <v Speaker>still here Grandfather. Let these moccasins to be recognized by the United States <v Speaker>government. Grandfather. Let me be free. <v Speaker>Grandfather. Let me be trees so I could teach my Indian people this old Indian <v Speaker>ways, Grandfather. Our fire, our Grandfathers spiders that tepees the log Grandfather. <v Speaker>Let me help me so I could be with my family and I could be with my people grandmother. <v Speaker>So I could be teacher. Grandfather. <v Speaker>I could be their great spirit, your messiah Grandfather. <v Speaker>Grandfather. I ask you, Grandfather, with this sacred tobacco that you create <v Speaker>your creations. Grandfather and your staff, your designs. <v Speaker>Yous drum Grandfather. <v Speaker>These are the Grandfather's ways. Grandfather, we're not selling you Grandfather.

<v Speaker>We are standing for you. Grandfather, I'm speaking for you. <v Speaker>I'm speaking for your rights. Grandfather. <v Speaker>Your the oldest Grandfather that I have. <v Speaker>And I have to depend on. Grandfather. <v Speaker>You're my lawyer. Grandfather. <v Speaker>peyote, my lawyer. <v Speaker>Peace pipe. You're my lawyer. Grandfather. <v Speaker>Bless this home, this- this home here. <v Speaker>Grandfather, which we call Crowdog's paradise. <v Speaker>Grandfather. Let us be together. <v Speaker>Grandfather left the white America to understand so I could be with my <v Speaker>people. I'm gonna blow this whistle Grandfather towards east <v Speaker>Grandfather. [whistle noise] <v Speaker>Many years ago, Crowdog had his people.

<v Speaker>This is their valley. When you come up to this hill, <v Speaker>many of the sacred ways of our Indian people are very sacred <v Speaker>and our generation has is very sacred. <v Speaker>Grandfather always sees. <v Speaker>Grandfather always points towards a great creator. <v Speaker>How you're going to see Grandfather pointing the great creator. <v Speaker>It said you will see the shadow of your Grandfather. <v Speaker>You could see it today. <v Speaker>The shadow- the Sun reflected as you can see. <v Speaker>That's how they call it. This Grandfather is pointing towards the Great Creator. <v Speaker>And the Great Creator is the maker of this world. <v Speaker>[singing] <v Host>On June 25th, 1976, Leonard makes the journey from Rosebud

<v Host>to Deadwood, South Dakota, where he was placed in the same jail that 85 years <v Host>ago held his Grandfather. <v Speaker>Funding for this program has been made possible in part by the Corporation for Public

<v Speaker>Broadcasting.