Crowdog
- Transcript
<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.
- Program
- Crowdog
- Producing Organization
- WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.)
- Myers & Griner/Cuesta (Firm)
- Contributing Organization
- The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn70072
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn70072).
- Description
- Program Description
- "Crowdog is a [fifty-seven] minute, color documentary that examines the world of the traditional [Indian] through the eyes of its most controversial leader, Crowdog."--1979 Peabody Awards entry form.
- Broadcast Date
- 1979-06-26
- Created Date
- 1979-06-26
- Asset type
- Program
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:58:05.048
- Credits
-
-
Director: Baxter, Dave
Director: Cuesta, Mike
Executive Producer: Cuesta, Mike
Host: Torn, Rip
Producer: Baxter, Dave
Producing Organization: WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.)
Producing Organization: Myers & Griner/Cuesta (Firm)
Writer: Baxter, Dave
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the
University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-23d54382653 (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 00:27:00
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “Crowdog,” 1979-06-26, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed December 8, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn70072.
- MLA: “Crowdog.” 1979-06-26. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. December 8, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn70072>.
- APA: Crowdog. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn70072