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<v Mick McLean>This program is made possible with funds provided by the Wyoming Council for the <v Mick McLean>Humanities. The Wyoming Historical Society and the University of Wyoming <v Mick McLean>American Studies Center. <v Mick McLean>[music] It's a stereotype of the Old West Cowboys and Indians. <v Mick McLean>Kids play it in the backyard. Movies have shown it to us during countless Saturday <v Mick McLean>matinees. The Indians are often portrayed as bloodthirsty savages who had <v Mick McLean>nothing better to do than scalp and pillage innocent white people. <v Mick McLean>When you separate fact from fiction, you find that Native Americans have a history of <v Mick McLean>rich traditions that go back thousands of years. <v Mick McLean>This is Visions of the Past. I'm Mick McClain. <v Mick McLean>[music] When the white man started to carve his humble existence, he was doing that <v Mick McLean>carving out of land that belonged to the Indians.
<v Mick McLean>Perhaps more accurately, it was nobody's land. <v Mick McLean>Tribes moved around following the buffalo. <v Mick McLean>The land was open and free. <v Mick McLean>Not every tribe got along with every other tribe, but the inter-tribal rivalries were <v Mick McLean>nothing compared to the conflicts which would take place in the 1800s. <v Mick McLean>Trails would pass through prime hunting grounds. <v Mick McLean>Whites were claiming land for homesteads and mines, railroads split the land in two. <v Mick McLean>The Indians were angry and frustrated. <v Mick McLean>They took defensive stands and found themselves up against the U.S. <v Mick McLean>Army. Cultures were misunderstood on both sides. <v Mick McLean>Treaties drawn up, treaties broken. <v Mick McLean>And today, more and more tribes are attempting to keep traditions and cultures alive <v Mick McLean>while coping with white cultures and traditions. <v Mick McLean>The tribes are proud. They remember the thousands of years of their own history. <v Mick McLean>They remember the broken treaties. <v Mick McLean>They remember that they were here first. <v Mick McLean>And they want young people of the tribes to remember these things, too. <v Mick McLean>Misunderstandings continue today.
<v Mick McLean>The media have been guilty of distorting the truth about Native Americans. <v Mick McLean>So in this program we'll basically let Indians speak for themselves. <v Mick McLean>We'll hear from three generations of Native Americans, the young, the middle aged <v Mick McLean>and a teacher from the Wind River Reservation who's calling upon his many years in the <v Mick McLean>culture he learned from the elders to enrich the lives of young Native Americans today. <v Mick McLean>Terry Bear Tooth is program director for ITAC, the Intertribal Alcoholism <v Mick McLean>Rehabilitation Center at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Sheridan. <v Mick McLean>Alcoholism among Native Americans occurs in epidemic proportions. <v Mick McLean>At ITAK treatment of alcohol and drug abuse is combined with educational programs <v Mick McLean>and traditional cultural and spiritual values. <v Mick McLean>We talked with Bear Tooth and two associates, Paul Catches and Ozzie Williamson. <v Mick McLean>Bear Tooth says that understanding Indian culture is an important part of the treatment <v Mick McLean>program. <v Terry Bear Tooth>Growing up on a reservation is difficult when you have <v Terry Bear Tooth>lost your cultural ties. Um, you know, I know many people who've grown
<v Terry Bear Tooth>up on the reservation who maintain those cultural ties and are very comfortable there, <v Terry Bear Tooth>and- and very profitable in their own- in their own <v Terry Bear Tooth>sense. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I lost that- I lost that cultural identity very early. <v Terry Bear Tooth>Being of mixed blood, it was difficult for me to <v Terry Bear Tooth>identify with the Indian <v Terry Bear Tooth>culture that the full bloods, the traditionalists who consider themselves to be Indians. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And let me know, at every opportunity that I was a half-breed. <v Terry Bear Tooth>Then there was the white population on the reservation who would <v Terry Bear Tooth>consider me to be Indian. <v Terry Bear Tooth>So very early on, I- I realized that, you know, <v Terry Bear Tooth>I was different and I began to suffer a sense of low self-esteem because <v Terry Bear Tooth>of that. I withdrew from, um, the spiritual <v Terry Bear Tooth>activities, cultural activities, and just kind of went <v Terry Bear Tooth>my own way. And a lot of people in my generation are stuck
<v Terry Bear Tooth>in the same cultural vacuum. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And unless you find some some way out of that, <v Terry Bear Tooth>which I have found through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous <v Terry Bear Tooth>and through getting sober, unless you can find <v Terry Bear Tooth>that, you know, the disease will probably kill you. <v Terry Bear Tooth>It's never too late. You know, it's always been there. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I just- I was the one who turned away from it. <v Terry Bear Tooth>It was always available to me. It was just my own feelings of low self-esteem that kept <v Terry Bear Tooth>me from going back to the elders and saying, I want to learn. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I want to know more about this. Because they're there to teach you. <v Terry Bear Tooth>It's there for the asking. I just didn't feel worthy. I just didn't feel- <v Mick McLean>Do you feel it's going to be up to you. <v Mick McLean>Any- any of you three who to- <v Mick McLean>to help carry on the traditions. <v Mick McLean>I mean, the elders aren't going to be around much longer. <v Mick McLean>And even though you have a chance to get back to the culture, is the culture still
<v Mick McLean>going to be there by the time people want to go back to it. <v Paul Catches>I think that that it will because some of the people from my reservation <v Paul Catches>are starting young. They're getting the younger people back into the traditional ways <v Paul Catches>and learning the traditional values of, um, their religious <v Paul Catches>practices. And my dad is a medicine man and my brother <v Paul Catches>is right underneath him. I'm the youngest of the family, 8 children. <v Paul Catches>And we have all grown up to that path, and <v Paul Catches>we share with others. And, you know, one of the reasons is why I'm here, <v Paul Catches>I want to share my belief in the great spirit and <v Paul Catches>higher power to- to the people that come here from different tribes to <v Paul Catches>influence them to go back to their Native religion. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I think Paul's upbringing is probably more atypical than anything, <v Terry Bear Tooth>because I keep saying unless- unless your parents <v Terry Bear Tooth>or your family is strongly rooted in a cultural or
<v Terry Bear Tooth>spiritual aspects, it doesn't get passed on. <v Terry Bear Tooth>There's been a real gap, but there's a resurgence of interest. <v Terry Bear Tooth>You know, the younger people are very hungry for knowledge, <v Terry Bear Tooth>and that's something we find here in treatment. Is that, uh, you know, <v Terry Bear Tooth>if we bring in an elder, you know, these people will listen to 'em all day. <v Terry Bear Tooth>Because once they get the booze and drugs out of their head, they want to learn. <v Terry Bear Tooth>They want to- They want to know again. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And, you know, I have many of the same feelings. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I am interested in learning the ways of my people, you know, <v Terry Bear Tooth>at a much deeper level than I have ever participated before. <v Ozzie Williamson>One of the things I see happening now, like with Paul, there's another, uh, transition <v Ozzie Williamson>taking place. And I think it kind of goes along with the statement that <v Ozzie Williamson>Sitting Bull made, you know, years ago. And he said, take from the white man what is good <v Ozzie Williamson>and what is bad leave behind.
<v Ozzie Williamson>I think people are starting to realize that now. <v Ozzie Williamson>They're starting to use some of the good things from the white man. <v Ozzie Williamson>But yet they're still maintaining their Indian culture like Paul is doing.Paul is very <v Ozzie Williamson>fortunate to be able to have the total commitment from both worlds. <v Ozzie Williamson>Terry and I didn't have that. I lost my Indian culture very early in <v Ozzie Williamson>life for the same reason that Terry did. <v Ozzie Williamson>I'm a half breed. <v Ozzie Williamson>Back When I was a little child, the halfbreed was the lowest class citizen that walked <v Ozzie Williamson>on earth, and that's when I talk about the pain and that's what it <v Ozzie Williamson>was through. My dad was a cop which was another mark against me. <v Ozzie Williamson>A cop on the reservation was always hated. <v Ozzie Williamson>So their was two marks I had with me right from childhood on. <v Ozzie Williamson>The rejection that I experienced from full blooded Indians who would not accept me <v Ozzie Williamson>because I had white blood. <v Ozzie Williamson>When I left reservation, the white people wouldn't accept me because of my Indian blood. <v Ozzie Williamson>And I went I went through an identity crisis. <v Ozzie Williamson>I didn't know where I belong or where I fit because nobody wanted me.
<v Ozzie Williamson>And that's when alcohol became important to me because it made me who I wanted to be. <v Paul Catches>Once we got to peace pipe by the sacred buffalo. <v Paul Catches>I mean, we always kept it. <v Paul Catches>And we still- we still have that first pipe over in Greengrass, South Dakota <v Paul Catches>and it's kept there by families, one family and their generation, generation <v Paul Catches>after that. It just keeps going on and on. <v Paul Catches>Every 7 years it's opened and it's prayed with <v Paul Catches>a lot of people go there and the white culture has never <v Paul Catches>been- has never went into it. <v Paul Catches>My dad taught me that race, color, skin didn't matter. <v Paul Catches>As long as you had a belief in the pipe, in willing to learn <v Paul Catches>the language, to speak with the pipe to a higher power or the Great Spirit. <v Paul Catches>That's- that's what he brought. There is- there is no limits. <v Paul Catches>No one was denied that privilege. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I think that's an interesting point, though, because, you know, there was a time when
<v Terry Bear Tooth>in- when the white man was first coming on the continent that the Indians <v Terry Bear Tooth>shared his beliefs and everything very freely with the white <v Terry Bear Tooth>man. And then they realized that these things were being taken away. <v Terry Bear Tooth>So the Indians developed a policy of holding on to their traditions and- <v Terry Bear Tooth>and banning non-Indians from their ceremonies and not talking about <v Terry Bear Tooth>their traditions and their spiritual beliefs to non Indians. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And, uh, there was a very tight cap on it for a good <v Terry Bear Tooth>many years, because that's the only way the Indians knew how to hold on to their <v Terry Bear Tooth>tradition. But just recently, um- and I noticed this more in Minnesota than I- <v Terry Bear Tooth>than I do out here. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I've been out there for the last 5 years and the youth are losing the culture. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And the elders are getting very concerned because <v Terry Bear Tooth>the youth have gotten publicly educated. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And they don't understand that they need to go to the elders to get the information. <v Terry Bear Tooth>So they haven't been going to the elders.
<v Terry Bear Tooth>So the elders have broken away from tradition and they're starting to bring the <v Terry Bear Tooth>information out to the public now. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And they'll come to organizations like treatment centers or wherever and talk <v Terry Bear Tooth>about the traditional ways and the-the, uh, <v Terry Bear Tooth>spiritual ways and and do public healing ceremonies <v Terry Bear Tooth>and things like this, which used to never happen. A healing ceremony used to be something <v Terry Bear Tooth>set up just for those who were sick and requesting it. <v Terry Bear Tooth>But now they'll bring that ceremony to the people, and <v Terry Bear Tooth>people are free to attend. <v Ozzie Williamson>I guess, you know, there's a lot of things that when you look back and think about it <v Ozzie Williamson>people have never known about or understood. <v Ozzie Williamson>Like the Congress of the United States that originated from Indian people. <v Ozzie Williamson>You know, you never hear that. There's nothing in history written. <v Ozzie Williamson>There was a lot of things was fashioned back in time like Terry talk about. <v Ozzie Williamson>One of the statements I always make that the welfare system started <v Ozzie Williamson>back there then when the white man first landed at Plymouth Rock,
<v Ozzie Williamson>you know, in the end and set up the welfare line for the white people. <v Ozzie Williamson>If they hadn't, they would have starved to death at that time and they wouldn't be able <v Ozzie Williamson>to survive. And now, you know, it's- it's changed again where a <v Ozzie Williamson>lot of Indian people have ended up on the opposite end. <v Ozzie Williamson>It was very tough a few years back to be an Indian because what did you have to be proud <v Ozzie Williamson>of? What was there for you to look at, you know? <v Ozzie Williamson>And they kept all of that history hidden. <v Ozzie Williamson>I don't think we have ever really been given the full credit for a lot of the things that <v Ozzie Williamson>we've done. We've had some great leaders. <v Ozzie Williamson>The Indian people have really offered a lot to this world. <v Ozzie Williamson>A lot of the white race has benefited a lot from the Indain people. <v Ozzie Williamson>But I don't think that is ever really brought out in- into the true public eye. <v Ozzie Williamson>I think we are, like Paul was saying, we're still putting out a lot. <v Ozzie Williamson>There is some good books coming out. <v Ozzie Williamson>Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown is a very good book. <v Ozzie Williamson>Now That All the Buffallo Are Gone, that's a good one for people to read.
<v Ozzie Williamson>It's a recent book that just came out. He did some research on some of the laws and some <v Ozzie Williamson>of the things that Indian people had to go through. <v Ozzie Williamson>I think if we get enough of these people, you know, I think it'll start changing. <v Ozzie Williamson>But, I think it's going to take a lot from people like us, being Native American and <v Ozzie Williamson>really fighting for it. We've had to fight for every damn thing we've ever gotten, amd <v Ozzie Williamson>we're still fighting today. <v Ozzie Williamson>I consider this people like this, the warriors that are left in Indian country <v Ozzie Williamson>because we're fighting the disease of alcoholism that is killing our people, which was <v Ozzie Williamson>brought to us from the non-Indian world. <v Ozzie Williamson>We're the only warriors that are really left. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I <v Terry Bear Tooth>guess in a sense I agree with you, but I disagree on one point. <v Terry Bear Tooth>You know, I think that I think that until you have some media efforts, um, <v Terry Bear Tooth>that are written and directed by Indian people uh, they're <v Terry Bear Tooth>not going to be- they're never going to be as factual as they can be. <v Terry Bear Tooth>However, I think, you know, Indians are just
<v Terry Bear Tooth>as prone to, you know, screwing things up as well as <v Terry Bear Tooth>anyone. And sometimes I hear a lot <v Terry Bear Tooth>that- that. Traditional ways are pure and, you know, pristine <v Terry Bear Tooth>and that there's no corruption. <v Terry Bear Tooth>But, you know, that has probably been a part of Indian history as, uh, <v Terry Bear Tooth>as well as- as well as a pure life. <v Terry Bear Tooth>There's- there's probably corruption and, uh- even <v Terry Bear Tooth>among the purest of us, because no matter where I go, I see- I see it at home on the <v Terry Bear Tooth>reservation. I see it here off the reservation. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I see white people huryinh Indian people, but I see Indian people huritng Indian people. <v Terry Bear Tooth>And, uh, so it's uh, you know, I guess can't get <v Terry Bear Tooth>away from it. It's going to happen. <v Terry Bear Tooth>I don't think that, you know- sometimes I get the feeling I guess when I hear some <v Terry Bear Tooth>Indians talking that Indians would be a super racist if- if they were left <v Terry Bear Tooth>on their own. But, uh, we're just people.
<v Terry Bear Tooth>And yeah we do have a lot to offer. <v Terry Bear Tooth>That hasn't been used yet. But I think we stand a lot to learn. <v Mick McLean>Terry Bear Tooth, Paul Catches, and Ozzie <v Mick McLean>Williamson of the Intertribal Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center at the Veteran's <v Mick McLean>Administration Hospital in Sheridan. <v Mick McLean>Another view of the importance of Native American cultural ties comes from Wes Martel, <v Mick McLean>the Shoshone Business Council, and Wayne Felcher of the Arapaho Business Council, <v Mick McLean>both of the Wind River Indian Reservation. <v Mick McLean>They talked with Peter Iverson about Native American traditions and the importance of the <v Mick McLean>family. <v Wes Martel>That our treaty was signed in 1868. <v Wes Martel>Uh, the- the policy that has always been used <v Wes Martel>to try to help determine, uh, how a treaties might <v Wes Martel>be translated or how- how the intent of the treaty at the time of its signing <v Wes Martel>is- is held in- in the way the Indians
<v Wes Martel>would have believed they were signing the treaty at the time they signed it. <v Wes Martel>Water is real sacred to Indian people. <v Wes Martel>We utilize in all our ceremonies, our old people are thankful for it. <v Wes Martel>They pray to it all the time and it's used in virtually every spiritual ceremony <v Wes Martel>that we have. It's real and essential part of our life as well as it is <v Wes Martel>with everybody else. But in regards to Indians, it holds special significance. <v Wes Martel>At the time in 1860 just- just even before 1860 it was <v Wes Martel>always like that. But at the time the treaty was signed, there was no way <v Wes Martel>on God's green earth that those elders that signed that treaty <v Wes Martel>could have ever imagined the water and land being separated. <v Wes Martel>That's- that's- just there's just no way they could have thought of it in those terms. <v Wes Martel>And essentially, that's what the state is saying. <v Wes Martel>Well, the water- part of those waters is ours and doesn't belong to you, Wind River <v Wes Martel>tribes. <v Wes Martel>Well, that's baloney. And I think that's part of the clear cut sellout and
<v Wes Martel>a conspiracy that has inflicted the heavy toll on Indian reservations <v Wes Martel>and- and subjecting the Indian tribes across this country to <v Wes Martel>the sufferings and the hardships which we've been enduring all these years. <v Wes Martel>And now we're finally getting our feet wet in regards to some of these areas <v Wes Martel>where we think we- we- we're- we're getting the idea now where we can truly <v Wes Martel>provide programs and policies that will <v Wes Martel>benefit our people and get away from <v Wes Martel>the heavy dependance that we've had on outside people. <v Wes Martel>The federal government attorneys, BIA and- BIA is another issue <v Wes Martel>I think is one of the worst things that ever happened to Indian people, maybe back in <v Wes Martel>1800s when they were still part of the War Department they might have been beneficial to <v Wes Martel>us, but right now the system is so out dated and inaccurate and there's <v Wes Martel>so much bureaucratic tape that you have to get involved with it. <v Wes Martel>It's just virtually useless in my opinion, and is a- is a
<v Wes Martel>hamper- is hampering a lot of what Indian people are hoping to achieve nowadays in <v Wes Martel>regards to self-reliance and regaining their dignity. <v Wes Martel>The BIA is one of our main obstacles. <v Peter Iverson>We've had several references to the importance of Indian people <v Peter Iverson>themselves acquiring certain kinds of training and in being able to take on certain <v Peter Iverson>kinds of roles. And I guess inevitably educational institutions <v Peter Iverson>have some part in that overall process in the transition that is <v Peter Iverson>already well underway. I wondered if you might speak to the role, um, <v Peter Iverson>that schools on the reservation as well as the University <v Peter Iverson>of Wyoming perhaps might be playing or should play in- <v Peter Iverson>in that kind of future that we're looking <v Peter Iverson>to? <v Wayne Felcher>We're looking at all our grade schools, especially on the Wind River for Arapahos. <v Wayne Felcher>And then they have in the past few years, maybe 2, 3
<v Wayne Felcher>years in instituting Arapaho language studies in <v Wayne Felcher>grade school, which for the most part are Arapaho children <v Wayne Felcher>don't even speak Arapaho anymore. <v Wayne Felcher>So it has- it seems to have come a whole <v Wayne Felcher>turnabout here, being that the- when the boarding schools were set up <v Wayne Felcher>by the federal government in the early years, they forbade the- they forbade all the <v Wayne Felcher>kids from tea- from speaking their own language, and <v Wayne Felcher>they wouldn't allow any Indian languages in any of these boarding schools. <v Wayne Felcher>And then they'd get punished for it. <v Wayne Felcher>They had to speak strictly English. <v Wayne Felcher>But now, when all the kids jusy speak English, they want to teach them how to speak <v Wayne Felcher>Arapaho [laughter]. <v Wayne Felcher>That's a clear turnabout. <v Wayne Felcher>That I like in that the younger kids <v Wayne Felcher>will know how to speak their own language again, which some of them are still taught
<v Wayne Felcher>at home. <v Wes Martel>I think education is right now is the key to our whole future tied in <v Wes Martel>with our sovereignty. <v Wes Martel>I had the opportunity to talk with an elderly gentleman in Denver one time who was an <v Wes Martel>elder from one of the Sioux nations. <v Wes Martel>And he related to me a little, uh, a story that that really <v Wes Martel>stood clear in my mind as to the key that education has <v Wes Martel>for for the future of Indian tribes. <v Wes Martel>He talked about the Plains Indians and he talked about even before <v Wes Martel>1776 and 1492 when- when the sovereign Indian nations <v Wes Martel>were living in the areas now that are the states. <v Wes Martel>The Plains Indians back in those days, he said, utilize the buffalo for- for everything <v Wes Martel>that they- that they had to have for their for living <v Wes Martel>there day to day, living and their day to day existence.
<v Wes Martel>The buffalo was used for their, for their shelters, for their clothing, <v Wes Martel>for their food, for their tools, for their toys, for everything <v Wes Martel>that buffalo would- every bit of that buffalo was used for to- to maintain <v Wes Martel>the everyday quality of life, as it was then for the- for the Plains Indians. <v Wes Martel>He said well nowadays he said that that that buffalo is gone. <v Wes Martel>He said the one that we used to depend on, it used to roam the plains by the- by the tens <v Wes Martel>of millions. He said that buffalo is gone. <v Wes Martel>He said the- the thing that we need now to get to get our shelter and our food and <v Wes Martel>our tools and our clothing, he said, is the dollar. <v Wes Martel>He said, I hate to say this but that dollar is our new buffalo right now. <v Wes Martel>He said that's what we need to get, get those things that we need for everyday existence. <v Wes Martel>And what we need now, he said back in the old days, we used bows and arrows to get that <v Wes Martel>buffalo. So now he said, we've got a new buffalo. <v Wes Martel>He said, well, we've got to get new bows and arrows.
<v Wes Martel>And those new bows and arrows are our schools and our universities, because that's what's <v Wes Martel>going to get our people, that new buffalo that they need for their everyday existence. <v Wes Martel>And I think it was, uh, it was something that really stuck out in my mind. <v Wes Martel>I think, as usual, our elders told us something that- that <v Wes Martel>meant a lot to us. And, uh, it's something that we should follow upon because education <v Wes Martel>is the key to our future. And within for our- from our standpoint, I think <v Wes Martel>not only education in the colleges and universities, but I think education <v Wes Martel>of our culture and our spiritual values are just as important as any college degree. <v Wes Martel>And I think the key to our survival has- has been our spiritual well-being, has been <v Wes Martel>our culture and has been the fact that our social and our <v Wes Martel>extended family concepts have helped us to take care of each <v Wes Martel>other, have allowed us to survive for <v Wes Martel>where- where there might not have been a survival. <v Wes Martel>And I think that's- that's been the key to me being able to to try to get <v Wes Martel>involved with helping- helping our tribe, not only the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes,
<v Wes Martel>but tribes throughout the country has been the elders and the things that they tell us. <v Wes Martel>And the way that they view life and the way we have to think about our children, our <v Wes Martel>grandchildren, and our future. <v Wes Martel>And I think that's that's been the whole key to to our survival as our spiritual strength <v Wes Martel>and maintaining that spiritual strength to be able <v Wes Martel>to endure the hardships that we've- we've endured over the centuries. <v Wes Martel>And I think that's- that's the key to this is with- with <v Wes Martel>the spiritual and the cultural strengths that we have tied together with the educations <v Wes Martel>that we get in modern day times, we're gonna get stronger. <v Wes Martel>And we're there's- there's people now. <v Wes Martel>It's just like a new rebirth of people wanting to regain their <v Wes Martel>Indian identity and get back into the spiritual and cultural ties which we've <v Wes Martel>known all these years, and- and get away from the rat race that you get involved <v Wes Martel>with when you get in- get off the reservation and get into different other- other <v Wes Martel>segments of society. I think the role of elders is, as we've always been raised
<v Wes Martel>and taught to believe, is- is just to give us <v Wes Martel>guidance and to give us strength, and a lot of times they don't come right out directly <v Wes Martel>and tell you what you have to do. <v Wes Martel>They talk to you when we go to our ceremonies, you hear them praying, <v Wes Martel>the way they pray, the way they treat you and the way they look at <v Wes Martel>- the way they look at the things that surround us. <v Wes Martel>Just -just simple things that we take for granted, the grass and the trees <v Wes Martel>and the mountains. These are all real sacred things to- sacred to to our elders. <v Wes Martel>And they try to to impress upon us the importance of us trying to live in harmony <v Wes Martel>with the things around us and protecting them and the way wildlife and <v Wes Martel>other things are taught. That's our relations too. <v Wes Martel>The four legged and the winged ones that's our- that's our relations, just like our <v Wes Martel>brothers and sisters. So that extended family carries over to other forms of life. <v Wes Martel>Aside from from us as human beings. <v Wes Martel>And then within- within our own tribal structure, the extended family, we don't we don't
<v Wes Martel>really look at the cousins and aunts and uncles concept that is prevalent <v Wes Martel>in today's society. The way we look at our cousins, they're just like our brothers and <v Wes Martel>sisters, the way we look at our uncles and our aunts. <v Wes Martel>They're just like our mothers and fathers in a way. <v Wes Martel>We look at all our elders, you know. They're our grandfathers. <v Wes Martel>And there's- there's other things tied in with our spirituality and other spiritual <v Wes Martel>objects that all- all combine in a circle to that we- <v Wes Martel>we relive that circle and think about our elders and and and <v Wes Martel>probably about four different segments of life from childhood to young adulthood to <v Wes Martel>middle age and into your elders. And so that's- that's something that really has I think <v Wes Martel>has helped us out and is becoming stronger as- as the years go <v Wes Martel>by and some of our younger people want to get more back into learning about their culture <v Wes Martel>and their heritage. So I think the role of our elders has been an important one, will <v Wes Martel>continue to be an important one. <v Wes Martel>And the role of our extended family has played a major role and allow us to to share <v Wes Martel>with one another and to help one another to survive and to give support to one another
<v Wes Martel>when times are hard. So it's always helped us out. <v Wes Martel>It's been a- been the main factor, I believe, in our survival. <v Wes Martel>And- and will continue to be the main factor. <v Speaker>Wes Martell and Wayne Felcher of the Shoshone and Arapaho Business Councils, talking with <v Speaker>Peter Iverson. The young Indians and the Native American businessmen have <v Speaker>talked about the importance of traditions, of cultural and spiritual values <v Speaker>and how these values are passed on by the elders and the teachers. <v Speaker>?Pius? Moss is a teacher at St. Stephen's Indian School on the Wind River Reservation. <v Speaker>He tells the story of the origins of the Arapaho and how the Arapaho came to live <v Speaker>with the Shoshone. <v Pius Moss>The Arapaho, as far as origin- at <v Pius Moss>one time, this land- there was <v Pius Moss>no land here but water. <v Pius Moss>Well, briefly. <v Pius Moss>And it's very brief. I've never added nothing
<v Pius Moss>since- I've heard this time and time and again from my <v Pius Moss>father, my aunts and uncles in the English relationship. <v Pius Moss>But in the Arapaho they were my fathers and mothers. <v Pius Moss>So I've heard this time and again that uh- the <v Pius Moss>place we live in now is all water. <v Pius Moss>And the old man we <v Pius Moss>cal the flat pipe, the old man. <v Pius Moss>He was <v Pius Moss>somewhat tired of being in the water. <v Pius Moss>So he called for help. <v Pius Moss>Well, after so long for some time. <v Pius Moss>How many ducks flew by?
<v Pius Moss>10, 12 whatever. <v Pius Moss>But ducks flew by, they heard his plea for help. <v Pius Moss>So they went down. <v Pius Moss>And he made the approach saying he needed help. <v Pius Moss>You want to get some land?. So, <v Pius Moss>the ducks said that they would help, do what they could. <v Pius Moss>So then they in turn went down to the depths of this <v Pius Moss>lake or a water bed or whatever it is, ocean. <v Pius Moss>In due time, they begin to come back. <v Pius Moss>Some didn't have anything. Some had very little on their bill, very little earth. <v Pius Moss>And it didn't accumulate too fast. <v Pius Moss>And the old man just wasn't satisfied. <v Pius Moss>Still, he had some that he did not have before. <v Pius Moss>So in due time, here comes a turtle.The <v Pius Moss>turtle then was summoned by the old man
<v Pius Moss>if he could help. <v Pius Moss>Going down to the depths of the ocean, you know, water, lake to see if he <v Pius Moss>could retrieve some land, earth. <v Pius Moss>He said he would do what he could. <v Pius Moss>Glad to help. So then he went down. <v Pius Moss>All right, in due time here, he comes back. <v Pius Moss>With a bit more than what the ducks had come up with ?inaudible?. <v Pius Moss>Then he went down how many times and each time he <v Pius Moss>come up with more. <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.
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Series
Visions of the Past
Episode
Native Americans
Segment
Part 1
Producing Organization
KUWR (Radio station : Laramie, Wyo.)
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-526-6t0gt5gf2j
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Description
Episode Description
This episode in the series interviews three generations of Native Americans living in Wyoming about their experiences and their cultures. Those interviewed include [Terry Beartooth], [Paul Catches], and Ozzy Williamson who work at the Intertribal Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center at the VA Hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming. Wes Martel, a member of the Shoshone Business Council, and Wayne Felter, a member of the Arapaho Business Council, are interviewed by Dr. Peter Iverson. Iverson later reads an essay on the history of Native Americans in Wyoming. Pious Moss, a teacher at St. Stephens Indian School on the Wind River Reservation, details the Arapaho creation story and how the Shoshone and Arapaho ended up living together on the Wind River Reservation.
Series Description
"'Visions of the Past' is a twelve-part radio series of various aspects of Wyoming history. The programs include interviews, oral histories, readings from historical fiction and non-fiction, and thematic music. "Each program had a historian involved. Topics included: Pioneer Trails; Women of Wyoming; Ethnic Settlements; Western Violence & the Western Hero; Water; Ranching; Land Use & Homesteading; Native Americans; 19th and 20th Century Mining; The Military; and Mountain Men. "Funded by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, The Wyoming Historical Society, and the University of Wyoming America's Studies Center, the series documents the state's history in a way that has never been recorded before in Wyoming. "Mick McLean devoted from fifty to seventy-five total hours on each program in the series. Complimentary news releases accompanied each program, and bibliographies were sent to persons requesting more information on the subjects. "The series has been so well received by Wyoming Public Radio's listening audience, that it will be repeated again in January and February of 1985."--1984 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1984
Created Date
1984
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:30:03.816
Credits
Producing Organization: KUWR (Radio station : Laramie, Wyo.)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-18fa6615d06 (Filename)
Format: 1/4 inch audio cassette
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Citations
Chicago: “Visions of the Past; Native Americans; Part 1,” 1984, 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 March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6t0gt5gf2j.
MLA: “Visions of the Past; Native Americans; Part 1.” 1984. 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. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6t0gt5gf2j>.
APA: Visions of the Past; Native Americans; Part 1. 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-526-6t0gt5gf2j