All language subtitles for The Native Americans - 3 - All Our Relations

Where are you?

We stand and begin to sing, Indians of
the Great Plains.

This is our song.

We were the first to face the challenge
to make a home, build a culture and

shape a history under an endless expanse
of sun and sky.

We came to love our freedom here, the
rush of the wind and the drama of the

night.

We adapted and thrived.

Many tribes came to call the Great
Plains their home, each with a

style and a powerful discipline.

We are many sovereign nations.

We honor the great mystery and in return
receive the power to endure.

We are the Lakota, the people of the
seven council fires.

The Cheyenne, who humbly call themselves
our people.

The Comanche, respected as the fierce
lords of the southern plains.

The Crow,

the bird people.

We are the Arapaho, the sky men, and the
Kiowa of the southern plains who

worship the sun, the Omaha who go
against the wind.

We are the Blackfeet, and the Groban,

And we are many other tribes who make
the plains their home.

For centuries, we have honored the
sacred form of the circle and come

in council for the sharing of oral
histories.

In keeping with its tradition, members
of five plains tribes met within the

circular boundary of a teepee in the
Black Hills of South Dakota.

Looking back how it was in them days, no
maps, no roads, no interstates. You

just come over a ridge and you look down
and this whole country is untouched.

And somehow you had to go in there and
make a living for you and your family

your tribe.

George Horsecapture is from the Montana
tribe known as the Grove On.

His great -grandfather was the last
keeper of the tribe's sacred flat pipe.

He holds a master's degree in history.

In the sixth grade, I became Caucasian
because it became very obvious that my

characteristics were different than
Mongolian.

In junior high, I became an American
Indian.

In high school, I became a Native
American.

When I was working on my undergraduate
education, I became an indigenous group.

Then when I worked on my master's
degree, I became a sovereign nation.

Wallace Coffey is chairman of the
Comanche Nation of Oklahoma.

He has served as the director of the
Denver Indian Center and chairman of the

board of the Native American Public
Broadcasting Consortium.

It took me two years to learn English
and to read those Dick and Jane

books. I could read C, Dick, Run, C,
Jane.

But they made no sense to me because
that curriculum was not culturally

relevant.

relevant thing about those Dick and Jane
books was Spock.

Lawrence Hart is a former tribal
chairman of the Southern Cheyennes of

a traditional peace chief and historian.

I always remember the idea that goes
something like this. We come into this

world as Indian people and we'll go out
of this world as Indian people.

Daryl Kipp returned to the Blackfeet
Reservation in northern Montana after

receiving his Ph .D. in linguistics from
Harvard University.

He is co -founder and director of the
Pagan Institute.

When you're a person who belongs in a
community, you have to know who you are.

Charlotte Black Elk is Oglala Lakota
from South Dakota.

The great -granddaughter of Black Elk,
Charlotte has worked for years for the

return of the sacred Black Hills to the
Lakota people.

You have to know who your relatives are,
where you came from. And as a tribe, we

have to know where we came from.

Our first memory came from deep within
the darkness of obsidian night.

When our first embryonic movements
explored the womb of our mother earth.

It was a time when the spirit of the
buffalo and our ancestors were one.

From our first breath came the song of
our heart, searching for freedom beyond

the darkness of the womb.

As our mother heard our cries for
release,

She opened herself so that the buffalo
people, our ancestors, could move out

from Wind Cave onto the Earth's surface.

We came out from Mother Earth, out of
Wind Cave, out of the Black Hill.

When we lived underground, we were the
buffalo people, the Padeo Oyate.

When we came up into the earth, we
carried that experience with us.

Our lives became entwined with a
buffalo.

These were times long before we acquired
the horse.

Times when the dog was our closest
helper in the animal world.

Our earliest memories tell us of the
hardships and discoveries of our

journeys.

We humbled ourselves in the presence of
the landscape around us so that visions

would be given to us.

Visions to teach us of all our relations
and their meanings in our lives.

The animals, the plants, rocks and the
rivers.

Visions we have never forgotten.

Memories we have kept alive.

Plains culture was a buffalo culture,
and the buffalo was honored.

Their abundance was staggering.

As many as 60 million buffalo could have
once roamed the Great Plains.

The Blackfoot Confederacy, and the
Blackfeet Indians in particular, used

buffalo. for everything they needed.

We took everything from the buffalo that
the buffalo had. We used the horns for

our spoons, our utensils.

The skulls we used in our ceremonies. We
took the brain and we used that to tan

the hide.

When we took off the hair, we used that
in our pillows and in our balls.

And then we used the bones for
implements. We took the bone marrow and

that with our dried meat.

And so every single piece of the bison
was utilized in one way or another.

Before we hunted the buffalo or any
animal, we performed a ceremony.

We apologized to the spirit of that
animal and told him, We're coming to get

of you.

We're coming to take your life.

But we're going to do it in such a way
that your spirit will live on.

Our stories are still told of the
buffalo and of the men who ran amongst

Men ran for miles across the endless
grasslands for ceremony, for sport, for

transport, and for survival of the
tribe.

The two greatest men in the Blackfeet
oral tradition.

was Red Man and Red Old Man.

And what they were, were runners.

The hero stories of them was they lured
the buffalo.

And they would go near a buffalo herd
and as the buffalo would get curious

them and begin to follow them, they
would begin to run. And the buffalo

follow them.

And they would run to this jump.

And many times this would be an
exceptionally long distance.

And so their stamina, their endurance,
their own perseverance would lead them

the jump and ultimately bring food and
health and survival to the people.

Runners would lure the buffalo over
great cliffs.

The buffalo gave their life that we
might live, and we were grateful.

Hundreds at a time would sacrifice
themselves, providing food and clothing

an entire year.

What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the
night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the
wintertime.

It is a

little shadow that runs across the
grass.

The Native Americans will continue on
TBS.

TBS presents the Environmental Media
Award.

Join Maya Angelou.

Mikhail Gorbachev and your favorite
celebrities for an extraordinary evening

Hollywood.

Celebrating the entertainment industry's
concern for our planet.

There's so many things you can do. I'm
concerned about it all.

I think we can do better.

The Environmental Media Awards.

Televised for the first time ever.

Sunday night, 11 Eastern.

Exclusively on TBS.

Now back to the Native Americans on TBS.

In the old days, when we were a strong
and happy people, all our power came to

us from the sacred hoop of the nation.

And so long as the hoop was unbroken,
the people flourished.

The flowering tree was the living center
of the hoop, and the circle of the four

quarters nourished it.

The east gave peace and light.

The south gave warmth.

The West gave rain, and the North, with
its cold and mighty wind,

gave strength and endurance.

Black Elk.

That whole era, that whole period of
time of our history, that we call the

Days.

I think this is the period of time that
America doesn't know about.

I think the special element of stories,
histories from dog days, is that it

reflects our true history.

And that the true beginnings of our
tribes are so much part of the story.

At that time, we relied on the
domesticated dog as a source

of helping us to move, but especially to
hunt.

They were able to be animals of burden,
to serve us,

and we have a very close, almost
affectionate relationship

to the dog.

At the time of the dog, we were hunters
and gatherers.

There is other really basic
methodologies and activities that they

practice. how to utilize the ability to
relate to an animal whenever you want to

hunt for a deer.

But they had something that was really
basic, and that was this language of the

earth.

Knowing the seasons and the directions
and the winds, they were able to utilize

that element in a manner to have a
strong relationship with it.

We understood that our mother earth was
a part of a universal order that

possessed a living breathing intellect
All we needed to survive could be found

in a respectful relationship with the
world around us

Everything

was possessed of personality

only differing from us in form.

Knowledge was inherent in all things.

The world was a library, and its books
were the stones, leaves, grass,

brooks.

And the birds and animals that shared,
alike with us, the storms and blessings

of the earth.

Luther Standing Bear

The earth has a heart, and her heart
beats.

For Lakota people, we say that's the
heart of everything that is. When the

universe was created, all of the
universe was given a song, and each

the universe holds a piece of that song,
but the entire song is only in the

Black Hills.

And when we go there and we perform our
ceremonies, we revitalize the beating of

the heart.

All of our teachings of relationship go
back to the initial relationship with

the earth, that the earth has four
children.

And of the two -legged, she has the bear
and humans.

And so we not only have to behave
responsibly with each other, but also

the things that live, because they too
are people, and they have a right to

live, and they have a right to a good
life, and we have to treat them

respectfully.

All our relations shared our origins,
and they were our lifeline to survival.

We observed them and emulated them,
honored them and praised them,

Their flesh became our flesh.

Their spirit became our spirit.

We delighted in the workings of the
natural world.

Nature was perfect in its complexity,
its beauty and terror.

We saw ourselves actively involved with
the process of living.

This land wasn't just a wild land where
we went from plant to plant and ate

where we could.

In fact, it was a very well -managed
environmental system.

The research is proving our oral
traditions that all of this area burned

10 years, and that over a 100 -year
period, the whole place was controlled

fire. And if you look at the amount of
buffalo that the Great Plains supported,

300 years ago, 500 years ago, it's more
than the number of cattle that can

survive with haying and with planted
food.

And so, in fact, it was a highly managed
environment that we lived on.

In the early days, in order to survive,
it had to be a cooperative effort.

An individual could not survive alone.

I think the genius of the Indian people,
you know, looking back in history, I

guess like any other group, there was
specialists in various areas. Whoever

interested in something, they studied
it.

They practiced it. They listened to
their elders.

Maybe they prayed for it. And it was
kind of a structural thing as you went

There was a leader for peace,
negotiations.

There was a leader for the camp.

Everything was divided up, and there was
a professional, if you will, or a

leader in that field to take charge of
it.

Roles and responsibilities within our
daily lives were specifically defined.

Rules of adherence were strict.

enormous value was placed on human life.

Some people have roles as teachers.

Some people have roles as artists.

Some people had a responsibility to shut
up and listen.

And so we have some people who very
seldom talk, and they keep our history.

We select young children who have auric
memory, photographic memory for what

they hear.

These children are located at around age
four or five. They're tested. Then

they're taught the story by rote. And so
they're like tape recorders. They're a

library. And then we have other people
that are taught how to interpret that

story. And that training begins later at
maybe age 11.

They begin learning the symbolism.

Why does something mean this? So we say
that when you really know the story.

You can take it from the origin legend,
from the time of different motions.

The survival of a communal people is
dependent upon both sexes contributing

fully to that effort.

In the Blackfoot people, both sides
contributed, and women were not of a

role than men were.

Certainly men hunted and women took care
of other things, but that does not

demean either side in any way.

And the fact that the Blackfoot language
has no gender, I think is the most

illustrative and certainly the most
supportive of the idea that the creator,

when he put us here, he put women and
men equal because he did not

in the language between either.

For Lakota people, we have stories of
when each society was brought into our

people. Yeah. And they followed the Kid
Fox Society, the Trocala.

The Kid Fox is low -moving. It makes an
attack.

It hunts in a pack. It knows when to
fall back and regroup.

Mean little animal.

So our Trocala Society based themselves
around that. They were the war leaders.

And then we have...

the badger and the badger because it
knows how to go under those people were

responsible for food cackers we had the
the bear lands owners and those

people were the ones who made the
decision to sacrifice themselves so the

of the camp could get away through the
centuries our ancestors developed

concepts and customs of government and
justice

founded on the notions that leaders were
in positions of responsibility, not

power, and that each and every voice
must be heard.

Councils representing all aspects of our
society made decisions of a political

or social nature, never forgetting the
premise that no individual was greater

more important than the whole.

This is the foundation for today's
tribal governments.

In the old days, there was no National
Guard, no police force.

There was no authoritative body that
would come in from the outside, put down

rules and govern everybody, all these
little nations.

So we had to build it up in our own
tribe.

We had to have societies for control.

We had to have warriors to go out and
defend the tribe, to make it continue.

These warrior societies were kind of
like the elite, that if you got to that

point, that something had to be done
because of the behavior of this

with such correction was necessary.

So many times they would take that
individual if they were not behaving in

appropriate manner. These individuals
were put into a position that would put

their life on the line.

One of the ways that the Native American
peoples maintained peace and

tranquility amongst themselves was they
banished people.

They banished their members that were
unable to live in a compatible and

cooperative way with their fellow
tribesmen. You were banished. That was

worst thing that could happen to you, is
to be banished from your own people.

If you did something in Lakota society,
you went on the hunt before it was time

to go.

You were told once, they come and slash
your teepee, beat you up.

The next time you did it, you were dead.

Because the life of all the people was
more important than the life of one

person.

Sometimes you have to weigh all kinds of
circumstances.

When that time comes and you make a
decision, you have to be responsible for

that decision.

And because they didn't turn their back
on the decision, whether it was right or

wrong, but you made a decision based
upon what you would be in the best

of the tribe.

The words of wisdom of myth and legend
often came to us to light the way in

times of darkness.

Sweet medicine was such a profit for the
Cheyennes.

One of the teachings that comes to us
from Mujaiyoy, from Sweet Medicine, is

that even if you see your own son killed
right in front of your teepee,

you are to do nothing but to take your
pipe

and go sit and smoke.

It doesn't mean that the perpetrator who
has harmed

your son or anyone else in the family
gets away with

it.

It means that you as a chief have a duty
that is higher than

the use of force or violence or any form
of retaliation.

You leave that up to the societies to
take care of it.

There were only two role models for
Comanche.

You either become a warrior, and if you
cannot assume the responsibility of

being a warrior, then you take the
woman's role.

And that was very difficult on some
young men because they were on the field

battle when they were 11 years of age.

But very seldom would a young man shirk
his responsibilities.

When the men came back from a war party
or a raiding party, they would bring

back certain trophies. They had a scalp
of a warrior.

The women would attach the scalp to
their lamp, to their spears, and they

dance the scalp dance. The women would
have no hesitation to show off a war

trophy that their husband or their loved
one brought back.

It was dignified and glorified that a
person showed prowess in battle.

Let it be demonstrated, you know,
publicly.

And usually it's a woman that would
demonstrate the prowess of their

They would attach a scalp or even
sometimes an armament, or they'd capture

bow and arrow.

Well, when they did that, they would
trill their tongue, you know, kind of

a... of that nature.

But we call it goth talking.

The woman of the east that lives in the
morning star.

Look down and bless our people.

Look down and walk with our mother
earth.

The women are sacred and we need their
help.

We need their compassion and we need
their beauty so that the earth will be

balance.

Grandmother,

Mother. Sister.

As you come into our lives.

Bring your grace.

Bring your happiness.

Bring your abundance with you.

Survival. I know how this way.

This way I know.

We have traveled this way, gauged our
distance by stories, and loved our

children.

We told ourselves over and over again,
we shall survive this way.

Simon Ortiz.

Now back to the Native Americans on TBS.

The non -native world has embraced a
theory of origin which postulates that

first Native Americans followed a one
-way migration route between 12 and 40

,000 years ago across the Bering Strait
from Siberia to Alaska and down into

North and South America.

The so -called Bering Strait theory has
done a lot of damage to us as native

people. in that it has set in the minds
of the American society that there's

only one version of this entire land,
when in reality we know that

there's many versions, many stories of
this area.

From Lakota, we have a different
viewpoint. We say that all life of

know it started on this continent.

We have stories of being sent out, going
into South America, going in... to

what's now Mexico, going back northward.

And that life started from here, that it
started many places, that there was

some joining and some movement. But for
our people, we've always been here. This

has always been home.

Our stories say, from forever, we have
always been here. We were created here.

The Cheyenne migrated, and as they
migrated,

had to make some adaptations, and they
adapted quite well to

the changing environment.

When we were living as the sedentary
people in permanent villages,

we constructed our homes out of logs and
mud.

Likely we did some cultural borrowing.

How other tribes built their homes, we
borrowed from them.

As our ancestors enlarged their world,
they began to interact with other tribal

communities.

But each tribe has its own language or
dialect.

Through sign language, they were able to
communicate with each other.

Language is, you know, really, that's
what we said to the kids, you know, this

means who, what, when, where, how much,
how many, where you going, you know.

I always tease people, this Indian
hitchhike like that, you know, which way

going, we don't care, we just want to
ride.

When I began to become a more serious
student of my tribal language, one of

things I found is that The genesis of
all tribes is located, is found in their

languages.

You

cannot

have a culture without language.

Culture, all aspects of culture.

and everything about a living group
emanate from the power and the dynamics

their language.

And the idea then is that if we lose our
language, that we become a static

culture. Then we must just hang on to
the remnants and the artifacts of our

culture. And we essentially then become
a museum or we live within a museum. We

no longer have the dynamics to keep our
cultures alive and growing and changing

and evolving and bringing in new songs
and new experiences and new revelations

into our culture.

So people that speak native languages,
and if you're thinking in a native

language, your concepts of time and
space are radically different than they

in English.

Your concepts of gender, your concepts
of the world around you is constantly

different, very radically different. The
Blackfoot language contains only two

separations, the inanimate and the
animate. So in the Native American

nothing can be dead.

There is nothing dead. In English, we go
into the forest, we see a tree laying

on the ground, and we say, what is it?
And they say, it's a dead tree.

And quite there, we put things into a
category. Everything is dead around us.

And the idea then is that if you can
think in a language that doesn't have

kinds of dead...

connotations to it that doesn't see
things as being dead but seeing them

alive but only in inert or inanimate the
idea is then is all things are alive

the world is alive around you there's
many stories that could

be told with indian art

And in trying to educate other people,
if you come on and tell all the horror

stories, the true horror stories that
happen to Indians, often they turn off

guilt or denial and they won't listen.

But if you approach them with art,
because most everybody sensible likes

if you begin to teach with art, you just
show it and you tell how symbolic some

of the designs are and how meaningful
the colors are.

difficult it was to do all of these
things and the ingenuity that the people

utilized to make them. Before you know
it, they're into it and they appreciate

it. And I believe there develops a
relationship and understanding.

They say, wow, this is super stuff.

Then they understand that Indians made
it. It's beautiful.

It was made by very skilled people.

And therefore, these people are Indians.
So they get a new understanding of the

Indian people.

Plains history and stories are told
through our earliest works of art.

Some date back thousands of years.

These mysterious symbols and designs are
indelibly etched into the landscape

While

at the Cody

Museum in Wyoming George Horscapture
studied these petroglyphs and

carved and painted into the rock walls
of the northern plains.

He continues to share his knowledge with
native youth.

These were done a long, long time ago.
Nobody really knows when.

Archaeologists make their guesses, their
theories, and Indian legends sometimes

refer to this idea.

But petroglyphs is a good way to see
them merging, in a sense.

of archaeology and the real people.

Because they come up with these
theories, but this is direct evidence of

people being here.

Here's a dog I was telling you about.

Dog days, huh?

Dog days, yeah. They say dogs were the
very first animal friends we had.

Of course, I can't tell what kind this
is, but we had a long association with

them.

That is a beauty.

They believed this. They got something
out of it. Now, this is going to last

forever if nobody defaces it.

And how often do we get to do something
that lasts forever?

On Wyoming's Medicine Mountain is a
circle of stones known as the Medicine

Wheel.

It has long perplexed non -native
scientists.

About 80 feet in diameter, It closely
resembles the floor plan of sacred

medicine lodges, which are aligned with
star patterns.

Here it

is.

This is a privilege to be here.

There's a number of... such circles, but
none with the grandeur and size as this

one.

We usually give a tobacco offer.

Four directions.

Sacred places like Medicine Mountain
were sought by Native people for vision

quests.

Their solo journeys of fasting and
hardship to find spiritual guidance

to this day.

Some oppose this and seek means to limit
our access to these sacred grounds.

They call these things cairns. And I
think they're just locations where

had their quests.

They lay in there and they build these
things to offer a little protection.

Right to this day people still use it so
it's It's a living thing

Our complex

collective tribal views essential to
survival had to be meticulously

from generation to generation They were
passed on through symbols songs and

ceremonies

Many of our people are rediscovering
them today.

Les Ducheneaux is from the Cheyenne
River Reservation in South Dakota.

He's reintroducing the buffalo to the
Great Plains.

Reclaiming the legacy of the sacred
relationship with them is an important

toward cultural survival.

Tukashila, I ask in some way that you
help this winter to break and to ease up

to suffering that our people are
enduring might end, Tukashila.

We ask that you come into their lives
with your strength and endurance.

We ask that you come to them in a good
way and show them there's a better life,

that there is hope, that there is a
future for them.

If we come together with you, we help to
make a future for our people.

She said this buffalo didn't die for
nothing. It died so that it gave it life

so that you young people can see this.

Don't be afraid. This is our
grandfather.

Many years ago, our people lived on
these. This is the best kind of meat

is.

Conducting these ceremonies and rituals
is an essential means of our cultural

continuity.

If our children experience our past, it
will inspire them for the future.

You look in the lifetime, you can lose
your home, you can lose your car, you

lose your life, you can lose your
children.

Culture goes on and on. It doesn't have
any life expectancy.

And it will never deny you access.

A person feels like they're down on out
in their life, you know, laying where

they can get on their knees and give
thanks.

Place their burdens in the good Lord's
hands. I place my burden in your hands,

my Lord.

Pray that you will provide me with the
direction and the wisdom I need in order

to make things come together and work
more positive for us.

So that's what I like about culture. It
doesn't wear out. It has no life

expectancy.

My folks tell me that when the teepee
came to our Comanches, it was God

-inspired.

Sometimes they say you look at the
horizon, you know, after a storm, you

the rainbow to the east, but to the
west, you can see the sun and those rays

light. It's kind of like, you know, you
can see that something's holding up this

earth. And those rays of light here,
they had to have something that would

the people.

So whenever they looked at that, you
know, they said that...

This teepee, this lodge that we have,
you know, even the flaps are reaching

You know, look upon us in a good way.
We're seeking blessings.

And you look at our teepee, there's no
nails in that church, you know.

Not one nail, you know. Everything is
structured in a manner. You've got

hides that are the covering. You've got
these lodge poles that are here, you

know. And that stomp that goes into the
ground, that teepee, that tent stomp, is

probably the most basic.

that holds our culture together.

And we have to be like that. We have to
be strong.

Sometimes we might bend, we may give,
but we still stay.

Today, our children are challenged by
the complexities of the modern world.

As we continue to reshape our cultures,

It becomes increasingly apparent how
priceless is our legacy and how

is its maintenance.

Our ancestors lived with integrity,
knowing full well that one day their

would empower those yet unborn.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Native Americans will continue on
TBS.