Tent of Many Voices: 03170606TMB

voices for those of you who' have never been here before just tell you a little bit about us we are a traveling exhibit we've been traveling for 3 years now this is our fourth year on the road we'll be doing the return trip back to St Louis like Lucen Park did 200 years ago when Lucen Park was in this area 200 years ago they came across the Warm Springs Indians and today we're going to be have Lou pit from the Confederate War Springs he is the director of of government Affair and training and his what he's going to be talking about is the tribal preservations of Jefferson's ER to today so please welcome Louie pin um P good afternoon my Indian name is Yan my uh my dad uh uh U on the Columbia and uh he was enrolled at Yakama he lived where where I live now in warm spring I'll show you on a map where that is my mom was an enrolled warm Springer and she's from UPR River though the um my dad was Wasco my mom was warms Springs and both of those tribes uh were there when Lewis and Clark and Expedition came through so some of our relatives were there and uh what I want to do is to give you I think uh thousands of years of our uh time on the river and where we are now and uh just look a little bit into Thomas Jefferson at the time had a lot to say about what the uh uh views were of Indian people and you know Thomas Jefferson didn't even leave the uh uh the East Coast he basically was a armchair type of president but created a lot of the the myths and the stories that drove people to want to see more of the of the country as it was just a young country at the time of America and a Young Nation but us Indian people talk about our Nations that we are nations within a nation so please keep that in mind okay hold on here okay so um what we have here is a a picture a drawing by an artist of the uh in 1850s a Paul Cain who uh captured the way of life that had survived and that our people lived on for thousands of years a time that we call time immemorial since the beginning of time um this is down in the Columbia River Gorge down in the Wasco area we have three tribes that are part of our Confederacy today called The Warp Springs the Wasco and the POU tribes and because the US government looked at the land and who is on there and they just put people together some tribes were put into two or three different uh Indian reservations and other confederacies and I'll show you a little later about the inter relatedness of that life was bued for thousands of years the the men fished and hunted as a part of our way of life religious and belief system the men had certain duties similar to what we do today very physical type of Duties dealing with the fishing the building of structures of uh Warfare uh hunting uh and the Strategic type of planning in The Villages and how to interact and work with some of the tribes that surrounded us here's a romantic depiction of a Wasco Village on the Columbia River oh from here it probably would be about 50 Mi well let's see would be uh about 60 Mi up River from here and again this is a very romantic depiction because remember the the Columbia River niana the Big River was a very Wild River when the rivers ran wild yes so anybody that built that close to the water would had to be a little bit crazy because that River would have fresh shits and if you were there at the wrong time really where our folks would really be able was up here because up there was like what you call a 500e water plane now um again this is uh um life was good Mount uh Jeff Mount Hood um y East as we call it and again the Great Waters of the uh uh that Lewis and Clark were looking for um some of you uh probably don't know how Oregon got its name is that U uh there was a a mythical big river that flowed uh about people were on the I think the upper end of the Columbia and that is a big river and uh it its mythical name was Oregon or something like that or or r ygu n Oregon and uh so that somehow with a couple of map makers is that uh gave this area territory the name of Oregon so it's a Indian name so very proud of that as well as a lot of things around us are Indian names this is a wonderful area with names like classup County kamin wakam uh chuk wonderful names all all tribal names our way of life on the land our tribe has celebrations of uh ceremonies throughout the year that we thank the Creator the Creator provides us with water with uh fish deer Roots berries and back to water when we celebrate like right now we're going to be celebrating uh acquisition and the Creator gifting his roots is our women will go out gather the roots and the men are in the old days would protect their safety and uh uh they come back and and bring those on in and we meet we used to meet on Wednesday and the women would work Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday we would have a feast the feast dealt with again the same order of things as we've done for thousands of years starting with water ending with water where we thank the Creator and we eat the foods in order and we have lessons so we have uh like Sunday school would be for kids we have that every Sunday for us even today talking to us about our Native American values our Indian values our values that are connected to those lands that we were that we don't say that we lived on that we come out of that we're in the land the way of life very circular the uh Earth provided a lot Waters provided a lot of sustenance uh we used not only to sustain ourselves we used fish and deer and such to trade and a trading center uh all through the Columbia River because remember rivers rivers are all highways as so historians talk about rivers unite mountains divide and so the river is a a Avenue a channel for Commerce it always has been so uh our Folks at a wonderful wonderful place called cilo wam is the other name for that up River about 120 miles from here is that uh that place is U now inundated because of dam construction our opinion on that we have varying opinions uh but one of them is is that the Bondville Dam and all of the dams on the on the Columbia were done to for progress but like the Bonville like the Bonville dam was built for u u uh to maintain our n our American way of life of which part of that is the Native American way of life too like one of our Wasco Chiefs said is that if uh the Hitler would have won the war those treaties that we cut that you'll hear about later that we made wouldn't have any meaning then so anyway we uh we are too is an interesting fact is that uh our our people the native American people have uh probably I think it is proven to be the highest amount of participation in military service back in World War I we actually had people that participated in World War I and at that time weren't even citizens of the United States jonos people too jonos people were moved away from their homelands they made war on the United States and they were just protecting their way of life similar to what any people would do and one of the stories I just heard about about a week ago was that when they were in prison they were in prison in Oklahoma U they were kind of in a different status and didn't quite know what to do with jono and his Warriors is that they uh let them out to join the battle in World War I and then when they came back they had to go back to prison that's one of those things when it comes to Native Americans I just you know I just cringe because again this is our homeland too we were here first and that's been part of the Lewis and Clark Story is trying to get the story out and tell it our way that's not good that's not bad it's just the way it is so the way of life again we lived off the land for thousands of years the land produced very well you take care of the land it takes care of you part of our songs talk about the water being the the life blood of the land and uh anyway it's a combination that's worked again successfully for thousands of years remember America is still a pretty young country the uh Thomas Jefferson and in that era of the Revolution uh again the Revolution was done to get out from the under underneath the unfair treatment of King George III and Prince Philip in the parliament all kind of history that if you're like me you avoided it too is that well it comes in handy nowadays as as a Native American trying to explain our situation to uh go back to those times and talk about it this is pretty much a real good example of what everybody thought about Native Americans in those days this was on the East Coast where Indians were basically a majority and at any given time could have wiped out those colonists those folks but uh they were U uh pretty much different nations that really didn't coordinate well with each other and uh basically uh um believed in people living up to a deal in the United States was only going to take so much but as they gain power and confidence and uh almost to the point of arrogance at some time is that uh this is one of the statements talked about the Savage as the wolf to retire being both being beast of prey though they differ in shape and uh Like the Wolf of those days is that the wolf can survive only if the wolf adapts to the the people the uh colonists and later the uh the uh 13 American states just and same thing was said about the Indians we have to learn how to survive uh George Washington and Thomas Jefferson uh both uh I think uh felt honor to work in battle with Indians uh on their side and then they also found them to be notable enemies too to battle against their great warriors because again we were those folks I'm sure were like we would do if somebody attacked North Carolina or somewhere would we be there to fight I think we would be our folks were fighting for their homelands too so as the wolf is what Native people were thought of in those days and uh part of the whole move in those days what's called the League of Nations where the Christian pretty much white Nations male dominated uh were talking about some sort of rationale to be able to uh live with their Christian ways and to live as a people of Honor how do we deal with this well the way we lived off the land as what they said were Nomads we were nomads and that we were Wanderers and Hunters is that that was a quote unquote a heathen uncivilized Savage way of life and therefore at at that time we weren't even human and so it uh it was I think a real dark time in early American history is a pretty dark time pre- early American history was a time of slavery and what's called conquest and uh to leave us out there in control of these wonderful Forest without making things square and farming them and civilizing the land is that uh that's civilizing it and that's making it more productive is that to leave the Indians in possession of their country was to leave the country A wilderness it was a waste of lands John L the great philosopher of the time who believed strongly in Discovery the rolling uh you know not only only in America from the going from east to west but also throughout the world this League of Nations were these nations of U trying to civilize be civilized and again part of the thing was to try to christianize the world and change people no matter what so there was a lot of things that happened that again because of our religious uh I think uh uh doctrines that we kept in in place and develop more in our US Constitution and basically respect throughout the world the world is you know now we talk about that global economy it's dealing with Communications and we use a lot of you know people uh keep an eye on each other nations keep an eye on each other discovers have ultimate dominion over Indian lands wow we were here for thousands of years we lived off the land it was our land we we had nobody telling us what to do people come in and say they have dominion it means they have control and power over us because we don't build our houses Square we don't civilize the the ground and make it into productive farmlands and uh we're not Christians and so they have dominion over us this is one of the individuals that uh didn't know that America had dominion over him his name is picin he's a Wasco Indian that again was the if you think about and know where the dalls is B from the DS up is the Warm Springs people and then from the DS down to even here we called the uh the chukan in our case it's the Wasco people we spoke a language called K and tomakin he's uh I get a kick out of his hair too cuz looks like he always has a bad hair day too is that Indians with curly hair is it's a curse but he's doing okay tomic's notability is that he when he was young I had to put him about three different articles I read in document research read is that he was there part of the uh person he was part of the team that took away uh Clark's dog Sean and uh and Lewis and Clark threatened to killed those guys and they had to drop the dog and bring them back and uh for us is that our view of it was more of a rescue mission because you know LS and Clark when they were coming down river one of their favorite diets was of course dog they just ate dog and they ate horse uh the our Our Roots were too rich for them our salmon was too oily for them uh the elk didn't quite hit some of them just right uh the bear that we had and the and the different type of other foods of that we added to our food just some sometimes didn't hit them right and so they had a totally different diet than we thought so tomakin this was painted in 1847 and he was just a young fellow back in uh 186 again he's one of my relatives on my dad's side this is a uh one of the ladies here this was about 1938 this picture was taking notice the slope of the forehead she's one of the last ladies that was um um actually went through the uh the action that people did on the lower River here the notable people the high Noble folks that had the higher classes had the shaped foreheads and so she's a Wasco of status and uh again she's a a person that I'm not sure if I'm really related to this individual or not but there's um this is a P mm he's from up River he was as far as I'm I'm concerned he was kind of like a stragic strategic person when it came to negotiating firmly with war so he was always seemed to be on the edge of uh certain The Firm actions of his people that were U River again what I'm trying to do here is connect you that we are a people this is a Kamaya kin he's from north of the area we talked about he's a yak Warrior Chief and also the main thing he was trying to do is try to get peace for the lands along his homelands up north of the river Lewis and Clark stated when they were got here into Wasco country that they saw Square buildings the first Square buildings that they saw on their long journey since they left St Louie and that was again Wasco territory this is a plank house of the Wasco folks I just learned about two weeks ago that those roofs that the roofs with the planks like that in the summertime when they dry it up they they shrink so it add air between them so the air could go through it well in the winter time they would swell shut so then the water wouldn't come through the average uh water that uh comes down in rain at Cascade Locks is 70 in I think it's almost 30 in here 27 in in Portland so notice too the uh uh the canoes canoes were again a main mode of transportation they were also um uh trading materials and like LS and Clark did I think a few times when you're out of wood one of the things you really need it when you you go anywhere is you need good dry wood and if you're in the rainy season as they l found out when they came down here it's really hard to find dry wood cuz uh they they talked in the in the book by uh boto they complained for almost 30 days about the rain at the Fort clat area and all I can say is welcome to the Oregon coast there was a Cano that Lewis and Clark saw that was so fancy and they couldn't see anything that was similar to it they figured it was something that was traded to North uh North and up at Puget Sound this is the inside of the uh aasco Village aasco Lodge pardon me this is a pretty wealthy Chief with the size the size of it is pretty large see the plank roof there he's got salmon areas to uh to dry and hang salmon got the trophy look like a earhead there I think these guys are gambling a little bit uh holding a discussion over here um just like the French we keep our dogs inside to keep the place clean and critters out and certainly uh places to sleep and U again our folks were a little bit different that when we have these celebrations that we get together people give away a lot that's how you show how wealthy you are how much you give away not what you hold on to but what you give away just totally a different group one of the uh uh later uh explorers when they met with the Indian tribes and this one other situation outside of Lewis and Clark gives you an idea of the cultural Clash is that um this U non-indian fellow was trying to remember what what's the best thing I can give to these Indian people maybe like this similar to this is oh my prize keys that I've been saving for um you know 400 miles on my my journey from somewhere from the East and uh he went in there to and he walked in and the smell of the salmon and the smell of the uh of the deer meat and the smoke he thought it was really repugnant but then when he looked up the smell of that cheese the Elder Indian folks had their nose covered but because they couldn't stand the smell of that cheese it was so different so something you know that our cultures can class sometimes and we don't even know it you're jumping to take a look at the area without the house there this is what it would have been like for thousands of years uh just below cilo Falls cilo was this wonderful place that had a a Falls channelizing where an area where fish would have to go through this and our folks used to be able to by like my dad used to do was be able to fish there when the fish were running you could make a lot of catches and depend on the season whether it be a commercial whether it be substenance for my own use or um a ceremonial for religious purposes is that you could really catch a lot of fish to help take care of your bills for the rest of the year and uh there was a a very narrow channel to me the Falls was one thing but this for the mighty Columbia River Narrows down to like a 45 to 50 yard width and all that water just amazing and uh right here you have now like the uh the roads freeways right here and I think the water level would be right about there nowadays then go over to right about over there there was leis and Clark like this crazy guys that they were the Indians all lined up right here when they were coming down and they were they just didn't give it second thought they went down these really dangerous Falls for this water just shot down there um just fast and the Indian folks got up on the edge there and I'm sure they made bets one way or the other if they was going to make it or not and the guy that bet they'd make it through want a lot of money cuz they made it crazy guys but the Indians wouldn't do that because it was way too dangerous science this is a place called Cascade Locks right here today there was a that that gentleman m tomakin is uh he used to fish in this area there was three sets of Falls one right here one set right there and the falls right there those are called the Cascades and Cascade Locks today is right in this area and uh Tom used to fish in here but he lived here and uh so I'll tell you a little bit more about him later what this is is Sciences found through research sech through oral histories and through actually digging into the ground where people live and we couldn't say anything about it because we were moved by this time to the reservations by the US Army and U uh again the the Bonville I think it has part of the Bonville Dam you can see part of it right there so this is Portland's over this way maloma County starts right about in here this is a a map that they made of cilo Falls The Falls coming down coming down here flowing this way and just a wonderful place I'm I was old enough to be just a six and seven year old boy at the time part of the fishing on the river this is they uh uh at the DS would be the Wasco folks there was so much fish to be had that uh they they actually almost on industrial type of level there were thousands of pounds Lis and Clark U said there was a there must be 10,000 lb worth of salmon uh sitting on the racked up stacked up to for sale and trade and uh that's again salmon you could if you once you had a a a something to trade and barter you really had some wealth because there were people that we kept control of these areas where not everybody could fish just our friends just our relatives and the guest but but they could only fish with our approval the Trade Center that was cila Falls going north south west east tremendous trading that happened uh again one gentleman that's from down this way uh uh what's his name m uh L um two wolves what's his name Jeff painter um he was talking about how the system worked here they had like a relay race type of folks where we would trade materials but we trade with somebody here and they would in turn you know get something that they could easily trade maybe up this way and then so on so on so on we have materials that we get all the way from up here at Alaska uh down here in the northern California the Euro all of this was a another tribal group called the Pud folks that basically help uh stayed in the U uh High Desert type of areas and our folks uh roam from Canada and uh I think just about all over is that depended you had to know how to get through somebody else's territory just like today when you go through Idaho Idaho recognizes that if your car is licensed and you've got insurance and you got a driver's license they recognize that similar things had to happen in our earlier days of our Nations too we had to know how to get through these other nations this is the dalls area right here the Wasco territories are all the way up to the D and the Hood River would be well here's Hood River again look at all of these Villages that were along that area Hood River has uh villages in that area um the many villages of the wco area the Discovery Centers right there fishing and hunting winter Villages uh summer Villages uh basically our lands Lewis and Clark came down here and they camped at a place called Rock Fort and uh they were told by the U River by some of the U uh people that helped them come down river the N first that uh these Indians down here's language changes and that's when they started talking to the Wasco people these people up here were speaking ich the uh the the the land of that that area sahap here's looking at the different tribes I'm not sure how well you can see that in the Wasco family there's the Dows the dog River or the Wood River wos the Cascades the Cascades also are known as the kealas or the wlas the clamus clamus river Clackamus County named after that UMAS another group this is all the language group of the kickster the Wasco Folk the chinuk speakers alas skuts c c the class and also the Chans on the North side here spoke a similar language to the KCK folks now a lot of them speak the chinuk jargon kind of a trade language made up of a lot of U uh the languages of the of the area plus uh whoever came into the area like the Chinese and the uh the uh British people and the French and the just like any other language uh according to the book that Carolyn Gilman wrote is that they also as a part of the language great book from U the U Missouri Historical Society God as a present by Carolyn Gilman talk about them learning some languages words that weren't really proper to say except I guess in trading and uh please note every acre in the Oregon had a tribal group on there this is just what they took snapshots of and figured out from the late 1800s and uh the language groups of a tremendous amount of diversity culturally and of course this is the west side and I live on the east side ta is one of our West Side tribes the uh pyute tribe here the clth and the modok again lived this way for thousands of years Lewis and Clark only came down on the river to uh basically just got like they say the tip of the irisburg view of what we had in this area as far as Nations excuse me we have at DW Springs the war Springs confederated tribes has Wasco Warm Springs and Pou excuse me there's 13 different bands of PUD in the state of Oregon now to hiok is the name of the dutes river the original name which means that's the place the snakes the PES come out of they used to get down to the Columbia but they would use the river the shoots now to get to the Big River again look at the uh the language group of the Ki or the down river chukin down river down river Chans are about from here up River upper chukin are here basically the same language called KCK weco Cascade uh we have clus people in our tribe we have some molas the molala people pushed over here for a while in 1810 and 1815 somewhere in there we pushed them back over but of course in any interaction that you have anytime you uh for whatever reason you you know you you interchange we uh we kept some of the the good-look women and the hard hardworking young boys and some of the men that they had to help us out as tribes tribes weren't always done just by blood if you had a guy that was a good horse trader it was a smart leader or a smart chief that would draft that person to be a part of his tribe or her tribe there are also matriarchal women leaders too the human kill us caou the first different nations excuse me so this morning I heard a gentleman that Jeff painter talking about the the halum clups there's some clups right there and uh sometimes we got along sometimes we did this is the Wasco folks the Warm Springs folks in here and the P folks lived around in here and again that's the way it was for a lot of years the yumaa folks this is their area here the yamas up here let's take another look at that this is a a little bit broader picture here's my tribe we gave to the United States 10 million Acres title when promis for our way of Life the right to fish the right to hunt the right to dig roots and the right to pick berries and also the grav are are stocks and so did the AAS that gave up 12 million Acres yumas gave up less than nine acres the N first gave to the United States title of I think it was 10 10 million Acres 10 million I hope I said that right um so that's the deal that people have to live up to people people say oh those treaties that she made with the United States are old documents they shouldn't be honored well what happened in 1776 isn't the Constitution an old document too should we honor that heck yes we do we are we have good people that pay the highest price of all for that that their lives and liberty for protecting the Constitution which in turn is really our way of life that we love As Americans so that's the deal we gave up title to 10 million acres in return for treaty rights that the United States is supposed to honor in all states and all people under United States too so that's what the we harp about in Indian country that's the thing that we're always looking to is trying to make sure that we're having our way of life taken care of and uh people listen to us and again this is a this doesn't mean that those Tri no longer exist they're they're all through here there's 50 some tribes in the state of Washington U amazing country with the people that we have a diverse country that we do have with many many cultures including Native America my reservation we call it a reservation because it was reserved for the exclusive use of said Indians and I'm one of those said Indians that was in the Treaty of 1855 we have land use we're taking care of our land and I'm can brag that we're taking care of our land better than anybody else I've seen in the Northwest and we have um set aside for our riparian zones which is the area around streams and creeks and rivers we set aside our wet lands we have Wilderness areas that we've set aside these are links for linking of of the habitats for wildlife to go through up and down and uh another set aside here we have we're water rich in worm Springs this is a the Cascades is pretty much right here Portland would be up here uh from here down to Cascade Locks a little hint is uh 36 miles that's the the straight flying Crow it's 36 mil some of you know why I'm mentioning that some of you don't um but we have 650,000 Acres that were reserved for ourselves I'm really proud of U our lands here because we uh we uh compared to other tribes that the question can be asked how much of those lands are tribally owned and controlled if you go to the nest first it's like 15% tribally owned and controlled on reservation the yellas all maybe 55% tribally owned and control the Yakama probably 50% own and control you come to my tribe 99% owned and controlled by the Warm Springs tribal government are we real proud of that you bet we are strong element of sovereignty we're the big dog land use We're The Entity that has to be worked with how did that happen part of it is we were out of the way of the um of the river we're out of the way of the Oregon Trail we didn't have great lands we had this terrible thing on our lands called trees the the people in those days in the in the 1850s is that they wanted land like you have down here that are open PLS that you can get rid of the trees and make them into that productive Farmland real quick in uh the forest that we had there they were so thick that people just did not want to have anything to do with them and so this was kind of located in the back door of uh the Oregon territories but you know what happened after that trees had value we built bought our own meal uh a meal that was put on the reservation by non-indians they took the they call they did what's called hydrating we didn't do that they did and we eventually uh bought the mill we built a resort called canita we did a whole bunch of planning with those dollars arm Springs folks are amazing U when the Dallas dam was flooded is that flooded our Salo Falls there was money given out most of the other tribes the other three tribes gave their money to their tribal members our tribe gave a part of it to tribal membership and put the rest of it into studying about where we should be going so we worked with Oregon State College at the time and uh a lot of money in those days we spent I think upwards of $8,000 working with them on talking about the potential for how do we uh use our lands and our Waters and our resources so again I just uh I can brag all day on Warm Springs like Muhammad Ali says a bragging if you can back it up and we we're going to continue backing it up at War sprs again this is the lands that we gave to the United States 10 million Acres I put this in there this is Jefferson County that that they don't have any Authority on reservation 13 different counties part of my job as Government Affairs is to figure out how do we go about protecting our way of life that deals with water fish deer roots and salmon and other medicines and materials there's a gentleman had the buck skins on and had the all sorts of outfits that he got from the land Etc is that all that comes from the land how do you how do you go about making sure that those 13 counties understand how important those are to us here's the here's that point the Cascade logs 36 miles but as you know that's as a straight flying Crow the drive there is about 120 mil and uh we have our boundaries and this was recognized as owned by us have you heard it's on there too the Louisiana Purchase the Louisiana Purchase the biggest real estate transaction ever it was not a real estate transaction there was no land that actually changed title at the Louisiana Purchase what happened there was the the great nations of United States and I think it was what was it France is that they just had preemptive rights and then the United States had the right to be the first in line to buy from the rightful owners of the land The Many Nations uh that were all through there some of them didn't want to sell so they went to war with them and they had an element of Conquest in there so get your facts right the legal owners of those lands through the native nations of that era Thomas Jefferson this is wonderful I thought Jefferson um that the belief that people are capable of self-government a belief in decentralized small government units a belief in the need for public deliberation and civic education through participation in politics that sounds like what we're doing today doesn't it for the most part anyway I won't say anything about our International presence um want to get to do US own argument here but there was another of this too there was a lot of other folks that just wanted to be once they got elected they're the kind of like the King again they're going to tell the rest of us how to live nope so I like Jefferson's idea back in those days the founding fathers all argued about what should happen and here's another thing unfinished Revolution that the Constitution and that these governmental institution as we have today that's where we are part of my pitch is that not only do you have to get used to people culturally but governmentally too we have different type of governments within your your state here in your nation you have to also learn how to get along with us that unfinished Revolution includes the different type of not only people but types of governments not only within the United States but outside of it here's theas mil Creek our treaty was signed right up there I don't uh let's see I don't know how to show this I guess the my hoods over here this is depiction by depiction by an artist that put a Time wheel on here and uh at this time kind of give you Lewis and Clark didn't make the list and and I think later at the end the Custer defeat didn't make the list but certainly disease and the loss of horses that got stole by this other tribe made it on here so the Indian folks uh kind of had a different view of what was important where are we going for the next 200 years this is something that Onida chairman uh New York onidas there's two onidas when they they split the onidas and moved some of them to Wisconsin move some of them to Upper New York and uh he says the casino is not a statement of who we are but only as a means to get us where we want to be we had tried poverty for 200 years so we decided to try something else 200 years up to now we know your casinos a part of who we are we' be using other things in our sovereignty of using that um and so we're not quite sure where we're headed but we're not we're getting tired of your poverty so we want to have a fair shot at having a good life so I uh I just wanted to touch on a number of things I I recommend you know that even though leis and Clark is all over with is that it's really exciting as an adventure I've got the Devoto book this is the Missouri Historical Society book Carolyn Gilman wrote this wonderful book I swe I've got some of my credits um some of my pictures um Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson's got a lot a lot if you go to Paul's bookstore it's amazing how how prolific he was that it means he wrote a whole lot but everybody wrote about him too because he gave a lot of his thoughts out on paper and he argued with these other founding fathers of America and it's just wonderful Oregan Historical Society wonderful things Young Folks you should grab one of these and read them as I get older these are getting more fantastic become more live to me all the time I just really I'm amazed that U I wonder why I didn't like history when I was a kid because right now for me that's really where it's at so I uh again I uh as a tribal person is that love being an American and I love my Indian ways too is that we're going to be continuing our way of life with our values being Native American and also as Americans too so again I uh appreciate your time uh to sit here and listen to me and I guess we have some some time for some questions true so if you have any questions for L just ra hand I'll come around the mic how did the Daws Act of the Indians uh I understand you're Now American citizen but also you play status is a another Nation sure the Dos act you're talking about the inheritance act the do Act was a uh an attempt at the United States there's folks uh in Congress that felt uh what do we do with these Indians is that how do we uh help them survive and so in their good intent they figured let's make these Indians civilized and Farmers like us so right at the time we had land that we own in common with each other tribalism that's kind of the classical uh interpretation of tribalism and U do that said that uh every head of household was could get 160 acres and then we were responsible for farming those Acres but they didn't tell us that they were also going to become uh taxable in the county and so a lot of our folks what's this all about they didn't pay the taxes so they lost those lands where the county foreclosed on the reservation our reservation U actually grouped up and talked to the superintendent at the time to get the superintendent to find monies on these lands that were going to be lost through tax U um tax problems and bought those lands so that's part of that leadership that I say that was good there what was the second part of that all States oh sure well well we do we do I think all of us have different type of statuses of uh I mean I I have I'm a American citizen a tribal Citizen and the state citizen part of the challenge is the way of life and uh part of the kind of the understanding of sovereignty is trying to figure out you know what are we here for and uh it's our way of life and I tell people that they all we all have to learn how to use regardless of your status you have to learn you learn to use the the governments or the entities around you to help you better protect your way of life but our primary focus is uh as tribal folks because there's a there's a a tremendous difference in us from other minorities because the treaty and and the US Constitution have us in the uh Constitution that says only the United States will deal with Indian people and in the act of Commerce only con the Congress will deal with the Indian people and these treaties were done between the United States and the tribal Nations so we have this different status that uh we U see if we took a vote just like here if we took a vote now let's vote for something that would be good for just me you guys may vote with me you may not but most of the time out there like in Oregon I think we're just barely pushing like 2% of the population we'd always get out voted so we run to that unique distinct political entity status to be able to help protect us government to government that means we have to go talk to Congress that means we have to work with the Senators that's my job uh Representatives by lobby at Salem and that's utilizing that government to government status and of course is that uh we have this land that we have we have these off reservation rights too and most of that isn't because the unique status we try to just talk with people in common sense if you protect something that uh uh gets better water quality that's good for everybody can't cut that water in half and say this half's mine this half's yours it's good for everybody so yeah I think all of us kind of claim some sort of different status but I'm definitely an American I pay my taxes every year and u i don't pay taxes on reservation because that's part of the deal but uh if I work for a state government somewhere I'd have to pay taxes so we pay our fair share and since uh you got your land from us too is that we feel like hey we don't want to pay taxes so we don't that's part of the deal so I hope that came close to answering uhhuh how how foro all over the place and nobody else can well the uh that's one of those rights that we had that weren't limited until U the United States got concerned about its uh its um impact on the the constituents of Congress people which are everybody but the Indians so uh with it's not Indi and everywhere it's uh clearly we could build on our own reserv ations with pretty much without much hassle and then now we're pushing to Aboriginal areas like the Cascade Locks for the Warm Springs tribes is uh our people have been there for thousands of years and I agree there are some folks that we see that are ruining it for everybody they want to build the casinos 3 400 500 miles away from their reservation and it's closer to the city and all that but if you look at that reservation too they have a need to be a B to try to get money somehow because they don't have anything and so it is a balancing act you have Senator McCain from Arizona and you have representative Pao from California that are trying to answer exactly that same question the question is how do we do this fairly with this Bevy of different tribal situations and U because Indian Country again it's just such limited resources and u u it's a problem so we're hoping to get fairness across the board and that's what that's all we're asking for for us any other questions actually we're out of time you guys have questions I'm sure Lou can stick around you can catch me here I'll hang around for a while so thank you so much for coming and we'll be in your area coming up pretty soon so thank you our next program will be on the e