Tent of Many Voices: 06040504

e good afternoon everyone and welcome to the tent of mini voices and the core of Discovery 2 here in the T of mini voices we have regular programming every hour on the hour we get a wide variety of speakers and presenters here and this afternoon we're pleased with help of our good friends at the Bureau of Land Management one of our sister agencies to have Joyce Badgley huncker she's an awardwinning historical interpreter author and Storyteller whose meticulously researched programs have earned her International claim is both an actress and a historian her ancestral Bloodlines include Cherokee and Lota French English and Scotch Irish her program today sagaia speaks is premise on the assumption that sagaia was a shishoni tribal member not all tribal Nations agree that this was the case you may ask questions of sagaa after the program she will answer in character then you may ask questions of joy and she will answer as a scholar so please give a warm t to many voices welcome to Saga we some say my name is sakaia others say sakaa or sakaka or Saka my own husband rarely called me the same thing twice usually he just said you woman or squa when Lewis and Clark came they called me the same things as my husband had but they added Janie for it was easy for their white tongues to say and when they named a river for me they called it bird woman's River for it was the their understanding this was the meaning of my name but once my son was born amongst my birth Clan I became a new name the mother of Pomp and that is how I have thought of myself ever since I was not born among those that lwis and Clark called minari where they f around me I was born instead amongst nma the people the agic of people the salmon eaters this is the sign by which my people identified themselves it's the tale of the salmon coming Upstream de fetus but those who did not understand this sign said looks like the snake crawling along the ground so they called us the snake Indians and later they called the shoson and shush the people of the waving grass from which we made our baskets in the old days there were many of us on the land and every year we would go out beyond the beaver head out beyond the mountains onto the Plains and the men would hunt Buffalo and elk and deer it was when I had 11 snows at Buffalo camp that my life changed it was at a place where the Three Forks of the river come together all of the able-bodied men were out hunting and only old men were left in Camp to look after the women and the children I was old enough to help the women scrape the hides old enough to have my own root digging stick old enough to be promised in marriage and the cry went out run cried the old men run for your lives run to the trees it's our enemies from the plains they're coming on their fast horses we knew who they were these were the ones that Lewis and Clark called minari but they were mandam they were hia and they had raided our camp for as long as there was memory they came to take slaves so we ran to the trees and we tried to hide but we didn't hide good enough I saw my people killed that day four women most all of the boy children but the girls the girls they took to be slaves they found me and they took me as a slave this is how it came to be that I lived among the menen and hia I lived there as their slave at the Great Village called a on the river called Misery I kept my mouth quiet all of the sleeps it took to come to AA I kept my eyes open I was made to work very very hard I learned new things I learned to Mound up the earth and the trees in lodges different from The Lodges of my people I learned to do a thing they called plant corn and beans and squash I learned that here at the Great Village of a there were manyari also called big belly Indians for their bellies were always full from this planting that they did and I learned their talk it was in this way that I found out one of the other girls who had been taken same time as me she ran away I knew she would try to find our people again but the way was so long and the dangers were so many I thought she'll never make it she'll die alone in the mountains with no one to grieve for her no one to do ceremony so I stayed where I was the sleeps came the sleeps went moons came moons went and by and by I grew content I continued to work very very hard but one of the things I liked the best about AA were the strange looking and strange sounding men that came up and down the river they called themselves tra they brought iron cooking pots ribbons beads axes knives guns but best of all they brought their stories of all they'd seen and all they had heard and that was what I liked the best to hear their stories of places I had never seen it was here at aat XA that I was given the name by which you call me it was a day of women the women came to me and they had gift it was a belt like this one blue beads Chief beads you cannot make such a belt for yourself you cannot buy one or trade for one it must be given to you a mark of honor it says to all who see this the women have found you worthy it says to all who see you wearing the belt you are now one of them it was on the day of the blue beads that I became one of them made a relative adopted into the tribe and it was the women who gave me the name Saka little Blackbird woman it was hoped that now I was one of them I would marry inside the tribe for then my husband would be HonorBound to provide meat not only for me his wife but for all of my new relatives this is how it was done in the old days but that didn't happen instead I became the wife the woman of toussant sharbono a mixed blood from the second village how did this happen some say it was a bet and I was the prize some say he bought me some say he just took me doesn't matter how it happened I had no say I was barely 14 snows and he was almost 50 when I became toussant shano's snake wife it was said of him he was always marry and somebody so I shouldn't have been surprised when I went with him to the second village I entered into the lodge and there I met another one of his wives her name was otter woman and she was also of the snake tribe and I was thinking how good it would be to speak the talk of my birth people again but sharino my husband said no he did not understand the language of the snakes he didn't know what otter woman and I might say to one another behind his back in this Lodge said my new husband there will be only Manden or hia spoken or a few words of frch that I will teach you this is all so we kept our mouths quiet but I marveled at how hard otter woman worked I marveled that she already had a son by our husband he stood this tall when I came and his name was also tant sharbono just like his father when l Le and Clark came to AA it was the time of the falling leaves the smell of the warming fires was on the wind and the geese were already in the air they came into the village they made their speeches and they gave their gifts and they smoked the pipe with the head men lights danced in the sky at night which was taken for a great sign so they decided to stay the winter the first thing they did was to cut down trees and colum logs then they built what they called rooms but these rooms were not round as a lodge should be they weren't round as a village should be these rooms they made in a straight line touching one another until there were three such lines they called it Fort Mandan and then they built a wall around Fort Mandan with a gate in front that locked us out and them in we wondered what was so important in side Fort Manda and they had to keep it up locked all the time my husband said he had seen a great black dog almost as big as a bear he said he'd seen a great black man almost as tall as a tree he said this black man's name was York and he was the slave of the redhaired chief Clark but when I heard this I knew it was a lie no tribe I knew took men as slaves men they kill as be fitting Warriors but my husband said it's not the same among the whites some men own other men he said this York had been in the Council of the head men and one of the Chiefs had tried to rub this man's color off of his body he rubbed and he rubbed but the color did not come off they felt his hair and said this feels like the hair of Buffalo this is a different animal than the white man this man is Big medicine and there after all the people wanted to stand by this great black black man York wanted to touch his color and rub his color on them so that they too would share in his medicine my husband said Louis and Clark wanted to find a Riverway to where the sun goes down he said they would pay white man's money for those who would speak the talk for them and show them the way my husband liked the white man's money and he began to visit Fort Mandan every day to speak French to one who spoke French there one afternoon late he entered the lodge of otter woman and his chest was all puffed out it came in before the rest of him he said you pointing to woman make me more shirts you he pointed to me make me moccasin I sharino I'm going with lwis and Clark in the spring we'll be gone a long time otter and woman and I put our eyes down and started working but my husband wasn't finished speaking first to Otter woman tell me about your birth people the snakes he said do they have horses that they might trade to the whites for going through mountains otter woman had not seen her people for so many years she felt she couldn't answer so she kept her eyes down then he asked me the same thing what have your people he said I have heard they have horses will they trade those horses to the whites I couldn't answer surely my husband knew that only men did the trading of horses not women but Charo would not be quiet he knew my people had horses so he asked me can you remember the words of your people can you speak these words I had not been allowed to speak these words all the time I had been with my husband but yes I did remember then you will come with me cried charmino the words will be said first by Lewis or Clark in English by somebody else in French I sharbono will say the words to You and Menan or hia then you will say the words in the language of the salmon eaters I did not want to go I was big and slow and awkward with child I did not know when my baby would come I wanted to stay here but my husband would hear none of it a woman carrying a baby BBE it's a good sign a sign this is a peace party everybody knows gather your things he told me were moving inside the fort what about otter woman what about their son tant sharbono I knew because they had not been named they would be left behind I did what my husband told me to do I gathered our things and the gates closed behind us at the Fort when my son decided to be born was the middle of the night there was no woman Inside the fort to help me and the pain lasted so long for so many hours I thought I might not live to see morning if it went any longer somebody finally sent for lwis he and Clark had been making medicine in the village all through the winter maybe there was something in his pills or his powders from me but when he looked he said no not for childbirth this is an army EXP Edition I didn't figure the men would be given birth to no babies but The Interpreter jome whose wife was amandan he said I know what will make this baby come the rattle of a snake will make the baby come I could see by the face of lwis he didn't think so but he had such a Rattle and jome told him break it into pieces in a cup and pour the water in then make her drink and that's just what he did and within minutes my son was born his name will be Jean Baptist charbono cried my husband after my father hm H I kept my mouth quiet but I thought my son will have one name and one name only pomp means firstborn in the language of my birth people I began to make a cradle Board of Willows for pump just as soon as I could for I knew when the river flow free of ice it would be time to leave and it happened only 55 sleeps after my son was born the long canoes the boats of lwis and Clark were all loaded down in the river with books instruments papers all manner of boxes and bundles there was barely any room for me to sit with pomp in the Cradle board on my back so sometimes I took him out and I held him against me in a sling made of skins just as women have done since the beginning of time the great black dog of Lewis ran up and down the river bank sometimes barking sometimes jumping in sometimes trying to get in inside the boat and all the men were anxious to leave the village to the places they had never seen before we left the village behind and every man was given his turn at steering the boat even sharbono who could not swim it was he who was steering when a great wind came up up against the sail and almost tipped us over my Brave husband raised both arms to his God m m save me charmo he was out of his mind with his own concerns until the fiddleman crusat took a pistol from his pants and pointed it at my husband he said regain your senses or lose your head off all together and sharbono regained his senses two of the other men bailed the water out with kettles while three remaining rode us to the shore but before we got to safety I began to see things coming out of the boat going over the side into the water and floating down so I did what any one of you would do I reached out and grabbed these things back as many as I could and at last when we were safe on dry land the journals were pulled out and the lists were looked at and things were counted very little had been lost the days came the days went weeks and moons all the same we would stop with the tribes as we would meet them and Lewis and Clark would make the same speeches they would give the same gifts they would smoke the pipe of peace and they gave medals to those they called Chief these medals had the face of greata Jefferson on one side they said to the people great father Jefferson can see your face right now he can see into your heart and know if you want peace or if you want war great father Jefferson wants peace for his yellow children that's what they called us yellow children on the backs of the medals shows hands clasping one another they told us hands clasped in Friendship cannot be raised against one another in war and they gave so many of these out that finally there were no more and they reached inside their pants and brought out coins from greata George Washington's time and they gave these out as medals then they traded for beaver skin for par flesh for shields for beads for moccasin they said these we will send back to the great father Jefferson but the way grew long the way grew Steep and the water in the rivers grew less and less the Rocks grew more and more and holes had to be dug in the earth so that the white men could put their supplies and make the boats lighter they needed them to be lighter because they were pulling them themselves some times with ropes and they were putting bundles on their own backs this is called Portage that's what my husband said picking up things out of the boats and carrying them on your back it was the time of the long grass that I began to be sick first it was the fever and then the dullness and the aching of the body and then they said I walked with Spirits they said my heart would race and then slow and race again and slow they said my arms and legs were trembling like leaves before the wind I do not remember this thing what I do remember remember is LS bringing to me water water from the stinking spring sulfur and he made me drink and drink and drink until finally I slept in my body once again and when I woke I knew who I was I knew what I was I was hungry hungry and I begged for food but they said no for days you have been with Spirits you almost died we will give you broth one day broth two days broth three days broth at the end of the third day I wanted something else to eat so I fli from camp and I found breadroot Prairie Apple that's what they called and I dug and dug and dug and I ate and ate and ate and that night my stomach thundered and thundered and thundered Lis was very angry too many raw apples he said to me Janie Janie Janie too little sense when I was Stronger we began to climb around the great thundering Falls and when we came to a place that was high and flat the men put one of the canoes on Wheels put up a sail in the canoe and let the wind blow that canoe faster on the dry land than it had ever gone on the water the men danced and clapped their hands and made a great joke until they had to run after the canoe so it wouldn't crash but the same winds that had blown the canoe brought the summer storms the skies grew dark the winds howled like Wolves and the winds brought hailstones the size of fists coming down from the sky and hitting us on our head on our shoulders slamming us to the ground Clark pointed to a dry Ravine go he said go for safety sharbono and I ran to this dry Ravine I had pump on my back in the C board but there was no room for the Cradle board so I took it off and I hiled my son to me I put my back towards the River Bank thinking this would keep me dry and keep my son safe Clark came too this was not a safe place to be all of a sudden the hillside above gave way and the dry Ravine was filled with water pieces of trees rocks my Brave husband climbed out first and Clark pushed me up to my husband with pomp in my arms Clark was standing waste Deep in water where there had been no water before and just as he climbed out the water grew as tall as two men standing on one another and then as tall as three men standing before it flooded over the top and chased us towards the trees the next day we went back trying to find the things that had been lost Clark's Compass his umbrella and the Cradle board we found this compass and Clark was so happy he wrote about it in the journal I shall name this place defeated drain for the instrument has been saved when sharino told me what Clark had named this place I kept my mouth quiet but I thought it's a bad name for it is not the drain that is defeated Pomp's cradle board all of pom's clothes that were inside and all of my possessions were gone and those never came back never were found days went on they came they went and Louis and Clark grew worried about where they were going to find the people with the horses for cross and through mountains we came to the place of the Buffalo Jump and they found mockasin in the dirt they had Janie Reed the moccasins no these are not the shape these are not the beads these are not the patterns of my people and then they began to ask every day aren't we there yet and the answer was always not yet not yet but we came to the place of the Three Forks and I began to recognize the country I told the story to my husband about the Three Forks and being taken by the Mandan people I told him once we see the beaver head Hill then we will find my birth people and it happened in this way we got to beaverhead Hill Lewis made a strange decision he said all of the men are tired they're still bruised from the hailstones the spikes from the plants that have gone through their moccasins they need r rest so all of you you stay right here in this Camp I'll take a few men forward with me and I will find these people with the horses when my husband told me of this plan I thought he doesn't know signs he doesn't know the talk of the AGA how's he going to trade for horses I should go these are my people but LS said no he came to sharbono and said ask Janie what is the word amongst the snake people for a white man there was no word for white man but to say nothing would have shown disrespect so I had to say something I thought about this thing he had asked and I finally came up with the word tell him t means stranger in the language of my people and surely these men with their faces the color of Ash their stink of the great black dog upon them they would be strangers to my people I told him paint the cheeks of the women red it's a sign of peace that everybody knows just by looking and then they were gone it took seven sleeps for us to catch up to them but the morning I could hear the dogs barking in the Far Away Camp I could smell the warming fires I could hear chill children I knew this was the camp of my people the people I turned to tell Clark but he did not know signs he did not know the talk so I did the only thing I could think of I curled my fingers and sucked on them I danced from foot to foot as a child does when a child is was excited I was trying to tell him these are the people of my childhood and he looked and he saw first came the dogs sniffing and snarling and biting at our ankles then came the proud young men every inch Warriors and the women and the children to the sides in a great throng the crowd broke open Lewis strolled out he had shelled in his hair a mark of honor and his face was covered with the red he hugged Clark so tightly and so many times that soon both men were covered with the red paint he wrote of this in his journal and he called it the National Hug and I am heartily tired of it said he I got the horses they needed for crossing the shining mountains I reclaimed part of my family who was still alive but this was the beginning of even more Adventure I tell you these things that they they will be remembered and honored in the true way that they happened it is good that you remember it is finished now I could see as I was talking there were questions written on some of your faces I can maybe answer a question or two anybody have a question yes sir my brother when did I catch up with my brother my brother was at the Village of my people and I didn't recognize him at first he was in Council and I had been asked to come in and say the words in the language of the people but I kept my eyes down all the time I didn't see the faces and Lis said the words in English and labish said them in French charmo said them in Mandan then I said them in the AGA tongue and for a long time nobody he answered until finally a man's voice spoke and even though it had been years since I heard that voice even though I could not see his face I knew who it was and I jumped to my feet and I cried out brother brother it was kit my clan brother who was there the one lwis and Clark called Chief but until I called out his name he had not recognize this m and woman with a husband with a son with a new name all right folks why we're getting ready for our next presentation which is going to be curly bear Wagner to talk about black feet history and culture and they're encounters with ls and Clark if we can have you kind of head to the back of the tent I'm sure that she would be very happy to continue to answer your questions as we switch over between the programs so again please please give her a hand for presenting here in the ten minut voices 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