Tent of Many Voices: 06110502

well hello everyone and good afternoon and welcome to the tent of mini voices the tent of mini voices is part of the core Discovery 2 traveling Lewis and Clark exhibit it's a National Park Service exhibit that's been on the road since 2003 will continue to be on the road through 2006 the four years of the Luc and Clark expedition by Centennial and what we do here in the ten many voices as we bring in a wide variety of presenters and speakers to share with us a wide variety of perspectives many voices and we're pleased today to have with us Alan Pinko who's going to talk about the culture and history of the Nez purse so please give him a warm welcome to the tenam many voices okay can everybody hear me okay good my uh my English name is Alan pink of course and uh butou little more okay all right maybe I'll just have to talk a little louder okay thanks uh my English name is Alan pink but my nesters name is ptin p and of course I got that from my father and uh one of the reasons we ended up with English names is because when the da act came in about to our reservation in 1893 we're told by the agent and the uh Presbyterians and the uh US Army we had to have English names so that's why I ended up having a Pinkham you know a good English name name for an Indian so that's why I have these the name and my family is Pinkham but then actually I'm a descendant of red bear ha ilil who met Lewis and Clark in 1805 and along the Le and Clark Trail right here where it says chopines and kuske River that's my territory my homeland and then on this map it's just a little bit south and east of Lewiston Idaho but the nest purses travel to Montana North Dakota Wyoming even to the Great Lakes way before Los and Clark came out here so he knew the country we knew how to travel way before losen Clark gets to our country and to even to Montana now the reason I can say this there's a little story that we would listen to when we're young people they have and it's a little story that's connected with this star formation is probably a little bit different than what you've heard or learned in your school days this is the story of two grizzly bears five Wolf brothers and one little dog and I'll tell you how that is old wolf he was sitting down and he was looking up and coyote come along and he says ask old wol what are you looking at says oh I'm looking at two of them up there don't you see them so coyote he looks up and he sees two grizzly bears and in the meantime four of old Wolf's younger brothers come along and ask the same question what are you looking at says oh we're looking at the grizzly bears up there don't you see them and old wolf said I sure wish I could go up and see these two grizzly bears so coyote since oldwell persisted he said I'll show you how to go up there and see these two grizzly bears so coyote he makes five bundles of arrows and a bow he shoots the first Arrow up and it stays up there he shoots a second and it sticks to the first arrow and a second second and third and fourth all the way down to the ground and coyote tells old wolf now you can go up there and see the two grizzly bears but the next oldest wolf says well I want to go up first with my next two younger brothers to see these two grizzly bears and old wolf agrees he says okay you go up with your younger brothers and see these two grizzly bears so the next oldest wolf and his two brothers go up the arway and they sit down and they look across to the two grizzly bears and then old wolf says well I want to go up next and I want to take my youngest brother and my little dog with me so they go up and they sit down and look across to the the two grizzly bears and coyote says when a human beings come they will look up there and they will see two grizly bears five Wolf brothers and one little dog can you identify who they are here is first grizzly bear second grizzly bear the next oldest wolf brother and his younger brother and his younger brother and then this is the old wolf with his little dog right here and this is the youngest wolf brother right there some people call it the Big Dipper we call it two gly bears five Wolf brothers and one little dog but what does that tell you anybody North Star good okay here's the North Star right here okay if you know and hear this story as a young person you know a direction North so as you grow older when you're out here in the plains to the east of us and all you see is one horizon one level what do you have to find the North Star or if you're in a big lake somewhere where you see nothing but a horizon you need to know where the North Star is east and west is easy to figure out cuz that's where the sun comes up and it goes over and sets in the west so now you know four directions so but how can you travel okay now what we used to do we would describe travel time as 1 half day before noon or 1 half day afternoon to evening and then maybe even divide the half day up into one quarter we didn't have hours or minutes or seconds but we had days of fraction of a day's travel and then any shorter distance all we had to do is Pace or walk steps and we could measure so that's how we travel we measured travel time by fraction of a day and days and maybe even 28 to 30 days of the moon phase one travel of a moon now how far do you think we could go in one Moon's travel let's kind of figure it this way say on an average if you traveled by horse foot or canoe you could probably average about 20 miles the day you traveled 100 days or three moons you're 2,000 miles away so that's what we did so from Idaho where we are now we would travel to the red Pipestone quaries in the state or around the Great Lakes area which is about 100 days travel so we travel and we have many travel stories in tribal history there's one story that we traveled so far south where it was hot all year long and in that country we found a little animal we call that little animal pitet pitet and what that means is imitator imitator and what that little monkey is what we found we call that little animal because he did everything that we did or tried to act like us we called him pitet imitator so that's how far south we went we also traveled so far south that we found another kind of human being once we found out that they were human beings now if you really look at it a practical sense even in 1805 when we seen Lewis and Clark we knew when Lewis and Clark was coming but then even 300 years prior to that 1492 or 1500 or 1520 1530 how could another kind of strange person or human being live 3,000 or 2600 miles east of us without us knowing about it now there this wasn't olation just because there was a Rocky Mountain here and hundreds of miles of plains that was no obstacle to us so we heard about this creature and there's Prophecies of the coming of these new kinds of people one day there will be a white fa creature behind a white-faced animal about the size of a deer that will come through rway Valley our homeland the white face creature was what we had to decide whether it was a human being or not because when we heard about that even before LS and Clark this strange creature had eyes like fish spoke a language we never heard before some of them had their faces on upside down and they smelled and they brought they will bring good things and bad things to us this is what this new creature will do so we had a little debate about well gee are these human beings or not because they certainly don't look like us they don't smell like us either so what are they maybe they're mixed with some other kind of animal but once we found out that they had human traits we finally decided they must be human beings now the description was eyes like fish that's gray blue green eyes face upside down is mustache and beard and bald on top you know who you are and and so this was the predictions that we had made that they will come into our country but then one the traits that these new kinds of human beings would have that they would be very inquisitive inventive aggressive arrogant kinds of people so we had to be a little cautious and so when we heard about these people we went to see them we traveled 2,000 miles to see them or he went to the Southwest to see him near the country of the monkey so this isn't any great surprise to us when leis and Clark comes wandering up the Missouri River and gets into the cellway and and the lock saww River and end up on cus Prairie in Idaho we're just a little surprised that they would show up when the passes were starting to get snowed in you know we thought it was kind of odd that they'd be traveling and uh taking a chance to get snowed in on the passes but they showed up and it was a PR predicted of course and so that occurred I'll talk a little bit more about that later now there's another little story that maybe you youngsters would be interested about you probably heard about well a cow jumped over a moon the moon is full of cheese or there's a man in the moon to us none of this happened there's a frog in a moon he's up there now the story is Moon he would go through the sky at night you know every night he'd go through the sky and one night he sees a frog sitting down there in a near the water and he looks down and asks frog well what good are you says all you do is just sit there then frog looks up at Moon says well what good are you you just go through the sky and so they argued but then they Moon went on next night the same thing they argued again Moon would say well what good are you all you do is sit down there and talk talk talk you don't do anything and frog would say well what what good are you the sun gives us warmth and you don't makes things grow and you just go through the sky and don't give light like the sun and so they would argue and third the third night frog he got so mad when they were arguing about who is the best one frog says I'm going to jump in your eye so frog he jumps and he lands in the moon's eye and that's where he is today and then when coyote looks up he says when the human beings come they will look up and they'll see the frog in the moon because he lost his temp that's where he ended up and so that little story tells you so don't get in an argument you may end up where you may not supposed to be so keep that in mind okay here is the hind it would be the right hind foot of frog right here and right here this is his rear end and over on this side is is his other foot and the rest of his body over here so that's proba in the moon so next time you see the full moon look for him cuz that's where he's he is so those the kinds of stories that we have there's more of course but I don't have enough time to tell you anymore about those kinds of stories but I will tell you this you know among the nesp and many other tribal people there's what we call the maker of all things and he is called haah he is the creator he makes everything you see everything that's here and so that's the beginning of the world he creates the world but he also creates many other things he creates large animal people what we know as large animal people you know the four-legged and the flying and the insects and fish Birds but then the Creator calls all the animal people together and there's a landmark along the clear waterer river that depicts this and he tells all the animal people there's going to be a great change some of you may not survive some of you will but this great change is going to come and you'll be smaller animal people so now I want you all to come out and describe what you want to look like how you want to be how you want to live and how you can help the human beings when they come so they all came out and they sat in a council and there's the rock formations down to draw from that Ridge line and some of the looks kind of rounded and hay stacked looking you can't see any form but the others are sitting up on a ridge line like large animals sitting down like a back of a mammoth or or a dinosur something like that and they're very tall they're about 15 to 20 ft high and those represents the large animal people and the the rounded Stones going up the draw to that area are the ones that never made the meeting there were late so don't be late for meetings you'll just become a stone unrecognized iable so this great Council was uh called and a Creator says now you come out and demonstrate how you want to be and you and I'll declare you qualified so all the animals the birds and insects had to do this and the fish and they would say like like I'll give you an example like the deer the first deer he comes out and says I I want to have horns that come up and Branch out like this and U I want a short black tail and then the human beings can use my horns for tools and uh my flesh for food but I won't be easy to capture and so that animal came out and he demonstrated how he wanted to live and and and he was called mule deer what we now call me deer he wanted big ears and that's what he got so the second deer comes out and says well I don't like the horn horns of the first year I want horns that come up and go like this and I want a big long white tail that goes like this when I run and the human beings can use my flesh and my hide for clothing you know and that's what I'll contribute but I'm not going to be easy to catch so that he's known as white tail another deer comes out and he says I like the horns of the first that come up and Branch out like this but I don't want that funny looking little tail I want something a little longer and black on one side and human beings can use my flesh and hide for clothing and my brains to soften a hide to make it white so that deer was called Blacktail deer so I could go through this and describe all the animals the elk the Moose grizzly bear eagle go you know they all describe themselves and how they wanted to be and how they could help the human beings and even the insects spider he came out and this is what I'll do I'll weave this web to catch my food but the human beings won't know how I do this to catch my food and I will show them what wisdom is because they cannot understand something they have to accept it the way it is and how it is and we will call that wisdom acceptance of something that you don't understand but is there before you so even insects were contributing to the existence of the human being so even insects the birds Eagle said well I'll fly way up there they can uh use my feathers for their symbols and when they talk to me I'll give their message to the Creator that's what I will do so that was done Eagle became qualified so the all the animals insects birds and even the fish the salmon said I will come to the streams every year at the same time of year but you'll have to catch me for food so everybody contributed something and they got a name they were qualified and right near the end of this story and this great Council of the all the animal people coyote he just barely makes the meeting he just in time he he comes in and he's the last one he says well I want to be Eagle says no that name's already taken you're too late well I want to be grizly bear no that name's already taken and so he was really felt bad says well what can I be and when he tried to demonstrate how he wanted to be he couldn't even talk straight you ever listen to coyotes at night yip yip yip yip yip yip you don't know what they're talking about because he couldn't talk straight so finally the Creator took pity on him say I'll give you special powers I'll give you the name itaya which means coyote says you'll have all the traits of the human beings when the human beings come you'll be just like them you'll have the emotions you'll you'll uh steal maybe be a thief maybe you'll be a good person but you'll have all the traits of the human beings but I'll give you a special power if somebody kills you I'll give you the power to come alive again and I'll give you the power to change things also so coyote he was happy you know this is great you know he's got special powers so when a meeting was over he traveled the world and this is where all our coyote stories come from from the npers and this is how coyote got his power to be what he is but he's got all the faults and traits of the human beings you know and he does get himself killed every now and then so they were just about ready to break up the meeting grizzly bear says well what are we going to do about day and night I want six months day and six months night that's what I want you know little chipm says no no no you're just lazy we should should have one day one night that's all we need and so grizzly bear and chipmunk they start arguing Grizzly bees six months day six months night that's what we want you know that's the best thing we can have little chipm tail going back and forth he says no one day one night one day one night and he says you're just lazy so Creator says you go over there and sit down and you argue whoever wins the argument that's what we will have when this great change comes so grizly bear and chipmunk they sit down they start arguing grizzly bear arguing six days you know 6 months night 6 months days chipmunk says no no no one one day one night one day one night they were arguing arguing and grizzly bberry got sleepy he'd start arguing says we want 6 months day 6 months night and he' just lean over and he just about go to sleep and he'd wake up and he start arguing again finally he couldn't take it anymore he fell over and he went to sleep and little chip monkey says I won I won we'll have one day one night now and the Creator agrees yes we'll have one day and one night so that's how we have one day and one night now and so grizzly bear he sits up and he wakes up and he looks around he says what happened what happened says oh you lost the argument we got one day one night now and grizzly bear looks around he says where's that little chipmunk I'm going to get him little chipmunk looks at him he say oh oh he's going to come after me so he's starts running grizzly bear right behind him he wants to catch that chipm he reaches out and scrapes the back of chipmunk and that's why chipmunk has those stripes on his back now because he won the argument and he got one day and one night so you have to be a little percent persistent sometimes to get what you want so those are the kind of stories that about now we got all kinds of coyote stories that goes on and on as well and how much time we got left here okay uh maybe I could open up for questions anybody any questions he wants a story about a coyote anybody have any questions it looks like we got a question over here for questions what I'm going to do is bring the microphone around so everybody can hear you and if you could come to the center aisle with your questions that'd be helpful as well I'll see if I can get a story in here just a second what was your Indian name again what is my Indian name pattin pattin Pat means five kytin means rays of light now if you ever obs oberved like cloudy days and there's rays of light coming through the clouds and comes down and touches the Earth I'm the five rays that come down through the clouds and touch the Earth that's my name yes did you ever come up with any stories about how something came to be by like from you from your point of view how things came to be uh maybe I'll tell this uh coyote you know when he traveled the world his brother Fox tells him there's a monster up there on a clear water they're devouring all the animal people he's sucking them in and he's devouring them and this is called one of our creation stories and uh so coyote he prepares himself he gets five Flint knives and he gets certain pitch and he goes up on a cus Prairie and he goes over towards graville where this graville now is and and his brother Fox is with him of course and in coyote he yells over to where the monster is and he says you can't devour me like you did the other animal people and kept hollering hollering at a monster pretty soon a monster he raises his head above the uh level of the Prairie and he looks across to Coyote he says who is this hollering at me say I'm going to suck you in like like I did the other people so coyote says you go ahead so monster he sucks in his breath and he coyote had tied himself to the mountain with his rope and he'd go the end of the rope and he'd stop before he got into the monster's mouth and he did that three times the third time he reaches behind him and cuts the Rope and he goes into Monster's mouth and he's inside he's walking around it's kind of dark in there and so he strikes a fire so he can see and he walks along you see the bones of laying there where animal people have died and there's still some alive still some alive yet and some are pretty weak so he goes among those people and he comes near rattlesnake rattlesnake strikes at him says what are you doing I come here to rescue you and now you're striking at me I come here to save you so he steps on rattlesnake's head and so that's why rattlesnake has flat head heads now and he walks further down and grizzly bear Roars at him well what are you roaring at me for I come here to save you people and grizzly bear Roars again so coyote pushes his nose and that's why grizzly bears have flat noses now so he says well watch me and do what I say I'm going to kill this monster I'm going to cut the heart loose but when all the the monster is dying in the last breath all the holes of this body is going to open up and you run out and you kick the bones of all that dead people in here too so the people all go to the holes you know the mouth the nose the ears and even that hole underneath the tail they all wait at these holes and Co gets these knife he cuts away breaks a knife gets another knife he's down to his la last knife and the last piece of flesh is that hang on the heart and he reaches up and he tells the people now get ready so he cuts the last piece of Flesh and the Heart Falls and the holes open up with a last breath all animal people run out and carry the remains of the other ones with them and they all go out and the last one out is muskrat he's running out the the hole at underneath the tail and just as he goes out that hole closes on his tail and that's why muskrat doesn't have any hair on his tail he's the last one out so all the animal people in remains in coyote says now you're all alive so all the animal people are are come alive and and they go around about their way and then coyote says no Fox ask coyote what are you going to do now this wonderful place here this beautiful Clearwater Valley should have human here and this whole land should be occupied by human beings and this is an island we knew this was an island because of water in every direction you went so coyote says well I'll I'll make beings so he cuts the monster up in pieces and he'd throw a part in a Direction Another Part in another Direction you know this is the way he distributed when those pieces of this monster struck the ground they became Cheyenne Sue Shoni uh uh damis you know Coastal people uh Pueblo people so he populated this continent and he was just about done in says well what are you going to do about people living right here there should be people right here and he had thrown most of the body parts out so Kish bring me some water so Fox he goes over bring some water back from the clear water and he washes his hands and he sprinkles the blood and the water on the ground and when the blood and water strikes the Earth up pop theu people nesp people so that's how we're created by coyote we are the human beings of the blood and the water and the Earth that's how we're made and that's how we're created so that's one little coyote story it's our creation story that's how we're made so where did where did you originate right there it's uh there's a rock it's a heart formation of it's about 35 40 ft High right at CI Idaho and that's our center of our creation and that stone is there so if you ever get to CI Ido I think coru will be over there in August I believe and if you ever get over there look for that rock cuz it's very prominent you can looks like a heart standing on a on a base and then to the point is up so that's how we're created then of course other coyote stories come from that too are we one more question we got time for me one or two more questions how old are you how old am I uh-oh this is getting personal now uhoh well in in the old days you used to count age by wintertime I have seen winters of course I was born in January so I've already seen the first winter so yeah Psalm 67 can you speak CH not Chinese but Indian didn't quite hear wants to know if she can speak your native language if she can speak the N language oh nox leit matat P we not 1 2 3 4 5 noit nox is one nox Lait is leit is two all the way to 10 we have another question here where were you born I was born in laway Idaho in my grandmother's house my mother wanted to get me to the hospital before I was born but we only made it to Grandmother's house so I was born there I was delivered by my grandmother one more question how did you get your Indian name how did I get my Indian name um my father took me to a a a gathering of of of the nespr community and this would have been probably about 9 19 42 or 43 somewhere around there and um he he got me by the hand and led me I don't remember any of this I was probably only about 3 or 4 years old he took me out and he said this is the name of this young person here this is the name I'm going to give him he is my fifth son so I will call him because he is my f son pet means five and Rays of light that was my name that's how I got it thank you thank you Alan thank you for sharing your stories with us and just a