Tent of Many Voices: 06120602

is part of a traveling exhibit that has been following the Lewis and Clark Trail since January of 2003 started in monachello the place of Jefferson's dream for a western Journey went across the eastern states then to St Louis from St Louis to the Mandan villages in North Dakota and then last year from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean and this year we're on the return Journey just as Lewis and Clark were 200 years ago ago so just to let you know 200 years ago they were up at Wei Prairie talking about how beautiful the C Bloom was so if you get a chance stop by on the other side of our Sandwich Board there and we have this day in history what happened and while you're here be sure and see all of our other exhibits here on our site and also across the street many other things coming and new things coming in every day we do have program schedules in the back so feel free to Avail yourself of one of those note there are many changes and our most upto-date changes are made on our front desk schedule so stop by there and see if the program you're looking at is one that you really want to see and if it's really the one that's on the schedule because we have had some changes here in the tent of many voices we invite people in from different backgrounds and different walks of life to tell their side of the story and the stories that we tell here in this tent are local history and culture stories Native American history and culture stories and Louis and Clark stories so with that wide variety we have a wide latitude in the programs that we give here so at this time I would like to introduce our speaker Mary Jane Souther and her topic is visit with an elder but often in the Native American communities you may have heard about how the stories are shared and they're shared with the from the elders down generation to generation so she's going to be talking about some of these elders and the ability to listen to those Elders as the stories are told so let's please make welcome Mary Jane Souther okay okay oh thank you and uh welcome to the tend of many voices uh I was really thrilled when they asked me if I would come and do a presentation and uh I guess some of the other Elders uh declin and so I'm very happy to be able to share um a story and the story is uh of sharing and listening and uh traditionally all our um tribal meetings our presentations are always opened with a prayer and this morning I was to have a um a a young lady uh who is um serving as a princess for one of the powow and she was unable to come down she was a relative of mine and also a descendant of Chief uh Looking Glass and so at this time I'd like to offer a prayer and uh before we get started gracious father we just thank you for this day this day that we are committed to sharing with our friends and we ask that you will help us to come together and to bond in our communities we thank you for the creation that you have made of each of one of each one of us and we need to come back together in harmony we thank you for the Earth for Mother Earth for the Sun and the Moon the stars and the rain dear Lord we just know that you are providing all these things to make us aware of you so now be with us as we as we continue to this speech this we ask in your precious name amen okay thank you um to begin with I kind of let would like to let you know who I am I my name is Mary Jane Zer and I'm an elder uh I just turned 70 years old May 29th and um it's uh everybody says well you know how do you feel you know and I'm definitely not feeling anything I'm feeling like like me you know and I guess when we look back and times uh Elders used to be in moccasins and scarfs on their hair and around their head and um always working you know and I haven't come to that yet of wearing moccasins and U putting a scarf on my head but that was our definition of Elders because I come in that era where when um this is the way you looked at your elders but my name uh Indian name is tatatu which means little duck and I was born and raised in CI Idaho and I had uh four brothers and three sisters and uh we um lived oh I guess I said we lived in Tami and was um uh brought up by our parents lonus and uh Isabelle Walker and it was always traditional almost to get a nickname and uh when I was born my dad gave me the nickname of Tootsie and so I give you permission to call me Tootsie it uh whenever they call uh out when I worked with the tribe they call they would call for Mary chain S you know and said Mary out there you know who's that you know and then they'd say Tootsie and then everybody knew who I was but I have done that at many levels at this um county level the state level National level um as a um as a so social worker and um it it works you know I can uh also uh you know I'm identified as Tootsie so I really feel comfortable with that and I feel very loved uh when somebody calls me that because it's very endearing I have um I come from a very matriarchal family uh as most uh Native uh Native uh families are and um my matriarchal family uh was was all in CI we were part of that family that um was taken with um missionaries uh we were separated our tribe was separated the centralization of the centralization of the uh coming of the missionaries was in Spalding and um they uh you know the missionaries uh never really knew you know weren't uh tuned into to what Indians were what Indians beliefs were but they come with their word and so there was a separation of us a separation of where um we were taken to the camea area of my my my people my family and uh although we have relatives here in in laway well then we had some real negative things about being the Christian Indians and the lower Indians were known as the heathens and that was so wrong and to this day I um really you know kind of get frustrated at it uh you know of back then but today I think that um our uh we've come to a Harmony where we all know each other and we come you know there's Tami laway norino that um that represents uh where our people live and laway being the centralization of our uh services such as our Bia are used to be our Indian Health Service which is mimu Health now and uh the be Bia and so we have to come to down here to laway to um uh you know for any kind of assistance any kind of um negotiations I got Bia uh about our land and um long ago there was a um and allotments were giving out to the land to the people and um my my family had allotments uh up in the ca area I guess it was according to where you were living that you were given an alotment at that time we had a very large uh reservation and it got dwindled down I couldn't find a map that I would uh wanted to show for this presentation but back to um my uh family everything in our our family was done matriarchal you know uh I always thought of my grandmother and my mother as being the first feminist and uh they they were you know like we're all known as gatherers uh it was my mother and my grandmother that would do went out huckleberry picking Ro Gathering um and as we Grew Older uh my mother would bring us down here to go cherry picking and we also went down to get raspberries so thank you so we were um you know our our guider guidance was given by the woman in our family we were also brought in up in a very Christian home uh Christian home where back then and I wish you know sometimes that we could revert especially the growing up of my grandchildren my um uh other relatives the young ones because we were brought up in a very Christian home where there was no televis no computers there was nothing that would distract us from Sunday Sunday we all went to church and um my grandmother great-grandmother uh made the rules she told us that there would be no sewing on Sunday there would be no cooking on Sunday all the wood had to be chopped because we cooked on a um wood stove and so everything was done accordingly and if you um I guess in my young mind at that time when when we would um do something like sew a button on I thought oh I'm going to go hell you know because of of the teachings I had and and the strictness of it but my U great grandmother was a man a woman of many things she had so much wisdom and she never uh spoke a word of English it she used to try you know and I think when they'd laugh at her she would you know become kind of intimidated but we my brother and I out of our eight children were taught to speak our language and uh my brother and I Jerry excuse me at the time um we come from that era where when you when the first born granddaughter was brought if it it was a granddaughter you were given to your grandmother to raise and nurture you and this didn't happened to me until I was about 9 or 10 and my grandmother uh my dad we had a farm and I had uh two cute little sisters that were born you know a few years after me and at the time I was the apple of my dad's eye and my brother was the apple of my dad's eye cuz he was teach teaching them all about farming and um all of a sudden mom said um let's get your clothes together and I thought oh good we're all going somewhere you know the whole family wrong she her and my dad gave me a ride down to my grandmother's and we got down there and took my things off the car and as we went in the house my grandmother come up to me and grabbed my hand and she said uh your bedroom's up on the right upstairs and I thought what is happening you know in your Yen mind you know you don't know what is going on you know you don't know that this was a tradition being carried and I was really hurt I was really hurt in my own own little mind I was thinking you know my Dad hates me and and how dare though my little sisters be born so cute you know and it was it was a rivalry that I was I was building up and but as I got older and was explained to me and I had to go to mental health for this they told uh they said when did you first become angry in your life and uh I reported I said I I'll have to come back on my next session and let you know where my Angry where my anger was well I did come and I finally said it was when I got dumped you know and and not knowing our traditional ways because uh you know we we carried some traditions but we were not of um you know we did not weren't allowed to go to powow we weren't allowed to go uh watch stick games or anything like that because the missionaries had stripped us of all all kind of interactions with uh our cultural ways and in fact that wasn't even told that was our cultural ways but finally I got myself straightened and then when I was young I come to the time uh when my mother you know like I said we were gatherers and it was up to my mother you know to make sure we had uh she provided the food for us and everything and she um uh come down here to apple picking and we had a bunch of families that would come together and it was wonderful because we were interacting with our people that lived in laway and this was the only time that we were ever going to get to know our relatives and granted it was hard because we were fighting all the time I don't know how many times I get hit with an apple or my face mashed with strawberries and all of a sudden you know and we love to share we love to put our our meals together and at that time we used to sit on the ground and we would make our table in the middle and everybody sit there and eat well then one night after we had all finished working uh my grandmother and the mother of a young man decided that I was going to become his wife when I grew up and he was the one that was the most honious and I thought there's no way I'll marry him because by then I'm already 12 1 you know and it was um you know it was when you know and I think about now when were they going to include me in on in the planning of my life you know as as kids do now why they got their plans projected and we're and back then we weren't I guess allowed to think or we were guided but I was really happy that I was brought up in that uh that at that time because I did a lot of I did a lot of things that my kids don't do now like my kids never did and I always wish that they would have had the chance to be a part of that to be out there to Milk The Cow to go out and feed the chickens which was a and clean out the Brer room and it just you know having all those fun things to do because today you know our life is so fast and the interaction of families isn't as it should be but we there are still some Indian families you know that keep their family together that keep a structure and uh with the coming of alcohol and drugs it's it's a hard thing it's really a hard thing and um it affected I think it affects most families it affected our family and uh it was something that we all had to I think I think because of the effect it had on our family we have come together as a family and um have used that those deaths as a lesson that we give to our children and let them know how much how much were um uh susceptible to becoming an alcoholic and it's isn't um you know it's a disease you know and um it was um a real terrible thing to go through it's a terrible thing today that we go through uh with alcohol and drugs while working with the um neur tribe I served as a child advocate and as a coordinator for uh domestic violence that was a hard one that was you know um we didn't have a system set up but we were pushing it so fast that we never did really become effective uh in having those Services there because we had all your systems have to come together you know to work and doing something for the victim and doing something for the perpetrator and um it we tried everything we went to churches we went to counties I mean this was a sharing this is what I'm about is sharing and I have gone to all the Commissioners around here and all the Mayors in trying to enlist their help in uh providing this service and doing something with the perpetrators and to ensure the family you know that our main goal is family Unity but with with a different direction and it was a very challenging job that I had in my life and uh it just um you know I'm unemployed right now I will say I'm semi-retired but I don't think I am because I still have people that count on me uh and getting uh summoned to the hospital or summoned to a domestic violence shelter or someone with a child abuse and um it's you know we're all in denial that these things are happening we're in denial that um child sexual abuse is happening I know uh all our programs are under our ners tribal executive committee and they're um you know they're the ones that have to en you know that are there to ensure that we get all the needs met on the reservation and and uh when I brought up child sexual abuse incest they were in denial that it's out there until it hits your family and I I would do everything to you know to convince them I took some films in I went out into the community you know and therefore why I was oh titsy you know she thinks you know she thinks that we're all bad you know that everybody's doing this and it isn't that you know you're trying to educate same way with our elders in uh our tribe we're our tribe you know like I was telling you I said I used to respect you know the fact that they wear their moccasins and their hats and um when they'd go to church they'd have their Shaws it was a beautiful beautiful elders and uh we're not that kind of Elders anymore you know and uh but because we're growing with the world you know and I'm I'm certainly happy that I was able to have met all the elders everybody every Elder was everybody's grandmother and it was so wonderful because they also guided you in your growing up years and back then uh family extension was there the aunts and the uncles were there and it just you know and you were ided by the church and I'm only speaking you know to my to my story and um I'm you know I'm really proud that and happy that I have been brought up you know in that way well I maybe before I go on let me I've got a uh show I need to show you my matriarchal uh Parts um the the first one that's Hattie Axel she was my great grandmother and she was my P she was the one that did all the the dedication of us and the guidance of us in our uh Christian Life you know when we were in we you know course you know growing up you're not aware but we knew that there was a Jesus and that there was uh you know what would happen to us we were never given that story about um what is it hell and heaven we were taught we weren't told in a scary way and I remember this lady she would get into the church she's very emotional lady she would get up in the church and give her testimony so um it would just so honest and she would start crying and it was you know when my P cried I cried you know because I was brought up by her and um sometimes you know she was very particular about who uh got to sleep with her uh and uh she had this old feather mattress bed and I always wanted to you know I when I'd get in there say p I'm scared and she's okay get in so I'd get in and um sleep with her and I remember her smell so well she used menum for everything menum for the head the ears the knees the feet you know and uh it was you know it was a good sell it was and today I think about how at Comfort I was because she was so she was so loving you know and I just think today that oh how I wished we had more pffs you know and knowing that I'm a p i have one gr and it's and I'm sorry I can't give him the life that my P gave me she he was so um she was so tearing and so lovable and uh they had this uh back then the elders they were in competition in our CI area and when the federal when the federal agents first start handling you know the Bia we had agents for everything and they started this extension program and they gave all our women um seeds and so my pke didn't hear about it until later all after it was announced SCH one and uh all that time she'd been doing her own garden and um they were giving money away for it you know so she entered it one year and wouldn't let any of us help because this was her project and going to be her winning but you could see her and I can still see her today you know when when the wind would come after her beans were were ready to be uh separated here she'd just be uh letting the wind take the shaft off of the beans you know and it was and uh Gathering the corn and drying the corn you know to make uh Indian corn and there was so many wonderful things and did we ever have watermelon she loved watermelon she crossbreed some watermelon meons one time and just by chance it took and we had the most beautiful yellow watermelons ever they taste like a peach and um calou and a a melon and it was you know and that year she did win so I was so you know I just you know she was already up in age and uh she was doing this and uh I used to be so proud of her you know she's going to win you we take it to school and tell all our cousins or whatever you know and they said well my grandma won it last year you know so we also put us into competition but um my cook died when um in 1954 and I graduated in 1955 and oh I know she wanted to she so wanted to see me graduate she uh was so worried about me because when I start going out with boys she'd say you're related you know and then I get the history of who I was related to and then this one time I went down with a white boy and I told her I said uh PFF this is so and so and she turned around went in her bedroom and I thought oh no you know she's she's disapproving already well anyway um she also reminded me she had a favorite um granddaughter her name was Lily Moody and Lily died of U tuberculosis and it was at that era where the tuberculosis was very prevalent around our reservation and uh so she kind picked me up you know and I got back then you know a penny was a lot more than it is today and so I always had money you know and I always had all the goodies and um when I asked for some I I knew I had it and so this one time um in my junior year I was uh I got to put a prom and my PK said are you going with a soy apple and that's what in our language means white boy white man and I said yes I said you tell me I'm related to everybody you know and so I was really defeating myself because she told me at that time she said if you're going to continue to go with white boys I plan to disinherit you and you know at that time land didn't mean nothing to me getting an inheritance didn't mean nothing to me you know I was pretty safe in in Comfort at a comfort zone while I was growing up and I um so I told her that I wanted to go to my junior prom so she says well let's go to louon and so this boyfriend of mine had a real hopped up car and here we come from Tami we get down here to Leon and uh she hands me some money and she said I'm just going to stay in the car and uh she loved to eat at Majestic Cafe down here and anyway we uh I got this gown a beautiful gown one that I thought I wouldn't even dare think of I had to think of something that was going to be proper you know covering my shoulders and I thought no I dare I'm going to DARE so I got this gown but it had a little cave and so uh you know we all had kind of real strict rules at our house and so we're coming to the night of the prom oh first before we uh you know louon used to be at two-way street on Main Street and my uh book you know um I uh drove very cautiously you on this I we'd get to a place you know where there's a lot of pedestrians and my P would tell me in India and go ahead and run them over they're just soy apples you know there's a lot of them and I said oh P then I get picked up you know but she was also very humorous she had a lot of I mean she was fun but she was strict one time uh so then when I got home and I got ready was getting ready for the prom and I kept waiting for her then we didn't have bathrooms in the house and our water was outside and so I had warmed up a bunch of water on the uh wood stove so I'd already taken a a semi bath and I thought how am I going to you know how am I going to shave under my arms because you know I know that my P would not allow me to shave under my arms and and we kind of you know grew up knowing what were the dos and don'ts and I knew that wasn't going to pass so I thought she went to bed and so boy I jumped in there where my granddad uh did he shaving and I got all all my water and just as I was lifting my arm up she comes walking in and oh I got it and she said Okay I want to see your dress and I thought oh no you know she's going to so I come down with my dress on and I thought well put that cape on but it was a see-through cape and I thought well I put a sweater on you know and by then she was already halfway up the stairway and I had I've got to show her you know so when I showed her she was just telling me you know you're you know you're setting yourself up for trouble because look some man can just go and reach in front of you or reach down behind you because it was a strapless gown and I thought about that and it made me kind of embarrassed I was wearing it because she had told me that so she was kind of also our conscience and uh really did a lot of you know you sit rules that were set you sit in a chair and you sit with your legs crossed you never allow your your legs not to be crossed you didn't laugh with men you didn't put makeup on you didn't wear fingernail polish and you didn't you know do all these things that have already been you know embedded in your mind um by watching you know what the rest of the family was doing especially the females in the family and you know I guess now I think of all the Impressions you know that she made uh every morning we had um a morning worship if we were up we sat with it um we'd have a Bible reading and a and a scripture read and then we would have um at lunchtime we had our our prayer everything was with prayer in the evening we would have service my uh Granddad used to play piano and that was probably the most entertainment we ever had in the house at that time and um he loved to play so we all learned to sing you know and I think um I think of then had I paid attention you know our um our uh translated hymns were son without a book at church and uh now we have to have a book you know that were singing our uh church songs but it was you know it was a good upgrading then and uh she really you know impressed upon me and we I tried to impress along with our family by telling the stories uh about what our p meant and everything was what M Isa that was are you listening to me did you hear me because that was a command you know did you hear me and when it was real serious it used to be did you hear me Tootsie or did you hear me Mary Jane and that was also with all the grandmothers that I had down in laway um when we'd go sweating down there they were always saying what missa you know Mary Jane you know I thought how come they're picking on me you know but then now I think about it it was because they loved me and it was because they cared how I was U being brought up the next one um uh next picture I have is my mother my mother was Isabelle Moody Walker and she was a mother of four boys and four girls she was a wonderful caring mother that um I think I learned all my caretaking skills from all the matriarchs in my family mom was one that would bring in if somebody would tell her there's a child out there that is running around and has nobody uh taken care of them well we got them you know and I always thought we lived in this very huge house well they tore that house down about oh about 10 years ago that we lived in I couldn't believe how we all fit in there you know it was um a lean two bedroom two of them a kitchen and a living room and but my mom always said that was the happiest times of her life when she lived in the village and uh everything centered around our church uh mom headed up the quilt making she headed up the woman Society it was just a wonderful uh leadership that they were showing and when when they would all come together all the kids come together with their parents with their Grandma their moms and uh then we would have our dinners there then we'd be able to go out and play and um I just you know I am just so thankful that um you know my mother taught us how to cook and I know to this day when I make a cake they said oh you're making a mom Walker cake you know and it's and it it it you know at the time when they say that and then later on I think about it you know that was some that was you know they made a good um they had a good impression of my mom's cooking you know and uh my mom was one there was a lot of humor in our family is as well as um other families you know you can go to a lot of the F uh Indian fam's homes and you're hearing a lot of laughter and it's just amongst themselves you know so that interaction and that communication with humor laughter also expresses how much love there is in that family and I am so impressed that uh our family is that way um I myself have five children and um 15 great grand or grandchildren and one one great-grandson and this is my stand up chant this is one of my granddaughter Chantel and uh as you see um I married a white man so I was going to be so I did get disinherited and at the time you know even after I um after I um thought start thinking about land you know I thought man I would have had it you know but I was related to all the males on our reservation and um anyway my husband when our uh when our children were growing up you know he said our children are going to be Indian you know but what stopped them to continue any of the culture of our tribe was they were not allowed at powow I was never allowed to awow I never seen a pow till I was 17 years old and I got reprimanded for it by my Pope and so I I wanted my children to be Indian I wanted I had a red head I had an uh my son was a tow head and it was you know Indian Community is not going to accept them you know but they made it you know they're um they're grown they have children and it's um you know I have uh I have a lot of U I have a lot of fun with them I guess uh I'm getting down uh also the other part of my matriarchal family well he's my uh grandmother's husband he's my pilaka and he's um in a way grandma was so strict matriarchal but we did not eat until he ate we did not go anywhere until he was ready so the next one is my grandmother who that was my grandfather and my grandmother my grandmother attended um the carile Indian school when the Pres u presbyter u had sent a lot of the our uh students off the reservation to acculturate them and my my P She they told her she would get her back in 6 months that wasn't happening so this lady that didn't know how to speak Eng gone on a train and to this day I don't know whether she had a federal agent that took her there but she went clear to Carlile Pennsylvania to get her daughter and she was shocked here was my grandma in these great big beautiful fluffy glasses and a skirt and shoes you know that was that was a no no and but she changed back when she come back and had to get back acculturated into the tribe you know as a tribal member my next one I wanted to tell you about all the women in our tribe that are that have excelled to positions where they were um where they were uh known woman this is my sister Connie Connie would you stand up this my sister Connie Evans and um this is a picture of her she served in the Vietnam War as a nurse and uh we're very proud of her I think these are two other pictures I guess you know who's my favorite veteran and um we were so proud of her you know that here she is you know over there fighting for America and U she has one son and uh two uh grandchildren adorable grandchildren and adorable husband Dr Steve Evans and would you stand up Steve and Steve's retired here from uh LCSC okay we need to get moving so here is my aunt this is the aunt that I took place with my PO uh she was an Army uh Army Core Cadet and uh she just recently has been acknowledged as part of the Armed Forces okay this is an aunt of mine my dad's sister uh she was staff sergeant uh in um the US Air Force and I always wanted to be like her I wanted to be that big secretary and do all the secretarial duties she did and the next one is Bernice Carter Lawrence who is deceased now and she's she served uh in the US Army and this is uh private Elizabeth Allen Redwing Williams and she also is deceased and this is off uh petty officer deline Allen uh Rose and she's also deceased um probably three years ago and this is Gladis Allen uh who theyve ID ID ified as a first woman on our nesus tribal executive committee and she lives in lway this is a p and she is uh was a resident up at cler Creek in um KUSI and she had many skills and um she did a lot of beating and brain tanning hides and was a good horsewoman and she was just the little lady and uh she made te peas okay this the woman on the right is my dad's mother I I didn't have a picture you know by itself but the she was my uh my Al that would be grandmother on the paternal side and she was a good baseball player they said she could run faster than anybody you know and I and then after I look at her you know in her older age I how did she run you know okay and this is too I think many of you heard about too you know she was a heroine uh in um uh in the history and I didn't really get a whole bunch about her that only she had went 20 she ran 26 M uh Rod horseback 26 miles to warn uh people of the coming of the of the army and that there was going to be an 1877 war and this is a tuberculosis hospital as you know uh a lot of our tribal members were um affected by tuberculosis today is diabetes a lot of uh heart problems obesity there there's so many you know different things that affect us and this is Hattie Coffman I think a lot of you have seen her on TV uh she's our first woman that native woman that has been nationally known as a News correspondent and she's going to I think she's going to be here yet yeah Friday okay this is our first we have a a camp meeting she's our first woman president my dad was the last one and um I'm kind of in a rush here this is very makes me very proud she's our first nesus tribal executive chairman and um she is into her second year of being chairman and and this is my Puff and I'm p and he's the one that's going to carry on our heritage okay thank you you ready for the next one just once again it's Mary Jane Souther just so you guys know and thank you so much for sharing um all your I have some door I have some door prizes okay she's got priz if you sign your name to this and then we'll take e e