Tent of Many Voices: 06120603

want to welcome you once again to the Ten of many voices it's a a pleasure to be here in Lon as usual we've been here seven days already so this is pretty exciting we never get to stop that long one of the special things about this event that you're at is there are 390 national parks in the US we're the only National Park that comes to your community so count yourselves lucky um I guess it's has something to do with that whole Lewiston name just just thinking you know um before we waste any more time I do want to get going with this we have a wonderful program for you it's called ceremonial Foods we'll have Mr Alan slick cre junor presenting and so please go ahead and give him a round of applause and welcome him to the tent good afternoon I want to welcome each and everyone here today I am uh my given name is why why means the person who marked his legs years and years ago before the coming of the European people the namu had traditional enemies throughout the Montana Canada Washington Oregon Nevada Utah we had other tribes out there who who dislike the nimi poo people and we become to learn how to dislike them for other tribes you know it was a it was a common practice that other tribes would come into neipu country here and they would uh take her children and take our our women for slaves or whatever the reason they did and in turn we'd go back and we'd raid their camp and there's a man that I received the name from that he was a he was a warrior and during some of these raiding parties that uh were taken in place that sometimes we had to take a life and means marked legs and when our people took the lives of other people it was considered a sin so when a individual took the life of another individual from perhaps another tribe or or Crow or sh banic people uh the Cheyenne people the black feet those people were known as are traditional enemies that this man when he took the life of those individuals he had to take that Spirit also because that's all we knew our lives were Guided by the guardian Spirits which we call wakin and every individual had this type of spirit that was our gu Guardian spirit that led us through our life and when during one of these parties that this Warrior he went to perhaps uh get her children or horses or her wies back or whatever it was that he took the spirit away from this individual and he took the blood of that individual and he would mark his legs because that's what his wakin told him to do that that was his Direction and understanding what the history the oral history that uh this he was a warrior who took a lot of lives and he was selected a lot of times to go into Montana or Southern Idaho or up north or the caou or whoever it may have been PES that we would um send parties to go search for these people and this is what he done for the sake of of their children the youth and the women so that's the name I bear today that's the same name that my my father has uh and my borrowed name which we know as borrowed names like John and Bill and Fred and Allan I am Alan slick Jr and I do have a son his name is Allan also but I wanted to explain that and my last name slickpoo that's a that's a name that's a very old name that at one time there was a member of our family ancestor that we had his name was Jim Slick Jim slick spce is interpreted how that this person he got hit by Arrow from one of these neighboring tribes that were sought war on our people and he was hit with arrow and he from that time in the leg that he walked with a limp Jim that's what that means a man with a maimed leg or a wounded leg and he lived up there in a tanma area tan we call lives up there uh up there by uh Stites and KUSI and uh the white settlers who came in they couldn't say that Jim scko Jim slick they thought and they looked around and they they couldn't say talk in our tongue the way that we do so they called him Jim Jim slick poo hey let's call him Jim slick po so that's how we got the name slick po the long that's a short version of the Jim slick I wanted to explain that to everybody that so it it is a it is a given name that we have just shortcut you know we all tend to take shortcuts and my name my borrowed name is Alan slickpoo Jr and I'm from camii uh live up the river in CI which we call matala matala means up River people m means down river people so that's where I'm from um some of you may I I was talking with a lady out there before I came in that she was up in CI on Saturday and we did a presentation on up there in CI I don't know if any of you folks was at camei that day but I want to welcome you back to be a part of the our country here this is known asinum uh my lineage comes from also in this area also it's minum there was uh two chiefs one was he was a chief of the tum with um W aspas right here in this area probably downtown Main Street or wherever in this area right here this was a Jin boand and across the river from the from the Confluence of the snake and a clear water simsa simsa means obsidian he was a chief on the north side of the clear water at the Confluence of the snake so that's my lineage I'm hereditary from Two Chiefs um and simsa and also K was uh which means um grizzly bear high above come from the white bird band down in a in a lum and the Salmon River area so that's my lineage I come from three different Chiefs um but I wanted to explain that uh that's it's always appropriate to explain yourself you know before you do a presentation now I'm going to speak on ceremonial Foods today uh when we talked on the phone we talked about well I'd like to talk about traditional food and I seen the program and and we talk they put me on for ceremonial so I thought to myself what's the difference between ceremonial food and traditional food well there could be a big difference traditional food is is a little bit different than the ceremonials for instance I was talking with one of the Rangers out there and I was telling them he said well there really is no difference and I said well there is a difference because ceremonial we have the salmon Feast we have the root Feast we have many different feasts we have Huckleberry feast and depending on what type of ceremony that's the the food that we're only going to eat when a young boy steps into uh manhood and he's going to be a provider for his family he catches his first salmon or he kills his first deer to our people that means that that that individual is stepping out of Boyhood and into manhood and he has committed his first sin he has committed his first sin because he took the life of nature and and doing so the family gets together and they have a giveaway they bring material Goods they bring beaded Goods they bring food and they have a feast let's say the young boy now I'm going to explain this here a little bit later the young boy this is salmon this is dried salmon the young boy catches his first salmon he's trained to go out on the river to to to he's always been with the older people to watch to learn how they they catch the fish in in the traditional way traditional I'm speaking of um old hooks or or traps or however they may be modern day we use dip Nets and we still use uh Gap Hooks and that boy goes out there and he gets his first salmon the family will get together nobody is to eat that salmon until that that big day that's it's going to be that that boy's big day when he steps into manhood the family will get together and they'll take care of that salmon perhaps they'll preserve it and they'll dry it like this and back in the old days that's pretty much the way they done it as they dried it like this or perhaps they would smoke it and there's different ways to make your salmon you can pound it and you can dry it up into small cereal like U like Flakes and the family will get together and they'll call everybody all you people come on come come to our home we're going to Feast this Hotwell this young boy he has got his received his first salmon for the family everyone come all the fishermen will come and gather all the women who prepare the foods they will come and gather and the crier the the speaker he will go around and tell everybody about what has what this boy has done and how the salmon was provided for a people years ago during Legendary Times when all the animals and and those Chiefs and those beings in the river could communicate and speak the Creator called upon all these animals and all these beings to come telling telling them that the human beings are going to soon be here and you have to all come forward to receive your name and to to receive your purpose of life to for these human beings and there was a great big storm and the Creator told him on this third time that you hear the thunder and lightning hit it's going to shake the world you have to come here to the long house to receive your name one by one they all came the salmon the deer the elk the Bears the birds the Eagles the ground squirrels the salmon the suckers steel head the lamb pre the eels they all came forward to receive their name and from that time they received their name they could speak no more they couldn't communicate with one another anymore like we communicate as human beings they could no longer talk the language that that that they were speaking to and and the Creator the first one was the those of the of the blood of the Earth the water the salmon he was made Chief there are many chiefs that were in the water you all hear about the sucker fish the steel head the eels they were all chiefs but there was only going to be one spokesman who is going to be the head Chief and this is who he is right here salmon other places you go you hear the history of the the way it is and other tribes will say and the salmon stood up and he spoke our people believe that he did not speak because once that the human beings they came and received their given name name the the the fish is and the is the salmon that he received the name in the that he was no longer going to be able to communicate with any of the other beings so this is this is what they do they I wanted to explain that about the salmon and then the deer they all receive their name and there's other beings that refused they chose to be the way they are today and if you can understand what I'm speaking of there that there are other beings that are let's say they they are in hiding somebody might site them once in a while somebody might hear them once in a while but they don't have a name and that's still True to this day because a lot of scientists and historians archaeologists scientists they're all anthropologists they're all looking for these beings but they they're so elusive that they can never be found the Creator said that from this day on those people they're going to have to live in shame that they're going to stay in shame and they're not going to be amongst the rest of us like we have here or in the forest even those other animals those other beings are going to be afraid of those that are in the forest because they chose to be the way they are and today we choose to be who we are our different Walk of Life some of us we don't have a choice but you know I just wanted to explain that so all these receive their name every single one of them the the salmon the deer The Bitter Root the cow and the tea this are some of our ceremonial foods and when that happens when I'm speaking of ceremonial this is traditional food and ceremonial food when we're having a salmon Feast this one sits up front this this is the only one that comes into the home it's the only one that goes to the long house the crier will go around and he'll say today the first salmon has returned this young boy has CAU his first salmon he has taken the life he has committed a sin and it's nothing bad you know understand that it's nothing going to be bad for that child that child has already been trained to know what is going to happen through teachings from our elders or our fathers our mothers or grandparents or grandmothers and grandfathers to a young child the grandmother and grandfather was always mentoring them and helping them out as someone who they really looked up to their pilaka or their kala that means their grandfather fraternally and maternally they would look up to them and seek their guidance and and at the same same time they're building up this young boy saying he is the son of so and so he he done this he has been trained he received his first salmon now from this day on he's going to be he's going to be known as a fisherman he's going to be known as a provider that he has caught his first salmon anytime in Need You people and that you need fish call upon this boy it's his duty to go ahead and be a fisherman for you those of you who can't fish this young man will do it for you same way with the deer when uh the young boy goes out and gets his first kill he gets his first deer a ceremony is called in the same way all the hunters all the fishermen you all come come to eat this deer meet with this boy and it'd be up to the grandparents or the parents to call upon everybody well let's call this gentleman over here he's been a known Hunter he's hunted many years he's 87 years old this man over here in this other camp this other Village he's a teacher he's Mak bows and arrows he knows how to make the Flint knives call him in he takes care of the meat he's a provider all these important people they'll sit at the table up front here with with the boy and they will turn when it during the meal or after the meal they'll get up and they'll speak and they'll give encouragement to this young boy and say from this day on this is what you have to do you've seen it done with your parents you've seen it done with your older brothers and your uncles and your grandfathers the rituals that you do when when we prepare ourselves to go hunt deer hunt fish same way with the women folk when a young girl pick does her first root or picks her first Berry the same type of ceremony but that specific food will be the main one the ceremony will be be for the salmon the ceremony will be for the deer the ceremony will be for this root here or this root here there's many different types of roots and I brought a sample of them today because I ate up all my huckleberries I don't have huckleberries because we already had ceremonies and I used up last year's huckleberries I don't save them you know they're not meant to be saved they're only come one time a year and and everything like this right here they're going to show themselves only for a little while and and all these beings right here they have a color a very distinctive color that I seen in a newspaper it must have been Sunday that lights up the Earth and more sacred colors to our people and a lot of our people don't know that our own people don't know them sacred colors or the sacred numbers that go with these foods but that's what the color of of these plants are the purple and the yellow you know because and and ceremony when you talk about ceremonies sometimes we're going to take these colors and we're going to paint our faces we're going to paint our head with these colors During certain times because that's another ceremony but not we can talk all it's going to take a long time and hour is not long enough to talk about ceremonies but I just want to explain that that's the process of the deer the fish the roots and these are all ceremonial Foods these are all natural foods people say well I'm not going to eat that dirty old fish he comes from the river and there's so much sludge and everything in the water his purest can be the only he's um the only time that he's not sterile anymore is when we take a knife and we cut him open he's steril you know them fish are the deer me are the same way so they are good healthy foods you know we can talk um about the the Hanford area they say the Hanford area has a lot of contamination you know the the waste that comes out of the E City all the way from up the hills but you know we still this is our traditional food this is what the Creator give us he named all these food for us and these Foods right here sacrifice themselves for us the fish has sacrificed no M no matter what what you think that that salmon was meant for that boy on that day and that hour that very moment they came together and and they met that day was set aside for that young boy this day was set aside for this young girl to get this root and it's it's really I'm trying to do the best I can to explain you know about the ceremonial Foods so that is the process of the first salmon the first deer the first root and the first Berry uh that happens other ceremonies that we do have some uh and like when life comes into the world we're all happy when somebody leaves the Walk of Life with us we're all sad I'm getting into another ceremony but but everything is so much tied together you know you can't just go along and talk about something and everything leads to a something else like our ceremonies we have song we have language we have names for all of these and this is the food that traditionally and ceremonial that we set out on table whether you go to a medicine dance or you go to a root feast or salmon Feast these foods are set in order and when one of us leave this Walk of Life these foods are going to sit in order we it's it's our responsibility and our duty that the Creator give us that we have to eat these Foods those of us who are left behind have to eat these foods that go along with it minus the berries I we ate our berries up and most of important the water sits right here in this respected order water salmon deer first root that shows himself is is The Bitter Root taton this is what we call it this is a bit root this is here is cow this is cow uh ground up and this is our ceremony tea this is a ISU this is Mountain tea that we get up in the mountains and there's a different you can find at least four other different teas along the river and along the creeks and sometimes you can only find them over on the Salmon River breaks or high up in the Montana they just have their own place where they grow and that's why we were migrating people when the salmon were first coming we would come down to the lowlands and move down to the Columbia River some of us would go travel down the snake and the Columbia River and received that first salmon and there's different kinds of salmon you all know there's many different kinds of salmon this one here is a spring salmon that was caught about a month and a half ago down in the Columbia River we we go down each year we do our Harvest down here and bring it back summer salmon is on the way now the the blue back is on the move the eels are on the way no more steel head steel head are pretty much yearr round fish uh uh year round food for a people because they're always here once they're only gone for a little while and the suckers that come they only come in the spring they're seagoing suckers we call mukat and then there's the residents that live here then we have the trout that return all the different species that live in the water and the hu the eels at one time uh the eels were so plentiful here back in the early days that the town of aan is named after after the eel has once again the non-indian the white settlers who come you come in they couldn't say hutin hutin mean a place where there's lots of eels they couldn't say that they said oh well anybody know any shortcuts yeah let's say a San okay it sounds good to me so you see a suan on the map of Washington today but that's where that name derived from hutin because there's so much eels up there but all these things are coming back to us and and and we pray for these things and we hold ceremonies we hold ceremonies in in our long houses or in our homes we practice we sing these songs that are sacred to us and uh we pray for the comeback of the salmon we pray for the uh the roots to come back we pray for the berries to come back and we pray for our travels that that the Creator is going to open a road so we can get to these places and get them so after the salmon come these roots here the deer are pretty much all year round but this this is the first root right here this is Theon Bitter Root and it's the first one who shows shows up next one here is the cow these are all all little ones right here because uh the family the wife and girls they they pick all the big ones sometimes you get some real big big ones about that big you know these are number ones just like potatoes you know you selective these are number ones you get the number ones and you put them in the grinder and you grind them up or however you want to grind them and this is this is what it comes out to and you and you make mush CE call it soup or mush CE that you make this and a lot of the elders they like to eat that this stuff right every one of these can be ground up when this is cooked The Bitter Root when it is cooked it be becomes it looks real small right now but once it Cooks It expands and it gets real long and and you ever tasted it you'll know why they call it bitteroot it has its own color it has its own flavor this one has its own color the cows has its own color the only thing I don't have is is the Chas Chas that it's the bulb the berries and the CH is missing here but this is our our ceremonial foods that we still Feast on on today and The Story Goes you know that we we talk I'm going to explain a little bit about these Foods about the songs that we have that our laws that came down to us from the Creator in threes three three three for one set of Law and in our long houses we have nine drummers depending on where you go this is the way we do it in my my home we'll take nine drums made out of deer hiide and we'll sing nine songs because from the first time or from the first salmon when he comes you can almost get a calendar in time it N9 weeks later this one's going to show up it's going to show his face she's going to be here only for a little while and then they're going to go back into hiding in the ground that's exactly what they do they they're up on the ground for a short time if you don't get out there to get them they go back into the ground and and if if you'd have to really be there and to understand what I'm talking about because that's what they exactly do they do Wilt and they do Decay but the root itself goes back into the ground all of them from the first time that this one shows up now this one shows up in probably uh um April 9 weeks later we have another one from that time once again minus my huckleberries 9 weeks later the huckleberries are ready for Harvest you have one set of laws three another set of laws three and one more set of laws for a total of three sets three you have nine we have nine drums we sing nine songs oh I forgot by the way we're carried in the womb of our mothers for nine months nine moons does that make any sense to anybody this is what oral history has shown myself and I'm explaining best way I can other other tribes you go to the umum matella you go to the cville you go to other long house different bands here the nesters the Neu we practice with seven drums for each day of the week but this is the best way that was explained to me that I know how because and this is the way I choose to to do our ceremonies with nine songs one song for each Moon and so and in them songs we have words that are interpreted to the three words three laws the three foods s and no water you sing them songs and we pass them songs on down to our children and they you'll be amazed how much they pick it up and I'm I'm very limited on like a lot of our tribes tribal members very limited on speaking our language uh cuz way back in the early days when I was a young boy not early days I'm still a young kid but you know I I always watch a lot of TV a lot of westerns I always wanted to be the good guy I wanted to be the cowboy I wanted to be on The Winning Side you know like John Wayne or the Virginia you know Chuck Connors and the high chaperel all them guys and them good old shows Bonanza I wanted to be the hero and I wanted to get rid of them Indians me so my little brothers had to be Indians while I was a cowboy my cousins little brothers had to be the Indians and and we were on the winning side you know because that's where we started learning about competition and so some of our language was was lost a lot of our tribal members we know we're we're we're not fluent speakers we can understand I can understand pretty good when I hear a conversation because I grew up that way hearing these Foods being talked about my grandmother and my grandfather uh in in the sweat lodges and stuff I used that's all they would speak is is is our native tongue and I learned a lot and I I was able to understand it and during my time I was in our family I was the only boy that was at age the rest of them were four or five years younger than me which were they weren't able to go into the sweat lodge yet with the elders and uh they they taught us a lot of the language and the ceremonies that we do so one of the ceremonies when you speak of fishing 1973 our family was probably the last one to float to clear water in a in a homemade boat that my uncle and my my two uncles Timothy wheeler uh Charles Hayes Pete Hayes and my dad they made this boat and they had the idea well let's go and build this in this community center there so they got this boat they start bringing the lumber in in the in the community center and they built this boat it was a green boat it was about 14t long it was all done they looked at the door how are we going to get this out of here anyway they they through different ways they turned it and they turned it and they finally got the boat out of there but in 1973 I was probably 15 14 years old and uh I floated down the river with my grandpa my Uncle Pete Tim wheeler and my dad we floated down the river sideways on a canoe just like this flow sideways on that boat that they built and they built a um torch Grandpa was a welder so he got this long metal rod built a basket on there so so deep and it was filled with pitch put Pitch inside that basket and you had one person I was one of them guy in the back holding that basket down while the other guy was holding it up front and on each side there's a man who had a spear we're looking for steel at nighttime and that pitch would light up water you could get we we've tried to be commercial and do flashlights but you get such a glare off there that that we just couldn't see the fish or catch the fish and so the time that's when that boat was retired I was a young boy and that's the last time that I recall that was ever floated down the Clear Water uh catching steel head in the winter time water is low you float down and you spear the steel head and during that time my my grandfather he wanted to stop at the store before we went down down ready to float down and so we stopped at the store and he had a couple drinks my Uncle Tim he went and speared the steel head and that thing was just kicking around like that and everybody got excited bring him in he had a three three-prong spear on a on a long Pole them Spears were set up to once they hit a hook it would come and hang dangle down and that that steel had to be on there and he was kicking around and Tim was getting all excited my Uncle Pete was getting excited my dad and I was holding the pole down and my grandpa was the Elder he was probably like 73 years old at that time 72 773 he was born in 1900 them them drinks few drinks that he had he started reaching for that fish get in there sit there tell him him to get back there he went he fell in the river and in the winter time there and all he was worried about was his cowboy hat but he got his cowboy hat and and we got the the steel head so that's um how we do our fishing our prepare our Foods we do we prepare ourselves go through a lot of sweat we go to the sweat lodge we we fast even to this day uh a lot of us we don't fast but I I make it a point in my family my children that because I had to do it and I made the joke up there in CI on Saturday that we fasted and we sweat for our food before we go hunting and fishing and we don't nobody eats we'll take a lunch but we don't eat we'll save that meal until we get a deer we'll save that meal until we get a fish because we come out of the sweat house and and we we're we wear some good nice clean clothes and we go out that we don't have a body odor the rituals that we do to cleanse ourselves the purity of it old ways of the way our people did it way back in the early 1700s 1800s U we try still try to practice that today and this is what we do and I made the joke in CI that the process that it takes to to fast and to pray and to go through the sweat Lots we wouldn't have got that deer if I if I would have done all that I wouldn't have been able to run that deer down but that that goes along you know with the stories and everything about our ceremonial foods and the deer the deer provided that was the laws that was laid out for the deer that we decorate ourselves with um the body that we make buck skin clothes that we use the deer toes and do claws for rattles uh ornaments that we use utensils we use the antlers for uh we look for the SP uh two points we get the two points we'll use them in our sweat lodge to handle the Rocks everything was used out of the deer everything was used out of the fish from the backbone and believe it or not my my children when they're all growing up we'd have fresh salmon we'd bring home my boys would be there I get the eyes they would eat the eyes the elders we we we eat the head we eat the tail we eat the fins uh uh the the belly part that's the best part we know all the good parts of a salmon this is our ceremonial food and the deer is the same way the heart and the liver and even when you open up a deer when you're when you're dressing out the deer you you see a a layer a layer that looks like a cobweb over the over the belly some of you Hunters may have seen that before we pick that when we when we open the deer we'll take that piece out very carefully not to get no blood on it of course we try to bleed our deer we'll take that out and it'll just hang like a wet rag but once you get it and you open it up and you put it on a tree tree limb or something and by the time you're dressing that deer you grab that that fat it's what it is it's fat you grab that fat and you take it home that also has a name you pick it up you take it home and the women folk grandma and my grandmother and my mother and my wife and now my girls they bake the bread and they they take pieces of that and they put it over the over the bread and that's their own butter that's how we prepare our Foods that's our ceremonial food so we use part of that intestine that that one that looks like a cobweb and we'll take it out and we'll dry because that has its own lard in it so everything of the deer is very useful and I told this in CI that about the about the peace no Louis and Clark came to met our people and and they come and hey peace peace we come in peace peace and our people looked at him he do well looks what does he want peace peace and so somebody sent one of the individuals over to the camp to go to go get some thread some senu that come off the deer on the backstrap the senu on the backstrap that our people dried up and we tore it into small pieces and that's how we sold our shirts and sold the moxin the senu and that's what thread means in our language peace so they went and got him and they went and got him some thread leis and Lewis and Clark looked at him what did that I don't know just take it I don't know what happened but that that's that's what the history tells us you know so the deer meat is the whole thing is consumed the marrow inside the bones uh for the elders and the old people you get the bones you get the leg bones off deer in the modern days you know we get us packs on we'll cut into it and U the meat that's we'll bone all the meat off there and once the all the meat's off we start preparing it to make jerky like this right here this is fresh jerky right here and and once again the ceremonial we're told that once the the a certain plant BL starts to bloom that that means that those buck deers are good they're good to harvest so we're we're following our laws the best we know how because some of these certain uh flowers and and trees have started to bloom and they're starting to flower so we know it's time it's okay for us to go get a buck and we still know that the that the female the do they're carrying little ones so you know we don't mess with the do we just strictly hunt for the bucks these are our ceremonial Foods now nowadays when you have ceremonies you know we might say well cere well we got it's time to eat because a meal goes with everything whether you're at a what you call a PO you call it the war dancing the uh ceremony celebration we'll go to them celebrations well it's time to eat some of these groups they'll call everybody eat time everybody come eat some people during the power they'll go to their favorite stand and and they they'll have their own ceremony they'll have Indian taco or a hamburger that's their ceremony but back in the old days we didn't have McDonald's or Burger King Dairy Queen or anything like that uh we all we had is these Foods right here and this is today we still practice that way and we try to eat all these Foods here all these foods that we have in our homes right now by the end of the year come fall time we're going to have at least six more of these lined up like this all in order these Foods along with tea because end of summer there's another tea that grows in the CCS that we're going to have and we'll get Harvest them when they're ready they're not ready yet this one's not ready yet either these here already came and gone and some of the Delicacies that we have are the are the eels as I was explaining that the eels used to be uh plentiful around here U people like um like my father's age and maybe a little bit younger you know they used to go when they used to have that Washington water power Dam over here by PFI they used to have find the eels sticking on the on the concrete walls so they'd go down down there and they they pick these eels off the walls and you see these Lampe and they they don't look too good just like the sucker fish they don't look too good they don't look like they're healthy but once you get it and and depending on how you prepare it it's probably the best meal you ever had if you could eat caviar if you can eat sushi you can eat eels if you can eat all these things if if if you can eat ve you can eat deer tongue you can eat deer heart you can eat deer liver and I oh I kind of got off track but once you I'll get back to the deer now that I mentioned it is that once you get that bone marrow you cut that bone and inside inside that bone after you boil up the meat a lot of our elders and and our adults will go in there and they'll dig that get that marrow out of there they'll pick up that bone you cut a bone like that like stew meat and you get it like that and you just kind of it softens up in there once you do you a lot of us we just get that bone it's really good for you but it's not good for children I'm not going to go into that but there are certain foods that that our people that we we don't eat we don't eat raw fish we don't eat sushi everything has to be prepared for us no matter no matter what you can't eat this food raw you'll get sick you can't eat this one raw you'll get sick like anything time you have to cure it you have to cure your deer meat you have to cure your fish you have to let the heat get out of your deer even though you the the cold gets into the the fish you have to let your fish hang and you you turn it a certain way so you can make make some good jerky looking dried fish like this or smoked fish that it's all going to stay intact and you can fix it up any way you want and we still have these ceremonial Foods we have a lot of Ceremonies different things we have first deer first fish first root we have medicine dance we have pows you know have we have marriages traditional marriages and traditional trades if you're a hunter on from the man's side the Man's family will bring deer meat and fish and give to the other side of the family the women's side of the family will get the roots and the berries and the bead work and they'll give it to this side of the man's side of the family over here that's called the Indian wedding the Indian trade that's what all these foods are for too so I was told that I have a little bit of time left um somebody give me the finger back there so uh if if we do have time for questions I I'd be happy to answer questions and I I hope you enjoyed what little I had to share I could probably spend you know my even even my 20 27 year-old son he doesn't understand all this and and we started teaching all these things to him when he was infant you know because when they start the teeth we always had the the deer jerky and they chew on the jerky because that helped the teeth grow and I tell my sister-in-laws and my sisters well when your baby starts teething I'm going to cut that get that cut that throat out of that deer and clean it boil it and clean it up because that's what our people used to use the throat for like a teething like a teething ring for infants so everything is used and uh I enjoyed you as audience and uh if you have questions questions I'd be happy to answer them thank you we do have time for just a few questions so we'll start right here yeah I was going to ask you about that about The Bitter Root you say it's bitter uh after you cook it it's bitter you you you obviously don't eat it by itself it just goes along with other food then huh uh a lot of us we like it just plain we like it just plain or we mix it up with the salmon you can mix mix it with the salmon or some people put sugar on it and nowadays A lot of people they they get the the chemist and some of these other foods and they'll put sugar on it and we oh you like a little bit of root with your sugar huh yeah but you can mix it up it's prepared a lot of different ways some other questions no oh right here's one did you eat wild mushrooms in the forest yes ceremonial uh we call it hippo mushrooms we do eat a lot of mushrooms and and they only show themselves for a short period and that's usually in the spring and the fall and we get them off the out in the forest did you uh you mentioned the number nine and uh uh I know that the number of tribal Executives is uh nine um is there a relationship between the religious aspect you talked about and the political I think that just coincidence because at at one time the way I understand that the the tribal council was set up you know each there was going to be a representative from each church that was on the reservation now those Representatives come from those churches and also they had two traditional members who consisted the the of the of the nine that's how we got the nine members but either either where you go you might you might go to the assin band or the WWA band The White Bird band or the clear KK band The depending on where you go even with our language the language varies and just like the other tribes of the yella Confederacy and the yakam the dialect is going to be a little bit different you know they might you might say something and I might say You Know M or something simple like that and somebody else will say it a little bit differ you know like they say tit you know teeth that's that's a joke we have too you know um we we tell our tell our kids and every oh you sure have white tits and and tit is teeth tits you know that we talk about what teeth so there's a lot of things that us modern day people do and that's one thing about our language you know we never had no no cuss words we didn't have no dirty words uh four-letter words like we do in a modern day society and that came along with the laws like these fish right here the deer and everything I'd like if anybody would want to take a chance and try it hasn't been approved by the USDA but anybody would like to try a piece of this fish I can't take it home with me I brought it here uh I ate some on the way down so that's why you see a little bit Fuller in this deer jerky then right here and some of this jerky here anybody's willing to try it you can you can try any of these two right here but these here they these are mine any other questions for Alan all right thank you very much Alan swi junor it was our pleasure to have you here and have you talk about traditional foods thank you very much ladies and gentlemen