Tent of Many Voices: 06250501TMB

the first thing on our program this morning is to open core of Discovery 2 with a prayer and a blessing and a song and Videl and Ruby stump from the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation have come down to do that for us both are cre Indians they are also both members of the bear clan and Ruby and Videl would you please come up and we would ask that you would stand for the prayer blessing and song and ladies have your husbands remove their hats can you hear me good morning everyone good morning I hope you all got up with a good feeling with your families your loved ones your children grandkids we're really happy to be here with you folks Under the Tent of many voices and uh my husband will will give you a a welcome Prayer song to bless all of us this morning bless everyone in the whole wide world and uh after that you'll do a prayer for us to open a great event that we are going to us monten are going to host and we're going to welcome people from all over the world we are going to do we are going to play host as Montana from different counties of Montana thank you he h spee spee foreign speee please be seated I want to thank the stumps for coming here this morning they have been one of the treasures that we have discovered along the Lewis and Clark Trail during the bicentennial and they are almost part of the family here at core of Discovery 2 they do a lot of their lives are about Service uh to their own people and to to young people especially and they're their post-retirement career is about guidance for for young people uh for people who have drug and alcohol problems uh they talk to young families uh help people raise children they're a wonderful asset to the world and to their creep people especially our first Speaker this morning is Doug Monger who is the chief administrator for Montana state parks and that is almost as dry a title as I have as public information officer but I also know Doug as a friend and a friend to Montana so Doug thank you as as administrator of the state park system it's it's my honor to to welcome you here today and as if you wouldn't feel any more welcome without me being here um the welcoming of giant Springs State Park is uh second to none in the Great Falls area I think it's a great pleasure and an honor for state parks to be able to host the The Core 2 and all of the lwis and Clark uh festivities here and we'd like to thank the Explorer the Big Sky for uh thinking of the state park system as you as you uh planned your events here it's a great honor and a pleasure to to have you all here state parks are uh we view ourselves as a as a link and as a bridge between people in their their past people in the cultures uh different cultures as well as as a link and a bridge between people and and the real Montana and we think that in the 50 state parks including giant Spring State Parks you'll find a real piece of the of the real Montana so as you're here in Montana or in the Great Falls area exploring the Big Sky and exploring the Lewis and Clark I'd invite you out to our other our other uh state parks as well om pishkin is just right on the edge of town quick little drive out and and uh all of our facilities this week for you are free in fact all of our state parks are now free for day use because of a a a $4 fee on license plate so welcome to Great Falls welcome to state parks and enjoy yourselves thank you thanks Doug our next speaker is Roger simler and he is the Region 4 Parks manager for the state of Montana and Roger is our host for core of Discovery 2 here in Great Falls and Roger has a few welcome remarks and would like to acknowledge some of the other people people that have helped make cor two here in Great Falls a possibility Roger thank you good morning it's a a real pleasure to be able to host uh Core 2 here at Giant Spring State Park uh it's been uh an effort from a lot of uh Partnerships and folks around the community here and I'd like to acknowledge and thank some of those here uh publicly uh if you look across the Big Field here behind us you'll notice a first aid tent way way over here and that's being staffed for the next 10 days by the benefit healthc Care Professionals and that'll include uh RNs and paramedics so we have good first aid services from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. each day for the next 10 days you might also notice out front here at the entrance we have uh some free bottled water from Source giant Springs and they have graciously offered unlimited quantities of of bottled water uh for the next 10 days for our folks here and we expect it will get hot and so please partake of that uh generous contribution I'd also like to acknowledge the Army National Guard and they've got a neat little camp set up right behind the bushes over here uh and if any of you particularly are veterans please please go over and visit with those folks or even if you're not a vet go visit with those folks and show our respect and honor to our National Guard who is obviously doing a great service as we speak uh lastly I'd like to thank wadell and Reed Financial Services their personnel uh will be Staffing what's known as the welcome desk over here in the exhibit area as volunteers along with National Park Service uh personnel and that's another generous contribution from that organization that we really appreciate I too would like to thank the explor Big Sky signature event Organization for allowing us to serve as the host and lastly I'd like to thank a number of our Region 4 Parks employees who have worked very diligently for many months trying to get this venue set up you might notice if you're a regular here there's a number of new improvements right even behind us here and then this parking lot and such my staff uh has worked very hard to bring this about and I want to thank them myself for that I encourage you all to interact and visit with our Park staff you'll notice we're wearing the yellow barehead patch on our shirts you'll see a number of us around the area both here and across the road at Giant Springs please feel free to visit with us ask us questions and allow us to serve you in any way we can thank you and have a great day thanks Roger Peggy Bourne is our next speaker and Peggy is the director of explore the Big Sky it's to her shoulders that all of the respons responsibilities for putting on the nation's longest signature event and action-packed and there's a lot of other uh descriptions you can use it is the largest undertaking of any Bicentennial signature event in the United States so please welcome Peggy Bourne good afternoon everyone it's my pleasure to be here today um about on June 3rd we welcomed Core 2 to the first part of the signature event in Fort Benton and we experienced torrential downpour and it's nice to be in the tent without competing with the rain sounds and and I'd also like to welcome c 2 back to explore the Big Sky um they were here for the first 10 days of the event and then they um went around to a couple one other place I believe and then they're back and they're going to be back here for the rest of the event and this is truly a wonderful asset to the entire explore the Big Sky event there are a few people out here before I talk a little bit about explore the Big Sky that I'd also like to recognize as Jeff said explore the Big Sky is by far the longest of the signature events in the nation we're the 10th out of of 15 and we're a 34-day event and we did that for a lot of different reasons um mainly so that we had the chance to tell the story of when Louis and Clark were here 200 years ago their time here was filled with a lot of Adventure a lot of decisions illness um and a lot of endurance and strength and we wanted to take that time to tell that story there are a lot of people here in the audience that I'd like to recognize and thank it certainly isn't my undertaking I was privileged to be able to be called the executive director but by certainly there were a lot of people working with me first of all I'd like to thank Jane Weber if you can just raise your hand and she's been instrumental in the planning of the event Chris dantic in the back if you want to raise your hand he's also been very instrumental in the planning Vidal and Ruby stump you you had an opportunity to meet them earlier and I don't see anyone else out there but I'm every time I do this I know I miss somebody so if I miss you I apologize there's one other person I'd like to introduced to you um someone who sits on the National Council for the Louis and Clark Bicentennial and is here visiting from Oregon and Bobby if you could stand up Bobby Connor it's through leadership like hers and the rest of the members of the bicentennial commission and National Bicentennial commission that truly allowed this nation to begin the planning and commemoration of the Louis and Clark expedition thank you so much for all your hard work as uh you've heard we're um we've got a 34-day event going on we have 10 days left and and the the last 10 days we're just going to ramp up for an amazing amount of opportunities and and programs and activities and if you haven't had a chance to experience any boy have you picked a great time to start um not only do we have Core 2 here which we're very blessed to have but on July 3rd we'll also be having a really special uh service if you will uh at at Giant Springs and what we're calling it an inspirational Interfaith service and there a lot of people from around the Great Falls Community come together to plan this um worship service if you will 65 member choir um there will be a smudging ceremony there will be um a lot of special entertainment readings from the journal and it's just an opportunity for us to sit at the Riverside and just celebrate diversity and appreciate who we all are and all the differences that we bring to the table and the fact that that's what makes the world go round we're also in in the next 10 days we'll be hosting an opera a Rita coolage concert um we'll have the Upp reportage reenactment um campsite going we'll have a symposium that is just truly a world Landmark type of an event where we're bringing together a phenomenal amount of tribal leaders from around the nation to talk about the issues that theyve faced in the past the tribes have faced in the past and the present and the future Ruby and vidala been very involved with planning the tribal games the international traditional tribal games and if you get a chance to go B to Montana Expo Park beginning June 29th you'll have an opportunity to see and play if you're interested in some of the traditional games that the tribes have played over the last um several hundred years we'll also be hosting a powow there will be wonderful horse events at Montana Expo Park a tribal Village that I'm told will have anywhere between 20 and 30 lodges there uh we have tours bus tours every day and float trips every day we have speaking opportunities for people to and um some of the local experts and National experts on the on the Lewis and Clark expedition and then finally on July 4th the grand finale of the event we're moving everything to Montana Expo Park and planning a grand celebration of our country's Independence as well as celebrating the second Independence Day that Lewis and Clark and the cor spent on the trail I promise you a high energy pack High pack day full of entertainment Family Fun a lot of food especially if you like uh Buffalo beef Su dumplings and beans and bacon which was the menu that was served 200 years ago but I want to welcome you today and I want to welcome you to explore the Big Sky I want to thank everybody for all your hard work and I want to welcome C to back thanks Peggy um I I recognized somebody in the audience when I started to think about thanking the people that make the bicentennial and make Core 2 possible and that's Clint Blackwood from the Montana Bicentennial commission Clint could you stand up and show everybody your haircut I actually met Clint when I was uh in a previous Life as a newspaper editor and reporter um writing about Lewis and Clark um I have this sickness this Lewis and Clark itis that Dayton Duncan talks about and that's how it came to be that I left newspapers and and came to the world of Lewis and Clark and uh it's okay it's a it's a illness that we can deal with on a daily basis we have a 12-step program to to deal with Lis and clarius and mostly we just have a lot of fun and open our hearts about the huge story I call it an epic about America that Lewis and Clark is our next speaker is uh Great Falls mayor Randy gray and these are one of the the difficult introductions I have to do especially when I'm in the heart of Lewis and Clark Country I have to be careful about what I say about what Lewis and Clark did in this neighborhood I'm responsible for trying to tell the entire story to the news media when I get to town um I'm not even going to dare say anything about Lewis and Clark and and Great Falls Randy has uh been at the head or near the head of city government for the past 10 years he's also a Lewis and clarky I've seen him at the 12 step meetings and uh his uh father-in-law is also a Lewis and clarky and as many people here in the audience are also members of of the Portage route chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation another one of the partners and the and the uh entities that that make Core 2 and this Bicentennial possible so I'm just wondering what Randy is going to talk about as far as Lewis and Clark goes so mayor if you would geez Jeff that's a tough introduction to follow I uh I'd like to talk about my last three days had the opportunity on canoe to float the lower portion of the wild and Scenic Missouri the Missouri breaks National Monument from the mouth of the Judith down to the takeout point at Fred Robinson bridge and in 200 years that country is for those young people in the audience here all of all of you are young people in the audience if you haven't been down there you need to go you need to spend three days in that River kind of slowing down life's pace and and feel what Lewis and Clark might have felt at least going down river now we didn't try pulling portaging pulling our canoes up River I understand that's a lot of work we might try that next year but one of the scenes we saw while we were down there was a swainson's hawk had picked up about a oh whatever that is a 3-foot snake and it was holding on for dear life to that snake cuz it was probably the meal for some some uh young young Hawks and so this this snake swinging underneath that Swank and's Hawk CU it's trying to get elevation and a couple little cowbirds or something were attacking that Swanson's Hawk from the back just bing bing bing like this I don't know what the hawk did to those little guys but they were really after that Hawk and we watched for about 3 or 4 minutes and that Hawk was able to hang on to that snake and yet get away from those little birds and we finally saw it land and kind of you know get a better grip on the Haw so my point of all this is tenaciousness finally wins the day and this partnership that you've heard talked about up here has been a partnership of tenacity we've had the state we've had the US Forest Service we've had the National Park Service very very importantly we've had Native Americans join in this in this partnership and what I would really like to thank thank today as the stumps for being here because what I see going on in this Lewis and Clark by Centennial I was up at the event in Fort Benton I watched the ballet here in Great Falls I heard Earl old person speak at the uh the commemoration that we had at the airport just a couple of days ago where we commemorated a an eagle that senen sponsored for the airport and what I'm seeing and feeling and hearing over and over and over again is finally we're bridging some cultural gaps here we have some appreciation of white culture for Native culture that was here long before we were here so I would like to pay special tribute to the stumps and to this partnership that includes Native Americans that maybe white people finally come to understand their culture and their way of life I also would like to space pay a special thank you to our military members who are in the audience today after all the Louis and Clark Expedition was number one an army Expedition it was a military Expedition it was a mission of engaging in Commerce with the native people that were here a mission of exploration it was a military Expedition and just down the road actually up the road just a ways here for those of you who haven't who aren't from the Great Falls area we are building a Montana Veterans Memorial on the ballpark there's a nice bluff right by the ballpark it's got the best view of Great Falls looks right up the river to uh to the Sun River where it comes out of the Rocky Mountains Sawtooth mountains on on the left and if you stop at that high point it's one of the best views and Great Falls so to all of our military to the stumps to all of you I welcome all of you to this event and I would like to thank the partnership that has come together through great tenacity to make this event happen thanks very much well there's still 20 minutes to go to the next program so that's what you get you get me for 20 minutes or not you know mayor that was a great visual picture that you painted with the hawk and The Snake and it it took me back actually to a grocery shopping expedition with my three sons when they were about four five and six if I looked a little weird when I was sitting up there um and I never thought about perseverance I just I just thought I got to get through this my wife sent me to do this this project I've got to survive you know maybe I won't have to do it again um you know Partnerships is a word that's been used a lot this morning already and you're going to hear it a lot for the next 10 days when you look at Montana Parks employees that are here the Rangers their uniforms you'll find look just like ours and if you I think if you did a poll around here you probably couldn't uh tell the difference um there are a lot of other people that are going to be in uniform as well Master Sergeant Ted rer in the Montana National Guard here uh they are not our new best friends but they are our best friends because they help us bring core to when we get to town they help us get everything out of the truck and get it set up to look like it does today and there are many other Partnerships in fact we're going to miss Ted and the guard because when we get to the Idaho border they're going to leave us but they are simply going to hand us off to another National Guard group and when we leave Idaho we're going to be handed off to the the Washington National Guard and if you look around gentlemen if you wanted to stand for a second the National Guard from Washington has Representatives here and Ted and the group are training them thank you thank you you know this was nothing you know this is something that's going on now that the National Guard has stepped up and this is just one of the things that they do to help the National Park Service and all of our partners set up Core 2 every everywhere we go and to help put things away when we move to the next Community that's another one of those things that have just come out of all the Partnerships and when I started uh in the Lewis and Clark world I came from Private Industry had been there my whole life my first meeting was with something called theou group and it was 40 different federal agencies some private groups and some State groups and they were going to get together and do a Lewis and Clark project and I tell you after that first meeting I didn't know if I wanted to go back you know you talk about oxymoronic statements and you know there are several I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you know things the the the check is in the mail things like that um I went back to the next meeting and through all of this uh people kept a goal in mind and it was really a two-fold goal it was we need to do something to commemorate the Lewis and Clark trip we want to help across state lines and uh as federal agencies we really need to to do something together because we have a common Mission uh even though maybe individual agency missions are the are the are a little different but anyway at the end of this long process it took about 6 months and at the end of that there came out this wonderful map that some of you will see and it's a multi- agency multi-state map that talks about Lewis and Clark that shows you the route and it's part of many travel packages now across the country so at the at the uh at the end of that project um the newest member of the group said well this is great what are we going to do next and there was this kind of this little pause and then laughter and more laughter and then belly laughs from everybody and they said you know we're the federal government and we've done this and this is great let's just count this as a gift and move on but that wasn't it happened all of the federal agencies that I mentioned are still involved in Lewis and Clark they're still involved in the bicentennial you will hear some of their representatives here at Core 2 in the next 10 days and they're going to do programs on everything from Soup To Nuts from the Great Falls to animals vegetables and minerals along the trail and of course we're going to highlight this part of the lwis and Clark Trail so my thanks on behalf of the National Park Service and our director Fran manella and our superintendent Steve Adams from the Lewis and Clark Trail my thanks to all of our partners who are here who've been with us and who we will meet on the road in the future like the Washington guard that's going to be it for our Opening Ceremonies I'm going to turn the program over to Mary Ellen urgle who is one of the Rangers for Core 2 and she will give you a little bit of an update on what we're going to do for the rest of the day and we hope that you will stay for as little time as you can spend or if you can spend all day with us or come back anytime in the next 10 days the price is free and that that price is the same every day there's plenty of parking and please tell your friends and Neighbors about the experience that you had here and spread the word and just enjoy yourself thank you thank you very much and to all of you thank you very much for coming out there are some wonderful things to do we do have our scale model kelbo out here in the back our pl's Indian Tepe over here to the side and if you go out the back of the tent there is a ramp going up there if you would go up that way to visit both of those stations we also have our exhibit tent over here to my right and go through there there is a 35 minute audio tour that you can take through the exhibit tent Bill my counterpart back here in the back has programs for you stop and pick up a program we have wonderful speakers all week long our next speaker will start at 1:00 and that's Bobby Connor from the Yella people will be here to tell their side of the Lewis and Clark Story and there's many many facets so check out our schedule come back for any of our programs that will fit into your schedule as well and thanks again for coming e