Tent of Many Voices: 07030502TMB

well good afternoon everyone and welcome to the tenam many voices I encourage you to come in and have a seat and join us we're just about to get started with our 1:00 program the tenam Min voices is part of the cor Discovery 2 traveling loose and Clark exhibit it's a m agency exhibit with a National Park Service being the lead agency if you spend some time here today if you go out to the keelboat for instance you talk to members of the Army Corps of Engineers if you go out to the Dugout canoe you talk to someone from the Bureau of Reclamation so it's a multi- agency exhibit and it's a multi- partnership exhibit here in the tenam many voices we have a wide variety of presenters that share with us a wide variety of perspectives both on the lwis and Clark expedition itself but also we like to hear from the PE from the descendants of the people that were living there long before Lewis and Clark arrived we'd like to hear from these indigenous or American Indian nations to share their story their perspectives and that's what we have today with our 1:00 program we have we have Howard bogus who is an enrolled member of The Crow Nation he's going to share some of his people's history and culture Howard is a oral historian has been learning his history and culture of his people since he was six years old so we're very privileged to have him here let's give him a warm welcome to the tanam voices so you got me on oh okay all right thank you uh want to thank the National Park Service for allowing me to come here to speak with you and uh talk to you about the history of the people who were here when lisis and Clark came uh one of the things that people don't see in the in the Diaries and and of the Louis and Clark and and stuff like that that there was people here there was culture there was societies there was religion all of that was here and it was all basically the same as the stuff that Lewis and Clark brought here and uh Jesuit priests and uh other religions that brought religion to the crow people afterwards but uh anyway uh I'm an enr enrolled member of the Crow tribe of Indians and uh at the age of 6 years old I was designated by a cow cro Indian Elder my named George Washington Hogan and uh when you go down on the Crow Nation you will find many Washingtons you will find many Lincoln and uh things such as this because at that time the Indian people named almost all of their children after a president or somebody that was very very important so you find them types of names down there but Mr Hogan when he adopted me uh that does not mean that I left my my family and went to live with the Hogan Family whoops my outfit fell off here my uh speaker fell off in the back of my belt but uh anyway uh when uh Mr Hogan when he adopted me um I became a a member of the Hogan family so I had okay so I had two families uh to bring me up and when Mr Hogan uh adopted me he he he he asked my parents if I could be brought up as an oral historian so I've studied oral histories all my life plus the written histories I've put together a library of over 8 around 800 books on the cow Indian people and the other Indian tribes of Montana and in thousands of loose leaf pages I I don't know I I got so much I don't even know what I have anymore but uh anyway when when when he uh asked me to do this then he and in Crow tradition then he designated two people that would be my tutors when I was very young and one of them was one of the people was Robert suar yellow tale who was actually the first American Indian that became a superintendent of a of a tri of a tribe of Indians in the United States and he was one and Mr yellow tale became came back and he became the superintendent of the Crow tribe of Indians uh and the other person who he designated was Robert Summers how who was who was my my mother's older brother so I had a clan uncle and and and and an uncle who were my my teachers and these old these gentlemen would take me out and through the hills and stuff you know and you know I can remember now you know when you in the 40s and 50s men we had we were still driving Model A and old junker cars and stuff such as that you know battle tra around the hills and these guys would take me along and say you know this is what happened here on this hill side this is come and look at this these rocks and this the the rocks that this marks a prayer site or a battle site or or it's a trail marker or something such as this you know and so I've actually spent most all of my life hiking the hills and looking toward uh my friend Mike penfold here goes with me all the time anymore because I have I lost all my peripheral vision so I only have central vision also they don't allow me to drive but old Mike here he takes me all the time and and uh but anyway we go out and we we we uh find the paintings and stuff out here we we visit paintings here that have been carbon dated at 1,000 years old so the you know there was a culture there was you know and that was here a long time uh we we we walked the trails we have a highway system today the Indian people had a highway system one of the main highways is just right out here just west of Great Falls it goes from Alberta Canada to New Mexico and all you do is you follow little piles of rocks all the way um one of the things that's always uh very interesting to me is that the I I believe that the Indian people got along a lot better before the white men came along before they was being pushed into smaller groups uh because at at in in our beliefs no one owns the land the land is there for everybody and the land is there to to take care of everybody uh in our and we and in our structure of Life uh our structure of life is a family is is a family structure because I pray to my my father the sky I pray to my mother the earth I pray to my grandfather the sun I play I prayed to my grandmother the moon these are the things that brought us into this into this life in this earth they're the ones that brought us up they tutored us they taught us they fed us they took care of us so our our really our our way of life and our religion was our family and our Earth our Sky our sun our moon you know it's it's like uh my father this guy he looks over my mother the the Earth he showers with the rain my mother the Earth brings up the green grasses the trees whatever it takes to feed us or to feed the animals that we're that we are going to consume without it our grandfather the son without our grandfather the son this could not happen because we need the sunlight to take care of it but you know we need time to rest so our grandmother the Moon she watches over us while we rest at night so that we can get ready for our new life that begins in the morning because in our cro in in our croad tradition our lives are one day at a time a life is one day at a time and it is for all of us yes we always plan for the future but our life is still only one day at a time and so that's this is how our belief our culture was and this was a belief in a culture that was going on at the time when Lewis and Clark came up through the Missouri River I drew this map right here this map right here this is Mandan right here and uh I drew this map off in Crow Indian oral stories I drew it off of the information that was given by sits in the middle of the land when he signed the 1826 treaty at Mandan with the United States government that was the first treaty that the C Indian people ever signed with United States government so when uh they signed this treaty uh the general he says well sit in the middle of land he says what where where do you live how can I find you if I need to contact you because the 1826 treaty it didn't say I'm going to give you something I'm going to take anything it was a treaty of friendship because the crow were recognized as a nation by the United States government not as a tribe of Indians not as a reservation we were recognized as a nation one of the very few tribes of there was only a eight to 10 tribes in the entire United States that were recognized by United States government as a nation but anyway when uh when we signed this treaty here and he said where do you live well he says my Crow people live under my Lodge we as Crow when we set up our lodge we use four main polls all of the rest of the tribes use three main poles to set up their lodges but Crow used four so we set up one he says my one pole sets at thei River Big River the Missouri River or the Yellowstone the AA runs into it this is up here on this my second pole it's down here and it's what where the it's the Gap Where the Buffalo come through Spearfish South Dakota that's where the second pole was set for the coration the third pole was set way down here in the southwest and uh it's at a place that is called that you can visit today it's the gurgling Waters pooo Papa Waters and it's where the waters are boiling from the ground it's a beautiful place to go to our fourth pole set where the rivers mix the headwaters of the Missouri River where the Jefferson all three of the rivers come together here at the Three Forks and this is our cron Nation sets under our law L because our lodge is round if you noticed the the the reserv the the nation was in a shape of a heart and I couldn't figure it out I I study father desmid quite a little bit and uh father dmid went back to uh St Louis when he got to St Louis they asked him that where have you been where' you come from he says I just came from the heart of the cron Nation we have to remember that father dmid drew a good share of the maps of the American West he was a priest a Jesuit priest but yet he you know he had to have a a way to finance himself because uh the Catholic church was not financing the Catholic church was not financing uh father dmet father dmit was a renegade study him oh he's fun he is fun but uh anyway when when when he got back to St Louis he said he was he had just came from the heart of the crow country when I use the oral stories this country over here this is Plat River Country this water all runs into the Big Horn River this run water all runs into the Yellowstone River this water runs into the from the Missouri into the Missouri here into the Yellowstone and then Yellowstone Park up here yeah Crow Indians at one time Yellowstone Park almost 80% of Yellowstone Park was in The Crow Nation we should have kept that and give them the rest of the reservation but uh no it's it's it's very interesting of the history and the people who went here but one of the things I like I always like to talk about uh the culture uh we had artists and our artists when they made a painting a thousand years ago you can read it today and it tells you a story um that's one of the things I forgot to bring along with me I was going to bring along some photographs of of of some of the paintings and uh there one of the things what I find in the paintings when I see them all the time is that they generally have they generally have the number 13 marked into it there's generally 13 little marks you if there's a whole circle of marks you divide them they'll divide out into because the 13 moons we have 13 full moons in a year the Indian people use that as our calendar the 13 full moons we even had a calendar believe it or not the 13 moons on the Turtles back the next time you see a turtle count the little squares on his back there is 13 that is our calendar that was our calendar yes so you know they was we was doing the same thing as a white man different way uh the other thing that was very interesting it was you know like I say you know the the religion part of it is how how when we prayed when actually when it going to come all when when it all comes down we all prayed to the same person up here when we die I I was buried on the top of the ground because of the fact that if I was buried down under the ground my spirit can't rise and go up and I need to do that and and uh you know it was until 1894 that the United States government passed the law and said I had to have 5 ft of dirt on my face yeah one of the things that uh the non-indian people I don't say I don't I don't use the term of white man very much I don't I I I think it's a derogatory term but I I generally say the non-indian and one of the ter the things that the non-indian people did uh get from the Indian people you go to any the cemeteries you're always buried so you face the east Indian people were always tried buried so that they could fa they they would face the Rising Sun when I set up my Lodge I would set up my Lodge my openings when I set in the back of my Lodge I would sit there in the morning and I could sit in my Lodge and I could had watched the Rising Sun from the back Lodge so East was a very very important part of of of our of our way uh 13 you know like I say everybody thinks 13 is a great a bad number ah not for us it's great no fact is I was in Washington DC a couple of years ago and I was visiting Nick rhof West Virginia and uh when when we were visiting Mr Mr Ray Hall he says uh well you know this might be a bad time for you to have propably to do cuz we was trying he's actually put together a bill to try to uh put protection on uh cultural sites historic sites Across the Nation Indian and not Indian but he's getting a lot of flak over it because I mean it it it protects a lot of land so but anyway when uh when we was talking to Mr Ray Hall he says well this is my 13th term he says this might be a the beginning of my 13th term he says this might be a bad time I says no this is the most wonderful time for us I said because 13 is our is our good number and like I say when you go around the the paintings you will find them always have 13 in some way or another uh in in the paintings uh some of the paintings I mean you you read them uh you get them get them and as you see on my belt buckle here I have lodges beaded into my belt buckle and the lodge is my home my home is very very sacred my home is my church because uh in in American Indian people we don't go build a million dooll building so we got someplace to go on Sunday anytime that I go go out here my feet touch the Earth and I can see the sky I'm in my church I'm in my church and and I go there quite often to do this but uh what a lot of times you I like to talk a little bit about the prayer okay I do a prayer something happened in my life I don't know maybe a death maybe I'm not getting along with people or somebody who got hurt that's very close to me or something like this I go out to do a prayer and when I go out to do my prayer I go Before Sunrise to where I'm going to do my prayer I do a prayer twice a year on top of pompy's pillar and I go up there I have my little place that I can set I can sit there the entire day people don't even know that I'm there but I go Before Sunrise and I don't come come back down off until sunsight at night and when I up there I I pray for what was is is going on happening in my life but I don't sit there and pray the entire day I'm sitting there and I'm thinking what is the bad things has happening in my life what is what is the way that I can can can fix this uh this more it's in our belief is we we need to know who we are within we need to know who we are as long as we know who we are we will do well but the day that we don't that we find that we've lost ourselves and we became you know uh maybe we start drinking maybe we start using drugs maybe we do you know we we start doing things but you got to remember who you are and take care of take care of that that person as long as you always know exactly who you are you will do well but when uh I like to talk a little bit about Lewis and Clark now Lewis and Clark entered Crow country right here right here they traveled up Crow country right through here Crow people people were on the Sun River which is west of Great Falls the two Medicine River Crow people were living up there at that time there was Crow people living on the Milk River which is way up here but Lewis and Clark they entered cro country right here traveled up here and out the other side of cro country down at three fors then they returned Lewis made this entire trip back Clark P just drip down to Yellowstone uh there was one of the groups went down to through the Missouri River here again and uh prior made the journey with the horses across over here on these yellow lines so they traveled about 1,700 miles and never spoke to a crow and a lot of people wonder so why did they travel all these miles right through the middle of the crow people they seen signs of the Indians all the way they never met a crow for one reason one reason only mosquitoes these crows they was smart enough that you get back away from the rivers into the hills the high mountains you get away from the mosquitoes and mosquito time they left they left the River Country this was the time when Lewis and Clark was doing all of their things in Crow country and they stayed on the rivers they stayed down in the mosquitoes they got ate up the croww gone what was very interesting at this point right in here where they made the canoes or they made the canoes they camped there 3 days Lou and Clark did or Clark did in his group within 12 miles of where Clark was camped there was a crow Sundance going on at the very same time there was thousands of Indians there it was on the Clarks Fork River as we know it today but then to the to the crow people the Cheyenne the sue the blackbeat this is the river where we all come to dance this meant all of the tribes of Indians come there to the Clarks Forks River they would do Sund dances and they would hunt they would they would take care of their hides their meat and think and get a year supply of meat and then then they would start venturing back home nees Pur I mean there was many many tribes shonne all of the tribes would come there because the Clarks Fork River we didn't didn't fight on that River when we all came to that River we know that that was a place that you could set down beside your enemy break bread eat hunt together maybe we even got together and we went off and raided somebody's horse P horses see we never stole a horse I want you to know that we never ever stole a horse we captured a horse because to capture a horse was a very honorable thing for a crow yes to capture a horse is a very honorable thing when I be when I when I wanted to become a chief I had to do four things to capture a horse from within an enemy's Camp was one of the things I had to do within the camp that didn't mean that he was running on the hillside out here I stuck into the camp and I cut the the rawad that was holding that horse my friend Mike he's a sue over here Mike's laying in his lodge he's sound asleep but he has that cord tied around his belly cuz he don't want to lose his favorite warhorse I sneak into his camp and I steal his horse see but really in Crow I captured that horse because I did a very honorable Brave thing I took his horse while he was hanging on to the end of the light the cord yes and so when when when we got the when Clark came down the river we uh we didn't get the first nine that was taken further west of the of the Three Forks it was nine that was taken over there and uh the black feet claim them them nine horses that that was taken I want you to I want you to know these guys had Shon and nesp horses Shon got most of their horses a good share of their horses from the NES Pur because the the NES Pur immediately started breeding horses to get a certain type of a horse they wanted a particular horse the apaloo so they started breeding to get the appolo that's what the Appo came from and uh but they were strong horses small horses very very good horses us Crow knew a good horse when we seen one you know and here comes Clark down the Yellowstone River you know he's just rambling along and he's making maps and he's doing all of these good things you know that he's supposed to be doing but us Crow are sitting up on the hillside counting horses and you know and one of the things that in all my years of studying the military might protect their encampment but they would put their horses over here on the hillside three miles away to graze you know so they would just very easy to get to so we would just come down and we would relieve him of these horses and uh where uh according to the Diaries uh Clark left his horses approximately one mile from the camp where he was making the canoes uh we found a site that pretty much fits the entire diary as to where the horses was being kept because it uh says that from that position there it was one mile approximately one mile to the river crossing for the where the Indians who took the horses crossed the Yellowstone River and going south in in down into Crow country and uh so we we pretty much believe that we found the spot pretty much where the horses was being held but uh no they was they was nice horses and you know we was good the first time you know we only took half of them you know and do Gunn it he went on down the river you know and they got down near where Billings is today and that's where they crossed the river with the last 25 head of horses that they was left we'd already get took 24 in a CT and when they crossed the river prior traveled about six 7 hours and he was at a place called fly CRI today uh fly Crick is is is a is is starts from a basin this Basin is large like this 200,000 acres in it but it only has one little dry stream that goes out of it to drain it one of these big old Montana Cloud bursts come along and here was Prior he was camped on this little Dry Creek and all of a sudden I mean he has a Roaring River between him and his horses and so he spends a a few hours trying to get his horse her back together but when he went to bed he was tired and he was sleepy so he really went to sleep and he got up in the morning and when he got up in the morning he just didn't have any more horses uh one of the crow guys wanted to let him know who got the horses so he left a moccasin and uh so we had we we had a pretty good h of her of of horses but now I'm going to tell you a story about these horses uh the crow horses the horses that the crow T took from the Clark they were taken so easily there was no danger of any kind in us taking the horses so in our Crow tradition we could not keep I could not I I'm I'm the person that took the horses I could not keep the horses I had to give them away as gifts so you know really you know Clark he made a lot of pro Indian people very very very happy because I we gave away 50 horses 49 horses in a CO as gifts because in Crow tradition we were not allowed to keep the horses because there was no risk to our life we could only keep a horse for ourself that we risk our life to get but anyway when uh after after that you know then the crow they just took took off and and took the horses and they went kind of into the Southwest Mike and I been working on a trail that goes into Big Horn Canyon National Park called the bad Pass Trail these horses was headed right for the bad Pass Trail bad Pass Trail is a is an area that when you walk you step over this rock and you stumble over the next and you have next step you have a a rock roll under your foot I mean it's a it's a it's a bad Trail but it's a it's a trail that's probably 10,000 years old and uh very very well marked but and it's marked with piles of rock some of the the the the rock piles in badp Pass Trail they are 10 15 ft apart from here to the other end of the camp they may be five or six piles of rock they will be this High probably a ton or two Rock in in this pile but you know what every one of them rocks are every one of them rocks is a prayer as I'm going down the trail I pick up this Stone I carry this rock it becomes part of me my my sweat gets on this rock I carry this rock for a while and I talk to this rock and then when I get to where the places where the prayer where the prayer piles of rocks are I get up to this pile of rocks and I spit on the Rock I put part of me on my saliva I put the rock in the pile when I put the rock in the pile I say thank you grandfather for the good journey behind me give me a good journey forward and I go on the next Indian person that comes along behind me does exactly the same thing I can take you to piles of Rock down in the crow country that is growing yet today because in our belief we cannot go go past these piles of rock and we we have to stop and do prayer say a prayer Sandy and I one time we was going up into the prior mountains and she was driving along and and uh I said stop we need to stop and do the prayer well let's we'll do it on the way way back and I you know I said no you got to do it now Sandy and I went up onto the prior mountains we spent the entire tail on the prior mountains had a wonderful day we was coming back down off of the prior mountains that night we got within 300 ft of that that that that rock pile she blew a right front tire just blew the whole side of it out I didn't stop and say my prayer on the way up and ask for the good journey yes no we we believe in this very very strongly we do it yet today but uh you know that's that's why I like to talk you say tell you a little bit about Le and Clark when they came here I mean we had people who were painting the history on the Rocks the paintings that are on the Rocks today that are a thousand years old uh right now I we've got near 400 located on the Yellowstone River and his tributaries uh when you sat there and you you look at these and I don't come come up here and say okay I'm going to paint on the rock 5 minutes I'm going down the I'm going down the trail no Takes Me Maybe years to choose my spot because I want absolute perfect light at a certain time of the year things such as this I go up here I abrate the wall Till It's Perfectly smooth I take a a black Riverstone almost every abrasive stone that we have found so far is a Black River Stone so they packed this rock a long ways to do their do their paintings but they abrak this wall perfectly smooth and these walls in this one particular spot that has been carbonated 950 to 1,000 years old this Rock today is absolutely perfectly smooth Sandstone they have break this perfectly smooth they would have put a lot of House Painters out of business business if the house painters could figure out how they made the paint because they paint their paintings on the walls the paintings we we think are just something but no that painting is part of me it tells a part of a story it tells it it tells something about my people and uh some of the paintings we one of the paintings that we find it has a circle it has inside of the circle coming to the middle the shape of lodges all the way around in series of 13 there is 13 lodges make to make the circle on the bottom of each Lodge on the outside of the on the outside of the circle there is 13 fringes but the lodge is our home is our church that the lodge means people that's where the people live so that that that that particular painting is very sacred to us because it tells us of of of the people okay there's another one there and that's right beside excuse me but uh there's another painting that's right there beside of it and uh the painting that's right beside there it's got what we call a two-headed water monster on it anytime that we find something that has two heads in the paintings it means one thing I actually it means two things actually good and bad good and evil one one head is for good one head is bad and I'll tell you a little story uh that the time took time about in the late 1800s uh Chief plenty C had been on a raiding party we went down come down in Nebraska and he got some good Sue horses I mean you know our neighbors always had good horses and Crow always needed more cuz to to to to Crow horses were wealth the more horses I had the wealthier I was because I could always trade horses for anything that I wanted but anyway when plny cluz was returning he uh got back to the Big Horn River the Big Horn River was being flooded man he got to the river and oh man we can't get across and we're only a day and a half Journey from home good long day we could probably make it it didn't know what quite to do to do big shoulder blade big shoulder blade was a very tall man uh at that particular time most inro Crow people were 6 feet and more taller very very very big people not fat just tall thin people but anyway big shoulder blade he was a very big man he was riding a very very large horse and he said well I'll go into the river and he says I I'll I I'll find find the way to get across so he went and chose his place for where where he entered the river when immediately when he got into the river big shoulder blade and his horse was caught by the water and it started washing him down so immediately big shoulder blade he starts singing a chant this chant song it is to the good and the the evil of the water monster he's chanting and he's praying that the good the good water monster will get a hold of him and the good water monster will take him to the land the bad water monster will take him into the water this is the belief this painting is on the wall thousand years old that story is a thousand years old uh the other pain painting is there is just of a lodge but the painting that's in the center the ball in the middle of it is green do you know that in the state of Montana there is only five paintings that have green in them one is over here at Hela along the lake the weather the other four are on the Clarks Fork River the other four are all within probably less than 30 feet distance of part now it's it's uh uh and so green is was something that was kind of hard but we we feel that that green was for Earth the mother the grasses cuz the land the Earth turns green so that that that's part of this part of that particular prayer that big shoulder blade was was talk was singing when uh when uh the crow people would travel like I say they would Mark the trails with the markers and they had this highway system you can go out right around I I can go around here just about any place in the country out here and I can can choose a valley a river and I will find a a trail that is marked along that river valley maybe a ridge uh one of the things about the American Indian people was they were never afraid of anything that I can see I was never afraid of anything that I could see but I was afraid of what I couldn't see that was what was bothered me more than anything so when I traveled most of the time I traveled on a High Ridge I Could See For Miles nobody could sneak up on me no that's the way and that's where I we find most all of the trails and we've followed these Trails crossed Wyoming Montana I have a friend who followed the same particular tra in Colorado and New Mexico no it's it's a I can get I can I can go out here probably within one day in this area right here and find the trail right here that takes you to Manan you know why the black feet the crow that's just shown where Nomads we don't stop to plant to grow the Mandan down here in the river they grew the stuff that we want the English the French everybody brought their stuff here the Mandan when they brought it to Mandan all of the tribes come here there is many many trails that come to and down am I getting out of time okay I I I always talk to the last second so you know that's that's one thing I always tell people you know about crow about Crow history we don't we don't have short songs we don't have short prayers we don't have short stories because in our songs they talk about our history in our life our prayers talk about our history in our life our stories talk about our history and our life and as an oral historian I have to tell you in detail as to what's going on this is why I'm talking about something and all of a sudden I'm over here talking about something else because I have to tell you the details because otherwise you're going to get the story messed up you you need you need the details and and and that's how an oral historian is taught I've been taught all my life that when I tell a story I have to tell the details but the Lis and Clark Venture was interesting to the American Indian people uh I call it the beginning of the end it was the beginning of my of the of the American Indian way of life see I I I call you a Native American you are Native Americans I am a crow American Indian Columbus gave me the name of an Indian when he came and I'm proud to be called an Indian I'm always very proud to be called an Indian because I'm very very proud of my Heritage and I've studied my Heritage my entire life I just turned 66 years old two days ago and I've got 60 years of history behind me yeah yeah thank you Howard thank you for sharing your history and your culture and your accumulated years of knowledge with us we appreciate that very much here in the ten many voices there are regular programs every hour on the