Tent of Many Voices: 09240605

ccle of State advisers a group of of people that were very crucial to uh getting these venues set up in all of the different states that Core 2 traveled so Karen seberg is going to represent kosa thank you um I apologize for my voice we could call it stress or laryngitis or I don't know what but uh I'm here anyway first of all I just want to say I'm humbled in the extreme um I'm sitting in front of all of these tribal Representatives these Sovereign Nations and a family that I just really met maybe a week ago Discovery Expedition all of the speakers and all the wonderful people that are here circle of State advisors have been working for about six or seven years to try to make this something exciting and meaning F in the states and I think there's only one other uh State advisor here Keith Peterson will you stand up please from Idaho Keith should be standing up here because he actually was a chair of our group and I wasn't so I feel humbled by that too I think the thing I want to talk about is partnership you've heard about it the whole to the whole night and you're going to hear about it until this is over this is partnership um um watching last weekend in my town Core 2 with the BLM and I didn't know Steve was Reclamation I thought he was the guy that wanted the Bison tongue and he did cook it and I did eat it and it was really pretty good but he told me we needed to get bison tongue because probably it wasn't the season for beaver tail but to see these agencies work together was incredible um working with Kevin and Wanda and um even Dwayne if he's out there we only had one city worker that kind of shook this group up but but I do want to talk about that the communities our communities in all of our states particularly the small communities like ours and even smaller who would never have had the opportunity to hear nations from across the Trail never had the opportunity to hear the speakers that some of you that live in Washington or Oregon or North Dakota or Montana Idaho get to hear all the time the fact that we all were able to hear you and to learn and to understand and then finally that we became part of the family too I just cannot say enough to thank Discovery Expedition all of the federal agencies the Nations and particularly C to family thank you thank you Karen uh Gerard Baker is now the superintendent of Mount Rushmore and I think Gerard has for at least some of us has been uh the spiritual leader for this effort and before I ask him to come up I just want to again express my personal thanks for your leadership and your vision ladies and gentlemen Gerard Baker they put me thank you very much um first thing I want to do is I want to acknowledge uh um a drum that I've been hearing all my life and and with my relatives I still listen to them and they've been to a lot of our events over the past years and that's the Mander singer I want to acknowledge my relatives up here you know this journey for a lot of us have started many different ways uh some of it started reading history books some of it has started sitting in logous listening to the elders a long time ago some of it has started maybe on the trail as you walk on a trail and and discover what they discovered and when when also discover what the American Indians already knew there's a lot of Partners here and and there's a lot of people that we need to thank and I think they've been thanked over and over again this whole time we've been here in St Louis which is a marvelous City and there's a lot of people who in many ways are not with us but in spirit they are some of the ones that start it some of the ones that backed Us in the way of family and I know that they are all here with us this was a Incredible Journey To Remember and it was it was an incredible journey to start another Incredible Journey and what I mean by that is that this took Partnerships first and foremost most as I mentioned when we started this thing years ago that's I'm kind of feeling old now uh not as old as Otis half moon no but you know but and so what what we talked about this for a long long time many different tribes coming together arguing sometimes and but usually and almost always coming out with a sense of responsibility not for us per se but for the future Generations this journey we're on and we're going to continue on as we all said I think we've all thought and have all felt many times around that it's a journey that would open many doors for one thing I've encourage people all the time to many times get off that boat and be in those Villages or be in those Banks when the Lewis and Clark exibition came around that corner now one of the one of the peoples that can help us do that and did help us do that are the tribal people and my heart and my hat and everything I just I I feel so great and so good that I really do believe that this time around it was an American Indian story you know I've been in a park service now for 29 years and I've had many different interesting assignments and I want to brag on these folks in Gray and green I want to brag on these folks in blue that helped us that were partners with us when we first started and continued in our still today I've heard so many compliments from American Indian people along this trail of how good these folks were to them and how they treat them with respect how they played their games and how they lost I think but I think that in itself open doors forever everybody in his place everybody who had who maybe is not here along long his Trail has stories now just like the Lewis and Clark explorers did originally and just like them many many many Indian tribes did after they left the villages and it takes it truly does take a group of people to get along and it truly does take a group of people to argue sometimes to challenge each other but come out shining and I'm not talking about your head either man this there are people that helped us out and we first started with this years ago and I don't have time and and I wish I could mention everybody that helped helped us and I'm talking especially with cor 2 in your early days we have people that are here today they'll recognize and mainly from a lot of things he's done one of the original people that were in the office when I got to Omaha Nebraska as a superintendent and as Mr Dick Williams if I can have that mountain man stand up there are other folks of course that helped us out came out later on but I want to mention particular the from the American Indian liaison because we went through a lot back in those days we went through many many tribes I tried to keep up with Otis Half Moon and I could not do it half of the time he would go around and try to start fights and and I'd have to solve those darn things but Otis is an outstanding individual he's an outstanding human being and he's an outstanding Ranger and he was an outstanding American Indian lay on Otis thank you we have we have many stories about how we would drive around the west coast and and doing work Ernie by the way we were actually driving around and visiting with tribes many many stories about that the other we have in the audience is is a friend that I met on the trail actually and eventually got to hire him a direct descendant of from a from a family that was given clup that's Mr Dick bash and there's one that is not here right now because he's working for me right now and he's working and and as Mr Daryl Martin he's he's the guy you seen that little sports car and I talked to Daryl the other day as I was coming down here and I said darl if there's one thing that you would want to say what would it be and I think it's the same thing that every one of us want to say and will will say I hope and is that is to keep this dream alive this Bicentennial is over but the doors are open to the future I want to say for the first time in the history of this nation and long overdue has we as federal agencies really opened those doors to the American Indian nations to give them a chance to tell their story no matter what it is to tell their story and that's what we talked about and we dreamed about when we first started this tent of many voices but it takes the tribes to keep doing what you're doing and it especially takes the federal agencies and I challenge you from now on no matter where you go to open those doors because it's going to be easy to say well we haven't got the budget it's going to be easy to say we haven't got the Personnel it's going to be easy to say all these different things why we can't do some but those are excuses that that that we can't live with this door is open we are bringing tribes and where they are teaching us about who they are where they've been and where we're going to go to the Future that's a tent to many voices and if you look around this this area today it truly is many many voices in here we have some outstanding managers and Steve Adams that came in and brought all you guys back safe Lewis and Clark we in that whole journey we lost what I heard today three where's Cliff Snider three we lost one blackf the other one lived you said you guys didn't lose anybody I don't think right if you did you're not going to tell us I know that man but again it's such an honor to from from sitting and and and thinking about this long time ago and it's such a great joy to see the American Indian tribes involved first and foremost and again I encourage you to never let this go away I keep saying that I truly truly mean it and as we go along our trail of life now never forget your experiences and always challenge yourself and I know these ladies and gentlemen that are on this trail with this exhibit I believe we're challenged every day we create some great friendships we brought some people in that we knew from long time ago and I one of those guys that I brought in from my early almost childhood was a guy by name of Mr Jeff Olsen and to he was a Pio there he is I knew Jeff when he was a sports writer and I can't hardly talk to him because he's now in the Washington office so as but again folks to conclude I just want to thank you it's it's it's it's really tough to stop talking it really is but I will I promise but keep it going keep the doors is open and my heart and my prayer is go out to the American Indians that are here today because I know you struggled to come on board because what I thought what you thought I believe in many cases is that you weren't going to tell that story we weren't going to allow it as federal agencies for one but I hope we prove to you that we have allowed it and we encourage it because all the stories that we have never forget the past as my grandfathers used to always tell me never forget the past don't let it go because by knowing the past we can do better for the future so again I want to thank everybody for for making a dream come true literally the last thing I want to tell you is I got to give a little boost for my new park I'm at Mt Rushmore and I'll be happy to say that two out of those four now have braids thank you Gerard Gerard was representing the circle of tribal advisers and we wanted to uh share with you something that uh we shared with Amy mosset and Sammy Meadows the other night uh during a different ceremony what uh Gerard is holding it's a piece of the tent of many voices with a picture on the top and a Core 2 pin and we're going to make sure that each Coda representative receives one of these frame pieces of the tent so that hopefully it will keep the tent in your memory uh also we presented uh an arrow head that we we have made that's uh to the circle of tribal advisers for their exemplary support of the core of discovery too and Sammy or Bobby Connor we as a family uh it's good analogy for those of you who know us well um the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial the circle of tribal advisors the circle of State advisors the National Park Service all of the federal agencies we're like a family we fight and then we get up and work together and we put all those things behind us and so tonight it's my privilege to announce some names on the National Council and the circle of tribal advisers and all of our partners would like to present these gifts and I would like to say to you that because these are family gifts these are personal and I'm going to step in front of the camera and say these are personal gifts I was a Fed for 13 years I know the rules these are personal gifts and if for any reason your agency doesn't believe that hang it in your office but these our personal gifts I'd like to first ask Steve Adams and Gerard Baker to step up here and the reason I want to call these two to your attention is we fought to have no censorship of tribal messages but somebody on the other side had to defend that right and that opportunity and these are the two men that made it possible for tribes to speak more than 400 tribal speakers more than 400 representatives of native Sovereign Nations spoke in this tent of many voices over the last three years in nine months those 400 plus tribal Representatives reached hundreds of thousand thousands of people because of core of Discovery 2 thank you I'm going to NE next ask somebody that you probably didn't see on the trail very often to come up here but boy if there was paperwork to find or things to get ironed out Betty Boo saved us many times thank you thank you this next lady we lost somewhere between Albuquerque and Houston I think I'm not sure but she found her way back in her Park Service Unit uniform Pat Jones Thank You Pat this next guy he was uh as as Gerard mentioned he was a sports writer but for those of you who've ever seen when the national Lewis and Clark exhibit traveled to from St Louis to Portland and Denver and Philadelphia we had and as well at the University of Virginia when the bicentennial started there were some fabulous photographs of the Northern Lights of the White Cliffs of Wei Prairie all of those photographs were donated to us by Jeff Olsen this next guy for those of you who know that the National Council voted tribal involvement the number one priority well that wouldn't go very far without money and Dick Williams you helped us make tribal involvement real please come up thank you you're so welcome if any of you are old enough to remember George and Gracie Burns well Gerard would have been nothing without Otis there Otis Halfmoon was there telling Gerard how to pronounce saga's name in many tribal communities where Gerard wanted to insist she was Ida Otis this next guy needs an Arrow Shirt um because most of the time we were looking for him with a problem and he was supposed to solve it for us no matter what town he was in wherever we were bash this is a personal one Diane malakin and Alan Pinkham are presented a Beed bolo personally to Mr bash for those of you who were hosts to Core 2 you know that we must have been as sites evaluated 15 times well the first person who came and evaluated us to see if our parking lots were big enough was this lady and I think she probably is the way that we ended up staying on the calendar but the negotiations for who got Core 2 was Carol MC Bryant's problem from the get-go now I said as a family we fight boy did we fight with this guy but it was worth it everything was better because we got everything worked out Kevin chryler I don't know how we would have done what we did without these people and I'm going to call them up Warren Casper Angela Bates and latata Miller for those of you who don't know