Lemhi Shoshone in the Lewis and Clark journals | Lewis & Clark Research Database

The Lemhi Shoshone: Horse Lords of the Continental Divide

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:05:30 +0000

A Nation Glimpsed Long Before They Were Met

The Lemhi Shoshone — the band of Northern Shoshone inhabiting the headwaters of the Missouri and the valleys west of the Continental Divide — entered the journal record long before the Corps of Discovery actually encountered them. They appear first as an absent people, defined by what had been done to them. On 4 November 1804, at the Mandan villages, Toussaint Charbonneau approached the captains seeking employment, bringing with him a young woman whose biography would tie the expedition’s fate to the Shoshone:

A Mr. Chaubonee interpreter for the Gross Ventre nation came to See us, and informed that he came Down with Several Indians from a Hunting expedition up the river.

Sacagawea, captured as a child by a Hidatsa raiding party and carried east to the Knife River villages, was Lemhi Shoshone. The captains’ decision to retain Charbonneau was driven almost entirely by her presence: the captains expected they would need a Shoshone speaker when they reached the mountains and tried to bargain for horses. The Lemhi, in other words, shaped the personnel decisions of the Corps months before any member of the expedition had laid eyes on them.

Approaching Shoshone Country

By late July 1805 the expedition had ascended the Missouri to its three forks. Here the landscape itself began to speak in Shoshone terms. On 28 July 1805 Lewis recorded Sacagawea’s recognition of the country around her:

Our present camp is precisely on the spot that the Snake Indians were encamped at the time the Minnetares of the Knife river first came in sight of them five years since.

The journal entry establishes several facts about the Lemhi as the expedition understood them. They were called “Snake Indians” in the parlance of the fur trade. They ranged east of the divide as far as the Three Forks for hunting and were vulnerable there to Hidatsa (“Minnetare”) raids out of the Knife River. The five-year-old memory of a violent dispossession framed the Corps’ first sense of Lemhi territoriality: a people who had been pushed westward by better-armed neighbors and who now lived chiefly on the western slope of the Rockies.

The Reunion at Camp Fortunate

The decisive moment in the expedition’s relationship with the Lemhi came on 17 August 1805, when Lewis’s advance party finally brought a Shoshone band into council with Clark’s main party. The negotiations required Sacagawea’s interpretation, and as she was led forward she recognized the chief sitting opposite the captains. The journal records the scene with unusual emotional vividness:

She instantly jumped up, and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket, and weeping profusely.

The chief was Cameahwait, her brother. The captains named the place Camp Fortunate, and the name was deserved: the first Lemhi band the expedition met was led by the brother of their interpreter. Whatever bargaining position the Corps might otherwise have had — a small, ill-supplied party deep in unfamiliar mountains, dependent on people they could not understand — was transformed by a kinship bond that no captain had engineered.

Why the Lemhi Mattered: Horses and Geography

The Lemhi Shoshone occupied a strategic position that the captains had anticipated since the previous winter. They were a horse-owning people on the western edge of the Missouri drainage, with knowledge of the passes leading to navigable waters of the Columbia system. The expedition’s plan to descend to the Pacific depended on acquiring a sufficient herd of horses to cross the Bitterroots, and the Lemhi were the only people positioned to supply them. As the 17 August entry notes:

Cameahwait agreed to provide the horses the expedition needed to cross the Bitterroot Mountains — a transaction that might never have occurred without the personal bond between Sacagawea and her brother.

The journals emphasize the contingency. Without Sacagawea’s recognition of Cameahwait, the Lemhi might still have traded — they had reason to want American goods and American allies against the Hidatsa — but the speed and trust of the transaction owed everything to the family reunion. The horses obtained at Camp Fortunate carried the Corps over Lemhi Pass and through the Lolo Trail.

A People Pressed Between Enemies

The fragments of Lemhi life that surface in the journals consistently emphasize their precarious position. The 28 July entry’s reference to the Hidatsa raid five years earlier is not incidental: it explains why the Lemhi were cautious, why they preferred the western valleys to the buffalo country east of the divide, and why a well-armed American party offered both threat and opportunity. Sacagawea herself was a living testimony to that vulnerability — a Lemhi child carried hundreds of miles east as a captive and married to a French-Canadian trader before her teens.

The captains’ brief glimpses of Lemhi material life — their reliance on salmon and roots in seasons when buffalo could not be safely hunted, their desire for firearms to defend themselves against mounted enemies — sketch a nation living at the geographic and political edge of the Plains horse culture. They had horses in abundance but lacked the guns that made horses militarily decisive.

Limits of the Record

The Lemhi Shoshone appear in only a handful of the entries provided here, and the figure must be drawn cautiously. The three entries available — November 1804, July 1805, and August 1805 — frame the relationship in terms of its origin (Charbonneau’s hiring), its anticipation (the Three Forks), and its climax (Camp Fortunate). They do not, in the sample given, follow the expedition’s extended residence among the Lemhi in late August and early September 1805, when horses were actually purchased and guides recruited; nor do they record the return journey of 1806. The portrait here is therefore a portrait of first encounter, not of the sustained ethnographic observation that the captains undertook elsewhere in the journals.

What the available record does establish, unambiguously, is that the Lemhi Shoshone were not a peripheral nation in the expedition’s story but a central one. They were the people whose absence required Sacagawea’s hiring, whose territory the Corps spent the summer of 1805 searching for, and whose horses made the crossing of the Continental Divide possible. The journal’s most emotionally charged passage — the reunion of Sacagawea with Cameahwait is a Lemhi scene. The blanket-embrace is Biddle’s 1814 staging, not a journal sentence. Lewis called the meeting “really affecting.”

Legacy in the Journals

If the Mandan winter taught the Corps how to survive the Plains, the Lemhi summer taught them how to leave the Missouri behind. The captains’ naming practices register the debt: Camp Fortunate, Lemhi Pass, and the careful preservation in the journals of Cameahwait’s name and Sacagawea’s recognition. For a nation represented in only a few entries of the surviving record, the Lemhi Shoshone are the people from whom the party obtained horses for the mountain crossing.

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North Fork Salmon River, impassable route — John Ordway: September 1, 1805

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:45:30 +0000

and proceeded on up a high mountain at the first put one of the
horses fell backward and roled over, but did not hurt him much,
we proceeded on up and down the high mountains Crossed Sev-
1 On the south bank of Lemhi River, about eight miles above the forks of
Salmon River. Coues.
2 He “fled with great Speed to Some lodges below & informed them that
the Enemies were Coming down, arm’1 with guns &c.” Clark.
3 For the route traversed this day see Wheeler, II, 58, and Coues, II, 575-76.
In leaving the Lemhi River country the main party followed the route already
pursued by Captain Clark down Salmon River to a point eight or ten miles
below the junction of the Lemhi with that Stream, to a stream called by them
Tower Creek, supposed to be modern Boyle’s Creek. They ascended this
Stream about four miles and then set out across the mountains in a general
northwestern direction. Today’s camp was four miles above the mouth of
Tower (or Boyle’s) Creek.
1805] SERGEANT ORDWAY’S JOURNAL 279
eral Creeks the water of which was verry cold, considerable of
pine and cotton timber along each of those branches, and pleanty
of Servis berrys which are verry Sweet and good at this time, in
the afternoon we had several Shower of rain and a little hail, we
descended a mountain1 down into a valley through which runs
a large creek we went on a short distance up the valley and
Camped2 at some old lodges, we giged several Sammon in this
Creek, three men went down to the mouth of the creek and
bought about 25 pounds of dryed Sammon and Sammon rose
with a fiew small articles, our hunters killed a Deer and wounded
2 bear, at dusk we Came 23 miles this day. we find abundance
of wild or choke Cherries which are now ripe in this bottom we
gethered and boiled Some which eat verry well. Several Small
Showers of rain this evening.

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Lemhi Valley, preparing to cross Bitterroots — John Ordway: August 26, 1805

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:45:29 +0000

the Small vessells froze, we set out at Sunrise and proceeded on
with our big coats on and our fingers ackd with the cold, we
passed a nomber of large Springs and I drank at the head Spring
of the Missourie ran South & walked across a ridge only about
one mile and drank at the head Spring of the Columbian River
running west.1 then went up and down a nomber of high hills
passed a nomber of large Springs all makeing west. Saw pitch
pine and balsom fer which grow verry tall on the Spring runs and
Sides of the mountains, but they are mostly covred with Short
grass. Saw considerable of Snow on the mountain near us which
appear but little higher than we are. it lies in heaps and a cold
breeze always comes from these mountains we came in Site of
the valley where the Small river runs, came al^out 8 miles &
halted to dine one of our Indian women was taken Sick rideing
a long and halted a fiew minutes and had hir child with out de-
taining us. we gave the savages a little corn and proceeded on
passed over Several hills and a large Spring run came in Site of
the Indian lodges which were on the little River running west, by
the request of the chief which was with us we fired 2 rounds and
went to their lodges, they had a large one prepared for us in the
center, they have about 30 lodges consisting of men women and
children, they have but little to eat they catch a large kind of
fish in this little Stream, a large Smooth bottoms on this R.
back of the bottoms [are] high hills & mountains. Some pitch
pine on them, we Camped near the lodge among the natives, we
1 Here Ordway crosses, by the Lemhi Puss, the continental divide, passing
from the headwaters of Horse Prairie Creek to a tributary of Lemhi River.
In so doing he crosses the boundary between Montana and Idaho.
1805] SERGEANT ORDWAY’S JOURNAL 275
danced1 a while this evening, they assembled to see us they all
appear verry peaceable and friendly, we came here a little before
night found colter here who had been with Cap* Clark a long
distance down this River.2 he tells us that it is not navigable,
no game and verry mountaineous. Cap* Clark Sent Cap* Lewis a
note and says he will meet us here & determine whither we follow
the River or go across by land to the wtn ocean.

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Lemhi Valley, preparing to cross Bitterroots — John Ordway: August 27, 1805

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:45:29 +0000

men went out a hunting with horses, we hoisted the large flag.
Cap* Lewis gave one to the head chief and one to the next, the
[Indians] hoisted them also. Cap* Lewis settled & paid off the
Indian women who helped us over the divideing mountain, then
began to trade with the natives for horses, our Intrepter bought
one for a red cloak the Indian women are mostly employed gath-
ering and drying seeds & roots for food, they git large quantities
of fine black seed which they grind in to meal between two stones,
they kill but fiew deer but catch considerable quantity of fresh
water Salmon with poles with a Sharpened bone fixed on a pole
for a gig. they Some years go down on the Missourie after buffa-
low and Elk. the country around this place is mountainious and
broken Snow now lying a Short distance to the South of us on
the broken mountains, our hunters all returned towards even-
ing had killed 4 deer and giged 8 or 10 fine fish which we call
salmon, they would weigh 7 or 8 pound each, but differ from
the Salmon caught in the Salt water, but the reason may be there
living so far from the ocean in fresh water Cap* Lewis bought 8
or 9 horses this day. the natives do not wish to part with any
more of their horses without gitting a higher price for them, the
most of those he has bought as yet was for about 3 or 4 dollars
worth of marchandize at the first cost, but we will have to give a
little more to git a fiew more horses, in the evening the natives
had a war dance and danced with their guns those that had any
1 A device of Captain Lewis to keep the natives in good humor until a suffi-
cient number of the much-desired horses could be procured from them.
2 Since their separation at the mouth of Horse Prairie Creek on August 18,
Clark had reconnoitered down Lemhi and Salmon rivers for a distance of fifty
miles. His observations forced him to the regretful conclusion that the party
could not possibly take this route to the ocean. Colter had been sent back
in advance of Clark’s party to apprize Lewis of his discoveries, and to recom-
mend the adoption of a land route concerning which Clark had received informa-
tion from an Indian guide. The abandonment of the river route necessitated
securing a sufficient number of horses to transport the party, and Lewis began
negotiations the following morning for their purchase.
276 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS [Aug. 28
but they had only three or 4 among them, they were verry merry
but did not dance so regular as the Indians on the Missourie.
their women sang with them, but did not dance any they tell us
that Some of their horses will dance but they have not brought
them out yet. they have different kinds of plays and games they
have a game which they play most like playing butten only they
kick singing and do all by motions they risk all the property
they git for their horses or Some of them but it does not trouble
them they appear to be easy & well contented let the world go
as it may.

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John Ordway: August 17, 1805

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:45:28 +0000

been cold this Several nights under 2 blankets or Robes, over us.
a little white frost the air chilley & cold, we took an eairly
breakfast and set out proceeded on a Short distance heared
Some Indians Singing on Shore on L. Side directly came up
Several of the Snake nation a horseback, they told us that
Cap* Lewis and party was at the forks waiting our arival. Cap*
Clark the Intrepter & wife went with them back & forth the
Shore2 to see us come up with the canoes, we hailed the canoes
over a great nomber of Shole places and arived at Cap* Lewis
Camp ab* 10 oClock A. M. a little below the forks,3 their was 20
odd of the Snake nation Indians Camped here which came over
the Mountains with Cap* Lewis they appeared verry friendly
Cap* Lewis informed us that he had been over the dividing ridge
or mountain to the headwaters of the Columbian River & that it is
only about 40 miles from this place, they drank at the head
Spring of the Missourie & went only about a mile and drank at the
head Spring of the Columbian River4 which ran west, they Saw
one Indian comming towards them on horse back a considerable
distance from the band. Cap* Lewis wavered a blanket as a
token of friendship, he lay close on his horse & Spyed 2 of the
party makeing towards him who had been a hunting a little off
the road, the Indian turned his horse and ran him untill he got
to his band & told the news, the next they met was 3 Squaws
digging roots. 2 of them ran off Some distance the other being
1 Fourteen miles by water, 6§ miles by land. The camp was half a mile
above the mouth of Clark Canon Creek.
2 At this point there is evidently an omission of a portion of the thought
intended to be conveyed. Whitehouse wrote as follows: “Capt. Clark our
intrepter & wife went with the natives rode their horses to the forks, they
kept rideing back & forward to see us comeing up with the canoes.”
8 This was the point of junction of Horse Prairie Creek, which the party
was about to ascend, with Beaver Head River. The former is in reality a
tributary of the latter, a fact not clearly appreciated by Lewis and Clark.
They regarded (incorrectly) Horse Prairie Creek as the true source of the Mis-
souri.
4 Lewis had crossed the divide to the Lemhi River, which drains into the
Salmon, and this in turn into the Snake. The Indians had been encountered
in camp on the Lemhi.
268 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS [Aug. 17
old stood hir ground. Cap’ Lewis set down and gave hir Some
Small presents. She then called the other 2 which came up and
piloted them to their Camp which was on a branch of the Colum-
bian River they were on their way over to this Side to hunt &.
C. they had Some Salmon which they caught in the main
River they tell us that their is no timber on the head waters for
canoes, they also tell us that their is no game, but we do not
believe them, they are poor. Cap1 Lewis gave them what
little presents he had with him and they came about 20 odd with
their horses with him across the Mu 2 chiefs among them,
when Cap* Lewis first came near them they appeared frightened
untill he & them with him lay down their arms & made motions
of friendship, when they met the natives took them round the
neck as a great token of friendship, they were uneasy & afraid
that they were taken in when they came to the forks & found that
we were not there as they had mentioned, but when they Saw
us they were glad, and were verry friendly to lend us their horses
to pack meat &. C. we conclude to leave the canoes at this place,
So we unloaded and formed a Camp a little below the forks on a
Smooth prarie on L. S. no timber, we have to cook with Small
willow &. C. high hills on the point between the 2 Rivers, &
around this valley a fiew Scattering pitch pine on them, this
valley Smooth & pleasant, the natives horses appear good and
in tollarable order, but they are verry poor nothing to be seen
among it them but their horses & 2 or 3 guns, but no ammunition,
they are dressed tollarably well in antelope & Mountain Rams
Skins well dressed, a fiew beeds hung in their ears with mussel
Shells & C their hair Short the most of them, we expect they
git their horses from the Spanis[h] and what other little art articles
they have, but they have no knives tommahawks nor no weapons of
war except their bow & arrows, it is only by their ace* 8 day
travel to the South to the Spanish country, our officers Captains
Lewis & Clark told the head chief1 of them that they wanted to by
their horses to take our baggage over the Mountains, the Chief
said they would let us have the use of their horses & promised to
assist us over over as much as lay in their power. So they gave
them out considerable of different kinds of marchandize. gave
the chief a meddel made another chief & gave him a meddle also,
gave the head chief a uniform coat cv. Shirt & arm bands &.C. &C.
‘The Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait, proved’to be the brother of Sacajawea.
Fortunately for the explorers they had fallen in with the very same band from
which Sacajawea had been torn by her captors several years before.
1805] SERGEANT ORDWAY’S JOURNAL 269
Cap* Lewis Shot the airgun, which they thought a great meddieine
& Shewed them a nomber of strange things to them. 4 deer & 2
antelopes killed by the hunters this day. Cap* Lewis tells us
that the game is verry scarse on the mountain he was about 3
days with [out] meat, the natives gave Cap* Lewis ear bobs to
put in ears and an ornament to Spread over his Shoulders, which
was made of white wezels tails & fastened on an otters Skin,
they fixed off all the men in the Same way who were returning
with Cap* Lewis, they take us round the neck and Sweze us in
token of friendship as they have a practice in Stead of Shakeing
hands.1
1 In addition to the embracing the salutation included the touching of cheeks
together. Lewis describes the ceremony, as first experienced by him, on Au-
gust 13, concluding with this hint concerning certain of its drawbacks: “we wer
all carressed and besmeared with their grease and paint till I was heartily tired
of the national hug.”
CHAPTER X
Crossing the Backbone of the Continent,
August 18 — October 6, 1805

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Historic Homecoming. Sacajawea, the Bird Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, finds her Shoshone people on Horse Prairie Creek, Montana

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:46:25 +0000

Jackson’s watercolor depicts the reunion between Sacagawea and her Shoshone relatives at the headwaters of the Missouri in August 1805. In the foreground, mounted Shoshone warriors and women on foot gather around the expedition party near a stream, with Sacagawea positioned as the central figure mediating between the two groups. Lewis, Clark, and members of the Corps of Discovery stand with their packs and rifles to one side, while the Shoshone, some on horseback, approach from the open country beyond. The setting is rendered with low rolling hills and the broad valley typical of the Beaverhead country in southwestern Montana, executed in transparent washes of green, tan, and pale blue.

The scene records the events of August 17, 1805, when the expedition’s advance party, led by Meriwether Lewis, made contact with a Shoshone band on the upper waters of the Beaverhead drainage. When Clark’s main party arrived with Sacagawea serving as interpreter, she recognized the band’s leader, Cameahwait, as her brother—a coincidence that secured the horses and guidance the Corps needed to cross the Bitterroot Mountains. Horse Prairie Creek, where Jackson places the encounter, flows into the Beaverhead near the site historically identified as Camp Fortunate. The episode has long been treated as one of the providential turning points of the expedition.

William Henry Jackson (1843–1942) is better known as the photographer who documented the Hayden Surveys of the 1870s and produced the first photographs of Yellowstone. Late in his very long life he returned to painting, producing a series of small watercolors of frontier and exploration subjects, many commissioned or acquired by railroad and historical interests in the 1930s and early 1940s. This 1940 work belongs to that late watercolor production, made when Jackson was ninety-seven. It is held in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Jackson’s Lewis and Clark watercolors have been reproduced regularly in popular histories of the expedition, contributing to the visual vocabulary through which twentieth-century audiences pictured Sacagawea’s role.

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Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:46:25 +0000

Bierstadt’s Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village shows a cluster of conical hide lodges set on open ground beneath the Wind River Mountains of present-day Wyoming. Small figures move among the tipis and along the bank of the Sweetwater River, with horses scattered through the middle distance. The painter has compressed the encampment into the lower third of the composition, reserving the upper two-thirds for the granite peaks and a luminous, atmospheric sky. Executed in oil on millboard at roughly two feet in height, the panel has the worked-up surface of a finished studio piece rather than a quick field sketch, though Bierstadt drew on plein-air studies for the topography and the quality of mountain light.

The picture dates to 1860, the year after Bierstadt’s first trip west. In 1859 he had accompanied Colonel Frederick W. Lander’s wagon-road survey across the South Pass region, sketching the Wind River Range, the Sweetwater drainage, and the Shoshone bands camped along Lander’s route. He returned to his New York studio with portfolios of drawings, photographs, and Indian artifacts, and through 1860 and 1861 produced a sequence of paintings drawn from this material. Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village belongs to that first western group, predating the large-scale exhibition canvases—The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak (1863) chief among them—that would make his reputation. The Shoshone country it depicts is the same ground Lewis and Clark traversed in August 1805, when Sacagawea’s reunion with her brother Cameahwait at the Lemhi-Shoshone camps secured the horses the expedition needed to cross the Bitterroots.

Bierstadt (1830–1902), Düsseldorf-trained and based in New Bedford and later New York, built his career on western subjects of exactly this kind, balancing ethnographic specificity with Romantic landscape convention. The painting entered the collection of the New York merchant and philanthropist Robert L. Stuart and was given to The New-York Historical Society by his widow, Mary Stuart, as part of the Stuart bequest. It remains in that collection. Within the Lewis and Clark visual tradition, Bierstadt’s Shoshone subjects have long served as the standard imagery of the Wind River country the captains crossed, even though they postdate the expedition by more than half a century.

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Lewis and Clark Reach Shoshone Camp Led by Sacajawea the “Bird Woman”

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:46:24 +0000

Russell’s painting depicts the meeting between the Corps of Discovery and a Shoshone band on August 17, 1805, in the Lemhi River valley of present-day Idaho. Sacagawea stands at center, her arm raised in a gesture of recognition and greeting, dressed in fringed hide with a red trade blanket draped behind her. Lewis and Clark appear at left in their weather-worn expedition coats, while Shoshone men on horseback gather at right against a backdrop of sagebrush flats and the Bitterroot foothills. Russell composes the scene in a wide horizontal format that emphasizes the open Western landscape, using the warm earth palette and loose, atmospheric brushwork typical of his mature oils. Sacagawea is the pivot of the composition—the moment shown is the instant before she recognized the band’s chief, Cameahwait, as her brother, a recognition that secured the horses the expedition needed to cross the Continental Divide.

Russell painted the work in 1918, late in a career devoted almost entirely to Western subjects. By this point he had moved beyond his cowboy genre scenes toward more ambitious historical compositions, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition occupied him repeatedly in his final two decades. The painting belongs to a cluster of Russell works—including the 1905 watercolor of Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia and the 1912 mural Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians for the Montana State Capitol—that established his interpretation of the expedition as a story of Native facilitation rather than conquest. The emphasis on Sacagawea reflected a broader early-twentieth-century rediscovery of her role, which had been amplified by Eva Emery Dye’s 1902 novel The Conquest and the suffrage-era monuments that followed.

Russell, born in Missouri in 1864 and largely self-taught, spent his working life in Montana and drew on decades of firsthand observation of the northern plains, its peoples, and its light. The painting is held by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, assembled by oilman Thomas Gilcrease, whose collection of Russell oils is among the most substantial in any public institution. The work remains one of the most reproduced images in the Lewis and Clark visual tradition, particularly in publications focused on Sacagawea’s role in the expedition.

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Ken Thomas on Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:03 +0000

good afternoon how’s everyone doing today that was pretty wimpy let’s try that one more time for a full house how’s everyone doing today that’s more like it I hope you’re all surviving the heat it is getting a little bit warmer out there isn’t it well we we might find if there’s some extra seats up here in the front row might be a little bit cooler I’m not a politician well welcome to the tent of many voices part of the lisis and Clark traveling exhibit core Discovery 2 200 years to the Future inside this tent we have many presentations if you have not received a um schedule to printed on yellow pieces of paper I come see one of the Rangers or myself and I can grab one of those performances for you today at this hour we have a special guest Ken Thomas Ma and he’ll be talking about sacka Joi and with saying that he wanted to give his own introduction so let’s give him a round of applause and welcome here to the Tent today here you go Ken thank you all right from Jackson Hole Wyoming live on the south border of Grand Teton National Park lived there for 28 years Liv my first 47 years in Grand Rapids Michigan I’ve been a teacher and a school principal for over 50 years I’m still a teacher traveling all over the country doing storytelling and writing workshops and schools for children and adults I’ve written 10 books nine of them historic fiction about Indian children for children help to enjoy one book nonfiction The Amazing Story for this afternoon let’s go back in our imagination 216 years 1789 we have a new constitution George Washington becomes our first president president the very same year thousands of miles to the West in a mountain valley in a place we now call Idaho a tiny baby girl is born Shon Indian mother holding little baby in her hands the first time never dreamed she’ll grow up to be one of America’s most famous women ever known worldwide Indian girl born to a tribe then faced with a life of work and hardship the men were the Warriors and the hunters the women and children did all the rest of the work little girl at age three would get training from her mother the berries to pick the seeds to gather the roots to dig how to cut meat in thin strips hang it over racks in the sun to dry had to help her mother fill baskets with food for winter without it they wouldn’t make it through a mountain winner little girl will be taught how to cut up any size animal and use every valuable part she’d learned how to take the hides of large animals and scrape them clean soften and tan the hides to make clothing and shelter she’d learn how to carry red hot coals from one campfire miles away to the next camp or the new Fire she’d learn how to care for children she would have to learn everything by age 14 that’s when she’d start having her own babies an Indian girl could not wait only plan on 25 30 years of life average any kind of disease or childbirth problems no medical help no one lasted long little girl and her people were being held hostage in the valley where they live afraid to come out on the Prairie and hunt the Buffalo which they had to do afraid because on the Prairie First Trade had begun hundreds of European Trappers came for every fur bearing animal they could get the best price then would come from the beaver pelt stack up the beaver hides by his Camp take him to the Rendevous in the summer and the Trapper Cashes in Indian men catch on fast they know they can go get a stack of these hides and take them to that Old Trapper for the one thing the Indian wants most of all rifle gunpowder and bullets what a h that Prairie Indian was with his rifle he had a special horse he called his Buffalo horse one that he could ride into a stamp heed and HT a buffalo the horse would not spook or shy let him sit there with that rifle and drop any animal usually one shot faster easier and safer than a bow and arrow you know what else he can do with his rifle come out here to the mountains where the Shon only had a bow and arrow shoot the Shoni men steal their horses capture their children and take them to sell them into slavery slavery common most everywhere they especially wanted to capture the girls the girl would bring the best price every Trapper was in the market for at least two Indian girls to be his slaves and his wives the Trapper wasn’t going to do the work the girls will do all his work and he needs two of them one of them’s going to die and have to be replaced and he never wants to be without help that little girl and her people had to come out of the mountains once every summer there was no choice because out on the Prairie where the grasses grew there were 60 million Buffalo grazing like cattle an Indian man drops one Buffalo he has hundreds of pounds of meat for his family he has bones for tools he can melt the hoes down and make glue and boy they wouldn’t make it without the old Buffalo robe you take a look at a buffalo robe fur is soft and curly and comfortable you take a look at an elk his is long and coarse and rough the Buffalo hide three times the thickness of any elk hiide they wrapped it around them and it broke the wind they rolled up and knees at night and slept they took the fur off of a bunch of hides and built sturdy tepes withstand tremendous wind no other hide would do what that old Buffalo hide could do the Buffalo Food clothing and shelter little girl grows up she she’s 11 years old she comes out with her people right through here on the way to the buffalo hunt they’re getting near where the great Missouri River begins we call it Three Forks Montana today there they were attacked by hadu Warriors many Shoni men shot and killed horses stolen this 11-year-old captured and hauled hundreds of miles east to be held until she could bring a good price year she was captured 18800 the year Thomas Jefferson became president is number three of our tiny little country 15 states now in the Atlantic Ocean struggling to keep going and Thomas Jefferson one of the greatest minds of all the founding fathers one of the few who was a college graduate could read and write well was a man of action and a man of vision Jefferson had a dream for our country one day our country would go from that Old Atlantic Ocean across this continent to the Pacific Ocean and be a vast land of many states where there would be peace freedom and democracy greatest experiment ever tried on the face of the Earth wasn’t happening Spain controlled all the south in California British and the Russians were in the Northwest France claimed all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains this was all foreign land out here but Jefferson knew Napoleon was in trouble and needed money to fight England so Jefferson started working on a little real estate deal with Napoleon Jefferson wants to buy all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and tooon wants to sell it and neither Jefferson or Napoleon knows what’s out there no one has ever seen the land a blind deal the Louisiana Purchase almost a million square miles double the size of the country in one deal for $15 million 4 cents an acre anybody want to buy Iowa for 4 cents an acre I’ll take hire Jefferson to be a real estate man he said to his private secretary Mr Lewis we will soon own all the land drained by the Missouri River and that expedition you and I have been planning has to go now we need to know where that River comes from when you’re in the little settlement of St Louis I want you to head up that River find out where the Missouri comes from we have rumors there are mountains out there somewhere you find some mountains get over them and find the best water route onto the Pacific Ocean Mr Lewis you have to make it your president your country counts on you 29y old Maryweather Lewis being asked to go where no man has ever gone he has no idea how far it is how long it’ll take how many men he’ll need tools supplies equipment gunpowder medicine gifts for Indian people it’s a Monumental job and Maryweather Lewis was the man to do it he made long lists of everything he could possibly think of they might need for years even needles needed to sew new clothing because their clothing had wear out president said to him now Merryweather you will be the captain of this Army Expedition I want you to pick a co- Captain one of you men dies or gets killed the other man can continue the leadership we must make it Jefferson building in some leadership insurance so Maryweather Lewis picks his old army buddy 33 year-old redhead freckleface William Clark living in that Kentucky Indiana country William Clark the right man for the job cuz he knew how to pick people for the Expedition William Clark rounded up nine Kentucky back woodsmen good hunters and great shots one was a blacksmith one was a carpenter those two men could make and fix anything out of wood or metal the heart of the Lewis and Clark expedition nine young men from Kentucky now Maryweather Lewis has only one more thing to figure out how will he get tons of tools supplies equipment gunpowder medicine gifts for Indian people all the way to the Pacific Ocean ah he has that all planned going to have a boat built a river boat 55 ft long and 8 ft wide it’s going to be so large if you stood it up on end to be as high as a fivestory building he has it built in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania beginning of the Ohio River all he’s going to do is float her right down the Ohio River there to tip Illinois make a right turn on the Mississippi and head Upstream to St Louis make a left turn on the Missouri and head West he doesn’t even need a map the road has been there for centuries left August 31st 1803 the Keel boat we think going 13 ton Ohio at low water mud flats everywhere they had to practically drag that thing through the mud to Louisville Kentucky it took them a month and a half gets there he picks up William Clark and the nine Kentucky back wisman they get to the tip of Illinois now they can hardly get the K booat up stream on the Mississippi against a 3 mph current they get to that St Louis area take one look at the mighty Missouri coming out of the high plains 6 miles an hour Lewis knows he’ll never make it up that River with 15 or 20 men so he goes into the little settlement of St Louis surrounding area starts recruiting men of the United States Army going to have captains and sergeants and privates he recruits enough men he has almost 50 and he marches them and they stand inspection they take turns on guard Duty Around the Clock 24 hours a day Lewis says men this is military we have discipline or we don’t make it left May 14 1804 out of that St Louis area headed up the old Missouri at high water snow melting in the mountains and plains banks of the river caving in they had to row that keelboat until their backs ACH they walked along the deck with poles pushing off the bottom of the river they had to get out with ropes and pull off the snags and sandb bars they had two 35- ft boats they were rowing Upstream at the big boat more men more tools supplies equipment more boats Captain Lewis wanted to be the mountains by winter ice on the edge of the river last week of October they’re only halfway in what we call North Dakota today average a little more than 10 miles a day of back breaking work they came to the largest permanent Indian settlement on the continent over 4,000 th Indian people living in one place Hada and Mandan tribes Trappers living with them Captain Lewis says men this is it Rivers freezing Friendly Indians we stay here for the winter we’ll start out again the spring and Men we’re going to freeze to death if we don’t have a shelter start splitting those cottonwood trees and build us a fort gave that order the first part of November November 4 up walks Tucan shano French Canadian Living with the Indian people a deer dealer shano wants to make some money he says to the two captains better hire me you start up that River next spring get out on the Prairie and meet some Indian people I’ll help you get along with them I know how to do it I live with Indian people he said see what I have standing over there there’s my woman if I go she goes I don’t go without her she does my work and she’s Shoni and you’re going to get out to the shining mountains and the Indian people in these Villages tell me you are going to hit a a lot of mountains you’ll never get hundreds of pounds of baggage and gunpowder over the mountains without horses and my woman speaks Shon they have hundreds of horses she’ll be a big help captains look that over okay sharbono you’re hired we’ll pay you $500 you get 320 Acres of free land when we get back the woman can go not a woman standing there it’s a 15-year-old girl it’s the 11-year-old who was captured shano won her gambling when she was 14 three times her age what was happening to her then could not happen today she would be protected by our child laws back then she was nothing three strikes against her Indian woman slave going to do what she’s told and never make a sound three months she’ll have her first baby that won’t make any difference she’ll pack the baby with her now president Jefferson’s great Army expedition to the Pacific Ocean takes on a new human feature to be assisted by a teenage girl carrying a tiny baby you check out your history books and see where that’s happened in the United States Army before or since it’s a unique feature of this Expedition next time you hear about the girl we call saaka she’s in the fort February 11 the girl is crying out all day in pain on one of these Buffalo robes she’s trying to deliver her first baby and the men said the pains were terrible and they went on all day she cried out for help there is no help there’s no doctor late afternoon Captain Lewis is worried he’s going to lose the girl and the baby this could be very messy finally one of the men living with the Indians comes up to him and says hey Captain Lewis why don’t you just do what Indian people do to help her they just take the rattle of a rattlesnake and grind it up put it in a little water have her drink it that’ll do it Louis says I have a rattle I going to send back to Jefferson let’s try it they grind up the rattle mix it in some water says the drink this she drinks the rattlesnake juice 10 minutes later Jean Baptist sharo is born beautiful black hair and sparkling brown eyes named after John the Baptist nickname in Shoni pump meaning leader or firstborn and all a men would call a little baby pompy tiniest member of President Jefferson’s Great Expedition to the Pacific Ocean quite a beginning for that youngster’s life and can’t you see Captain Lewis standing there thinking boy I can’t believe what just happened we get back to Virginia we’ll just get a bunch of rattle we’ll grind them up mix them in some water we’ll bottle that stuff up and we’ll sell it out of every drug store in Virginia no OBG YNS needed anymore ladies are laughing louder than you men next time you hear about little pompy he’s an eight-week old bundle his teenage mother straps him on her back sack steps into a boat on April 7 1805 and starts up the Missouri River with 31 men for the Pacific Ocean the teenager will carry the tiny baby almost 5,000 m round trip a year and a half and keep him clean and warm and well fed every day the men will have great respect for the girl and the care she gives the child they learned about her skills right away couple of days on the river and they camped out Saka sees a pile of Driftwood on the ground tracks made by mice she knows what the mice did in that wood pile pulls the wood apart takes out a big pile of wild drw AR choke roots theice put in there for winter food roast them up they’re sweet and delicious and good for you wild onions wild carrots Roots berries stems seeds they said that girl could find food all over the mountains all through the Prairie even in drifted piles they watched her make her own fishing tackle get her own bait take fish out of every Lake and stream provided all the food she needed for herself and her baby and extra for the men they wrote more in their journals about her ability to find food than anything else they wrote about her found out something else about her on May 14th they’re now in what we call eastern Montana going up the river where the Missouri was a mile wide captains walking along the bank looking out at their little flotilla men rowing through 35- ft boats upstream and six canoes they sent the old Keel boat back to St Louis in the spring weren’t going to drag it another mile 6:00 p.m. a Micro Burst of wind hit that River ched up waves three and four feet high every boat and canoe started to go over The Boatman know what to do you get your bow into the wave so you don’t get him broadside and head for Shore every boat and canoe turned except the captain’s main 35-footer didn’t turn shano had the tiller panicked screaming and French to God to save his life Pierre crad a man in the front of the boat picked up a rifle and pointed it at him and said shano you turn this thing or I’ll shoot you he finally made the turn but Lewis on the riverbank looked out in horror all of his valuables washed overboard a bundle like this wrapped in hide had the journals and the maps he and Clark had prepared for the president of United States losing their Irreplaceable documentation over went to Medical bundle they couldn’t get along without over went to tools reading latitude and longitude and making Maps Captain leou said he was ripping off his jacket going to dive in the river and swim 300 yards out there to save his precious items 300 yards of ice cold Missouri he never would have made it he stayed on the river bank and I’m sure he smiled as he sees out on the back of the boat the teenager watching it all happen the journals came first and she reached out and grabbed that bundle and pulled it back on board then she grabbed the medicine and pulled it back and saved it then she grabbed the tools for making the maps and saved them Captain Lewis wrote in his journal later that girl saved all my valuables and he added these words of High Praise on the stricken craft the young woman showed as much fortitude and resolution as any man on the boat good as any man were the marks the president secretary gave her 6 days later Lewis named a river coming from the north sack his River to honor her they knew they were going to come to a waterfall Indian people in the village during the winter told Captain Lewis you’re going to hit a waterfall get your boat down go around a he think she can do that in a day or two they could hear the Great Falls of the Missouri roaring in the distance they weren’t coming to one waterfall they were coming to 15 miles of waterfall deep catara in the river with water going over rock 5 10 15 20 one Falls they measured 87 ft High Captain Lewis described it as the most spectacular feature he had ever seen on earth going to cost him more than a day or two he says to Clark wait here I’m going to go take a look be back in a few days he left June 13 with Saka seriously ill terrible pain in her lower stomach she’s burning with fever pulse is weak no doctor to call but they have Dr Benjamin Russia’s medicine Captain Lewis went to Philadelphia to get medicine from Dr Benjamin Rush for the Expedition primitive Medicine Dr Rush probably says something like this here it is Captain Lewis I got the box right here all the bottles in here labeled so you know what everything is he explains what each thing is he says now Captain Lewis don’t worry nothing in here can hurt anybody try whatever you think might work if it doesn’t work try something else something works pretty good keep giving it to him nothing works cut him and bleed them and expunge the Bad Blood ladies and gentlemen we’re going to give you an IV today to strengthen your blood we’re not going to take it away from you you need it Captain Clark tried all the medicine two days later sagage way is on her back refusing medicine wanting to Die the medicine didn’t work so Clark cut her and bled her and the next day she was worse he cut her and he bled her a second time Captain Lewis said he came back on Sunday June 16th he said what he saw was pitiful the girl lying on the bottom of the boat on her back her body twitching uncontrollably he couldn’t find her pulse knew she was near death he said to Clark if that girl dies what happens to four-month old pompy and how do we get horses we can’t let her die Clark said I tried everything including bleeding and Louis says well I went by a mineral hot spring there’s bubbling hot water coming out of the ground smells like it has suer in it back in Virginia Doctors claim mineral water has healing power let’s try some they get some of that hot water and cool it down Sunday June 16th 3 p.m. he says I could to drink this she drinks some mineral water he says okay drink some more she drinks it he says keep drinking it after drinking large quantities of mineral water all afternoon the miracle happened that night the fever broke less pain in the lower stomach strong pulse strength enough to sit up and hold pompy the first time in days little boy happy to have his mother back modern-day doctors who read the symptoms in the treatment are absolutely sure she was dying of severe dehydration they believe caused by a common lower body veneral infection given to her by sharbono the fever going 104 five and then Clark drains away the blood needed to fight the infection and makes her worse the Journal Record says she was up walking around 2 Days Later the journal also indicates the girl and the baby nearly died four different times serving the United States Army to get around the Great Falls was Agony they had to drag their canoes even bigger than Steve’s out there up a steep Bank canoes made out of trees weighing hundreds of pounds get them up on the bank build wheels and axles out of cottonwood trees put the canoes across the axles load them with hundreds of pounds of baggage and gunpowder and push and pull and drag them for 18 miles none of it left wheels and axles breaking mosquitoes eating them alive prickly pair of cactus puncturing their moccasins and their feet a hail storm hit them on June 29th with ice so big cut the men’s heads open cut their arms they had to dive under the canoes to escape the falling ice that storm caused a flash blood nearly washed Captain Clark sharbono sag way and the baby right out of a ravine into the river and over the 87t falls to their death June 29 not what you would call a good day middle of July one month of back breaking work and swollen feet have paid off they’re around the Great Falls and headed up the Missouri again July 22nd saak Jo looks around realizes where they are let’s Captain Lewis know he’s almost the beginning of the mighty Missouri River she said it’s made by three small rivers coming together in exactly the same place Lewis announced that to his men and he said they began hooping and hollering and dancing with a Sage Brush two two long years of battling the old Missouri River and success is theirs they’re finding the source of the great Missour trouble is when they get there July 25 which river do they take they all three look exactly alike do they take the left one the middle one or the right hand one they’re going to take three days to try and figure this out send men up all three streams to check them out for Miles while they’re doing that s joa says to Captain Lewis I was captured on this River the one you named for President Jefferson it’s my people’s River they took the Jefferson they taken the Gallatin River or the Madison River they would have had to pay $20 to get in the elone national park that’s where they come from and nobody had a golden age pass one week on the Jefferson and all of a sudden it’s made by three small streams right over there by Twin Bridges is now what do they do they’re going to spend three more trying to figure this one out Lewis is going to try the big hole even those know the Middle River is or people’s River and there’s a good horse Ro next to it somehow they ended up on the Middle River surprisingly enough it wasn’t long after that a little more than a day that Sak is pointing at a rock up ahead goes up to the river almost 200 ft high and she said I know that rock I’ve gone by it many times when I was a little girl my people call that rock the beaver’s head because it looks like that animal to my people she said beaver’s head on August 8 and named everything in southwest Montana I tell this story all over about Dylan you go there Beaver beaverhead River beaverhead National Force beaverhead mountain range beaverhead electric beaverhead meets beaverhead Historical Society the phone book is full of beaver heads just beage away a said it on August 8 that’s why you’re beaverhead and then she left Captain Le know that her people are either on this River or at the source he goes to the Setting Sun he find her people and horses Lewis looked at Clark and he said that’s all I need to know we haven’t seen an Indian in a thousand miles dring our canoes over gravel and rock hundreds of pounds of baggage and gunpowder last us more than a year we’re all done right here if we don’t get horses and get them now you said Captain Clark my friend we’re not going to fail he said I’m taking three men I’m going to leave at daylight and I’ll walk a month if I have to but I will find the Indian people with the horses have them come back here we’ll trade goods out of canoes for horses he walked all day August 9 and camped right near Dylan August 10 August 11 August 12 almost 90 miles and he said stop Man Standing on the High Ridge Lewis says men this is the top of the continent the water in the valley we came from close to the Missouri River and the water in that Valley down there goes to the Pacific Ocean this is the top of the continent exactly right Continental Divide border Montana Idaho today lmh high pass a road is up there hope to stand up there and look down and see a river that would take him all the way to the ocean no passable River down there we know which one it is you can’t get down it and what he saw to the West shocked him for hundreds of miles Nothing But The Bitter Root mountains higher mountains seen in his life he’s faing an unbelievable barrier and failure rolled and tossed on the ground that night could hardly sleep next morning Valley and there they were 500 Shoni Indian people over 700 beautiful horses he gave them beads and mirrors and ribbon and an American flag and he said to them if you Indian people come back the river with me we have wonderful things in our canoes we’re going to give you if you just let us choose some of your horses to get over these mountains and he said if you help me father in Washington who loves all of his red children will come out here and Stop The Killing and the kidnapping and the stealing we’re all going to live in a great land and Peace and Freedom as brothers and sisters all you have to do is help me that’s a basic speech Captain Lewis gave to 40 Indian tribes begging for their help for three years the Shon are suspicious they’d come out a month before to hunt Buffalo were attacked by Warriors and many were shot and killed most of these people thought he was going to lead them out there to a trap so of the 500 people only 28 men and three women dare follow him for two days scared to death of an attack came to the old beaverhead up there by Clark Port canoes and the men and in the water sag helping the men pull a canoe over some gravel she climbed out of the river that morning and started walking toward the engine people and suddenly sacka joa broke into a run and out of the crowd came a 15-year-old girl running toward her they met threw their arms around each other jumping up and down laughing and dancing and crying sack let Captain Lewis know he found her people and this was her best friend said they both grew up together and when they were 11 years old were both captured in the same battle sag said I was one gambling by the man who owns me and my friend who escaped and came home alone I read that living in Michigan and I said wait a minute here 11year old girl weighing 60 lb 1,000 miles through wild animals enemy Warriors bad weather Crossing wild rivers going where the Explorers didn’t dare go alone because you can’t kill a grizzly bear with one shot the 11-year-old girl was willing to face death for her Freedom think about that for an American them Americans still face death for freedom I knew I had a great book to write didn’t know the little girls so I gave her a name in Shon this is girl and this is ran little book’s been out 22 years it’s now going across the world it’s in Danish and Dutch and Norwegian and Eskimo dialect for Greenland Bengali for Bangladesh in Korean in Japanese and we think going to be translated into Russian an amazing little 11-year-old girl facing death for Freedom next person her own brother kamate took one look at him and began crying hand to him her head on his shoulder sobbing her brother had no hair on his head one month before i’ cut it all off shony men and women don’t cut their long beautiful black hair they believe their creator in heaven allows their soul to live in their hair only when you’re broken and saddened by death would you cut your soul off and throw it to the ground showing your creator your sorrow we know what he told her that day sister you’re one month too late our family was killed at the bubble they said the girl cried most of that day a couple times tried to do some interpreting would break down when she could speak she did the greatest thing for the country she would ever do she said to her brother these are good men I’m with save my life to my baby stop my owner from beating me help them they’re good men wasn’t speaking just one of the 500 Indian people of the tribe speaking to her brother the chief of the tribe Captain Lewis had the chief sister with him I makers that told me for that to happen that moment in American history was Millions to one like winning the lottery Manifest Destiny and providential horse trading started right away but went slowly Captain Lewis would say something English leish he would translate to French for shano he would translate TOA for S she for kamate would answer to his sister in Shoni she would translate Hada for sharo he would translate engl for leish and leish should translate or in the French for leish and leish should translate into English so in a week they only had 12 horses and they needed 30 and the Shoni children have no buffalo meat to eat they were attacked a month before they’re starving starving children are more important to Indian men than trading horses and the Indian men plan to leave in the middle of the night and go on the hunt Next Day Lewis wakes up no horses he’s in big trouble saak joa knows what’s going to happen she could understand Shon and went right to her owner and said tell Captain Lewis my people are leaving in the middle of night going on the hunt no more horses there’s trouble Caro hears him in the morning and waits all day late afternoon he comes over hey Captain Lewis my woman over there she says her people are leaving in the middle of the night they’re going to go on the hunt Lewis says to shano when you tell you he said this morning and Lewis wrote in his journal that he reprimanded Sho sever something like this shano you knew this this morning and waited all day to tell me don’t you understand that these people have my expedition in their hands without the horses were finished why did wait C down over to kit and said kit did you promise you would trade me the horses I need when I came here did you promise that K said yes and leou says come wait where I come from by what he says and come wa you think the great father in Washington is going to be happy when I tell him you left he’s not going to do anything for your people you’re a good Chief and a good man you will stay and do the promise mark it Down August 25 saki joa did the greatest thing of all saved the day when the horse trading was going to fail and she was the only one that could do it indispensable Lewis called her well we know she uh did the job because the horse trading started right away and it went fast and they soon had 29 didn’t ride him load him with tons of bags and gunpowder give him Toby and his son to lead him through hundreds of miles of the bitteroot mountains over 200 miles up one Ridge and down the next slide rock climbing over dead trees on the low low Ridge in September with snow up to their knees ran out of food started killing young horses and eating horse meat wormy and rancid and smelly they all came out of the mountain scurvy and dissenter open boils Soares all over their arms and legs starving to death and they met the finest Indian people they were ever meet the NES Pur tribe saw the starving people and brought them fish and berries and roots and seeds the NZ Pur tribe helped those men take giant trees 40 and 50 feet long gouge and burn those trees out to make Dugout canoes so the men could Pile in their baggage all the way to the Pacific Ocean the na Pur agreed to take care of all their horses and have them fattened up and ready to go in the spring when they came back now heard 65 horses CU they kept trading for more all along the way Captain Lewis said we have met the findest Indian people of our Expedition the net first tribe they can’t do enough for us strangers middle of October they’re floating that beautiful clear water river you can ride us2 right next to it it’s beautiful it goes into the spectacular Snake River and the Snake River goes into Eastern Washington and hits the great Columbia River border of Oregon and Washington headed for the Pacific Ocean it goes through a deep deep gorge with volcanoes on all sides November 7 Captain Clark shouts ocean and view all the joy made it to the Pacific Ocean November 7 spend three and a half months of misery on the Oregon coast 130 days it rained 118 the clothes rotted on their bodies they hang their elk meet up with no freezing temperatures rancid and smelly in four or five days ate rancid elk and spoil fish washed it down with water filled up their fort with smoke every afternoon to get the fleas out so they could get night sleep all of them were sick when they left March 23 headed home GL had to be rid of the Soggy Oregon coast first week of May back with the npers horses all fattened up and ready to go but that low Ridge came up out the clear water over the mountains not ready snow Banks 30 feet deep they sat there for six weeks watching snow M I come from Jackson Wyoming we have some of the finest snow Banks you have ever seen and all of us locals Every Spring are sitting there in our lawn chairs watching them go it’s really exciting you got to do it sometime while they’re there little pompy is sick 15mon old boy throat up noral size they said he couldn’t swallow anything and could hardly breathe and they feared for his life the man men love him they don’t want him to Die the two Captain take turns holding a little boy in their arms trying all Medicine Dr r two weeks near death and they barely pull pompy through riding the Prairie one day his little face Was Bitten so badly by mosquitoes his eyes were swollen shut not easy for a teenage girl and a tiny baby to serve that expedition thousands of miles when they get back to North Dakota country to leave sakaj there head on to St Louis the two captains agree sack rendered great service to the United States of America they rote it right in their own and they said shano was a man of little Merit they paid him his 500 on the spot he would come to St Louis later and get 320 Acres of fre land anything they gave SAA he’d take it from her as soon as they left they had to keep him from beating her Captain Clark loved bpy and said to P way and sharo let me adopt this beautiful promising little boy I’ll give him a Wonderful Life Education many opportunities parents agreed the adoption as soon as he was old enough to leave his mother Captain Clark’s name is signed in the courthouse of St Louis he became pompy’s father one month after death 22y old mother dying Fort Manuel South Dakota same put fever she had at the great fall left behind a tiny baby girl four-month old is it wrote about her death in the fort wrote these words today the finest and best woman in our Fort died the wife of sharbono finest and best more High marks given her we don’t know what happens the little liette we think she only lived six or eight months but pompy goes on to live a wonderful life he grows up well educated by Captain Clark becomes a hunting guide for weal men from one as a prince from Germany invites them to come to Germany and live in a Royal Palace travel all over Europe for the prince does it for six or seven years he comes back and serves in a Catholic Mission outside of San Diego California he serves as a clerk in a hotel outside of Sacramento he’s a magistrate in the courts of California settling legal issues and he dies at the age of 61 on the way to a gold Russian Montana dying of pneumonia average age of a man then years today we have three wonderful things going for us nutrition hygiene Healthcare us are here lucky to be here and wasn’t pompy fortunate his young mother carried and old Captain Clark fell in love with him and gave him a wonderful opportunity for a great life St Louis was a dead end for Sak nobody wanted to hear about her or the naspers Europeans hated Indian they were killing Indian people Indian people were killing Europeans the tragedy would go on massacres genocide for almost 80 more years not a very nice chapter in the history of our country well we’re in the bicentennial now n started writing about secondy and they just wrote a some wrote dirty filthy pornography Hollywood made an awful movie we exploit I wanted you to know the truth about her so I picked out all the mention and Clark made of her in their two million words over 70 times and analyze it put the maps in so you know exactly what happened to her and the baby book came out of 1997 the same year the United States decided to have a new dollar replaces Susan B Anthony gold color smooth edge new woman I got involved with the coin right away when there are hundreds of women sent this book to secretary of the treasur reuin told all the things that she did in the Expedition and nearly gave her life with her baby serving the Army and we ended up getting s on the dollar coin then aishman wanted to take her off CU he thought she was some obscure Indian girl and we had to fight him in congress with the help of Senator enzy and Senator Doran of North Dakota we had to De beat legisl twice went to the White House where there was a huge out ceremony Indian drummers and Mrs Clinton was the host of after an hour and 15 minutes of celebrating design of the new dollar coin she said I’m going to pull back the curtain to show you the design will’ll be the new dollar coin you’re going to be the first to see it she said to all of us sitting there pulled back the curtain every television camera the ferary network was running she unveiled the beautiful sideway a dollar coin the congressman who didn’t like it that she was going to be on there said nobody would like it was dead wrong came out January 2000 people lined up for blocks to get the first hours 600 million of them disappeared immediately lady in Idaho Falls has 2500 of these stashed away she won’t let loose of them and I’ll tell you why for her it’s greed sa them long enough sell them for a lot more to collectors later pompy 8 weeks old asleep on his mother’s shoulder that’s the only coin in the world with a baby sleeping on his mother’s shoulder this is our only coin where the person on it is looking at you all the rest of profile and look at the Gold tin so nobody’s allowed to use it except the tooth fa ladies and gentlemen Senator eny tells me buying tons of paper and cottoned into linen and running through a printing press making dollar bills that don’t even last a year and a half and it’s costing us 700 million in tax dollars this is the first County ever to declare itself the sagua dollar County your your Commissioners did that way back in 2000 these coins will last 40 or 50 years we used to only use dollar coins in Montana when I first came here in 59 we need to 700 million to help our troops folks we don’t need to be wasteful Americans we could help our troops more if we didn’t waste we didn’t have such a deficit and like there’s no tomorrow so let’s not just put a sticker on our car saying we support the troops let’s do I have enough dollar coins in here to eliminate every dollar bill in the I’m going to go over to that little book store over here and sign books I want everybody who’s got a good conscience to come over with your dollar bills and start using these it would be wonderful if you did make happy I can’t get Congress who elate to dollar bill Canada’s done it Australia New Zealand pound England the Euro they’re all coins no brainer except for Americans White House ceremony was over at 4:30 150 of us go to the treasury Department across the street for a happy hour a ballroom full of goodies and I knew there would be a lot of small talk I didn’t want to do small talk I wanted to say something uplifting about what we did that afternoon so this is what I said3 years ago two captains of the United States Army stood on the banks of the Missouri River looking at a teenage girl in her little saying goodbye to her s gratitude for what s had done for them and the United States America they said their one great regret they couldn’t do anything to show her their appreciation I said today we Americans on the banks of the pomac river in Washington DC and country is doing something wonderful for that girl and her little boy and it’s the right thing to do thank you thank you very much Ken you’re folks all the boys and girls I got all the boys and girls are here I have a special gift for them uh set t one of my books I’ve read aloud word for word and I’m celebrating the continual by giving children a little gift and I they can take me home with them so to speak on cassette tape I’ll be over there by little book and you you come up and you’ll get their facette tape Ken now go over to the bookstore to meet Ken and he’ll be signing books and invited all of you over there right now we have to get ready for our next presentation which is about rattlesnakes by Roger s I’ve said rattlesnakes from the East Coast all you women children will be up in the Raptors by now you all are tough out here in so stick stay tuned for that we we do have to rearrange some of the chairs so in that meantime please go see Ken over there at the small um book store and he’ll be

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Ron Snake: Shoshone Language, Culture, and Lewis & Clark Legacy

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:58 +0000

well good morning everyone and welcome to the tent of many voices the tent of many voices is part of the core of Discovery 2 traveling Lewis and Clark exhibit this is a multi- agency Federal exhibit with the National Park Service being the lead agency and what we do is we travel around the country primarily on the Lewis and Clark Trail and as we set up in these different communities we have this tenin voices where we can bring in a wide variety of presenters to share with us these different voices these different perspectives both on the Lewis and Clark expedition its Legacy but we also like to hear from the descendants of those indigenous Nations those American Indian peoples that have been living had been living where Louis and Clark traveled for thousands of years and that’s what we’re going to do this morning to start off we’re going to hear from Ron snake edmo Ron is a member of the sh shony banic tribe he is a uh veteran of the US Military and a warrior in the traditional sense he is a published author a poet he’s also a linguistic Anthropologist and he’s going to talk share with us some of the language and culture of the shishoni banak people so let’s give him a warm welcome here to the T mini voices thank you n DOA for Hall Knight I am a called snake I’m from Fort Hall that’s my introduction my language uh first off I would like to welcome you to uh this tent of many voices this tent is located in what we call Nua soia Nua means the people that’s what the Shian people call ourselves is the newer but other people call Shon and bionic and all that that stuff but our term for us is Nua soia means the mother earth Soo is the word for the land B is our word for mother and in our traditional ways we believe that the Earth is our mother we’re the same color we come from the earth we’ve been here forever archaeologists have gone down to the 8,000 foot 8 8,000 year level in their digs and it’s been been straight As shonan for that whole time there so we’ve been here for a long time when I was a child I was adopted out and lived away from my people for quite a few years when I was in my 40s I came back to my people and when I came back into our homeland I felt the spirits of my ancestors now uh we’ve lived our homeland our traditional homelands this is just one small portion of it our homeland stretched from from the Sierra Nevadas to the Black Hills from Canada to Mexico we have the largest homeland of any uh Indian peoples in this country but as you know now we only possess a small portion just a little drop of our homelands and that’s uh one of the things I’ll be talking about so anyway welcome to New hogia now I an anthropologist in other words I study cultures of different people I’m a ling istic Anthropologist so I studied languages how languages work what the meaning is and especially the part I work on is language preservation a people lose a portion of their culture if they lose their language now unfortunately English is the common language that all indigenous peoples in North America speak now some of us speak our own language but that’s not very many and that’s a problem because as our elders die they’re the last fluent speakers of our language when they die that knowledge is gone but we can only uh we can only express certain things in our language that can’t be translated adequately into another language because we translate not just the language but also the culture for example one of my poems is called on beichi beep in shishoni and that me that tells the whole story just the title of the poem itself and what it means is English translation of that title is stranger arrives when I write I always called the American stranger with capital S like John Wayne and his Pilgrim so that’s if you see my writings when I talk about stranger I’m talking about the American so andab beichi wo is a combination of two words a coined word it’s on the beach means people of another tribe and wo is enemy and until things change that’s how I have to describe the American but the second word bedp is a verb and our verbs are very active compared to English verbs and so Bida is the actual verb itself the p is the suffix but that what that p means is uh the Strang came the L and Clark expedition came into our homeland with just a few people but now that small group of people has grown into a large population so now we’re outnumbered by the visitors to our country so that’s I tell the whole story just with the title but in English of course I have to tell the story because there’s nothing there’s no equivalent in English of telling a whole story just one or two words which is unfortunate but English itself is a very complex language because has so many other languages that are a part of it that have been adopted or borrowed so it’s it’s you know even English itself is a complex language okay but what what is main thing is this this idea that we can only say certain things like with a couple words in our language or Express a whole concept but when we try to translate that word into English we have to tell the whole concept behind the whole culture behind it because like when I talk about soia to me she the Earth she’s my mother and when I die I’ll return back to her I’m of her I’m the same color as our mother and but when uh I but when I talk to people of different culture they don’t have that same concept now that concept is kind of coming into the American Viewpoint because of the environmental movement and the environmental movement is finally starting to get the message that we have to protect our mother we have to protect the Earth we have to protect the water that we drink we have to protect the air that we breathe and the closer you get to cities you’re going to find you can’t breathe the air because it’s so polluted uh you can’t drink the water in law places because it’s polluted with chemicals or other things so you know this is a concern for our people because we’re kind of stewards of the land because we’ve been here for thousands and thousands of years but our visitors that come into our lands it’s a concern for them too because they have to breathe the same air that we breathe they have to drink the same water we drink so you know you don’t want to poison your own self that’s essentially what that message is so the visitors that come into our land if they understand who we are are tied to the land then they can appreciate better what they’re seeing and like when you buy a piece of property you have a responsibility to protect that land you can’t just pollute that land you know there’s a responsibility because you’re only here for a short time and then you’re going to walk on to the next World and then somebody else is going to have that piece of property and it would just go in perpetuity but if you poison that land or you destroy that land then pretty soon it’s just Wasteland it’s not good for anything not even a plants will grow on it in some areas so this is things that we ask that everybody else that comes into our country to respect our land because we’ll be here we’re survivors and we’ll be here long after the American goes uh I don’t know what will happen that causes you go but it probably won’t be very good uh and since we live you live amongst us we’ll also be affected by that too so you know even though people pray we some of our people pray that you all disappear uh what would make you disappear will also probably make us disappear so you know it’s a a two-edged sword so to speak now another thing about culture uh the American government has tried to destroy our cultures over the years and even still going on today uh in my lifetime I was born 1945 in my lifetime I saw termination and relocation termination and relocation was a policy set forth in the eyes and how years and what that entailed was to remove all the Indians from the reservations move us to the cities and then take the land to give away to the non-indian people why they would want to take our lands from us what we got left is beyond me cuz they have everything else and another thing that was involved was taking our children from us from our people without benefit of law uh you could go in and just say I want that kid as a souvenir and take that kid that’s what happened to me I was taken by missionaries also uh we weren’t allowed to speak our languages in schools it resulted in severe beatings but we learned English and through the through the whip through that yard stick that those teachers used to have so this is so now for me it’s difficult for me to speak my language because I as an adopti I wasn’t around my people so I didn’t hear our language after I was 8 years old now today my hearing isn’t very well from being in war you know those artillery rounds and stuff like that they kind of ruin your hearing so to speak so now I can’t hear all the sounds when I’m trying to learn my language so I write my language better than I speak it or hear it because I can only speak what I can hear so I will never be fluent speaker because of that which is sad because I can’t pass on a lot of knowledge to my children and my grandchild so that means the elders today the 70 and 80 and 90 and 100 year olds that are still fluent speakers uh I if they talk to me I can’t understand what they’re saying because I I only have one good ear so that knowledge is lost when they die as linguistic Anthropologist one of the things that we’re doing we have a Shon language program at Idaho State University and we’re we developed a writing system we call as anthropologists and linguists call writing system orthographies know that’s a technical term but anyway we created an orthography that’s user friendly that can be used on a computer or if anybody still has them typewriters it was originally developed for typewriters but Technologies rendered those uh obsolete I’ve seen one typewriter in the last 10 years anyway uh our languages have never been written before so as a linguist we have to understand the rules of the language in other words we have to know what verbs know identify the verbs how they work identify the nouns identify the adverbs and adjectives and all that other stuff and then figure out how the sentences are structured and that is a the English and Shoni sentence structure is completely different English you have the subject your verb followed by the object that the verb is acts upon once sh sh we start out with the subject but then we have the verb I mean sorry we have the object and then we have the verb but the verb our verbs have a lot of prefixes and suffixes so you just we rarely use just the root verb itself but we modify that with uh uh the ad the uh prefixes and suffixes for example uh when we uh here is something or there is something uh we have different we have six different words that we use depending on the location of that object from the speaker it’s always from the speaker’s point of view in other words can touch something one uh word if it’s close enough but not close enough to touch then I’d use a different verb or different word location word like in In Crowd here throw there a different word then as far as I can see when I sorry they can’t hear you you’re covering up the transmitter here hold it up a can you can you hear me okay let me move this here not used to this new Fango stuff so anyway we have that distance uh verb or distance word that describes the location from the speaker’s position but in English there’s no you can’t tell where an object is located when you speak about it like I could say I’d have to say like okay on such and such a corner and salmon to give you a location but I don’t know my way around salon so I can’t give an example what’s where so anyway that that’s a a that makes translation difficult so we have to when we translate from shason into English we have to try to convey some of that distance that we’re talking about another word is to go somewhere well our word for go depends on the manner in which you go uh like if you go like I’m from Fort Hall right now that’s where my home is so I came here to Salmon but then I would return back to Fort Hall so I’d use one word for that to for go and so I like if I’m telling some I’m going to go uh somewhere but when I use that that verb to go they’ll know that I’m going to come back in a short time I’m just going to go do my business come right back but if I’m going to come here and then go to Missoula then build or somewhere else and then Yellowstone and then finally come back home then I’d use a different verb for that and you could tell just by that but again when I translate into English I’d have to say well I’m going to go to Sam and then to be and mulu whatever it was and finally back home again in about a month or whatever so that’s you know that’s what makes translation difficult along with the sentence structure itself we also have as far as person uh in English you have a singular and you have plural plural is two or more well in Shon languages we have three uh persons you have the singular then you have dual which is two and that comes inclusive and exclusive if it’s exclusive then say for example I use the Dual form and it’s exclusive then be just you two but not me but if I use the inclusive form then be you and me but he would be excluded then we have plural which is three or more and again you have that uh uh inclusive and exclusive and the inclusive means the speaker itself him or herself so again that that shows you the difference in our languages and so that again that has to be translated you know are we talking two people are we talking 20 people we have have to or three or more people we have to specify that in our translations then again certain things like soia our concept of our of the earth we have to explain the whole concept the whole cultural concept to people that don’t have that same uh Concept in their worldview in other words we have to translate worldview into a different worldview now if you’re a shy person that’s lived in the Shon land on the reservations your whole life and you’ve had very little contact outside of that then it’d be more difficult because in order to be a successful translator you have to translate into another culture but you have to understand that culture to do it so for me I thought it was unfortunate I was adopted but then it turned to be a positive thing because I understand the other culture Plus in my milit I was a Green Beret so I work with indigenous peoples throughout the world and so this learning a new culture uh was a benefit to me when I went to different different countries because working with indigenous people one of the things you have to do is do a cultural study before you go in so you know who they are what their uh belief system is what the uh government in their world is what their system is is there a conflict are we going to overthrow that government are we going to strengthen that government of course you know our government makes that decision but when we go in we do what the our government wants us to do but if you have people go in and they don’t have any idea about culture how important culture is then they might blow the whole mission and unfortunately the United States tends to do that quite a bit uh let’s see now also when I write in my language uh I can transform this is something I’ve been experimenting with in my Poes making Transformations from an Ordinary World to the spiritual world now in our traditional ways the spiritual world is just as valid as this physical world that we have here like we see some of us can see the spirits and hear them others they’re completely blind and deaf to that but I’m I don’t know if I’m fortunate or if I’m cursed but I I see things sometimes I hear things and things come to me so in that way uh some stuff I try to I can try to explain in my writing but others I just can’t do it because there’s no corresponding Concept in the American world but again so uh we live in two cultures you know we live with within our culture which is struggling but we’re also living within your culture but again even though like we have a town called Pocatello next to us but a lot of our people if they do go in town they just go in shop or unfortunately some go to drink but that’s the only contact they have with that culture out there but the people that live in poel 50,000 probably 90% of them have never been to the reservation so they don’t really know who we are either which makes it difficult because that causes problems because since we don’t know them and they don’t know us when we talk about a subject we might be thinking we’re talking about the same subject but we’re not so again uh we have to learn to talk with your culture and you have to learn to talk with ours to get good Communications and without communication you’re going to have hard hardship you’re going to have heartburn and everything else okay and what we’re doing right now in this location is there’s the Lewis and Clark expedition came through in the early 1800s and as they came through they met different Indian peoples and they went to find the Pacific Ocean find a way to there that was just the first of many non-natives to come into our country and there’s a legacy a result of that our the Legacy could have been different but unfortunately it wasn’t it was a more Legacy of Conquest so the Americans came in they took our lands they well basically what they happened they’d be on the Oregon Trail or California Trail and some just got tired and end up setting foot where setting up where they got tired at and then Town started growing then all these people like Fort Hall uh we have 50,000 people come through there in one year and when you think about that that is a big problem because when you have 50,000 people coming through on a On A TRU somewhere they have to eat so the early ones they find game right alongside the roads or the trails but the next group of people that come through they have to go a little bit further away and then pretty soon they have to go miles and miles and pretty soon there might not be anything for them to eat so a lot of these wagon trains the later ones they had lost starvation because there’s nothing to eat and like we were nomad so like we’d come to Fort Hall for the winter time and the lamh high people they’d be up here in the winter time because the rivers don’t freeze so you have water year round and the temperatures are pretty mild here compared to other places around here so we would winter here but then in the summer we’d be elsewhere we’d be out looking for sammon we’d be out hunting we’d be gathering berries C root and everything else that we need to survive the following winter or we be over chasing the Buffalo but when we come back all a sudden there’s a town here now what do we do we’re dispossessed without even knowing it so then we have to find somewhere else to live because if we try to stay here there’ll be conflict because we’re all competing for the same resource but where we used to Camp there’s a town so where we go and so that’s part of the aftermath of the leou Expedition the second aftermath is there is a we faced almost a century and a half of genocide and uh ethnic cleansing and part of was unintentional ethnic cleansing because like what just the example I gave you when we come back here uh there’s somebody else here and they are staying year round so we’re no longer here we have to go somewhere else or will be killed off because you know numbers count so that was the Legacy and then of course then the government wanted to assimilate us turn us into non-indians and so they took all of our young people and sent them to these boarding schools something like in the first 10 years of boarding school something like 20,000 kids died of disease and homesickness CU as soon as the kid went into a boarding school their hair was shaved off all the uh tradition additional clothing were taken away they were put in the uniforms and uh were forced to speak English males were forced to uh become uh laborers uh they try to teach them to farm uh the females were basically made into house servants but if if a a kid had a lot of intelligence unfortunately that intelligence was wasted because they were forced into menial roles so that the cultural uh genocide that was going on and unfortunately the boarding school system just ended in the last 20 years there’s young people today uh your age and younger probably that went to the boarding schools of course the brutality ended in the 80s or in the uh 70s in the 60s the brutality was still there God keep remembering about this and tan here so anyway that’s part of the Legacy but we are survivors too we have survived that uh and our population has risen since the 1920s 1920s was a bad time for us uh but that was good for anthropology because uh at that time uh the main idea was to Sage all the knowledge of the indigenous peoples because they was truly thought that we would become extinct because we’re at our lowest population uh tuberculosis is rampant uh people were starving to death because there was no food and of course right after the 20s came the the Great Depression and of course everybody suffered then not just Indian people but everybody and then you had another Mass migration with the the Dust Bowl occurring at the same time so you know there’s been a uh there’s been major Dynamics have occurred in our continent over the last uh few hundred years major uh pop relation shifts major uh land shifts and everything so and it’s still going on uh you probably all read about all these Californians comeing here to Idaho want to change things around to their way well if you go to California people as far as you can see if you go to the east coast it’s the same way it’s only in between that’s relatively empty but they’re filling up fast but where are they going to all go and they can’t big bu build big cities everywhere in the desert cuz there no water but again people are starting to learn well you you know you going have to start recycling the water because there’s only so much water available especially during a drought like we’ve had a seven-year drought here this is the wetest year we’ve had in seven years but we haven’t had any rain oh couple months now is this going to produce anything well for me I hope not because I have to ride my motorcycle through it but but we need that rain we need the water we we need everything cuzz I if I just read in the paper this morning the reservoirs are almost some of them are only a third full now and we’ve got a winter ahead before those things start filling up again so what’s going to happen you know are we going to run out of water again we don’t know so anyway you know our lives and your lives are all interconnected what about the future well I would like to to see the environmental movement become more educated about the world that they live in because some of them are really radical and they don’t really understand what they’re doing you know putting a spike in a tree to stop somebody from cutting it down is nonproductive uh poisoning animals so there’s no research that’s nonproductive you’re supposed to be trying to save the animals but yet you poison them or you put them let them out of their cages well these animals can’t live on their own because they’ve never known Freedom so you let a a a rat out of its cage well what’s going to happen is going to get eaten up by the first Predator that sees it so you know that’s some things you have to think what about uh things that you know what happens if the animal that you release if you’re one of these Peta people what if this animal is released has a communicable disease you might start a major pandemic so again you know the environmental movement has some crazes in that but those crazy es need to be policed by the environmental movement the environmental movement overall though is a good thing because government tends to be like a bulldozer they want to remove one tree but they destroy the whole Forest to remove one tree so and of course what happens when you do that you’ve destroyed everything that lives within that forest or is affected by it you uh pollute the water because the land that’s water that’s absorbed abbed in the ground now runs off and pollutes the rivers and eventually we have to drink that water so you know it’s important to have an movement what else do I see for the future I see the American people starting to think more like we do in other words being part of the world not being separate I see hopefully more tolerance of people other than yourselves I see hopefully the end to Wars unnecessary Wars some Wars are necessary to protect other people to stop an aggressor those are necessary Wars but like this current war that we’re in I think is totally unnecessary and I I’ve been to war I’ve killed people I’ve had I have people’s blood on my hands I have those nightmares those Ghosts of War will be with me rest my life and the people that decide to go to war should have that same experience because these are our children that we’re sending off to war now our grandchildren by people have never seen combat so it’s easy if you’ve never seen combat to say hey let’s go to war it’s big and glorious and you know we’ll project our power to some helpless people somewhere else well right now there’s close to 2,000 dead and I think I saw in paper something like 13 to 15,000 wounded but the UN the un uh counted wounds of that war are the ghosts that these soldiers male and female have to see their friends Blown Away the enemy Blown Away innocent people blown away and is there any real need for that war uh right now we’re kind of stuck in it but it should have never happened so I would you know that’s what you know my vision My Hope in F the future is that our Future Leaders will think many many times before they react with military force and of course as Native Americans it’s our Legacy to go to war no we’re warriors and a warrior doesn’t Sher his duty his or her Duty and so even though we don’t agree with the war we go because that’s what we have to do to be to live with ourselves but then one thing that happens with our peoples is when we come back we go through healing ceremonies which helps considerably I went almost 10 years before I got my healing but I still have the nightmares I still see those ghosts I will till the day I die but anyway I would like to uh conclude by welcoming you here and then also a question and answer period and how do we stand on time you got about 15 minutes so we have plenty of time for questions if you folks do have some questions uh please raise your hand I bring the microphone around that way everybody can share in the question we can hear them does anyone have any questions for Ron okay we’ll start right up here first of all it saddens me for the loss of the language and of course with the language is the associated culture um what is happening as far as are they recording or how are the elders and their language being archived and that well with language pre with language preservation uh it’s kind of been hdden miss years and one of the first things you do is you try to get a hold of the elders and tape as much as you can even videotape them and of course with new technology and stuff it’s getting easier and easier to collect information but the major problem there is uh in the 60s and 70s was termo turmoil for the whole country with that war and the uh hippie movement all that but the generation of anthropologists that are the teachers today or the old the oldtimers they were of the school where they’d come into the reservation and go right in people’s houses and and do their studies and they’re pretty arrogant as a result of that our elders today that were young people like my age back then they don’t want to talk to anthropologists and Native Americans going into anthropology there’s only a handful of us that are anthropologists and we will become the new anthropology new anthropologists know cuz who better study our people than us to explain our our cultures To The World At Large so but as but as we go in like if we we have elders and we know we need to record their stories we need to record the language and everything but some of them don’t even want to talk to us because of the abuses that occurred in the 60s and 70s so that’s the you know but that’s the first step is to collect that information the second step is to uh start teaching the language and all the different Indian nations have have these language preservation programs they teach but only the little ones the people my generation and my children you know who are in their 30s they don’t speak the language and we need to do it across all all age ranges not just that uh small you know the little ones and we only do it for a certain amount but see we’re write starting to write our languages but we have to write in our language and we have to have more than one or two people writing because if you teach people how to read and write but you have nothing to read and write you’re wasting your time and that’s the next step in language preservation is to develop literature in the language and that’s what I work on okay any more questions all right another question I’ll come around with the microphone do you know why the spelling of limh high changed from Li to l over the years that I don’t know in fact it’s that word was given by the the Mormons uh you know it’s one of their words our the people that lived up here they were called the AA in other words the salmon eaters they didn’t call themselves lamh high now today they call themselves lamh high but you know that’s not what they’re originally called it’s basically like you know that that’s came into common use you know in other words but it’s not what they would call if they had their choice they wouldn’t call themselves that uh a lot of things changed from the original spellings to today probably some person thought thought the I was a e so they wrote a e and yeah so you know like when you go from handwritten to typewritten somebody might have mistr know thought that was an e instead of a I so that’s how the lamh high came in then once you start having what lot of documents with that then that’s how it came in that’s probably how it happened I don’t know for sure but that’s why I’d speculate on all right do we have any other questions all right let’s please give a Ron a warm welcome or a warm thank you actually for joining us here in the 10 of many voices thank you again and remember folks we do have programs here in the tenam Min voices every hour on the hour our program schedule is located in the back please check that out our next program coming up at the

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