Closed Captions Audio Described

Jeff Olsen of the National Park Service opens the Corps of Discovery 2006 bicentennial exposition in Vancouver, Washington. He introduces speakers from local government and tribal nations, including remarks from Chinook council member Sam Robinson and other officials. The program includes an honor guard, opening prayer, and acknowledgment of Native American veterans and tribal contributions to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Transcript

0:02 We're gonna get started in a couple of minutes if our guests and speakers would come to the front of the room and up on stage,
0:10 on stage here.
0:13 Right here
0:17 Yeah.
0:20 I see.
0:24 Yeah.
0:26 But
0:28 I
0:34 the next one.
0:42 5.
0:45 Yeah.
0:54 13.
1:02 I
1:17 Yeah.
1:26 You.
1:35 Yeah.
1:41 I know this is about.
1:47 No.
1:50 I
1:52 Good morning again.
1:56 My name is Jeff Olson, and I'm with the National Park Service. I'm the spokesman for Corps of Discovery 2, 200 years to the future, and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. On behalf of many people in green and gray and a long list of other people that help us get core Discovery to around the United States, I want to welcome you. What we're gonna do is have a combined
2:19 uh program here this morning. We're gonna have uh. The colors posted and an honor guard with us. Uh, Mike, I, um, is going to do the opening prayer for us and then we're gonna have some brief remarks by the mayor and uh And uh Sam Robinson from the Chinook and then uh County Commissioner Mark Bolt has been open for 2 for us.
2:44 So if you would stand. And we're going to begin.
6:32 Yeah
7:39 Yeah.
9:23 Oh
12:09 Mike
12:15 I guess, uh, I'd like to tell you that, uh, before we start, I've obviously, I, I don't have the, the cowli Salish or the, the tinaumahapton. So, I'll just speak to you as, as the language we have. Uh, we're here to mark the, the coming together of our two cultures, and I would like you to,
12:40 uh, To think about this, the the Indian history of the Northwest is truly the ancient history of the Northwest, and once you accept that, then you can understand why when the tribal people are insisting about cultural resource protection, we are protecting your ancient history. And
13:05 so if it seems unreasonable, please just remember that as residents of the Northwest, the tribal history is your history. So with that, amen.
14:09 Uh, please be seated.
14:43 Yeah
15:03 Oh,
15:07 We stand for the retirement of the Native American Color garden.
15:27 Oh
16:03 Hey
16:40 You have to see
16:46 Good morning. I'm Royce Pollard, the mayor of America's Vancouver, on behalf of the city council of the City of Vancouver and the citizens of the city of Vancouver, I want to thank you all for coming this morning for this opening ceremony, but beyond that, I want to thank everyone, and I, you know, I can't name everybody because I certainly would forget someone and someone I haven't met
17:08 who had a significant role in bringing this great cops to Vancouver and Clark County. It's a great opportunity for our county and our city to showcase those activities which we have created. To commemorate The journey of Lewis and Clark and the interaction. With our Native American brothers and sisters.
17:32 I'm very proud to represent the city of Vancouver here. Look forward to all the crowds that will come. They will enjoy it. They will become educated. Hopefully they will in fact absorb some of the diversity that will be offered here over the next several days, and I look forward to participating in it. It brings great value to our community anytime we can display
17:57 the culture of our region, particularly for our young people.
18:02 The future of our country and the future of our world rests in our young people. They are our greatest assets. So I look forward to seeing them and seeing you all here as we enjoy this great exhibit and again I wanna thank everyone, particularly I wanna thank Arlene Johnson, who is the executive director of the Vancouver Clark County Lewis and Clark organization
18:26 who has for years and years, and of course there are city people involved in the National Park Service people involved and the people from every city involved.
18:36 Arlene has led The troops in this effort, and she certainly deserves a round of applause. I don't even know where she is. She was here earlier. Raise your hand. She's back there. OK. Welcome to you all. Welcome to CO2. Thank you very much. God bless you all and God bless America. Thank you.
18:58 Thanks, Mayor. And Mike, yeah.
19:06 My name is Mike I. I'm with the Col tribe, um. When we talk about the history, because that's what we're here for, sometimes you tend to put it too far away. Uh, a while back, somebody asked me, uh, Is there any positive connection? Between you and the Hudson's Bay Company.
19:30 About an hour later I realized the well duh, the way I spell my name. It's the Scottish spelling. Uh, there's a Jesuit spelling that's, that's French that we, we don't use. My great grandfather used it, but our family uses the Bay Company spelling. So when you think about the history. You need to to again.
19:56 Realize that today. We know more about Lewis and Clark than they did 100 years ago. You've got the Malton Journal set. You still have Ruben Thwake's journal set. And you have the the journals of the fur traders. And what I compare the Lewis and Clark journey to
20:17 is driving down a dark country road at night with your headlights on. And that's more than Lewis and Clark saw. A lot of places through here. They either stop for lunch. Or they didn't stop at all. When Lewis and Clark got here. They compared this to a marketplace equal to any in the world.
20:42 This had already been A gathering place, a trading place. For centuries, perhaps millennia. Before Lewis and Clark got here. And when they came here, they saw people wearing sailor suits, using metal pots, carrying pistols, carrying muskets.
21:06 We'd already had contact. Lewis and Clark didn't discover this area. It was already discovered. So, uh, with that, I guess I'll be brief and, uh, I'll pass it off to Sam. Thank you.
21:27 Laha My name's Sam Robinson. I'm a council member with the Chinook tribe, and it's just such a beautiful morning, uh, to hear drummers when you come in here and, uh, and we're honored by our veterans, you know, I mean, the Native American veterans go back a long ways. I mean there was people fighting in World War One that didn't even have the right to vote, but, uh. I just, uh, you know, the 10 and many voices,
21:49 it's brought the word of so many nations along the trail together and later on today I'll be able to speak about my ancestors and the Chinook nation and hopefully enlighten you on all of this, and I think we're just blessed and honored to have this voice along the Lewis and Clark Trail and let people know that there was more going on than just these guys coming down the river and. And let people know that uh
22:14 how we helped them, you know, especially on this end of the river where they didn't have a whole lot going for them and didn't have a whole lot that we needed, but we, we helped them survive and I hope that you all enjoy this the uh the stay that the cops will be here, you know, for 2 weeks and, and learn a lot. Uh thank you.
22:35 Thank you, Sam. Our final speaker this morning is, uh, Mark Bold, who is the uh county commissioner and also chairman of the Lewis and Clark Committee here. Mark.
22:48 Well thank you very much and it is an honor for this county to to host this exposition. Uh, first of all, on behalf of Clark County and the other two commissioners, I'd like to thank the Park Service for all your work for bringing this exposition to Clark County and, uh, for the thousands of students that will come here
23:08 to see the the heritage that the mayor has just talked about for the other and to, uh, just it's not by accident. our uh county isn't is named after uh of uh William Clark and it's not by accident that we're Americans so it is, it's an honor to be here uh just welcome, have a good time within this tent
23:31 and the rest of the this uh exposition and, uh, behalf of Clark County and they now cla uh, declare the Lewis and Clark Exposition Corps Discovery to open. Thank you and God bless.
23:51 Right And good morning and welcome to all you folks here in the 10 of many voices. Welcome to Core Discovery 2. We're glad to be here in Vancouver and get things started off here on this Monday morning. Here at the 10 of many Voices, we have regular programming every day that we're here. We have regular programming. Uh, we have programs every hour on the hour,
24:15 and we'll be starting our day this morning hearing a little bit about Yakima history and culture. So please join us for that.

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Jeff Olsen, National Park Service, Opening Ceremony Remarks

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Jeff Olsen, National Park Service, Opening Ceremony Remarks

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