Closed Captions Audio Described

Marcus "Spider" Moccasin, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (Wasco people), performs original songs addressing contemporary Native American concerns including the Kennewick Man dispute, boarding school history, salmon conservation, and the repatriation of Chief Long Wolf's remains. Through humor and political commentary, he explores themes of cultural loss, environmental protection, and indigenous identity in the Pacific Northwest.

Transcript

0:05 all right thank you everyone for coming here to the tent of many voices in this area we like to invite different people from uh different backgrounds to give their take on Lewis and Clark and give their Viewpoint and perspectives um other than just the common views that we uh hear in History Class my name is Kina Graham I I'm a park ranger with the National Park Service I'm with core
0:28 Discovery 2 and and uh we're on our way back to St Louis trying to follow the same timeline that Louis and Clark did right now we have Mr spider moccasin and he will be doing a program called contemporary tribal issues through song he is with the Wasco Warm Springs tribe and I would like you all to give him a
0:49 warm Round of Applause well howdy yeah my real name is Marcus and folks have been calling me uh Spider-Man uh since I was a little kid uh I read way too many comic books and so the nickname stuck like blue and now
1:11 many years later I'm a notorious singer songwriter cartoonist guy and many more people know me as Spider than ever knew me as Marcus so it's kind of ironic and uh thank you for turning out actually my program is called manifest destination and it is about contemporary Northwest tribal issues through song and so I'm just happy to welcome you all here to
1:35 the Pacific Northwest here's a song called the Louisiana Purchase which is especially poignant since Katrina [Music]
2:25 to the west of the mighty Mississippi L the Louisiana purchased even Thomas Jefferson Knew How the West Was one as he bought the Louisiana Purchase as a Mississippi starts to flood again as the wat start to rise I'll be there holding your
2:48 hand saying a prayer to [Music] apologize saying a prayer to apologize [Music] even the Oregon territories they were once deep inside the Louisiana
3:12 Purchase get lost then get born again after you go through the Louisiana Purchase as the Mississippi starts to flood again as the water start to rise I'll be there holding your hand say in a prayer to apologize as a Mississippi starts to
3:35 flood again as the wat start to rise I'll be there holding your hand sing a prayer to [Music] apologize singing a prayer to apologize
3:59 [Music] to the worlds for the mighty Mississippi the Rocky Mountains make the continent divide the sun sets over the Pacific don't look East you'll go blind as the Sunrise as the Mississippi starts to flood again as the water start to rise I'll be there holding your
4:23 hand see a prayer to apologize as the Mississippi starts to FL again as the water start to rise I'll be there holding your hands saying a prayer to apologize saying a prayer to apologize saying a prayer to
4:46 apologize so that's a pretty new one that was called the Louisiana Purchase I suppose I'd like to dedicate
5:07 that to the to FEMA um golly folks know me for you know really political hot potato kind of songs but most of my songs are actually tongue and cheek and I like to ask a lot of questions I don't have a lot of answers for y'all I sure do have a lot of questions I guess the next thing we're going to do
5:32 is uh well appropriate for this [Music] event and yes I know lots of people pronounce their name lots of different
5:51 [Music] ways I'm going to go with the uh kind of corny mainstream colloquialism I hope my uh tribal brothers and sisters will forgive me if I'm mangling sack sack sack
6:15 I found a sack ofia coin in my box of [Music] Cheerios get with Le and [Music] Clark get [Music]
6:40 found sa [Music] wheel you can find her down at Walmart when that new coin was released you could find it deep in a box of Cheerios
7:00 [Music] Jew I can't believe they released that new sack ofia coin and a box of [Music] Cheerios that's her Pap baby John
7:25 Baptist on her back you know the US mints it runs a [Music] websites when that new coin was just released you could go online and visit it and download an order for a 50 for
7:48 $39.95 if you like what a bargain sack sack oh sack good Che I can't believe I they released that sack we coin in a box of Cheerios
8:05 [Music]
8:45 s sack sack Saia I can't believe they released that new sack ofia coin in a box of cheons [Music]
9:10 get found [Music] whe you know you can find that new coin down at walart when that new coin was released you could obtain it by buying a
9:31 new box of Cheerios zck sack sack Saia I can't believe that they released that new Saia coin in a box of
9:47 curios so good a it [Music] [Applause] you know they eventually got around to some ceremony on the steps of some old
10:10 concrete building but it's just something kind of crass and trite about putting the coin out like it was a toy what are you going to do we're just born into this world we're just born into this time
10:32 period we inherit all of this amazing grief in history what are we supposed to do with it well you could enjoy the sack sacka coin for what it is um and make of it what you will and maybe try to find some ironic humor in it here's another song that I sort of uh think is kind of
10:56 funny um it's about some bones [Music] we're having trouble with grave robbing an Indian country and what all these scientists and politicians forget is after we pass away they might have to meet the
11:20 ghosts all them folks those bones belong to so that fell that they call the Kenwick man he's going to be waiting for those scientists on the other side there's a ghost story spooky [Music] huh up in Richland Washington lies the
11:45 canwick man the AR United States Army Core of Engineers they call him the kenck man Pacific Northwest tribes they all claim the kenck man the as a you folk assembly they all want to pray to the kenck man skeleton is made out of Bones how's your bones the banks of the Columbia River was his home radio carbon dating told
12:10 that Kenwick man is 9600 years old and he waits at the Batel National Laboratory on long was he a native or was he white his spearhead in his pelvis indicated a fight lawsuits in the United States District Court they're still trying to sort out which scientist for politician is wrong or right you till a
12:34 cville Yakama or W to pum the as a true folk assembly and all the anthropologists they all want him his skull might indicate the color of his race did he sing pow wows or did he sing Bible [Music]
12:58 hyms how's your bones just ask that can we man a mystery how's your bones just ask that can we man a mystery how's your bones just ask that can we man in mystery how's your bones just ask that can we Man
13:16 [Music] mystery y the Native American Graves protection and repatriation acts is trying to protect such discoveries from Laboratories and museums for their bureaucratic reasons how's your bones just ask that kid weak
13:40 Man [Music] mystery how's your just that K man a mystery how's your bones just ask that K Man of Mystery how's your bones just ask that can man a
14:03 mystery how's your bones just ask that can man [Music] his again you know I don't have a lot of answers I just have a lot of [Music]
14:26 questions in these parts Tona wos the sky person was the name that the indigenous people gave the wamit meteorite which sits in a museum in war in uh New York City now for and you can you can get in to see this religious totem of the culture
14:50 of the people right here that uh they were robbed of um for entertainment like a circus Sideshow you can also go see uh the bones of dinosaur Sue in a museum and they're setting it up so that you could see the ancient one that the anthropologists all call the Cano man in in a museum and you'll pay admission
15:13 and but then later later on in the afterlife that's when we'll really pay for this business of grave robbing it makes you wonder about going to visit uh King tutd uh here's a song about petroglyphs in the Columbia River Gorge the most notorious one is called
15:38 she who watches although the sahaptin name for that is seigal [Music] La she who watches is up on the cliffs and she who watches is up on the cliffs
16:02 and she watches is up on the cliffs and she who watches his up on the cliffs she who watches his up on the cliffs and she who watches is upon the cliffs and she who watches is upon the
16:23 cliffs she watches is up on the cliffs [Music] I am not a heretic just because I don't worship
16:44 Jesus I got my own relationship with the everywhere [Music] Spirits she who watches is up on the clips she who watches is up on eclips she who watches is up on the
17:06 cliffs she watches his up on [Music] clip I don't mean to seem Blasphemous I don't want to come across like a heretic freedom of religion is
17:29 guaranteed in the United States Constitution she who watches has seen all of this she who watches is up on the cliffs she watches is up on the cliffs and she watches his up on the cliffs and she
17:50 watches his up on the cliffs she who watches upon the cliffs and she watches his up on the cliffs and she watches his up on the cliffs and she watches his up on the
18:10 [Music] Cs and so she who watches is a cave painting a Petroglyph that's what they call cave paintings and you can find this Petri lift up and down the Columbia River Gorge in several locations she looks like a big smiley face in fact that's kind of where I think maybe our
18:34 culture picked up that that big old smiley [Music] face this is a song that the New York Times was kind enough to quote extensively in an article about me they
18:56 wrote about 5 years ago which is pretty amazing considering that I've never released an album they got it all wrong they couldn't make up their minds whether I'm a rapper A hip-hop guy or maybe a medicine
19:20 man I just have more in common with Jimmy Henri [Music] Bob so celebrate a new era about to begin anticipate the ET upon your withed skin negotiate the obvious deliberate
19:42 the facts it's written out across your face like some big tattoo man participate in Awakening about to relax separate the whole wheed from the withered CH y the treaties freed from all their sins variations jail just for the color
20:06 of their [Music] skin Manifest Destiny forgotten who writes the history books expansion Westward halted at reservation Suburban
20:27 tips man manest Destiny forgotten a lost Century or two slip stream lost culture nobody else to turn into nobody else to turn into
20:49 [Music]
21:24 sh [Music]
21:39 youa nerve gas you matilla nerve gas Depot all that nerve gas can kill us when the Army tries to incinerate it Umatilla nerve gas youa nerve gas Depot do you really trust the Army as they try to dispose of it
22:00 youill a nerve gas hum a nerve gas Depot all that nerve gas could hurt us but we got to dispose of it oh youill a nerve gas youill a nerve gas Depot do you really trust the Army as they try to dispose of it oh where does the wind
22:23 blow where does the wind blow where does the wind blow where does the wind blow where does the wind blow
22:44 where wind blow [Music] SH now let it blow now let it
23:06 blow human still nerve gas why it's a visibly stupid says represented toio you gas it's chemical weapons Madness where does the wind blow where does the wind blow where does
23:29 the wind blow where does the wind blow where does the wind blow where does the wind
23:48 blow [Applause] and you don't want that answer my friend blowing in the wind
24:11 [Music] nonetheless this next song um is an adaptation of a song written by the man whose logo is on that young Fella's sweatshirt right there man named Jimmy hendris most folks think that Jimmy Hendrick was a black man actually Jimmy Hendricks was
24:34 a half breed black man a American Indian man and he's the pride of the Pacific Northwest he didn't write this song though he just covered it and in fact I've adapted it to honor Larry Mars my good
24:57 friend and his great great grandfather G [Music] Joseph oh oh
25:19 [Music] oh uhoh uhoh oh [Music] oh oh oh
25:40 [Music] oh uhoh [Music] uh Hey Chief Joseph where you going with all your people [Music]
26:05 man hey Chief Joseph where you going to run with all those women and [Music] children hey Chief Joseph it's the middle of winter and it's snowing and the wind is blowing
26:27 [Music] That ain't
26:37 cool oh oh oh oh oh [Music] hey Chief
27:01 Joseph what do you think of that statue man hey Chief Joseph that artist he made you look like Arnold Schwartz and that girl [Music] yeah if you great big old bear Cade and a big old bear hat big old helmets but
27:25 you never wore one of those did you no no no no W built like arold tr's built more like [Music] Gandhi nice made a statue though
27:46 [Music]
28:20 Jose Joe said I will fight no more [Music] forever I will fight no more [Music] forever I will fight no more
28:46 forever I will I will fight no more forever I will fight no more forever [Music] I will fight no more [Music] forever I will fight no more [Music]
29:09 forever I will fight no more forever forever hey chief J you're so cool oh baby so cool [Music]
29:29 oh oh
29:40 [Music] oh oh
29:57 [Music] [Applause]
30:14 [Music] oh that's what real leaders do kids real leaders decide when not to fight and the very best decision you can
30:38 make is not to fight that's why we think Chief Joseph is so cool he said I will fight no more [Music] forever here's the song that I wrote for the Columbia River int tribal Fish Commission
31:00 I would like to dedicate this song to my great uncle Claude [Music] Smith CL Smith Faithfully served the Columbia River inter tribal fish commission for [Music]
31:24 decades real tribal leader save salmon for me save some salmon for [Music]
31:43 me why don't you save some salmon for [Music] me why don't you save some salmon for
32:01 me I'm swimming Upstream like it's a [Music]
32:20 dream on swiming upam [Music] like it like it's
32:41 real why don't you save some salmon for [Music] me why don't you save some salmon for me why don't you save
33:05 some salmon for me why don't you save some salmon for
33:26 me thank you [Music] pardon [Music] me are live left oh that's a good question what time is it
33:49 5:30 5:30 okay we have about another 15 minutes maybe 10 or 15 minutes of music and then then you can ask any questions that you you might have okay so we're going to plow forward and do a a couple more songs and then if you guys have any interesting questions we' love to hear them I would love to hear them so with these cameras you know if you ask me questions these cameras are going to see
34:12 it and you'll be on TV and in history books forever as part of the archival history of this event and that'll be pretty sweet guys all right that's a good question we'll find out I guess we'll just have to find out here's a song about um a school that's just up
34:36 the [Music] road now my grandma Mildred she was forced to go to this school back in the old days early generations of Indian children they were made to go to boarding schools and they didn't like that they didn't like being separated from their moms and dads and their aunts
35:01 and uncles and cousins but we passed out of that period and those schools are still around and actually they're still run by Indian folks one up the road is called the Chima Indian School this is an honor song for the children to go [Music]
35:25 there girl Indian girl that little girl she really shook the world chamaa girl chamaa Indian girl that little girl she really shook the world chamaa girl chamaa Indian girl the little girl she really
35:47 shook the world chamaa girl chamaa Indian girl that little girl she really shook the world a long time ago for just a little while a long time ago did she make you
36:11 smile a long time ago for just a little while a long time ago did she make you smile chamaa girl chamaa Indian girl that little girl she really shook the
36:35 world cha girl chamaa Indian girl that little girl she really shook the world chamaa girl CH Indian girl that little girl she L shook the world cha girl what you need a girl that little
36:56 girl she really the world a long time ago for just a little while a long time ago did she make you [Applause] smile long time ago for just a little
37:21 while a long time ago did she made you smile a [Applause] [Music] girl that's right we need one for them too that song is dedicated to a little
37:45 girl named so [Music] happy appreciate your patience folks they call me spider moccasin it's just a silly nickname too many comic books actually my real name's Marcus and I grew up in Central Oregon I'm an enrolled member of the
38:09 confederated tribes of warms Springs my people were the Wasco Indian people we lived in the Columbia River Gorge at a place called Salo Falls until the winter of 1855 when they moved all of my fisherman people to the desert what a drag
38:29 [Music] we can make it past that together you and [Music] Meed by Indian
38:51 man if you lose all of your land and you you lose all your hatred and sorrow will you be born again or buried tomorrow young enough to stay the same and so many folks hate my stupid
39:16 nickname it's the boy in me that wants to take the blame take the BL [Music] take the play take the [Music]
39:39 play Oh goodbye turquoise from the res no matter what the New York Times says I just write Blue songs on a white stage I'm a red boy and I still listen to
40:00 Rage com up stay the same and so many folks hate my silly nickname it's the boy in me that wants to take the [Music] play take the play [Music]
40:22 a take the play why should I take the [Applause] [Music] blank oh goodbye Indian man yeah we lost all of our land I don't know if I can lose all my
40:46 hatred and sorrow I don't know if I'll be born again or buried tomorrow young enough to stay the same and so many folks hate my silly nickname it's the boy and me that wants
41:06 to take the [Applause] blame that song was very influenced by a hero of mine named Neil Young he was the member of a band called the Buffalo Springfield that I really appreciate the Buffalo Springfield sang lots of songs
41:29 about political issues and Indigenous tribal issues and Neil Young is an example of non indigenous person who I think sets out to honor tribal folks with his craft and after many years I have to admit
41:45 that I feel honored [Music] this song might not seem like a tribal song from the Pacific Northwest actually there are lots of Indian boys sign up for the
42:10 Army go off to war this is an honor song for all my Indian brothers sisters served in the military I can only appreciate the great irony [Music] there's sacrifice propaganda of your
42:33 overwhelming media perfect Smiles design hypnotize you the rest of the world can only Glimpse our Utopia through commercials made by chemical warfare scorpions the defense contractors their old war horses another Trojan Gambit the
42:57 emperor there's no clothes World War II is just around the corner these old war horses they just want another War these old war horses they'll spill blood for oil these old war horses they just want another War oh no
43:19 [Music] propaganda of your overwhelming
43:42 media perfect Smiles designed to hypnotize you the rest of the world can only Glimpse our Utopia through commercials made by chemical warfare scorpions the defense contractors their old war horses it's another Trojan Gambit the emperor wears no
44:04 clothes all World War II is just around the corner these old war horses they just want another War these old war horses they'll spill PL for oil these old war horses they just want another one oh no
44:28 blood for [Music] oil no blood for
44:40 [Applause] oil no blood for oil all right we had time for one more song and I sure do appreciate you folks staying listening again my name's Marcus folks call me spider moccasin and uh I grew up in Central Oregon I live in
45:04 Portland Oregon right now occasionally folks hear my music on community radio kbo 90.7 FM every Thursday afternoon between 1:30 and 3 p.m. Community radio kou broadcasts indigenous American Indian tribal music folklore culture and news on two different radio shows from 1:30 until 3: on 90 7 FM and it's
45:29 boosted up and down the wamit valley by a signal in Corvalis as well as a signal up and down the Columbia River Gorge also on Thursdays you can tune in to channel 11 to Portland cable access the Mount Hood cable access they shoot a show called native nations once a month and it shows up on Thursday night and you'll find American Indian musicians
45:52 politics culture arts crafts all sorts of stuff there that's a good show thank you folks for turning out here's my last song make sure this this get fiddle is in
46:11 tune close enough for jazz I'd like to dedicate this to my two makota brothers song goes out to luke warm water trino brings
46:34 plenty fine poets fine artists fine writers Renaissance men [Music]
46:57 long wo in London long woof in London l Chief long woof is returning from London long woof in London long in London l Chief long is returning from London Long Wolf in London Long Wolf in London l Chief Long Wolf is returning from London
47:19 Long Wolf in London longwolf in London Lakota Chief long is returning from London 105 years is a long time to spend buried so far from
47:40 home the chief Long Wolf remains buried in Great Britain so far from home long with in London long with in London Lota Chief Long Wolf is returning from London Long Wolf in London Long
48:04 Wolf in London Lakota Chief long wol is returning from London long in London long in London lot Chief Long Wolf is returning from London Long Wolf in London Long Wolf in London Chief Long Wolf is returning from London until an English housewife who
48:27 lives in a village called Worchester Shear she decided to make Buffalo Bills Wild West show her hobby she went all over the West End of London she found old Chief long Wolf's grave totally covered up with weeds and bushes she cleaned it up and then she looked up his family in
48:51 the directory assistance Long Wolf in London Long Wolf London the Long Wolf is returning from London Long Wolf in London Long Wolf in London l Chief Long Wolf is returning from London long whoop in London long whoop in London Chief long is returning from London long in
49:15 London long in London Chief long is returning from London [Music] they hadn't invented the email or the fax machine when Chief Long Wolf his granddaughter star when they got stuck in the West End of London when they fell
49:39 off their Horse Wild Wild Bills crazy wild west show Wild West did London it was all wild it was all West they never made it home so this beautiful English lady took it upon herself make sure that those bones made
50:03 it back to Chief long Wolf's [Music] family she returned with them she made the flight when they got to his home state took him out of those [Music] cars put him on a trap walk walk pulled
50:24 him behind a horse down to the river put him in a canoe spend a night under the stars with his family let's get better than [Music] that oh that [Music] reconciliation that English housewife
50:48 she didn't go through the government she didn't get in touch with a politician or a television station or a newspaper she looked at Long Wolf in the Yellow Pages Long Wolf in London Long Wolf in London Lota Chief Long Wolf is returning
51:10 from London Long Wolf in London Long Wolf in London the chief Long Wolf is returning from London Long Wolf in London in London Lakota Chief is returning from London Long Wolf in London WF in [Music]
51:34 London from London there you go we thank you folks for turning out it sure is good to see you all and I should appreciate you sitting through my show if you have any questions I'd be happy
51:54 to answer them well actually sweet very we go um oh I'm sure you've been thinking of one don't worry it was nice can I go up
52:18 there can you go up there you better you better ask from there go ahead what's your what's your question you got you got want know anything can he go upstairs um well if you really must yeah come on up
52:36 sure how long have you been singing well guys actually we only have time for one more question and you can stick around while we pack up things but um
52:59 but uh like to thank everyone for coming here for today's programming um please come again tomorrow um spider will be
53:08 here again
53:25 tomorrow
53:55 e
56:25 for

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Spider Moccasin on Contemporary Northwest Tribal Issues

Marcus Spider Moccasin

Wasco

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