Closed Captions Audio Described

Kenneth Denny and his brother George Denny, fourth-generation descendants of Chief Little Bear, discuss the founder of Rocky Boy Indian Reservation and the importance of honoring his legacy. George shares stories about Little Bear's spiritual power, his use of interpreters, and the establishment of the reservation. Both speakers emphasize unity within the tribe and the need to preserve their cultural heritage and history.

Transcript

0:06 thank you very much and Welcome to our our reservation here um what I want to talk about May create a lot of problems or resolve a lot of problems here in Rocky Boy um it's pertaining our chief little bear and our other Chief Rocky Boy uh Little
0:30 Bear is a cre the founder of the rocky boys reservation and I am the fourth generation along with my brother here we're the fourth generation of this great Chief and it's it's always an honor for me to uh say stuff on behalf of uh myself who I
0:53 come from where where I came from who I am and you know there's a lot of of our controversy here in Rocky Boy pertaining our culture and I wish a lot of these people here in Rocky boy would not um do what they do around here as far as our culture is
1:17 concerned there's a lot of misinterpretation on things that has to be corrected and uh it's a crying shame it's a crying shame on the matter of our chief here um to back up a few few years here we were working on the uh NYC program here in Rocky Boy and we had stumbled on my
1:42 uh Grandpa's grave here at the cemetery and man that thing is pitiful you know pitiful looking grave and all the money the tribe has spent on themselves to better better meent the tribe you know they forgot about this Chief if it doesn't for this chief Little Bear you know we wouldn't be here we wouldn't be here on this on this uh reservation and
2:07 it's a crying shame to see something like that uh I would like to have one of the our one of the Departments to create a big Monument for this chief for the betterment of ourselves and our our tribal people it's all the places I go to these different reservations I see their their
2:32 Chiefs big monuments you know and us guys here in Rocky boy man you should it's it's something you got you know it's got to be taken care of um it's a crying shame but anyway I'm sure glad to be up here talking to you people on behalf of my um great great
2:55 grandfather there's there's a lot of stuff that I have learned that are heard from my late mother Florence Danning gr who is the granddaughter of little bear and the majority of our people here in Rocky boy came from this great Chief I see a lot of my relatives here that belong in this family and I'm I'm
3:19 very happy to be here as a member of the cre and the chipa cre tribe um I don't know too much history about the uh um Chief little be side this is why I had my brother come up here with me to explain to you people on how and where
3:43 we came from and when we got here he's more like a historian in our family he knows a lot although he's a crazy man but he knows more than other people know and how he talks we we tend to get mad at him because he says things out of the way where he gets
4:07 people mad but you listen to what he has to say is something you got to really consider consider what he's saying you know it's it's the truth that's what people don't like here in rock voice is the truth coming from somebody that knows what they're talking about so uh I'd
4:31 like to thank the core of Discovery for allowing me to talk here for a while on behalf of our chief little bear and I'd like to turn the mic over to my brother George Denny thank [Applause]
4:55 you welcome to my good speech that I'm going to say hooray well first of all I'm a a True Blood descendant of little bear it's my great great grandfather Little Bear didn't know how to read he couldn't speak English he know a lot of good things to benefit his
5:19 tribe they say you come from Canada I don't know about that but uh most the people they come from different directions but little bear he used his uh spiritual power to get this reservation he had interpreters because he didn't know how to read couldn't speak English P Huntley was a interpreter and
5:44 uh raspberry and Jim Denny three of them and today a lot of people they don't know how this reservation was established okay like I said he uses his spiritual power he used to live right below saniel little bear and used to go up there and
6:08 go fast and pray for people his people his grandchildren that to grow up here to live here and all these big mountains B Be Hast stack they all have Spirits there theying Jim Denny stories but today I'm going to say
6:31 this true name of BST reservations be pass C W that's what it's called in creek and most of you I don't think you know a word that bepa is that Hill that mountain all the way coming from har
6:54 those transmitters those radio stations that transmitters that little H and that's a BEP maybe that's first time you people going to know about it maybe you people not not going to believe me but little bear he done a good job he want these people to live your grandchildren to
7:18 grow up today where's all the councilman and that's the ones they supposed to be talking here because they get but 85,000 a year 100 100,000 a year are those conso guys where are they you guys have vote for those guys we got EXC convictor as a chairman why is it that we have
7:42 those kind of people Little Bear wasn't no excon he' done a lot of good things here to establish to get this reservation he prayed he used his peace pipe he prayed According to Jim Denny his story he took care of his pipe for him he took come around from Great Falls bu Helena different little cities
8:07 here that's what Jim D did help his father-in-law now today we got to get together to not hate each other to help one another just like this Camp here I like it I enjoy it I appreciate it cuz I'm blind you know people that come to me shake hands with me they introduce
8:31 themselves it those people to me to shook hands with me I like that I enjoy that where I live and nobody comes around maybe they think I got a bad medicine no I don't believe in those things but people they've been buying them kind they go to Canada to go buy Bad Medicine to Witchcraft and different
8:55 ones here and there the people that they don't like so I want people to not do that a little be didn't do that he just prayed prayed for his people to grow up here to live here this a good place clean place ceks are clean but
9:19 today everything's good this Camp is really wonderful I like it myself people that top creater the little ones they're running around they're healthy of course I don't have nothing to eat at my house and they feed me here I get full too and I really appreciate your people
9:43 to be here I hope you get something out of it the prayers that said yesterday evening the by he used a piece of pipe he prayed prayed for different ones that's good you know that's good to pray but stick together don't criticize your uncle or your auntie your
10:05 nephew or your cousin don't do that love one another That's how little bear wants us people to be so I Want It That Way myself every place I go I try to talk to people nice kind of joke around with them try to make people laugh it's good that way too you know God gave that way
10:28 people to laugh long time ago years ago people didn't laugh so God he gave that to people to laugh to feel good you know when people's healthy they laugh they have something to eat good I appreciate that Buffalo too boy Buffalo dry meat hanging all over Buffalo he volunteered to take care
10:53 of people years ago he provide everything blankets food everything just name it Buffalo has got that I appreciate that the people they uh they uh had that Buffalo here that's good that's a genuine Indian food
11:16 a buffalo meat but me I'm scared to eat it you know I might turn into a a Buffalo Calf well anyway God bless you all appreciate your attention I thank you for listening to me God bless you all thank
11:40 you thank you very much George
12:05 for the betterment as a
12:28 tribe like to have you people consider that in thought and where we at now in this day and
12:45 age a few years down the road to get somebody that in there us want to talk for us
13:08 I'd like to thank all of you for coming over and listening to George and I talk we don't uh really have much to say on behalf uh of little bear but it's what I was told through my great grandmother Maggie Denny and my mother foren stanning gr I just know bits and parts
13:30 of their stories on how we got here and I was just telling my people here that we got to stick together for the betterment of our tribe we cannot we cannot fight amongst each other and this is all I have to say for now I don't got much I'm not a historian and I can't be telling you
13:51 guys guys anything so thank you very much all right all right thank you Kenneth and George for um your insights and we're going to take a little bit of a break here um our next program is going to be at well it would be 3:00 and that's going to be Louis stump talking
14:15 about the [Music] signific

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Kenneth and George Denny on Chief Little Bear and Rocky Boy

Kenneth Denny

Chippewa, Cree

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Kenneth and George Denny on Chief Little Bear and Rocky Boy

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