Closed Captions

Maynard Kicking Woman (Blackfeet) discusses the cultural significance of the drum in Blackfeet life, explaining its role in ceremonial practices, social gatherings, and the transmission of traditions across generations. He describes camp criers, singing groups, powwows, and the discipline required to learn traditional songs and drumming. Kicking Woman emphasizes how the drum represents the heartbeat of his people and shares stories of elders who taught him these practices since 1973.

Transcript

0:12 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Tent of Many Voices. My name is Erin. I'm one of the rangers who gets to travel the country with this huge exhibit. We've been traveling for three years. It took us three years to get here to Browning. And uh we're gonna end our year this year and end the entire bicentennial commemoration in September at Saint Louis. So join us there if you're interested.
0:35 So it's gonna be a great ceremony there. We've had a great time here in Browning, had lots of presenters in the Tent of Many Voices. This is going to be our last presentation of the day and of this venue. If you want to continue on with us, we're going to Crow Agency next week and Pompey's Pillar the following. And then we have a whole series of other events after that.
0:57 But at this hour, we have Maynard Kicking Woman who is going to present to you some more drums and music from the Black Feet Nation. Some other people here to share with you, they're drumming and some singing as well.
1:10 So let's welcome them to the Tent of Many Voices. Well, first, first of all, I'd like to, uh, say,
1:35 you know, that, uh, I'm great, grateful and honored to be part of this, uh exhibition that's going on here. I was told about this about a week ago. And, um, you know, there are so many events that are taking place every weekend in Indian country. A lot of our groups such as my group, such as his group
1:59 are off running to another group to another celebration. So this is kind of like a, a bad time. But I want to apologize that um to you folks that we were unable to bring a big drum here to show you a few things about our drumming. Well, I'm gonna explain it the significance of this drum. First of all, my name is Maynard Kicking Woman.
2:24 I'm here, Black Feet Tribe. I was born and raised here. Um Back in 19,
2:32 I'd say about 1973 I became involved in our traditional way of life. I started paying attention about what was going on around here. Why are we singing? Why are we dancing? Why don't we do these things a long time ago? I remember back when I was just a little boy,
2:56 I came across a drum like this.
3:01 I always wondered what these drums were used for. I was a total stranger to our, our Indian way of life here. Never, never even dawned on me of what I would be doing something like this. My grandfather used to tell us that
3:22 all the elderly people, we used to live in a community. West of Browning here down in the bottom. There, there was a, coulee that runs miles down the road. And each place there was a community a family group that lived in one community and each little community had their own little park where we play.
3:46 And my grandfather used to sit out there well he was everybody's grandfather and his grandfather. Way back, they used to sit out early in the mornings. They wouldn't have a drum, ok, come out early in the morning and they would sing songs and they would pray, ask blessings and ask the creator for
4:10 a new day. Giving thanks and you can hear them songs from far away. I mean, you can be sitting, it was so quiet in that valley. You can hear this person when this person used to sing old man, picture an old man in your mind, man, all little tiny eyes and skinny braids, you know, Juniper Old Person,
4:35 John Bear Medicine These are just some of the elders that we had that made songs and they belong to different societies. And what I mean by society, it's an organization that was put together by a certain group of families and they carried on that way. So when you wake up in the morning and say all of a sudden,
4:57 maybe you guys ended up in someone's home and you might wake up and you're gonna hear somebody way back. [singing] These were campfire songs. These songs were used in the gathering such as this that just took place over here.
5:22 We used to have people walk around the camp early in the morning. [singing] He'd be hollering around. And if you're not really familiar with that, you came across that you heard that you probably think that guy's crazy. But actually it is our way. That's just the way we were brought up.
5:46 We hear these camp criers. They'd be singing and then they had groups, drum groups will come together, young people. They still do that today in some tribes. They'll go to your camp and they're gonna sit right
6:03 in front of your camp and they're gonna sing.
6:30 [singing and drumming]
7:24 These are songs that they used to bring up your spirits. This is why when they go to your camp they're going to keep on singing these songs like this until you come out and give them something. A gift, blanket, tobacco, food. Whatever it may be. A lot of people will come out
7:46 of their tepee and pull the door open and set a basket of goods out there and close it. Go back to sleep. That was the only way they can get you to get out of their place so they can sleep. Camp criers is very, is very significant to the Indian people. But for those of you that don't know what camp criering is, this is what it's about.
8:11 Way back when I started in 1973 I started learning, I started asking questions just like this young man here. He learned that by listening and paying attention. When are they sitting around that drum? Now, when I was hitting the drum like this, they have a drum 10 times this size
8:34 sometimes 12, 13 people sitting around that drum. Can you imagine that 13 people? You can be dead to the world in your camp and all of a sudden 13 people come by and hit that drum and start singing it. It'll scare the heck out of you, what's going on? And then you know, that's a camp crier.
8:55 The only way you're gonna shut that camp crier up. Is you got to gift him, that is what it is, gift giving. When a young person comes and talks to an elderly person like myself, they'll come and they'll ask you questions. They're going to ask you. Can I sing this song There are some songs you can't sing. OK? Gonna come and ask you for that.
9:20 And the best way you can do that is you bring them tobacco offering. Because from what I learned, our Indian people made the mother earth all the herbs, medicine, all the plants with food. And when I, when I started learning, I started picking that up.
9:45 OK? I want to be like that guy. I used to admire groups, topnotch singing groups. I mean, they were so popular. They were in big demand. It was pretty hard to have them come and do something like this. And these young people such as this man here, they're carrying on that tradition. This is how we keep things going on and on and on.
10:09 We pass it off to our younger people and they pass it off to their younger people. But getting back to this drum when I was learning how to sing Indian, I didn't sing very good. We used to sing. Hey, yeah, I uh y you Just sing any old way and people used to make fun of you
10:32 and say, you're not singing good. You don't know how to think. And I said to myself in my mind, there's gonna be a day, there is going to be a day. I'm going to be called upon to talk about my tradition. What I have learned,
10:55 it took me all that time to just recently. I have my own group called The Kicking Woman Singers. We took up our names. There's a lot of drum groups that have names and those names sometimes came from the family. Young Gray Horse to Medicine Lake squatted. Eagle singers. Heartbeat Society
11:18 All these are groups even on the outside Badland Singers, Eagle Whistlers, Teton Ramblers, Black Stone, Northern Cree. You are just some of the song that some of the groups that you're gonna hear. You might go to a powwow up here or some place along the way and you're gonna come across the same thing, the drumming
11:43 and you're going to hear a bunch of people hitting their drum like this and singing there is no words. The Black Feet people did not use words. The only time they used words is when they sang a lullaby song and that was when they put the baby to sleep.
12:02 [singing and drumming softly] and then sign and then rock baby. That's how they used to put their babies to sleep. You notice that the drumming, is all different. The first presentation that we had was round dancing,
12:24 owl dancing, social dancing where you came together. What a big drum. Imagine this drum being about this size. About 10 people. I learned the hard way how to become a singer because I made some mistakes in my time as I was going along and the elderly people that used to tell me about these things. They used to say, be careful,
12:47 there's a lot of songs out there. Be careful who you sing, what you sing. What kind of song you sing. So, it was very frightening because I had my children, they were just small and they used to sit at a drum and sing and the old people say that's good. That's good to see those little kids drumming singing.
13:08 So, as time went on, I started earning different rights, earning different things. I'd say if you work for so many years, you're gonna earn a promotion. That's the same way with singing and dancing and doing all kinds of things. There's a lot of ceremonial things out there. You can be part of what you have to earn that. I've been singing for 35 years.
13:32 Long time since 1973. I picked up a drum today. I'm gonna tell you something to us Indian people. The drum is very important to us. That's the heartbeat of us. A dancer, a singer can be 1000 miles away and they're gonna hear that beat
13:55 and they're going to come an event that took place right here over the weekend, over 400 dancers. Can you imagine 400 dancers heard one drumbeat and they all came. What I learned? Why is this drum so important to us? I'll tell you
14:17 this raw hide is not just ordinary raw hide. We were taught to respect a drum. When we put the drum down, it's about 13 people, 10 people around it around here and they're sitting there and they're, I always tell those drummers that come to my drum, it's not a foot stool it's not a coffee table. It's not a closet.
14:41 What I mean is you don't put stuff on that drum, you stand it up and you cover it with a blanket. Take care of it. Why? Because at one time this animal has walked the earth, a four legged animal sacrificed himself to better ours to provide good music for you people. And when you provide good music, the song that's a song,
15:06 the song I'm just saying that I'll sing again to you. It's the same song, but it's a, it's a song, it's a song that's supposed to pick you up. [drumming and singing]
15:35 now these songs, if a dancer or even you was attending some powwow and you heard the same song but the same beat, but it's gonna be a different song. It is gonna make you want to get out there and dance. This is how it makes you feel good. That's why I always tell people no matter who you are, no matter where you're from, no matter what color you are.
16:00 When you come to an event such as this one that took place over there and it's your time to sit down and think about those people around you, the people in your family, all around you when we used to come out and dance. I used to dance at one time and I used to just come out that just for the fun of it. But then I found out later on in years,
16:23 dancing was very important. You are dancing for people out there who are sick, people out there who are involved in all this crazy stuff. There's a lot of commitments you have to make when it becomes a singer, there's a lot of commitments that you have to make. You go to the ceremonies and you pray,
16:47 you pray for your people, the sweat lodges, the sun dances, all these things that we have. That's just like what you have. If you see a grass dancer, we always like to in humorous ways. We always say you guys got Michael Jackson, we have a grass dancer.
17:10 You guys got Elvis Presley, we got Kicking Woman singers. So all these things kind of work together. You know, a song that you guys have. You guys got words get caught but we don't, we just sing. That's just all verbal stuff. You have to learn how to use your voice. If you ever pick up a drum, even you, if you picked up a drum and you started to sing it, carry that beat.
17:34 I just came from um, a deal that was for you. 300 students on Federal Way Washington. I just come from there last week and I did a presentation just like this and I asked them, they all made hand drums, whatever school that they came from all the way up to Bellingham.
17:57 all the way along the north coast. They all showed up in Seattle for a workshop. And who did they get? They called me paved my way there and they put me up when I started talking to them about drumming. They were all like, and there were Indian people.
18:21 They've lost that. They've lost that tradition. A lot of the younger people made drums and they looked better than this. They were making drums and you know who they were, they were white kids and the Indian people over there made drums and they were just everywhere.
18:44 And I asked that one boy, I said, can you sing? And he said, yeah, have you been singing? He said, well, I try, I said, show me in front of 300 kids. He got up with his drum and he got singing the song, didn't sound right. But still, he had an idea of what this drum was used for. And I said, I want you to come up here and sing.
19:09 And one of the, one of the students I asked it was from Bellevue, Washington. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the North Northwest coast, but he was from Bellevue and he was an Indian. He said he was part Saquamish and some tribe from BC. And I asked him, you got, you should be pretty good. You got all this blood mixed. You should really be good.
19:33 Why don't you come out there? And he, I asked him, do you want to show me how you can use this drum or come and sit at the drum over here? He said, I can't, I said, let me tell you something, an Indian country in our way. There is no such word as I can't, you're an Indian.
19:56 If you say I can't, the elderly people is going to get mad at you. [speaks Siksiká] and say what means in Indian is that I'm saying to this young man, this young man is good. Well, what are you doing? And it's good that he is carrying it on.
20:19 I asked that young gentleman, I said, if you were in my country and you said, I can't, you're insulting the elders. They don't feel right. And the elders always used to say, if you can chew gum and walk at the same time, you can sing and drum. If you can't, there's definitely something wrong with you.
20:44 That's what we always say. Well, in Indian country, I'll tell you something, humor goes a long way. It's good medicine. You hear some of these emcee people talking in the powwow, they're talking and then they're, they're throwing jokes at you. They're not criticizing you or nothing, but they're throwing jokes at you. Let's to get the people going,
21:07 even the drummers and a big drum. When you got 10 people sitting around that drum, that drum was made out of a full elk hide. Buffalo hides, steer hides, whatever hide you can use. That's what that big drum is made out of. And the hoop is made out of wood. Some of the hoops, the frames are handmade, just like you see that boat sitting out
21:32 there that was handmade. But, you know, and it's good to have these kind of things come here because when I was little, I didn't know who the heck. Uh Lewis and Clark was. And every time I used to talk like this on the highway, I'll be driving down the road and I see
21:55 somebody standing there with a hat on, right gentleman and pointing
22:00 and further down the road, I'd see the same gentleman pointing the other way. I said, um, man, this guy was really lost, I'll tell you. But, you know, that's just something that we need to laugh about. We need to, we don't make fun of it. We don't criticize it. But when I, I'm just talking about how I
22:24 look at it before I even know who knew who he was. I'd be driving down the road and my kids would say, look at that sign, the guy's pointing over that way and we go down the road about another, maybe 20 miles down the road and they say there's another sign and he's pointing in a different direction and I'd say to myself why this guy was lost.
22:45 He was really lost. No wonder why they had, you know, uh, wars and, and running in the Indians. So they didn't know which way they were going. But the Indian people were very wise. The Indian people used to say. And if I can
23:09 walk a mile, if I can save one person, I've saved a million. But I'm going to tell you something. I take my work seriously. I don't fool around with it. Just before I came here, just before I showed up here, I smudged myself with sweet grass which we use.
23:32 And this young man knows that you smudge yourself whenever you're gonna do something and you pray and you ask the Creator watch over me, protect me, guide me. What I'm about to do that it will be OK. I'm doing the best I can to tell you what the significance of the drum is. long time ago,
23:56 we used it to dance this social dancing. We gather up in, in an old hall and we dance nothing else. Just dance. people used to come all over and visit, put food on the floor, sit down there, the elderly ladies wearing bandanas like mine would sit down and make a plate for you
24:17 or sometimes you bring your own. They had these dances, they call giveaway dances. I will not sing any of these ceremonial songs, it's not right in places like this these songs belong in the ceremonial grounds. But I'll tell you just when they come together, they feed you.
24:38 But as time went on in the year of 2000, the Indians started discovering microwave oven, satellite dish, remote control. And you'll notice that every Indian on the reservation has a tummy. What all they do is just sit there. They spoiled us. We can't work no more.
25:02 We can't even get up and pour a cup of coffee and we just hit a button and the coffee starts perking and it's getting, so now you can get hot coffee. You pour hot water, just throw a spoon in there and stir it. Oh, if the elderly people were still here that we lost years ago and seen it, they said, ah, [speaks Siksiká] Which means it's not good
25:26 because a long time ago, if you wanted a cup of coffee, you had to wait almost 2 to 3 hours First you got to go to the creek all the water, bring it over. Get spanked a couple of times. Whacked around, put on coffee stove, put your coffee in there and wait for it to boil. Well, I think this is the reason why all these things come together
25:51 in one circle. We do everything here in circles. We had the four directions. Even our homes are built like four directions.
26:00 But the drum. I don't care where you're at. I don't care where you can be. I'm gonna tell you something. Our traditional Indian ways is everywhere. You can walk in the president's office, you can walk into the oval office and you're going to see a picture of a hand drum sitting up in the President's office.
26:25 This is how powerful the drum is. It's everywhere,
26:30 everywhere. That's in our institute that in our rehab it's in California, that even in Los Angeles and Hollywood, even in Hollywood. But, you know, I used to talk, I used to say that guy there. He's not singing Indian this guy here. He's just, he's just making up that song. But they do have that idea.
26:54 And as for myself, I became a singer in '73 to today. I'm still doing it whatever chance I get. My children grew up with it and now they are out there. My children has put on their Indian outfit and they became champions. You're probably wondering why. Well see he's talking tradition and he's talking champion.
27:18 Well, let me tell you something. When money was introduced in our way, there used to be an old guy. His name was John White Grass. He was very, very, very strict. Don't go to that ceremony. They're not right. Don't go over here. And he used to always tell us these are the kind of songs you sing.
27:41 These are the kind of songs you use. This is what that drum is used for. So this is how we all got our knowledge is from listening to elders. And so when we put on our outfits, money was introduced into our Indian ways. Some of our traditions went out the door. The younger generation today don't really want to
28:05 believe that It's getting so now we have to compete. Money is kinda
28:14 more messed in the way that the way my grandfather would say it's ruining you, it's spoiling you. And we're becoming commercial. Now, we've got people like Hartford, Connecticut, national country tribe, California. All these big casinos are getting involved in it now, millions of dollars
28:38 that's getting. So now this drum is bread and butter on the table for us. That's a job because a lot of our Indian people don't work. All they do is they hit the circuit. It's just like a rodeo circuit. Now, this next song I'm going to do it. It's a song that
28:57 you hear all over the place. That's a song that was way before my time. If I can remember the song while I'm talking about it. It's um I think it was made by John Bear Medicine an old man that used to live out in start school. You can hear him pounding on his house wall and he'd be singing and that old man raised everybody in start school. Even me
29:21 when I had no place to go. When I was small, I went to that old man kids sleeping all over the floor and he enjoyed that. And he used to sit in that house and he'd pound on that wall. You kind of picture that dark house with a kerosene lamp. Little wood stove, just one big room and this, our closet was just a big pile of clothes over here. Whatever looked good, we put it on.
29:45 What that old man used to sit there and sing.
30:14 [singing and drumming] Now these songs are old but they're still here today. People still sing them. I don't care how old it's gonna get when you start passing on your tradition and Indian ways. This is what's gonna happen. Whatever you know, you're gonna tell your people about it when you're already gone
30:36 to the spirit world, they're gonna carry on that tradition you have all traditions that you have yours. I don't care who it is. You tell your kids about it and they pass it on their kids, pass it on. This is how we keep things alive. Well, like I said, when I was small, I didn't know anything about Lewis and Clark.
30:59 When I first drove into town here to come back to our powwow. I've seen this big thing here and I said, what's going on over there? And I met one of the people that work here uh at the swimming pool. He talked to me about it. I said, sure. So I think that
31:22 when you go to a, a reservation, always ask if there's a powwow going on, it's free. You can go over there, take uh take part, have some traditional food, fried bread, all this Indian stuff. When we come to the end of this program, I'm gonna close a song
31:44 with some of the songs that we use. Some of the songs that we use that we sing such as the flag song is similar to yours, the national anthem. These are the songs that we use to start an event and to end it, we always have people that come out, an elderly people,
32:06 person that we will point out to come and close it. This event over here there were drums, thousands of drums, hundreds of drums roaming around over there like this and they were all singing. There's all kinds of beats. A new kind of beat today and has that has a beat
32:28 like that. This man knows that beat, it's, it's a new, new generation of beat drumming. Everything that we do, we can hear it in a different tribe. We'll bring it back home. Oh, that sounds good. Oh, that's awesome. And they start singing and then now we've got round that song and I think um I came across this one guy. He said, um
32:52 I want to sing this. I want to sing a song to you. I said, sure. And he had a big drum and he was, that big drum was sitting on the floor at this. He was leaning on it and he was singing
33:12 and that song went,
33:28 [singing and drumming] And these songs is like social dancing. These songs are made to uh relax you. It's like if you put on an old square dance or an old waltz song.
33:52 Or you heard a song um, with that heartbreaking music, you're gonna feel sad. That's the same way the Indian people think the moment the grass grows, the river flows, things like that. And then they say this guy is pretty well known in Indian country, but he's not a Blackfeet He come from another reservation
34:16 when he made out a CD and he sang solo. Most of his songs were about bingo, reservation cars, snagging. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that word snagging. N in an Indian country is when you uh take your fishing hook out there and you're looking for some fish. But anyway,
34:40 these songs when we come out, we owl dance, we round dance, we rabbit dance everything that we do is according to this animal, that brings us right back to this drum So whenever you hear a drum,
34:59 2000 miles away, you're gonna hear a drum.
35:25 [singing and drumming] any song it could bring you in, bring you people. We call it grand entry. So whenever you go to a powwow, go over there and see what it is. I was taught Indian way
35:45 and I know most of you people have your own way of being taught. But I was taught that whenever you pick up a drum and you start singing, whenever you're getting involved, whatever it is, we need to pay attention to what goes on around us. All of us don't, somebody can say something. Boom
36:09 right in front of you. Half hour later, you're gonna forget about it. What did that guy say? What was he talking about? The old people used to say [speaking Siksika] which means in your world that's déjà vu you'll be doing something and you said I was here.
36:31 But the elderly people long time time ago used to say, [speaking Siksika] The creator has just gave you that opportunity to see forward for a little bit or back. This is why we always wonder when you start singing, Lot of the singers. It's not the computer right here. All the songs are right here.
36:55 What are we gonna sing? How would I do this? Oh They figure it out. They'll have their songs right here. That's the same thing. So whenever you come across the song and you say I've done this before, I was here. I never Indian country. It's a spirit just kind of came to you real quick
37:15 and gave you that opportunity to see forward or back just a little bit. And when I was told a long time ago, I was told you put your stuff down and you pray about it for a little bit. Give thanks. Imagine if we can harness that ability, we'd be dangerous. I mean, we've been so powerful. I mean,
37:39 there are some people today, elderly people that we still have with us today who can actually sit in a sweat lodge and pick up a hot rock. You know, I never used to believe it but I've seen it done where I was brought up. It's what I have today. My knowledge,
38:01 I'm always happy to share it. I'm always happy to pass it on. But that's the way we were taught. This young man. You see sitting here has come from a well known prominent family. His grandpa was designated chief of our reservation.
38:23 Lot of you know who I'm talking about. He's a well known person. He has held the higher up seat for years and years and he was our teacher when you heard that man behind the microphone going [vocalizing] that means he was feeling good about it. He's telling you
38:44 try harder and that drum is really going and everybody is dancing even though he's up there dancing around with his microphone. That's why I say when I ask someone to come and help me, they never turn me down, they never refuse me. I don't care where it's at why it's because you people will know who these people are
39:05 next time you come across Arm and Edwards clean across the country. They're going to say hello. I've seen you in Browning. So, With that. I was just like to say that, you know, it's really been a great honor and I hope that, you know, whenever I talk about here you take it back with you, you store it in your mind.
39:29 So, what I'm gonna do tonight this afternoon is that I had four days of exhaustion working over here because I was a public address system person. So, what I'm gonna do now and I'm going to close, this was a song that we use to close our ceremonies
39:52 to close this session. And so I was just about to say, I really thank you people. These are kind of, these are some of the things that you need to know. These are some of the things that you need to have any time we sing these songs. You are, you are supposed to be gifted. But in this case, I'm gonna ask my,
40:17 uh my cousin here who is going to um help me do this and George will uh uh tell you what, what's gonna happen here to close it. And I thank you folks for taking the time. I thank all of you people that has come and put this up and did this show here. I really thank you for that. And I'm honored to be part of this. And so,
40:41 uh I want to thank George for uh inviting me to come here. Like I said We never refuse our younger people when they asked us to come here. And I'm at the age now where, uh I, I'm, I'm looked upon as an elder and I'm not afraid to share my way. And, uh, one of my people was at the powwow house last night. He said, you're going to go do a presentation over there
41:05 you need a suit and a tie. I said, no, I'm Native American. I'll go just the way I am. [inaudible] that's the way I feel comfortable about it. And again, once again, I want to thank you and those of you that are watching this, I hope you have learned something. Don't be afraid to contact anybody in Indian country. Find out about the significance of the drum.
41:30 And again, in Indian ways they say, [speaking Siksika] Let's give Mr Kicking Woman and Mr Edwards a big round of applause. Thank you, Mr Kicking Woman. Uh We're gonna kinda do an impromptu closing ceremonies here. We've had this uh Corps II here uh at the beginning of July 4th and celebrating, I guess America's birthday and
41:52 we've been working with him the last few days and all the logistical work of getting it set up with Mr Dick Bash and the rangers making sure we had the presenters and your, I think you found if you've been to some of these over the few days at the Black Feet are great orators. It was uh many years ago on the, uh, down at Judith Gap when they were doing the treaty with, uh, uh in 1855 with, uh,
42:17 with Stevenson and he was going to other tribes and making treaties and, and in terms of the land and all that. And there was a gentleman that was with him who has uh relatives on the Black Feet reservation. And his name was Henry Kennerly. He was a clerk that, that uh accompanied Stevenson and he was marveling at, at, at the oratory skills of, of the, of the people there. And he compared them with Roman senators here and get up and talk for,
42:41 for hours and sometimes we do talk for hours and you have to uh cut us off. But, uh, but what, it's what, it's, it, that's our, that's our history and we're, we're known for our prowess to be able to do that. We want to thank, uh, again, uh the National Park Service, the, the National, uh, the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail, uh, all the National Bicentennial Council, the Circle of Tribal Advisor,
43:05 all the people and all these agencies that have put this, this uh exhibition together. They're heading down to the to Crow Country and put, putting up that exhibit. And then it'll be to the, uh, a national signature event and Billings and at Pompey's pillar called Clark on the Yellowstone. So, on behalf of the Black Feet tribe, as the coordinator and my assistant,
43:27 Tony White Grass, we went again, our, our, our glad it's over. We didn't have no hailstorms and our famous winds didn't uh kick up past 35. I understand once it's 35 and they actually have a wind gauge out here, uh crossing their fingers, I guess they close things down. it kind of shows uh how the Park Service are. They are, are ruled by the uh uh
43:48 policies of the government just as we had the experience with the National Guard. It was kind of interesting where we're on our side or a little more laid back and things. So again, thank you for coming to this final event. And if you get the chance as they move on down the river, it's our job now to send them down the river.
44:06 So they're gonna be out here by tomorrow and, and uh again, thank you for coming
44:28 Indian people warriors and we're gonna do a song that was composed uh for just that purpose warrior song. And then we're gonna go into a flag song and uh like I said, George said, you know, we, we're always willing to do what we can to help you guys.
44:50 This warrior song.
44:57 [singing and drumming]
45:48 now the flag song, the Indian national anthem. [singing and drumming]
48:08 thank you very much again. Let's thank Maynard Kicking Woman and Arlen Edwards for coming and sharing with us and thank you for having us as your guest, George Heavyrunner We would like to thank you for putting this on and helping us to come here. We really appreciate all your help. Thank you for having us as your guests onto your reservation. We are going to be here for about another five
48:33 minutes open to the public and then we're going to hope the wind doesn't come up too much and start to take these tents down and move on to our next destination. So again, thank you for joining us and have a pleasant afternoon.