Closed Captions

Three Omaha speakers share stories of cultural continuity and adaptation. Dwight Howe recalls growing up with his grandmother and learning from elders; Pierre Merrick discusses his daughter Emmy's path to medicine and maintaining traditional identity; Ralph Preston explains the diversity of Native American spirituality and contemporary practice, including the sweat lodge tradition and the four spiritual teachings.

Transcript

0:07 Now, our main performance and stage 10 is the 10 of many voices that you're in now. And the 10 of many voices provides a venue for people of all sorts of different backgrounds to come and share their stories and also how they perceive Lewis and Clark or maybe how Lewis and Clark have affected them through history. Uh It is my privilege today to introduce you to our next speakers. We had a little bit of a change in the program today,
0:30 so it's gonna change just a little bit. Our next program will be on Omaha culture and I have three speakers for you. Now, um Mr Pierre Merrick, Mr Dwight Howe and Mr Ralph Preston, so please make them welcome today to the 10 of many voices.
0:49 Good afternoon. My name is Dwight Howe. I'm in Omaha and Ponca Indian from Ponca City, Oklahoma. I currently live in Wa Bay, South Dakota among the Sistan Wap and Sioux tribe, Lake Traverse Sioux reservation near the Minnesota and North Dakota border. It's still spring time up there.
1:14 I'm here today to talk about Native Americans values who we are, who we were, who we are today. Share a little bit. Uh, give the time over to, uh, elder and to my brother Pierre Merrick. We're from the Omaha tribe and we, we'd like to share that and, and, and talk about that a little bit and, uh,
1:37 my nephew and niece are going to be coming up and you'll get to see them as well. We are, we are people that are still here. We don't live in Tepees anymore. We don't hunt buffalo. Um, we're contemporary Indians. We have jobs. Our Children go to school like everyone else. Elementary school, grade school, junior high, high school, college on and on.
2:03 But we do have something that is unique to ourselves is our cultural history and our ties to the past who we are where we come from. It's very important to us as Indian people. I was raised by my grandmother. She was 62 years old when she started raising me and I was 10 months old. And so my earliest recollection in my life was around elders, older Indian women,
2:28 older Indian men. I listen to them talk today. I can understand the language. I can't speak it. I can't converse it. But if someone prays or someone talks, I can pick the words up here and there and I can get an understanding of who, what they're saying and what they're talking about. But growing up around an elder was always kind of fun though. Uh, when I was a kid, I realized that.
2:52 I used to think it was kind of boring because of the way she, she did things. But I see it now, I was really, quite fortunate to be a young man raised by a full blooded Puna Indian woman, a daughter of a chief. She would always introduce me. Every I went everywhere she went, she had a long dress and I'd always just hang on to that dress wherever she went. That's where I went. In fact, there was this one man,
3:15 he was trying to help her and this is a relationship we have in our communities. He told me, uh, when I got a little bit older, I got a little bit more. I didn't want to sit still and I'd run around a little bit. My grandmother was getting a little bit too old to grab hold of me and make me behave. And sometimes I just barely get away from her, you know, and get out of her reach and she liked to play bingo. So we'd go to the bingo hall and I'd be running around and
3:39 I remember one time I even got up there and was standing right next to that man that was calling the numbers because my grandma needed B four. So I was like, really watching and I imagine, I know I was probably a nuisance. He was probably one to that Moose Lodge guy was probably saying, go sit around, you know, but I was really standing right there wanting to looking for B four and so grandma could bingo. But I ran around like that. And uh,
4:03 one time this gentleman, older Indian man, his old man, his name was Joe. Uh um, no, no, that's what I was gonna say, Joe. Harry, but his name was Harry. Last name was, first name was Harry Buffalo Head was his name Harry Buffalo Head. And uh he was a world, he's a renowned singer, an Indian man. He liked to play bingo too. He's always there and he's kind of, uh, uh, old man and he had, uh,
4:29 something, he had something wrong with him. He had had a large chest, I guess he had rickets as a kid, something and it kind of deformed him a little bit. But as a kid, I was kind of scared of him and he said, come here and I went over and looked at him. He says, if you don't sit still, I'm gonna cut your ear off. And with that little pocket knife and I saw that pocket knife and man, that was it.
4:54 Every time I went to bingo or somewhere with grandma, I look for that old mean man. If he wasn't there, I'd play around. But if he was there, he'd point at me, boy, I'd grab grandma's dress, I'd pull it around me and look at him. I was scared of him. And, uh, years later when I came back from Marine Corps boot camp. I was, uh, oh, well, I was actually still 17.
5:19 I went to, uh, to a funeral and there was uh, Harry Buffalo hair. And by that time he'd gotten a lot smaller.
5:30 I had gotten bigger. But, uh I said that, sir, I said, do you know me? And he says, no, I don't. I said my name is Dwight Howe. I said my grandmother is Maddie Hedman. Howe. She raised me and he started laughing. He goes, yeah, I know you. And I said, you know, I said, uh, been scared of you all my life. I said, I'm kinda halfway scared of you right now.
5:52 And he laughed and he, he said, you know, your grandma loved you. She thought the world of you. And, uh I was just trying to help her, you know, make you behave because you were a handful and I appreciate that. And I thank you. And we ended up having a long relationship, a long friendship. He'd introduced me as his friend.
6:14 I'd go to his house and visit with him and he used to sit and do bead work and sing. He was a real, real well known singer of Indian songs, head singer, Papowo. For years. He had been singing since he was 12 years old. His grandpa taught him and he knew the songs and he knew the stories behind the songs and he knew who wrote the song
6:39 and he knew what that song was about and he would share with me some of those things he talked about my grandfather's song, my great grandfather, Kune, he told me, he says what that song meant. He sang it to me and said, this is what they sang this for g but anyway, that's the kind of relationships we have in our community. It's extended. We try to teach one another.
7:02 Now today it's the same example. We try to do things with our nephews, our nieces, our grandchildren, our, our sons, our daughters, and hopefully we try to do it. By example, we want to show them be a living teacher of a compassion, of love, uh uh of, of generosity of kindness. We, we talk about those things. We were raised that way.
7:26 My grandmother would also talk about. I'll tell you another story here. My grandmother talked about uh uh the uh the clan chief's clan in order to be a member of that. They said you have to be able to count to 100. And I don't mean we numb but Duba D or 123 or four, I meant you had to come before that society. Let's say you were that day, that society
7:50 and I came before you and I wanted to join you and be a member of this society. I'd have to bring with me 100 willow sticks and I'd have to lay them down each time I laid one down, I'd have to recount a good deed or something that I did for the people. Something worthy, something helpful. Let's say there was an elder woman, a widow who lost her husband all winter. I provided meat for her.
8:14 I could count that as one, let's say I taught my nephew how to hunt or how to make a bow. I could count that as 1 100 times. Can you imagine today if you were that society and all of you, each and every one of you did 100 good things for each other right here, 100 times. Each of you did that for each other. That's the way our people live before the time of Columbus.
8:39 We practiced being good to each other. Being helpful, being kind. That's what we try to share in our presentations. Uh, it's not always about the savage Indian, attacking the wagon train or, or, uh, or, or stealing the horses or, or, or, or, or at war battling. It was, it was being kind, being good to one another, being a good human being
9:04 and we practice that all the time. One of the things I talk about is our humor. We have a sense of humor. My grandmother raised always had, could laugh at things. She used to always introduce me. As I said, I went everywhere with her and they'd say, hey, Bam, who is that musing? Who is that little boy?
9:23 And she'd say that's my grandson. That's my youngest boy's boy, that's Gene's boy, his mother's not feeling well. She can't raise him. I'm raising him. He lied to other and then pat me on the head and they'd go and we'd go somewhere else and some other people would see me and they'd talk punk. I said, who is that boy?
9:47 And she'd say it again. That's my youngest boy's boy, I'm raising him. She was 62 when I was 10 months old. So she raised me since I was a baby. So I grew up hearing, hearing that every time they talk about me, they said LA cwa, la
10:05 cwa. So I figured, well, that must be my Indian name because they're asking me who I am, then they say LA.
10:14 So I went along in life early life thinking that. So when I got to first grade, I stood up and I'm proud of who I am. I'm an Omaha and PCA Indian. I'm a, I'm a descendant of a chief and all these little white kids are in there. And the teacher, I'm Indian boy that in their first grade. I, I have an Indian name too. And the teacher said my, what is it? I said my name is Light Jwa.
10:40 And so school ended and I went home and I went to grandma and I said, grandma, look, I said, we had to take a nap and we ate cookies and we played and I made this and, uh, we had a lot of school is fun. I really liked it. Grandma. And she said, that's good. That's good. I said, I told him my Indian name too and she looked at me and she said, hey, you don't have Indian name,
11:05 what you say? And I said, I told her my name was La Jade. She said you're not pitiful. You quit saying that.
11:15 I thought that was, I thought for all that time, I thought that was my name. Pitiful. Mom's not raising him. Grandma's got to raise him poor thing. But that's what I thought that was my nickname. But I've long since quit saying that that's not my Indian name. I wanted to uh I wanna turn this over. We've got a short time of three prisoners, but I wanted to be brief about uh my part in this, my brother Pierre and I,
11:41 we come from the La Flesche family. I'm in Omaha named Ponca. My mother's Omaha. I'm enrolled under carry La Flesche. His father, grandfather Joseph La Flesche and was the chief among the, the Omahas. And I'm always, I've been very proud of my ancestry and I'm glad to share with you today what little time I had with you here at this time.
12:06 Uh are my ancestry and a little bit about my, my people. But I want to leave with you that, that one thought that we are compassionate people, a humorous people, but we are a spiritual people as well. My grandmother would pray every day in the morning. I'd hear her pray and I'd say grandma, I said, you sure pray a lot.
12:27 And she said, oh, Dana. No, I don't not. Compared to them old ones, the old people, for them, every breath was a prayer. This was the time before Columbus, you know that she was referring to. They knew then that there was a creator that made everything that made all of us that were all related. So I'll leave you with that. And I turned over to my brother Pierre Mary.
12:58 I know. Hello.
13:03 I know,
13:09 I know.
13:12 Hello. I know.
13:19 Hey, I know.
13:22 Oh,
13:25 I know
13:30 the
13:32 day
13:39 I,
13:41 oh
13:44 I don't.
13:48 Oh oh, my name is Pierre Merrick.
13:53 My Indian name, my Omaha name is Sigo Haga.
13:59 And the meaning of that is um translated to English is uh the shaggy part of Buffalo's ele. That's what I like to say back home. They, they uh other Omahas would say it means brown ankles. So uh but I come from the in cases of by people amongst the Omaha,
14:24 the black shoulder buffalo people. We have several clans within our tribe. We have uh uh we call this the hooligan, the sacred circle. We have uh clans that in relation to the sky and also clans in relation to the earth.
14:44 I wanted to speak about um
14:48 as Omaha people, this city was named after the Omaha people. When the European people came here, the people that lived in this area,
15:02 the people that I find it hard to say owned this area. We didn't say that
15:11 we had hunting territories we had established clear to Sioux Falls. South Dakota cross Nebraska, Western Iowa. Northern Kansas was known as Omaha hunting territory. Today, we live up here 80 miles north of the city, the Omaha Indian reservation.
15:35 We have uh 31,000 acres of land. Our original reservation was uh designated a lot more than that. In 1887 the allotment Act affected us all across America, the Indian people, all Indian nations. What happened was I guess that uh uh easy uh
16:01 a way to say it is they allotted every mad woman and child on the reservation 80 acres within our boundaries that was designated, there was thousands of acres,
16:13 there wasn't enough or there was, was it enough Omahas to cover 80 acres to take all that land that was designated to us? So instead of they could have said, well, give them more than 80 acres to make sure all this land belongs to them. But instead they said, well, whatever uh is left over, we're gonna call it surplus land
16:37 and that land is open for sale to anybody. So today that gives us a checkered board effect on our reservation where it becomes jurisdictional issues too. So people were able to come and buy land within our reservation. That's how we exist today. And we exist. We coexist as best we can. Um, we part of our,
17:03 uh, presentation is healing is what we like to talk about healing. We don't, this is history today. Let's look forward for our Children for the ones that are unborn. Let's knock down these barriers. Let's do the right thing for our kids. Let's live together on mother earth. I wanna show some pictures here. These pictures are pictures of, um,
17:28 my daughter,
17:31 her name is Emmy. She, recently this year graduated from, uh, high school in South Sioux City, Nebraska.
17:43 Uh, she's, um, 18 years old, can't drive a car. I think that's good.
17:55 But she's their average person. And what we hope to show by these pictures is that we on the, on the reservation,
18:04 like my brother said, the same creator made us all. We're the same. Emmy enjoys music, movies, likes to go to the mall.
18:15 Uh, she has other things that she does. We try to keep her in touch with her traditional ways. She's a dancer. Her mother decided when she was in the second grade
18:27 that it was best for Emmy to go to school at the school. That was, uh, north of us. South Sioux City Nebraska where, uh, that school, there was no Indians or a handful. She was able to learn, sitting side by side with Children that were of other races of other skin color
18:48 and Children don't know that Children don't recognize that they're innocent she was able to compete to learn to uh play, to make friends. And um in hopes her mother had was so that she would be able to be a, a positive person in the community when she became an adult. Let me also attend uh
19:12 summer school program in um Grand Forks, North Dakota. Since she was in the seventh grade, this program uh was called Indians in medicine and it was uh offered to Children who may be looking at going in the field of medicine when they uh graduate or uh from college and things like that. Uh Me wants to go on and higher education
19:36 and become a doctor. Her mother, my wife, her name is Kim. Uh Kim is a um, uh commission corps officer in the military. She's a lieutenant commander. She works for the Winnebago Indian Hospital in Winnebago, Nebraska. That's where we live. So ma wants to be a doctor and wants to follow the, the footsteps of that. And uh I also have a son, his name is Marlon
20:02 who this year was M A's last year at the in Med program because she's a senior and it was M Marlin's my son, Marlo's first year, he's in the ninth grade. So now Marlon is gonna hopefully be involved with NME until he graduates from high school. We push our kids to higher education,
20:24 try to make every opportunity available to them, to encourage them that they need to move in that direction. So, uh we give them all that and uh we try to keep them in touch with their, with their other identity as being a native. And
20:48 so we try to, uh keep her involved in, uh, around home and the powwow and try to take her to the DATs that, uh our, our tribe is involved with the Winnebago tribe and the Omaha tribe, her mother's Winnebago in Spokane. So that's what we do with em. A and Marlon try to give them that opportunity and encouragement, positive.
21:12 And this is a, this awareness isn't just with my family. This awareness is to today across America, an Indian country. Indian parents have. Now the, the, we're trying to push our Children in that direction. We realize that we have to move that way with our Children for them, for their sake,
21:35 for the unborn ones, they have to be pushed in that direction. There's also pictures here of Emmy and, uh, her traditional dress.
21:49 Uh, she was, um, honored by the Winnebago Veterans Association to be the 2003 Power Princess during that year. And, um, to do that, she had to, you know, they, we encourage our Children to be drug and alcohol free to be upstanding in the community and the school. So, ey was she fulfilled that commitment.
22:13 She did it very well, very proud of her. And, um, to see some of these pictures, a lot of these things, she wears her mother give to her things are handed down. Then also she has a fan that she dances with. I gave that to her when she was a little little girl. It's a Winter Hawk fan and we don't, um, these, these things like this,
22:38 we don't put a money value on them things, you know, these are very sacred things and we try to be traditional. So with this fan, uh I traded a real good German Shepherd for that fan.
22:54 But the other thing she has, uh they were handed down or uh either made by her mother. This is Emma at her Taekwondo outfit. She uh also participates in that taekwondo. Her and my son, uh my son, Marlon is a black belt and she's uh in here, she's a red belt, but recently she's uh became a brown belt. Her next step is a black belt. Um
23:18 This is, this is a type of sport that demands uh a lot of uh discipline and Emmy, uh we travel with her or her mother does mostly and her auntie over the years take her to this practice. Her and Marlon every three times a week and sometimes Saturday morning, they get up and they go and uh Emmy competed with uh
23:40 in several events where it's full contact and we kind of recognize that she was running into the same girl to fight with every time because there's not too many 18 year olds that will stay with this kind of discipline. Uh, so, uh, a lot of 18 year olds would rather be out riding around or out at the mall or doing whatever. But, em, a was very, very, um,
24:03 adamant about, uh, being involved with Taekwondo. This is, this is what she does and this is to show the parents, the Children, uh, the elders, uh, that we, we, the Omaha that live just north of here. You know, we, we're very much the same as anybody else. We have the same ideas. We want good things for our Children and our grandchildren.
24:26 We want, we have the same desires for our Children to be, to be uh positive and to be able to earn a good living in their life. Uh I'd like to take a moment here to introduce my family if they come up here here.
24:58 This is my son, Marlon. Marlon is a grass dancer. Um He's been dancing ever since. He probably could walk same with Emmy. And uh this is Emmy
25:10 and uh we're very proud of her. This is Kim.
25:16 I wanted to, I wanted to show this and to let people know that, you know, we, we're, we're uh living in a time where we're ha we're having a hard time. We're struggling with uh our language, we're struggling with many things. But our, what song that's really priority prioritized in our life is our identity as who we are. So, um
25:41 I would like to Thank my family. This is Kim, my wife and um
25:49 I'd like to thank them for because generally they don't come with me and we're close to home and I've been traveling with the uh Corp and it's a real honor for me to have them here. Um They were just dancing last, last night at their power in Winnebago and uh I'm very, very proud of them. So, um I wanted to,
26:10 to do that today and it's very honor for me to be able to do that with you. Thank you.
26:21 I also uh like to take uh some time here to introduce uh one of our uh tribal elders. Um His name is Rocky Preston and he lives here in Omaha. Well, he lives back home. He did live in Omaha but he moved back home up in on the reservation. But he's one of our, our spiritual leaders and I'd like to introduce you to him.
26:51 I don't get up as quick as I used to years ago. I've been a little slow but um I like to welcome everybody your, your kind attention and I, I appreciate your, your tenant uh trying to gain an understanding about my uh my people and nation. And I really, I really appreciate the, the young people there,
27:12 the young lady and her brother, it's encouraging us to us elders, to us, older ones to, to see this carried on very important to us. But I like to my name is Ralph Preston. I'm a member of the Omaha nation and I'd like to talk, uh, a little about, uh, what is a Native American or ended? What is the definition
27:37 of a Native American? I say native American. I realize that a lot of, um, all about Italian people. Polish and Irish born in this country. Uh, their, their grandparents were born here and they're, in fact Native Americans as well.
28:06 Ok. Uh, I grew up here in Omaha, went to the public schools and at that time was pretty much referred to as Indians uh in the, in the city. And a lot of times that that term was used in a um kind of a disrespectful way. Uh
28:27 Today, I realize that a lot of uh as people are we uh native American is, is more acceptable. What I wanna kind of leave with you a thought about what is a Native American. And I use an example about if you went to a country over overseas where there's no native Americans, um
28:52 They're not familiar with our culture, they only rely on the movies and TV, and magazines. And if he was to ask them uh to describe a Native American, what is a Native American? They'd probably say uh a dark complected person with high cheek bones, uh black hair braids and maybe a feather, uh blanket.
29:15 Uh It's pretty much a description of a native American. They would have, we've got uh we've got a lot of different tribes with different physical characteristics. What, what they described was pretty much for, uh, a plains Indian. Although we've got uh different tribes and different nations with different parts of the country. The Pueblos and Navajos Eskimos
29:41 a little different and not a lot of the tribal people would wear feathers. So I wanna share with you that there's, uh there's some differences when we talk about native Americans, not only with the dialect, tribal names, tribal customs, but today in uh modern times, we also have what we call traditional
30:04 Indian people, traditional Native Americans as opposed to nontraditional. Kind of explain a little bit about what a traditional is. Is he a person? He or she, who knows the language, the clan customs, the spiritual teachings, native American spiritual teachings
30:27 and even the uh the old Native American form of worship, which was before Christianity. Um and has a uh the tribal name that's pretty much a, a traditional Native American person who knows those old ways and practices them, believes them, believes in them and
30:49 embraces them in their everyday life as much as possible in uh modern day society. Then we have native Americans who, who feel that those ways, those old ways are in the past. They're of no use to that to us today. We have to be assimilated into uh modern day society to get along as best we can. And
31:15 this is what we need. They, they don't see a need for the language. They don't have Indian names. Uh They don't know the songs and pretty much pretty much assimilated. So that when you talk about a native American, there's those are those differences, uh mainly traditional and nontraditional, there's also some native Americans who
31:39 will try to uh embrace both cultures as much as possible, which is not easy. Uh So I, I wanted to kind of leave that thought with you about the definition of a Native American. It's hard to define um because of the uh different tribes. I, about 25 years ago,
32:05 I wanted, I wanted um to understand more about how my people worshiped before uh Christianity. I realized we had some form of wor wor worship. We had an altar. I realized that, but I wanted to know what it was if the creator put something down here,
32:28 sacred altar for us to have. And I, I wanted to know what that was and I wanted to practice that. And I, I was baptized in the Lutheran Church. My folks are members of the Native American church. I grew up with that. I didn't always practice those teachings, but I respected them, but I wanted to know what we had
32:53 a long time ago and I, and I felt the creator gave us something sacred here. I want to know what that was. I wanted to understand it and I wanted to practice it. And about 2526 years ago, I met a young man Olala
33:10 Lakota from South Dakota and he came to Omaha and I met him here and he happens to be a what they know, know what they call a medicine man. But in the true sense, those people are just merely interpreters. They interpret our spiritual teachings to us and they help with healing ceremonies.
33:36 And I met him and I came to uh understand about what that old way was that old altar. And I went to my first ceremony with him here in Omaha, the sweat lodge, the ep went there to worship. It was all new to me. But I was II, I it just captured me right then.
34:00 And since then, I've been a part of that, that old way of worship. And, and I understand about Christianity, Native American. I have the utmost respect for it. There are some differences but that's the, that's the way of worship that I follow today. And there is a prayer with that
34:22 which is in, in English. It's, it's uh all my relations. Uh The Lakota Sioux is a meta
34:31 uh the Omaha people say, hey with the won there, which means all my relations. And that's a prayer. That's how we start our ceremonies and that's how we end our ceremonies with that prayer. All my relations, which means not only are a nation of people with all the other nations, the nations from Europe as well.
34:56 We're all related. And not only those are the two legged people would two legged nation, the humans, but the four legged as well. The animals, the buffalo, the deer, they're the four legged nation and also the nation with wings. We include them as our relatives
35:20 and the nation that stands rooted to mother earth, the trees, the plants, plants that give us medicine. Those are our relations. So I look out here and I, I see people who some of you could be part Native American. You could have some Native American
35:42 ancestry in the past. Maybe quite a few of you. I have a, a granddaughter who is enrolled at the uh Santi Sioux tribe. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. And, you know, by looking at a person's features, it's hard to tell if they're Native American, uh sometimes.
36:03 So we're not always, not, all of us are native Americans are dark complected with braids and dark hair and high cheek bones. There are some differences. So I wanted to share that with you that thought with you that about the definition of a Native American. And getting back to um to my, uh
36:27 form of worship, the teachings. Uh We regard you as our relatives. We're all related, you're included in our prayers. And I'd like to um share that with you in our closing. And I wanna thank you for, for being here, your kind attention and I appreciate the
36:51 little ones being here they're very important. They might not realize exactly what we're saying, but it will come to them as they, as they grow older. And
37:05 what I really appreciate with our teachings, with the, with our altar.
37:12 Our ceremonies are important. The Sundance, the fasting and the isolated area for four days and nights. Our uh uep ceremonies are important. But to me, what is most important is the, is the teachings that we have the spiritual teachings. To me, that is the the the soul
37:37 of our altar.
37:40 And I, I'd like to share with you that part of the teachings that the most important thing. The most important prayer is good health.
37:51 That's the most, that's the number one, that's the most important prayer for good health, for all our relations, including that water, good health of the mind and the body. That's the first one. There's four of them. The second one is understanding.
38:11 It's so important to get understanding. And that's what we're trying to create here. A little understanding between us. Very important, makes a big difference. And that's our second important prayer. The third is help what we might, the help that we might need in our everyday lives. And the last prayer is happiness.
38:36 It's so important, so valuable that uh even a moment of happiness. So these things iii I appreciate being able to share with you to kind of promote that little understanding. Uh I wish we had an opportunity to, to hear from you, your background, your understanding and your beliefs,
39:00 uh, uh, that it would make a big difference to, to all of us. But, uh, this has been a good day for me and I want to thank my relatives. Oh,
39:11 all of you. So today I wanna, I wanna thank you. And I wanna, uh, ask my two relatives to, to join me in a song to you as a way of thanking you. And it's also a song for you. It's uh, it's from the Lakota people. It's commonly called the four directions. There's words to it to our grandfather,
39:37 creator and our spiritual beliefs. So you can I ask you to help me sing the four directions to our, to our relatives here?
39:50 Uh uh,
39:53 well,
39:56 ok.
39:59 Do, oh no. Hey. Oh,
40:12 hey,
40:16 hey.
40:18 Oh,
40:21 I hate to. Ok.
40:27 Hey,
40:29 you was out.
40:34 Oh my. 00,
40:41 I to
40:46 Hey,
40:50 hey,
40:52 so that,
40:56 oh,
40:58 ok. Hey,
41:04 we
41:08 so
41:11 alright.
41:15 Oh, hey, dude. Hey,
41:19 hey.
41:25 Oh,
41:27 yeah. Oh,
41:31 hey, ok. Hey,
41:35 a
41:38 ok.
41:40 Oh,
41:44 oh,
41:46 I
41:47 to
41:49 ok.
41:51 Hey,
41:55 kik, I, oh, hey, do.
42:07 Ok, I can't. Ok.
42:11 No,
42:16 I say, oh,
42:20 hello.
42:25 You take care.
42:29 They came, oh, they do
42:38 talk with us all my relations. Thank you. Hope,
42:42 ah, you,
42:50 we wanted to, we want to end this with a brief question and answer time. But prior to that kind of just sum that up there are over 511 federally recognized tribes in the United States with over 300 different dialects. So we are a diverse group of people ever changing and evolving. The last census said,
43:13 even though there's over 2.5 million Indians in the United States, over half are 30 below. So we are a young culture is changing and evolving. And when we see my niece and nephew wearing their traditional clothes that warms my heart because it ensures that another generation is carrying that on. So maybe by the time when I'm dead and gone
43:37 and their elders, they will teach that to their Children and their children's Children. That's in our prayers that we talk about. Can we have we have time for some questions, please feel free to raise your hand. Uh Charles there, Ranger Charles will bring the microphone around. Anything that you might have any questions. There's one right here, Charles
43:59 to say
44:03 co
44:06 it was a prayer to all the directions and for the people, just what he had said about the different directions in the people. It was a prayer.
44:17 Any other? There's a little boy right there. What does cakey IO mean take your eye, take your eye. Health is not healthy.
44:30 Yeah. Well, how take is for health? That was like a prayer was in there. We kept saying it over and over and that's what the prayer was, what he talked about. Understanding and health. That's a good question. Yeah. Any others
44:46 you know, we're we're really glad. Oh, we got one more. Ok.
44:50 Get this one. First.
44:54 I was raised up to Boone County Nebraska where Logan Fontanelle was killed by the Sioux and my parents, you know, would tell me about, you know, the history of the, the things that happened in that part of the county, in the country. So that's probably the most I have, you know, within your culture.
45:19 Thank you for sharing that. Logan Fell. The grandson was just here.
45:25 Big Thai Indian guy, right? Yeah. Yes. Did you just mention a moment ago that you had the Federal government's recognition of being a tribe? Excuse me? Did you just mention that the federal government, you had the recognition of being a tribe, right? Did I just mention that there are over 511 federally recognized tribes?
45:47 Well, my question is why do you need the Federal government's recognition to be a tribe? It was, it was, it's about the resources and the land and having control over that they needed to before we didn't have any boundaries, Mexico, Canada. There wasn't no such things. Nebraska, Arizona States, they needed to do that to gain control the land and the resources.
46:09 That's why I think we're in the Department of Interior with Minerals Land and Parks, the Bureau of Indian Affairs because there's no other race, the United States that has that relationship with the United States government. And it was basically to gain jurisdiction over us and to give us a label.
46:29 That's my personal opinion. Any other.
46:34 Well, on behalf of my relatives here, Rocky Preston and my brother Pierre Merrick, I I say thank you so much for your time. They won
46:49 once again, I'd like to thank these gentlemen for taking time out to come and speak to us today. Um,
46:57 at four o'clock, Mr Ron Thurbert will be on the Mormon trail.

Tent of Many Voices

Dwight Howe, Pierre Merrick, and Ralph Preston on Omaha culture and values

Dwight Howe

Omaha

47:03

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Dwight Howe, Pierre Merrick, and Ralph Preston on Omaha culture and values

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