Closed Captions

A panel of Omaha Nation speakers—Hollis Gerber, Maxine Parker, Jim Ken Robinson, and others—share personal histories, family traditions, and cultural practices. Topics include boarding school experiences, traditional medicine and clan teachings, language preservation efforts, and the role of ceremony in contemporary life. The speakers reflect on reservation life, family resilience, and efforts to maintain Omaha cultural identity for younger generations.

Transcript

0:04 In addition to the main tent attend many voices here, we do have our exhibit tent as well as the Plains TV and also our kill boat display out. Uh, today, we're gonna have a special treat. Uh, we're gonna have what we call a panel discussion, and it's titled Memories of the Old Ones. So without any further ado, we're gonna go ahead and start our program.
0:28 This hooked up?
0:31 You are.
0:33 Go ahead. I used to be in uh communication when I was in the ranger in Fort, but we had a lot of water that pulling on them. Yeah
0:44 all wire we carry on the back that I gonna hurt carry a lot of wires on.
0:50 My name is Hollis Ger.
0:52 um I'm maybe 7 years old and I'm a little old. All that I have just
1:00 a little fruit. I wanna see people first. Oh no
1:04 Dad, keep that up. My mother was on the house. But she had a, a grandmother that was half French and half Omaha,
1:15 and, and she was daughter, granddaughter of Pierre George, a Frenchman who We lived in Sioux City, and all around the city. And do that. He helped the uh two spy that came out in the park. So I don't know how you connected to you.
1:38 I was an interpreter for a while. We're kind of
1:44 related to. Um, I like to move my hands when I talk.
1:51 Um
1:53 My mother, you know, and, and my mother and dad got married, they decided to be the reservation and we left. She took me and my brother and my sister. We moved to Rosalie first. Then to Sioux City. And my dad worked for Hempford Cree.
2:14 For 7 years and he played ball, baseball board with them and they broke through the window.
2:23 And semi-professional I think they call it. Anyway, he was the first ones to do that. Uh, he was also, uh, a good ballplayer. He played with, uh, Jim Thorpe and a roommate that car off.
2:39 Anyway, from the, from, uh, she moved to Lawrence because I told my dad that if you stay here, you're gonna get tuberculosis, tuberculosis. Working in premium So they moved, oh he got a job, applied for a job with a man named Green, Green Construction, and he had a job of
3:03 making a Tania University Stadium, and we moved to Lawrence. And I we were there quite a while and finishing with building uh same at
3:16 KU and they start building one that has po. So we were there about 5 years, like 4 or 5 years.
3:23 And then we decided to go to Oklahoma and we lived in Oklahoma, and I went to school it so.
3:31 Plus. Uh, continue on.
3:34 And then they decide that I should go away to school and send me to Wal
3:40 to go into school.
3:42 Presbyterian mission. So that's how come you to be a, a Presbyterian and
3:52 publisher.
3:57 I, I married a girl from Texas, her mother. And it was not Indian, but she became Indian. And uh her father to emphasized to me that he was English settlement. And uh he was there for and
4:15 I found the Texas people from Texas.
4:18 And um
4:21 Uh
4:22 if he and I got married, we were married 52 years.
4:29 Um, I got a, I I was in the service too. I've been in the army in 19.
4:36 Let's see. 19, 1938, I went to the service in the National Guard. Then, uh, um, I got out of school, I graduated from Harlem High School. I decided I couldn't get a job anywhere. They don't, they don't hire any, you know, I have a hard time. So I'm understanding black people are having a hard time they don't do that.
5:02 So anyway, I left you up here to see my, I get on the mirror up here. And she had a missionary, Mrs. Van Clee, driving, or Mrs. Van Clee said she was driving through the city. And the missionary information. And she took me up there and um I joined them on while I tried to get the marine and said.
5:28 17 more times 2 and 17 more. I wasn't been skinny back then.
5:36 Oh
5:38 So I went to the navy. I take him, but I 44, everybody joined the Navy.
5:46 I went to the army and I look at him and just sign here.
5:51 And we in the Air Force because I was in high school graduate. I said no, I don't like to get any further. From the ground on top of.
6:03 Oh I said I want to go to the caver. And I actually, uh, they send me to the 1 cay in Monterey, California. And I uh.
6:17 And you don't know it, but when Ronald Reagan was the 2nd lieutenant.
6:21 Nobody paid any attention here, but his wife used to come and me to watch her.
6:33 He's way. No way. What's her name? No, not
6:43 Jane and, uh, I remember one Sunday. Um
6:47 Moon actress is a good go and big white cattle out, you know, they had the, the dresses that the fur around the flower get that
7:01 war and went hard and on.
7:05 Great way letters do work.
7:08 Anyway, uh,
7:11 Is 3 years in that time.
7:13 I have a lot of, I like those cats, and it's too bad they had to go away. Well, I think they sent me the last horse
7:22 mounted vehicle.
7:26 Yeah Mechanized Before that, I had um Made 2 long rides, one long ride from
7:36 Lake Marina near San Diego to
7:42 A city down in the bottom of the desert, what is it called uh
7:46 Right.
7:48 What temple Yeah, well, from Tampa, knows that, you know, sitting and we get here. I can't think it was.
7:57 Then later on we came back and uh You get the right
8:03 Monterey and San. Before they had a road, you know, when they were on the road. And I was in machine gun squad and we had a pack horses.
8:16 Um And the reason why I was, I was always associated with radio and things. I do
8:26 anyway. Then we went up to Seattle, Washington, and Eleanor was there and we put on a formal garden, and that was nice and I remember all that.
8:42 But the only thing that happened is when the person goes around in a walk. People go missing
8:50 Nixon and Trump.
8:54 And thirdly we go and gay.
8:57 But the only thing is, we just got to fixing our rigging with uh It sounds good. It's start raining. And you couldn't hold back.
9:11 I can't be running in circles. And I thought, well, what are we gonna do? We had a pack horse, so another guy named Alan. He was another side of the pack horse.
9:23 I probably wouldn't stop. And then we right in front of the big park and they had a, we went into that and there's a big tree there and falling out.
9:34 like this.
9:36 With your girl.
9:39 I thought they just stopped but the horses was right on the Allen horse tripped.
9:46 They were fighting over there and so did the horse, you know. And we had um, our first heard was a uh Polish
9:55 ra ra. And he used to be a captain in the post cavalry, so we get everything but the numbers or what I pay you that. And I said, let that guy go see that horse is all right.
10:09 Oh, I don't think it's all set up.
10:15 I like, oh well, one day he came up to me and he said that. We uh
10:22 You go on a double date with me. I'm the kind of guy wants to do a double date. All right.
10:29 Where you gonna go, you see? Then I'll come after you. Lyon hated.
10:36 You are, you know,
10:41 we talk, let us talk anyway. We went down and I was going to meet the girls down over here in Monterey. Everybody's been there.
10:51 That way on the south side of all those shacks used to be, and Japanese used to be Japanese system. And let that go.
11:03 Not that
11:04 we're going to more shooters you couldn't fight or fight the I the enemy.
11:13 But they're nice and that grows. I often wonder what happens to them when you, when you get all excited.
11:23 Anything else?
11:26 If it cuts through.
11:39 Oh there you are.
11:43 I.
11:48 Good afternoon. My name is uh Maxine Aga Parker. I see, Nebraska? And um I'm 66 years old and I'm a full-blooded O demon.
12:00 I see my father is Fran Parker senior and my mother is Jude Robinson Walker.
12:07 I was uh
12:11 Raised in May. We went to a home.
12:17 The reason why we left home because of those little jobs around here. And um my stepfather of mine raised me here and his name was Henry Walker and um She used to farm in the winter time. We had a hard time. We didn't have no groceries. My mother kind of garden, put him in cellar for can. She used to plan a lot.
12:41 No
12:43 I've, I've belong to a Native American church and um I'long to, uh, I go to uh sweats
12:51 and ceremony. And I also want to uh first church that been baptized during 19.
12:58 Like uh if you want.
13:01 No.
13:04 Uh, at, uh, my youngest, I can remember, uh, when I was a little girl, I had a grandfather. And then Charlie Parkeraka Mason. And I learned a lot from them byways. He told me about that GP. And staff, everything that goes with it.
13:31 And uh talking about this uh old tobacco.
13:33 Cedar
13:35 activity and the holes and ropes and everything. And uh today, I, I've heard a lot of things about that church and uh
13:48 A member of Um, my folks have tea. We used to pick corn or farmers nearby. They used to take it across the river and
14:00 he is used across the river, the, the river is to, uh, we used to, uh, continue this go througher horses and horseshoe and they had a blacksmith here in Macy who spoken for horseshoe and uh horses and a lot of people, a lot of our people
14:23 took shortcut for the ones that course they do.
14:25 Mhm
14:28 And well,
14:31 We went to a lot of uh hand games, I call it hand games as uh among our activities, uh, social matter.
14:44 Sometimes I used to be anxious so I can get something to eat because we read a number a lot of times, you know, when we were small.
14:52 Like he said, you know, the job will hard to get, you know. White people, we have, we was lucky that we have some good neighbors or the white people that my dad farmed and pick up corn. And all my like oats.
15:10 Anyway, I started, uh,
15:13 right today, and I also kind of sorry. I didn't get my education, but I'm gonna start 8th grade and I got my GED when I come back to Macy and I worked for the department. I was gonna work for nursing home.
15:27 I'll look here and there You
15:32 With my own living and stuff that I'm not. I like to uh take care of my own staff. I want a good job. Today, I'm not working on Social Security, and I heard uh that my seniors volunteer work.
15:52 But anyway, you know, I've been told my life today and um I, I don't like to say this, but I'm gonna tell you I was a recovering alcoholic, you know, I went for treatment, I went for help. I mean how many times I was in a lot of treatment centers. Today I've been sober 8 years and. I
16:16 was, uh, here was the ceremonies I go to uh sweat and we go and sacrifice. We pray to God
16:26 for help. Mhm
16:29 A church service, you know.
16:32 And I get, you know, right now I have salt and I can sit, you sacrifice all night and I can sit up all night like I used to. That's what got me sober. You know Well you know, I'm really happy today. I know what I'm saying, I know what I'm doing, you know.
16:51 So I this money in my pocket.
16:54 myself.
16:58 Before that, you know, I used to go on kind of dirty, you know, like everybody else, you know, like at all, you know. Everyone has told me they said Before we come to talk about myself, that's what I'm doing.
17:12 So anyway, you know, when I was in Omaha, all I had that drinking probably real bad.
17:19 Every morning I wake up, I look for the next drink, but today I don't have to do that. They did not go to the right place or something you know uh
17:31 people are, you know, solvers
17:35 that I come I'm thinking in my to today. You know, now, you know, um, I lost my mother and my dad died, you know, young, very young. He didn't raise him, but he's still my father and him and my brother both, uh, my brother went in service when he was really young because there was no jobs, you know, he couldn't get more jobs, so he just went in service and he came back.
18:01 It's all good things to say, but, you know, I really enjoyed it around here. I enjoyed my people, all my people. I like the ways, you know, sometimes people ask me about Quebec police or Omaha work. I said no. I, this is why I was born and raised. Yeah, I call it.
18:24 But you know, uh
18:27 Sometimes I also. The 1st 1st thing I do is, uh, go to a church, talk to a minister and sit and visit, talk about the I.
18:39 I have.
18:43 Anyway, I'm glad that they asked me to come here here. He is a good friend of mine. You know, him and I talked a lot about that in American church. The one thing he asked me to talk to that out of out to the school, but I think
19:01 in no time.
19:03 I think I was drinking and the last one,
19:06 but anyway, you know, um.
19:11 I don't know what else, you know, all the things saved, you know, some good and some bad, but, you know, I gotta talk about my good places, forget about the bad, and
19:22 you got to in the clean here.
19:25 I've never uh
19:27 Um, right here, you see out here. We stop picking neckweeds. Netfli, we eat netweeds with soft pork I saw little bacon or something those things too.
19:38 That was out of uh food we want food.
19:43 Luis the back here. Themselves We go get gooseberries and rice berries and everything when we were small. My mother used camels and used to during the wintertime with fabrics that was all biscuits.
20:00 Great.
20:04 Anyway, there's uh now we can't even go and get any goose bears and it's all fenced up. It's got to keep on the. When I went in there one day any women.
20:18 I was like a tomboy anyway, I went in there and went way down and got myself some gooseberries and brought it back up that hill. But now I don't think I could even. Go down there anymore, but I won't be able to come back up that hill.
20:32 We talk about that high.
20:38 I used to ride horses. I was swing
20:43 I played um I was in sports in Oma, I play volleyball, basketball, but I'm not gonna to do that.
20:53 But we are, is my time up?
20:57 OK, thank you.
21:08 OK, yeah.
21:12 to
21:14 Yeah To shut down.
21:17 OK.
21:23 I want to say hello to everyone.
21:31 Can you hear me?
21:35 Well, my name is uh Jim Ken Robinson. Um, my name is Robinson. And one more,
21:45 almost 4. And
21:49 I got married at the age of 18. I had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls.
21:59 Yeah.
22:02 My plan is uh
22:06 Spoke of friends
22:14 In case,
22:17 in case of.
22:20 So that means uh the shoulders of the buffal and it's kind of red light right here. That pertains to that. A
22:33 So in case she this, yeah, she's.
22:37 The tase you. I
22:45 You know, uh, clan chef, there was. We were not supposed to, do not touch, you know. Do not touch and uh.
22:58 We had like the We didn't touch, uh, when we build fire on the ground and there's charcoal, we don't touch that either. And then we don't touch uh Lasei. That means uh some kind of red paint. That they put on there, the Indians, old Indians. We don't touch that either. No touch them.
23:24 And then
23:27 I had an Indian name given to me pertaining to Buffalo. Um, my in the name was, uh,
23:37 To the
23:39 money. That means looking for her own. Looking for her own little ones to know, yes. And uh
23:52 Uh, I'm a subgene off from the regular 7 plants.
23:59 I'm a subgen off on them.
24:01 And then uh
24:04 I used to have a Oh lady That state was my mother and her, her name was uh Emily Star.
24:15 And and it was on the lay. The old lady taught me a lot. She used to take me up on the hillside like that and dig up books, medicine, in medicine. She then had a seasoning father that she used to make. That's the only one I can remember.
24:35 Um
24:37 She had some healing medicine that she used to use like sad and
24:45 Mhm. She taught me a lot of things, you know, in the old ways, traditional ways.
24:53 She one day she told me, she said, come down, sit down. She never sits on chairs or anything like that. She used to sit on the floor in the blanketil. She told me to come and sit by her and she's been told.
25:07 Talk to me about teaching. And she told me not to uh make anybody have a headache. As I go along and grow up in life, and I said, what do you mean, Grandma? What do you mean by that? And she said,
25:24 What I mean is that she talked to me and she said, what I mean by that is, don't be. Trying to steal somebody else's husband
25:40 and he's straight to me.
25:43 I, I always remember that. And then another one too, she said, don't have no children without a man. That's what she told me you do. So I, I always remember that, you know. So that's when I got married when I was 18, I had all my kids and. Um
26:06 Then uh My husband, my mother and my father.
26:12 My dad's name was Joe Pern. My mother's name was Virginia M.
26:21 And my father used to do box. In his young days and used to box. Was around
26:30 the function.
26:33 That uh they parted when I was about 1.5, so all I knew is I had a father and that was it, you know, I talked to him once in a while. And that's the way it was in my life.
26:47 Uh, in my time as I grew up, I had to raise my kids and we didn't have the Panthers or we had these diapers as the, as the time went on, and I just brought them up now they're way up to their age, you know, they're like. 507 57, 58. And
27:11 I had, I did some things that I thought I'm very proud of. I was an EMT CHR. In my working days. And then I, I had a part in the movie too, uh, we are one. My family did, and my daughter, my son, my granddaughter, granddaughter. My grandsons,
27:36 we all have party, we all want. I was concerned with that. Uh moving.
27:47 Yeah
27:50 Uh, back in 1984, my husband died.
27:55 And uh since then, it's been kind of hard for me when I had to get along by myself and Send for myself. Do the best as you can. That's what, that's what happened, so it's time went by them. I had an opportunity to be in that movie and that you know one. And then I'm happy,
28:19 thankful to the Lord and I got, I could take this long. And and be with my children.
28:27 Mm
28:30 part of my therapy.
28:35 I'm
28:40 Maybe sometimes I'm not no angel, but you know. I Live up to that.
28:49 That's no ways. I've got a lot of relatives here too, you know, all over.
28:56 Um
28:58 That's what I wanted to say.
29:17 My
29:20 I understand.
29:23 Oh my
29:25 I was Born and raised on the reservation, but during my younger days, it was under my uh grandmother, my dad's mother.
29:39 She sent us off to a Catholic school, very old girls. I couldn't even tie my shoestrings. I couldn't even pull my hair. My, my sister was just like my mother.
29:53 she sent us to Marty lifting school. After 40s.
30:01 And
30:05 When we come back from school. I think we was there about 3 years and she sent us to another boarding school in North Dakota. We were young, uh young and that we could, we could help ourselves.
30:22 Just send to all different kinds of organs. My sister She was older. She got married at 18. So she had somebody to provide for her. When I was alone, so my, my grandmother sent me here and there, but I didn't care.
30:45 My um My family's name is, my dad's name is Edward Kemp Junior. My mother's name is Virginia Kemp.
30:59 And my grand, my mom on my father's side, my grandmother's name was Suzettear Nors.
31:11 And my dad's grandfather. His name was Stephanie Guitar. He called on this, uh, Lewis and Clark expedition.
31:22 He got off and came into the tribe and married one. Married my grandmothers.
31:30 My grandmother's mother. And my grandmother's mother didn't have no English name it.
31:40 So that's my grandmother's helped me. She's uh. German, French,
31:48 Every time when they have this Indian car going on, when they sing the heartbreak song, my grandmother would get out there and dance.
31:59 My grandmother was a nice little old lady, she was short.
32:06 And on my mother's side.
32:10 My grandparents there on my mother's side, they took me when I was very small, even coming back from the hospital. They took me and raised me until I was about 30 years old and they turned me back to my parents. That was
32:27 my grandfather's here was 8 years old. And my grandmother's name my son. Dorothy Webster.
32:40 Um, my family, uh, there was just 3 of us.
32:46 My sister Edna. And my brother came a stroke.
32:51 He was younger than I, and he died at 2 years old. He had pneumonia.
33:04 As I'm growing older.
33:07 At the age of 22. I got married the first time I got married in the Catholic Church.
33:17 And
33:20 My husband died. And then I man second time. To name.
33:30 I never was together married for 31 years. About 10 years ago, he passed away. So I've been a little since
33:42 then um since 19. 1994.
33:48 And I was um.
33:51 After you died, I had to work for myself. I worked at a casino. Before that, I worked up to a health center. I
34:03 comes in by there. And I was the most Order to the casino. Tell my husband and pass story um and.
34:15 And after that, I was old enough to get my Social Security, so. Get my Social Security. I live on the same.
34:30 I've been around my own people a good many years.
34:36 I looked at ski too as a pro out first.
34:41 I want the
34:43 young kids to teach them how to speak the language. That was not High school kids are real nurse. They can speak it. The funny thing happened is they can speak it in the classroom real good, but when they're out of school, they don't speak.
35:04 I don't sleep for a long.
35:07 The kids are good to teach you.
35:11 They learn, they can't learn in 15 minutes. We have to teach in 15 minutes and we go to another class to teach. I keep telling our instructor, I said, I don't think kids can learn that fast. They have to at least have a half a day to learn good just like the high school kids.
35:35 Now we have a high school. They have this traditional domas like they have handmen and young boys, they get up and sing.
35:49 They are real nice when they sing their own songs because you can understand what they're saying.
35:58 and high school kids.
36:01 High school kids can sing better than a younger.
36:07 I enjoyed teaching the class.
36:15 The instructor we had there was quite unstable, he was real nice person.
36:24 It teaches us, Indian teachers what to say and we have to look up in the dictionary. If we don't know what we're saying, we have to teaches us how to look the I words up.
36:38 Anytime we wanna find out about Omaha language. Some, some of our Indian works are pretty hard. You can't understand what you're saying, so we can write up uh invite her to I get up and then she tell us what. I would see it. And
37:00 she pronounces it and follow and then you turn around and teach the high school.
37:07 It's real sort of complicated when you're trying to teach somebody and you cannot understand yourself what you're saying. And we, we have to have our instructor beside us to teaches us and. Mhm Is
37:29 And I have one daughter.
37:34 And my sister, Edna, she has 8 daughters, 1 boy, but the boy died.
37:44 That's all right.
37:53 I want to say thank you to uh my elders here, my uncle, and Max and Gene and Virginia. This is our opportunity here and I wanna say a thank thank you to the uh National Park Service and uh the 10 of many Voices for giving us this because uh this has given us an opportunity to preserve.
38:15 The images and uh uh voices of our old people so that we might, our children will be able to identify with, with them for many years to come. That's what, uh, every day we're bringing some of our elders for like this, to talk about their identity, to talk about their youth. The good memories and uh to talk about their relationships, especially that,
38:40 their clanships and things like that, so that when our children They can look at these things and they can look at uh their grandmothers here and their grandpa. They can identify that they'll they'll have something for many years to come. So this is our opportunity for uh the one people to do these types of things and to uh. Preserve
39:04 our culture a little further and to preserve, uh, the, the people that uh live here once, uh, here on the reservation, our grassroots people. But I really appreciate what the park service has done and uh I know my relatives, they do too, and uh all the more people, I know that they appreciate what's going on here. And this is, like I said,
39:29 our opportunity to preserve these things that our children can use in school. We have uh a, a lot of every day we're gonna bring some more of our elders so that this can happen and uh. Some of, some of them are drums are gonna be here to sing and they're gonna uh explain the songs. Each, each song is not just uh mixture of noises and whatever.
39:54 There's actual meanings to these. There's, there's prayers involved, there's uh stories in these songs. So, uh, that's part of our, uh, what we're doing today and I'm really grateful for that. For that opportunity to be able to talk like this and to see our elders and to listen to them because we need to preserve these things for our children.
40:19 100 years from now, they're gonna be able to look at this. And their identity is gonna be intact. So I'd like to say thank you like that to all of you.
40:33 I think we have some time for some questions and a couple of minutes, maybe 1 or 2 questions for uh my elders here um about anything what they talked about. Uh, tuck the major, and he'll bring a microphone around to you.
40:55 I will send up.
41:00 Well, if God, um,
41:02 thank you on behalf of the Omaha Nation, on behalf of my uncle Hollis Gabler. Maxine Parker, Genevieve Robinson, and Virginia Walker. Thank you.
41:19 I stretching and whistle.
41:25 You refuse your hat.
41:29 You the old man.
41:34 They might notice that me.
41:37 Oh. Now they could have food skin, you know, get money than me.
41:46 He made that dance. No, but that's what he just said when you dance you blow the whistle that day. Yeah, same.
42:00 We'd like to thank

Tent of Many Voices

Panel Discussion: Omaha Elders Share Life Stories and Traditions

Hollis Gerber

Omaha

62:49

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Panel Discussion: Omaha Elders Share Life Stories and Traditions

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