Closed Captions

An Oto speaker reflects on rediscovered photographs by Father Ambrose Mattingly documenting Dakota people from 1888–1913, discussing the collaborative effort to restore these images. He shares personal stories about his education and spiritual formation, emphasizing Dakota values like listening (Ojoa Re), kinship (Mitakuye Makuye), and harmony (Woksape). The speaker advocates for intergenerational respect and community cooperation.

Transcript

0:08 Ma told Tantahawai.
0:10 Failing to
0:13 The
0:15 Uh
0:17 Timet watch yeah, not paying you off.
0:23 I've been sick lately.
0:26 So I have to have the oxygen with me. But that didn't stop me from coming. To be with you
0:45 But. I Former Parker, Stead was here, Stella. And may be doubly happy to be here tonight.
0:58 I wish
1:02 That
1:04 The art world.
1:07 And every other world
1:10 We know the talent. The spirit The nobility Of the people who are facing. For pictured in these slides which we'll show you.
1:38 Like so many other wonderful, wonderful things on the reservation. are in it.
1:47 In the hearts and the minds, and in the hands, and the skills of people.
1:55 These photos also lay hidden for many years.
2:03 And it was my good fortune. To be the one who not only found them, But was on hand to show them to a young man from Ali Data Center. I wish John Hirshman was here tonight to accept my thanks. But the other
2:28 laborers, both people with him from Arrow's Data Center are here. Without their skill, Without their dedication, these riches would still be deep in mystery.
2:48 In about 1888. One of our men. Father Ambrose Mattingly.
2:58 By the way, his name was Oshiapeto.
3:02 Was that's the ban
3:05 His name says what he was like.
3:09 Pa
3:11 He was sharp, he was alert, he was skilled, he was diligent. And above all, he was persistent.
3:21 He heard that there was such a thing as photographs being made. We learned how to make these photographs. And slowly, over about 25 years, he captured the marvelous faces of the Dakota people.
3:44 All the way from Standing Rock to Yankton, he's up and down the river. had a small dark room and studio at Steam. I knew Fare Ambrose. But I didn't, didn't know all the things we could do.
4:02 I knew him when he was old and tottering. He was still sharp. Still sharp. He spoke the Dakota language perfect. And he was one of my teachers.
4:16 At this point, I'd like to tell you a story about my first teacher though. My first teacher.
4:26 They had sent me to Rome in 1937. You get 2 degrees.
4:35 In those days, they didn't say now try hard, work hard, we hope we get those degrees.
4:42 They said, you will get 2 degrees.
4:47 You will get a doctorate in theology. You get a master's degree in scripture. You will get two degrees.
4:57 So tell your folks that you're gonna be leaving. You might not be back for 8 years. Those were in the days, folks, but there was no. Oceanic flights of airplanes. Those were the days of playing boats.
5:16 My dad was not Catholic. I've often wondered lately what my dad was, but he was a generous, generous man. Whatever was good for his kids, he was behind it 1000%. But I watched my dad.
5:32 It is something very remarkable the day that I left. We didn't have a car. So he hired two taxis, so that the kids get in and they were jumping up and down as children do, of course. My dad said, I want them in. He took me alone, back into the house. Mom was nursing a baby out in the car.
5:56 And it made me kneel down.
5:59 And here I am, the one who's gonna be a Catholic priest, you know. And that was saying to me, kneel down, my boy, kneel down in front of me. And my dad gave me a blessing.
6:12 I'm still walking.
6:15 In the power of that blessing. So do you elders, to any of you?
6:23 Don't ever, ever. That any of your children or grandchildren go into a way of life without giving them your blessing.
6:33 They need that To know that they have come from a family. That is sacred A family that is generous. A family that is loyal, let them feel that.
6:50 Well anyway, I went to Rome.
6:53 I hardly ever say this, but I'm gonna say it and please take it to the right way now. I was 1937.
7:01 I'm no teacher, but they wanted me to be a, be a teacher. So listen up. Thanks be to God for that.
7:13 I'll tell you why, because I got a note from the American embassy. Get out of here, get back home, get back home in a hurry, water is coming. So I arrived back in Indiana, Saint Miner Abbey Monastery in late January, early February. In those days, there was not in in, there was not, uh, you know,
7:37 break up of school during during the winter. So they took one look at me and said, my God, you're no good around here. Why don't you go out to the Dakotas to Crow Creek? It's calving time. Well, I didn't know what that meant, but it sounded like cowboy stuff. So I said, sure, I'll go, I'll go. So I arrived on the old train.
8:00 We used to go through Chamberlain here in the middle of March of 3. And I've been here since, thanks be to God, folks that I did not get those degrees. I would have missed you. I would have missed Stella. I would miss everybody whom I know and love. Well, the priest then was Father Fenton.
8:24 Remember Father Finton Stella? Father Finton. And then Father, Father Justin, those 2.
8:33 They said, gee, you must be smart, eh? I said, sure.
8:39 They said, there's a bunch of men down at Croak Week down at the Fort Thompson studying the Bible. Why don't you go down there and, and help them learn.
8:50 Now here I'm 23 years old now at that time.
8:55 So in my dumbness, when you're 23 years old, you don't know much, do you? So I walked down there. You know, swaggering a little bit because I'm smart, you know. That was smart. And I sit in this little tiny one-room log house, maybe 12 by 12. There's 8 or 10 men sitting there,
9:19 their dusty faces. Melting into the lug wall.
9:25 lights, electric, of course, 2 kerosene lamps burning in the corner, and here I am, a 23 year old guy
9:35 laying God on my elders.
9:39 I broke the first rule of Dakota politeness by, by a junior like me standing up and daring to talk to my seniors.
9:50 But they're polite to see these elders are, they're polite. They don't want to show you up. They don't want to. Unveil your ignorance. They don't want to expose you, so they kept their heads down. And I thought they were asleep. You know how old people listen.
10:09 When their heads are down there listing a template. So I said to myself, Gin at Christmas.
10:18 These or less the blessings of Jesus. When I come back next week, I'm gonna have to talk slow, use those sentences and words and repeat. So next week I come back saying well I'm laying God on him once more. And here they are
10:41 I, I knew I wasn't going over too good, see, I spell one body leg over the other. He was there
10:50 Knocking the ashes off his bull derm cigarette.
10:54 Like as if he was saying, oh God help this one this side. There was Mr. Clem wounded knee.
11:01 Uh, these are people whom I learned to love, see, because they were polite to me. I said, Mr. wounded me.
11:10 See. He was like a deacon. If you needed anything in church, Mr. Woundedin took care of him, a wedding, a funeral, a baptism, anything at all. He was like a deacon. Oh my, I heard you stand up say, listen, this boy knows everything, you know, listen, listen. No. Slowly, slowly, he turned away from me,
11:34 away from me. Just a nice warm face looked up at me. His dark brown eyes looked at me and he searched me, and he found my weakness.
11:46 He said one word, folks.
11:49 One word I wish that in your life, Somebody, some event, some person, some word would touch you and lift you out of the rut that you're in and put that one word. And changed my life right there. He was my first teacher.
12:09 See, I'm a product of A father who was very strict in his religion, about a block and a half from church. There were 11 kids in the house. We had to, two families had to move together on account of our times, you know how that was. 11 kids. I'm the oldest.
12:29 So mom would make us all do our chores. So the Saturday morning. Now you're going to go to confession.
12:36 I said to her mom, I didn't do nothing. Think of something, think of something or I do something. So I had to go. I told more stories to that priest. But anyway,
12:51 whenever she talked about God, it was Lord, Master, king, and judge.
12:58 Whatever you do, God will see you. He was always the, the boogeyman. I went to the seminary to use the same word, Lord, master, king, judge.
13:10 When I went to Rome, those Italians were better. They weren't fight. They still said, Lord Master K Judd.
13:19 So I kind of grew up with that idea that God was fearful, scary.
13:26 Until Mr.
13:29 When did he liberated me.
13:34 That's the only word I can think of to describe what he did.
13:39 He looked at me very slowly, he said, Trotter.
13:45 Don't you know? The uh It's nice
13:56 Mom never told me that. They never told me that they never said that wrong. God is nice, wow.
14:06 We were in a cabin down or down there where uh Big bandana is now. As I came out of the river bottom up on top, it was March. Clear sky, no moon, just stars. I stopped the car, I got out. And I looked up It is nice. I'm gonna pray
14:31 heck of a lot different from now on. He's not going to throw me out of the house for every darn little thing that I do that's wrong. It's gonna say, oh my God. There goes that fathers stand again. I'll have to go down and clean up after him one more time. Nice.
14:53 I wish you would remember that word. I don't care if you're older than me. I'm 88 years old, but I don't care what you say or do. Remember that word. And take it from Mr. Clem wounded knee. He knows he knew what he's talking about. So from that later on, I did 2 more things. I began to resent.
15:18 The elders. See, I have that disease that young people have of not respecting those who are older. Well, that book that see out of me in a hurry. And I learned the next thing is to shut up and listen.
15:34 Listen
15:36 Listen. It's only when you listen. That you hear God talking to you. In the wind, in the rain, and the trees, and the seasons, and the animals.
15:53 Listen.
15:56 You see why I'm so happy that we have these photos. I know the place. Where that photo was taken. It was that the bad.
16:07 It's the old on the post office. It was blown down later by uh Um, Carneal So I now I'd like to, I don't want to keep you here very long. I'm so full of this thing, I can go on and on. I want to give you 4 words. Take the one. I said, listen.
16:28 So that's what it is, whenever we pray.
16:38 Whenever we address people. In Dakota, we call it Mitakuye Makuye.
16:47 Wouldn't it be wonderful if this, in this world, everybody would call each other relatives.
16:54 The Jews and the Arabs wouldn't be fighting.
16:57 The Irish of North and South Ireland where my folks come from wouldn't be fighting. Right. Here in South Dakota, we would be listening to each other. I think
17:10 I think. So when, when Dakota people talk seriously, every word is sacred, so they mean that word be talk to you, OK, I have a relationship with you. The strongest force in all of creation.
17:30 The strongest force in all creation is that which keeps things in balance.
17:36 We call it
17:38 The power of attraction. Or what's the other word I can't think of right now? See, I'm talking so fast I forget what I'm going to say. Unfilter properly or whatever that is among humans, say, help me out, somebody, say the word.
17:54 What follows up and falls down. What do you call that? Gravity gravity, thank you, gravity. Everything has a conscious mentality. That's why the, the universe moves so gracefully, and these men from USGS, United States Geological Survey, they're the ones who watched that and who from it. Get a message of,
18:20 we're all related. We're all related. In our personal language, maybe we'd say we're in love with each other. We should be. What you think would be better than be at war with each other, I think.
18:35 So that word weaku is one I hope that we never, never forget in the Dakota language. We go down a couple of orders. I'm gonna put up.
18:44 Well, the next one is Ojoa.
18:48 Re
18:52 If I listen, if I listen. Sooner or later, I'm gonna discover beautiful things in you. If I listen.
19:02 If I put you down, I don't wanna hear nothing, you know.
19:09 Young people have taught me that
19:13 they used to go to that.
19:15 Both in Japan and in
19:18 and one time there, I was so young then so I was down anyway. Anyway, this one kid, it was a good basketball, really good. His dad or mother never came to watch him practice. The other fathers and used to come and watch the boys. And so one day I said to B, I said, um, why don't you invite your dad? To come up and watch you, he started to cry.
19:44 He said, I ain't got no dad. She but in Christmas
19:51 See, I touched a, a sore spot with that word. If I would have listened enough, I might have heard that before the dayiago dad.
20:00 I would have heard of that. Beef Dakota is in my mind all the time.
20:06 We made up afterwards. I mean, he, I don't think he ever was, took it as an insult, but it hurt him, of course. So folks listen.
20:15 If somebody is saying the same thing bad about somebody to listen, there's, there's a good side to it too. Next is, is a combination. I'm gonna skip through these hurry. I
20:30 This time of the year, I'm asked for several, several Dakota boys who come to me. To help, they want me to help them in their combination. It's not, not the old way, you know, it's not the old way, but we help it in our own modern way. I have 2 who will come again next Wednesday. We can get only 2 that I know. Hamadisa means this.
20:55 That you go out to where the only you and the Creator are there.
21:00 And you're listening, you're listening to the creator.
21:04 Don't ever abandon. That great ceremony.
21:10 Because without the one to create, without the Almighty, without the one our higher power, we can't do.
21:19 Make one grass grow.
21:23 And the creator makes 100 million of them grow every.
21:27 So don't think that this organization or any other organization.
21:32 Can ever have blossom to it without every time calling on the Creator to make it grow. I learned this by going to many tribal meetings, and they always stop, always start with a prayer.
21:51 Don't lose.
21:55 That memory
21:59 Another word Is the Han
22:04 It means you're my cousin. Closer than being a relative. I had 2 Tahashis in my lifetime, both guys, rather young.
22:16 Andrew Sargeant.
22:19 If I want to say the other man's name, I know he doesn't want me to say it, but Andy Sergeant was one.
22:26 Well, maybe we're all together and uh Bobby touch, he followed me up to Fort Tin.
22:33 Those, those men meant a lot because they, we were just at that young age where we needed somebody to help us. And fighting because I know you have things to do. I want to give you one more word. It's a very important word. It's the motto of our monastery. I'm a monk. It's the it's the model of you. But use it
22:58 The word is well up here.
23:01 What means this when things work together.
23:05 When your motor runs well, things are working just right. It just holes along. Nothing knocks There's no knocking. So let me go through those words again, please. I'm an H
23:22 Keep the Creator always in your meetings, always in your heart. Oh hold on. Respect everybody.
23:31 There's always something. Everybody because the creator put it there.
23:39 It
23:41 were related. Even some of us are Tahashis to each other.
23:46 There's always that unity and that a lot of that will come forward here.
23:53 Now let's go through these. Let me just see. OK, our police, I respect men like them who put their live their lives on the line. Go ahead, honey just.
24:04 This unfortunately, somebody wanted to paint this color slide and kind of destroyed the natural color of these headdresses and these men.
24:15 Here's an old uh Mazai.
24:19 Look at the face of that lady. My grandma These are noble people. And that's what I say these are hidden. I wish we could see these elders again. What's more, OK, then. OK, drifting goose, one of the great leaders years and years ago. Glad we have this picture. It, it was hidden, but it came out. No
24:43 excuse me just a minute. I'm slow on the bottom.
24:49 I, I don't know what that mean. What did it say CIA.
24:54 Oh, I don't know. I'll have to look at that and,
24:58 OK, next. These are non-Indian people who were at the high school, the, uh, hospital, and what else? Oh, the, the BIA office. I want to show that that's the picnic place we all went to right now. Big bandanas at that site. Yeah
25:21 Noble person in it. A noble face
25:29 OK.
25:32 Young couple, how proud they look. How marvelous they are. I wish. That I could have found these photos 25 years ago, 50 years ago. Then there'd still be living someone who's here, well, I know who that is, but those names are lost, just the personalities all that.
25:56 Oh, here, this is on their wedding day.
26:00 power again
26:02 and we.
26:04 On their wedding day.
26:08 I didn't know whether they threw rice in those days or I don't know. But this names, this man's name is uh Shields. He was a medicine man. I knew his family, I knew his son, brother, and the other family, but here's, and this is in the days when it was, when it was a criminal. To pray in the in in a way.
26:34 We had to hide some of that so the police wouldn't
26:39 have talked to. There's another one I'm sorry it was painted. was supposed to be adding to the beauty of the picture, but I think that little guy would look better if we could see his face.
26:55 See, some of these glass plates were broken, and these gentlemen over here.
27:01 We want to thank them again. They're the ones who could put the glass back together and recreate, recreate the picture. This makes me say that, let's keep this in mind. Now let's work together on these things. We have here tribal leaders. Tribal prayer leaders, Government officials, elected officials,
27:25 and maybe I represent that part of our society that talks about the creator and about. So I, I'd like, I, I'll have my. Let's work together. Now priests over here, government over here, tribe over here.
27:43 with each other. Let me talk with me, OK.
27:48 Look at the nobility in that face.
27:53 Assistant, one of the men up there saw this. He was one of the ones who, who started the college. Mr. Joe Williams, thank you, Mr. Joe Williams. He wants us
28:08 To very large this picture and put it up in the college corridors so that the young women can see. This person as a kind of an image of what they like to be.
28:22 Two trim young ladies, huh?
28:25 How much around their waist is it? 20 inches? I don't know.
28:35 Here's a white man, I think. I'm not sure. The father? Around Stepan, there are people moving in and out, and so they would come to his studio and uh Most of his pictures had to be taken outside because those cameras were very slow.
28:55 And so the, the light was not good inside, hardly ever. And if it was, they'd have to burn gunpowder to flash like that. Yeah, so most of the pictures you'll see are outside.
29:12 Big tobacco. I don't know much about this gentleman. I don't know where he's from. Maybe somebody will know. I don't know.
29:24 Man his wife, I think you are.
29:31 Can you see in the back up there, the American flag. See, that was the window to the post office. And inside the flag was turned, so it's backwards as you look at it now. But that, that lady with her old grandson lay against the post office. This is uh at uh at the oh yeah. Let's say that Greenwood Greenwood down at Greenwood.
29:55 Greenwood was once a big bustleing place too. But then the traffic was.
30:06 There used to be a company of black soldiers. And on an island in the middle of the Missouri, when they were disbanded, many of them stayed and lived and married in the area around It's wrong here somewhere. So here's one of them.
30:26 It is very flashy coding. And
30:31 So here's a homesteader's house.
30:45 This gentleman
30:48 I was told But he's, it was uh Harrison from Croke Creek, but I, I was just told with one piece of evidence, so I'm not sure that he is the Harrison family.
31:09 One of the girls up near the school in Titan.
31:16 The bead work, can you look at that? Isn't that remarkable, the artistry that was evident in those folks in those days too.
31:27 I don't know what that maybe you gentleman over here from, did you research that with that with that, is that a presidential citation or is that, is that a presidential, that button that he has anybody know?
31:41 See, we need to talk to each other and find out what those declarations were about. I don't know what it means the tribal police, but seems, uh, somebody might from government might have given him an award sometime.
31:59 It doesn't show here. But this is to cut off a little bit, but this is how the camera lens moved out about 1 2nd because in his hand, looks like he has 6 fingers because in that 2nd 1 finger moved just a tiny bit and this shows how difficult it was to get a good, good picture in those days, OK.
32:26 Here's one that a girl shows up on our publicity.
32:32 By the way, these photos have been to Washington DC.
32:42 These folks over here wanted me to take, to go to Washington DC to show the DC people about this. Yeah But with this oxygen, I said I'll go.
32:56 But I need two people to go with me, one to push my wheelchair, the other one to carry the oxygen they said, we'll take you. They knew I'm pretty mouthy, so they said, we'll take you. We got up there in the Senate Office building, great big room. Filled with people, but most of them had to stand. It was really. So I'm all ready to talk so this lady who's,
33:19 I guess our guest master director, she came over and said, Hello, Reverend, we're glad to see you, and we're happy that the pictures are here. We've had a nice chance to view them all and so I suppose you'll give a little introduction to them. I said, ma'am, I'm used to talking. Let me give my own introduction. I can introduce my life as I go along. I said, but tell me, how long should I
33:44 talk to you then?
33:46 She said, well, It's evening, people are tired. I would suggest 10 or 15. 10 or 15 minutes, man, I came 1000 miles. I'm just talking.
34:01 I said, I'm used to watching crowds. If they get tiresome, then I'm, I quit. That's all the rest. Oh she said Not too long. I said, no, I won't be too long. So I kept watching her. She was giggling over there, clapping her hands, and she was really enjoying. She was one of those who was made to stand up. So after an hour, I turned to a gentleman and he said, this much more. OK,
34:26 so that girl was part of our publicity.
34:31 Zula with Josh. I think that word zula is an old, old Dakota word. We I never hear it much. I hear a chichita
34:39 but I we're gonna hear the word zula. Is that right? That's an old word. I think you.
34:45 Zwire man. That's take it down also by the take that down, a picnic room. That's.
34:56 Yeah.
34:57 What she wants to go.
35:00 Can you see it? OK.
35:06 I.
35:09 Re
35:16 OK, well, we'll have to show, OK, we won and it's not.
35:22 I just do it. OK.
35:31 There's another painted one. We're coming too close to the unknown.
35:38 I pay that much.
35:41 This, I think is one of the earliest photos of the Sundance, and I think
35:51 It was taken out on Shine River. Way to the west.
35:57 I think that.
36:02 Mhm
36:13 Yeah And
36:20 2 is up.
36:32 That's the Cheyenne River Cherry Creek and Cherry Creek, yeah, there's the church over there that's. Place is still there. Cheek.
36:44 That's one of our Catholic congresses. In those days, there were hundreds of, of teepees Catholics in in that year. What does that say? 1990 something. 19. Can you read that year? I can't see 1 1903. Yeah, Congresses were big in those days, OK.
37:07 This is the last man. This guy looks like.
37:11 And aji way from, uh, I, I may be wrong, you know, but, but he has the features of a person, um.
37:20 No
37:22 He lives down at the river. But You really struggled. Well, thank you folks. If there's anybody questions anybody, I'll be glad to answer, but thank you. I know you're been listening to a lot of stuff today, so I'm very glad that I was invited here or remember the words I gave you if you can. Let's work together. Not, not any one of us can do it all.
37:47 If we can, we can as brothers and sisters, we can do our work. Thank you
37:54 Yeah.
38:11 Well Peterhaa.
38:15 I'm good yeah.
38:17 Go to question
38:23 How good you get beans. U P ORP.
38:30 Gakuina.
38:32 We
38:35 confident
38:37 we have.
38:45 Percussion
38:47 And now we try you welcome.
38:52 Donna you Hanna. Ho
38:59 Hong Kong can question of.
39:03 Viagra.
39:06 Um
39:08 I think all you.

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