Closed Captions Audio Described

Steve Adams and federal agency representatives reflect on the Corps of Discovery Two reenactment and bicentennial commemoration. Speakers discuss how the expedition brought together government agencies, Native American communities, and local organizations in collaborative partnership. They emphasize lessons learned about interagency cooperation, respectful engagement with tribal nations, and stewardship of lands significant to Indigenous peoples along the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Transcript

5:52 Okay, you may be seated
5:59 and I'm declaring this an inside zone. So you may also uncover.
6:15 good evening. And welcome to the tent of many voices of, of the corps of disocvery 2. 200 years to the future. I'm Steve Adams, superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Again. Welcome. Uh We have a number of speakers that I'll introduce to you in a little while, but I want to say first that
6:40 uh you heard a couple of different songs, uh one for the presentation of the flags and another song that honors all of the, the partners that are involved in this bicentennial effort. So, if we could have a big round of applause for the singers and drummers,
7:16 it's time to take a deep breath.
7:22 Let this settle in a little bit.
7:27 This tent, the tent of many voices. So aptly named by former superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Gerard Baker. Gerard has uh certainly nailed that name and I want to tell you a little bit about what's going to happen with this exhibit uh
7:51 in a couple of days, it's going to go down to Haskell Indian Nations University. It will find its uh home there and, and we hope they get a lot of good use out of it.
8:05 One of the things I'd like to point out is that over time, uh, we tend to look at these bits of vinyl and metal and lights and electronics and such as something more than what they are. And that's ok. But
8:28 what I would like to give you a little bit of context for some of the presentations that will occur is that
8:37 all of you collectively have transcended these bits and pieces.
8:46 And the tent, excuse me, tent of many voices
8:52 is now in our hearts.
8:58 So it's gonna find a good home.
9:02 What we have asked our speakers to talk about tonight is the value, meaning and significance of the, the corps of discovery two to the organization that they represent to the bicentennial and to the country.
9:25 And first I want to start with Kevin Chrisler, who is our core two field manager
9:52 I'll try to make it through this
10:02 as,
10:04 as I thought over the last week. Um
10:10 Trying to figure out
10:41 as I thought about what um corps of discovery two has meant. Steve made a good point that these pieces of vinyl, this tent.
10:59 That's not corps of discovery two.
11:11 Everyone here this evening, its corps of discovery two.
11:33 This has simply been the place where we've had our family reunion. If you will.
11:42 Some of us have discovered new family. OK.
11:53 And some had discovered family that we forgot we had
12:00 our
12:03 federal agency partners. We've learned to work better with them.
12:13 Thank you.
12:21 Our native American brothers and sisters that we over the last couple of 100 years, sort of forgot about and marginalized.
12:31 We have rediscovered you all. And it's good to find our brothers and sisters and our cousins
12:42 and it's good that we had a chance to meet and talk.
12:49 We talked a lot in this tent.
12:53 We talked a lot outside the tent. Um One of the biggest things that corps of discovery two was is an opportunity to talk an opportunity to listen,
13:07 as um is said in our report to the president, um
13:14 some of those conversations were hard to talk about and some of them were hard for us as audience to hear, but they were all worth it. And I think that we've done a good thing here
13:33 and I thank you all for your help in making that happen.
14:13 Nobody told you it'd be easy. Kevin.
14:19 Before I introduce our next speaker, I want to recognize Superintendent Peggy O'dell from Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
14:31 Thank you, Peggy for being such a great host for us here and for sharing with us Our representative from the Bureau of Land Management. Mr. Dick Fickler,
14:54 man what a ride its been, holy cow. And I thought I was gonna have a podium so I could hide these notes. So bear with me
15:04 as you read the Lewis and Clark journals from 200 years ago. You will see the evolution of a closely knit team as the corps of discovery worked their way up the lower Missouri river.
15:15 By the time the expedition reached the Mandan villages in the spring 1805, there was a great cohesiveness that bound every individual to the whole. When the expedition returned to the Mandan villages in 1806, the word team didn't quite work anymore. Captain Clark had offered to raise bird woman and charbonneau Children.
15:38 It seemed to me a more appropriate term at that point would be family.
15:44 So it has been for corps of discovery 2, 200 years later. And the timeline is remarkable
15:54 for myself as we wrapped up the uh circle of cultures signature event in Bismarck, North Dakota on a cold day. In the fall of eight of 2004, I really felt like those barriers that sometimes we superficially imposed between agencies and people were crumbling away. And by the spring of 2005, as we worked our way up, the upper Missouri,
16:20 that river washed all that away and we really did become a team, regardless of agencies, regardless of background. We really kind of clicked
16:33 and it was this last year as we worked our way back to St. Louis, that team didn't work anymore. It really was a family and I'll carry you all in my hearts for the rest of my life.
16:55 So as with many American families, we're about to spread ourselves across this great nation as we each seek a new path.
17:06 But we take with us the knowledge of how it can be between agencies, communities, organizations and individuals and for myself, I'll never forget that.
17:19 And I wanna speak kinda to my agency, brothers and sisters at this point
17:26 for folks like myself that are getting kind of gray and maybe a little thin on top, it's our responsibility to guide our agencies and organizations on the path that will perpetuate this kind of cooper operation and collaboration for the younger folks that are just starting their careers.
17:47 I ask you when you hear somebody of my age saying it can't be done to ask why not? You've seen it, you know how it works, you know, it can be done and you're our future. So carry that with you and we'll all be better off for it.
18:06 And my mind is going blank. I look at these faces and all I want to do is just hit the trail again.
18:17 And, you know, as we think about these obligations, either for the older ones of us to try to guide our agencies on the right path and for the future and the younger folks that are now entering the workforce as they try to do what they can to shape our future. We want to keep in mind that the citizens of this country have a right to expect that of us. We are after all your servants.
18:41 So as we leave, as we leave this tent of many voices tonight, we will each start down a new path. Never forget that that new path is linked to the Lewis and Clark Trail. For that is the nature of trails.
18:57 Trails, connect places, they connect people and they connect the past to the future and in so doing, they make us better individuals and a stronger country. I made it
19:23 take those deep breaths.
19:27 Uh Our next speaker before I tell you who he is, you may have noticed that there aren't too many animals wandering around here.
19:39 And that's because Steve Morehouse from the Bureau of Reclamation has cooked them up
19:45 and you've been eating them.
19:48 Ladies and gentlemen, Steve Morehouse from the Bureau of Reclamation.
20:05 I have to take a minute to look out there and then I won't be nervous because I'll see that they're all my friends, people that I've met along the trail. Hello again. Welcome one last time here in the tent,
20:24 the Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that I work for. John Keys. Sent me out to partner with the corps of discovery 2. I was supposed to come and work alongside them, interpret
20:43 and learn
20:49 and partner up
20:53 with the corps Discovery two and ended up partnering up with everybody I met along the trail.
21:07 This is the end of my federal career and I couldn't think of a better way to, to end it.
21:19 This was a dream of mine.
21:23 I moved to Montana in 1980 so I could live on the Lewis and Clark Trail
21:31 and I've been learning the story and I'm still learning
21:36 and it's partnerships and the friendships that I've made with everybody along the way
21:45 that have kept me going.
21:48 And the biggest partner is here with me tonight and that's my wife and my son and my daughter and my future daughter-in-law.
22:12 Thank you. Thank you for all of the things that you have taught me along the way and I will continue to learn
22:24 and I realize that what I've learned, it's not mine to keep, I promise you that I will pass it on to the next generation. Thank you.
22:54 And if you've ever watched Steve around a bunch of little kids, you know that he is passing that on. Thank you, Steve
23:05 from the US forest Service. A person who walks more miles standing still than I can walk in a day actually going somewhere. Margaret Gorski.
23:28 Thank you, Steve.
23:32 Uh those of you who have gotten to know me, know me. I'm uh better at stirring the stirring the pot during bureaucratic meetings than I am uh speeches in front of all of you fine folks. And I'm honored uh and privileged to have been asked to say a few words uh about how uh this bicentennial has meant and the corps 2 has meant to, to me personally as well as to the Forest Service and,
23:57 uh, I'm afraid, um, whoever gave Kevin that Kleenex is gonna have to give me some before I can get through this. But, uh,
24:07 when, uh Jefferson asked Lewis to uh go up the river and see what he could find, I'm sure he didn't know what he was getting into. And in 1998 when uh my boss came to me and asked me to um head up the forest services involvement in the bicentennial, I certainly didn't know what I was getting into
24:30 when I said, hm, that sounds like an interesting uh assignment. And um
24:37 really in hindsight, um my journey uh both personal and professional began even earlier than that uh with an experience that I want to share with you. Uh I was standing at the top of or the highest place on the Lewis and Clark Trail. Uh They're on the Lolo trail
25:01 and I was in a place that was, that's a sacred place to the Nez Perce tribe and I was new to Idaho. Uh I had just recently arrived there from uh uh California and I was learning about that country and I was standing at that height um in an outer circle uh in and around uh a circle of uh Nez
25:26 Perce elders and they were having a smoking ceremony with the forest service. We were uh trying to uh build relationships and rebuild relationships with the Nez Perce tribe. And I was standing there listening to the, to the words from the tribal elders. And that was my first lesson about what it means to speak from your heart about
25:51 what the land means to you. And as a steward of national forests and public lands, it was a lesson that I have taken with me um the rest of my career because I heard these elders speak from their heart about how, how important um
26:11 the natural land is uh to our spirit as people. And that um experience about standing there looking over those mountains that were such a challenge to Lewis and Clark and seeing them through other eyes, other people's eyes. Uh and they were speaking from their heart.
26:35 And so that was a lesson that that really I have carried with me. And it um guided my uh basically my experience in leadership in trying to uh participate in the bicentennial, you know, uh the forest service really did. Uh what we could and, and made a great effort of, of looking at that land
26:57 and trying to protect the spiritual meaning of it. Uh And so we uh had a great team. Uh one of which uh Katie Bump is in the back. Those of you who knew her up at Lemhi Pass she put her heart and her soul into protecting Lemhi Pass. Katie, will you stand up for me, please.
27:21 And she is one of uh many of my uh team that really uh just uh poured their heart and soul out into uh doing what they can to protect the trail. Uh And then we also tried to provide some speakers to, to corps 2, is Marlene Rivero in the audience. She was here earlier, where's Marlene Marlene uh did a great job portraying
27:45 uh Rose York, uh speaking from her heart uh And giving a viewpoint of what it might have been like to be uh a uh a slave and a mother to York. So just a few of the folks that I wanted to acknowledge that they, the uh the importance of corps two, which is what another thing I was asked to say something about is that corps two really was a
28:10 uh And I appreciate it's really not the stuff in here. Uh It really was a catalyst and it was a catalyst for every community that it went through. It was a catalyst to bring people together. Uh And it was a catalyst to allow communities to be pro to celebrate their spirit of their community. And that
28:33 uh those of you in the Park Service who brought Corps Two to town should be very proud of what you did uh in those communities. So uh I, I think these guys need a huge round of applause because of what they brought to communities across the country.
28:53 And the last thought I, I wanna leave with you. Is that when I travel around the trail? Uh people ask me uh about uh well, well, now the bicentennial is over. What are you going to do? Uh Well, it's an easy one for me to, to say, is that, well, the bicentennial is over, but the trail is not going anywhere. Uh And that's the beauty of uh public lands being a public land servant.
29:17 So there, there is still.

Tent of Many Voices

Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Closing Remarks: Federal Agency Partners

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