Closed Captions Audio Described

Gerard Baker, superintendent of Mount Rushmore, reflects on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial as a watershed moment for tribal representation in federal storytelling. He emphasizes partnership between Native nations, federal agencies, and state coordinators, celebrates over 400 tribal speakers who shared their perspectives, and challenges agencies to keep doors open for Native voices beyond the bicentennial's conclusion.

Transcript

0:03 Of state advisors, a group of people that were very crucial to getting these venues set up in all of the different states that core two traveled. So Karen Seberg is going to represent COSA.
0:21 Thank you.
0:23 Um I apologize for my voice if we could call it stress or laryngitis or I don't know what, but uh I'm here. Anyway, first of all, I just want to say, I'm humbled in the extreme. Um I'm sitting in front of all of these tribal representatives, these sovereign nations and a family that I just really met maybe a week ago. Discovery Expedition,
0:47 all of the speakers and all the wonderful people that are here. Circle of state advisors have been working for about six or seven years to try to make this something exciting and meaningful in the States. And I think there's only one other uh state advisor here, Keith Peterson. Will you stand up please? From Idaho
1:12 Keith should be standing up here because he actually was the chair of our group and I wasn't. So I feel humbled by that too. I think the thing I want to talk about is partnership. You've heard about it. The whole to the whole night and you're gonna hear about it until this is over. This is partnership. Um, watching last weekend in my town core two with the BLM
1:37 and I didn't know Steve was reclamation. I thought he was the guy that wanted the bison tongue
1:44 and he did cook it and I did eat it and it was really pretty good. But he told me we needed to get bison tongue because probably it wasn't the season for beaver tail.
1:57 But to see these agencies work together was incredible. Um working with Kevin and Wanda and um even Dwayne, if he's out there, we only had one city worker that kind of shook this group up. But, but I do want to talk about that the communities, our communities in all of our states,
2:19 particularly the small communities like ours and even smaller who would never have had the opportunity to hear nations from across the trail, never had the opportunity to hear the speakers that some of you that live in Washington or Oregon or North Dakota or Montana Idaho get to hear all the time.
2:41 The fact that we all were able to hear you and to learn and to understand. And then finally that we became part of the family too. I just cannot say enough to thank Discovery Expedition, all of the federal agencies, the nations and particularly Core two family.
3:05 Thank you.
3:18 Thank you, Karen.
3:20 Uh Gerard Baker is now the superintendent of Mount Rushmore. And I think Gerard has, for at least some of us has been uh the spiritual leader for this effort. And I, before I ask him to come up, I just want to again
3:44 express my personal thanks for your leadership and your vision. Ladies and gentlemen, Gerard Baker,
4:03 and they put me,
4:18 thank you very much. Um First thing I wanna do is I want to acknowledge uh um a drum that I've been hearing all my life and with my relatives, I still listen to them and they've been to a lot of our events over the past years and that's the Mundari singer. So I want to acknowledge my relatives up here.
4:45 You know, this journey for a lot of us have started many different ways. Uh Some of it started reading history books. Some of it has started sitting in log houses listening to the elders a long time ago. Some of it has started maybe on the trail as you walk on a trail and, and discover what they discovered. And when, when also discover what the American Indians already knew.
5:08 There's a lot of partners here and, and there's a lot of people that we need to think and I think they've been thanked over and over again this whole time. We've been here in ST Louis, which is a marvelous city.
5:21 And there's a lot of people who in many ways are not with us, but in spirit, they are some of the ones that started, some of the ones that backed us in a way of family.
5:36 And I know that they are all here with us.
5:40 This was an incredible journey
5:45 to remember and it was a, it was an incredible journey to start another incredible journey.
5:53 And what I mean by that is that District Partnerships
5:59 first and foremost, as I mentioned, when we started this thing years ago, as I'm kind of feeling old now. Uh not as old as old as half moon. No, you know,
6:10 and so what, what we talked about this for a long, long time, many different tribes coming together arguing sometimes and, but usually I'm almost always coming out with a sense of responsibility, not for us per se, but for the future generations,
6:33 this journey we're on that, we're going to continue on as we all said. And I think we've all thought and we've all fought many times around that. It's a journey that will open many doors for one thing. I've encouraged people all the time. Too many times, get off that boat and be in those villages or be in those banks
6:56 when the Lewis and Clark exhibition came around that corner.
7:00 Now, one of the, one of the people that can help us do that and did help us do that are the tribal people and my heart and my hat and everything. I just, I, I feel so great and so good, but I really do believe that this time around it was an American Indian story.
7:29 You know, I've been in a park service now for 29 years and I've had many different interesting assignments and I want to brag on these folks in gray and green. I want to brag on these folks in blue that helped us that were partners with us when we first started and continued and are still today. I've heard so many compliments from American Indian people along this trail of how good these folks
7:54 were to them and how they treat them with respect, how they played their games and how they lost, I think.
8:06 But I think that in itself opened doors forever. Everybody in this place, everybody who, who maybe is not here long, long as trail has stories now, just like the Lewis and Clark explorers did originally and just like many, many, many Indian tribes did after they left the villages. And it
8:28 truly does take a group of people to get along and it truly does take a group of people to argue sometimes to challenge each other,
8:40 but come out shining and I'm not talking about your head either man.
8:49 There are people that helped us out when we first started with this years ago and I don't have time and, and I wish I could mention everybody that helped us. And I'm talking, especially with Core two. In early days.
9:05 We have people that are here today. They'll recognize and mainly from a lot of things he's done. One of the original people that were in the office when I got to Omaha Nebraska as a superintendent and as Mr Dick Williams, I can have that mountain man stand up.
9:32 There are other folks, of course, that helped us out, came out later on. But I want to mention in particular the from the American Indian liaison because we went through a lot back in those days, we went through many, many tribes. I tried to keep up with the orders half moon and I could not do it half of the time he would go around and try to start fights and, and I'd have to solve those darn things.
9:58 But Otis is an outstanding individual. He's an outstanding human being and he's an outstanding ranger and he was an outstanding American Indian liaison. Otis, thank you.
10:18 We have, we have many stories about how we would drive around the West Coast and, and doing work, Ernie, by the way, we were actually driving around and visiting with tribes. Many, many stories about that. The other we have in the audience is, is a friend that I met on the trail actually, and eventually got to hire him a direct descendant of from a, from a family that was given Klatz up
10:43 and that's Mr Dick Bash.
10:54 And there's one that is not here right now because he's working for me right now and he's working and as Mr Darrell Martin, he's a, he's a guy, you've seen that little sports car
11:09 and I talked to Darrell the other day as I was coming down here. And I said, Darrell, if there's one thing that you would want to say, what would it be? And I think it's the same thing that every one of us want to say and will say, I hope. And as that is to keep this dream alive, this bicentennial is over. But the doors are open to the future.
11:42 I want to say for the first time in the history of this nation and long overdue as we, as federal agencies really opened those doors to the American Indian nations to give them a chance to tell their story no matter what it is to tell their story. And that's what we talked about. And we dreamed about when we first started this tent of many voices,
12:07 but it takes the tribes to keep doing what you're doing and especially takes the federal agencies. And I challenge you from now on no matter where you go to open those doors because it's going to be easy to say, well, we haven't got the budget. It's going to be easy to say, we haven't got the personnel. It's going to be easy to say all these different things, why we can't do something.
12:31 But those are excuses that, that, that we can't live with this door is open. We are bringing tribes and they are teaching us about who they are, where they've been and where we're going to go to the future. That's at tent of many voices. And if you look around this, this area today, it truly is many, many voices in here.
12:57 We have some outstanding managers
13:01 in Steve Adams that came in and brought all you guys back. Safe Lewis and Clark. We, in that whole journey, we lost what I heard today. Three was Cliff Snyder. Three. We lost one black, but the other one lived. You said you guys didn't lose anybody, I don't think, right?
13:20 And if you did, you're not gonna tell us, I know that man.
13:25 But again, it's such an honor to from, from
13:30 sitting and, and, and thinking about this long time ago and it's such a great joy to see the American Indian tribes involved first and foremost. And again, I encourage you to never let this go away. I keep saying that, but I truly truly mean it.
13:48 And as we go along our trail of life now,
13:52 never forget your experiences
13:56 and always challenge yourself. And I know these ladies and gentlemen that are on this trail with this marvelous exhibit. I believe we're challenged every day.
14:08 We create some great friendships. We brought some people in that we knew from a long time ago. And I, one of those guys that I brought in from my early almost childhood was a guy by the name of Mr Jeff Olson and to use A PIO
14:26 there he is.
14:30 I knew Jeff when he was a sports writer and I can't hardly talk to him because he's now in the Washington office. So it was,
14:40 but again, folks to conclude, I just wanna thank you. It's, it's, it's, it's really tough to stop talking. It really is what I will, I promise. But keep it going, keep the doors open and my heart and my prayers go out to the American Indians that are here today because I know you struggle to come on board
15:03 because what I thought what you thought, I believe in many cases is that you weren't going to tell that story. We weren't going to allow it as federal agencies for one. But I hope we prove to you that we have allowed it and we encourage it because all the stories that we have never forget the past as my grandfather used to always tell me, never forget the past, don't let it go
15:27 because by knowing the past, we can do it better for the future. So again, I wanna thank everybody for, for making a dream come true. Literally,
15:50 the last thing I want to tell you is I gotta give a little boost for my new park. I'm at Mount Rushmore and I'll be happy to say that two out of those four now have braids.
16:02 Yeah.
16:26 Thank you. Gerard. Gerard was representing the circle of tribal advisor and we wanted to uh share with you something that
16:39 uh we shared with Amy Massett and Sammy Meadows the other night, uh during a different ceremony
16:51 what uh Gerard is holding. It's a piece of the tent of many voices with a picture on the top and a core two pin and we're gonna make sure that each coder, a representative receives one of these frame pieces of the tent so that hopefully it will keep the tent in your memory.
17:16 Uh Also we presented, uh, an arrowhead that we, we have made that's, uh to the circle of tribal advisors for their exemplary support of the core of discovery II
17:49 And Sammy Bobby Connor,
17:59 we as a family. Uh, it's a good analogy for those of you who know us well. Um, the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, the circle of tribal advisors, the circle of state advisors, the National Park Service, all of the federal agencies. We're like a family. We fight
18:19 and then we get up and work together and we put all those things behind us. And so tonight, it's my privilege to announce some names on the National Council and the circle of tribal advisors and all of our partners would like to present these gifts. And I would like to say to you that because these are family gifts, these are personal and I'm gonna step in front
18:43 of the camera and say these are personal gifts. I was a fed for 13 years, I know the rules. These are personal gifts and if for any reason, your agency doesn't believe that hang it in your office. But
18:58 these are personal gifts. I'd like to first ask Steve Adams and Gerard Baker to step up here. And the reason I want to call these two to your attention is we fought to have no censorship of tribal messages, but somebody on the other side had to defend that. right? And that opportunity. And these are the two men that made it possible
19:21 for tribes to speak more than 400 tribal speakers.
19:45 More than 400 representatives of native sovereign nations spoke in this tent of many voices over the last three years and nine months, those 400 plus tribal representatives reached hundreds of thousands of people because of core of discovery II. Thank you.
20:15 I'm gonna ne next ask somebody that you probably didn't see on the trail very often to come up here. But boy, if there was paperwork to find or things to get ironed out, Betty Boyko saved us many times.
20:46 Thank you.
20:50 This next lady we lost somewhere between Albuquerque and Houston. I think I'm not sure, but she found her way back in her park service uniform, Pat Jones.
21:12 Thank you, Pat.
21:19 This next guy. He was uh as, as Gerard mentioned, he was a sports writer. But for those of you who have ever seen when the National Lewis and Clark exhibit traveled to, from Saint Louis to Portland and Denver and Philadelphia we had and as well at the University of Virginia when the bicentennial started, there were some fabulous photographs of the
21:42 northern lights of the white cliffs of Wehyde Prairie. All of those photographs were donated to us by Jeff Olson.
22:16 This next guy for those of you who know that the National council voted tribal involvement, the number one priority. Well, that wouldn't go very far without money. And Dick Williams, you helped us make tribal involvement real, please come up.
22:47 Thank you, ma'am. You're so welcome.
23:03 If any of you are old enough to remember, George and Gracie Burns. Well, Gerard would have been nothing without Otis there, Otis half moon was there telling Gerard how to pronounce Secagaweas name
23:18 in many tribal communities where Gerard wanted to insist she was Iata Otis.
23:46 Mm
24:02 This next guy needs an arrow shirt. Um Because most of the time we were looking for him with a problem and he was supposed to solve it for us no matter what town he was in and wherever we were, Dick Basch,
24:27 this is a personal one for my area. Diane Mallickin and Alan Pinkham are presented a beaded bolo personally to Mr Dick Bash.
24:48 For those of you who were hosts to core II. You know, that we must have been as sites evaluated 15 times. Well, the first person who came and evaluated us to see if our parking lots were big enough was this lady and I think she probably is the way that we ended up staying on the calendar. But the negotiations for who got core II was Carol McBryant's problem from the get go.
25:20 Mhm.
25:33 Now I said as a family, we fight boy, did we fight with this guy but it was worth it. Everything was better because we got everything worked out. Kevin Crisler.
26:03 I don't know how we would have done what we did without these people. And I'm gonna call them up Warren, Casper, Angela Bates and LaTonya Miller for those of you who don't know.

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