Closed Captions Audio Described

Gloria Wells (Little Shell Band of Chippewa) discusses the historical and cultural significance of buffalo to Northern Plains tribes, detailing their extensive uses in clothing, shelter, and ceremony. She explains traditional Chippewa spirituality, the eight Montana tribal nations, and the Little Shell Band's struggle for federal recognition following the 1863 "Ten Cent Treaty." Wells also addresses the near-extinction of buffalo and demonstrates brain-tanning techniques.

Transcript

0:34 Ok,
0:44 good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, how are you? You're getting better as the day goes on. You're becoming more learned scholars of Lewis and Clark. Are you not? You are indeed. And I see you've moved up for this next presenter just as I ask you to do. That's great. Did you find that windscreen microphone? No. All right. If you find that little tiny windscreen, I will give you a little Lewis Clark pin All right, good. So we lost little windscreen thing.
1:08 So if you see a little spongy thing under beneath your feet around here, just pick it up and give it to us. OK. So we are the core of discovery too. And uh we are traveling mobile exhibit and we travel the country telling the story of Lewis and Clark. And of course to do that, we have some props. We have a junior size Q boat back there. We have a wonderful uh dugout canoe right over here and uh that is provided by the Bureau of Reclamation with Steve Morehouse.
1:31 We also have a Planes Tepee exhibit and we have a 35 minute audio tour and we have indigenous games provided by Harry Anderson back there. So if you want girls, if you played the games yet, please do the right back there. You can scream and yell and hacky sack and have lots of fun. So those are back there. And we also have a free art exhibit right over here in building number two. And that is uh photos and drawings of interpretation done by the Children in the area about Lewis and Clark as well.
1:56 And here at the Tent of many voices. This is where things get exciting because we have a dialogue of different speakers and a variety of different people. And they come from all over the country. We have poets, we have scholars, we have musicians, we have dancers all interpreting their story of Lewis and Clark and their perspective. And coming up next, we have Gloria Wells and she's from the Little Shell Band, Chippewa. She's a cultural leader and she's going to tell a story of Buffalo and their perspective.
2:21 Let's give a warm welcome to Gloria Wells.
2:29 Thank you very much. And I, well, that's a little louder than what I had thought. Am I drowning you guys out? Ok. Well, first of all, I'd like to say, welcome to the tent of many voices. Um I would like to thank you all for being here and at this presentation and for um participating in such a historic event
2:51 as this 200 year um I call it a celebration. So I I thank you very much for coming and I want you to know that I'm very, very honored to be here as an Indian woman from the state of Montana.
3:06 I would also like to take just a minute to thank the, the people who have put together produced the tent of many voices all along the Lewis and Clark Trail. These, uh, the crew, uh, have, have worked extremely hard in tearing down the equipment, resetting it up, tearing it down, resetting.
3:29 But the thing that impressed me the most about what they've done is they've offered us native people an avenue to voice our stories and that hasn't been heard too much here in Montana. So, so I, I thank them very much for that and hold them in high esteem.
3:57 My name is Gloria Wells and I am a member of the Little Shell Band of Chippewa here in the state of Montana. Our band of Chippewa people are the most easterly tribe of Chippewas in the United States.
4:13 our nations, like many came from the woodland, a woodland. I hate reading off from this. I tried to do this and I'm not gonna do it. I just can't. Our people came from the Woodland Lakes area, the b the, the Great Lakes, Minnesota, Wisconsin area. As did many of the other nations, the Sioux nation, many of them came out here following the buffalo herds
4:36 because as they began to become less and less and less on the eastern bench. They were pushed over to the western side, much like our native people. Before I start to talk about the Buffalo, I want to talk about two other things that are, are very near and dear to my heart. And the first one is Native American spirituality.
4:59 And I will tell you about that and tell you how that ties into the use of the buffalo. Um as, as I go on, the second thing I would like to give um honor to are the eight nations that are here in the state of Montana. And I, for those of you who, who are not aware of the Indian nations, I'd just like to give a,
5:22 a quick rundown of who they are and where they are. And um well, I don't need a AAA cheat sheet to remember this. I, I bear with me. We have the flathead nation that's up in the Missoula area, Salish Kootenai tribe and that would be the northwestern part of the United States. Then if you come across along the Canadian border line,
5:46 you run into the Black Feet Nation. They're right on the Canadian border line. It's Black Feet in Montana. It's black foot in Canada uh of the Black Feet nation. There are the pagan and the bloods. Then you come a little bit more east and you run into the Rocky Boys reservation, which is Chippewa cree. They're around the Haver Box Elder area.
6:09 As you go further east, you run into um Fort Peck and Fort Belknap. Um uh one being uh Gros Ventre and the other being a Assiniboine Sioux, they're in the Hayes Lodge Pole area and then over at the Fort Peck Reservoir, as you drop southward, you will run into the Crow Nation just about an hour south of Billings
6:33 Crow. Um The Crow people for the state of Montana, they were the first reservation Indians for the state of Montana and their reservations stretched between Livingston and Gardner Montana. That was the first Indian reservation in the state. Then next to the Crow, the United States government put their favorite friends, the Northern Cheyenne who at that time were they were
6:56 fighting enemies and, and we believe now and then that, that, that was a part of the ploy. I think they thought if they just put us all together, we would annihilate one another and take care of the whole, the whole issue, but we didn't do that. And then we have my band, the little shell band. We are the only non
7:19 federally recognized tribe of Indians in the state of Montana. In 1863 we owned 10 million acres of land that stretched from Haver Montana to the Minnesota, North Dakota borderline. I jokingly say when our chiefs were hunting in Lewistown, which had not yet been founded. Um The United States government appointed four
7:43 trustees Indian agents to oversee our people and to uh to present them with the food and the, um, uh, the housing materials and, uh, the educational materials that they promised us if we would stay on the reservation. Um, during the course of that, um, three months hunting trip,
8:06 the United States government appointed four Native Ameri or non Indian trustees to be our Indian agents at, um, on, at our land base. During that time in 1863 the United States government made a treaty with the four Indian agents who were then taking care of the little shell band of Chippewa people.
8:31 Those agents took 10 million acres of our land and they sold it back to the United States government at 10 cents an acre. The going rate was a $1.25 to $4.25 an acre. It's called the 10 Cent treaty. So if you, if you, if you have a computer, get on the computer and go Google the 10 Cent treaty and you'll come up with the, the little Shell history
8:58 in 1863. 1 of the, let's see, our 10 million acres of land was reduced to seven square miles, seven square miles of land. So that means over 5500 Indian people were placed on seven square miles of land. One of the Indian agents at that time wrote a letter to the government to the president of the United States and said,
9:22 if you do not send farming tools, seeds, herds of cattle, you will see our prisons fill with native people from this band because they will be forced to steal just to survive.
9:43 No truer words were ever spoken
9:48 when I think about our ancestors and the struggle they must have had to have gone through in hunting, in preparing food, preparing shelter clothing all summer long just to enable them to survive during the winter. My heart grows very, very sad.
10:15 The first thing before I go into the buffalo that I want to talk to you about a, a along with the the tribes is some of the commonalities that we had as Indian nations because each Indian nation stands alone, stands separate. A lot of people like to group us together, but each individual nation
10:39 has their own traditions, has their own way of spirituality, has their own cultures that were passed down thousands and thousands of years. There's one common theme too. Actually, that, that, that, that I want to talk about today that are the very basis and the core of our, of our peoples.
11:03 The first thing that I would like to touch base on today is our traditional spirituality and I will show you how that ties into the buffalo in a short period of time. One of the things that all the tribes that I have just described to you had in common was their traditional spirituality, their traditional
11:26 pipe carrying ceremonies, their Sundance ceremonies, the sweat lodge ceremonies, those were carried on. Well, after the reservation era, a lot of the native people took the spiritual like to call underground. They had to hide them from the United
11:49 States government because the government had come through and outlawed every one of them.
11:55 And while this is kind of a sobering uh sobering story and it is, it's, it's a tragedy. However, we were still able to through um through tenacious spirit and through the gift of grandfather, the spirit, he gave us the will and the strength to keep those ceremonies going.
12:18 I, I have a quick funny story that I want to interject because I want to bring a little bit of light and laughter to this. But yet still tell the story. Um One of the ceremonies that we had traditionally and that most tribes had was called the keeping of the soul ceremony. And that means when an individual passed away, their belongings,
12:43 all of their belongings were taken and they were put into a bundle, a hide, whether it be an elk hide, moose hide, buffalo hide, their belongings were put into a bundle and they were rolled up and they were set on a tripod that faced east. Just three lodge poles outside the camp, outside the lodge of the individual whose family he belonged to.
13:08 The three tripods came out, the bundle was placed on those tripods and for one year that bundle remained there, it was kept there for our nation. At the end of that year, we had what you call it. The, the ceremony was called the keeping of the soul ceremony. And you had one year
13:31 to keep that soul, so to speak. You could cry over that soul, you could weep, you could grieve, you cut your hair, you went through the whole grieving process. But at the end of that year, you had to quit grieving. So that individual who had passed could go on to the other side. That that was it. You could not continue to cry for that individual.
13:54 You had to quit your grieving process and move on. What a wonderful, you know, psychotherapy we had going on back then. All right, this is it, this is the end of the year. You've got to quit now and you've got to move on. What a wonderful way to handle death. So when the United States government outlawed the keeping of the soul ceremony,
14:16 have, have any of you seen the far side uh cartoons Victor, I, I just think he could do such a wonderful job with that, bringing an enforcement agent into the reservations and saying, all right, I know you have some souls around here don't try to hide them from me. I know you have them and it's against the law, but you can imagine how, how silly it was.
14:40 How could they monitor something like that? How could they, you know, so you kind of have to bring in my opinion is that you have to bring light to some of that because we still kept our ceremonies, we kept them ongoing. And at the end of the year, whether, whether there was a, an enforcement agent there or not, we did release the soul spirit to go to the other side,
15:03 our pipe ceremonies, our Sundance ceremonies, our sweat lodge ceremonies, each and every one of them have been kept and continued on. And I feel very blessed that we have that when I traveled back east to the tribes in the eastern, from New York all the way down to Florida.
15:27 I go and I visit the reservations there and I speak to the people about their traditional ceremonies, their traditional culture. And I've asked, I remember one band specifically the Choctaw from down in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I, I asked Chief Philip Martin, I'd like to see some of your traditional regalia
15:52 and much to my dismay, they brought out cotton dresses with kind of can cans underneath. And then I really realized just how blessed we are out here to still be living in Tepes, to still be doing our ceremonies, our dances. And I just hope and pray that if you get one opportunity this year
16:17 to go to a powwow or go and meet native people, learn a little bit about their culture. Just that one specific thing they don't have that back east any longer. We're blessed because from the planes on, we've kept those ongoing.
16:38 So with that in mind. I,
16:41 I have to say that
16:46 the northern plains and the pueblos down south and the west coast native people
16:55 to me are farther advanced than the eastern coast native people who've lost the very core of what they're about.
17:08 Our spirituality has been the saving grace for our people and it remains so today, we know that whenever there are issues or problems through the pipe ceremony, if those problems are taken to the pipe, then answers will come very soon.
17:31 They'll come directly from Grandfather. We believe there's only one God and we all, we all have that in common. There is one book that I would like you to at least take a minute to look at. It's called Black Elk speaks.
17:53 Black Elk was a Lakota Sioux chief medicine man
18:00 who knew absolutely no English. But if you read his book, he had to have an interpreter to put this book together. If you read his book, Black Elk speaks and you read Revelations from the Bible, you will be amazed at how much our
18:23 native spirituality coincides with the Bible. Now, having read Bull
18:32 and having grown from that and have having the light come on for me and saying, look, this is how we're alike. Blackout talks about four directions, north, south, east and west and four colors, red, white, black and yellow. Isn't that strange that this Indian man knew not one bit of English
18:58 yet knew about the four colors of the people of the world. Just like the Bible revelations, talks about the four horsemen coming from four directions and the horses were red, white, black and yellow. So
19:12 one of my goals along the way is to try to help to educate myself as much as I can about the encounters that Lewis and Clark had. But I also want to educate others about what we're doing right here right now today. And,
19:36 and spirituality to me is the main gift that we've been given from God, from grandfather. That's the number one gift. So if I can share a little bit of my spirituality with you, then I will have, I will be able to consider myself a great success.
20:00 Even if I don't get all to the buffalo, I can still consider that a great success. My prayer goes something like this. We use four different pieces of, of uh plant life to burn, to pray with, we use sweet grass, sage, cedar, and tobacco. And our beliefs are that as we light that sage or sweet grass that our prayers,
20:25 our words land on the smoke and, and our prayers are carried skyward to grandfather. We call that process smudging many of the churches that are alive and running today, use incense in the same manner that that we do. So again, look for the likenesses um
20:46 with the spiritual ceremonies that we have
20:52 passed on over the course of the years. The buffalo was the main animal mammal used in, in the ceremonies. The eagle was also held high, very high in esteem. But the buffalo was our main source of subsistence
21:16 pre Columbia days.
21:19 Many authors have quoted between 60 100 million buffalo roam this country.
21:28 By 1890 there were documented 750 buffalo left some of them, a large portion of them were at the Bronx Zoo. I have a couple of, uh, pictures here that I, uh want to hand out so that you,
21:48 um, or just pass around so that you get an idea of exactly what transpired because it is so, and, and I'll, and I will pass these around through the, through the audience and as I'm speaking, just go, you can continue to, uh pass them on. It's a small picture.
22:09 I wish I would have blown it up so you could have gotten a better idea. But this is, this is two gentlemen standing on top of thousands and thousands and thousands of buffalo skulls that were taken for the most part just for their tongues. At the same time period when, when the buffalo were being shot
22:33 off the railroad cars, uh, over the, uh, the many numerous wagons that came and, and, and only the hides in the were taken, much of the meat was just left. This was the same time period when our Indian people were being put on reservations. So with that in mind. I'll just start over here and pass this picture around. I think you'll be amazed
22:56 the buffalo had for us many, many uses. Too numerous for me to be able to uh um list them all off the top of my head. So I did bring a little list here, or at least I think I did. Of course, we use the robes for clothing for winter count. It was a way for us to write down our traditional history.
23:22 We use the, the hooves,
23:28 and the sizing, the scraping from the hides for glue. That's what we mixed our paints with. The list goes on and on. And I'd like to, to read some of this off to you because you just won't believe how every part was used.
23:48 We've kind of put this in a somewhat of a chronological order for the hides. Of course, it was used for the lodges, um paint bags, pouches, pipe bags, dresses, belts, lance covers leggings, shirts, breach cloth, bedding, winter robes, cradles, moccasin tops, dolls, coup flag covers, quivers,
24:13 teepee covers gun cases, the hair, the hair of the buffalo and, and I'll pass this around because I want you to see the different the hair. It's actually one side of the face of a buffalo short hair. This is down around the shank of the leg on the top of the leg.
24:37 Mhm The buffalo hair was used for headdresses, saddle pad filler pillows, rope ornament in other words, as you made a shirt, you would hang buffalo hair locks off from your your shirt. Halters, the the the buffalo hair was braided to make a complete buffalo hair halter and, and medicine bags.
25:01 The tail, the tail, it's the buffalo tail. It was used as a medicine uh switch. I got a kick out of this one, a fly brush. We thought that fly brush, large exterior decorations, the old buffalo hide Teepees, the tails were left on. So as the tepees were rounded around the top, the tails were left on.
25:24 It was such a beautiful sight. You'd start with one lodge here, the tail and then come around with three lodges and the tails and, and I was so blessed because I, I've brain tanned many, many buffalo. But II I got to see on this core of discovery in Great Falls. One gentleman from the Blackfeet Nation had the traditional buffalo hide
25:47 lodge with all the tails on it. And it was simply gorgeous. It was just beautiful in the front of the lodge where the door came, the two tails came and tied together. It was just, it was just a wonderful, beautiful, beautiful lodge. The hooves like I've told you, um, and I wanted, I brought a couple of different sizes because I wanted you to see just, just the size of their foot,
26:11 deer hoof buffalo
26:16 huge, aren't they? And you know what if there are questions along the way? Just, just raise your hand if you have questions because I go ahead
26:28 and that I didn't understand with the word cover. You could tell your question. Well, I'm not coup, flag, coup. Ok. Traditionally an, a native American, an Indian traditionally found more strength and prestige in his tribe if he counted coup on people. Ok. One,
26:54 well, much like our drum uh covers would have been, or our par flesh would have been used as a suitcase. It would have been like a suitcase covering or
27:10 that would have been actually on the stick. When, when I think of a coup flag cover, I think of those folding chairs that fit in a sack about this bigger round, about this same difference. It would have just been acoustic cover that would have covered the whole thing. Also, most of our, most of our ceremonial things um, w were kept wrapped up
27:32 in bundles and those bundles were only opened once, once a year to either add to or, uh and there was a huge ceremony. It was the bundle opening ceremonies. So,
27:47 exactly, that was it. Mhm. Mhm. That's exactly it. Good. Good, good. So you, how long were you at Great Falls?
27:58 Did you go? Good.
28:02 Yeah. Were they, were, were you able to see anything down on the, where they had the paro? Did you go down with the core? Good. That Buffalo high teepee was there? Yes. Yes, it wasn't that beautiful
28:19 one
28:23 when you w when we talk about this Buffalo Hyde Lodge, I I cannot express to you how extremely difficult it is to brain tan buffalo hides. Let me tell you a little bit about, about brain tanning. Just touch lightly on it. How are we doing for time?
28:48 Ok, I'll hurry. Uh, brain tanning process. Every animal has enough brains to tan his own hide. Every hide is white. It's not this color. This is a dyed commercial hide. Every hide is white about this color. I brought two pieces of brain tan. This is brain tan deer. I wanted you to be able to feel the softness and feel what this is like.
29:11 The brains of the animal are used mixed up a buffalo horn used with one third of the horn being buffalo fat poured in with the brains that conglomeration was mixed together after the buffalo hide was raw hied, which is what this form is. The hair has been taken off and it's been fleshed.
29:34 You then take the brains and you rub it into this raw hide and I'll and I'll pass this around because I want you to feel just how thick and how heavy. Well, and you can see what the buffalo hide did when I made this drum and I didn't give the tension all the way around the full, the same, uh amount of, uh pressure.
29:56 It just took this frame and warped it. This is what we use. The shields the, the part of the back that we use the shields, this hide was so thick, it would uh deflect the arrows. So I, I want you to see this. Now, the brains are rubbed into the raw hide like that and then left for a couple of days and then they are, they are
30:19 rubbed over a tree or anything sharp that would kind of give it a, a little edge or a little edge that you could rub it across and soften it. With that process is unbelievably hard. Five years ago, south of Livingston, I put together a buffalo teepee encampment and,
30:38 and I thought I was going to do things the old way. So I brought my trusty scrapers and, and I brought my um, buffalo leg bone scrapers. And after the third day, I said, bring on the metal. This is not working. I can't get this done. It was extremely hard. The buffalo hides are so heavy when they're wet
31:03 that it's very, very difficult to pick them up. Most of them were cut down the middle and this was all women's work. Then a beaded strip was added down the middle. So the two halves could be sewn together whether that was hair on or hair off. Let me pass around a couple of things here. This little soft one being deer hide, brain tan deer hide. This one being brain tan buffalo hides,
31:28 the smoke that you smell on this. It was smoked to waterproof it. We didn't smoke things for color. We smoked them to waterproof it. So you, as you pass this around, I'm sure you'll be able to smell the smoky smell of it. Dear buffalo. And then of course, I'll pass around a couple of these tools that, that we used to, to, to work on these sides with
31:52 and I, I'll never do it again, but at least you will have gotten an idea of, of what we, um, what we used to, to do this process. I also wanted to pass around a couple of these hammer heads because I wanted you to see the difference in this would have been a head smashed in hammerhead. Very heavy. That means they would have actually used this to,
32:16 to corral the buffalo and then, and smash their heads with these. This would have been used as a war club. But I wanted you to feel the difference in how hard that would have been to very heavy. Isn't that something to, to pick that up? Ok. Now, let me finish off the horns.
32:37 The horns were used for cups, fire carriers, powder horns, spoons, ladles, headdresses, signals and toys the meat. I have a problem with this one. Every part was eaten. And I do have a little cartoon from the far side where this one little Indian is walking in front of four others. And he said, I'm not sure what this is, but I think it's the only part we didn't eat, but
33:01 there was not a part we didn't eat or utilize. So every part was used um the skin of the hind leg that was used for the most part, which been something like this for the leggings that go wrap around the individual's leggings, the raw hide in the drum form, everything
33:23 containers, clothing, headdress, food medicine bags, shields, buckets, moccasin soles, rattles, drums, drumsticks, splints, cinches, ropes, belts, bullet pouches, saddles, horse masks, lance cases, armbands, quarts, bull boats, knife cases, stirrups, thongs and horse ornaments that raw hide was so important to us. Um
33:48 If you didn't get to go to the Great Falls, uh uh show, I am so sad that you didn't. I hope that you'll be able to come out to three forks and, and meet with the Cora Discovery. A couple of those members are actually um ancestors of the real Shannon that was playing Josh and the real Clark that was playing.
34:10 So if you, if you can possibly get a chance to get out there and uh, meet them, I would love that. They had quite a time stretching that buffalo hide over that iron cage that they brought up from St Louis in trying to make a Buffalo Bull boat. It sank. We still haven't figured out where that was and that was part of the iron.
34:35 Um
34:38 Any questions? Are there any questions? If you have a question, just raise your hand I'll come to you. I think you have a question. Did you not, ma'am?
34:47 When, when you said about the, um, the rock was that carried all the time as, as the tribes, um, traveled or were they left? Or? I have to say that as far as, as many arrowheads and hammerheads as we have
35:10 found out in the Missouri river breaks area, they, I don't think they left him behind on purpose and because I cannot imagine working so hard to nap an arrowhead or, or fashioning a hammerhead such as these and then leaving them behind. I think they were u I think that they were lost in battle or lost in, in,
35:30 in utilizing them for the buffalo hunt or for the deer hunt or elk or whatever it was. But I don't think that they left them behind. We did however, leave a prayer behind for every animal that was taken. There was always tobacco or sweet grass or cedar sage, something left behind back to the earth to give thanks for, for the buffalo.
35:52 So as far as the tools go, I wouldn't think that they would have wanted to leave those behind. There was another question over here.
36:02 Do you know anything about the Penobscot Indians from Maine? I do. Wonderful. I do. Are you a Penobscot? No, my husband is as descended from them and we're curious about that tribe. Well, I have to tell you, II, I have been traveling back to the east coast and in doing so, they have an organization called
36:26 United South and Eastern Tribes and what they, they're second in line to the National Congress of the American Indian. They are a group of the most economic developed nations in, in the United States.
36:47 But, but um they come from Maine, I have a friend who is a um he is the University of Maine Native American studies professor. I can give you his name after this and your husband can get in contact with John Bear Mitchell and learn all about your people. Good for you.
37:13 It works well for her. Absolutely. Absolutely. II, I would encourage everyone. I don't care what nationality you are. Go back and do that Alex Haley thing. Find your roots, find out exactly what you're about where you come from and, and what your culture is about. Question over here.
37:36 Do you know about the North Carolina Cherokee? Um Some, there are many nations of Cherokees. There are, I'm, I'm about an eight North Carolina Cherokee and my father uh was a forehand
37:54 Cherokee name. I don't have enough image to really, you know, claim a lot, but it's I, I just love this because I see people in the crowd who in, in Montana, I grew up here. And so I just love it that you are honoring your native side because
38:15 for so many years, our, our families were told not to tell, you know, I don't see how you could not tell. I'm not an idiot. I mean, I, I don't think I could get away with it but, but many of our people were told to keep quiet about it. Claim Italian claim anything else other than Native American spirituality. So, I, I, it just makes my heart sing to see, um, the people
38:40 wanting to, to get back to where they're from. Good for you. Find out about it.
38:46 I'm originally from Oklahoma. But, uh I know of some UC, the Yuchi tribe there, but I don't know where they originated. Do you? I don't, but I bet I can put you in touch with the Pota Potawatomi nation there. And Mamie Root Nicky is the tribal chairwoman and she will help you in any way,
39:08 shape or form that she can, she can to help you find your, your people. Good for you. Good question over here.
39:17 I was going to ask you about the Potawatomi um, I believe that was my, where my grandmother came from. And you mentioned people keeping quiet. Her mother had died and she was the oldest of seven children so she was helping her father who was a white man, raise these children. And when I would later years, when I would ask her about this Indian ancestry, she'd say
39:43 she was afraid at that time when her mother died that they would be put on reservations or split up the family. Do you know about the Potawatomi? I do. And also you mentioned something at Three Forks. Will you tell us the date on that? Um Three Forks, the core of discovery will be set up at Three Forks? Help me on this one, I think for the next three days. Then. Pardon me?
40:08 They're coming back though. So they've already set up there, went back to the Gates towns and then they'll be back toward the end of the week. There will be a person, an individual here with a schedule that, that can tell you. But I know we'll be back over there. I think they're going to be back at Three Forks tomorrow afternoon at the headwaters we can find out. can't we,
40:32 we may have a schedule. I don't know how detailed it is at the front desk, but it may not be up to the moment. They may have a website too. Right. And you can go on there and find out exactly where they're at. Can you speak your native language? I cannot, that is one of the many things that we lost when our tribe was taken away. However, um, Henry Anderson, who's over here at the traditional games,
40:57 he can speak our native language and we have been able to preserve that as well as the other seven nations in the, in the state here. Thank goodness, we're very blessed. Yes, you mentioned the How about the Nipmucs out of Massachusetts? I, I haven't heard of that, but again, I can put you, I can put anyone in touch with any of the
41:21 tribes back east through United South and Eastern tribes. They're, they're huge conference people. They know those tribes back east. They know them very well. It was, it was a little difficult for me to go back there because, because there were so many nations that I hadn't heard of to think. There's 575 federally recognized Indian nations right here in the United States.
41:46 There has been 280 that have been completely annihilated and there's 270 that are waiting to regain their federal recognition. Those are approximates.
42:00 Yes.
42:03 Why were the little shell people denied recognition? Well, um there were so many issues behind that. Uh First of all that, you know, the horrible thing about that when that 10 cent treaty happened with our people that month, Gail Norton still has that money in her bank account. That was in 1863
42:26 in 1964. It's, it drew for 100 years, 101 years, it drew 0% interest. Zero. In 1964 our money began to drop 4% interest when the going rate was like 11 or 12%. And why did, let's see, why aren't we getting recognized?
42:49 They wanted us to prove that we were an entity inside of a community. And so we when the anthropologist came up to help us with our federal recognition, she's from Cal State Long Beach. She came up, uh, we went to le, we traveled to Lewistown to Butte to Great Falls, Hill 57 we traveled to, uh, Havre
43:15 25 of our family heads got to join the Rocky Boy. That's how it became Chip Cree. As opposed to just cree for the Rocky Boys,
43:26 we had to show, we had to, we had to gather all of this material and prove to them that even though we were out here living in the non Indian community, that we were still a community within ourselves. So that meant going back for school records and on, and I think the funniest thing I found was um the 1902 mar county census
43:50 because uh Mar County at that time, it wasn't Fergus County, it was Mar County. So they came up with the 1902
43:59 Mar County census and, and this is, I was so pleased to find this, but I found a humor in it again. The United States government, federal government wanted us to prove that we were an entity within, in an entity. And when we found the 1902 half breed census, I went, yes, that means they didn't even count us.
44:21 But now I finally figured out where that one little, two little, three little Indian thing came from.
44:30 I have that one down pat now. Um, excuse me, we're having to go and it was those kinds of documents. We had a half breed school in town that just Indians went to. We, you know, we had to come, we had to go back through all its historical records and come up with all this information and resubmit it to our, uh, to,
44:54 um, uh, um, the Department of Interior for a Federal Recognition. I think we're going to get it. I do. I, I know the tribes back east are pulling for us very, very much. I,
45:09 I have some issues regarding
45:16 some of the management of our Native American funds through the Department of Interior and, and our own management. Much like I have issues with what our president doing with our funds. It's just on a bigger level with him, but I do, I, I don't ever want to
45:40 create and we've been one of the legislators from the area that I live in was quoted as saying, we don't want to give Indians their federal recognition because if we do, they will just create another ghetto like atmosphere and the welfare society. Well, I own a few houses in this state. I don't think that, um
46:04 I will, would ever move to a piece of land that the United States government gave me back for land that they had taken, you know, 100 years ago, 100 and 50 years ago. I, I would never personally do that I would like to see a land base happen for us for one purpose. Well, actually, two culture and education, those two things,
46:30 culture, culture and education. There's over 5000 of us enrolled and another 4000 waiting to be enrolled. So we're there, there are a lot of us.
46:47 Maybe we don't have time. It's about almost 10, 2. So um we have there. But uh let's give a wonderful
46:57 thank you
47:05 more questions for Gloria. I'm sure you could answer a few in the back over there after you. Well, good. All right. And uh, basically we have more speakers coming up uh from NASA and he's gonna be uh,
47:20 stuff with satellites and, uh GPS, uh findings kind of like going along the Lewis and Clark Trail, but doing it through satellite. So it's really wonderful stuff. It's kind of fascinating, uh, four o'clock and well, until eight o'clock. So, exhibits in the area

Tent of Many Voices

Gloria Wells on Buffalo and Chippewa Spirituality

Gloria Wells

Chippewa

47:46

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Gloria Wells on Buffalo and Chippewa Spirituality

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