Closed Captions Audio Described

Dr. Oland Swigan (Washington State University) examines how the Mandan Hidatsa have appropriated Sacagawea's identity, despite her Lemhi Shoshone origins near Salmon, Idaho. He discusses the politics of authority, federal recognition, and how the Lemhi Shoshone—who raised Sacagawea until age 12—remain largely overlooked in the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial narrative, while more politically connected tribes shape her public representation.

Transcript

0:17 good afternoon ladies and gentlemen nice sunny day today my name is Aaron I'm one of the Rangers traveling with this traveling exhibit I see a lot of familiar faces so I'm going to keep this introduction small small but I want to welcome you here to the tent of many voices this is where we have a lot of presenters come every hour on the hour and if you're interested in knowing the rest of the week's schedule
0:41 we have schedules on the black boxes that hold the speakers on each side of our tent so you're welcome to take a look at those at the top of this hour Dr orland swingan is here from Washington State University to share sakaia cultural identity theft so let's give him a nice warm welcome
1:01 [Applause] did you say warm welcome the last time I was in um Sal and I remember going down one of the streets and seeing a bank U
1:24 thermometer registered 100° and that was maybe two years ago so uh I'm glad it is an 100 degree uh warm welcome it's it's much much nicer plus it's in the shade and there's actually some um some some Breeze here well listen I I
1:46 want to uh Begin by um doing a bit of background to bring you around uh but it is a short paper but by way of background let me just say a few things about uh Power about beliefs um about expertise because it's it's crucial to my paper when I I'll wander around here
2:11 for a few minutes and you might think you know boy he's going off in lots of different directions and I am admittedly so if I seem like I'm wandering I am uh this is kind of a paper in progress uh I the paper I'll read to you is is pretty straightforward but what occurs to me is I'm sure watching television you've seen these commercials about identity theft and I'm I'm sure that you see people uh
2:35 a man will sit there and all of a sudden there's a woman voice and this woman's voice says how much she enjoyed U Las Vegas and she enjoyed it because she was using your credit card and it was a woman's voice and a man and Lady Luck or whatever you know and and so we we're surrounded by identity theft and if you go on Google just put in identity theft and you get you know just scores upon scores upon scores of hits how to avoid
2:58 it what to do oh it's awful it's worse than um uh what is that psoriasis or eczema you know all of a sudden identity theft is going to you know be you know top that um and I just you know just jotted a you know a quick uh comment here it's identity theft it occurs when someone wrongfully uses your personal
3:21 identification uh to obtain credit loans Services even rentals and mortgages in your name they may even commit crimes while impersonating you so have impersonation we have uh we have in a sense an appropriation of your identity what I'm here today to talk about is the appropriation of identity through a cultural means cultural appropriation of one's identity because that's what's
3:44 happened in large part with with sakaia I I uh I commend you all for being here because uh what you see here is a lmh high version of who sakaja is and you notice if I'm saying sakaja I'm not saying sagaia if we're up in North Dakota at Fort Berthold You' be hear everyone saying sagoya or you know some guttural form of that I don't and I'm here to ask us you know
4:09 how do we how do we form our beliefs about who Sakia is what what goes into this and when you ask yourself how do you form a belief let's just kind of ask ourselves I mean some of these things are pretty self-evident but let's give a couple of comments we form beliefs number you know maybe two ways uh if there's is a you know uh
4:32 Divine stroke of U inspiration that might be a third way but but generally speaking in the rest of the world there are two ways generally it's a self-generated form where we go through experience we experience something and uh you know maybe we learn our multiplication tables and we go through back and forth and we experience them we come away and we understand them and then we reflect on them we think about them and so after we
4:55 we we after we experience something and after we reflect and think and consider and Ponder we form beliefs and those beliefs probably are the ones that are the most important to us because they come to us without a filter they come to us directly they don't come to us from from somebody else but those are the ones that are probably the minority most of our beliefs and and I'm going to you know
5:20 I'm going to hammer at these most of our beliefs are externally generated beliefs and I'm going to look like I'm accusing you of of being being filled with nothing but external generate I have lots of them myself so I don't I don't want you to think that I'm you know trying to act holier than now in this case but when we when we talk about externally generated beliefs what we tend to talk about are
5:42 beliefs that we learn from somebody else a belief we learn from an expert um the ones that would resonate the most probably for some of you might be Dr Phil Dr Phil well Dr Phil said such and such has to be true my gosh he's got got this big program he carries himself wonderfully he's well spoken he's charismatic he's got to be right
6:06 he's got a degree my Heavens or maybe it's Judge Judy Judge Judy has more of an effect on me than Dr Phil I think I watch her carefully I'm beginning to tell my kids Life's a contract kids talk to Dr Judy or judge Judge Judy uh for some of you it might be Dr Laura if you're riding down the road in your car you might list a Dr Laura or
6:30 maybe it's Oprah or maybe some of these other experts are doctors maybe they're lawyers maybe they're accountants you ever you ever do something opposite of what the accountant told you to do no takers wise or if you do keep it to yourself and you got away with it right accountant says yeah that's a good
6:55 deduction or that isn't I I don't say I want to see the rule book I just I take it I I take them at his or her word um um a number of things I mean in terms of uh you know a doctor lawyer a banker uh or if someone is talking to you about about financial assistance you go in and ask them for their advice you know uh what should I put in the stock
7:19 market or should I put at mutual funds and how old are you well I think that given your age and your income this is best and you walk away and you do it you know you're you're using them as as as the expert the other way that we deal with externally generated beliefs has to do with authority authority and we're getting closer to my
7:42 paper now many times we tend to believe someone because of their Authority it might be their position it might be their charismatic power many in many cases we really don't ask them for proof we we simply take
8:06 them at their word you know we could peel things back and check out the accountant we could peel things back and check out the um um you know the doctor we can get a second opinion those are pretty common but when it comes to Authority we we you kind of don't what's an example of authority a manager you have a manager my manager is my is my
8:30 Department share in my Dean and when they say do this you know I generally just do it because at the end of the year that department chair is going to be writing my evaluation and I want a good evaluation because at WSU we're not unionized and my my uh raise if I ever get one is based on Merit do you think I
8:54 want someone writing a letter for me who dislikes me or thinks I don't believe him or or someone I Buck it's not in my self-interest a priest or a clergy if your minister or your priest tells you something and you Embrace that person you're going to go say excuse me father I'm I'm going to go get a second opinion on that how many Hail marries
9:17 was that 15 I might shop around and get five you do that of course you don't do that you don't do that you accept that person for what what he or she has to say and maybe the best example of authority is being a parent is being a parent I've got three kids and I've
9:37 mastered that art of saying Molly do this and I'll stare at her and she'll say nothing and she'll agree to it I'm grumpy I'm tired I don't want to argue Molly do this Greg do that Christopher why didn't you do this there's no argument oh there is sometimes in a light-hearted manner but there's a certain time as a parent the look oh my
10:02 mother my father could just just freeze me in a position at even at my age right now with a look that's called Authority where you don't even question it well when we get to this topic cultural identity theft we can ask ourselves what what happens to Authority well I mean Authority can be
10:25 good and Authority can be bad and there can be all kinds of Shades in between and when we look at American Indians we can say can we spot Authority absolutely uh look at uh a tribal leader they might not strike you as as as symbols of authority but all you have to do is you know walk in the reservation and shop around chitchat a bit spend
10:48 some time and say what's your tribal chair make they'll tell you they'll tell you there might be U you know economic uh depression on the reservation but the tribal uh Council chair and members are going to make pretty decent money um I would guess that a range up in this part of the neck of the woods 60
11:10 70 maybe 75 880,000 so you're making lots of money as a tribal chair do you think that translates into Authority the answer is yes yes first of all the person's elected then they're elected to an office that has all the accouterments of the office plus this person's well paid and then a little secret a little bit of the camel Under the Tent if you really want to find out if
11:34 someone's a really powerful tribal chair knows around because most of them will carry with them a tribal credit card because when they're out doing business for the tribe they can't be out there you know looking powerless maybe there's a big uh uh gaming issue at stake maybe they need to win friends influenc people so you need this uh nice credit card and so nose
11:59 around NOS around ask you'll be embarrassed you probably won't learn but I'll just tell you without naming names uh so I have lots of deniability the biggest I heard was $250,000 credit limit is that Authority yeah it's big time Authority but in a Indian non-indian
12:21 situation you know non-indians tend to wear the hair shirt and simply feel sorry for all Indians victimizing them as Hess creatures who can't do much for themselves that's really unfortunate you haven't been to a res in a long time if that's the way you think because there's lots of stuff happening in a reservation and there's all kinds of authority
12:40 figures there's all kinds of um uh Power relationships when we when we think about getting closer and closer to my concept here of culture identity theft what we we need to understand is
13:01 this to to perpetrate some kind of cultural identity theft which I'll talk about an institution a tribe or an individual must in some fashion legitimize his or her Authority you have to legitimize it and once you
13:23 do your Authority becomes very influential because once you have a legitimate form of of authority the kinds of compliance you get is remarkable it's remarkable when you're in a position of authority what people will automatically do without questioning
13:45 you I do it myself if I see someone's uh a policeman's uh um light in the back I I pull over and pray that he's after somebody else and goes by me but uh if it's me I I pull over CU I think you know it's better that I do this face the music while while while I while I while I can in other words we all in a sense
14:09 fall prey to this but especially when we have institutions with strong hierarchies the stronger and the more visible the hierarchy the clearer It Is by way uh uh by way of complying and tribes do have hierarchies it might be called the tribal uh uh Council might be called called the tribal Business Council they
14:32 all have positions of authority people know who's number one and they can work right down the pecking [Music] order um and and frequently they they suffer from what some uh Scholars refer to as capitis ever hear the word capitis anybody any pilots in the group
14:57 here no Pilots One Pilot back there one p i got a pilot here and add what Captain itis is I think he does okay you if he nods his head I have it right the flight Captain is is in the cockpit he's a head honcho you can tell it the way he dresses the way he walks right sure you know anybody can spot him
15:22 mile off they make lots of money they're in charge of the craft and so if the pilot uh decides to make a decision that's faulty uh uh does his co-pilot or Navigator or anybody else Rush up and say captain I'm afraid you're making a mistake do they do that they don't do that how come he's the captain he's the
15:45 captain they're unwilling to confront this man of Authority or this woman of authority whoever it happens to be it that's called capitis suggesting you know something of illness that we will willingly go along with somebody in charge even when we know that person is wrong a couple of other uh Scholars have
16:10 talked about what they like to call the symbols of authority and they like to use 3ts titles tailor and tones titles tailor and tones for Authority what do I what do I mean by title there's nothing like like the simple title Dr period
16:35 doctor you don't feel well you go to the doctor he tells you to do something and you do it maybe a little closer to home I mean who else would you walk in with this person a total stranger and take off all your
16:56 clothes I still am stunned at that I'm stunned at that and that's not the end of it once your clothes are off me there's a reason for taking your clothes off because they do unnatural things to you and you let them you don't even know
17:15 the person's first name that's called Authority and nurses I mean some doctors just make a reputation of being total jerks and having nurses run around doing whatever this you know crazy doctor wants
17:39 done um we also can talk about tailor uniform Personnel have a real impact on us you got 1 2 3 4 if these people told you to open and Evacuate the room would you do it just like that you do it quicker for them than you would for me me if they said uh ladies and gentlemen we've had a technical difficulty and we
18:03 want this room vacated please vacate now you'd be up and out of here in 30 seconds because these people wear uniforms they're they're they're in charge they introduced me I'd do what they say too I'd be off this thing quick as a flash remember Dick Morris remember the fellow that used to be the used to be buddies with President Clinton now we see him in Fox News you know he crossed
18:27 over right Morris the uh political guy he got himself in a little bit of trouble too um Dick Morris uh uh is the fellow who persuaded uh President Clinton to give up those Dapper light colored suits remember when Clinton would appear in kind of a light tan or a light brown suit sometimes real colorful
18:51 ties uh Morris came along and said you know I don't think that's you know he he sort of intuited what other psychologists had to say they said you know a study was done and uh when a man was wearing a blue suit and a red tie and jaywalked people were three and a half times more willing to follow the
19:14 jaywalker wearing the blue suit and red tie as compared to the person and Casual street clothes what the blue suit said was follow me and so what happened with Clinton gave up his you know Dapper tan and flower ties and went uh blue suit and you you won't look at the president the same way when he really wants to command respect take a look at what he's
19:38 wearing good standard funeral clothes tone tone tone has a lot to do with how one communicates is one charismatic is one persuasive is one compelling is one sympathetic or is one abrasive many times you find people who who are in Authority will speak with a
20:02 great deal of confidence stirring Charisma sympathy understanding and they wind up being compelling they wind up being believable because in the end we want to bind the expert we want the expert to help us we want the expert to give us DeTour for complex thinking listen you're the banker I pay you to do all
20:27 this I don't want to get a ree in in banking I want some okay I hope I made my point about Authority and I hope it will translate and transfer to my paper so now is the boring stuff and I'll do my very best to keep you on the
20:45 edge of your seats and in times like this uh I have a PowerPoint and I forget what's on it so I'll it'll be kind of you know I know what's on it but for whatever reason I get up in a group like this I don't have a
21:07 clu um what we have here is the the lhai Shon Aboriginal territory and if you'll what you'll what you'll discover there is the uh Aboriginal territory this is the territory p large which the
21:30 uh lahis were eventually compensated by the Indian Claims Commission late' 60s early 1970s uh a claim which in their case was 4.5 million I may talk about that later on so keep that figure in mind and what this does is just bring you up to date on where we are here and you'll I hope you can can you see that
21:53 or is it too small see see it okay what you'll see is a is a location based right down where we are this is good meat and potatoes Louis and Clark stuff because it brings you right where we are right now we get you into L High Pass lost Trail Toby uh LHI sacka um uh Lewis and Clark I mean if if you're into this you you should have
22:16 Goosebumps right now looking at that map cuz that's where that's where all this happens if you look to your far right you'll see Three Forks of the Missouri and the Three Forks of the Missouri over there in Montana the Madison the Gallatin and the Jeffers that's of course the area where uh sacka Jia at age 12 was captured so this is an important story
22:36 to us and this map is around 1805 thereabouts I'll come back to that like I said my I put this together but each time it's kind of a surprise to me so in in the February 16th 1996 edition of the Idaho Statesman lmh High leader Rod
23:00 arow asked a question that underlies the importance of my paper presentation quote the government is going to spend $1 million to reintroduce the wolf and the salmon what about reintroducing the people he asked referring to tendoy field and I hope that you go take a look at this if you can an ancestral site southeast of
23:24 salmon um a white declared that these are our sites our Arlington National Cemetery with these words arow White and the fort lihigh Indian Community inaugurated U uh its efforts uh to restore Federal recognition for the lihai people whose Aboriginal homelands lay 200 miles north of their present location
23:48 in or at the Fort Hall Indian reservation right near Pocatello on February 12th 1875 President Grant established a 100 square mile executive order reservation for the lumai people in the lumai valley right here it's the first time I was able to do that reading this paper right
24:11 here known as The lmh High Valley Indian Reservation the executive order established the reserve for quote the exclusive use of the mixed tribes of Shashi banck and she Peter Indians the agadas and the tadas and the banic almost from the outset the government federal government and local residents began efforts to resend the executive order
24:35 reservation the president had barely allowed the ink to uh to dry and people in the federal government and people out here the the few settlers who were out here opposed it so it was under Fire from day one they ultimately succeeded in 1905 there a long story here I'm truncating this tremendously and in 190 7 the lmh
24:59 high began what many had called the lmh high Trail of Tears which saw their Forest removal from their ancestral lands here uh to the Fort Hall Indian reservation in Pocatello now I I'm cautious about uh making uh comparisons but I mean let me just ask the question would you rather
25:23 have some property around salmon or would you rather live in pocatella banished from their home Homeland in 197 and seeking return ever since the lumai people create a dilemma for the nation as it commemorates the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark core of Discovery the United States needs to
25:46 reassess its commitment to the lumai People to sakaj jia's People the obligation of the nation acknowledges uh the obligation the nation acknowledges toward uh wolf and salmon recovery efforts is dwarfed by the responsibility it faces in treating fairly the people who played such a crucial role in advancing the success of
26:11 the Lewis and Clark expedition throughout my work for the restoration of federal recognition for the lumai shonis I've emphasized as one of my sub things the lumai shishoni tie to sakaia her Origins as an aadea born near samon Idaho my argument goes is one more compelling reason for the federal government to restore to the to the lay
26:35 Shoni Federal recognition Salmon River Country is where she was born and raised and it was from that region that she was kidnapped at age 12 but as the nation moves further into this Bicentennial business it has become apparent that the lumai shonis the people who raised her until she was 12 have been overlooked ignored
26:59 and disparaged by a host of people not the least of whom are other American Indian people meanwhile non-indian academics people I hang out with have either knowingly or unwittingly damaged the historical understanding of sakaia by trivializing
27:21 her they do so by focusing on the princess theme by wrapping their rhetoric in to myth and Legend uh and Legend genre and by concentrating on how this kidnapped woman gave her blessing to the march of Westward Expansion by accompanying lisis and
27:44 Clark I mean she's kidnapped uh they probably killed her mother took her off to North Dakota and and then we are blaming her for coming along and giving the Indian blessing to westward migration restor expansion that
28:08 doesn't make any sense we academics are much too pleased with ourselves as we smugly poke fun and over and over again at say Donna Reed uh in her 1955 performance in the far Horizons we look back at this and and uh and and and again we we again poan and
28:31 and sakaia is is trivialized and seen as unimportant and and an adornment an accouterment and we also refer to her as Superwoman or maybe the Madonna of the trail one of Sak's many monikers one of many labels quote the ultimate American history mystery woman is loaded with
28:54 drama but ultimately clever dismissive cliches as this uh diminish This Woman's importance this is after all much more fun and much safer for non-indians than stepping into the quarrel and using historical and cultural methodologies to offer an academic assessment we want to do
29:17 that but even more damaging than pompous academic cleverness and cunning is the Discord that exists in Indian Country over saku's identity which academics and non-academics alike virtually ignore we think it's an Indian problem at least three groups of American Indians lay a claim to her the Mandan hadat of North Dakota the Eastern
29:41 shason of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and the limhi Shon the refugee band removed from samon country and now living 200 Mi south of here with the Shon banx at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation some believe she died and was buried at Fort Manuel Lisa in 1812 around 25 years old While others hold on to the conviction that she lived into her 90s and is now buried at the Wind
30:05 River Reservation in Wyoming with a curious sense of spinelessness most academics describe the controversy in the most guarded in general terms refusing to wait into the fry and offering an assessment as they backpedal from the Indian dispute saying let let let Indian folks sort this
30:30 out of these three tribes two are federally recognized possessing substantial status through treaties through executive orders substantial land bases quasi economic independence limited sovereignty political governance status and influence accorded to tribal organizations all of those things are
30:55 absent from the lihis the lmis are minorities down at Chan but they're important minorities down at Chan one group however has none of these advantages as I say the Lumis and currently the tribe perhaps with the strongest hold on
31:17 sakaja is the tribe the kidnapped her the group with the most tenuous the weakest tie is the one that raised her to age 12 the only group of these three without Federal recognition and the grip of the Mandan Hada is getting stronger and their defense of their
31:39 position is becoming increasingly shrill and territorial I was going through some of my stuff I I got a little bag from the some of the Hadas and I don't have the bag with me but you know little pencils little promotional things just a just pencil but it reads uh Manden had AR
32:02 Nation home of sagoya if there were lihis in the the group here they' they Grimace they'd groan they'd be troubled by that for example in an August uh 31st 2001
32:27 Proclamation um the Manden hadat and ration proclaimed the oral history of the hiat origin of sagaa to be the official position of the tribes it was approved and and uh this is the resolution it's very carefully written out about nine points to it and
32:51 if you take a look at the bottom it's signed by the tribal council prominently displayed is Tex Hall uh it was approved by the tribal Business Council of the three affiliated tribes of uh the Fort Berthold Indian reservation in North Dakota many of the nine points in the proclamation are standard claims that few people would refute but two points in particular
33:14 elicit a strong negative reaction because they fly in the face of history and culture and because they reject out of hand any other Indian and non-indian perspective point three reads in this fashion the contributions of our ancestors Hadas to the success of the Expedition
33:39 have largely been overshadowed by The Legend of sagoya as a shishoni captive what's that saying that's shorthand that's a nuanced suggestion that that this business of her being a captive is a legend and and i' I've heard I'll I'll I'll hustle I've heard people even say that she was really captured by
34:03 the lihis and that they were just going back to pick her up next we see that um um the uh It also says it is a duty and responsibility of the tribal Business Council uh to affirm and uphold the history and culture and traditions of their membership in order to strengthen the cultural identity of all members and for members of the Manden hadat and so on to accept the
34:28 United States history widely held belief that Sago we was a Shon is to deny the words and oral history of our ancestors the Proclamation was signed by teex Hall and six other members by dismissing Sakia Shon captive status as a legend and claiming that she was not Shon the hadat has created for themselves a painless official identity change resolution the rights of the
34:52 tribal council to uh to pass and write such a thing can't be questioned of course they can do this others however are free to ask about the accuracy and the motives of such claim and can they be questioned and refuted the battle over saak J's tribal affiliation her identity has been ongoing but a Brazen Proclamation such as this represents a rejection of historical accounts and a
35:16 cruel dismissal of lumai shon oral tradition and one question needs to be asked has the Manden hadat a position been effective indeed it has it has gone largely unchallenged by academic and the public at large take for example the recent dedication of the Chicago WEA statue in the US capital on uh in October of 2003 the AP ran a story by Jack
35:40 Sullivan describing the events of the dedication this 11t statue that now stands in the capital of rotunda representing one of the two figures that North Dakota can have as part of its history the story explains that the statue quote Bears the name sagaia the spelling preferred by North Dakota and her tribe the Hada another version of his story explains that s Sago WEA was a
36:01 Hada teenager when she joined the Expedition the story was accompanied by a photo showing Tex Hall and Governor John hovin riding horseback on a street in Washington DC with a capital in the background Hall was wearing traditional clothing while the governor sported a cowboy hat ribbon shirt and jeans Senate majority Bill Frist and house Speaker Dennis hasard officially
36:25 accepted the statue on behalf of Congress but what of the um Loni or Traditions what about the scores of references to saki in the journals uh Louis Clark journals how does one refute her value as a Shoni speaker who assisted in obtaining horses to cross the Continental Divide how does one dismiss the lineal descendency traced by the liai Shoni today and the lack of any
36:50 descendency uh by the Hadas how is it that lmi's oral tradition lhai descendency lines and countless references are trumped by the hadat claim that she was not aadea she wasn't a snake and she wasn't a shishoni the answers lie in a complicated case of cultural identity theft that a polite or timid academic public is afraid to address a neocolonial style seizure of
37:15 saak identity by the man in had has been carried out and it appears to have flown undetected under the radar of academics politicians and the public the proclamation by the affili council does represent after all a recognized tribe federal laws favor recognize tribes and such acknowledgement lends a great sense of legitimacy to what uh to their actions and any form of cultural
37:38 or political transmission of ideas is made easier by a large membership and the frequency of well publicized official statements and acts tribal com a tribal Proclamation a Governor's involvement and a grand ceremony in the uh in the Rotunda cultural transmission of ideas and arguments also favor those who are able to build strong coalitions and the Hadas have proved themselves to be
38:02 Master Coalition Builders while they've made their claim to Sak's identity their Proclamation represents a powerful cultural blending of the three affiliated tribes next to most remarkably they overcame an historic antipathy by American Indian tribes to State Authority and jurisdiction and join forces with the federal with the uh state government so to uh do the Hadas have an advantage
38:26 when it comes to featuring tribal person personalities of high political status teex Hall the tribal Business Council chairman is the current president of ncai National Council American indias arguably one of the most important uh influential organizations the United States another prominent figure is Amy mosset director of Tourism and as director of Tourism uh uh she's a
38:47 recognized um um um figure in terms of the um um saak story with her life-size image featured international airports mosset has become a cultural entrepreneur whose promotion of the's version of Saka has become Legend and in summary powerful Coalition
39:12 Builders and cultural entrepreneurs such as Tex Hall and Amy mosset backed by tribal and state government authorities and acknowledged by federal leadership have reached the point where they are able to dominate and mold ingroup status relating to Saka jaia no one doubts that AK is correctly categorized as American Indian woman but giving her the Hada attribute has empowered Hall and mid to
39:35 separate sagoya insiders from sakaia Outsiders by tampering with sakya's category and attributes of identity they have affected in neutral language an identity change involving a change in the category of self-description put more bluntly they perpetrated cultural identity theft the success of the hadat is teex
39:57 Hall and Amy mosset has been stunning the adops has kidnapped Sak as a 12-year-old girl near Three Forks Montana in 1800 and his stoical records and limai Shon oral tradition notwithstanding they've stolen her once again and enshrined Her Image in the Rotunda of the United States
40:17 capital [Applause] [Music] thanks I if there are questions I'd be happy to please put hand up so we can all hear your
40:37 questions any questions at all all right are there any actions um being taken to write this wrong in this community are there any actions being done to write this wrong um lots of things have have been done um I I wish I could report positively um I've worked with Rod arow
41:01 and the LH High Community for some time now and we put together reports uh historical data um um and and if Rod era white were here I think this is what he would say I don't know for certain uh but we're I think Rod would say that we're afraid to give them uh give bar uh our our petition for fear that they'll uh provide an expedited review and
41:26 reject it and it's you know once you're you know once you're uh uh convicted of something you know to to if you're an attorney once the level of evidence after you're convicted is much greater and so if if the Lumis petition was rejected which we think it would uh the next time around it would be even harder we'd have to have even more compelling
41:50 evidence um I know the AOW white has worked hard uh trying to get the Idaho delegation to be interested uh he's worked with a number of other organiz gations and um um while there's interest uh we don't I I wish we could say that there's great success there hasn't been yet and that's that's really unfortunate because I I just uh my worst nightmare of course is that this Bicentennial is
42:14 going to come and go and the lmis are going to you know be these Refugee showbands down at Fort Hall and they'll come up to Salmon once once a year in August and find you know and and and that that'll be the end of it that'll that'll really be a failing that'll be a failing I mean I don't know how you I don't know how a person has a celebration like this when the people
42:38 who raised her are treated in the fashion they've been treated I'm a student at um boisey State University is there any kind of um Road or action or anything that students could get involved in to um um support the Lim eyes you bet there's lots of
43:03 things you can do first thing um if you if you have internet in your Motel uh tonight uh or when you go back to Boise State um uh uh go to Google and and uh hit lmh high- uh um um l-com and there's a website that uh U young Mr Kell Arte has put together it's
43:27 really quite a nice uh website and there's there are things you can do there I mean you can read about uh the activities and there's a a petition that one if you scroll down and you can you can you can fix your name to this to this petition but um there are just other things a person can do too I mean you know letters to influential people maybe uh maybe you play golf with Simplot I don't know maybe you know
43:51 somebody with lots of power influence and Authority because Authority is what the lihis have they don't have it they don't have buddies like uh the governor they aren't off uh you know hanging out with Bill Frist and Dennis hasard um um it's it's tough to to find alhi quoted uh in DC but there's lots of
44:13 Adas lots of showand lots of other recognized Indians who have no tie to lay shonis so how how much pack money are they the this Tex Hall and his Bunch giving uh Frist and hassard and that Bunch oo you know
44:38 your question is better than my answer good question I have no idea and um um listen Tex Hall is an important guy he's an important man he has a lot of authority uh when you want to be important in Indian Country invite Tex Hall out and hobnob let let uh if if you want Indian voters to vote for you bring teex Hall out um yeah there's a there's
45:01 a a fat cat political Arrangement there I believe there is you don't see uh you don't see people trotting out the arow whites the tendo or the George sisters uh these people are pretty much forgotten uh and are the showbands helping you know have you read the newspaper where the showbands have said by golly we want the lhai shonis to be recognized haven't seen it yet folks do you want to know why do you want to know
45:26 why if there's any money that's going to come out of the salmon recovery dollars for the shishoni banic you know who that salmon recovery dollar flows through lay shonis they're the ones lived up here they're the salinator they're the ones that have the the dollars connected to them and when the showband uh uh received the 4.5 million ICC settlement that uh should have gone to the Lumis
45:50 did it go to Lumis heck no when of the showband general fund so if you're thinking the showband are going to be jumping on the bandw to make certain that the Lis get recognition don't look there either Dr spin thank you very much for coming let's give him a big round of [Applause]
46:12 applause if you have any other questions to address to Dr sang and you're welcome to address him in the back of the tent in the meantime we're going to set up for our next program Mrs Gilman's going to be here to talk about the gifts of
46:26 the Shon so stick around for that
46:56 one
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Dr. Oland Swigan on Sacagawea and Cultural Identity Theft

Dr. Oland Swigan

Lemhi Shoshone

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Dr. Oland Swigan on Sacagawea and Cultural Identity Theft

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