American veterans memorial. We broke ground this morning and we will turn to the business of building the memorial next week. And so were glad that youre here. Were excited to be talking about the memorial and lets get right to it. With me is harvey pratt. Harvey is a citizen of the tribes of oklahoma. Shes a cheyenne peace chief. Hes been a career Law Enforcement official. Hes a working artist and he is a marine and a vietnam veteran. So please greet harvey pratt. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Harvey, what caused you to submit a proposal, a proposed design for the memorial . Well, our veterans director just kept after me. I had no really had no hope that i would even come close or submit a design. He kept after me. He said, do it for the tribe, harvey. Submit something. And i thought about it and i said let me dream on it. I have to dream. I do some of my best creativity is done early in the morning, in that dream period. Thats what i did. I went home and i dreamed about it and i got up and got my big chief tablet out and made some sketches and it just came to me, just all of a sudden that morning. In order to touch the 576 federally recognized tribes, how difficult that was, if you would try to become a to tie them all together. And i thought the way to do that is spiritually. And i said, native people, were the same, but were different. We have the same concepts but we do them a little different. Thats what i thought about being a cheyenne chief, im involved in a lot of ceremonies. And ceremonies are important. And i thought thats the way to approach this. Is spiritually through ceremonies rather than through a piece of art. I wanted to do something that you could walk into, that you could walk into and be involved in it. Like if you went into a chiefs lodge or a lone lodge, a sweat lodge. Thats what that was my concept when i saw the things about being round and forever. And i thought of a circle. I thought of the circle. It just all and just a short time, i had the idea and i thought thats what im supposed to do. I was supposed to do something about spirituality and ceremony rather than a statue. But you had done other public art projects before, hasndnt y . Yes. Im in the process of working on the sand creek massacres in derc denver, colorado. Ive been an artist for a long time. I was born it means hes going to be a chiefs. They gave me that name. I was born in a little house, not in a hospital. And my mothers aunts took care of her and i was a cloak bearer. When they saw that, they said, look at him, he wants to be a chief. They gave me that name and i felt like that was Something Special for me and i always admired my School Teachers, School Teachers to me, my first grade School Teachers, mrs. Jones and mrs. Wyatt, another School Teacher that and they always said, harvey, you have some skills. And i thought about that. I thought everybody could draw as a child. I thought everybody could do something. And it dawned on me that adults have to tell children that theyre special or they have a special talent. Oh, you sing pretty, you dance pretty, whatever it is. Adult haves to tell children that. They recognize that. And to me, that always impacted me enough that i would tell my children those things. If they had a skill or a talent, i would try to reinforce that with them, and other children i would meet. The art i went to indian school, st. Patricks indian mission. And i was drawing one day thats in oklahoma. Yes, oklahoma. And the priest came by and he saw what i was doing, and he goes, harvey, you got talent. And he bought me pencils and paint. And i painted a painting and i did it of the crucifixion, and i made everybody indians. And i sold it. I sold it for 90. In 1961. And the lightbulb went off. That it did. And i thought, oh, my gosh. I can do this. I can sell some art. From that point on, it my art i used to try to paint all kinds of indian art. And then the southwest indians would say, thats all wrong. And somebody else would say, we dont do that. I concentrated on my tribes. Yeah. That brings this to mind for me. Youre a schoolage artist, doing all right, it sounds like. How did you end up a marine . Well, i got out of school and went to college and i didnt have a car. So i was hitch hiking everywhere i went. Hitchhiked everyday to school, hitchhiked to work. I was just tired of broke. I was tired of being broke. And i felt like it was a struggle. So ive always admired my uncle. My uncle was a marine in the Second World War and served on several campaigns in iwo jima. He had been wounded, part of his face was gone. He was our family hero. He was a gunnery sergeant. He was a marine. And i thought, im going to join the marine corps. I never told my mother. I just went out and did it. And i came in one day and shes sitting across the table from me, and i said, mom, im going to tell you something. I said, i joined the marine corps yesterday. And she looked at me and her mouth flew open and i called it the silence scream. And i never expected that reaction from her until i got a little older and i thought about it that she was thinking of her brother that had been wounded numerous times, missing in action, and i he relived that for me for her brother. Yeah. I got hurt in boot camp. They pinched a nerve in my arm from the sling. And i was paralyzed paralyzed my left arm. I was devastated because im lefthanded and im an artist. And i thought, ill never sell another 90 painting. They put me they sent me back to the base. They put me in a dogcatchers truck, a wire cage in the back. Im sitting on my bag and its raining. Im soaking wet and cars are passing me and i was so depressed and i had my orders, they were there. And i opened up that bag and i pulled them orders out and it said, my drill instructorer said harvey pratt would be a good marine. Saved me. Saved me. Telling me that they didnt call you a lot of other things. But they didnt call you a marine. He called me a marine. And i said, you know, what, im going to make it. Im going to make it. And that from that point on, once i was healed when i went to the rifle range, i qualified the first time with an m1 and i got hurt and then when i came back, they gave me an m14. So i had to qualify with an m14. Somewhere i was one of the last guys to use an m1 and one of the first guys to use an m14. Then they made me a military police officer, military for the Division Military police on okinawa. I was there, a lieutenant came by and he was looking for volunteers. And he didnt tell us what we were going to volunteer for, but he said, youll like it. It will be exciting. So i volunteered. Youre not supposed to volunteer, but i did. I volunteered. And they sent me to guerrilla Welfare School for two months. And i trained with a third recon unit. We didnt know where we was going. I thought we were going to the philippines. And they sent us to South Vietnam in 1963. And thats where i served seven months there with the recon unit and we guarded the base and the assets and we picked up shotdown pilots. When they got shot down, we would get them and bring them home. So to me, that meant a great deal to Indian Culture to do those kinds of things, to save people, to save your brothers. That was one of the biggest things you could do was to rescue one of your mates, one of your warriors that was wounded or embattled to rescue them. I always thought about those things. Those things were important to our culture. It was important to me. I had i tell you a story that my mother had three daughters and four sons and the three daughters are the oldest. And they were complaining that they didnt get treated equally with the brothers. They said, you treat my brothers better than you treat us. You give them everything. And my aunt said, those boys are going to die for you someday. Theyre going to have to protect you. Protect our camp. Protect our village. Theyre going to have to die for you, if they have to. She said, thats why we do that to our men. Theyre going to have to give up their lives to protect our the rest of us. And thats why we take them we treat them special. And my sisters realized that then, we didnt think about going to war and protecting or dying for anybody. But thats what the what the old people said. They say, keep your shoes right there by the bed. You might have to get up and run. And i didnt understand that. Why would i have to get up and run in the middle of night . Its because they were attacked, you know i was raised by people that were born in 1870s. They had to witness those kinds of things. They would say, keep your shoes right there, you may have to run in the middle of the night. Call your spirit in the nighttime. My aunt would call us our indians name. And i would say, im right here, and she would say, but your spirit is running around and i want to bring it in. It took me a while to realize how valuable those things were to us. That my aunt laura would consider our little spirits, our souls, rather than just your physical being. And to keep your shoes there and it was just carry a rock in your pocket so when youre out there, you can put it in your mouth and make your own water. A lot of things like that that made us who we were. I think it a lot of lifes histories and lessons made me a better person. And the spirituality of who we are and you get up in the morning and you try to be the a better person today than you were yesterday. And thats the way i try to be. As one of the cheyenne chiefs, they would say, you have to make these sacrifices. Thats the way i approached life is to try to be a better person today than i was yesterday. How do these things you learned from being a cheyenne from being a marine inform your work in creating this memorial design . I think that i i think that i have always been somewhat creative, but the marine corps taught me to adapt and to overcome and to think about things and not just accept them. And when something happens if you can change it, change it, and i think that ive that helped me throughout my career even in Law Enforcement that when issues came up, i didnt just accept them. I thought about them and if i could make it better, i would try to make it better. And i think that the marine corps taught me that and some of the history that i picked up from my family that thought me to be a man, you know, some expectations that you that we expect of you, you have to live up to those things rather than and they were important to me. My grandfather we were extremely poor and i never owned toys. We had clay. And we made our toys. We made horses and people and cars and animals and thats what we played with. Something that we made. And i think that i had always that always helped me to be creative and about what i did and how i entertained myself. And so turning back to the sort of ceremonial elements of the memorial, could you describe those for everyone, sort of how you think about it and how you wish for people to experience the memorial . Yes. I have a we have a pathway that comes off the welcoming center and it goes along the north side of the wetlands and it curves around and it i always thought of that pathway as it goes to the memorial. That pathway is what some people call a red road and we call it the path of life. Its preparation for veterans, men and women, mothers, war mothers, uncles, relatives, that if you want to honor somebody or you want to pray for somebody, you prepare yourself as you walk this path. And thats what i wanted this path, for you to become prepared as you come to the path and come to the memorial and the memorial is 50 feet across and its 14 feet high. And its a horizontal circle. I thought, circles are important, the memorial is called a warriors circle of honor. And so you have an outer circle as you walk your path of life and you prepare yourself to go in to a to pray for your veteran or pray for somebody you love or your family or someone thats passed on and you want to go there and pray. You make preparation. And the circle has an outer circle that you walk. And you can walk in counter clockwise or clockwise. Whichever your tribe does. Whether you want you have that opportunity to be who you are as a different person. And it has entryways that are north, south, east and west. The directions so that you can enter from any direction that you choose and receive the power from which your power comes from. You can come in from that direction. Once you come into that direction from those openings, you come into harmony, where you have prepared yourself to pray for someone and you come within that inner circle, thats harmony. And youre in harmony with the elements, with the water, the fire, the wind, and the earth. Youre in harmony with those things. Those elements. Those are all elements that native people use. You u in the middle is a 12 foot stainless steel circle. And at the base of that is a fire. You can use that fire to light your sweet grass and your sage and things that you use and you can touch the water and use the fire and we call that the drum. The water pulses out. It goes down the sides. And then the design in the in the granite is rhythmic. It goes out like that. It goes off of the grounds. It goes down the mall and it goes all across into virginia and all across the western parts and it calls the indian people to come to this sacred place. Were going to make it sacred. Were going to make it scared by your prayers when you come in there and youre going to sit down on this granite and youre going to pray for your loved ones and youre going to play for your ancestors. Its timeless. The circle is timeless. We can think about our ancestors, we can ask them to pray for us. We can think about our young men and women that are in the service right now. For the present. And then its for the future. Its for our grandchildren and its for their grandchildren that this memorial is timeless. Its not dated. Its going to be the same as it is now, as it was hundreds and thousands of years ago and hundreds and thousands of years in the future. It will be the same. Elements, sacredness, directions, cardinal points, the cardinal points are and we used the sacred color. The southeast is white and thats when i say when you get up, you can pray and look at the sun coming up and say, im going to be a better person today than i was yesterday. Its a new beginning. And the southwest is red and thats a the creator. Storms and things come out of the southwest and the creator shows you his power in that way. We remember him as our father god. And the northwest is the color yellow and thats mother earth, or grandmother earth. She gives us everything. She gives us the water and the air and the animals and the plants. And gives us dominion over those things. We have to protect those things and thats what we pray about. And northwest is the color black and thats our ancestors. We always invite our ancestors in before ceremonies, we feed our ancestors. We give them food and some tobacco and we ask them to come watch, to make sure were doing these ceremonies the way we should, were supposed to be doing them. We try to maintain the sacredness of those old ceremonies. Good gave us gave people written languages and he gave indians ceremonies. And thats what we try to protect is our ceremonies. So the color those things to me were extremely important and that we we consider all of those things and the lances have eagle feathers on them and the battle ribbon that hangs down the side where the eagle feathers are attached to it are part of the sacred colors. So you see the sacred colors. We have prayer cloths that you can tie prayer cloths onto the lances and wherever you want to pray. When you say a prayer for one of your loved ones who is overseas or in the military or has getting ready to go or has come back and you make a prayer for them and you tie that prayer cloth in there and that wind blows and that prayer goes out for that person, love that. I have prayer cloths all over our property with my wife. When i think about it, that little prayer will go out. Prayer clothes. I tried to touch all of those things, spiritually, spiritually about us, about indian people. I think were spiritual people. And i think about this land, a lot of people ask me a lot of times why do you indians fight for this country when they treated you so poorly . And theres a lot of conditions. You fight for the men to the left of you and to the right of you and you fight for your country and but before human beings set on this north american continent, it was just animals. It was a garden of eden. Who did god give it to . He gave it to the indians. He gave this land to the indians. I always say, look, were fighting for this land. Its our land. It has always been our land. God gave it to us. The creator gave it to us. We fight for this land. Our native blood is all over this land, soaked into this earth. The earth is precious to us. Uni our blood is soaked all over this continent, all over this world. Native blood is everywhere defending this land so its precious to us, thats why we try to respect it and do the right thing and care for it, so so one of the things we think about a lot in thinking about after the memorial opens sorry this sort of protocols around how people use the memorial and we know that native people will know what a prayer tie is and they know the proper way to offer and make an offering and sage and sweet grass or cedar, but how do you think we ought to advise our nonnative guests to to experience the memorial . You know, i think that i think that most people are very aware of religions, the freedom to have a religion the way you want and you see that in our culture that we have all kind of different religion, you know . And i think that people will see these people making these ceremonies, doing ceremonies and you will see it and you wonder i thought about that, and i said maybe we could have a dose of theirs. It doesnt have to tell you everything, but hes blessing his relatives. Hes blessing his son or his daughter that is going in the service. Hes asking the creator to protect them and you dont have to tell them exactly why, you know . The medicine that you have. I have always carried medicine. I have some right now in my wallet, big medicine to help me, to protect me. If you think about those kinds of things, and people are respectful, and i think that thats what we want to have at this memorial is respect. Yeah. We want to have respect from the different cultures, and i was reading some statistics and it said that 40 of the American Population believed that indians were a dying race. They no longer existed. 40 of the people think that indian people cease to exist when we turned into the 20th century. That shocked me. That shocked me, but i also hear people say that they respect the indian people, and i think that will happen and if people see us doing something that theyll be respectful and ive had people say, hey, could you smoke us off, too, you know . I was at an investigation one time and some of these investigators saw me, and i was Walking Around the cedar. When i take cedar i take one from every direction, north, south, east and west and i pray and then i went to the fire and these these investigators kept saying, harvey, what are you doing . No, no, youre doing something. We see you doing something. I said, well, im just going to smoke myself off. I need to approach this with a good heart and do the right thing, so im going to cleanse myself. They said, could we could you do that for us, too . Could you do that for us, too . And i was really kind of surprised that these men that really didnt know that they wanted that same thing, and you know, i think about that a lot and people, they see you doing Something Special, they want some of that, too. They want that when you pray, when you give something, something, and i learned that and i see it a lot when we do ceremonies and people will come say, would you smoke off my brother over here . He wants some of that, too. He sees how it makes you feel and how it makes your people feel about a ceremony. So i would love to have people watch and be respectful, you know . And maybe say, could you do that for me . And i think thats i think thats what is really important that you do those things for people regardless of who they are. Is there anything people should not do . In the memorial . Many things, i know, but lots of things. When we do ceremonies when you cant carry we wouldnt let you carry water at the sundance ask y and you cant shout and be disrespectful. Even at the tomb of the unknown soldier, they will chastise you if you get loud and be disrespectful and that, to me, would be disrespectful to us if someone went in there and was doing something that was disrespectful that would i would hate to see that. So would i. I would hate to see that, but thats as good a characterization that you can make is just show respect at all times when youre on this ground. Yeah. The for the audience, when we were out talking with veterans across the country about what the memorial should be about, what should it be like, we were i was a bit surprised because we first thought we would put it out here on our independence avenue side where we have some open space, and it would be very visible. All of these people driving by, all of these people walking by on independence avenue would see and hopefully wonder and come to see what that was, and to my surprise, very consistently, the veterans were telling us, no its too noisy out there, too many cars, too many people, put it on the other side where there can be some privacy, in essence, and for the purposes that you were describing, they will use it as a ceremonial space. Yes. And so harveys design really grasped that, in a way that frankly, the proposed designs. You know, when we were working on, we had to conduct a Design Competition and when we were working on saying these were the criteria. These are the things that we want the memorial or the design to achieve and it occurred to us even then that native people are going to understand these differently, the native artists and designers who submit will understand these differently than the nonnative and nevertheless, when we were evaluating the proposals we had 120 from all over the world from most of the states in the United States we were still and we did not know who had submitted any given design. The identity of each proposed designer was unknown to the jury, and so we were very concerned because, for example, the Martin Luther king memorial was designed by a chinese, designer, and we thought well, you know, that wouldnt be very good for the nativeamerican memorial to be designed by not only someone not from the United States, but someone who just hadnt had that experience. On the other hand, we had some degree of confidence that native designers were going to understand it, in the way that we wanted it to be understood and i think your design really was exactly the sort of thing that we anticipated that as a native designer you would see it and you would understand and of course, your experience as a as a marine would further inform that. So it is what we were looking for. If somewhere during that whole period that came to me, and i thought, i understand. I know what im talking about because ive been involved in ceremonies and things and i understand i think i understand the way native people are, even though were different, i understood those things about it and thats what i tried to incorporate into our design, those elements that we would understand. For example, the warriors 12foot circle, stainless steel circle, i call it the hole in the sky where the creator lives. He lives up there in that hole in the sky. So when you make a prayer, offering or sacrifice it goes up there and the creator hears it and he sends back a blessing to you, and thats the way i interpret that when i think of that as the air in the sky and the creator. You ask him, you beg him for something, pitiful and hell have mercy on you and give you a blessing and hell give back to you through that hole in the sky. A lot of symbolic things that ive learned throughout my life that i try to incorporate and think about, and if i think about it, theyll think about it and make that recognition and thats what you would hope for that you would recognize the directions and the cardinal points and the elements and the colors and the pathway, you know, and just all the Little Things that would mean something to native people, you know . I wasnt worried about trying to educate nonnatives, you know, and it will be that will come that will come with this memorial and well educate nonnative people about who we are and why we do certain things and that we are a spiritual people, that we are concerned about this earth and how we live. We try to live a good way and thats all youll recognize that, and as you get there and hopefully people will see a good example and follow it. Yeah. Yeah. One of the challenges as youve already described is that even though we have some commonalities, native people are very different, one from another and there are 570some federally recognized Indian Tribes by State Government and the number that say that they are tribes, but not recognized by earth. How tempting was it one of the things you might do is try to find iconography or different baubles from a variety of different cultures and try to put them all together in one thing. Were you tempted . You know, i thought about that, but what cured me was when i tried to paint other cultural other tribal ceremonies and i found out i screwed it all up. I was doing it wrong and said hey, we dont know that, you know . So that, to me, that came to be. I said i cant try to do something that a southwest tribe did and they did things different. I cant add those things, those cultural things and ill do it wrong and thats how come i thought of the spirituality and the elements, and i said, we all use those things and so i i did because initially i probably thought about doing the sculpture because i do sculpt and if i do that that doesnt represent those people, and that doesnt represent those people and so thats why i chose to have a destination, a place that and its not a short cut or a fath pathway and you have to go in and you come out. Its not a path that people can walk through going to somewhere else. You have to go to our memorial specifically. Its not a short cut. Its where you go to make a commitment as a vaet ran or a war mother or sister or brother or somebody, a grandson. You go there specifically in mind to pray for somebody, to ask the creator to help you, to help them and we do enough of that that it becomes a place of strength and power and reverence, sacredness and when someone goes in there theyll feel all of those prayers and theyll feel all of those things and thats what i want. I want people to say this is the best place. Gina and i have a place on our property that we found and its a place that we go to, you know . Its a place that i go smoke my pipe, you know . And tie little prayer cloths in there and thats a special place and there are a lot of those on this earth, and thats what i want to remember, people can go to to be energized, you know . To be free of any guilt they have and to feel better about themselves and to feel like they go there to pray for somebody and it means something because youre going have all of these other prayers that have already been there and its going have strength in power and healing, and thats what i wish for. Thats what i wish for that it will help us and i wish it to help our veterans. So let me ask this and well turn in another direction. What do you think the challenges are that native American Veterans are facing today . You know, i ive become involved with a Veterans Organization for the arapahos and i go to the va hospital and i see veterans and i see a lot of things, and i see people that are homeless, people that are angry not all. Im talking about all kinds of people that are veterans and not just indians, and i think that indian veterans have been kind of forgotten. Not forgotten by their people, by their tribes and their family, but forgotten by this country, by the government sometimes, and when they make it hard because i know ive tried to get va benefits and some things like that and they make it difficult for you and they say okay, you know, im not the one. When i came back from vietnam my hearing was damaged and i went to the to the medical doctors and i said i cant hear very well and they said youre nothing, but a damn malinger. I dont want to be that. I walked off and never said it again even though i was damaged and i see that, if that happens to indian people they say okay. Thats done. Im done. Im done, you know . And they dont they dont fight as hard as some people do, to get what they ill take care of myself. And i think thats part of the problem is that we have to train veterans to say, look, were here to help you. Were here to help you because ive been through it and i know to help you go down this path so this is the way you do this, to achieve the little benefits and get a little disability for your hearing and for your agent orange, you know . Those things and ill help you do it and thats what we need to do. We need to help those guys that have given up and thats why i got involved with our Veterans Organization and the American Legion and belonged with the indian veterans and one guy comes in and you know hes a veteran, but he just hangs back to the side and you go over to try to help him. I can help you do this. They did that to my brother. He never applied for nothing, and he went into one of the meetings kind of like we haved where indians would come in and the veterans groups and he was just walking by and they called him in and they said we can help you do this and he draws the disability now and he has a little place and he has some pride about what hes done, you know . But he just gave up and i think thats what happens to a lot of us indian people. We need people that are willing to step up and help them, show them that there is a way. One of the things we talk about a lot and sometimes still struggle to find the words for is about how how native veterans are received in their Home Communities and how their status and their prestige in their communities and i dont see that similar sort of thing going in indian communities. In whos experience . In talking about how native americans are treated in their in their own communities, and by their people. You know, i when i was in vietnam i fully expected to die over there, and i was afraid my bones would be left there and they wouldnt find my body because we were way over there. I said i dont want that. I want to come home. I want my bones and my body to come home. That was so important to me that they didnt leave me over there somewhere and when i came home my family had a big ceremony, you know . Had some medicine men smoke me off and do some things for me and my family came away and we fed everybody and to me, i felt so good about what my tribe and indian people were doing for us, and id seen that my whole life and i really experienced, i felt like i belonged, you know . A long time ago, when their men went out before they could come back to camp they had them stay out in the perimeter like wolfs and theyd sit the medicine men out there to cleanse them. Yeah. And they said well cleanse you because youve been fighting and doing things and we dont want you to come into the camp around our women and children and acting that way, being angry and volatile and so we want to cleanse you and clean you up and make you a human being again before you come in here, before youre among the human beings we want to make you a human being again. Indian people were curing ptsd a long time ago. They knew it. Theyd seen people come in angry and, you know, medicine doesnt work for everybody. It doesnt work for everybody. Its here and here and some guys are just angry about it and so those are the kind of people that we want to try to help and take that away from them. I visited with a man and they were interviewing with him and they said what did you do in vietnam . He said i killed people. Hes still carrying that around in his heart. Yeah. I killed people. You know, something should have been done for him to help him. Hes been carrying that around for 40 years. I killed people so, you know, thats terrible. We need we need people to help cure those kind of men that had to do things like that and help them get past that. So its its a journey. It is. I read a book a couple of years ago i hope i dont mangle the authors name and it was Sebastian Unger and he wrote a book about tribes and it was about pts and why are so many veterans struggling with pts and he concluded that its because in most places, for most veterans, they dont get that reception back. Theyre not greeted by their community. Theyre not, you know, helped to understand whats happened to them and cleansed, as you say, more of a spiritual cleansing, and so, you know, and they dont you know, in a way, as well, most veterans dont get to tell their story. Theres no safe place for them to talk about what theyve experienced, and i think the tribes have always been like you say, theyve learned about and theyve understood what ptsd was before and they had practices that helped alleviate it and maybe we can show others how to do that and speaking of that. Im sure you would agree with me that not just native veterans are welcome at this memorial. Absolutely. I do agree with that and its for everybody. If you want to come there, you need to come there and be healed and pray and participate. Yeah. It should be for everybody. If you want to learn and understand our ways, come and participate. Be a part of it. I think that in a lot of ways even native veterans are closer to their fellow veterans than even some of their family or people in their tribe, that that experience is so profound that thats a kinship that is unmatchable. You know, i have a good friend that we went through boot camp together and we went through the military Police Together and we went to vietnam together and he was a pratt, but he was a cajun pratt. He was a cajun pratt, and we talk two and three times a week on the phone, text, you know . Weve he is im as close to him as i am to anybody else. Im as close to him because we experienced that kind of thing together. He was a real technical guy, you know . He would say oh, thats an m60. He could tell you the sound of the weapon and explosions and planes coming over and he was just that kind of a technical guy, and we were on the same fire team, and he was like that and i was i just kind of through by the seat of my pands, you kn you know . I went this way and we kind of matched and we went from opposite ends and we matched and we made a good team. We made a really good team, just he and i. We captured a sapper one time coming into the airfield and him and i captured him and then a week later we were all standing there and they said oh, were going out on a special mission and its going to be dangerous and well wade out and we want volunteers and the volunteers are pratt and pratt. [ laughter ] the volunteers are pratt and pratt, and he was just elated. I wasnt so sure about it. Its what we always heard about you marines. All right. Well, harvey, thanks so much for being here this afternoon. Oh, it was my honor. You know, for all of the things youve done and all of the ways youve served and thank you for your creation. Were honored to be able to work with you and to be able to bring it into being and we couldnt have done it without you and in so many ways our memorial has the perfect design and the perfect designer. Thank you. And the team that came together and our design team and architects and your staff has just been phenomenal the way things have all just come together and its been a great experience for myself and my wife, gina, and my family and the tribal people and the people that i met on fundraisers. People are just excited about it and are raising money to come next year. Theyre selling fry bread and trying to raise some money so they can come here. Were looking forward to that. It will be a great day, veterans day 2020, we will be dedicating this memorial. We expect and are working to make sure that there will be thousands of native American Veterans here on the National Mall next veterans day, so thank you all for being here this afternoon. Thank you all who have watched online and weve got some more work to do, but its a labor of love now and we look forward to completing the project, so thanks again, harvey. Thank you, kevin. Thank you very much. [ applause ] American History tv is on social media. Follow us at cspanhistory. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend saturday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern an interview on leadership with james baker who served as secretary of state under george h. W. Bush and as Ronald Reagans white house chief of staff and treasury secretary. At 8 00 p. M. On lectures in history, Eastern Connecticut State University professor thomas balzarski on the close and rumored relationship after two prominent midcentury politicians, james buchanan, elected the nations 15th president in 1856 and William Rufus king who served briefly as Vice President under buchanons predecessor, franklin pierce. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts, we explore Jfk Assassination records from the National Archives including iconic artifacts such as Lee Harvey Oswalds rifle and the magic bullet and the 8 millimeter film of the assassination taken by abraham sapruder. A virtual tour of the Ronald Reagan president ial library located in simi valley, california. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. The American History tv series american artifacts visits museums, archives and historic places. The collection of the Smithsonian National museum of the American Indian include 500,000 photographs and 45,000 of these images are online. Up next, we look at a selection covering a history of photography and look at how to navigate the museums online collections. Due to the coronavirus, this program was recorded via zoom. We are joined by the smithsonians michelle delaney. Tell us what your title is and what your job