Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Indian Treaties And Identity 20141213

Treaties between the United States and American Indian nations. This Panel Discussion from the symposium was titled great nations keep their word. This is about an hour and a half. Delorea from phil the university of michigan and i am on the board of trustees. I want to welcome you to this session today. This is the final session in the symposium. The session speaks in part or of the exhibit which you shall see shortly which follows historical chronology, some case study examples, some for maddock analysis including some things that might resonate with the panel that we just had. The final section of the exhibit and this final session in our panel seeks to sum up and pull together, sort of congeal the insights of the exhibit and the day we have had today. Part of what we are about is reclaiming history. That, the easy part, is about making invisible stories visible. This is the task in native American History and has been for so long. It is a fundamental rule of this great museum. Another part of dealing with history is harder and its harder because we live in a largely a historical time. As in the story and this bothers me greatly. My students on a culture that shapes them tend to focus on the new, the now, the future. As if time begins at this moment right now or maybe yesterday or perhaps last week or at best last year. That means that problems may have a history but that history as thet really matter students i work with try to figure out solutions to problems developed with little reference to the past. That is why too often i sometimes were here claims sure, treaties were broken and we feel badly about it. We like to feel badly about it but once they were broken, then they became kind of nonfunctional. Can we just move on . Very future Oriented Approach to not thinking about the past and that is the other problem with history, this claim that somehow the peer and simple passage of rendersstory, actually that thing we call history obsolete. This exhibit n symposium demonstrates that nothing could be farther from the truth. The nation to nation is an eternal, critical part of the fabric of United States itself. Its not only about history, its also about our shared future. I would like to introduce our panelists. N has served bria on the Indian Senate since 1985 and served as the chairman. Excuse me president of the National Congress of American Indians and present of the association of washington tribes and executive board member of the washington gaming association. Be matthewim will fletcher, a professor of law at Michigan State University College of law, director of the universitys indigenous law center. He is an appellate judge for various tribes. It will be followed by director ofin gover, the director this museum, a former professor of law at the Sandra Day Oconnor college of law at arizona State University from 19972001. Assistant secretary for Indian Affairs and the u. S. Department of the interior. I think the person who we all me to always keep in mind when we think about the book or read the book or the exhibit and think about these things is our good friend suzanne shoharjo. She is a writer, curator, policy advocate who has helped native nations recover sacred places. Ofmore than one million acres of land since 1975, she has developed key indian law and clipping most Important National policy laws for the protection of native american ancestors, arts, culture and religious freedom as the founder of the museum of the American Indian and served of the guest carrier of this project is not as well as other projects. I think she is something of a National Treasure and i want to say how honored i am to be here with you. [applause] we will go until about 5 15 p. M. Are three, there wonderful things waiting for you. The first is a book signing in the second is a preview of the exhibit and the third is a delightful reception for those of you who know, there is always a treat and the food is fantastic and the company is great. I would encourage you to be there. I would like to close by reading something suzanne wrote as we think about considering the negative stuff that comes with treaty but also the possibilities in treaties. Suzanne, these are your words the preservation and restoration of treaty rights can be the foundation of a harmonious and moral relationship between and among the native nations and the United States, a relationship in which each party is committed not only to the redemption of its own interest but also the wellbeing and progress of the other. The final chapter of the story has not been written and it is hoped it will never be. That is how it is when great nations keep their word. I will turn it over to the panel. Yes, you guys are free to use the podium whenever you want. [laughter] im leaving. [laughter] good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. I know its that time of day after lunch so we will try to liven it up a little around here. S my name isppepods. Im only here because of the grace of god. He allows me to have the greatest job in the world and i will leg wrestle anyone who things that a better job than me. I have had the, opportunity in 30 years to work with some awesome role models. There has been not a person in my life that has stood out more than this man who passed away this last year. Billy frank junior. The meetingsagine and opportunities on the travels and trips i have had to spend with billy and those are priceless. We have a video would want to start out with first so we can get our it people to roll that, well start out with a short video of billy frank junior. This is a continued story of the u. S. Versus washington, the the boldn decision which came in february of 1974 and it was a continued part of the u. S. Versus washington on shellfish. Argumentaving a legal on our rights of the shellfish in puget sound. They asked me as one of the Expert Witnesses to come up to the federal court this day and testify in front of the federal court and judge to tell the creation of the raven and the clam and the story of who we are and how we got here. I walked into the courtroom that of theh this carving raven and the clam and our people. No one knew what i was going to do but nobody objected to what i was going to do so when i was i set this to stand, carving right in front of the up on thethen i got stand to testify. Testify about the creation of us indian people throughout the Pacific Coast and along our shores here in puget sound and on the watershed. I continued to tell my story of how the creation began. Day, a realummer beautiful day, down on her beaches here in puget sound and along the coast. Andbirds were flying everything was talking to each other, all the animals. There was a lot of killer wells out there that day and seals and ,ea lions and all of our clams you know, and life was plentiful out on puget sound. Beautiful white sand was on both sides and sunshine and they were looking and they were talking to each other and they said, we are still empty. Our people and our life is empty. So, we need some life here. Soon, the raven came over and he sat on this clam right here, a big giant clam, on the beach. Uptty soon, the clam opened and our people come out. As you can see right here. Our people came out, little children came out running and grandma and dad and mom and uncles and aunts. They all came out and they would start running down the beach. The beach was so beautiful. All of a sudden, all of the clams at the beach started spurting up from down below and it was beautiful. Everything came to life. All of our children and all of our grandpas and grandmas and uncles and aunts were all along the beach. This is what we need. We need our life, we need our happiness and so we arewhole now. Our animalss whole, and the killer well was out there and all his family. The seals and the sea lions and all ofir families everything that swims out there, the salmon was jumping and everything and the mouth of the river. Day story that i told that there was not a lot of questions asked about how the story came about. This is the story that was handed down to us and our people. The creation story is different along the Pacific Coast and and othercoastline tribes have Creation Stories about the eagles and the other animals. Storiesjust one of our of how it all happened and how we are here today and how we protect our Natural World and our resource, all of our animals, and all of our clam beds and all of our oyster beds and everything that is down in that beautiful land under the city that nobody sees. There is a forest under there, a live forest of life. And is what we all forget we have to continue to protect that because this story is very important to the indian people. [applause] thank you come its great to be here with you today. I want to thank the National Museum of American Indians for sponsoring this fantastic event. What a day it has been in this beautiful facility. Kevin, thank you for hosting us, you and your staff do amazing work here. For the nation and for the world. I want to take a slightly different approach to the topic we are discussing today. It is true that great nations keep their word. Then i think we have to start by questioning whether we can consider the United States to be a great nation. I dont say that lightly. Clearly, at least when it comes to native people, the United States has not kept its word. The colonies did not keep their word when they drove our eastern cousins from their lands in prerevolutionary war days. Our first president did not keep , George Washington promised the senecas that he would not let any state or person purchase their lands. He promised he would protect them and all their rights. The United States could not or did not protect the muskogee and the citizens of georgia wanted their lands two years after they signed the treaty in 1790. 40 years later, they were sadly sent west on Andrew Jacksons forced march to oklahoma. The United States declared oklahoma to be indian territory. Until the nonindians decided they wanted it. Raced to stake claims for those indian lands. From the eastern seaboard through the south and midwest and across the plains to the coast, the growing nation went crazy for one thing after ld, lumber, for, the buffalo, you name it. At each step along the way, promises were made and promises were broken. There are literally hundreds of examples. The horse creek treaty signed in 1851 promised eternal peace but prevented war for only three years. Potawatamee signed treaties to stay in their homelands. Their leaders were defrauded, bribed, cheated, and filled with takeol, whatever it would to get them to sign away their lands. The u. S. Government used every tactic in the book. I could go on for hours. Every tribe, every Indian Nation and Alaska Village could tell you a story or many stories about how they were cheated out of or ripped from their lands. Even my homeland in the pacific northwest, my father is still alive and is 81 years old. He is the greatgrandfather to my children. My grandchildren, i mean. Calcalsutt. Ame is calculsettrandfather signed the point elliott treaty for our people in 1855. Treaty, itned that said that we could take fish as we always had. We had to sue the state of washington all the way to the Supreme Court multiple times in order to get that provision and forced. Generations of tribal leaders and tribal fishermen were harassed, rested, shot at and maligned for believing Governor Stevens word. Said no whiteo man is specifically calls out the white man im not making that up it said no white man could live on our reservation without our permission. Apparently, white women were ok. [laughter] the chinese were ok. And theanics were ok blacks were ok but it specifically said no white man. If you visit our checkerboard reservation someday, you will see how well that promise was kept. The map that identified the swinimish reservation showed down recent around a certain peninsula on an island in the sea. 18 years after we signed the treaty, president grant signed an illegal executive order that took away half of our reservation. The constitution i dont know how many know this but yesterday was constitution day. The constitution says that only congress can amend or revise a treaty. Our tribe has never and will never recognize that executive order is legitimate. Just last summer, we bought back the land that contained that original boundary. 140 years later to the day that president Ulysses S Grant signed that illegal executive order that my counsel signed the document to get back our historic boundary. Not atell you, there was dry eye in that room. The men, the women, the staff, they all had tears coming down their cheeks because of the significance and we did not even know until my attorney googled that illegal executive order that Ulysses S Grant signed 140 years to the day before. To think howng generations of our elected hoped thatswinimosh they would come. Now we just have to get back all the rest of the property within our original boundary. How many of the tribal people here have a story about land taken illegally from your tribe by the United States government . I bet it is everyone here today. We all know this history and we know what happened to our children as they were taken to boarding schools, to our land that was broken up, to our resources that were raped and exploited, to our women who were not protected and to our traditions that have been under constant assault. Do not have nations to keep their words or the United States is not a great nation. Which is it . I, like so many indian people, am incredibly patriotic. Thoughtwhat our people and died in the armed forces defending this country in greater percentages than any other ethnic group. Grandfather, world war i, two great uncles, world war ii, father, korea, two uncles vietnam. We fought for this country before it even accepted us as citizens. Believed inr and this country before we were given the right to vote. Thinky, in many ways, i indians sometimes believe in this country more than most americans. Maybe thats just because we were here first because we loved this land first, because the blood and bones of our ancestors are deep within the soil. Patriotic just because we love fireworks. Celebratelly want to independence day, you just need to go to an indian reservation. [laughter] in your lifetime. Indiansss the celebrating. You tribal members here know what i mean. We really know how to celebrate independence day. Are fun,ebrations maybe a little unsafe and insane [laughter] but they also show that indian people believe that the United States is a great nation. You can see it in our cemeteries dayeterans day or memorial when the flags are flying at half staff and the cemetery is full. Of those american flags. You can see it in the results of our native vote efforts when we get disproportionately high voter turnout and we determine the outcome of important elections from the local level to the county level to the state level could, to the federal level. I think you even see it when our children ask to have our history taught as a component of the United States history. They know that their history is bound up in the story of how this great nation came to be. We love this country. Known that we were a part of it since time immemorial. It was before some nonindians or other governments around us knew it. We can love this country despite the incredible, painful history, despite all the broken promises, despite the words not kept because we have believed in the idea of the United States even when the United States could not live up to that idea. We have believed in the idea of the United States before it was the fathers who founded the United States looked for a governing structure that truthssupport the t that they thought were self evident, they looked to the air quite nation. Without Indian Nations living together in harmony, even when we disagree, the promise of america might not have come together. We come back here year after year, sometimes for me its week after week, because even when all of the pundits and maybe all the evidence say that the president cannot do anything and the Congress Wont do anything, we still believe in the constitution that says treaties are the supreme law of the land. Sometimes i think indians believe in our constitution more than anybody else. In a way, by continuing to believe that what the constitution says is true and acting to show that the words in our treaties matter, by calling this great nation to keep its word, we refute all the skeptics. We answer the question i posed at the beginning is the United States a great nation . Is that while our history in this nation might be brutally painful, when the wrong done to our people are real, that history is not the end of the story. We believe that even though the United States is not has not kept its word thus far, it might. Its getting better. If you look through the exhibition that brought us here today, you will see dozens of pictures of tribal leaders going back to before they were photographs coming here to this town, to that building behind us and the white one down the street to say, you promised us better. You can do better. You can keep your word. You can be great. Progress has been slow, for sure, but even just in my lifetime, look out for we have,. Selfdetermination, selfgovernance, the the Indian Education act, native american grave protection act, indian gaming regulatory act, native American Housing act, violence against women act and even the Affordable Care act. Acronym inslative the last 40 years and it probably speaks to indian progress in holding the United States to its promises, to keeping its word to being great. Is the United States a great nation . But not as great as it can be. Today it is a better nation and i believe that the best days, not just for the United States but for our Indian Nations are ahead of us. I hope i am here 25 years from now and i hope that you repeat this program and i hope that we can look back at the next 25 years to say, ok, maybe not as great as we could be but definitely better. And it is, in the words of the inat movie smoke signals, the beginning when the traffic reporter is on his bed doing the traffic report, it is a good day to be indigenous. Thank you and god bless you all. [applause] how is that for raising the stakes . Well, thanks so much for having me. Its great to be here. I have not been on this stage before. Its a beautiful opportunity and thanks really for suzanne for inviting me to participate in the book. I dont really know what im doing here. I did not negotiate any treaties. Unless you call that one time we were on the phone with the Indian Health Service Superintendent person who was complaining about how much money we spent on photocopies here. Yeah, im going to talk a little about the michigan indians and walking down the street the National Sculpture museum is down the road and it was dark and i can only see the outline. I saw something that scared the hell out of me and it looked a lot like the back of a man with giant bunny ears. Day toht this is a good bring out some of the old stories which i know nothing trickster in many communities is a guy namednanabuju so i will draw from some of the things i have learned over the years smart people like heidi stark who have use these trickster stories and some of her work to talk about treaties. There is a lot of good stuff that has happened in terms of learning about the negotiations of these treaties and especially in michigan which is where im from. Im a member of the chippewa indians. Im going to talk about some of the treaties that michigan indians negotiated. I should also add that i am a band ofnt of akohagen potawamee indians. I will use calcalst uc. Anamees namehkwag a lot. I will star with indian treaty negotiations. It can best be characterized as historical gossip. 1821 this gives you a sense of how michigan indians treated their leaders, people they sent out to negotiate indian treaties. Grand river, ottawa, thats where grand Rapids Michigan is, river the cosmos of the way across the state. It is also incredibly fertile farmland. They have the benefit, unfortunately for them, of being the first tribe to have to deal with demands for their land because they were in such fertile farmland. They showed up and indian treaty negotiation that did not involve them in chicago in 1821 and sent a guy. They said go and find out what is going on and tell us what they are doing. He came back and said i had a great time. I sold all the land south of the grand river [laughter] yeah. And so it becomes cloudy about what happens to him after that. [laughter] he is banished. Or killed. Or banished and killed. He was not authorized to go there and sign a treaty with anybody. The potdecade later, atwatamees were negotiating a and they had the same problem. And had a was capable long growing season incapable of generating a lot of revenue and money for american farmers. sst of the potawatamee communities signed treaties in 18 33 that was a removal treaty. Many of them left before the removal started. Some did remove mostly to kansas and iowa in some later moved to oklahoma. Some came back to the northern penance you love michigan. Eeere are about p 11otawatam nations now. The only ones who stayed was the family under the name of leopold pokagen. Thats how he got his name. During the war of 1812 or thereafter, he was seen using a human rib to be somebody to death or Something Like that. T they called himhe rib. That is the name of the tribe now. This is where we get this story. Leopold was negotiating for his family. He was not the head by any stretch of the imagination. Stretch of the imagination. He did say to all of his people, if any of you touches a drop of alcohol, i will kill you. And if you see anybody else touching a drop of alcohol, i will kill them, too. A types alcohol, he did not kill them but he did go into a tent with an American Military man with a knife. He said only one of us is coming you make me sign that treaty. Sure, we will become catholics and all that good stuff. But we are not leaving. His community was able to stay in southwestern michigan. The first thing they did was move to another community. They moved right back down where they are now. Valley. T. Joseph river theres a long history that goes to how they became recognized by an act of congress in 1994 that i might going to get to. But it gives you a sense of what will,f acts and men of people of will that you have to be to maintain a community overrun by the indian removal act. North. Ts me a little bit a guy who lived on the eastern on the grand travers band. His name meant Little Feather. Fett ofhim to the boba michigan indian tribes. There is a little thing he carries around his shoulder, they are scalps. Fromrried american scalps the war of 1812. You can imagine a guy that traveled from traverse city, michigan other way to washington, d. C. He meets the president in 1836. That must have been an experience, the indian fighter against the indian fighter. Lead speaker for the michigan ottawa tribes and chippewa tribes who traveled to to negotiate. Compare this, this was a really bad idea to go to washington, d. C. You sawaty negotiations later on involved tribes negotiating on their home turf. American negotiators would come and visit the indians in their lives. Next to a hill, 6000 indians overseeing the operation. He was only one of many to go down and negotiate but he was pretty tough. He said theres no way we are going to sign a treaty giving away what ended up being about one third of the landmass of the state of michigan. For a couple days, he was schoolcraft was the michigan indian agent who ended up winning ended up marrying an indian. He knew a lot about how villages were governed and how their relationships work. The 1836 treaty negotiations treatypposed to be a with the michigan ottawa communities. The geography of michigan looks a little bit like this. Here is the auto was here is here are theand chips. Henry schoolcraft brought a couple guys he knew. They may have been indians at one time, they were not in charge. After a couple days of listening to Little Feather saying we are not going to sign the treaty the way you think we are going to sign it, he said it does not matter because i have friends from the Upper Peninsula who are going to sign the treaty. The senate is not going to care who signed it. They are going to ratify it and you are going to be completely sol. They had no choice but to capitulate at that point. 1836s treaty contained article 13. Which said that hunting and territory,the ceded the land was required for settlement. The upperrough peninsula, a little through the grand river, is all trees. We deforested all of michigan but a lot of the trees are back. There is not a big growing season in sinclair, michigan. Most of the land is either state land or federal plan. A large chunk of it. That land has never been required for settlement. Negotiations, at the indian people of michigan continue to hunt, fish, and gather and farm on those federal public lands, hundreds and of acres. Of it is this is because of the people who went to washington, d. C. Despite the fact that they did theyet exactly what wanted, treaty records are very meaningful to the people of michigan to this day. I will jump ahead considerably in a moment. I wanted to mention one incident in the 1870s and a small where grandmichigan Traverse Band is. The time indian people started, like billy frank and hank adams, started exercising treaty rights. Indian people has always been negotiating those treaty rights. In the 1870s in bingham township, grand Traverse Band indians tried to vote in a state election. In 1850, michigan had said sure, bewill let i indians citizens as long as they are civilized. Signedvilized meant was an affidavit that meant give up your individual treaty rights. Ahead many decades to the 1970s. The fishing wars have already started in Washington State and have begun a little bit in michigan. A grand Traverse Band man was told by his father even need to go start fishing. And so he did. He was arrested dozens of times. His most famous quote that we did not really think of as famous until i decided that it was famous a few years ago was something along the lines of i respect the law, that is why i broke it. Its a great way of articulating what he had done. He had most notoriously been prosecuted in county circuit judgebefore benedict. One of the trials is notorious tribal, the federal leading Expert Witness recounted the story years later at the university of detroit law school. A friday. Dict, it was judge benedict had a fishing trip scheduled how ironic the next day. He was going to leave that night and intended to have the prosecution of arthur completed by the end of the day. They started at 8 30 and 12 hours later they were going strong. The experty brought witness up to talk about the treaty. Asked thedict question, i have a copy of the ereaty, i can read it and rul based on the treaty. He asked the Expert Witness what else is there to say about the treaty . He stopped and said do not answer that question. There was a long pause in the courtroom and the prosecutor know whatuld like to she has to say about the treaty. He said i do not let you to answer that question. Somebody in the back of the room, some indian said, we would also like to know what the expert wa witness has to say. Judge benedict says anybody asks about the treaty again, you will be held in contempt of court and jailed. Ultimately in the u. S. Versus michigan, the Expert Witness was able to testify. As i described, article 13 still has the viability in the modern era of michigan indian treaty rights. Before i conclude, im taking one more minute. I find fascinating weird places where indian treaty rights appear in pop culture. I will mention two. Have you ever heard of the big lebowski. Is based onowski an actual guy who was a production assistant. You may hear him talk about how he wrote the original court huron statement and he was one of the seattle seven prosecuted by the feds. Did a shortese documentary about that guy. His prosecution was conducted by judge bolt of people decision. Of the bolt decision. The funny thing, he was convinced that judge bolt was senile in every way. It may be that he was being mean foruse bolt put him in jail three months. The last one is in relation to julia sweeney. She is one of my favorite actresses. She was on saturday night live for a while. And then did a great monologue about her family, i cannot remember what it was called. Everybody in her family for one year for some reason all had cancer. But it was really funny, trust me. [laughter] she recalled a moment when she was a child. They lived in rural oregon. Her father works for the anartment of justice as assistant u. S. Attorney. A little bit of an alcoholic. He was drinking and she snuck up on him. He was muttering to himself over and over, those goddamn so happies. Semisure having me here. I hope to see you at the book signing and later. Before i end, can we do one last thing . Can i do a selfie with you guys . To be able to see that this thing that she made for me is going to be on tv. [laughter] [applause] you can tell it is getting towards the end of the day, cant you . [laughter] we are still here. I got to thinking, oddly enough. While professor fletcher was apology. Bout it popped into my head. Thinking about some of these things that have happened in the past. One thing no one knows has mentioned today that i think is important to bring up we are the future of the treaty relationship and what it u. S. Made these promises, folk them, and is making at least some Progress Making at come and is least some progress on trying to repair the damage that was done. There are several things that have happened. Know, when i was at the bureau of Indian Affairs, i didnt make an apology on behalf of the bureau of indian did make ani apology on behalf of the bureau of Indian Affairs. [applause] i was careful to say at that time that i did not speak for the u. S. I had no such authority. I am in charget of the bureau of Indian Affairs and i can speak on their behalf. I knew how the employees of the bureau of Indian Affairs felt about the past and the conduct of the bureau during that long dark period. Did make ani apology and detailed some of the wrongs in general terms that had been done. An apology contains several specific elements. The most important is the acknowledgment. The actually knowledge meant of the wrong that was done. The more detailed, the better the apology. The more specific you get about what it was you did and why that was wrong, the better the apology. The second element is an expression of regret. Saying i am sorry. That may seem like small potatoes. But it is a key element of apology. Two are the most important. Thet, a promise to cease offensive conduct. To stop behaving in this way. Harm to you,ed whoever you may be that im apologizing to. And finally, some sort of corrective action to try to not just make amends, but to try to repair the damage that has been done by the offensive conduct. I have had this thought before. You should also know, by the way, that congress enacted an apology to the native nations a few years ago. How many of you knew that . Ok, some. Posted you did not. Theres a reason you did not. Noticed because it was in the middle of a 700 page defense appropriation and authorization bill. But, it was there. It had been considered and it had gone through a. It was sponsored by senator brownback, who is now the governor of kansas. Very conservative. Felt very strongly that that was something the United States could do, apologize for its historical conduct. Not thatculars are interesting, to tell you the truth. The longer the bill was under consideration, the weaker it got. Specificity of the offensive conduct virtually disappeared. But i thought it was significant for this reason, that the United States was beginning to adopt the native narrative about this history between the Indian Nations and the United States. And the United States was beginning to say, you know, what you have been saying for all this time is true. Those things did happen. And i got to thinking about that in this context. Fromve had some comments folks who had heard we were working on a treatys exhibition. Even a few who have seen all or some of the exhibition and going goingo you think youre to get away with this . Do you think you really can say these sorts of things . Are a federally funded museum. You are right here at the foot of capitol hill. Do you really think that this is something that the museum is going to be able to do . Nobody said you should not do it. , youverybody is going man may have the tiger by the tail now. A lie to say i never even thought about that. [laughter] resumeill be posting my to linkedin [laughter] just in case. It and imbout absolutely convinced that people want to hear the story. Handle theans can truth, notwithstanding what anyone says. Itself isthe nmai act an apology. If you read the act, which suzanne worked so long and carefully on, there is an a knowledge meant of wrong. Not a complete roster. If every indian lined up for their individual apology, wed. E there for a long time theres a set of findings where the u. S. Is acknowledging yes, our institutions did these things. The establishment of. Theres a set of findings where the u. S. The museum itself, it seems to me, is an expression of regret. In a sense, an apology saying we offer you this place, this city and our capital our greatest financial center. We offer you the space to tell your story. That is annexed ordinary opportunity that is an extraordinary opportunity. Say are you sure you should really be criticizing the u. S. My answer is always, what did they think we were going to do . [laughter] given the opportunity to tell the native story, what did they think we were going to do . Bring forward this truth. The great thing about it is, by giving this opportunity, they we are willing to listen. We are willing to hear it, we want to know about it, and we can handle the truth. That is, as i say, a magnificent opportunity that we must always be very careful with. Be very responsible. Do our very best goalies to tell the truth. Do our very best always to tell the truth. But not be afraid to tell the truth. Willing to hear it, we cannot be afraid to say it. What we are doing in this treaties exhibition is the beginning about. The museum had some important work to do before we could get to this point. It was important, building these. Acilities was no small matter it took 15 years for the facilities of the museum to be opened and operating. When this building opened 10 its first it saw as priority to empower native people to tell their own story. Did, through its community duration practice. Ommunity creation process our curators set aside their wishes and allow native nations themselves to tell the stories that they wished to tell. We got a lot of criticism for that. But the point was made. Tell theirpeople can own stories, it is not the story you are expecting. So, that is done. That is achieved. I was in kansas city last night at an opening of a worldfamous art museum where they had just of plains exhibition indian art. I guarantee you that 15 years ago this exhibition would look nothing like it does now. And what you see throughout that of native the voice people telling the story behind the superior art that has been created. And the way the art is presented as as superior art. As extraordinary. That would not have happened 15 years ago. I believe it is very much because of the work of the nmai in its early years that that sort of exhibition now has become mainstream and we will exhibitions of that type in handling native art and native culture. National museum of the American Indian now turn a very to history in serious way. We all know that history is mistaughtsed hot throughout our for my dictation system. I think about all the things i learned about indians and i have spent the last 40 years unlearning those things because they were wrong. And toere at the nmai have the opportunity not just to learn but to say to everyone from these magnificent platforms we have in washington, d. C. And new york, to say these are the things that are true. And to have people believe it because we are a smithsonian museum. Smithsonian, as you know, is never wrong. [laughter] ure, it takes is a wild to get to the truth from time to time. But eventually we get there. Itself is an act of contrition on the part of the u. S. If you look carefully, you see there is some very specific provisions, not just bowing to also offensive conduct but corrective action. That is most clear in the form of the repatriation provisions act. E nmai members of congress were absolutely mortified to learn about all the native american human remains that were in museum act. Members of congress were collections andied to University Collections across the u. S. Institutions that are being funded by the u. S. In one form or another. Thanks again to suzannes careful work, Congress Finally said enough. That is got to stop. Not only must it stop, you must proactively act to return these back to their homes and back to their native nations. We now take it for granted. Everybody says that was really a terrible thing. Not easy. It was not obvious. There are still people out there who say we should not have to return these things, we stole them fair and square. [laughter] and they have great scientific value and we should be allowed to retain them. Those people have lost and they now have no prospect of winning that argument. So, we do make progress. We do get better. Our country gets better. Itself is an indication of how our country can get better and learn to do the right thing. And be willing to learn about toelf and then take action correct what has been wrong. It is not an easy process. It is not automatic. There nothing obvious about what the next phase can be. Certainly if enough of us really in the promise of the u. S. , then you have to believe that justice is achievable for native americans. It is not going to happen tomorrow. It may not happen in our lifetimes. The one thing that you will learn in this exhibition is indians never give up. And they will always insist on what they believe to be the just outcome. There is not a doubt in the world that perhaps not 25 years from now but some generations from now, indians will be here, right in this place, talking about the sorts of issues we are discussing today and reviewing the progress that has been made ce the time, since this since this date when we have gathered. I want to thank you for being here for your support of the nmai. This is your museum. The stories we tell here are your stories. No matter who you are, you will find your story at the nmai. Now, it is only appropriate that suzanne have the final word at this symposium. Welcome. [applause] thank you so much. Are we on . Ok. Pardon me for not standing. Met afterhen we dakota,es in south cheyenne and lakota and arapahoe and other elders had called us together and said stay after ceremonies for talks. They wanted to talk about things that were in the nightmares of people. And we talked about museums and other dakota repositories that r and sacred objects. And cultural patrimony, before we use terms like cultural patrimony. We developed a coalition right 1967 that would lead to the development and then passage laws. Atriation before we used the term repatriation. It would be many years before we did that. We looked around and we talked to each other and we shared experiences about this museum or that Educational Institution or that federal agency that did terrible things to us and to our ancestors and who are holding them as prisoners of war. And they wanted out. They wanted back. And we wanted to rebury them. Or bury them for the first time. So, and we were doing ceremonies that required certain objects that were in these museums and other repositories. We wanted those things back that were needed for ceremony. Keep in mind that we did not have at that time the buffalo herds that we have now on indian lands. And we hadnt had the opportunity to really watch them and how they move, and how they line up from the biggest to the smallest. We did not know their ways except for ceremony. But when native nations started developing the buffalo herds that we have today, we would look at them and say, that is why we do the buffalo dance that way. We knew knew them at one point. It is like that with the sacred objects. We knew what we were looking for in these repositories. We knew what had been taken away from us. We knew what had been confiscated when all of our traditional manners and ways were criminalized from the 1880s to the 1930s in the civilization regulations, which we point out in the exhibit it in the book. We knew what we were looking at. We knew what was missing from our ceremonies. It might not be the focal point, but it might be very important pieces that we were looking for. And it only took from 1967 to 1989 to craft laws and half have Congress Pass them that would provide a process for the return of our people and of our things for our ceremonies. It was also at that meeting in 1967 that we asked each other, is there any place you have ever encountered . Are there any people you have encountered who are doing it right . And we looked at each other and no one had ever been treated well, no one had ever been respected, no one had ever been believed, no one had ever been accommodated. And certainly, our people had not been returned and our sacred objects had not been returned. So, there we began to envision what it would be like for a place that would do it right. And this is the place we envisioned. We envisioned it here. We did not call it a museum. We called it a cultural center. We said it had to be in front of the capitol so that the people in the capitol, the policymakers making laws about us, have to look us in the face when they do it. This is that. And kevin is absolutely right that we would not have been able to do this exhibit anytime before now for one thing. Those of us who wrote pretty much the deadlines in the laws, in the National Museum of the American Indian act set a rigorous set of deadlines for opening the Museum Facility in new york, opening the suitland, maryland site, which had rebuilt from the ground up, and opening the museum on the mall, the one we had envisioned 22 years before the legislation was signed. We had to do that. We had to raise money for that. We had to, because we require the publicprivate partnership. And the native nations were just being capitalized and gaining money through all sorts of business enterprises, including some of them, a handful of them, in gaming. So, all of this converged at the same time and we began this glorious enterprise of this museum, this cultural center, this center where we have a place at the table just as the repatriation laws require that we have a place at the table and took us from a situation where we were just the property of the United States or the property of the museums to a place where our human rights were respected. So we moved in that legislation from property to human rights. That is a huge distance. If you wonder why it took 22 years to do that, that is the main reason why. So there are all sorts of reasons we did not do this foundational exhibit before now. This its enormously complex, the treaties exhibit. Now, everyone will look at this exhibit and say, i know how to do that better. And some will do it better. You will have a lot of treaty exhibits that will be done and a lot of them will be better. This is the first one. And its so difficult. So, these are the headwaters. And you dont just launch right away into rivers and little streams before you can strike you construct the headwaters. Think of this in that way. Those who come back well look back and say, we are going to improve on that, think of us kindly. [laughter] so, i was the youngest person at that meeting in 1967, except for my daughter who i was carrying on my hip. Now that im one of the elders, i am looking back and saying, did you really think that you were going to spend all of that time doing this kind of thing . Well, maybe i would not have chosen it, but this is how it worked out. And i see that there are very direct lines that have led from that meeting to this time. And one of them is about treaties. Treaties are in my family on both sides. I am muskogee. On my dads side. Culturally muskogee. Raised in that way. And through my grandmother muskogee. And my citizenry is in the cheyenne and arapahoe tribes of oklahoma. I am a cheyenne citizen. And on both sides, and my mother was cheyenne. My mothers great grandfather was bull bear, who signed the 1867 treaty of Medicine Lodge creek which provided for exactly what our ancestors asked president lincoln for and he agreed in an unwritten treaty in 1863. Movement to indian territory. We are the ones who wanted to go to indian territory, while the muskogees were dragged at Bayonet Point and gunpoint and many people were killed because they did not want to leave their homes. So very different kinds of experiences that i learned about growing up. In fact, the muskogee people, and maybe other people but certainly the muskogee people, say that the reason that so many muskogee people in oklahoma on the east side of oklahoma are republicans is because Andrew Jackson was a democrat. Every time i go to an atm machine, i get heart palpitations because it is jackson, jackson, jackson. [laughter] we have a long view, a very long memory backward and forward of history. The cheyenne people are still waiting for the return of our fort reno lands, build on our fort reno was built on our treaty lands. My mothers and sister my mothers ancestor chief bull bear was the first signatory. Why . Because no one else would sign. Everyone knew the treaty would not be valid unless he signed because he was both a chief and the head of the dogman society. At a time when the dogmens society comprised half the cheyenne nation. His is the first signature on that particular treaty. We are still waiting, though, for the return of the fort reno lands which were supposed to come back to us when they were no longer used for a fort. But we have had the federal agencies passing our fort reno lands out amongst themselves. We have a penitentiary there. The fort, el reno penitentiary is on our treaty lands. The Agriculture Department from time to time puts animals on there. They wanted to put monkeys. They kept the cheyennes out, but they wanted the monkeys in. Everyone can while i will try by and count whatever animals they have just to make sure i know. One time i went and there were llamas Walking Around our fort reno lands. We cant go there, but the llamas can walk around. At that point, i counted 75. We will see what animals are there. We keep trying to get our lands back. Acre by acre. We keep trying to get our waters back, bucket by bucket. We do not want everything. We want some of what was guaranteed to us in the treaties that we negotiated in good faith. And whether or not the United States or any particular president , like Andrew Jackson, has been horrible to us, we look at it with a long view and say, the United States did not keep its word here or here, but its beginning to now. And in some cases we believe that. In some cases we do not. Depending on who you are or what your Family Experience is, what your nations experience is. So, thats how we view this keeping of word that one of the people we interviewed for this treaty exhibit, i dont want to forget him maurice john who was on the board of nmai. A seneca man who used to be a tribal leader there. He said, i do not think the treaties have been broken. I think they have been stretched and stretched and stretched to the breaking point. But i think they are still good treaties. So some people have a view of that. The elastic nature of a person and a country keeping its word. And what were part of here is the maturation of america. We are giving back to america part of its American History. And this just isnt our history. The treaties are not just ours. The treaties are the United States and the native nations. So, we individual native people are like the individual american citizen who will be coming here and who will be looking at this and same, how can i help my country keep its word . What do i need to do . So, that is what i am hoping for this exhibit. Just as i hoped for this museum, that it is a place for big ideas. And for attention to small detail. So that we can find a way of Going Forward that is as the wampum ever so long ago, provides for peace and friendship forever. Thats profound. And thats the basis for all the treaties is peace, friendship forever. Now, the treaties of removal, under the removal act, you had to have a treaty. So in some cases, jackson i keep mentioning jackson because he is a despicable being in our history. [laughter] i am sorry, democrats. I am a democrat. But im sorry, folks. Very, very terrible things he did. And other treaty commissioners coerced native people, they bought them off, they got them drunk. They get a lot of things in order to get that bad paper that would allow them to say, weve got a removal treaty. And then people would be hauled off to indian territory. And then people would be hauled territory. Ian some less willing than others. Now, our muskogee people, once they heard there was someone, some group that had signed a removal treaty, they went to washington, d. C. , to the senate and demanded that the senate vitiate that socalled treaty. They said, we are the muskogee leaders and we did not enter into that. That is an invalid treaty. We want vitiated. I bet there is not one person, one american in 1000 who knows what vitiate means. And who might know that it is still a rule of the senate. And that senators can vitiate an action. Can make it as if it never happened. If they want to, if they all agree. So the muskogee creek nation people were moved against their will and without a valid treaty of any kind and one that the senate had agreed was not a valid move. So by vitiating that one piece of paper they had from some people who had claimed to be muskogee people and speaking for the nation. That suggests a level of sophistication that im pretty impressed by. That there were many muskogee people who spoke many languages, for starters. There are many languages within the muskogee confederacy. There were 16 nations and tribal towns. So that is a lot right there. And not all of them spoke muskogee. One speaks a language more like the sioux. Yet they are part of the muskogee confederacy, just not by language. So, they were speaking all those languages are many of them plus spanish, many of them, plus french, plus english. And in english, they knew enough about process to know about vitiation as a rule of the senate. And that was in the 1830s. That is a lot of knowledge to have back then. And it is a lot of knowledge to have today. Im really impressed by our ancestors and what they were doing. Im impressed by the United States Supreme Court when it keeps its word and when it says treaties are to be understood as the native peoples understood them at the time. Its pretty impressive. I think that suggests a level of sophistication back then that we dont have right now, in some cases. People do grow, people do learn, and countriesrow do learn. When we were trying to get an apology for the wounded knee massacre on the occasion of the centennial of the massacre, so this was in 1990 that we were trying to get an apology. The wounded knee survivors association, the descendents of those who had survived the wounded knee massacre, they wanted an apology. So mario gonzalez, their attorney, and myself, were trying to get this for them. The south dakota senators would not allow the word apology to be used. Would not allow it. So, and a lot of our good ye was oneenator inou of them, took to the senate floor and declare that it was an apology. Because our people were saying the lakota and dakota people were saying they wont let us use the word apology. I tried to slip it in. I entitled one draft in memoriam et apologia. A went to everyone and right at the end, someone said, wait a minute. So, they eventually agreed that they wanted the apology and believed in the people in the senate who said we are passing this because it is an apology. They believed that. And the south dakota senators, one went on to greater glory and now lesser so. And another one is trying to return to congress and part of his platform in Indian Country is saying, i guarantee you that i will put in a bill for a holocaust museum. So, people do change and people do grow, and sometimes it is just back and forth sometimes it is in the wrong direction. But some people are steadfast that they will not admit that anything wrong happened to the native people. The world knows what happened to native people. The world does not know the details, but the world knows what happened to native people. And that is the big deal thing for us. And what we are trying to do as native people, what we are trying to do s a group of people who are working our hearts out to bring to everyone this history of treaties and how can we present it . What can we present . How can we distill that down and make it an important statement through time . How can we urge people to abide by protocol, by the words of treaties, by the word of the United States and the word of native nations . Well, first you have to inform the people. And a lot of people do not understand that these are legally binding contracts. These are agreements. These are things that stand through time. That are still being litigated or still being discussed. And will form and inform future congresses, when they straighten out and talk to each other and being to begin to look at some decisions that a been made about treaties that have just been wrong. Like too much time has passed. We cannot uphold a treaty for land rights because too much time has passed. What nonsense. No one put a time limit on it. Congress did not when it ratified. So you cannot just say, well, lets just apply latches. And why . Because it would be too disruptive for the people who now have the land if you applied treaty rights. Well, that is like saying ok, the second story guy got all your stuff. But now his descendents have it and have been using it and think it is theirs. So you will have to give it up because it will be too disruptive to his descendents. If you are allowed to claim those things as yours. Well, but that was my mothers, that was my grandmothers. That is what we buried our ancestors in. This is that. So we need to really look past today and look to the little kids that are going to be educated by this exhibit. To look to the teenagers who can be educated by this exhibit, and look to the policymakers who can still be educated even though they are adults. Because i guarantee there is something in this exhibit that someone will hit their head about and say, really . That happened . I had no idea. And if you find only one thing you did not know, you are a genius. And you have inherited more of the collective wisdom then we were able to put together in 11 years developing this exhibit. There have been amazing people working on this exhibit in this museum and starting with the treaty experts, native and nonnative, who advised myself and the cocurator and our leading treaty expert. Who advised us for years and talked to us about the kind of thing that could be presented well. And we also had people who really knew exhibits and who knew art. We all know a little bit about a lot of things, but when you put that collective wisdom together, then everyone has their knowledge increased, and everyone knows a lot about a lot of things. So that is what we were doing. And building more and more people with a greater and Greater Knowledge mass i hope we have been able to do that within this museum. And i know that there are people, very specific people, within this museum the greatest of them being kevin gover who has been a cocurator for this exhibit in recent years, in addition to being director. And all of the things he had to do there. Why . Because he knows this work. He knows this area of law. He knows it from a particular way of understanding it. And we actually were able to bounce ideas off each other and to say what kinds of people do we want to hold up, what kinds of people do we want to raise up and what kinds of treaties to we want to honor and how can we best do that . So, here we are after all of this time with in exhibit that i hope people will respond well to and would be very interested in knowing good reaction, negative reaction, any kind of reaction that you have more of this, less of this, more like this and to go for it and do something about treaties in your own area whatever your area is in the the policy, art, in classroom, for whatever you can do and whatever area you are involved in. Especially education. If you can bring to bear this level of discussion in, on the future generations than we are going to make more and more people who think its an honorable and a decent and maybe are a cool thing to keep your going to make more and more people who think it is honorable and decent and even a cool thing to keep your word. Thank you very much. [applause] [applause] we put so