Judith Gray: Good afternoon and welcome. On behalf of the entire Folklife Center staff, I'm Judith Gray; I'm a Folklife Specialist and Coordinator of Reference Activities for the Folklife Center. I'd like to welcome you to this particular presentation of the Benjamin Botkin Folklife lecture series. The Botkin series gives us an opportunity to invite some of the most exciting Folklorists -- [break in audio] -- and ethnographers, both in the academy and people from the public sector to come and present some information on their latest research and findings. The lectures are an important acquisitions activity for the Folklife Center. As you will see, this presentation is being video taped and thus will become a permanent part of the collections of the Folklife Center. And some of the lectures also end up as webcasts on the Library's Web site. So in this way the Botkin lecture series helps the American Folklife Center fulfill its mandate to document, preserve and present the Folklife scholarship that informs and impacts our world today. I have the very special honor today of introducing Ed Schupman. He's a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. I first got to know Ed in the 1980s when he and I, as fellow ethnomusicologists, worked right here at the Library on the Federal Cylinder Project. A project that catalogued, documented, and then ultimately returned copies of the early wax cylinder recordings to the Native communities from which they came. After Ed left the Library he worked for Orbis [spelled phonetically] Associates, an Indian operated education consulting firm, and then with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs. And now he's an Education Materials Developer at the National Museum of American Indian. He wrote their Native Words, Native Warriors Web site which honors Native American co-talkers and he's the co-author of this book, Do All Indians Live in Tipis? Questions and Answers from the National Museum of the American Indian. And as you'll have seen on your way in, you would have an opportunity to buy this book if you are so interested. As is clear from the title this is, the book is the basis for Ed's lecture today and so please join me in welcoming Ed Schupman. [applause] [break in audio] Ed Schupman: Hi everybody. Good afternoon. I seriously had a dream last night that I was in a rock band, and we had been invited to do a concert at my old high school. And so thanks for coming to the show and rock on. [laughter] I'd like to start today by playing for you a recording of an American Indian love song. [audio clip] [music] [laughter] Who remembers it? [music] [laughter] Ed Schupman: Okay, I'm just kidding right, with that one? Now I'll play you a real American Indian love song. This one is a Muscogee Creek love song. It's called "Four Corners." Four corners is a reference to the dance, and this will be sung by Joe Sulfer [spelled phonetically] who is a well-known Muscogee singer. [audio clip] [music] Joe Sulfer [audio clip]: Sing it over and over and over you eventually get tired of it. You go [inaudible]. Ed Schupman: Okay, so first one that we heard of course was "Indian Love Call" from the musical "Rose Marie." Music by Rudolph Friml, lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein. You know, an example of the romanticization of Native Americans and little to do with actual Native American music. This one of course is -- just to show you how messed up things can get, let's listen to Joe talk about what he observed with another use of this Muscogee love song. [audio clip] Joe Sulfer [audio clip]: [inaudible] war songs and they were getting ready to attack [inaudible] and we start laughing [inaudible]. [laughter] Ed Schupman: Okay, okay. So that's to kind of get us started and thinking about this topic today. I do want to express my deep gratitude for this invitation to talk with you today. It's great to see a lot of friends and colleagues here, old and new. Thank you all for coming. Today I'm here to talk about knowledge and awareness of American Indian peoples, cultures, histories, and contemporary lives among the general public and the educators of our country. As Judith mentioned, 22 years ago I had the privilege of working for two years on the American Folklife Centers Federal Cylinder Project. That project brought me into contact with an incredible collection of real American Indian music and spoken word. As the project disseminator, in what was essentially an early example of cultural repatriation, I was privileged to work directly with about 25 different American Indian communities in taking copies of those recordings back, and had some really amazing experiences doing that. And I'll have some stories today to tell about some of that work. After I left LC my focus shifted and I really began what my career has been for the last 20 years, which is working in American Indian education. The work of that time has been focused on primarily training teachers to access good, primary and secondary resources and to develop culture based curriculum materials. Just over four years ago I arrived back in Washington, D.C. in July, two months before the grand opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. And I want to tell you it was an amazing time to arrive. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation, excitement, and a lot of frenetic energy in opening a new museum on the mall. Today, I'm offering my own opinions. I don't claim to be a spokesman for all of Native America. This would not be culturally appropriate, and of course there are many different viewpoints, native and other wise on any given topic. I'm going to switch over to slide show here. This Indian love call in Joe Sulfer's story about the love song and the Gary Cooper movie I think demonstrates that there's been a lot of bizarre confusion about and misrepresentation of American Indians in American culture. There has been a lot of good scholarly work that has been done by others on this topic and I'm not going to try to cover that comprehensively. But I'd like to take us briefly through a few examples that I've identified. First of all, there was no such thing as an American Indian until some time after Columbus' arrival. People identified themselves by their tribe or clan or community. Columbus identified the native peoples of Hispaniola as los andios but the erroneous general terms, Indian, American Indian, Native American later, have stuck and persist even to the present, grouping diverse cultures and peoples into some kind of an invented homogenous mass. Individual and tribal identities and cultural diversity all suffer as a result of this homogenous lumping. And this is something that we're still trying to address and correct today. Of course Indians have also been greatly romanticized. Literature and art at different periods of time have played a role in the development of these romantic notions. The illustration on the left is one of 15 painted by N.C. Wyeth, beautiful illustrations actually of -- from a 1919 edition of the Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, very romanticized Native American story. And then of course pulp fiction such as the Red Modawks here. Many other examples. The film entertainment industry has also romanticized and perpetuated stereotypical ideas of Native peoples and cultures. This is a scene from "Annie Get Your Gun." Indian images have been seen and can still be seen on countless numbers of commercial products. I guess the connection here is romanticized ideals, I don't know, wilderness, old time ways. The one on the right is a very curious example of the selling of "Know Nothing Soap." K-n-o-w nothing soap. You know there's an old joke in Indian country that says, the typical Indian family is a mother, a father, two children, a dog and an anthropologist. [laughter] Indians have been objects of study at nauseum. Starting with people like Frank Hamilton Cushing, but even before that with travelers and naturalists. This gentlemen here, William Bartram, who traveled through the southeast, through my peoples' territory of Georgia and Oklahoma, or Georgia, Alabama and that area. But Jesuit and other missionaries, Lewis and Clark, you know all of them did their studies of the natural people. Now there's nothing wrong with academics and knowledge but Indians have been really a study, a focus of study for so long. Much of that work is perceived in Indian country as being exploitive. That it takes out of the community and gives very little back. And it is being interpreted by and for outsiders. This remains a popular thing. You can still buy Indian costumes along with pirates, clowns and superheroes. Now among these four categories: pirates, clowns, superheroes and American Indians, which one is a race of people? And which categories could include people of any race? The language that's been applied to Native peoples over the years is also quite revealing of social attitudes at different points in history. I'll just bring out a few of them in no particular order; good Indians, bad Indians, braves, bucks, squaws, warriors, noble warriors, savages, blood thirsty, wild, primitive, disappearing, drunks, war-like, stoic, cigar-store, show Indians, stubborn, lazy, hostile, princesses, chiefs, injuns, children, children of the forest, red men and of course redskins. Many of these images and terms are offensive. None of them are accurate. Some of them are racist and slanderous. Some are patronizing. Certainly none of them demonstrate awareness or any kind of respect for the complex and sophisticated cultures that have always existed among the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere. I think it's important to remember that all this imagery was developing historically against a backdrop of diseases, wars, genocide, dispossession of lands and cultural repression being endured time and time again by hundreds of Native nations across the continent. What I would like to see us educate toward is a list of terms that truly reflects the accomplishments, past and present, of Native peoples. Such as philosophers, intellectuals, doctors, engineers, farmers, agronomists, economists, statesmen, orators, diplomats, athletes and more. Now the National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institution. We welcome millions of visitors each year. People from all over the world, all ages. My first position at NMAI was as Coordinator of the Cultural Interpreters Program, where I was in frequent contact with our visitors. From opening day, I and the other staff members who worked on the floor, began to hear an amazing array of questions that were on the minds of visitors. Now of course, people come to the museum with unique backgrounds. Their educations, up bringings, and life experiences related to American Indians. They tend to arrive with many different kinds of expectations about what they will see or experience at the museum. Some are looking for objects that exemplify what they've seen, heard, or learned about Indians through popular imagery. And they're sometimes disappointed when they don't see those things represented. And we get questions, lots and lots of questions, but we welcome our visitors and we welcome their questions because they provide us with a long over due opportunity to educate from the Native perspective. I brought just a sampling of some of the questions that we hear in the museum. Of course not everyone is looking for stereotypes. Many people are fairly well educated, some very well educated. We get a lot of really good insightful questions from visitors who are looking for more in depth, comprehensive knowledge. We also get a lot of people exploring their ancestry. Some who want help with their archaeological finds. And some that demonstrate a clear lack of education experiences related to American Indians. And then some that are quite inflammatory. Some people just like to stir things up. And I would say that these are the most difficult for our staff to deal with. But our Cultural Interpreters and our Visitor Services staff are all very professional in handling even the most egregious of questions. But it takes its toll, it's a difficult thing to stand their and talk to someone who's asked you something like this. Although I have to say with the first question, I mentioned this to one of our Development Officers and they said, "hmm, not a bad idea." [laughter] I wonder if we could put that land in trust. I had the privilege of working with some very talented writers and editors in the museum to answer most of -- many of the common questions we receive from visitors, both at our sister museum in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center of NMAI and here at the museum on the National Mall. I think people lack good general information about the Indian world, and that's a niche that this book helps to fill. But there are some risks with a book like this. The answers are necessarily brief and they provide an overview of information. But sometimes we're addressing very complex kinds of topics such as philosophies and worldviews, ceremonies and long histories. The risk is that you can over simplify and without very careful language, create even further confusion or new stereotypes. And this was one of the challenges in writing for this book, but I see it as a good primer, a good start and I hope that it serves to stimulate people to seek deeper information but to also counter some of these stereotypes and mistaken ideas that we know of. So at this point I have another musical interlude. This one is dedicated to my friends here at the Folklife Center. I'm going to have to get back to -- [audio clip] [music] Ed Schupman: Okay. Joe, you know the name of that one? Joe Sulfer: "Indian War Hoop." Ed Schupman: "Indian War Hoop." [laughter] Very good. That's called "Indian War Hoop." That's Floyd Ming's Pep-Steppers performing "Indian War Hoop." I don't know the era, I'm going to guess '30s, '40s, something like that maybe. I like the tune, it kind of sounds like they've been into the firewater a little bit. Yelling is part of this string band tradition apparently, and I found out -- and I read somewhere that the title of this song, which is "Indian War Hoop" led some people to think that this was actually an Indian band performing. It's not; it's a Mississippi string band. So again, another use of an idea that has nothing really to do with what a real Indian war hoop would be and it what context it would be appropriate to use it. So how did we get into this situation? I think it's safe to say there's a great deal of confusion about American Indians. Let's take a look at philosophers. Jimmy Buffet says he doesn't know, he doesn't care: Ignorance or apathy, one or the other. Little more seriously, there's nothing more frightening than ignorance in action. In his work titled White Conceptions of Indians, the historian Robert Berkhofer identifies an element that's at the core of persistent misunderstanding of Native peoples. Persistent theme in white imagery of Indians is the tendency to describe Indian life in terms of its deficiency in relation to white standards and ways. Rather than a positive description in line with the frame work of specific cultural under consideration In other words the Indian world has rarely been viewed or accepted on its own terms. Euro-American ethnocentrism has had a variety of serious consequences for American Indians. Not only in terms of living with distorted imagery but also in dealing with catastrophic life changes that began in the 15th century and are still being felt today. At certain times in history economic, political, and military motivations have also contributed to the dehumanization and stereotyping of Indian people. The historian Wilcomb Washburn suggested -- woops let me see where we are -- that British and Americans stereotyped the Indians as hunters and then used stereo typing as a rationale for taking their lands. The problem has been around a long time. Whenever one society wants to dominate, marginalize, or remove another, it's easier to rally people to that cause by portraying the others as substandard or deficient in some way. Finally, once an idea is engrained, it's terribly difficult to counter. Think about the nature of false rumors. We all know how false rumors can get started. It only takes a second but it can be a very difficult task to erase one, can't it? So it is with a myriad of false images of Native America. I've been talking about the affects of this imagery in the general population, but imagine its impact among Indian children who grew up seeing and hearing these same distortions. I've heard many speakers, Indian speakers, talk about their confusion, their shame, the effects on their self esteem as children when confronted with these stereotypical and offensive ideas that they saw on TV or heard in their school class rooms. People can't be faulted for ignorance they're born with, but we know better now. Perpetual ignorance is the fault of society, not just those in the -- our teachers, but not just those in the classroom; our families, our communities, in short, anyone that has an influence on us as we grow up. Once people are educated and informed appropriately and accurately then ignorance should fade. It's been over 500 years now since Cristobal Colon called us los indios. Two questions that I find compelling for the field of education: Why have we not as a society or a country addressed this problem adequately? After all this time, why are we still talking about whether all Indians live in tipis? What can we do about it? Education is where the problem can and should be addressed. Working with young people to build new perspectives, new ways of understanding, and relating to people and the world around them, and in this case to provide more thorough and accurate information about Indians. Given the confusion and prevailing social attitudes of past centuries our education system has operated from a deficit. Lacking good information, good materials, training and the ability to collaborate with and cooperate with Indian peoples themselves. Education about and even for Indians have often revolved around activities such as making paper head dresses, Indian masks, putting on a play about Hiawatha or the mythical Thanksgiving story. We still have classes of young children who come to the museum with their paper headdresses on. In those instances our staff uses the opportunity to educate by gently explaining why it's inappropriate. Now we have some teachers and parents who understand and accept that explanation, and others who frankly resist it, resent it actually. Textbooks in the past contained errors such as contextually inaccurate illustrations; a tipi in Navajo land or a Wampanoag from New England wearing a Plains headdress. A really popular song in music text books for a number of years was known as the "Navajo Happy Song." The ethnomusicologist and my friend David McAllister did some research and found that this was actually an opening song for a Native American church or peyote ceremony. It's a totally inappropriate use of a ceremonial song in a general music textbook, but because it had a catchy melody it was used extensively by music educator's, who through no fault of their own knew it only as "The Navajo Happy Song." I'm happy to say that the "Navajo Happy Song" no longer exists in at least in one major publisher's repertoire. Unfortunately children who have not been accurately educated about Native peoples grow up to be uninformed lawmakers, civic officials, ranchers, land management officials and others. We're not talking about needing to know who lived in what style of house in the 15th century here; we're talking about treaties, what tribal sovereignty means and what its implications are. We're talking about the cultural reasons behind Indian nation's efforts to preserve our lands, sacred places, water and to protect our plant and animal relatives. That's the kind of information that's critical everywhere, but especially in those areas where Indian people are still a significant part of the population. I think that schools rarely go that far with Indian content however. So what has happened is that the responsibility of education about these important issues has often fallen upon Indian communities themselves, creating a need for a community to mobilize, or a tribal government, to mobilize around issues and depleting resources that could be used for many other purposes in places where unemployment reaches 60 or 70 percent or higher. I want to be clear though. It's critical that Indian tribes and peoples tell their own stories, their own histories. And they do that from their own cultural paradigms. The Indian voice has for too long been denied. Now one of the people that I came into contact with on the dissemination of the Federal Cylinder Project was a gentleman by the name of William Tallbull. William Tallbull was a Northern Cheyenne. He was head of the Northern Cheyenne Culture Committee, and he was the appointed liaison for the Library to work with in the dissemination of that collection. So I went to Lame Deer, Montana and I met with the Culture Committee there, there were two of them that came that day. There was Bill Tallbull and Charles Whitedirt. Charles Whitedirt spoke no English so everything that I said was translated into Cheyenne by Bill and given to Charles. Then Charles would say something in Cheyenne and it would be translated back to me in English. After we had this meeting Bill offered to spend some time with me and said "You want to see some of the sites?" And I said "sure" so he took me out and as we were walking around on some of the prairie land out there he started to tell me about an experience that he had. He had taken a friend of his on a fishing trip into the mountains not far from their reservation. And they had gone near a place that was a sacred spot for the Cheyenne and other tribes of that area. This friend of his was fishing and Bill decided to kind of lay down and take a little rest. And it was at that moment that the creator decided to come to him with a vision. Now Bill told me about this vision and he -- the point of my talking about this today is not the vision itself but it is what he said next to me which was, he said "I need to find somebody to write this down for me." He says, "Because if I say it, nobody will believe me. If I could get Peter Powell" That's Father Peter Powell, the noted Cheyenne historian or historian about Cheyenne culture, he said, "people would believe that but if I write it no one will believe it." I think this is a good example of how the Indian voice has been repressed. And that feeling is there in Indian country. So I do want to say, I'm happy to say that Bill did find his voice, at least with one publication, this one that was published by the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association, 1988. The Northern Cheyenne History of the Battle of 100 in the hands, or the Fetterman Battle and it's a wonderful account told from the Cheyenne perspective of this episode of the wars that took place in the 1860s on the plains. And I've used this quite a bit in education materials and juxtaposed it against accounts by white historians, and allow students to do an analysis. Look at the difference of language. Look at the difference of perspectives. So we need to facilitate more of that and I believe the most effective work can be done when educators engage in real and long-term partnerships with Indian communities in developing curricula and preparing teachers. And with the Internet it's becoming more and more possible, even in places that are not in proximity with Indian communities to find good resource materials, many of them developed by Indian tribes or individuals. In more recent times curricula and standards of learning have become more accurate, albeit cursory with regard to Indians. In social studies classes fourth graders usually study the Indian people of their state, usually just the Indians of the past. Thanksgiving is a popular time to teach about Indians as is the whole month of November, which is designated as Native American Heritage Month. Students in higher grade levels get smatterings of Native content but usually only at points where that content intersects with major issues or eras in United States history. Contemporary Indian life is virtually ignored. Now in some geographic locations and in classrooms of particularly motivated teachers, students receive a broader range of information. My work in Indian education has taught me that most teachers are highly motivated, very admirable people who want to do the right things. They're looking and asking for good reliable materials. They come to us at the museum looking for materials. Things they can count on. However, with standardized testing and the demands of No Child Left Behind, teachers face enormous challenges in the classroom. There's little time for deviations from standard based curricula and the emphasis on testing. What many of us have been trying to demonstrate is that you can teach a child to read. You can teach them to synthesize information and think critically with American Indian content. You can teach about systems of government, how to read a map, astronomy and other sciences and many other topics based on information that's grounded in millennia old indigenous knowledge systems and experiences. Sometimes it gets a little difficult though, when as a trainer you have to break down long cherished myths. Another experience that I had in 1992, which was the quintcentenary [spelled phonetically] of the Columbus episode. I was asked to train a school of teachers, elementary school teachers. And I had talked with the principal ahead of time and I said, "Well what kind of approach do you want with this? You know sometimes this is pretty hard hitting, you know, we start breaking down myths." And she said "Let them have it. We want to know." So we spent the day together and I tried to provide some materials and guidance as to what's appropriate, what's authentic. And you know, started breaking down myths like Thanksgiving and why it's not appropriate to make masks or headdresses and you know. I remember towards the end of the day there was one particularly frustrated teacher who just said "Ed what do Indians want?" Okay. So that's what I've been talking about. You know, we want to be represented accurately. We'd like to tell our own stories. We'd like you to teach about who we really are. And so you know, there's a lot to overcome. I'd like to tell you about one example of some, a promising trend. This is in the state of Montana. Which, how many of you have ever spent any time in Montana? Anybody? A few people. You know it's a pretty rural place and not a very diverse population. But there's a lot of Indian people still in Montana. Well some activists got together and really pushed and in 1972, were able to force a Constitutional Amendment, and -- recognizing the unique and distinct cultural heritage and preservation of American Indians. Then finally in 1999, notice that it's, what, 27 years later, finally there was some legislation passed that would require education to address that piece of the Constitution of the State. And then there were seven essential understandings that every student in Montana should get about American Indians. And what's admirable about this effort is that Native people from the communities in Montana were engaged to write these essential understandings. So I'm going to put those up there and I apologize for the small print. But you know, you can sort of see that there's great diversity among the 12 tribal nations of Montana. There's great diversity among individual American Indians. The ideologies of Native traditional beliefs and spirituality persist into modern day life as tribal cultures. Reservations are lands that have been reserved by the tribes for their own use through treaties not given to them. There were many federal policies put into place throughout American history that have impacted Indian people. Okay so these are really important, really key pieces of information that really every person should understand. This is your history too you know. Every place that we live in this country was once Indian land. This country was built on Indian land, stolen Indian land. And the events that occurred -- and you come down to our museum, you'll see exhibits about history that talk about the, you know, the transfer of technologies and the impact of the gold, for instance, that was taken out of the Americas, the diseases and the ideas that were exchanged. So this is a thing that continues to affect all of us today. I saw recently that the state of Mexico has recently, officially adopted a Navajo language text book, the first of its kind. State of New Mexico, thank you Jenny for that piece of information. Okay are you ready for another musical interlude? All right, here we go. [audio clip] [music] From the land of sky blue waters Water From the land of pines Lofty balsams Comes the beer refreshing Hamm's the beer refreshing Ed Schupman: There's more. Male Speaker [audio clip]: The land of sky blue waters, big refreshing land. You can see the bigness, feel the freshness and in Hamm's beer you can taste it. A taste as big and fresh as the land of sky blue waters. Hamm's, mmmm, Hamm's. [music] Refreshing as the land of sky blue waters Water Hamm's the beer refreshing Hamm's the beer refreshing [music] Ed Schupman: Yeah. [laughter] Okay. How many of you remember those? Old enough to remember those? I do. Joe Sulfur: [inaudible] Ed Schupman: Huh? Joe Sulfer: Not that particular song but there was another one called "Running Bear." Popular old song. [inaudible] Ed Schupman: Oh yeah, right, so that beat, that bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, that's been a real popular stereotype misconception about Native American music. One of the things, one of the questions that I was asked to write an answer to in this book is the question, do Indians do rain dances? So in thinking about this selection I'd like to read just a little bit from this question for you: Yes, some tribes maintain the tradition of rain dances. Like all humans, Native peoples of the Americas have always understood the connection between rain and life. Traditional Native American views include a recognition that rain at the right times and in the appropriate amounts is a vital component of a well-functioning natural world. This knowledge is deep, based on the collective experiences of thousands of years. All people depend on rain to fill the rivers, to help plants grow and to nurture life. Among groups that practice traditional agriculture, the connection to rain is even more critical. Native cultures conceptualize and participate in these relationships with the natural world in a wide range of ways. Ceremonies, prayers, ritual art, songs and yes, dances are among the many ways that Native people acknowledge and help to maintain the delicate balance in nature. These spiritual and culturally important activities are not practiced randomly; they are part of complex, religious cycles that occur throughout the year, year after year. It's hard to know when or why these important activities were first caricatured, joked about and denigrated in American society and media. Inaccurate and stereotypical images often misrepresent Native cultures. The reality of cultural practices such as rain dances is of course, much more meaningful and humanly rich than the popular images portrayed." We have to move on from those places where we've been stuck for 500 years. It's not my aim to create any hostility focused on differences among people. I think that today there are many in our society who believe that we would be better off if all of us were more or less the same. I understand that sentiment given the long history of worldwide strife based on ethnicity and race. But if we weren't fighting over ethnic, racial or religious differences I think it wouldn't be long before we would find something else to fight about, like the color of our shirts or what side of town we live on. Wait a minute; we're already fighting over that, too. I take a little different view. I think we need to change to evolve as human beings. I would like us to teach our children not to merely tolerate, but to embrace differences among people. And then for us as a diverse society to use the richness of cultures and culture based knowledge to help us grow as peoples. Now some adults might call that idealistic but I think children can understand it. It's an exciting time. People in various disciplines are looking to American Indians and other indigenous people who hold knowledge that can help address contemporary worldwide problems. These are people in organizations that are looking at sustainable living models, such as the local foods movement, organic farming, bio-mimicry in engineering, health scientists looking at issues such as diabetes and obesity prevention. Native people as well are acquiring advanced and terminal degrees as scientists, economists, engineers, social theorists, and they're collaborating with others in their fields to look at traditional knowledge systems and how they can contribute to the modern world. The respected elder and Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons spoke about deeply imbedded indigenous knowledge, and sounded a warning at a recent climate change symposium held at NMAI. Can you all see that well enough to read it? No? We're an old voice, indigenous peoples, very old, very ancient. You learn by living in one place for a long time. That knowledge now becomes important. We are after all one people. It's not white or red or black or yellow. We can exchange blood, you and I. That makes us family, brothers and sisters. Instead of competition it's got to be cooperation. We can't have this racist fight anymore. We can't because we as human beings have to get together for survival now. The earth will bring balance because that's what it does. It will do it through disease. It will do it through crisis, lack of food, lack of resources, exploitation of energy. Business as usual is over and you better understand that and you better work with that idea if your children will have any kind of good life. Powerful message. In reflecting on my work now in over 150 American Indian communities throughout my career, a couple of key things I would like to share. I've become aware how thorough the attempts at dispossession and dehumanization of Native peoples, their lands, and cultures were, and how many of those consequences our Indian people still live with. But I've also become aware of how tenacious Indian peoples are. The Native spirit is still alive. The strong sense of family and community, humor, creative spirit, the connection to traditional world views, and the survival of culture, a dynamic culture that is living and changing. It's all survived in spite of everything that's happened. I have one more anecdote from my travels for the Federal Cylinder Project. I visited one community in the southeast where as part of the dissemination visit I was asked if I would meet with the Powwow Club, the group of young people who are involved in Powwow Dancing and if I would tell them about the cylinder collection of their tribe's music. So I said, "Of course I would." And we sat and I sat with those young people and played some of the songs for them. Now this is a community where they still have language but the ceremonies, the dances, all of that's gone. And I'll never forget this; it's always stuck with me. The leader of the Powwow Club turned to me and said, "Can you teach us our dances?" I said, "No I can't." You know, I tried to guide them maybe to some communities where they might get some clues that would help them. But to me this is an illustration of these two points that I just made. That there has been so much decimation of culture, but yet that spirit is still alive and that idea of, we want to know, we want to learn and if we can't do our own stuff, we'll do Powwow and we'll learn that way and that's good enough. Sometimes I wish we could wipe the slate clean. I wish we could erase much of the history, all these negative images, ideas, and words from the public's collective memory. Now I know that's idealistic but part of what we're trying to accomplish with our exhibits, our education programs and materials at NMAI is to help the world understand Native cultures from fresh new perspectives, not as relics of some bygone time placed in a museum display case, but as living cultures. Our museum's mission is to provide real, accurate, and educationally viable information in partnership with these vibrant Indian communities. I invite you to come to our museum or visit one of hundreds of tribal museums or cultural centers across the United States. Let us tell you who we are, on our own terms and in our own ways. We have a lot of bad information to erase and we'll start at what ever level we need to. I have one final musical postlude to share with you. When I worked at LC we had a tradition of making up song lyrics to sing to well known tunes. Well I think we did it at least once. So in honor of that tradition I have an original composition that I'll sing for you. I call it "People Not Mascots" and it's sung to the tune of the "Tomahawk Chop." [sings] [laughter] Oh, oh, Oh, oh The Atlanta Braves Are a good baseball team But the song their fans sing Perpetuates negative stereotypes Of American Indians As war like peoples Oh, oh Thank you very much. [applause] Nancy Gross; I'm Nancy Gross. On behalf of the American Folklife Center I want to thank you for coming, and to remind you that our next Botkin lecture will be on September 4th. Marjorie Bong Lu [spelled phonetically] from California will be talking about Quan Chi which is a precursor to Chinese Opera. And also we'll be having our Home Grown Concert on August 20th. Gary Hameleau, I'm probably murdering his name, but pretty close? Okay, and he and his band, Hawaii Slack Key Guitar, playing from Nevada. So you're welcome to come to that. That's August 20th and then our next Botkin will be September 4th. Thank you so much for coming. [music] [end of transcript]