♪
(banging drum)
(singing)
You have to go back to the Treaty of 1858,
and as dismal as that was, it really did,
it left us what we thought were some protections
by the federal government
that at least the lands that we were occupying
would be protected and held for us.
What the United States government would do
was they would pick out a chief
who was not really a chief.
Maybe they gave him some trinkets or whatever,
promises of this and that.
"Yeah, I'll sign."
What that effectively did was it took the control of the land,
individual lands, away from the collective tribe,
and our whole governmental system of leadership,
the clan system,
the, you know, the tribal system,
it completely dismantled that.
When they had the Allotment Act,
that took away more land,
allotted each Indian enrolled at the time 160 acres.
They began selling and losing the land.
In many cases, the lands were...
outright stolen.
It was taken away from them
through one way or another.
Maybe they owed a bill at the store,
so maybe for $15, they say, "Well, if you sign this paper,
you know, and give me your land,
you know, that'll take care of the bill."
♪
It finally dawned on them what was happening,
and so, in later treaties,
they weren't in favor of it.
If our leadership knew that language in that act,
they probably could've called the people together and said,
"This is what could happen.
We've got to stick together."
We have been pushed and pushed and pushed
to a point, you know, where now,
if we look at our acreage, it's very minimal.
♪
We're still here, we still maintain our identity,
we still have our dances, our ceremonies.
♪
We keep our history in songs and music.
When you lose connection with our music,
then you lose connection with your history.
(singing)
Even though the Native people have suffered great losses
because of lands being taken away from them,
I think the Native people are strong in belief, you know,
that God created this land
and that, in the spiritual aspect,
it should be taken care of as such.
♪