Native Voices: Oral Histories of Native Americans in the Los Angeles Region

Conducted and Transcribed by Students of Occidental College

for Professor Jan Lin

June 2011

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Table of Contents

Page

Preface and Acknowledgements 3

Julia Bogany 5 Native American Cultural Youth Center By Lisa Gilliland and Nina Paus-Weiler

Arturo Romo and Roberto Flores 15 Teachers and Muralists By Arlin Alger and Stephanie Gann

Ted Garcia 26 Spiritual Advisor, Storyteller and Stone Carver By Oliver Field and August Fischer

William McCawley 33 Historian and Author By Jessie Hernandez and Daniel Martinez

Michael McLaughlin 39 American Indian Resource Center By Brian Kim and Matthew Nostro

Rudy Ortega, Jr. 64 Fernandeno/Tataviam Band of Mission Indians By Sarah Alvarado and Kathleen Preston

Brighid Pulskamp 73 United American Indian Involvement By Isaac Tovares and Abby Chin-Martin

David Rambeau 82 United American Indian Involvement By Taryn Predki and Binh Vuong

Anthony Ruiz 93 Tarzana Treatment Center By Sean Curran and Elliot Kass

Alan Salazar 101 Spiritual Advisor and Storyteller By William Stanton and Jonathan Lopez 2

Abe Sanchez 110 Basketweaver and Native Foods Educator By Chris Caldwell and Michael Fujita

Ian Skorodin 116 Filmmaker and Philanthropist Interviewed by Eden Radovich and Arthur Modell Transcribed by Daniel Harrison and Jonas Wiertz

Appendices 121

Questionnaire 122

Commentary on The Exiles 123 By Michael McLaughlin

Franklin High School Tongva/Gabrielino murals 133

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Preface and Acknowledgements

These oral histories were done by students of Occidental College working under the direction of Professor Jan Lin of the Sociology Department in two sections of a freshman Cultural Studies Seminar (CSP23: Los Angeles From Pueblo to World City) offered in the fall 2010 semester. The project was conceived by Professor Lin, who was previously involved in oral history projects in the Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles. He did outreach to Native Americans at two powwows in the summer of 2010, including on July 17 at the Redbirds Children of Many Colors Powwow held at Moorpark College and on July 30 at the Southern California Indian Center’s 42 nd Annual Pow Wow held in Garden Grove. Further outreach was done by students on September 16 at the Moompetam Festival - “Gathering of the Salt Water People” held at Long Beach Aquarium.

An initial questionnaire was drafted by Jan Lin and students added additional questions. The questionnaire, project methodology and participant consent forms were reviewed and approved by the Occidental College Human Subjects Research Review Committee. Spiritual advisor and storyteller Alan Salazar gave a cultural orientation talk, storytelling and spiritual blessing to the class on a campus visit. Michael McLaughlin of the American Indian Resource Center offered additional historical orientation through a written commentary about The Exiles , a film the class watched about the Native American community in Bunker Hill before its removal for redevelopment in the 1950s. Chrissie Castro of the American Indian Children’s Council gave a cultural orientation lecture and sensitivity training to the class. The students also read the historical material and oral histories in the book, O, My Ancestor: Recognition and Renewal for the Gabrielino–Tongva People of the Los Angeles Area , by Claudia Jurmain and William McCawley (Heyday Books 2009).

Celestina Castillo of the Occidental College Center for Community-Based Learning gave guidance and support to the project. Education in Action (EIA) student Samantha Sencer-Mura did outreach to the participants and supported the Moompetam Festival field trip and other events. EIA student Margeau Valteau helped with editing of the oral history transcripts in the spring 2011 semester.

These transcripts (along with Michael McLaughlin’s commentary on The Exiles , Native American relocation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school program) are self- published by Jan Lin in June 2011. Several copies are distributed to project partners such as Occidental College Library, the Center for Community-Based Learning, the American Indian Resource Center, United American Indian Involvement, and Chrissie Castro. Electronic copies are available from Jan Lin with the Department of Sociology at Occidental College, email: [email protected] , phone: 323-259-2994. Oral history participants signed consent forms permitting 4

open copyright in the public domain. We welcome people to use the transcripts for any educational, journalistic or otherwise non-commercial purpose. Jan Lin will write a paper including oral history excerpts to be delivered to the University of Illinois – Chicago, “Great Cities/Ordinary Lives” conference in September 2011. It may be published in a future book along with other proceedings from the conference.

We completed interviews with eleven men and two women during the course of the project. We would have liked to reach more women, but our interview efforts were complicated by a range of factors including timing and scheduling issues, transportation problems, and illness. The participants had regional tribal affiliations as well as tribal affiliations from other states and Mexico, representing Native American heritage in the Los Angeles region as an amalgamation of local tribes pre-existing Spanish conquest, tribes relocated by the U.S. government in the postwar era, and Indians who immigrated to the U.S. There are three oral histories with non-Native Americans. One is a joint oral history with two Latino teachers and muralists, Robert Flores and Arturo Romo who designed and led students in the painting of a mural depicting Tongva/Gabrielino at Franklin High School in Highland Park. They were selected because student Arlin Alger attended Franklin High School. Both of these Latinos describe their interest in pursuing their Native American heritage. Another oral history was conducted with William McCawley, a Euro-American scholar of Native American history in the Los Angeles region. Bill McCawley was also a co-author of our textbook, O, My Ancestor and a participant at the Moompetam Festival in Long Beach. We hope that readers will appreciate that our oral histories represent a broader spectrum of people affiliated with Native American causes and heritage work in Los Angeles.

A copy of our questionnaire is presented in the Appendix. Students were told to use the questionnaire as a basic guide, but were permitted to ask additional questions pertaining to the special characteristics of the oral history participant, or the special interests of the student interviewers. Many of the questions relate to themes that were brought up in the oral histories contained in our textbook, O, My Ancestor , including questions regarding: a) Native American identity, or “Indianness,” b) cultural renewal issues related to powwows, festivals, storytelling and other Native arts, and c) federal recognition issues related to the fact that the U.S. government still does not officially recognize Los Angeles area tribes that were historically consolidated by the Spanish missions.

A time-consuming process of editorial work extended for several months after the initial completion of the transcripts. Some subjects participated in the editorial work. Students were given considerable historical and cultural sensitivity training during the whole process. Please understand if there are still any errors and we hope the contents are as accurate as possible. For further inquiries or copies of this report, please contact: Jan Lin, Sociology Department, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041-3314. Email: [email protected] . Phone: 323-259-2994. Electronic copies of the report are also available. 5

Julia Bogany

Native American Cultural Youth Center

Tongva/Gabrielino

By Lisa Gilliland and Nina Paus-Weiler

Julia Bogany is a member of the Tongva/Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians and is their cultural affairs consultant. She has been a teacher, director, and activist for over thirty years fighting for equal rights for all Native Americans. Julia also consults with and trains school boards on how to revise their curricula to reflect the correct history of California tribes. She has served on several committees and organizations including: the American Indian Children’s Council; the Chaffey College President’s Equity Council; the Pomona Board of Education and the Riverside Municipal Museum Multicultural Board. Julia is the Vice-President of the Keepers of Indigenous Ways, a non-profit group with the mission of bringing people together to develop and implement programs and activities relating to indigenous ancestral lands and maritime cultures. One notable program includes the building, repairing and maintenance of traditional Tongva plank canoes. Julia is the proud mother of four, grandmother of fourteen, and great-grandmother of six.

LIFE STORY

Where are you from?

I’m from Santa Monica. I’ve been in cultural affairs for 13 years with the tribe, here at San Gabriel. This is the youth center at El Monte. We’ve had the youth center I think five years.

What is your tribal affiliation?

I’m cultural affairs chair of the Gabrielino/Tongva tribal council in San Gabriel. I’m also an elder in the tribe.

What does being an elder mean?

Being an elder doesn’t mean age as much as it means wisdom but, I’m 62.

So people come to you for knowledge?

Right yes, for information, I also keep a lot of our books.

So when you were growing up did you know all along that you were Native American?

I knew I was Native American but I really didn’t find the tribe itself until about twenty years ago. 6

How did that happen?

I went to a conference and I heard a woman say: you owe it to your grandmother to find your people, language, and learn your culture. So I’ve been in a language class for three years. I’ve been working with the tribe for twenty years, but before I started working with the tribe I was already in cultural affairs for a Native American/Indian Center where I worked.

And you work with the youth?

With youth yes, I did preschool for 35 years…..who you are kind of comes out in what you do.

What kind of things do you do with the kids?

Right now I’m working with Pitzer College. I have eight students this semester. I’m doing a class called: Building Ourselves and Our Community to mentor young people. They’re between eighteen and twenty-two. They come to my house….we learn the culture and I teach them about fetal alcohol syndrome. They’re about working in a community, and I talk about domestic violence and child abuse.

So do your students then teach younger kids about these issues?

I teach them the Native way. Tonight I’m teaching fetal alcohol syndrome to Native children.

Do you have any children?

Yes I have four children, fourteen grand and six great –grandchildren.

Do you work with them then? Do you teach them about the Native American culture?

My grandchildren are pretty involved, a few of them. And my great grands are learning the language and dancing with tribe, so they’re more involved.

Did you teach them or did they join on their own?

No, we have a naming ceremony every June and my granddaughter is really active. I volunteer at Sherman High School; I have a hundred and five senior girls there that I work with. I wrote a curriculum on teaching self-esteem to young Native girls. So we’re working with them with the curriculum.

Do you and your family go to festivals a lot?

We weren’t powwow people. I do two powwows because I work them; I work with kids at the powwows. Mostly we go to activities or family stuff you know like we did before. I’m not that into the powwows, some of our people are. 7

Going back to your kids, what kind of things do your grand children do?

The great grands dance with the tribe. And my granddaughter, she attends a lot of meetings. My kids, they’re not that involved because the books say we’re not here. So that’s why I’ve been going from school district to school district to change that. And get Tongva history taught and activities….at Pomona Valley they have a Philip Ranch school, they’re teaching Tongva now in third, fourth, and fifth grade. And fourth grade all year round…..here in the city of Arcadia I changed the curriculum from them teaching only Hugo Reid to teaching about Victoria Reid, which was a woman chief from our tribe.

So do you find that the lack of cultural recognition really affects the tribe?

People don’t know we’re here. I go to a lot of things that are openings and welcomes and stuff like that…just kind of to be visible. So I spend a lot of time in L.A.

Do you ever find that you have interactions with people and you might maybe tell them where you’re from and what your culture is and they just say: that doesn’t exist…?

I was at Hearst Ranch and there was a wagon in front of me, and they had those little stuffed dolls sitting there and I said whoops a doll fell and he said, “oh an Indian shot him” and then he turned around and saw that I was doing the Indian program. And then I saw a little girl up there, I was making acorn necklaces with the kids. I volunteered for hours, so the father was doing a video of his daughter and she started going “whoa whoa” and jumping all over and I turned around and looked at him and he put the camera down. I guess it just hit him; I wanted him to say why he got upset.

When they have meetings here (in the cultural center) what do you do?

We have council meetings. We have Tongva Tribal meetings every second Sunday. So we discuss business and where we’re going and we’re working with Playa Vista and different things that are coming up, activities coming up.

Do you ever have dances here?

No, they practice here on Wednesdays. Sometimes we have culture classes and make baskets.

So is a lot of what the council does toward getting federal recognition?

It’s surprising to me that everyone says that we’re not federally recognized, in that we’re not here but I found that they’re so many dissertations on us; why are so many people writing about us if we’re not here. What’s all that about?

When we met you at the Long Beach Aquarium for the Moompetam Festival you were running a station on necklace making; is that what you do with the youth? 8

Yes I do soapstone necklaces, because soapstone was important to us. Because the soapstone mine was in Catalina Island; it made us a rich tribe so people could trade a lot. So I do that with the kids and I also do shell necklaces, acorn necklaces.

POWWOWS AND FESTIVALS

So you said that you attend maybe two powwows, why only two?

I do more fiestas. The tribes are bringing the fiestas back so I do fiestas. Fiestas are more what our tribe did. We didn’t have powwows because we didn’t have drums.

What’s the difference between a powwow and a fiesta?

A Fiesta is more like a family reunion, so there’s like sack races and horseshoes and games. They hire someone from up north to come dance but they don’t actually do the dancing.

What are the characteristics of a powwow? What makes a powwow a powwow?

It came with the people from other tribes. Not from California.

What’s the importance of a Fiesta?

I think learning because you learn from different people from different tribes. It’s more of a learning activity and fun family thing.

VALUES AND VOCATIONS

What would be the ideal situation in terms of federal recognition for the Tonga tribe?

Our goal is to, if we had federal recognition, we’d have a hospital with a school on it, and we’d have a mall where everything was environmentally friendly. Those are our main things that we’d want to do so that we’d employ more people and natives. Whoever wants to go to college and become a doctor could go there …We don’t get federal dollars for grants because we’re not federally recognized.

Do you guys do fundraising since you don’t get federal dollars?

No.

How do you host anything?

I don’t know. It’d be a big job; it’s a lot of money. Everything that I do; sometimes I get paid sometimes I don’t. I can do presentations; I work at museums and help put up displays. When I’m at the aquarium I might pick up two or three jobs out of there. 9

Are there areas around here that offer schools exclusively for Native Americans?

Nowhere close by. I live five minutes away from San Manuel, we have title seven (Civil Rights Act of 1964), which belongs to the school district but they allow us to use their building to have the kids come and do crafts and things.

Do you know your lineage?

Yes, I can go like thirteen years back, and then of course I’m already on my grand kids.

Did your family have any history with the missions?

Yes, a lot of our people still attend the missions. They go to missions for church. I’ve been asked by the California Museum of Santa Rosa to redo the history of the missions from the Native perspective. I really don’t like teaching on the missions, but I said: okay I’ll try it.

What kind of things would you teach in that?

I know I don’t want to teach all the gory details to fourth graders. I think its part of history and it came and it left. And the missions might still be standing and our people who go there go out of respect to their ancestors who died there. I took pictures of the missions behind bars, you know the miniatures, and when I teach it I say: that’s what the missions were to me; a prison. Nobody was asking us to work for food and shelter so it was a part of slavery. I think for federal recognition we need to show that we’ve been here forever right? We didn’t disappear and then reincarnate. Like in the missions on their 50 th birthday we were gone. And now when they turn a hundred years old we’re back. Now it’s like we resurrected from somewhere. So now I’m getting really interested in the Ranchos because that’s the next step. As the cultures came in where did we go? I want to show how we progressed with them.

How do you feel about the way Native Americans are portrayed in mainstream media?

It’s still a problem. It’s really hard to be Native. Some people say you live in two worlds, me for it’s like you live in four worlds. If you’re Native you’re living in a way that someone else says you should live, not the way you’re supposed to. In the religious world it’s the same problem. You have the Christians who, like I said I became a Christian because I chose to, versus our people that they took into the missions because they had to; it was forced upon them. It’s a difference for me. Sometimes Natives today think that because they’re Christian they can’t use sage or something because it’s against Christianity while I say Christianity is a way of life. So I get out of the box…sometimes I can’t handle the comments made by visitors at the Moompetam festival. People are telling their kids—aren’t Natives smart, isn’t it something how they survived and today they have to do this to get money. It’s not like we’re there to get money, we’re there to teach. It gets aggravating sometimes. And then you have people who say: well you don’t even exist. And you’re there. You have to explain that to your kids. My kids are like 45, 46, the oldest ones and they say: well the books say we’re not here, well I’m here! They go by what they see written. That’s why I’ve collected so many books…It’s exciting for me to learn, even if 10

something might be written wrong, it’s kind of like you can have that feeling of how it’s supposed to be right. It’s kind of tough sometimes; we have to assimilate in order to survive in LA. And so when they came to count us they say: well there are no more Indians at the San Gabriel mission there’s only Mexicans there... but you were trying to survive so you spoke their language instead of your language.

If federal recognition were given what do you think that would do culturally?

Culturally? I think we know our culture pretty well I don’t think we’ve gotten into a religious aspect, cause culture is about how you live and how you think and how you treat people. I worked with the University of Oklahoma in the trauma center and helped write a curriculum for doctors on how we heal children who’ve been abused and we did it through storytelling, there were 26 different tribes there and we felt like we knew each other even though we had never met because we’re one people. Even though it was a difficult subject it was really interesting to hear how everyone told their stories and how they treated everybody because we didn’t have jails, everybody lived in certain places and we knew who was dangerous and who wasn’t. So it wasn’t a problem for us, we could take care of it.

So you said earlier that you are a basket weaver?

Yes, I’m a basket weaver. It’s fun to do our authentic baskets but its takes forever so I think I have one that I did it’s the size of a quarter and it took me 5 hours and I thought oh, this is not my cup a tea, I don’t have time for this. But I do make all the other kinds, like pine needle baskets, I like those they’re fun and fast. I do crafts and I do a lot of crafts for convalescent homes so I like to do the quick stuff.

How did you learn to basket weave?

Just by attending classes, we don’t have that many older people in our group; very few, that were into doing that.

Where do they offer those?

I was in a basket weaver’s organization so I served on the board and learned in the classes.

Are there other elders?

Not that do baskets…..I’m taking classes to teach Native leadership to youth and how to teach boys about sex without getting in trouble. Teach them how to take care of themselves. Then when I get back my students are going to do pine needle baskets. I taught a year in Long Beach in a class called: Math in a Basket. I taught geometry through basket weaving to fifth graders.

So when you teach these classes how do other people hear about them?

We have a website. I also have Keepers of Indigenous Ways, I’m on that website. I’m vice- president for that group. My cousin and I have a 501c3 nonprofit in San Pedro and so we’re 11

trying to work at Machado Lake and get that open and build a complete village there. And have schools come in during the day.

What is your opinion of the gaming industry?

From what I’ve heard, it isn’t something positive. I think mostly because tribes don’t run casinos themselves. Every tribe has their own way of dealing with it. Some tribes will give money to each person and some tribes just allow some people to have jobs for the rest of their lives. So it hasn’t been good from what I’ve heard.

How do you feel about us coming and asking you questions?

I’m fine, I think that’s what gets us known out there; that we’re here. Otherwise you couldn’t have information……I keep a tribal library.

Is your tribal library at your house?

Yes. Last week I bought some dissertations from somebody in Sacramento. Last week I bought three books and the week before I bought three more. One was this great book called Ancient LA and it tells you how the streets were all built, how the freeways started, they all started at our village. They were built on the roads that we traveled to either trade or visit. And then I found this third grade history book that was written in 1933, I had seen it about a year ago at a museum and it was called California’s Beginnings and it had this neat little dictionary I wanted to copy. They had us in there. How much could you lie from 1933 to today? We were still here. So it has some of our stories so I was really happy with that. So when I went to this program I asked one of my cousins about the stories and I said: what are our stories? And she said well you got to make them up because you’re an elder. I thought: I don’t want to make them up. So I did have a couple people write me some stories that I could use in my classes. Then all of a sudden this year I’ve gotten like twenty stories; they just kind of come to me. I find stories here and there so I’m really excited about finding more and more.

So how many books does your library have?

Too many. I would say over a thousand. I have a wall full of Tongva books. Sometimes they only mention like one word and sometimes it’s just a map mentioned on there, but I’ve found some recently that have a lot more. Last year we found a German translation of our language, from German to Tongva. It was like one page, but every little bit counts.

Do people come to you for books?

It’s hard because people don’t always return them. I do lend some out, but I got to stay on it because Native books aren’t that easy to find. I’ll tell them what’s in it but it’s kind of hard to give them out.

So you said you’ve been studying the language for three years. So how many people know the language? 12

I would say there are about 15 people that know the language now but it took me three years to learn it because it’s not written down. We learned it all grammatically, so I learned all the grammar first….it doesn’t stay with me that’s why I have to teach.

So does the tribe go by Tongva or Gabrielino?

Tongva. Gabrielino is because of the Mission San Gabriel, just like the slaves were named after their masters, you know, that’s how it goes so they named us Gabrielino. And you can tell as new books come out that it’s more Tongva and less Gabrielino-Tongva or Gabrielino.

Do you think that the Tongva tribe is getting closer to federal recognition?

I don’t know, it takes a lot of money to fight the government. It would open more doors for our people.

Did you know when you were growing up that you wanted to be a teacher?

No, well I was a preschool teacher for 35 years, 3 year-olds are my favorite, they think you’re god. ... but I’ve always worked in the community, for the tribe, I’m in the woman’s group at Echo Park, we have 50 women from different tribes in LA, we meet every first Tuesday, that’s how we wrote the book The Three Sisters . I went to a conference and I made a doll and I taught some of the girls how to make it and then I found out that some tribes don’t make dolls.

So do all of the tribes around here, in LA, interact?

It doesn’t matter how old you are, even if someone else is 20 years older, the elder is still the person of that land... I work with the forestry people and help them do boxes to make sure they have the correct things in their Tongva kits when they’re teaching about us. We want them to have the appropriate things and not just any Indian things.

Have you found that there are Native Americans who don’t affiliate with their tribe or recognize their culture? Have you ever interacted with someone of this mindset?

No, I don’t think it actually matters, I don’t just work in my community my contract is with CRIB so I teach everywhere with different tribes so I’ve been out there with a lot of different tribes whereas someone else may have only been with us. I was already out there so it’s easy for me to get in and out; I have gone with the federal tribes and made decisions with the government with them. But it takes a long time for people to know you and to be able to get into the community. People have been used a lot; it’s a big trust issue.

So what exactly happened, how did you get reconnected with the Tongva?

Well just kind of knowing, I had my papers on me from my grandma since I was 13, I just didn’t know where everyone hung out so when I found them I went from having me and 4 children to having hundreds of cousins. It’s all about family, I don’t see the tribe as separate from my 13

family, and I see them as my family.

Were your parents active in the community?

I think my mother was for a while but mostly my grandmother. Everything I do I do in honor of my grandmother because she suffered more from the things that happened. My big thing is to get us back in history so I’ve been working at it slowly.

What was your grandma like?

My grandma was forty-two when she passed and my mother was 50 when she passed, it’s really empowering to me to know my people. It’s honoring for the respect that they have for me. The tribe can’t afford to send me to things so a lot of times I go into schools and talk for free. The woman’s circle is sending me to Austin, Texas on the book that I wrote, with the money that we got for that book. It’s great to be able to travel and help other youth. And not only Native kids, they’re learning so much and I’m learning from them. Like you girls- you’re learning from me and I’m learning from you. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

So this youth center, are there other ones like it in different neighborhoods?

Oh no, this is all we can afford. We have a grant from the Indian Commission and that pays for this building and our office in San Gabriel.

So I read somewhere that the Tongva tribe is recognized in California, what does that provide for you? Do you get any benefit from that?

We have state recognition, just says the state knows we’re here. There’s nothing. You’d think that the federal government would know we were here. They don’t recognize me but they’re paying an intern to help me teach... but I don’t exist! I have been in mission programs and someone will say: the Tongva were ghosts, and I walk up to them and pinch them and I say: do I feel like a ghost? In the paper that they’re presenting they say that we’re gone!

What do they say when you do that?

They say: Oh! But they don’t change it. They write about us as if we were gone. Last year the same thing happened, this lady argued that we didn’t exist and I said: well who are you? And she said: well I’m a professor and I said: so? You think we made it up?

Do you think that federal recognition is something that could be seen in your lifetime?

I don’t know, I would hope to see it but I don’t see it happening that close. It will happen eventually, hopefully if anything the kids I am teaching today, when they become senators and governors they’ll say: I remember these people, I learned about them! And that will get it started. But at least I will have accomplished what I want to... you know that mural at Franklin High School? I worked on that; my name’s up there on the mural! See? Everybody knows there’s at least one Tongva. You know I’ve gotten several jobs from that mural. To learn more about the 14

Tongva tribe visit http://keepersofindigenousways.org/

Julia Bogany

The sign outside the Native American Cultural Youth Center. “The Young Peoples Village”

Julia Bogany, Nina Paus-Weiler, Lisa Gilliland 15

Arturo Romo and Roberto Flores

Teachers and muralists

Chicanos/Latinos

By Arlin Alger and Stephanie Gann

Arturo Romo and Roberto Flores are teachers at Franklin High School in the Highland Park neighborhood of northeast Los Angeles near Occidental College. They are Latinos/Chicanos. Their work on the Franklin High School Mural Project gave them a chance to explore the Native American side of their ancestry through representing the life of the Gabrielino/Tongva people who historically lived in the Highland Park area. See Appendix, page 124 for reproductions of the first mural and the second mural still in progress.

Where are you from?

Romo : I was born in Los Angeles. I grew up in Highland Park for a little bit of my life and then my family moved when I was still pretty young to Alhambra in the San Gabriel Valley. My parents were also born in Los Angeles. My mom was born in Wilmington (a district of Los Angeles), but a few of my grandparents were also born here. Our grandma was born in Tucson, Arizona. So I’m multi-generational, I’ve been a Chicano for a long time.

Flores : I’m also from Los Angeles and I was born in Hollywood. I lived a couple years in Echo Park, but I don’t really remember much when I did. Then I moved to Highland Park and eventually to Glassell Park. I’ve been all over northeast Los Angeles. I moved to Claremont when I went to college for four years and then moved back home, where I met my wife. Together we moved to Alhambra for about a year and a half, then back to Glassell Park. Like Mr. Romo, my parents are both from Lincoln Heights, so we’re third generation Northeast Los Angeles citizens. My grandparents are from Mexico, except for the grandma that we share who’s from Tucson, AZ.

What is your ethnic affiliation?

Flores : I’m Chicano, Mexican-American, and Latino.

What personal experiences have led you to have an interest in Native Americans/ Native Californians?

Romo : I think probably just being here and being like Mr. Flores said, “a citizen who’s multi- generational to Southern California.” I can speak for myself that way because I was raised with a Chicano identity. Chicano studies and being a Chicano kind of led me into the curiosity of knowing my identity. I want to know where I am, who I am, and where I came from. Where you are right now and how you operate within a community is important. As an artist I see a lot of Chicano murals, especially from the movement era like the 60s and the 70s. They focused a lot on Aztec and Mexican culture. I knew from my family history that probably none of my Native ancestors were Mexican, because they were all from the north. So once I started exploring, I 16

started noticing there is a broader Native tradition here, not just Mexican or Aztec. That led me to wonder about the people that are here now and the ones that were here before any of us. That’s what kind of led me to my interests. I think being a Chicano and realizing mestizaje exists led me to think about the Native culture as a part of myself, as a part of my own identity.

Flores : I grew up in Glassell Park and spent my childhood in Glassell Park. I spent a good portion of my childhood just running around in the hills near my backyard. I remember thinking, “I wondered who was here before all these houses.” I’m lucky my parents exposed me to the Southwest Museum and many powwows. I can remember going to powwows at the Natural History Museum and then eating frybread. I remember there were Native Americans from other places, but never actually from here, or so I thought. In school, I learned about the Chumash Indians and how they ate acorns. That was literally all we learned about the Chumash during that very short, one-day lesson and then we moved on to another chapter. Throughout all my six years of elementary school, that one-day in fourth grade was when we learned about Native Americans and then spent half the year on the Spanish. So I remember having a disconnection, in terms of understanding what was the real information I was being taught. There were a few other experiences that led to the feeling of disconnection. Like Mr. Romo said, we both relate a lot to the Chicano culture and we have nostalgia towards the Aztec culture, and in terms of our family. My family, except for my grandma who’s from northern Mexico, is all from Central Mexico and the Huichol is still a very predominant culture there. I remember traveling to Mexico and meeting the Huicholas that still lived right outside of towns and they spoke no Spanish. That really resonated with me. It made me think, why isn’t anyone looking into this more? This is probably where a lot of my heritage probably came from come. Bringing that back here to Los Angeles, I’m looking at the places we live and I’m trying to uncover all the history. My family and I have been here for a while and I don’t have any thoughts of leaving. I imagine my kids are going to be growing up here, in this area, and we should know as much about the history of this place. Los Angeles has been a new metropolis and has grown so quickly. People just assume that it sprouted out and they often forget the history before the last 70 years.

Besides being muralists, what other work do you do? What is your occupation?

Romo: Well I’m an artist, but that’s a hard question. I work a lot with media, especially making videos and trying to make things look like TV. I try to make things using the format of radio, interviews, and commercials. I like the idea of 30-second information commercials that we’re bombarded with on TV. I try to take away the commercial aspect of it but take that 30-second information packet to use it for different ends. I also do work for magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets that get distributed freely. I show my art in galleries. Sometimes I do photography to shoot performances on the street. But mostly, I’m a substitute teacher. That’s my bifurcated profession; being an artist and teacher. For the last couple years I have been getting long-term assignments. I think I have been an artist longer than I have been a substitute teacher.

Flores : Romo usually rejects the notion that you find one thing that you do and do it well or as perfect as you can. He will dabble in different mediums and I think that’s very brave and bold of him. As a result, he comes up with some brilliant things. He has even had books, whole books that have been made and have been shown. The book shows records that he’s pressed and ceramics that he has fired from kilns at the beach. And the mural is your first mural? ( Talking to 17

Romo)

Romo : Yes, the mural is my first. I do many large scale drawings, but they are generally made on portable walls. Actually traditional mural its another medium and requires another mind space to work in. When Mr. Flores suggested the mural project, it was not fully fledged out. I think my role was to impose technical limitations on it and say what I could see us doing. Then we started working on it together. ( Talking to Flores: Actually when you brought it to me I thought, ‘why me I don’t consider myself a traditional muralist.’ You could have gone to a lot of different people, who are experts on it.) I’m generally a person who likes to do a lot of different things and see how they inform one another. I don’t see a hierarchy or a conflict within art, especially between what is considered traditional and what is considered non-traditional, like a performance or a video. I’ll talk about art any chance I get, just so I can try to cross it all and cross-pollinate as much as I can.

Flores : For the record, I’m not an artist. I do some of the under painting, but that’s not my role in the project. I’m also a substitute teacher, which is not a glorified profession. Kids don’t grow up thinking, “I want to be a doctor, lawyer, or substitute teacher.” It’s kind of something I was really sure I was going to do, but I stumbled into teaching and I realized what I did better substituting. Talk to students and talk to them about different things that sometimes aren’t brought up in school, is what I love doing. I’m not a substitute teacher looking to become a full time teacher, but its kind of hard for people to understand that. There are a lot of substitutes, but our colleagues are not good at what they do. So it makes it tough to be a sub sometimes and you can’t really talk about it with people because they’ll judge you. I feel that its something I’m pretty good at and I can use to do other things that will really affect our community in a positive way. I’ll do it as long as I can. I have a strong connection with people and if I ever feel like that’s kind of stopping, then I’ll do something else. The other thing I do is farming. I’m trying to have chickens and a fruit tree to sell, but it’s been a long process. It’s actually kind of funny because substituting is something looked down upon, but farming in the city is something exalted now. People are so impressed about it.

Flores : Even though our farm is small with only 14 clients, we make the best of it. We sell our eggs four dollars for a dozen, and soon the fruit trees will be full grown. So we’ll see about that.

Romo : Well if I could add another thing that Mr. Flores is or does is; he does a lot of work within the community. He’s a great organizer of people. One thing I think he does well is bringing people together for a common goal without coercion. He shows no sign that he’s the leader, or that he’s forcing people to do things. He’s really good at bringing people together to do something that everyone is onboard for and he’s a great coalition builder. I have met so many different people with different views of the world through Mr. Flores. ( Talking to Flores: That’s what you think of yourself doing too right? Like the fruit-tree give away? But that’s only one thing that you’ve done and you have always tried to work with people. I think that’s something you’re really good at.) I don’t think there are too many people that are as good as I think he is.

Flores : Thank you Mr. Romo.

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How did you enter this work or volunteerism? How did you learn skills and gain experience?

Romo : Well I attended an arts magnet school called LA County High School for the Arts. It has four to five disciplines and it’s small academy for the different disciplines of art such as: visual art, musical theater, theater, music, and dance. I went there and I had to show my portfolio. I knew then that I wanted to do something with the arts. Going there kind of led me into a path of considering private colleges. I attended a private college in Baltimore called the Maryland Institute College of Art and I spent three years there to learn technical skills. I received a great education in the arts through both of those schools. Education kind of prepares me for the technical side of art, but too get to the point where you can paint a mural and have that type of facility technically, takes a lot if life experience and cutting your teeth on a lot of little projects.

Flores : ( Talking to Romo) You also have to learn how to translate that to our students. Some of who have never been around fine art or been exposed to it. They don’t know the technicalities of it, like the mixing of colors or the history of mural making. Talking to students who generally have only an interest in aerosol painting and graffiti pieces can be challenging. You have been able to bridge that gap that we have sometimes.

Romo : I mean it’s like teaching someone how to wire a light bulb or install a ceiling fan. One component of art is understanding the primary colors and what to mix, but also understanding the history of the pigment and how to hold a brush. There’s that part of it and I think that’s the access point for a lot of people. They want to learn how to do it and sometimes we’ll go out with students and draw landscapes. It’s actually pretty easy to tell them what do. I make them compare a drawing that they have in front of them, to what they’re actually looking at. If anybody did that for any amount of time, they’re going to get better at it. There’s that part, but then also the education. I think the true education about art is more philosophical and conceptual then it is about what I had to learn before I started the mural. Murals play a role in society and what a muralist does reflects him as a member of society. Those types of things are what we touch on during our sessions with the kids. Though, I still think the technical part is a lot easier and a lot more straightforward, which is a good entry point for a lot of people just getting into art. First, one should get to learn how to mix the colors and then think about color as a concept, as a philosophical concept. Yes, art practice is a complicated thing.

Flores : In terms of my role as an organizer on the project, I never thought of myself as an organizer growing up, or being good at talking to different groups of people. I guess the first organized thing I did, was pulling a muscle playing soccer one year. I wasn’t able to play soccer myself, so I ended up assistant coaching for my sister Sonia’s soccer team. I was in high school, so I must have been fifteen. I found that I had a much better method of dealing with the young girls than the coach actually did. I remembered their names quicker and I knew their strengths and weaknesses on the field. I knew their personalities and how I could use that to run practice and get the practice organized in a better way. I knew whom I could joke with and whom I should never joke with. That was my first experience and my second was becoming an RA (resident advisor) in college. That had a bad reputation and people would think you were a horrible person if you mentioned it at a party. But, I had a really great RA when I was a freshman and every other RA was just a jerk. I remember thinking, “well I’d like to be like this guy and 19

have other people experience what a good RA is,” and so I did that for a few years. In that position I had a lot of responsibility and I had to organize a lot of programs, like events. I found that it was something I was actually pretty good at doing. Again, I never thought this is what I’d be doing in life . I guess the thing is when you become a substitute and stay at the same school over time, over months and years, you get to know a lot more students. When I was teaching at Irving, I had subbed the year before and I knew just about every student on campus. Then I remember teaching for a year and a half and I knew those 120 kids in my class, but I didn’t know any of the sixth graders coming in for a couple years. I remember thinking this is really isolating. I got back into subbing and right away I knew every teacher and every student. At Franklin, I don’t think I know every student, maybe 60-70% by name, which I think is more than anyone else on campus knows. In terms of the different projects that we do, we have to know so many different administrators and so many different office technicians, but other people just never really get a chance to meet. I knew the maintenance staff and the cafeteria staff. It seemed to make sense that I could use those connection and relationships. I mean we would know each other and we’d have an interest in what one another was doing now. I guess that’s how I came into it.

Producing the Mural How did you choose the design of the mural? What was the research process like?

Romo : Well, the research process took awhile. Basically you come up with a general idea. Mr. Flores came to me and said, “let’s do a mural to tell a story about this area.” Then we started thinking about the architecture of the space, because mural making is architecture. To make a mural is like the bridge between painting, imagery, architecture and space. We thought about the structure of the building we were in and we found out that there were four breezeways and a repetition of four as the base. So we decided we’ll take four breezeways, four eras, four seasons, four parts in a day, and four directions to make the mural design. As far as we know, in a lot of Native cultures, there are four colors: yellow, black, red, and white. So it kind of fit and the architecture informed the ideas that would come later in our research. From there it was relatively easy to start planning out what four eras to use, but we knew we wanted to talk about the Tongva.

Flores : That was the place to start.

Romo : Start at the beginning and so we did that. From there, we started the whole research process on Tongva culture. Mr. Flores did a lot of the connecting with Tongva elders, leaders, and cultural ambassadors. We were also working with people that weren’t Tongva but knew something about the land. It highlighted the fact that the Tongva and the land were really connected, and so you really couldn’t separate where they came from. You couldn’t drop the Tongva culture into the Colorado River area. In terms of research we just tried to get everything. We started with the people and then went to the landscape and the plants and we found that they were all pretty much connected.

Flores: We really had to start from nothing with our research, because there’s not a lot. I mean there are a few anthropological books written by Hugo Reid and another source that we used, but I can’t remember right now. There’s not a lot online and there’s not a lot besides those really dry 20

anthropological journals.

Romo : Where you start in terms of well-known ideas about Tongva is the Gabrielino mission era culture, because the spotlight of history is really strong on the missions.

Flores : Talking about barren history at the San Gabriel mission, I don’t want to speak to strongly, but they have not done a good job of representing Tongva culture. You have to go and visit just to see.

Romo : Yeah you might as well. It’s everywhere. The disregard is just everywhere.

Flores : Even among the Tongva there is this gap of knowledge from the barren history. We had the cultural affairs head from the Tongva Tribal Council, Julia Bogany, do presentations with us in class and we would ask her questions. They were very specific questions, like what was this and that used for or what was this particular plant used for. A lot of her answers were ‘yes, probably, maybe, that sounds right.’ There was this idea that some of that information may have been lost or maybe just a part of it had been lost. The research was difficult and we researched for about two years. The students were with us the whole step of the way. It was a combination of experts and fieldtrips. We did a lot of hiking and we learned the terrain and plants. I feel more connected to this area more than I ever did as a child. Just knowing so much about what grows here is very interesting.

Romo : Yes, I think that was an intended consequence. I think that was one of the reasons we wanted to do the mural. I think there is like a reflexive need, or an automatic response to a mural. When you’re planning a mural, it’s going to be about the history of something because a lot of murals are historical and it comes from the Mexican tradition. Murals are cinematic retellings of history. Here we say we’re going to paint a mural and people automatically assume that it’ll be about history. However, we didn’t want to just do that because we wanted to think about why it should be about history. Why should this even be on a wall anywhere? One of the things we wanted to accomplish was so that anyone who saw it would feel a little more connected to this place that they lived, so that we weren’t floating above this place like we tend to do. I think that in contemporary culture, we tend to float above the history that informed us and gave rise to us. I remember one kid asking me dozens of questions while passing me as I painted the mural. The one kid said, “Where’s the Aztec calendar? Where’s the sunstone?” It made me think about transplanted cultures, because there were no Aztecs here. Feeling connected to the place was an intended consequence. It was the answer to the question, “why should we paint a mural about the history of LA?” We want people who see it to feel connected. We want ourselves, going through this process, to feel more connected at the end.

Flores : In terms of the design, it was a combination of Mr. Romo and our students’ ideas. Even the beginning of the design was Mr. Romo’s idea. He came up with this idea of a marketplace because it’s a natural gathering place where you can show large amounts of people. We started looking into marketplaces and we knew the design and the research really connected, because we started saying, “well let’s look at a Tongva marketplace.” As we did the research we found that there is no Tongva marketplaces as we see it. There was this thing called a Ceremonia, which was a combination of commerce, spiritual ceremony, and dances. All of these three activities 21

happened at the same time, with Tongva from different Rancherias and sometimes with other Native American cultures coming to trade and participate. We found that the idea of a mercado and a marketplace really came with the Spanish, so we had to adapt our research and our design to this. The marketplace is going to go through all of the murals. There is an important aspect called the grisaille, which is the space at the bottom of the mural, like the first foot, and it’s all these little portraits of plants, animals, cultural tools, or artifacts that the Tongva had. It serves two purposes: one we could insert these artifacts or plants and animals all as part of the mural, but they are not part of the larger mural. That’s one thing I remember that Mr. Romo was very sure about. He said, “I don’t want this to look like a Natural History Museum diorama, where you see stone age men and every single thing stone age men ever did in ten-thousand years is being done all at that exact moment. It’s like a frozen picture of dead-looking people. If you go to animals of the Mojave Desert in the museum, you see every animal that you would see if you spent ten years in the desert. Every animal that you would see is there at that frozen moment. We didn’t want our mural to be like that. When someone goes out and hikes, they’re lucky if they even see a blue jay. I think that makes the mural and it adds to its realism. That was another design aspect that I would have never thought of. I would have thought, “let’s put as many animals as possible. ( Jokes ) Let’s have a raccoon peeking out of this tree.” So I’m glad that Mr. Romo was there to guide us. The other important design fact that Mr. Romo came up with was the north side of the mural. Not the ceremonial part of the mural, that’s more of the landscape, it’s kind of shattered into these pieces. It’s split into these like geometrical, triangular shapes and I think you ( Talking to Romo) got this idea from the fact that some of the Tongva history is shattered and kind of not connected. We would go of a hike and we would have this 100-mile vista of the L.A. basin. Then we would walk another ten feet and there would be a wall, like a cliff in front of us and we couldn’t see anything. So there the question of how does one paint that? What paint do we use to represent that? Mr. Romo came up with the solution. I know that the students and I weren’t sold on that, so we deliberated about it for a while. Everything was going to be like this panorama on both sides and that’s what we had all signed up for and expected. So when he came with that sketch for the first time, it was a pretty radical change and we weren’t too happy. There were a few of the students pretty upset about it. I remember trying to think about it and I wasn’t sold on it, but a few of the students were like ‘no we can’t do that, it’s going to be less accessible to other students on campus.’ But I think it was the right way to go and eventually we were sold on it.

Romo : I think after they saw it up, they started warming to it, but I think it was a compromise that I been able to design the mural unilaterally. I would have made both sides like. We decided that we have to balance the concern of accessibility, and doing what’s right for the design and concept of the mural was priority. I thought panorama maybe wasn’t exactly the right way to go for both sides or the right way to go for either side, because of a lot of conceptual and philosophical reasons about what a panorama. Just Wikipedia panorama and see who created panoramas and why they were developed. Note what they portray and you will get a sense of what tradition you’re dealing with. As it turned out, I really like the way those two sides play off of each other, because again, you get an expansive view. The space it’s in is like a hallway, a large hallway. So you have a ceiling above you and two walls to the right and left of you and so when you’re in this long hallway (like 35-40 feet long) you feel almost that sense of hiking through. Where in one side you might have all these little close-ups of details on that shattered side, but then when you turn left you see a large panorama, just like you would if you were 22

hiking. So a viewer gets different points of views and I think it’s really successful now.

Flores : From the beginning we said to all the students that this is a democracy. It’s not going to be totalitarian, but Mr. Romo and I had the final say in everything and we had to keep it that way. Mr. Romo actually came up with that idea as well, because he had seen murals go up that were public and anyone could say, “this is what I want.” The murals would go up and they would be random.

Romo : Art by committee. I thought there was a valuable lesson in teaching kids that when you’re just starting off in a discipline, you don’t have full say in it. You have to earn your responsibility.

Flores : It was very much like an apprentice system. We got ourselves going through this process to feel more connected at the end. In terms of the design, it was mostly around our students. The beginning design was a marketplace, because it’s a natural gathering place, where you can show large amounts of people. You know what I mean? It’s like everyone is getting ready for a class picture, which doesn’t happen often. We considered really emphasizing the marketplace and so we designed the marketplace as we see it. It was a combination of contrasts, of spiritual ceremonies, and of dances all happening at the same time. This idea of the marketplace going through all these murals and as the most important aspect was the idea of desire. The space on the bottom of the mural, about a foot, included all these plants, animals, cultural tools, or artifacts. It has a few purposes: number one, you can insert these artifacts or plants or animals as a part of the mural but they’re not part of the, I guess, larger mural. I don’t want it to look like a natural history museum. We don’t want it to be like that. You go on a hike and you are lucky if you see a blue jay. I think that that makes the mural resonant in terms of its realism. The other important design factor was the north wall of the mural. It’s not the center, but it’s the landscape. It’s kind of shattered by all these pieces and it’s geometrical. That’s something that I think the viewer should see; this idea that history is shattered and kind of not connected.

What do you wish to express through this mural?

Flores : I think the whole mural is about history, since it is a narrative mural. We said at the very beginning, that we needed to think of this as writing a history book. We had to question: What is it that we’re missing? We have an opportunity with images to tell story that would take a lot of pages in a book. It would really be volumes of books of history. Making the mural was about how to approaching it with the responsibility to history. We wanted to share history and that was a choice that we made. We wanted to represent people that were underrepresented for a really long time, but are just starting to get represented. The tribe still doesn’t have national status. As we go on through the steps it’s always a question, it’s always the purposes of murals to portray history. So there is a sense of responsibility about what we do. There is always a choice, because there is a limited amount of space. We can’t include every event, but we have to include events that are emblematic of the true history. We have to, as the leaders of the group, balance what we know about the era with what’s appropriate for a school. How to approach the violence would be a question that we ask each other all the time. How to approach historical violence? What message am I going to portray and what does that message mean about our past and our future? It’s looking at the atrocities and the violence that happen that help us understand what lead us to where we are today. We never want to shortchange that. We don’t want others to think that these 23 people didn’t exist. All the violence in history needs to be included, but we don’t want to make the whole mural about that violence. If we were going to do that we have to ask ourselves the question: What purpose would it serve? How would it help?

Romo : I think the main thing we were trying to get out of making the mural was this idea of connection. It’s important for our community to know what came before. We’re here, but there are larger things to think about, like history. Original Native Americans used to walk where I walk. Hills that I’m looking at were places where those people would gather and plant. I think there’s a beauty in that and a connection gained from it. People start to value where they are. That’s the ultimate goal for the entire project. Even though we’re going to deal with the mission a little bit, which is appropriate since we were connected to that mission. We have discovered that the Tongva built the history before the Spanish in this area. There is no credit given to the people who actually built this area, in our case, the Tongva. This mural is a way to give more of a voice and more of a representation of that.

Flores : As we were finishing the mural, we realized that another part of the project was to create a lesson plan, which would be high school and college appropriate. That would use the mural as a starting point to kind of touch on these issues. There are a lot of ways to go about it. In the end, it’s just one starting point to inform people. In terms of a high school campus, a major goal of ours is to make sure the student body felt ownership of the mural, and think of it as something that was just being placed on them. We’re a part of this. I think that overall, having so many students involved got many students to talk about the project. We became a large part of the community. I think that connection with the youth helped our mural stay clean. We were totally vulnerable for two years, but our mural never got tagged and that’s pretty amazing. It just goes to show that murals themselves are not graffiti. It’s the process of murals that the community takes notice of and a lot of people take notice of a huge project like that. They see people working on it and they get to know us. I think it has helped a lot. I could see in my head that our mural would get tagged up, but it never happened.

How does the mural relate to the life of the school? How were the students involved in the project?

Flores : It could definitely be used in the sciences, because of all the native plants. We’re thinking of making it super accessible. Even if its not part of the school, they can use it.

The students were doing a lot to be involved in the creative process?

Flores : Yeah, we had a few kids that started off at a basic apprentice level. As they spent some years with us, they ended up taking on leadership roles. Which I think we were both really happy to see. There was only one person who mistook this project as a social hour. We had to tell her that this is a process and a discipline to take seriously. She ended up not coming back. Other than her, for the most part, everyone was really good about it. Very few students signed on with us. For about a good year and a half, they came to all the trips and sessions, but unfortunately they didn’t get a lot of painting in. We’re still connected with all the students and we still get calls from them. We kind of realized, “Wow, these kids are graduating from college.” When we started, they were 18, but nonetheless they were pretty skilled in terms of their artistic ability. 24

What do you think the impact would be on the Native American community?

Flores : Any image that gets out there has some type of impact. You can’t really control what impact it has. The impact you’re actually making should never be underestimated. Then there’s that more unpredictable impact of how it’s going to resonate depending on how many years it’s up. We designed it to last a long time. Representation is a tricky thing. It’s hard to know what type of impact it’s going to have. Somebody said that the mural might be the only mural of its kind that is explicitly dedicated to showing Tongva culture. It represents a larger continuum of history. We went back and forth about how much impact it has. Does it have a value in comparison with a movie about the Tongvas, or a Facebook page? One thing we really try to be consciences of, is that neither of us are Tongva. I know that the whole time we were trying not to be insulting or overstep our boundaries. We don’t want to do anything that we shouldn’t do. I mean we’re not from that culture. We understand that we are a different culture. People who were not Chicano told me about my own culture, and I felt insulted. I didn’t want to be like that. The chief seemed to be happy and we did talk to him about what would not be appropriate. We met with him in San Juan. He didn’t want any of the sacred items; do you remember the sacred items that were in a large ceremony that would be buried under these poles? ( Talking to Romo) Those would be the most sacred items. We don’t know what they are, but they know. Those could not be portrayed and the actual act of the ceremony could not be portrayed. We never thought of doing that anyway. We’re always conscious about who we are and what we’re portraying. From what we know, it seems that what we did is accepted. I’ve had my doubts though. I thought, “Is someone going to come later and ask me, what’s that sacred item doing there? That’s not how it should’ve been. We never did this.” It hasn’t happened yet, so it seems that it has been perceived really well. Two years of research really helped, especially because we didn’t want to just put anything on a wall.

What do you think is the wider importance of murals in general?

Flores : It’s something I think about often because I do paint them. I think any form is necessarily the right form. Whenever you venture and engage with a certain tradition, you should recognize the tradition and focus on representing it well. You should try to make it part of the times that you’re living in. Otherwise, you’re just painting something that doesn’t resonate with today. I kind of look at traditions and see them in the context that they are in. I see if that informs the decisions I make. I would never take up a project if it didn’t have some kind of resonance. The tradition that we’re working with is an antiquated form, which I think primarily is a Mexican realist tradition. They were doing it for totally different reasons and they stopped being the lifeblood of popular Mexican culture. Mural making really took off in Mexico and you could see the later murals trying to become cinematic. When these projects first started, they were government projects created to educate people about their history. I think there are a lot of Chicanos that fit into the time of educating Chicanos about who they were. This is who you are, you are not colonized and you are not a defeated people. This was about making people understand whom they were. When we started this we had to think about what was appropriate. As we were doing our research, we understood that books were a dominant form of learning. History books and encyclopedias were very informative versions. With the internet, you have so many different versions of the same history that are really accessible. We live in a throw away 25

culture, but murals are supposed to last forever. It should last as long as the building. All of that has to be taken into consideration. I don’t know if it’s an antiquated flaw if you keep reinventing it and if you keep adding to the tradition.

Romo : I think it is important to expose the murals in our area and make them more accessible. Museums don’t have access to it. I think it’s important to interpret murals as a different type of art form. However, murals get tagged up pretty badly. I guess, that’s considered another art form but it shows that it doesn’t resonate so much with certain people. There have been quite a few murals that inspired us that are now gone.

Flores : The murals have a place, but it’s not the same place as books. I think murals have a different kind of impact in communities and an impact other than just history. It’s a really complex art form. One of the big reasons to paint a mural is that they exist for everybody. There are two contexts in the context of the art world: where you create something and then in the market world, if it’s successful, you have to create carbon copies of the art. That’s one context where mural making is a challenge. The mural cannot be sold as a beautiful piece that you’ll see it in a museum or in a family’s private home. There is a historian that says, “Poetry doesn’t give you the news of the day but good men die everyday for lack of what they can find in a poem.” I think there is something energizing and life-giving about art in your life. We were fortunate enough to grow up with murals. We created the mural in a community so kids who don’t have access to museums or to fine art, can still see art every day. Hopefully that will have some type of impact. That’s part of the legacy. 26

Ted Garcia

Spiritual Advisor, Storyteller and Stone Carver

Tataviam/Chumash

By Oliver Field and August Fischer

Ted Garcia is a respected Tataviam Native American elder of the Chumash tribe of Southern California. Now retired, Garcia dedicates his time to doing volunteer work for educational purposes and participating in powwows as a spiritual advisor. He also participates in other cultural events, as well as practicing the traditional arts of stone carving and story-telling. Additionally, he works occasionally as a Native American monitor. Garcia, nonetheless, devotes the majority of his time to being the chief of his family.

Where are you from?

27

I’m from Southern California. I grew up in San Fernando Valley and I was born in Glendale.

What is your tribal affiliation?

I am Tataviam, which is part of the Chumash nation. The Chumash is kind of a generic term for the Native people that were from the areas of Malibu to San Luis Obispo and points East also. It’s kind of like the Sioux. The Hunkpapa and Oglala and other tribes are part of the Sioux. The Sioux and Chumash are generic terms for the people.

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry, or Indian identity?

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley especially in a predominantly Latino neighborhood and having a Latin surname helped me a lot. My grandmother always reminded us that we were Indian people and that we were Native people. We were given our Spanish surname when the Spaniards came to California in the 1600s. They gave us a culture and they civilized us with religion. They baptized us, kept track of our births, deaths, marriages, and whatnot. So that’s why I have a Spanish surname and why most Californian Natives have Spanish surnames.

Do you remember what age you realized this?

Pretty much through my whole life my grandmother was the one that made us very aware of our heritage. I don’t speak Spanish and, you know, being tenth-generation, but my grandparents and their parents both spoke Spanish, but it was a matter of necessity. My father, when he went to high school, the school was segregated and he went to the Latino school where most of the students there were migrant workers so he had to learn Spanish to communicate with them. So, like I said, a lot of California Natives are mistaken for Latino. At one time there was no border and this was all California. When things were tough up here, like famine, my ancestors went down to Baja and when things were tough in Baja they came back to California. There was no border at the time.

What has been your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life?

I didn’t really get involved with my culture until I was in my forties and after I raised my children. I decided to investigate my Indian culture, but that was just sixteen years ago. Now I’ve been chosen to be a spiritual advisor for a couple of powwows locally. I’m also learning to carve stone, which is an ancient art form from our culture. I also am a storyteller and a song-carrier. On my father’s eightieth birthday, my grandparents brought all their grandchildren together and announced me as their chief. So I’m now the chief of my family.

You touched on this briefly, but how have you raised your children to be involved in the Native American culture ?

Basically being an urban Native, you kind of just raise your children in the way of the world – in the predominant culture. So like I said, until sixteen years ago, I didn’t really investigate my 28

culture and I always let my children know that they were Native people not only on my side but from their mothers side also. Their mother is also part Cherokee. When I started to investigate my culture, I passed a lot of things on to them or sometimes they were right along side of me learning too.

To continue, what are the values that you carry in your life as a Native American because as you noted earlier, you have various responsibilities as a leader of the community?

The value that I have is that when you take something from Mother Nature you always give something in return. You never take more than you need. My personal belief is that no matter what your political beliefs are, what your religion is, or what color your skin is, that first and foremost important thing is we are all human beings. Those are my values and a man is only as big as his word. If you’re not true to yourself, true to your word, you’re not worth much as far as I’m concerned. Those are my greatest beliefs. I have many others but those are probably the ones that precede me and describe who I am.

And do some of your other beliefs manifest themselves in your daily life?

Yes, I probably should mention that family is very important. My family comes first and then also responsibility, because in this life, when you’re asked to do something you take responsibility for that and do it to the best of your ability. You know, when some people are asked to do something, they don’t really put their best effort forward. I don’t believe in that. Whatever you undertake, you put your best effort forward. You don’t let people down. Just like when I was asked to be a spiritual advisor, instead of stepping away from that responsibility I accepted it because I felt (like my father taught me) if you don’t do it, they’ll get someone else to do it that won’t put their best effort into it. So don’t leave it up to someone else. Step up. Take your place. Take on the responsibility. That’s what I’ve learned: you have to step up and take your place.

You’ve noted the way you approach your job and work in the community which leads me on to ask if you could describe your work and leadership role in the community.

My job now is taking care of my life. I am retired and have been retired for about three and a half years. Right now I took on a job doing Native American monitoring. Today when there is construction going on, any kind of grading, public highways in public parks, national parks, if there is any disturbance of the ground, if there’s any digging to be done, they have to have a Native American monitor there in case they discover any remains of burials or any kind of cultural resources. That’s the job I do now; and it’s not always happy but I do it from time to time. I also volunteer often. I just volunteered to have you two young men come here and speak to me so you can get your paper done. I’m a firm believer in the people (especially the young people) being able to be educated. They need to be informed about things. If they ask questions, they should receive an honest and open answer. I’ve volunteered at cultural centers. Actually two different centers: one in Thousand Oaks and the other in Newbury Park. I’ve also been on different boards. Currently I’m the chairman of one board and a member of another. There was a Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks at one time for about five years. It was family- run and I mopped floors, cleaned toilets, washed windows, and helped clean up the exterior area 29 by picking up trash, trimming trees, and raking leaves. I also lead nature hikes and all kinds of things like that. I’ve also applied for grants to the city of Los Angeles and have taught stone- carving to art classes in which the materials were free, the tools were free, my time was free – I didn’t charge anything, I just volunteered. As far as my artwork, it’s something that I felt needed to be continued, not to be lost since it is an ancient art that has been around for many, many years. At first I did a lot of cultural exhibits but I never sold any of my art. About thirteen years ago, a lady from the Southwest Museum asked me to be in an art show, but I said I didn’t really sell any of my work and she was very embarrassed to not have any local representatives in one of the largest Native American art shows in Southern California. She asked me if I would be the representative of the local people and I thought that was important, so I started doing that. Now I do sell my art. I do have people who are collecting my art, so it’s been kind of rewarding. As far as performance, I do a lot of school programs that are usually cultural programs or storytelling. When I do a storytelling event, I tell a story and then I sing a song that pertains to the story. Some of that is volunteer work. Some people ask what would I charge and I’d say if you have funding that’s a good thing, if you don’t have any money then maybe you could just pay for gas. You know, you don’t choose to be a leader, you don’t say, “I’m a leader, and I’m the boss”; it comes from the people who ask you to be their leader. People have called me a Shaman, a holy man; different things, different titles but I never give my self a title to anything. I’m just a man and it’s what people see. They believe that’s who I am. I’m just a man and like I said, I try and put best effort forward to whatever people need. If that’s what it takes to be a Shaman or a leader, then I guess that’s who I am. But it’s not for me to say who I am.

How do you think you came to attain these skills or experiences that allowed people to respect you?

You get what you give. Whatever you put out there comes back to you. It is human nature. If you attack somebody verbally, they’re going to come back and attack you in that way, if not physically because that’s human nature. If you treat people with respect and dignity, then that comes back to you. You treat people with kindness, then that comes back to you. You treat people generously, then that comes back to you. All the things that you put forth come back to you. What I’ve learned is, again from my father, what you put out there comes back to you either negative or positive. So, like I said, you must put your best effort forward to be a better person and to someone that is given respect and reverence. That’s really the only way I can explain it – getting what you give. Since I was a child, a lot of people in my family have always looked up to me for what reason I don’t know but I think maybe because my father was very, very respected in my family. He was the last elder of all my grandparents’ children and he was the last one to pass. When my mother and father married, he still had sisters home that were still going to high school and whatnot. So he still tried to take care of them also, helping my grandfather and grandmother out with getting clothes for school and money for events. He always did everything he could to help the family.

How do you think your work contributes to the Native American community and/or cultural renewal?

There are many people who are now in the art world who like to create artwork from their culture, like ledger paintings. You also see people doing beading and silverwork. The Hopi like 30

to carve different fetishes from all kinds of different stones. That is from their culture. Now that we see artwork in books, we see artifacts from thousands of years ago. We see how we’ve progressed and how our things are more refined and more beautiful. The materials we use are easily accessible. We don’t have to trade many miles away to get a certain material. Now everything is at our fingertips. You can go online and get materials and whatnot. But a lot of the ability to do these things comes from your ancestors; the blood of your ancestors flows in your veins. That’s what I feel. Whatever I am, whoever I am is from my ancestors who passed that on to me. It may sound kind of mystical but that’s what I believe. It comes from who we are, from the very birth of your bloodline – that’s who you are today, a little bit of each one of those people.

When did you start attending powwows?

I’ve been going to powwows for many, many years. In fact, even before I got into my culture I used to powwow here in Newhall. Basically I got involved doing that with my father. It’s a cultural event, a gathering, but it’s more of a social event than anything else. I was at a powwow once and all of a sudden I was asked out of the blue to be the spiritual advisor for two other powwows. You know, there are hundreds of people at these things and there are a lot of Native people there and out of all these people, I was asked to do this. Why? I don’t know. I don’t understand it. The people just saw something in me. I’m not the spiritual advisor at every powwow, but I do like to go to different powwows. Basically I like to be at powwows in my own area in San Fernando Valley. I don’t really like to go down to Long Beach, Whittier, or San Diego, or to the casinos where they have powwows. I kind of like to stick around in my own backyard. I also do prefer some to others. So basically you’ll see pretty much the same people within a hundred mile radius.

And do you feel that powwows are important for the Native American community as a place for Natives to get together or as a place for the people to recognize their Native heritage?

Yeah, I do think they are important. I’m all for the gathering; they’re very social events. It’s just like any other culture. I know there’s a Greek Orthodox Church up the street here and they have a festival every year. There’s a park here in Northridge where they have the wine festival each year. Not only do Native American events or Greek events or any other events of the sort draw people from their [respective] cultures, but also lots of people from outside their culture. It gives people a perspective of the people’s culture. So, it’s a good thing. I think it’s important to have these cultural events because not just Native people are participating. I have a lot of friends that I’ve made from these cultural events that are non-Native. Often times some of them say, “I think my grandmother was Native but she wouldn’t tell us.” A lot of people are attracted to the Native culture just like any other culture. I used to know this old Jewish fellow and he swore that the Chumash people were one of the “Lost Tribes.” He said, “I feel connected to you. I feel like I’m part of your people. You guys are just a Lost Tribe.” I’m not going to argue with him. If that’s what you feel in your heart, you don’t want to be disappointed by somebody saying, “You’re full of crap.” You let them be a part of your circle. Like I said, we’re all human beings. We should treat everybody with respect. That’s the way I feel about things.

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In your opinion, what do you think are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples in Los Angeles?

Everybody thinks that because I’m Native, I must make big dollars because Natives own several casinos. In fact, Southern California has one of the largest Native American populations in the country. Yet the government puts a lot of barriers in front of us like: we are the only group of people that have to prove our lineage to the federal government. Native American people that are recognized by the federal government receive access to education and health care. Don’t get me wrong; I could care less one way or another about having a casino and getting ten or twenty grand a month. Like most Native Americans, I can prove who I am through my family tree and through the mission records. Because I am a Californian Indian, the Spanish kept volumes of records on my people. They knew what part of California we came from and who married who and other similar information. I have cousins that have Native blood and they applied for grants for school, but they were turned down because the federal government didn’t recognize them as a tribe. To me, that’s pretty sad. I think it’s important that the government include all Native tribes because it’s Native people who need these things [these benefits of being recognized]. If I went to apply for a small business loan, it would be really tough to get, but you see people from other countries here that now own liquor stores, restaurants, automotive shops, or whatever. You probably think the same thing: why are these people who aren’t even from this country, allowed to have all the business and everything?

How do you feel about the way mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

When there’s a bad story (like with other cultures) the media loves to really play it up and make it a big thing. The media, not just for the Native community, kind of jades everything and tries to look for the worst, sensationalized things. So I don’t think the media, one way or another, has much credence with any culture. To me, the media, if you’ll pardon the expression, just stirs a big pot of s**t all the time. A lot of that causes racism and the distrust of Native people. But it’s not just the Native American culture; it’s all cultures I think. We’re all distrusting enough without having the media portray everybody as bad guys, terrorists, murderers, rapists, or whatever because you and I know there’s bad seeds in every culture. That’s my feeling on the media.

Regarding the casinos and gaming industry, how do you think those forces affect the Native American community?

I think it allows people who haven’t had anything, all of a sudden obtain a lot of disposable income that they can do whatever with. When the children (the next generation) turn eighteen, they will receive credit to tribal shares. Then you now have an eighteen year old, who I still call a child, receiving a lot of money. Not even a month and a half ago, this young man was talking, “I turn eighteen next month and I get ten-thousand dollars a month from my tribe.” How many kids do you think would spend ten thousand dollars a month responsibly? There are so many things, I think, that will make them lazy and not move forward to success. That’s short-lived because people like that get in trouble and end up in prison. I just don’t think that a person that young is responsible enough to earn that type of income. They should be forced to go to school and get out there and work at a job where they’re earning their own money. That money should 32 be set-aside for when they turn thirty or when they get married start a family. But before then, it’s just like giving a child a loaded gun – nothing good is going to happen from it. That’s what I feel. That’s how I feel about the casinos and their affect on the young people. The older people have already established bad habits.

In closing, I know that heritage, culture, assimilation, and similar words all have significance to the Native American community, so I was just wondering how those words interact. How do you think youth nowadays grapple with having their heritage rooted in Native American history, yet have this predominantly urban youth culture put a lot of peer pressure on them?

Being an assimilated Native myself, I really relate. The last time any of my ancestors were on a so-called reservation, they were on the Tejon ranch. When California became a state [of the United States] the government said, “You’re free to go and assimilate.” But, I’d like to put that question to you: how do you feel about assimilating because obviously you’re not Native people and because you’re here in the United States, your people came from across the ocean. That’s what I’m assuming and excuse me for assuming that but what I’m saying is how do you feel about assimilating in today’s society? Who does it belong to? Who are you assimilating to? To me, we’re all assimilating together. We’re all trying to be just like the other fellow and we try to get along and make a living. Just trying to assimilate into this world is a tough thing, never mind the cultural aspect of it. We’re just trying to make our way in this world. We’re just trying to be comfortable and not be harmed by other people. Yet people want to take what you have from you. We just want to be able to live comfortably, take care of ourselves, and have a good life.

That brings us to a close. If there’s anything you’d like to mention about the questions or your answers, feel free to express them.

You get what you give. Remember that. That’s part of what I’m giving you – the experience of that, how we all should be treated well, decently, and with respect. 33

William McCawley

Historian and Author

Euro-American

By Jessie Hernandez and Daniel Martinez

Bill McCawley is an author of important books on the Tongva-Gabrielino, including The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles . Ballena Press, 1996, and (with Claudia Jurmain) O, My Ancestor: Recognition and Renewal for the Gabrielino/Tongva of the Los Angeles Area . Heyday Books, 2009.

Life Story

Where are you from?

I’m from Los Angeles. I was born in Long Beach, and I’ve lived my entire life in the Southern California area, in Los Angeles and Orange County

What is your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life, what attracted you to learning about Native Americans?

Part of what attracted me is the fact that I’ve lived here all my life. I grew up in this area and I’ve always had a curiosity about what Los Angeles was like at one time. That plus my interest in writing got me doing research on the Gabrielino. Originally just to satisfy my own curiosity and then at one point a professor of mine at Cal State Long Beach suggested that I consider writing a book about the Gabrielino. The last book was written in the early 1960’s, and he thought that it was time for an updated version. So I got involved in working on my first book which was The First Angelinos and then through that research I really broadened my interest in the subject and really became fascinated with the history of the Indian tribes and cultures in southern California, and how really complex and advanced they were, especially for people who at that time were practicing a hunter gatherer lifestyle and that fascination has pretty much carried with me since then.

And you studied at Cal State LA, you say?

California State - Long Beach. Franklin Fenenga was a professor at Cal State Long Beach who I studied under in archeology and it was after I graduated and was visiting with him, that he made the initial suggestion that I work on a book by the Gabrielino-Tongva.

Values and Vocations

Describe your activism, leadership, in work or in your home community.

Most of my work has really come through my writing. My interest in the Gabrielino-Tongva and 34

in writing about them led to the publication of The First Angelinos and at that time it was published in 1996, the Gabrielino-Tongva were really coming into their own in terms of the rebirth of their culture. They’ve certainly been here as a community all along. And they’ve had leaders and they have had their own community. But during the 1980’s and 1990’s a lot of that was beginning to pull less around the people who are with the tribe today. And what we’ve seen since that time is really an exciting trend in a lot of different areas in terms of rediscovering the language, rediscovering their culture. My work with the tribe has flowed primarily from my own research, and being able to publish work that not only reaches the general public but also within the tribe gives them additional research and background that they can use to further their own studies and their own programs.

How did you enter into this volunteerism/ leadership work and then what is the importance of your work in the Native community?

I guess I would add that part of the impact that my work and what brings me a lot of enjoyment is that over a long period of time I’ve been able to collect information that isn’t readily available. Information that’s been scattered across the United States and being able to put all of that into a couple of books so that it’s been available to them has been a rewarding experience for me, and again it’s given them some more material to work with and to build upon and I think that in the years to come we’re going to continue to see those efforts continue to blossom.

My teacher always says that oral history is [a] growing field because there’s so much history that hasn’t been written down, and we have to get it while we still can from these people who know it.

Yes. A lot of, a lot of what we don’t know about the history of the Gabrielino-Tongva is contained in those oral histories and memories of their people and the work that they’re doing in collecting that information is going to be the next step in terms of building on that history, I think The First Angelinos and O’ My Ancestor has given them some context for being able to do that in the broader pattern in this area.

Are there any programs that you think Occidental should take up? For instance, my class has concentrated a lot on the history of the Tongva; We spent the first couple of months reading O’ My Ancestor and going to pow-wows, so, I guess, would you think there should be any more activity like that. What do you think Occidental should do to be more involved in this?

Well I think that Occidental and the other liberal colleges can really play a role in helping build that fund of community research. You know the oral history programs for example are important. Oral history is something that, in my experience, is never just a one time event. If you sit down and take an oral history form someone, you collect a certain amount of information but then at a later point in time if you go back to that person or to their family members or to others, you find that you started something, you started them thinking and there will be more information available. Or they’ll talk with someone, and that person will have something to share. And I think in helping keep those oral history programs going, the local community colleges can really play a big role. And I think that important, they can also serve as depositories for that 35

information so its available to people. So it doesn’t just get lost in somebody’s file cabinet someday and then 20 or 30 years from now when those people are no longer here to interview, that information is lost. If its in a central location it’s a benefit to everyone.

We had a Chumash speaker come in and he was saying how its really hard for Native Americans to find their own history, they try and go to mission records and find these records of their ancestors but they wont release them to the Native Americans, they only release them to historians, so I think it will be good to have that information in a college where its more readily open to everyone

Powwows and Festivals

Do you attend powwows or festivals and how and when did you begin attending them, and what brings you back to them?

I have gone to powwows at various times, or when I was working on The First Angelinos. The powwows are important not only as a social activity, but they are an opportunity for people to reconnect, and come up to speed on what they’ve been doing since the last powwow. And I think that is an important part of powwows. The other part is that they create a public awareness of the fact that there is this cultural heritage that is out there. It’s a heritage that is most special to the Native Americans, but in another way its part of all of our common heritage. We all live in Los Angeles, we all share a part of what this community is, and that part of history is part of that fabric. I think that the powwows have raised the public awareness of that.

Summing Up

What are some ways to promote the well being or status of Native American peoples at Occidental or the world at large?

I think that education is probably the single most important part of that. Reaching out to the general public and educating them about the existence of these cultures and cultural traditions that go back many, many hundreds of thousands of years, that’s an important part. Educating the public to the existence of a history that's rooted in the land, and also in the Gabrielino-Tongva people themselves. If there is one thing that’s absolutely crucial in going forward to helping build on what's out there now for the Gabrielino-Tongva community its educating the general public and explaining to them why this is important to them, why this is very special. And it is very special. I think that in terms of the Native American people themselves, the colleges and institutions providing them a resource for the work that they're doing within their community, as we said before with the oral history projects and other projects are also very important. I know that within the local Gabrielino-Tongva community they're very interested in reaching out to the general public. They want the public to understand the importance of land. They want them to understand the importance of the very special areas that still exist in California and Southern California that are part of their unique heritage. They also want the public in their powwows and their attendance at various fiestas and events to understand more of the culture. These are people who live normal, everyday 9-5 job lives and have families and are in all of the professions, and yet they have this very unique identity that’s really special to them, that’s rooted in the Los 36

Angeles area.

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

I think that probably one of the most important issues is simply raising the visibility of the Gabrielino-Tongva people to the American public. That’s something that was foremost in my mind when writing The First Angelinos , was reaching out to the public and helping them see what this history is. The issue of the land is also important to the Gabrielino-Tongva community. And of these sites that are still in existence, that haven’t been developed or destroyed and why these sites are very special to them. Though these sites, whether they be archeological sites, or other cultural sites, give them a very visible route into this territory, and each time one of those sites is lost we lose some more potential knowledge, about the history of the Gabrielino-Tongva people and they lose an important connection. And it’s really similar to any person who has maybe gone back to their hometown and seen that the landmarks that are so important to them in their life are gone, and replaced by a shopping mall, we lose a sense of connection. And for the Gabrielino-Tongva that’s an everyday event. And I think that they would like the public to understand how important those sites are and why they’re important to them.

How do you feel about the way mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

I think it’s, it kind of runs a spectrum. I have seen, some pieces done in newspapers and on television that with certain writers, who really are sincerely interested in understanding what life was like for the Native Americans they’re very interested in understanding the history and how it pertains to them in their culture. And unfortunately I’ve also seen some other stories that are more sensationalized that, that have really kind of glossed over the importance of the issues for some sound bites. And I think that it has kind of, run the gambit so to speak. Part of what we tried to do in O’ My Ancestor was portray an image of the Gabrielino-Tongva community as it is today, as faithfully as we could, form their own viewpoint. And you know what we found, is that they have many, many viewpoints and many, many opinions. They share some beliefs, some fundamental dedication to certain issues, but as with everyone else, they also have their own individual opinions, and I think that is something that the mainstream press tends to gloss over, it tends to treat them as though, somehow they are just one group of people rather than individuals who belong to this group. But I have seen some writers who have done some very good jobs on their pieces and who really attempted to get down to the core of it. So, I’d like to see more of that and I think that again that would help the general public understand what the Gabrielino-Tongva community really is, and who the members are and what’s important to them.

What is your opinion on the gaming industry in the Indian community? I know that’s not the Tongva tribes that have Indian gaming, but do you think it’s a positive thing for a tribe or negative?

I think it can be a positive thing, it certainly is a way, an avenue for tribes to obtain funds for important programs like health care, education, tribal preservation. Funds that quite frankly were not available to them before. I think that it can be a positive force, however, a complication, and I think this gets back to our last question about the, how the mainstream media depicts Native Americans and some of the stereotypes that crop up, is that in recent years, if you see a story 37

about any of the tribes, there’s a very good chance that it will be about Indian gaming, not whether they should have Indian gaming or not have gaming, as if that is the only issue. And the fact of the matter is again if you talk with any of the people you find, you will find a variety of opinions. Some of them are very pro-gaming, because again they see the things that can be accomplished with that funding. Others are not so pro because they see that Indian gaming has become such an overriding concern of the media. Gaming has swamped the other issues that are important to them like culture preservation, education, health care, and having land someplace that can serve as a center for their community. So like so many other things in life, I see Indian gaming as something that can be positive, but it depends upon, really how its used, how its developed…

Do you think that the plight of the Gabrielino-Tongva is one of ultimately hope, or do you think that they’re never going to completely reclaim their history, do you think that too much is lost or do you think that they’ll ever have their own definitive land? What do you think is sort of the future for them?

That’s a very good question. I guess I wouldn’t characterize the Gabrielino-Tongva and their place in our society as a plight. Certainly they’ve had difficulties and they’ve faced many types of challenges that my family has never faced. But I don’t think that they would see themselves as a plight, I think they would see themselves as a story, that really has no ending, there are just places along the way that are stopping points. I personally believe that they will eventually obtain land. I think that they have persevered, and are dedicated and will remain so, and I think that that will carry them through. However, regardless of that, I think that they are engaged in an ongoing, unfolding process that not only preserving and recovering as much of their previous culture as they can, but also continually creating that culture today, so I don’t think there’s any end to that story, I think that it will go on as long as the Gabrielino-Tongva want it to, and by all indications they want it to go on forever. It’s a very special part of their heritage that they share, its something that they want to preserve, and its something that they have preserved in spite of 200 years of very difficult circumstances both culturally and economically, and I don’t see that that will ever change. Certainly as with all cultures, some things are lost and they can’t be recovered. We find that throughout the world, its not unique to Gabrielino-Tongva. But the Gabrielino-Tongva are creating their culture today, as well, and I think that that will carry on towards the future and in that sense I am very optimistic for the Gabrielino-Tongva. I think that 20 years from now, they will be looking back on what they accomplished today, and what they accomplished 20 years before as well as their history extending back into the past for hundreds of thousands of years, and they will be here, and they will be sharing that will the rest of us.

You’re a co-writer of O, My Ancestor, What’s your next project or, what’s in your future?

That’s a good question, I don’t know what lies in my future as it pertains to the Gabrielino- Tonga. I am a writer and I like to write on a variety of subjects and I like to work both in history as well as in fiction and other areas, so I will continue to write. I don’t currently have any projects that are related to the Gabrielino-Tongva, but I do hope I will be doing more work with them in the future. For my part writing about the Gabrielino-Tongva and the first Angelinos while writing with Claudia Jurmain in O, My Ancestor has really enriched my life and I’m really grateful for that. 38

Would you like to add anything?

I think we’re good. I would like to encourage you to continue with this kind of work. just a personal story, when Claudia and I were working on The First Angelinos , we were interviewing members of the community, and unfortunately some of the people that we would have liked to interview were no longer with us, and doing my research, I realized that I had an oral history done in 1980 by another school that recorded the oral history of one of the Gabrielino elders, and having that document not only gave us information that we would not have had otherwise, because this individual was no longer with us, but I was also able to share that with their family members, it was an interview done in 1980 with Sparky Morales, and it really brought home to me the importance of doing oral histories because there was a piece of history that, if it wasn’t for the students at that school, would not be with us today, so I would encourage your college, I would encourage you to continue with this work because it really is valuable, and it will be valuable 20 years from now, 40 years from now, 60 years from now, it will carry on. 39

Michael McLaughlin

American Indian Resource Center

Winnebago

By Bryan Gao and Matthew Nostro

Michael McLaughlin is Librarian for the American Indian Resource Center, which is located at the Huntington Park Library in Huntington Park, California. He grew up in Sioux City, Iowa and on the Winnebago Reservation in Eastern Nebraska. He is a member of the Winnebago Tribe. When he was nine years old, his family relocated to the Los Angeles as a part of the U.S. government's Indian Relocation Program. He has been AIRC Librarian since 1999.

Where are you from?

My family came to Los Angeles in 1960. My reservation is in Nebraska right on the border of Iowa so everyone traveled back and forth across state lines a lot. Since 1960 my home has essentially been Los Angeles with time spent back on the reservation, in San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C. I consider myself an urban Indian.

Can you talk a little more about your tribal affiliations?

I’m a member of the Winnebago Tribe, and if you’re from a small rural tribe like mine, tribal membership or enrollment automatically happens because of the small population. That time period was not good for American Indians because in the early 1950's the U.S. government had instituted a program called Termination that sought to end the legal relationships with tribes. In Nebraska, Termination eliminated federal funding for basic essentials on the reservation - maintenance of public utilities such as street repair, water supplies, electricity, etc. Termination was implemented without consulting the tribal governments, the state and local governments. Termination was implemented essentially without planning, so that meant there was no funding for teachers, policemen, firefighters and other basic services. As a result, there were a lot of outsider white people came to the reservation because there was no law enforcement to stop them. These outsiders would come in and basically do whatever they wouldn't do in their regular communities - drugs, alcohol, partying all night, etc. as much as they wanted. During that time, most of the Indian people lived in town, which has a population of about 1,500. The rest of the reservation was leased out to white people, because of the U.S. government's Allotment program of 1887 that allowed white outsiders to lease reservation. So the white people mostly lived on farms. When Termination ended the funding for basic services, those farms to Indians seemed like armed camps, because the outsider white people didn't care if you were Indian or white, those outsiders came to party and if you got in the way, it was your problem. So you had tribal members in town, and basically they and the reservation whites didn't really communicate with each other. The Indians tried to keep to themselves in town, as did the reservation whites out on 40

their farms. The atmosphere on the reservation had become, as one would imagine, sort of like separate refugee camps, and you didn’t wander outside your home area because you couldn't be certain if it was safe. You restricted the regular things that you did to make sure you didn’t go out at night. You would not want to be caught out on the roads and highway at night, so you wouldn’t drive around too much unless you had to and if you were prepared. That was the atmosphere of the reservation from roughly 1953 to the 1960s, which is the time when I was there.

Another aspect of reservation life then was the legacy of U.S. government education policies and continuing U.S. control over all aspects of life. Starting in the late 1800's the U.S government had outlawed Indians from practicing of traditional languages and traditional cultural practices and also sent Indian children to government boarding schools for the purposes of separating them from their traditional cultures and to reform them to fit into American society. Children were punished for attempting to speak their traditional languages or practice any traditions. By the 1950's, the grandparents and the elders, who in the old days had traditionally taught the younger people the traditional ways, no longer had the knowledge because of their experience in the boarding schools. By the 1950's what remained of those traditions had been greatly modified and decreased due to the loss of continuing authentic cultural practices for several generations. During this Termination period when I was there, what attempts to revive or practice those traditions were inhibited both because of the lack of law and order on rhe reservation and uncertainty as to what exactly those traditions were. As a result, our usual cultural practices that had first been outlawed by U.S. law and then the uneasy and unstable state of life on the reservation greatly inhibited normal cultural interactions. The reservation had become like a barren isolated desert, separated from dominant society. There may have been one or two television stations at most in the local area. A lot of people didn’t have telephones. Most people didn’t have televisions, so the rural location restricted access to the outside world. I remember little else about the time there. I just remember playing with other kids and the constant sense of uncertainty. Life was not "normal" there. Some crazy extreme things happened which I won't get into here.

In what events and personal experiences that happened in your life help you realize your ties to your Native American ancestry?

When my family came here and moved to Los Angeles, there wasn’t a lot that was going on here for American Indians. The only time I was even aware of the big city was during the times I went shopping in downtown L.A. In Glendale, where I was raised, I remember people would always be rude. I remember going to a store, for example, with my mother, and the people did not want to serve her. I couldn’t figure out why and I didn’t understand what was going on. The fact that I was an Indian was never occured to me or was brought up. It was never articulated, only addressed by the behavior of other people. I would ask “why is everyone so rude in this store?” I remember mom once saying, “They don’t like Indians.” But those people probably thought we were Mexicans. At that time Glendale was something like 99% white so seeing dark skinned 41 people was unusual. But, there was never any discussion about it so it was never a full-fledged issue that we dealt with it. That was certainly typical in the 1960s. There was a presumption that the white cultural dominance was simply the way it was. This is when the media started emerging. There were more television programs but no minorities could be seen in the television programs during those years. Minorities did not have good jobs or responsible jobs. You did not see them in banks or as teachers or basically in areas of a higher level of public life. In Glendale, when you saw a black person, you would know that they were lost or they were traveling through, people would stop and look at them. At the time Glendale was the home of the American Nazi Party and the John Birch Society, an ultra conservative religious/political group. In those days, it was a very different legal, social and political environment for minority people. There was no such thing as multiculturalism or diversity or anything like that. Because it wasn’t something that even my parents were educated about, it was like there was no knowledge, no awareness of any other way of thinking or doing. When my ancestors had been in the boarding schools, they learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Christopher Columbus, the usual things all American schools taught. That was their educational background. There were no sources for them to address their identities, until at least the late 1960s. From the 1950s to the early 1960s American life was pretty much a desert for racial minorities. For America it was all about the Beach Boys; movies like "The Sound of Music", typical Eurocentric American stuff. For us, we always knew we were just on the sidelines, that the "nice" neighborhoods, the "nicer" stores, "nice" restaurants, etc. were for white people only, not for us. When we stumbled into them by mistake, people stopped to stare at us and did not smile, they let us know right away that we didn't belong there, so we'd leave and go to where "we belonged", that was just the way it was.

Is there anything you want to add to your relationships to the Native American societies?

Well, they didn’t really exist for urban American Indians during that time period, that is there were small social service agencies in L.A., but because of short-term government funding and the wide-spread Indian population, even though there were Indians who had come to Los Angeles and other cities from across the nation due to the Relocation Program, there was no real gathering point, no real cultural center. For example, the Chinese created Chinatown, the Japanese created Little Tokyo. In later time, Armenians created their own communities in Hollywood and Glendale. There’s a part of Hollywood now called "little Armenia". But for American Indians, there was never a focal point and still isn't. I recall annual powwows in Pasadena. I know there were others in Orange County, but we were poor. We didn’t have a car. We didn’t have a telephone. We basically lived paycheck to paycheck, and doing something like visiting Downtown Los Angeles, was a big deal. You had to have a car to really move around, and if you don’t have income to travel around, you stay where you are. I think that was true for a lot of families during that time period. For my family we had no consistent connections to other American Indians once we settled in L.A. 42

So if you have children, what would you do to change that? How would you raise them in regard to Native American culture?

I had an advantage by getting an education and also being able to go back to visit my reservation and others. I enjoy talking with the youth. I had internships at different national archives researching American Indian materials and meeting people all kinds of people, so my experiences are far broader than the average American Indian. This is my lifestyle today. When talking with the youth and anyone who comes to my worksite it is important to find out where they come from, what their reservations’ histories are, and what their issues are, because all of the reservations are very different. The needs to establish a person's background is something I take for granted. The awareness of the history is important. Not much of the original American Indian culture is known anymore because that has been lost due to government policies of the last 150 years. For example, hardly anyone on the reservation speaks the language or knows what the religious practices are. Due to the controlling government policies since the late 1800's all different tribes are sort of fused in an American lifestyle and all of them use the English language, although there are pockets of traditions lingering on the larger more remote reservations where tribal members weren't constantly under the close scrutiny of government employees such as teachers, policemen, etc.

And you pass your knowledge to your children?

I have no children of my own, but I consider all the young American Indian people who contact me somewhat as children because I know that for the most part their parents don't know much about their own histories and cultures. And in those areas I don't have expertise I refer them to individuals and groups who do.

You mentioned “cultural desert” as you described the reservation and you mentioned the lack of community when you were growing up. You also mention extensive experiences later on. Have you seen that “cultural desert” change over time?

In general, yes, because starting in the late 1960s, due to the political activism of America's racial minority groups there was basically the official “okay” from the federal government and the general public that led to the establishment of places like the Native American studies at UCLA and other campuses. There were funds allocated to researching the history of American Indians. That was the first time in over a hundred years that historians and academics actively sought information about Indians as they are today and how we got this way - cultural change over time and the why's and how's of it. That was the thrust till the late 1960s and 1970s. Eventually that changed and has become more political and academic, as opposed to cultural. The thing is, even though the U.S. government had outlawed traditional practices from the 1870's to the 1930's, after that they attempted to make the Indians become more like white Americans. So when in the late 1960's it suddenly became "ok" and even "cool" to be Indian, because traditional practices had been illegal and for so long and were later "resurrected" by American 43

Indian people who hadn't been educated in them, we started to see the beginnings of "new age" and other types of modern philosophies that borrow when what is believed to be "traditional" American Indian cultures. Between the 1870's to the 1930's those American Indians we knew about and practiced the traditions kept it hidden and never talked about it lest they be put in jail. They might do it, but there is no way they’re going to be caught in public doing it, or doing anything to profess it. The traditional practices that survived did so by staying “underground” in the reservations where they could remain hidden. If someone wanted to be more isolated, they would go to naturally isolated reservations, like the Navajo reservation. The Navajo have large isolated reservation and are separate enough from white people that we could go out and isolate themselves away from direct government oversight, but only if we wanted to live totally on their own and not rely on government assistance. They could support themselves like they have done for hundreds or thousands of years. In isolated reservations like that, some traditions have remained active, but again because of the forced boarding school experiences much of the authenticity was lost. My reservation is very different from the Navajo because in Winnebago you are surrounded by whites at fairly close proximity, and you can't really isolate yourself from them. Then, for people like me who became urban Indians it's a very different situation. We became apart of the melting pot because you didn’t have a choice. This is the way it is here. That is what happened to most people who became urban Indians because they went to Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Minneapolis, so on and so forth. We became apart of those urban cultures first and their reservation cultures became secondary. Those that retained their more of their cultures did so by isolating themselves as much as possible back on their reservations. American Indians never truly wanted to be part of American culture, but its' unavoidable, even on the remote reservations. But whether one is from the reservation or is an urban Indian you still have that basic distrust of the U.S. government and white people as a whole because it's as an inherent part of your experience and how you view the world, that prevents a lot of things from being exchanged.

Would you say that people like you who stayed in these cities and these melting pots maintained a Native American community within the dominant culture?

Yes, to a certain degree. Yes, we have common racial backgrounds, common general cultural backgrounds, and common experience in dealing with the U.S. government and Americans in general, but we’re not “pure” Native Americans because we have all been Americanized now by historical and legal forces beyond our control.

Could you describe that in detail?

For example, most of us never learned with complete accuracy what our traditional languages were, language being a core element of maintaining traditional cultures. We were never taught what the different symbols and different ceremonies were because the U.S. government had made them illegal for so long. Some tribes that were more isolated from extensive Euro- American contact, like the Navajo, were better able to hold on to traditions, but not perfectly. In 44 pure traditional cultures, such things as language depended upon context - whom the speaker was and to whom it was spoken to, so there are no literal translations like with most European languages. You couldn’t say something like, “what time is it? and assume there were literal translations compared to the languages of France, Germany, or Italy. No, what American Indian languages had in common with the other so-called “primitive cultures” are the relational differences that determined what words to use, and how they were arranged. For example, words would be different when I, a man, talk to another man then when I talk to a child. I would say something one way if I were talking to a female elder, but say the same thing differently when talking to a young Indian woman not married. The same meaning is actually spoken a number of different ways, depending on the relationship between the speaker and listener - so there is no direct literal translation, which makes it more complex and difficult to anderstand to people who learn in languages that can be literally translated. In America, the English language and the modern languages don’t take that type of relational complexity into account – they’re foreign to them. Since the late 1800's government rules forced American Indians to be raised to speak English, Indian adults talking to Indian children in particular were jailed. As a result subsequent generations lost that traditional knowledge and understanding of their languages because they were not allowed to learn it. Today, the grandparents and the parents hadn’t learned it either. This loss of traditional cultures and their nuances is a result of the boarding schools and other U.S. government policies. Today, there were probably very few, if any, places to go and find the original language practices as you would have in say 1880. Today, for the most part, most people of a tribe don’t know their original dialect - they were raised primarily in the English language just like every other American. Today, American Indians know that what remains of their traditional languages weren't what modern attempted language revivals strive to achieve because the daily living practices in which those traditional languages worked has long been dead.

When you are dealing with those traditional cultures, you are dealing with the subtleties of the context in the moment, as opposed to American or modern ways. For example, a speech by Winston Churchill in 1930 would have the same words and meaning that English speakers are all familiar with. People today would be able to understand what he said. The same is not true for Native American languages because the imposition of American ways for over 200 years has created radical changes from how we lived and made sense of the world, because the original contexts are no longer in existence. Today, it is probably impossible to truly understand Native American languages as some attempt to revive them today from what they used to be. This is the largely the same for all aspects of American Indian lives today - they are greatly different from what they used to be before Euro-Americans became the dominant force on this continent because we were forced to change and let go of the old ways, starting with our languages.

What are the values that you carry in life as a Native American?

I think that one of the core values I carry that is different from American culture is how I perceive situations and issues, to put it simply, it is a spiritual worldview as opposed to a 45

materialistic one. A simple example, in the old days tribal leadership was chosen because people knew potential leaders from first hand experience through daily contact in dealing with life's issues. In contrast, American culture has created structures such as political parties that tell the people who is the best candidate. The vast majority of American people will never really know their leaders because they have no direct experience with candidates chosen for them. Today, it’s really easy to see the outcomes of America's materialistic system when you look at politics, economics, social and environmental issues. There is no close relationship with Republicans and Democrats and the people they represent became political party leadership is primarily concerned with raising money. Contrast that when you’re dealing with an American Indian’s worldview, you are dealing with the contexts based on direct first-hand experience. It really is more of the overall meaning of something or a relationship, in very practical terms. It doesn’t operate on theoretical terms like political parties. American Indian worldviews are much personal and direct not theoretical and abstract. A lot of Western thinking has become really abstract, so what’s being conveyed is often what is not intended. For example, in some traditional American Indian cultures when a child was born, the traditional way was to name the child accordingly to what was going on during the birth. Was it raining? Was a flock of geese going over? Was the sun setting? Was the sky turning blue? The name was very specific to what was going on in that moment of the person entering life on this plain. That person would carry his or her name their whole life or until another major event happened in that person's life to change the name - again, cultual context would determine these things.

In contrast, the Euro-American or western way of naming a child would be, for example, naming him Jim the 14 th because some great, great ancestor had that name before him. From a traditional Indian perspective, this way of doing things really doesn’t make sense because in this situation as a new person who is experiencing his the first day of life - his name should be about HIS experience, the spiritial forces at work upon his arrival into this life, not some distant ancestor he will never have direct experience with because that would take away from the forces at work at HIS birth - these forces are what will shape his life, that are not dependent on someone else's life. This is one example of fundamental differences between the American Indian and Euro- American cultures look at something basic. These very distinct and different ways of looking at things that has not been fully articulated in today's world. The Judeo-Christian world has become a very academic and theoretical way of looking at life. American Indian cultures focus on what is happening at the moment. That’s part of the problem with Judeo-Christian culture’s lack of understanding American Indians and vice-versa. White Americans thought “why aren’t these Indians learning? Why can’t they understand why we should respect George Washington or Christopher Columbus?” Indians would think, “Who are these guys? They’ve been dead a long time. I don’t understand how they should affect what’s important here and now.” Basically, all my life I’ve had that same lack of real understanding of Euro-American ways, but I could never really articulate it – nobody seemed to. There was a time when I was growing up that I would learn about this, and I would say, “I don’t get it, why is that important.” Growing up and working in this urban environment, I began to think that much of what I see is not really of value 46

to me. I think many American values are totally misplaced or irrelevant – things like respecting someone just because they have money, but that’s just the way that Americans will think – they determine value by material worth, not character. I understand that now, I can articulate that now and I understand. Every day, there are a lot of things in American culture that fluster me, but then I say, “Well, that’s the way most Americans think it should be. I can't change them from what they want to believe, do or say”. Of course, if they ask my opinion, then I will give it to them.

America is a very “flash in the pan” culture, the phrase means "Something which disappoints by failing to deliver anything of value, despite a showy beginning." What’s hot today is not very likely to be remembered tomorrow. Americans judge things by how exciting they are, things that are gossip worthy, they’re not concerned with long-term ethics or morality, or historical perspective, not really. To most Americans those things are dull and definitely not exciting, so they ignore things that aren’t glamorous or “hot”, they just move on to the next thing that is. In the American social environment today most Americans think of cultural traditions as quaint but not really that important. If they feel that way about their own Euro-American traditions, do you think they really care about the traditions of others?

Could you give me a specific example where you found that difference and how it stood out?

It really encompasses everything. It’s truly a worldview. Perhaps described in the simplist terms is: American Indian worldviews are based on what truly moves your soul, your spirit, not your intellect, not your emotions. What is most important to me is my gut reaction to something, that instantly tells me is this/or does this have significant ethical and spiritual worth. Euro-American worldviews are, in practice, just the opposite, they see everything in terms of what dollar value they can place on it, or some other abstract value like “status”. It took me a long time to come to understand this – years, decades. By experience, not by some intellectual agenda, I’ve learned that by being in places such as in some isolated place out in the desert, without all the man-made distractions, I experience, reflect, and let move me, those things which are not man- made - things unseen. This is primarily a sensual, spiritual experience because it cannot be neatly described in concrete terms. It’s like “love” – how does one prove “love”? One can say buy a ring or something, fight a battle, and do other things visible to others, but those are only evidences or attempts to prove love. Love itself cannot be quantified or measured – because it is what one feels and knows in their heart where no one else can really see unless one has a deep intimate relationship. At the risk of sounding “new agey” the core difference between American Indian cultures and Euro-American cultures are how one relates to the spirit. American Indian cultures are based on letting the spirit guide everything. Euro-American cultures try to make the spirit and all life conform to time-tables, specific locations, hierarchical structures, classes of people, etc. American Indians know intuitively that the spirit is not something man can control, 47

while Euro-American cultures have spent much of their history and took many lives and resources in trying to do so.

This is perhaps a key difference because I can say, “wow this spirit is right here.” I can feel this, and unfortunately the Judeo-Christian culture as practiced in modern times has a lack of experience of dealing with this sort of thing. They label it as folklore, mysticism, superstition, and other kinds of things that make it seem weird or crazy, because it’s not scientific, measurable, and you can't put a monetary value on it. The Euro-American questions are: how much does it cost? how big is it? or what’s it chemical composition? etc. In contrast traditional American Indian cultures would ask what is a things or a person's spiritual essence? What purpose? What role does it play? What does it teach us? For example, when you look at smoke, most American Indian cultures would say it’s a form of prayer...carrying the essence of our prayer to greater powers than us… The Judeo-Christian culture simply sees it as chemical compounds. When an Indian person says, “we are going to do a smoke for this,” it has a whole different meaning in Euro-American contexts. To American Indian smoke is a prayer, smoke sends requests, thanksgivings, etc. to greater spiritual forces. To Euro-American cultures smoke simply implies something that is burning either to create warmth or to cook something, or to feed a nicotine addiction - its simplest identifiable obvious charactertics.

In modern American culture these topics are generally found under “philosophical” studies, or in the “new age” movement. But in general such topics are not very digestible or understandable to the Euro-American mind because they have been so inculturated to focus on the material or obvious physical manifesations. This is a real key problem between the understandings of the two cultures. For example, there was this white guy in Arizona who created a business that included trying to practice a traditional sweat lodge ceremony, but he went off and did it by his own rules. He advertized himself as a spiritual leader to non-Indians and charged them a lot of money to experience an “authentic sweat lodge ceremony”, in other words, like most Euro- Americans would, he tried to turn what American Indians regard as a spiritual experience without any monetary association, into a business with specific agendas, money charges for specific results, etc.. Unfortunately, in his last effort three people died, and now he’s in jail facing prison time. Without really understanding or wanting to understand that a sweat lodge experience is only about spiritual connection, spiritual insights, he took from it and made it something else. Indians have had a lot of things like that happen, just another example of cultural appropriation, which only reinforces their earlier beliefs that you can not trust white people.

Another example, since the beginning of time Indians that smoked tobacco did so for very specific occasions, sacred or spiritual occasions. Smoking tobacco was not a casual thing. When white people became aware of tobacco, they saw it as a way to make money, used it for all kinds of ways to make people addicted to it, now we have many diseases and other destructive things that came from trying to make a profit from it. American Indians for all the centuries they smoked and never developed cancer or other diseases from the tobacco. For a time, various 48

states in the U.S. outlawed tobacco because white people got into trouble with it, but they also tried to get Indians to not use it. Indians had not abused it, white people did Indians say that anytime you talk to white people or share something with them, they wind up coming back and using it against you, and given many such instances it is no wonder why Indians still don’t really trust whites or the U.S. government. This lack of trust has continued to bring unfortunate consequences for both sides. For example, in more recent times when well-intended white scholars, teachers, social workers, lawyers, health care workers, etc. would go to reservations and try to talk to Indians, the Indians avoided them as much as possible, because those well- meaning outsiders had no knowledge of, let alone any understanding of American Indians past experience with whites and government officials. Those outsiders often went away thinking “Why can’t I get these Indians to talk to me - I'm here to help them.” Being from very different cultures which assign very different meanings to all aspects of life, they accomplished little and make inaccurate assumptions because they are not aware of the historical contexts that made the Indians not want to talk to them. Today, nothing much has changed really.

Do you have the same feeling that people are not ready to listen to your stories?

Absolutely. American Indians continue to be stereotyped and made caricatures throughout American culture, such as sports mascots. But even when Indians ask them not to, white Americans say we’re being “overly sensitive” or unappreciative... they say they’re trying to ‘honor” us. But truly honoring someone includes respecting the wishes of those you’re supposedly honoring – most white Americans still don’t get that, and rather get defensive, angry, and continue what they’re doing. I believe they don't get it because having a ethical moral foundation is largely absence in American culture today - "feel good" moments abound, but they have no real moral substance or continuity, again - America has turned itself into a "flash in the pan" culture, because it demonstrates over and over again that its only real values are "how much $? or how hot or fun is it?" and if there's no quick and easy answer, or answer that they want to hear, they reject it.

How have you taken that approach?

I think an example of attempting to bridge the culture and communication gap would be in conversations like this, and attempts to obtain those cultural perspectives that exist outside of mainstream American culture. It depends on who the questioner is, their motivations, and what the situation is. In my job I talk to all kinds of people from all walks of life. I talk with different students and I help graduate students, I talk with teachers, professors, social workers, community activitists, artists, all kinds of people. What I find is that we are trying to find a way to bridge the issues, to articulate what the issues are and how to address them. The process has helped me better understand why I believe what I believe and still be comfortable in this Euro-American environment. Frankly, I been fortunate to go places and meet people I didn't know existed in earlier phases of my life. For example, I wound up having an internship at the Smithsonian and when asked by a curator about something I told him, “you’ve misidentified this because its been 49

addressed in an inaccurate way.” I’ve seen them change and adapt when they could. I feel that type of effort is most important because then I can be a cultural mediator in almost any situation dealing with American Indians. Given the opportunity, I can talk about the facts and the history. For example, in watching the film The Exiles if you don’t know about the backgrounds of the characters, you’re not going to get a more accurate picture of what you’re viewing. This is true whether you are dealing with a movie or whatever social, political, or educational issue that confronts you. You have to know what the historical facts are in order to understand the contexts, but also you have to know the differences in historical thinking. In The Exiles those people were at an end, a dead-end, facing a life which seemed to them without a future. Throughout U.S. history most people coming to American had the hope of a better life, there was a promise of something better, but for those in The Exiles , coming to Los Angeles was somehow a final defeat that held no promise. Yes, the government workers told them how great things were going to be, and they probably wanted to believe it, but as you watch them you can see in their faces there was no sense of a future. To viewers, without knowledge of the historical contexts or the differences in worldviews that caused what you see subsequently, you have only incomplete data that results in confusion and no clear idea of what's really going on in a situation, or how to deal with it. What I have found over and over in my job here is that I get put into the role of being a cultural mediator between Euro-American and American Indian worldviews, and that's fine with me because my life story is compatible with that.

Do you encourage these similar reactions, or do you see this current situation changing in the future?

The one thing that is guaranteed is change. Whether at a slow pace like American Indian cultures were in the past, or in fast-paced change like the U.S. today. I always tell people to check for historical facts and ask questions: What was it like at the start? Why was it that way? What changes occurred? How did those changes effect people? What is/was the outcome? In the United States, you’re always talking about what is the motivation of white people creating things a certain way. The bottom line is that since the 1800's whites have always placed themselves in charge, whether it is religion, economics, the legal system, educational systems, and social standards. Every nonwhite person has had to adapt to this reality. Some people did it willingly, and some people didn’t. It gets complicated because some minorities will jump at it for their own reasons, but others, even in those same groups don’t, many only accomodated to the extent necessary.

Part of the unarticulated social history of the U.S. is that white people set up the institutions and assumed non-whites wanted to be like them, but this has not always the case, particularly with American Indians. Yes, all people continually adopt things from other cultures, but that does not mean they want to give-up their own histories or traditions. Euro-Americans have structured American society on the assumption that the non-whites want to be like them, and never thought otherwise, yet the significant issues of modern U.S. history center around non-whites not wanting to be conformed to Euro-American standards. The Civil Rights Movement of the 50

1960's actually started long before the 1960's, the U.S.'s rationalizations for getting involved in Viet Nam, Chile, Panama, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. all center around the U.S. attempting to assert its values on people who don't want them. This part of the U.S. mindset had its beginnings in how it treated American Indians in their drive to get control and keep control of American Indian lands and resources. Unfortunately, Euro-Americans never truly seem to learn fromt the past, but keep doing the same thing. This is the reality that American Indians have had to deal with since Euro-Americans first arrived on these shores. In order to learn the lessons this history might have to teach us, you have to keep removing the layers of generality and quick and easy answers of the established mind-set and start to get more and more specific, and particularly, obtain how the other side thinks or feels about things.

In general, American Indians remain are far more intuitive or spiritual in spite of a couple hundred years of indoctrination to be "civilized" or Americanized. When I finally grasped ahold of this I could finally feel, think, and know from deep inside that the essence of what is going right now is not just this table ( knocks on the table ), that is, not confined to the physical world, but what is the meaning of what is going on in all its totality. This conversation. The message that is being conveyed. It is about the raw intutive instincts of something, the spirit of it, and that has been a real problem with white people to grasp. White people occasionally attempt to do spiritual things in superficial ways, but they don't relate to it as a lifestyle. I think that white people used to be far more instinctual, but due to historical circumstances that began long before there was a U.S. they have spent so long trying and working so hard to control everything by commodifying everything, and give every thing a dollar value, their lost their spiritual essence.

The spirit is the center of life, what is good about life, what makes life worthwhile, it guides, it strengthens, it doesn't push or punish. Unfortunately in our time, for most Americans any idea connected to "spirit" has come to mean something "crazy", something to be feared, made fun of, avoided - certainly not taken seriously. And because Euro-Americans have been pretty successful on the material, physical level, they think that material success is all that truly matters, that everything will be ok if they first concentral on the material level - but that doesn't work in the long-term. The Euro-American worldview has worked to a certain extent by organizing the world into distinct hierarchical catergories - there are things only men can do, and women cannot do, and vice-versa. There are certain educational requirements to hold a position, people relations divided into categories executive/laborer, parent/child, adult/teen, Christian/non-Christian, and so on. The white world has the need to see all life in distinct categories of black or white in order to label everything to place them, including people, in the right box. The white world is very structured and has many categories which has become more complicated and less connected to the very people its supposed help. I believe that one of the very first problems whites had with Indians was that they quickly realized that Indians worldviews didn't try to fit everything into neat little categories, rather Indians knew that everything was more accurately described in shades of grey, by the spirit, not by the obvious physical form. Sometimes women should be the leaders, sometimes children are wiser than their parents, sometimes people don't neatly fit into 51

male vs. female roles, etc. I believe that once they realized this clear cultural differents whites became very threatened, and became determined to eradicate the Indian worldviews, hencing U.S. policies like the boarding schools and the outlawing of traditional American Indian cultural practices.

I believe that whites were deeply threatened by the lack of American Indians need for neat little categories for everything, and that is one of the reasons as whites focused on taking control of the land and resources, they had to force Indians to change. For example, in the Indian cultures there is no distinction of age or gender. Before the U.S. government took over, in American Indian life all of the people in that village or in that tribe were affected by events and had the God-given right to provide feedback that was the norm. In this situation, if say a five year old expressed a wise opinion on some matter and the tribe came to a concensus about its wisdom, then following that five year old's advice was seen as the right thing to do. Again, the focus was on the spirit of something, not the outward physical characteristics of the messenger. This was also the means by which individuals who became leaders, healers, etc. developed because their spiritual growth had been witnessed from the moment they were born and as they grew to be what their spirit guided them to be, not some position assigned to them by others. Their "qualifications" were well known as public record from first hand interpersonal relationships from the day they were born. Thus tribal leadership was not some abstract political process, it was an interpersonal, spirit-based process. Contrast this with Euro-American ways.

Today, in American politics you have people running for government that most Americans have never heard of. And because a small group of political leaders, behind closed doors, choose someone, suddenly the public is supposed to rally around them and embrace them like you know them. Fact is, we don’t. This has become the American way of doing things. Advertising. Political contributions. Some small elite group makes decisions for the masses and never includes the masses in the decision-making. An elite group makes the rules and determines who and what is right. Is this type of system successful? From a strictly material standpoint it has been for the elite groups and those that support them as long as firm control over land and resources are maintained. But today America is losing some of its control as witnessed by the economic "downturns", the rise of other nations' economic influence over the U.S., and increasingly mean-spirited internal and international politics.

The Indian cultures were successful because they stuck with the basics. They did not have the thrills. They were not interested in the thrills. In the traditional Indian culture, say if the crop is bad this year, everyone experienced it. There was not isolation of the ruling class, all tribal members truly went through the hard times together, so they remained cohesive together. Leadership was by community witnessed example, not by political appointment. Also, say in the event of a failed crop, their spirit instincts would have led them to ask "what are we to learn from this" from a spiritual standpoint, the concern was not focused on the material. Yes, people may have died, but that is part of the natural life cycle. Traditional American Indian cultures knew 52

that life in this realm was not about achieving a trouble-free paradise, but rather of learning life's lessons including difficult ones for a greater experience in the unseen.

Now look at western civilization. It’s structures around a ruling class that makes sure it keeps control over everything, good times and bad times. When bad things happen they keep themselves isolated above the masses, the elite have structured the system so that there will always be the masses out there who will reproduce the farmers, laborers and soldiers necessary to keep the system working. The elites have used religion to keep the masses in check, although sometimes when times have gotten really bad like before the Soviet and French revolutions the elites lost control, but only for a short time.

Because American Indian cultures were small, it is very important what happens to every person. It is important that every person was able to fit. The tribal culture adapted to the realities of the people, not the other way around. For most American history, Indians have paid a heavy price because they really didn’t adapt to American ways of doing things. They really didn’t comprehend how they were supposed to be, or do, or think something they weren't in their spirit, such as being either a Republican or Democrat who were supposed to vote for someone they’ve never met and they probably never will meet. They’re supposed to do all of these things according to Euro-American ways. Indians never really got that and they still don’t. White culture is says, “what’s wrong with these Indians? Why can’t they get along with the program?” The characters in the film The Exiles , are prime examples of those individuals who didn’t get it. They didn’t comprehend how they were supposed to fit in this place that was so foreign, they didn’t think that this world in L.A. is where they belonged either. And most American Indians still feel this at their core. I've gotten older, I feel it’s not really where I belong either.

That’s very interesting. Do you want to add to any values you have as an American Indian?

Values is a pretty big word. What do you mean?

The values you carry in life, as a Native American, would be something you do with your culture or for your culture .

Well specifically, I’m Winnebago. Again, because a lot of specifics were lost a long time ago, there was never any real education on what it means to be a Winnebago. My parents and grandparents went to government boarding schools and were taught English and Christianity. They had to go there, there wasn’t an option. They learned the same stuff that every other American child does. The acculturation process imposed on us by the U.S. government was full time. When they went to school, they had to speak, look, dress, and act the American way. It was a constant acculturation process that never let up. Until very recently there were no education institutions that was trying to preserve or teach American Indian culture or American Indian way of life, and so forth. What I’ve experienced in my life and what I learned as AIRC librarian is simply from talking to other Indians and learning what their experiences were and connecting 53

that back to my early years, these are what made my formal education more real to me personally.

Today, some tribes and some educational systems try to incorporate teaching about American Indian cultures, but for the most part it is still from a Euro-American worldview. It is this way because our natural contexts were the old ways of tribal communities not the modern reservations, and those old way have been largely obliterated by the U.S. government. When I was small back on the reservation, there was no affirmation of traditional culture. Most of the beliefs and values I have are an interpreted Los Angeles version stemming from the history of generations being accultured into speaking, doing, and thinking in the America ways, integrated with what I've learned on a personal level outside of formal education.

Can you describe your job, volunteer, artistic performance, or leadership work within the Indian community?

It’s primarily educational. I'm asked to do lectures or presentations or speak like this for different groups, and a lot of what I talk I'm asked to talk about is more of my life experience combined with what I continue to learn as AIRC librarian. I talk before both American Indian and non-Indian social organizations. Sometimes I've been a guest lecturer primarily at graduate schools, and sometimes undergrad colleges, mostly involving topics of U.S. and American Indian history and current affairs. I talk about specific issues of Federal Indian law, on boarding schools, relocation, and other related topicsc depending upon what's asked. That’s primarily what I do because it more or less naturally flows out of my job and life-experience.

How did you enter that work?

Usually I am asked. A lot of people are curious and interested about American Indians from a contemporary standpoint, but they don’t really know where or whom to ask, so when they encounter me at some event, or they're referred to me by someone else. Sometimes they read some of the articles I've written on these topics and contact me. People like Professor Lin and people from other organizations, institutions, academics, and so forth. I got contacted from people across the nation, and sometimes from Europe and Asia as well.

How do you feel about these experiences and have you learned something new from them?

I'm always learning something new. I appreciate these contacts because in responding to their requests I get the opportunity to further research issues, and that process always connects onto other related issues, so my resource collection keeps growing. Even some of the most educated professionals, including professors and lawyers, recognize their knowledge about American Indians is limited because the colleges and universities don't emphasize learning about us, and thus they have limited resources. Sometimes I'm asked to confirm their ideas about something which I am happy to help with or refer them to others more knowledgable in specific areas. I strive to fill in the gaps of their knowledge with my knowledge as appropriate. This also pertains 54

to American Indians who contact me, because their reservations or urban environments generally don’t have the resources either.

How do you feel about the impact of your work in the Native American community or for the Native American community?

I really appreciate it because people will let me know what they think of about I’m doing. I will get a letter or an email from some student asking for input or guidance. I recently had a student who did an internship here a few months ago and she is now working a P.H.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. She had read something that I had written and wanted to know more about it, so she made it a point to come back to Los Angeles to talk to me and spend part of her summer here. We talked about some of the issues that you and I talked about, but more specificically about issues related to American Indians and librarianship. From her work here, she later submitted a proposal and was selected to speak about her work here at a symposium at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and she won a award. So now other graduate students and professors who as a result of attending her presentation have learned about AIRC and the issues that she and I worked on while she was here. In know at some point, I will get an email or phone call saying, “I heard about you from that presenter and I'd like to talk with you about ______,” and so the connects and new projects with new people evolve. To me, that’s really rewarding. I have received a couple of awards from some groups. I received an award from a University of Massachusetts professor, who asked if he could use one of my papers about relocation for one of his classes. People are getting informed and that is part of the big satisfaction. A lot of what really makes it easy is that, in a sense, I do not have to start from scratch, the information is out there but usually in very academic or legalistic terms that tend often to confuse and overwhelm even the most competent graduate student or professional. My "gift" is in making complex issues simple. Often what I do is simply summarize the existing facts to help them understand the issue they're dealing with. I have benefitted from this in many ways, such as I have a new connection with my tribe that I didn’t have before. What I learn from that interchange enhances what I do here, and what I can share with those that contact me. It also works the other way around. All of this is what makes being AIRC librarian constantly challenging and fun for me, and I keep learning.

Do you attend powwows and festivals? How and when did you begin attending?

Yes, largely as AIRC librarian to promote awareness of AIRC. That is how Professor Jin and I connected. But for the most part, today, at least in an urban areas, powwows are mostly commercial enterprises. People are there primarily to buy and sell stuff but also to network. Back on reservation powwows were more like large family gatherings.

For both powwows and festivals?

Yes, because the true powwows originated in the Great Plains states. They do not have commercial aspects to them. They do not have vendors, prize money, or dancing. It’s just an 55

informal gathering. In Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and major urban areas they are very commercial. It’s like going to Las Vegas. So it depends on where you go. In Los Angeles, it’s very commercial. I use them as a place to get information. It’s sort of a networking event for me. I can obtain and distribute information there. It’s like an information exchange. The spiritual elements are long and gone from modern powwows, at least in urban areas.

Have you attended any of the traditional powwows?

Yes, but when I was younger. They were actually a lot of fun. There is no artificial lighting or anything else modern. These powwows were in rural places. Usually, they were in the summer, because everything is alive in the summer. The fireflies and the fires provided the light. They had a whole different feeling from today. They are more like community celebrations and events for a specific purpose, like a death or a marriage. I know they are based on what is traditional, but again, like the languages, they don't have the original nuances anymore for the most part. Those powwows were not advertised like in mainstream American event, but like many things among American Indians, were passed by word of mouth, although this is changing. In that way, Indian reservations are still non-American, and they would like to keep it that way. Traditional powwows don't strive to achieve numbers, they're not measured by the number of attendess. Their goal is to create a community sense, a sense of community spirit, if you will.

Can you share some of your experiences from your relocation from Nebraska?

I was only nine years old. For my family it was sort out of desperation. There were too many negative things going on in the reservations. I remember people being shot. I remember violence. It was not this idealistic, Mid-western farm-type fantasy. Not for Indians, or for white people. Coming here was more like a desperate act to get away. We happened to come to Los Angeles because I had a great-uncle who relocated here before us. He got a job as a janitor at a factory out in Glendale. That’s why we went to Glendale. The government paid for our train ticket. They gave us an allowance for a few months to help with the apartment. That’s pretty much all I remember about the whole process. It was a pass to get out of somewhere. It was not really for a long-term education or training people, as far as the relocation program was concerned. When you’re poor and you grow up and everyone is a manual laborer, you don’t know the difference because you don’t know about educated people. Where you could afford to live, there were no educated people either. It was all very blue-collar, working class. That was what life was like.

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native Americans in Los Angeles?

As you probably gathered by now, whenever you ask a question, I give you a history lesson. Part of the problem of Los Angeles is that there were no federally recognized tribes here, as opposed to San Diego. Since the late 1800's San Diego has a long established federally funded Indian center and programs to serve federally recognized tribes in that area. As a result those tribes' governments and organizations have a long consistent histories, which unfortunately L.A. 56

does not. Because there were no federally recognized tribes in Los Angeles only a couple of organizations that have survived here have what might be called a history dating back to the late 1960's. Their programs are funded by government grants that generally run out after a few years as opposed to programs for federally recognized tribes which are permanent. In L.A. our organizations have existed inconsistently. Say, for example, something is set up in Downtown Los Angeles in 1970. When the grant ran out in 1974, another grant was awarded a couple years to another department which rented offices in Rosemead that attempted to restore they older program but because of different grant guidelines only partially restored the older program. When the Rosemead program's grant went out, another group gained another grant and set it up in Long Beach. In L.A. the history of our American Indian organizations is a continuous jumping around of locations and the types of services they provide, there is not a cohesive flow. When grants run out, the granting agency owns the records and places them according to the rules of the grant source, usually at one of the National Archives. Access of those records to the newer organization may not happen. So what happens to the actual recipients of those services and the local staff that served them, has to start completely over. In the meanwhile, the old staff get other jobs, recipients get aged out of a program, etc. so there is no consistency at any level. That is what happened and still happens to L.A. urban Indians. If an L.A. urban Indian who is a member of a federally recognized needs major medical treatment, he can get treatment but only at the facility designated for his tribe by the federal government which is usually on or near his reservation. Sometimes the whole family has to move back, in essence, ending or creating gaps in their lives here. All these factors play into the inconsistently of L.A. urban Indian life past and present, and complicate the status of American Indians here in L.A..

The only two L.A. American Indian organizations that have existed for a long-term, from the late 1960's/early 1970's have gone through a lot of growing phases, they've had to in order to continually qualify for federal grants (whose guidelines can change each year). They continually have to reassess what works, what doesn’t work, what should we focus on, what should we leave to another organization? Without consistent programming, they struggle to meet the needs of their clienteles. As a result, smaller organizations emerge that usually only last for a short-term. The total result is that there is no momentum to continue for a consistent lasting thrust for L.A.'s American Indians.

Another factor is that because Indians never consolidated in one area. There are different groups and some tribes, more or less, stick together. Most Navajo stick with other Navajo. Some of the indigenous surviving tribes of the L.A., although not federally recognized, strive to achieve continuity and a sense of tribal community but that has been a difficult process as most have largely merged with Hispanics and Whites. They are sort of a pseudo-Catholic-Mexican-Indian based generally clustered around the missions such as San Gabriel and San Fernando. Each group has its own historical sense and priorities - which are generally not the same. The fact that there are no federally recognized tribes plays into that problem because where there are a federal programs for urban Indians, only members of federally recognized tribes can use the program, 57

according to government guidelines. Thus the local indigenous people whose tribes aren't federally recognized tribes cannot use those program. These restrictions imposed by the federaly government contribute to the fragmented American Indian communities throughout Los Angeles.

What would you think would be a solution to the problem?

That question has been asked often by a lot of people before I started here and there have been a lot of attempts by various organizations to achieve viable strategies to deal with the L.A. Indian communities' fragmentation. There really has not been a successful solution or answer because of the fragmentation - there is no one unifying center geographically, culturally, or spiritually. We have the Navajo groups, Cherokee groups, Catholic groups, Protestant groups, traditional groups, professionals, working class, Urban Indians who've never been on a reservation, people who only live here to earn a living, but spend as much time as possible backon their reservation. In addition to these different groupings, each of them have different historical issues as well as the modern issues. The modern people are usually younger people from different tribes. They are just starting to get it together. You have new organizations, like the youth council for teens and twenties. Now they are trying to get younger kids involved. The idea is to get groups made up of primarily younger people who are educated, but these younger people are urban Indians, so they are pioneering their own direction. The established organizations like, tend of keep within their own established subject areas, e.g. mental health and counseling vs employment and training. They basically have different specializations and staff with different skill sets. The nice thing about these younger groups with younger people is that you are not stuck with these older formulas that were operating with before. Although, they still don’t get a lot of people.

Geography is a big problem here. That is part of Los Angeles though. People who live in San Fernando do not want to drive downtown. People who live in Long Beach do not want to drive to Los Angeles. People from the west side do not want to come east. There are a lot of transportation issues, but that’s part of being an Angelino. These problems become evident when say ask a Santa Monica family if they went to bring their kids to a meeting that happens to be in Pasadena. They are not going to do it because of the time and logistics getting from one place to another. Even if transportation were provided, what would be the likelihood of going from Santa Monica to Pasadena during rush hour in less than 2 hours? It’s not realistic. For example when I was on the 2010 Census committee, our initial meetings were in Downtown L. A. Because we knew there were people in other parts of the greater area we attempted to have meetings in outlying areas such as San Fernando that has a fair sized identified American Indian population in the general area. We sent out the invitations, but the response was so small, and even most of the people who would travel to downtown L.A., wouldn't travel to San Fernando. And so it went. It ended up being the same group of people I always see, only 1 or 2 new people came during that entire effort. Frankly, the way Los Angeles is spread out, I don’t think there ever will be a central point for L.A.'s urban Indians. I suggested that the meetings be televised and the networks be set up where they could go to a facility in San Fernando and West LA., but 58

that never got implemented. If you are going to have a Los Angeles wide effort, you will have to take advantage of the technology for video conferencing and such; but as of now that use of technology has not been established, perhaps it's just a matter of time. But younger people are starting to establish their own networks using Facebook and such which I now have joined. I think this type of connection may be most realistic given the lack of funding for a group so disbursed and fragmented as the urban Indians of Los Angeles.

What about educating the general American public? Do some of the similar restrictions apply?

For education, it is largely hit and miss. I think primarily because the California Board of Education has not changed its education standards to better include American Indians up to modern times. In the 1980's and 1990s, a number of scholars, headed by Prof. Gary Nash, who taught history at UCLA, attempted to get the State Board to include more histories of all the minority groups and to include the perspectives of those groups. A lot of research was done over several years and proposals were made but the entire effort was rejected by the State Legislature. That was a major effort. It had federal and academic support but in the end the State Legislature would not support it so California's education standards stayed the same. Until you start getting the governing educational boards to start including American Indian perspectives in the basic educational curriculums for students from a young age, you will have local educators doing patchwork, trying to fit in American Indian perspectives somehow, but this is very hit-and-miss, since there is no established rules from the Boards. The bottom line is that until the State Department of Education and the Federal Department of Education change their standards, individual teachers and professors are on their own to try to incorporate it into their classes when they're permitted and if time is allowed. A few years ago, UCLA approved the granting of a minor in American Indian studies so the necessary classes to earn that minor are now a permanent part of the curriculum. UCLA professors have worked for decades to accomplish this, and hope to one day have a bachelors degree program, perhaps one day a PhD program, but the fact that they were at least able to get an authorized minor in American Indian studies is a major accomplishment. Across the nation there are only a handful of 4 year colleges that have bachelors degrees in American Indian Studies. But establishing these formal academic programs is up to the bigger world of academia and individual institutions to formulate strategies that encompass all the institutional politics and funding issues that need to be solidified before they can be established. These efforts do not come from average citizens. It takes dedicated academics and institutional politic strategizing to get them accomplished. And frankly, outside of a handful of universities not much has been done.

What are some of the things we could do?

I think you have to make American Indian issues interesting to a bigger general American population. Using the media is probably the most obvious way. For example, Gregg Sarris, who has written several books and has won several awards while he was an English professor at 59

UCLA, wrote a book called Grand Avenue . It won awards and HBO wound up turning it into a miniseries in the mid 1990's which received good reviews. When he wanted to pursue developing other projects for HBO, he told me they in essence said to him that they had done their “Indian thing” for a while, so they never pursued other projects with him. HBO has produced a couple other American Indian projects but they and other major media companies only do so infrequently.

The issue with media is that it's market driven - how much profit the corporate programmers think they can earn off a production. It's the same for publishers, tv, radio, movies, etc. their production priorities are determined by how their accounts perceive or project what will be profitable. For the most part, their priorities are increasingly focused on products like "reality tv", gossip, crime, and sports, products that don't require peole to think historically or analytically. A production that focused on say the history of American Indians in California would have a very limited market appeal which greatly inhibits the likelihood of it being produced in the first place.

When you start examining the real histories of American Indians, and every racial minority group for that matter, you would start to see reveal a lot truths that have been glossed over or ignored since the U.S. was founded. Most American educational, political, and religious establishments don't want to really deal with it. They would be opening themselves up to a whole lot of questioning. They really can’t afford that economically, image-wise, especially right now. What that would expose is that U.S. history is based on white entitlement obtained by conquest, brute military force in which racial minorities are kept in their place by a carefully designed legal, educational, and religious system in which only whites were allowed to make the rules. They what is right and what isn't. The United States is built on this entitlement and that justified slavery and other things, and it still does. If you start to dig into these other issues, you start to challenge that entitlement, but almost nobody wants to touch that. Universities will to a certain extent, but if it becomes too much of a threat, the governing bodies will never allow it. So the challenges to white entitlement continue randomly and on a small-scale.

You have mentioned the nature of government grants. Is money one of the biggest issues as well?

Money is a big issue, but I think it’s more of the attitude. If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way of doing it. For the most part, institutional willingness has not really there. Those institutions started things like American Indian heritage month, and other "politically correct" efforts, but those types of things only touch the surface in very superficial ways. But they don't really invest in educating American youth about the more complex history of Indian- white relations. There remains on the part of most whites, who are still the major power-brokers and decision-makers an unwillingness to engage this history more throughly and this results in all kinds of problems at the local level. For example, in New Mexico, Indian kids are getting beaten up because they were in the wrong part of town at the wrong time. It is still okay to beat 60

Indians up and to kill them in places like Farmington, New Mexico. What allows this behavior is that White kids grow up feeling its ok, not only are they not educated, but its also very likely that they're just imitating their parents and grandparents. Why is the law enforcement looking the other way? Why doesn’t the New Mexico court system prosecute offenders? You’re talking about some real core values and some racist practices that the nation as a whole still doesn’t want to address. If you start educating differently about Indians and their groups, you’re going to shake up their whole way of life, the whole idea of white entitlement. Whites are very accustomed to their control over others, and they don’t like things that threaten that control.

What are your opinions on the gaming industry from the Indian community?

Personally, I don’t approve of gaming. It was President Reagan’s attempt for the U.S. government to stop providing financial assistance to the tribes. Indian-white relations are based on the treaties which the U.S. Supreme Court still affirms as the law of the land. The treaties were basically contracts, where the Indians said they would give up most of their land, and in turn, they would be provided healthcare, education, and basic food and supplies. Part of the problem with that was that the treaty obligations were never fully kept. Yes the U.S. took control over the land, but they never really fulfilled the other obligations. For example, if the U.S. promised a blanket for each tribal member, but if those blankets weren't received or not enough were received, the result was people died from the cold. You are looking at different forms of that same type of incident through the whole history of Indian-white relations, and that’s another reason why Indians don’t trust White people. One of the key lessons that Indians learn is that you can’t trust White people. They are always going to take back what they say.

Before gaming, the United States government had tried different economic programs to make tribes economically self-sufficient. For example, in the Pacific Northwest they tried lumber operations. The major companies would undercut the prices because these corporations had a much larger share in the market and could afford to lower prices long enough to undercut the tribes until the tribes couldn't afford to go on. The major companies could hold on because they had much bigger market shares. They tried different programs like corn, alfalfa, wheat, fishing but the same thing would happen and the larger corporations would come in and drive the tribes out of the markets. This is what the major supermarkets did to mom-and-pop stores after World War II, so now most Americans only shop at major supermarkets. Gaming succeeded because it was not something that the state or private corporations could just jump in and take over the market because of federal laws that restricted them from doing so. When the Indian casinos were starting, the government expected that the Indians were not going to rely on federal programs anymore. They thought the tribes would be self-supporting and they would be somewhat safe from the state, or if Donald Trump wanted to move next door. What happened was that some of the tribes were wildly successful, but others were failures or not as effective as they hoped to be. Gaming in Indian country was like an experiment. The timber thing didn’t work. Growing wheat didn’t work. Fishing off didn’t work, etc. But gaming somewhat worked, and it has been pretty successful for a few tribes. The reason for those few tribes’ success is because of their location, 61

like: Palm Springs, Miami, Long Island, right in between Minneapolis, or right next to Phoenix. Those were the ones that were successful; the ones right by more affluent urban markets that had people with money to spend. Whites still try to control the gaming.

Today, gaming tribes spend a lot of their time trying to make donations, like donating trucks to the local fire department. They get involved in the political process. A lot of the tribe’s budget goes towards lawyers and lobbyists who try to protect them from Donald Trump’s attempts and others like him to change the laws. But because of the complex layers of federal laws that govern Indian gaming, the Indian gaming industry has become fairly stable, though not large enough to eradicate all the financial needs of the reservations.

To me, I feel glad that gaming at least provides some of the Indian kids have an opportunity to get their education paid and learn how to adapt to the bigger word. At least they don’t have to run down to the welfare office every Friday. We are grateful in that standpoint. Other people feel that giving Native Americans money is like handing the Beverly Hillbillies the key to the Smithsonian. They don’t know what to do with it. They have no idea what the responsibilities are, they have a point but it is a double-sided sword because who actually works in the casinos, mostly non-Indians. When you go to Dubai or Kuwait, every person has an income of a million dollars per year, but it is outsiders who run those countries. What are the owners actually building for the people in Dubai? These pretty skyscrapers, fancy cars, or neon lights? There’s a Chanel and Gucci store there. What have you actually done for the people of Dubai? That is exactly like gaming too. You have this pretty big casino, and you have stars showing up, and Kim Kardashian coming, but what does really build for American Indian heritage? What substance does it bring? That is the question. Do I approve of it? Yes and no. (Laughs)

What are some options of cultural renewal for Native Americans in the future?

Part of the problem is the damage that has been done by the cultural dismantling. Today’s young American Indian people are either dirt poor with little connection to the modern world, or several generations or urban Indians or they’re spoiled brats from successful gaming tribes with little to no connection to their heritage. When you're talking the poor kids from reservations, they usually stay there separate from other parts of American life, which is good and bad, in modern terms. When you’re talking about in urban areas, you’re talking about all the same problems that the other urban kids have. Do they live in L.A., West L.A., Long Beach? There is nothing that makes them distinctly “American Indian.” And most people think they’re probably Mexicans anyway. If their parents aren’t going to drive across town, then there is no other separate place. When you talk about the spoiled kids, they are like any first generation kids that get handed money. Their focus is largely upon material things. Each groups is a product of their respective social and political environments. Most of the rural areas, however, are so removed from mainstream culture, so they don’t get cable T.V Internet access, Wi-Fi, or BlackBerrys. In urban areas, we have access to all the powerful satellites and infrastructure. When you come into an urban area, there are no communication problems that restrict you. In rural Oklahoma, Nebraska, 62

Washington, Louisiana, you don’t have this. They stay in their communities the entire time. They don’t know who Lindsey Lohan is, or Paris Hilton, or Oprah Winfrey. They live in a completely different world than urban kids do. They are really subject to their locations. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. There is no broad brushstroke that you could put across them.

But I think that this really applies to most all kids. White middle class kids in Chicago are different than White middle class kids in L.A, Atlanta, Long Island, and New Jersey. They have some similarities, but they really are very different groups of people. The same applies with urban Indians, reservation Indians, or rural Indians. They are pockets of their environment. Race still has a lot to do with it, especially in rural areas. The lines of demarcation in rural areas are really strong. In cities, we take it for granted that everybody is here and we don’t really question race as much. In rural environments, it makes a big difference of how you are treated when you go somewhere. Online newspapers I get, like Farmington, New Mexico, show that the ideas of white people are the same. The Whites are very proud and local authorities do not prosecute them. At least in urban areas they would be prosecuted. They do the same thing to Black kids and Mexican kids, just because they are different. There is no common brushstroke that fits every situation.

Within the world of American Indians, Navajos would never tell the Muscogee what they should do or what they should think. Indians of Palm Springs would not presume to know what the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma should do because it’s a whole different world. What about the Roman Empire? If Rome said something, did people in Spain, Africa or Egypt follow? There’s no way we could ever know. Do you think the English empire knew what was right for the people in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, India, or Africa? They all had to wait to see what London would say. People in Moscow told people in Siberia and Mongolia what they’re supposed to do. It never works, but the thing is that everybody wants it. That is the big fallacy of Western civilization. Empires fail because they don’t know what this means right here to those people. They have their own idea about it. A bureaucrat may have written a report, but they have no living experience about it. That’s why the Soviet Union ultimately fell apart. That’s why all of the empires fall apart. That’s why the United States is falling apart. People in Washington D.C. and the groups that speak for which are basically the white establishments of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, they view themselves as the ones that know the answers. I knew of it, but I found that out first hand. I did an internship one summer. On my first day there as I was being introduced around someone asked, “Where are you from?” I said, “California,” One asked, “They must have nice things in California, don’t they.” The questioner was actually the new department head for the National Anthropological Archives, which is in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. She volunteered that said she "hated California". I asked her several questions: Have you been to L.A? No. San Francisco? No. The Redwoods? No? Any of the beaches? No, and and "no" to several other questions. Finally I said to her "You don't know anything about California, so what gives you the right to say anything about California?” They were startled that I would get back in her face but I was old enough at the time and I had 63

known people like her my whole life. That is one of the ways I present myself in those situations because if I let them keep thinking that, they will think that I’m this poor guy from California that didn’t go to Yale or Harvard who doesn't know anything "important", like you can't compete with them. If you don’t challenge them, they will think you’re weak. In those environments such confrontations are guaranteed until you demonstrate to them that you won't take it and that they have nothing over you. This is what American Indians have to get educated about and learn to do in their

Do you have any concluding words for the interview? Do you have any advice or hopes?

All these issues are part of an ongoing educational process. I think that academic students and professors need to keep in mind that whatever they've been taught to think as facts about American Indians and the history of Indian-white relations probably has to be changed. For example, the theory for a long time was that Indians came over from the Bering Strait, a certain number of years ago, like 15,000. That was taught for a long time. In current times, as new archeological sites are found and new artifacts are found, the theory has to keep changing because of new found evidence. Like they find something way over here that according to earlier theory should not be there. They label us as “primitive” and they claim those "primitive people" couldn't have done this or that, yet their own authorities are making new discoveries that contradict their old theories all the time. It’s a really hard thing for white authorities to say, “I don’t know.” They believe they are the experts of everything. The academic world is finding this out more and more. There are things I find out about American Indians here that surprises me. It is not always stuff I want to see, but this is what the reality is and I have to be open to that. Whether I like it or not, it really doesn’t matter. This is reality, and that’s the core. It’s really education. You guys have to think for yourself and learn to articulate. You have to learn to ask questions and when appropriate to challenge their answers. Their answer may not always be how it truly is. Abraham Lincoln may not have been all of this. There was JFK, Martin Luther King, and all different things going on there. Indians are not all a certain way. White people aren't either. With White people and their conquest mode, they have attempted to made the whole world conform to the way White people think things should be. It’s still a question mark about what’s still going to work because the United States history is very new when you look at other cultures in the world. China is thousands of years old and so is Egypt. Native Americans are thousands of years of older. The U.S. is less than 250 years old. There were a lot of things that happened before. White people came to our land. The White people version is like a tunnel vision. That’s what the White establishment needs to keep being reminded of, and more specific details about American Indians and the whole history of Indian-white relations need to be revealed and made a greater part of the American Indian system and the consciousness of all Americans. That’s what I strive to do here. 64

Rudy Ortega, Jr.

Fernandeno/Tataviam Band of Mission Indians

By Sarah Alvarado and Kathleen Preston

Assisted by Kevin Cox and Joe Yick

Rudy Ortega, Jr. is tribal administrator for the Fernandeno/Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. He is one of ten children of the former tribal administrator Rudy “Chief Little Bear”Ortega, Sr. Rudy Ortega, Jr. was elected chair of the Los Angeles Native American Indian Commission in March 2011.

Where are you from, what is your life story and what is your tribal affiliation?

I’m from Los Angeles, specifically born and raised San Fernando Valley. My family is from here as well and we’re descendants from the San Fernan Mission. Our traditional tribe is Natavijia. Los Angeles is our original habitat and our genealogy can be traced back to 450 A.D., so there is a long line of heritage in this city. My family comes from a long line of tribal captains. In our tribe we call them captains, rather than chiefs. So we have quite a few generations of tribal captains in my family. My father, who passed away two years ago, was a tribal captain and today my brother is tribal captain of the tribe.

How has your personal family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry or your Indian identity?

Both my brothers and father have been tribal captains. Especially because my father was tribal captain for five decades and he was very influential to our community. He was in charge of organizing a lot for the community. No matter if we were in his office or at home, we always had culture and culture values just to ensure that we were always Native people. My father reminded us that we are Indian# people and to be proud of who we are and our heritage and culture.

As tribal captain, what were some of the jobs and duties that your father did for the tribe?

He tried to ensure the quality of life for our people. Our tribe was one of the tribes put on a reservation in 1850, and then later in 1865, we were sent to go home and they disbanded the reservation. It was fifty miles North from here, from San Fernando. Since we are not federally recognized, we are kind of in a grey area of society. We can’t say we are Native people, because a lot of programs require that you have to be a federally recognized tribe in order to receive scholarships, benefits, health care, or any programs that are dealing with welfare. In order to be in the Indian programs and activities, you have to be from a federally recognized tribe, and if you 65

aren’t than you receive regular services. If you receive regular services, the one that everyone receives, and you check off that you’re Native, they will tell you that you have to go to an Indian program. Many times our people did not receive any benefits at all, because they were told that they have to get Indian services. Then the Indian program would tell them that they couldn’t come because they weren’t federally recognized. My people had to lose our sense of identity if we wanted to get services from the normal program outlets. My father has championed a lot of things here in California, so our people could get services on other nearby reservations. He also served on the Indian Commission to ensure that the Indian people in Los Angles, both the urban Indians and our tribe that the urban society grew around, received quality services. He also created a non-profit in the seventies so that we could raise funds for our own, give scholarships, have holiday gatherings, and give out the Thanksgiving turkey; things on a smaller scale that we can do ourselves. Plus, we could have an outside contributor give to our organizations, our non- profits, and award scholarships to the youth. Those were the things that he was doing, or has done, as I should say.

Do you have any children?

I have four children, the oldest is thirteen and the youngest is two. I have a photo of one of my daughters on the wall. Since the early age of five, we have taught her dances and songs and she has performed in fiestas, gatherings for the tribe, and she has demonstrated to schools and elementaries. One of the things I do is talk to schools and explains our heritage and culture, and I encourage them to go out and sing and dance with us.

What are the values you carry in your life as a Native American?

I think honesty and I live by cultural/spiritual values. We’ve lost so much of our culture and religious practices, but today in Los Angeles, a large metropolitan area where there is a huge mixture of Native people, we come together and share what was traditionally taught to us. We end up sharing our songs, dances and spiritual ways. For a point at time, we even got clouded as far as what is real and what is not because of mainstream and what was put on the films. We assumed a practice one way, but it wasn’t truly authentic to our traditional values. That is where our honesty comes in; to be honest of what we made, have, and are able to maintain. By doing so, we can practice cultural and religious practices of our tribes and share with one another, which enables us to continue living the closest possible way to how our ancestors once lived.

Describe your job, volunteer, artistic, performance or leadership work in the Indian community.

I’m a commissioner for the Los Angeles City Indian Commission, where we service the Native 66

American communities by ensuring the equality of rights for Indians in civil services. I have volunteered there for almost three terms. In the tribe, I am the Shohahuate , which means tribal spiritual leader. I ensure the practices of our culture and spirituality within our tribe. I am also a tribal administrator. Before these positions, I was vice-chairman of the tribe for eight years and tribal administrator for nine years. I also assist the non-profit organization of our tribe, which gives out the scholarships, the food vouchers and the general social services to the Indian people in the Los Angeles County.

How many people are in your tribe?

In our tribe there are three hundred people currently enrolled. However, the total number of people that can claim enrollment from our tribe or claim heritage from our tribe is approximately two thousand people. This means that there are roughly seventeen hundred people who chose not to enroll. The history behind that is, during the 1920’s and 60’s it was bad to say that you were Indian or Native. Even earlier, in the 1800’s, people were murdered because they were Indian. You could kill an Indian and there was no trial for you. There was injustice done to Indian people and it was actually easier to say that you were Mexican. You would get a job easier and in that way you’re more respected as a Mexican than if you were Native American. A lot of older families chose not to say that they were Native, because you were treated like scum back in those days. A lot of people chose to remove themselves from the tribe. We get very few people coming back to say they are Native. We do get calls once and a while from parents saying that through their kid’s school work, they have completed their genealogies and discovered that their grandmother or grandfather is a Native person from our tribe. But only about two thousand can claim Indian heritage from our tribe.

What is the impact of your work in the Native American community?

One is awareness. In the commission we organize Native American Heritage Month with the Mayor’s office. We do a long celebration for the heritage month and I organize a couple of events throughout the month. We award Native students, not just from our tribe, but the entire state of California, with scholarships and we recently received state acknowledgement. We can now participate in tribal cultural resources. For example, if there were Native artifacts or pottery found in the Earth during development of construction, our tribes could intervene with that. In the state of California, our tribe was successful in being a participant of the Indian Welfare Child Act, which is when children are removed from Indian family homes and put into the department of child services; our tribe can now be involved in case hearings and procedures that technically only federally recognized tribes can be involved in. So those are some of the things I’ve championed in the past decade now.

Do you attend a lot of Indian powwows and festivals? 67

I used to attend quite a few Indian powwows, but nowadays I don’t. Now that I have a family, I have tried to bring the community closer. We have been able to create a music program with our non-profit, called Pachu . We teach our songs from the Chumash to Taviah every Saturday to Indian children of different ethnicities and Mexican children. We also have our winter social gathering, which is Christmas and winter solstice combined, so we can celebrate modern Christmas and also Indian heritage-solstice celebration. Those are the types of festivals that I attend now.

At what age did you start attending the powwows and festivals?

From the time of birth I attended powwows and festivals, because my father used to attend so many of them. I remember going to the Morongo reservation when I was about eight years old, and dancing with them. We used to do fancy dancing mixed with modern powwow dances. That is the type of dancing I used to do up until I was about 17 years of age.

What do you think the importance of powwows and festivals are to the Native American community?

Powwows and festivals are social activities and a place where people come together and celebrate. For some tribes, it is a time for intermingling. Because you couldn’t really marry within your own families, powwows and festivals became a time for tribal arranged marriages. Today it is more of a social gathering to celebrate and enjoy your culture, your dances, and your regalia. Powwow people go to powwows to show off their regalia and wear travel symbols and honor emblems. We exchange gifts, share some stories, share some words, and it’s a great time. This way, children at an early age can see all the grown people dance and they can get inspired by all the dancers and singers and then they can also participate in one degree or another.

Has your daughter attended any powwows?

She has been to a few here and there. What we have done for California people is mostly fiestas, which are a smaller scale of a powwow. We have gone to ones where we just show up and attend the bird’s festival, or the singing of the birds, where all the bird singers will come out and sing. Sometimes we will just have a workshop like basket weaving because she loves basket weaving. Either she will do those hands on activities, or we will just sit around the campfire and sing Pinion songs. Those are the types of gatherings we have mostly gone too.

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American people in the city of Los Angeles?

68

One of the things that my tribe has recently done is created a new website called Ndn.me . It is a social website to keep people interacting with one another. The idea behind the website is to get people more aware of the different tribal nations and their culture. Not every Indian person wears a feather, some of them wear less clothing than others, some dance, and some tribes have buffalo tribal dancers while others have bear dancers. There are different types of tribal cultures and religion; we are so hugely diverse here in America. All the different languages, customs, and traditions are encompassed into one area and we are all stereotyped into one type of Native person: the Plaines Indian. Nnd.me is the idea to share our cultures, ideas, and concepts broadly and with other Indian organizations around. People who relocate from one area to another or who move off a reservation come to a huge metropolis like Los Angeles. However, there is no real directory to find Indian organizations, unless you’re in the network already. So then you have to do a lot of research. With the Ndn.me website, it makes it easier to find these organizations and sites. It is a new site that’s still developing, but we have people throughout the 50 states and Mexico and a few Canadian tribes in our website.

Did you ever struggle with being a part of the American culture as well as your Native culture and learning to combine the two?

Well I think here in Los Angeles it is easy to be part of the American culture. What I find truly frustrating for me, as a person who is supposed to maintain practices of cultural values, is that I cannot compete against the X-Box. If you bring out the X-Box and say “lets sing some bird songs”, the X-Box mostly wins, because the technology of gaming. It is so hard here, especially because Los Angeles has so many organizations and so many different types of environments. You have the Y program, which do the “Indian scouts” kind of thing, Boy Scouts, soccer, and all these different attractions that can easily take a student away. Our music program is what we wanted to preserve, because our own language has been lost. Now we only have like 500 words of our language since my great-grandfather, who was the last fluent speaker. We lose a lot more with the American society and American way of life, because the influence that surrounds us. Burger King and McDonalds; all this stuff is the reason why we lost the way we once ate and cooked before. When you talk about America you have to include the different diverse cultures that come from here to. You have the Mexican culture, and they lost certain values from Mexico. You have the people from the Middle East who have become adapted to what Western society is as well.

Do you ever think that your culture is too commercialized when it comes to promoting it in the public and engaging the community of Los Angeles?

What happens is, you get a lot of romance from people idealizing what they think Indian cultures are, and again, it goes back to the Plains Indians. Even here, we have a powwow in Hoard Park in September that’s run by people from different Native backgrounds and heritages who are part 69

of rediscovering that they are Native people. The only source they use to research real quickly is what they visually saw in an old Western movie or a book that says, “this is what Plains Indians are.” That is where all the Plains’ practices become what all Non-Indians think every Indian culture is like. In our Indian community, we say, “that is Hollywood style (Plains Indian culture on TV), where people will become more of the Hollywood performance of dancers.” You see, here in California, unless you are invited to a more cultural, authentic event of a California gathering, you are not really seeing all of the different indigenous tribes and organizations and what they practice. You get one style all the time. You’ll get a Plains Indian’s style of dance.

How do you feel about the way the mainstream media depicts Native Americas?

I actually see a change. I know quite a few people who have tried to showcase a more real vision of what Native American people are and call out what mainstream has done wrong in depicting Native people. I have been following that and I think they are doing justice work. In movie Reel Injuns , the director went out and filmed different Native people and showed how the Navajo talked in their Native language. The Navajo made fun of the white people on the movie set and no one understood what they were saying because they were speaking in their Native language. So this was actually quite comical at the same time because Hollywood wanted to see Native people at a certain fashion, and not truly to what they really were. I think that there is a correction happening in mainstream media right now.

What is your opinion on the importance of the gaming industry in the Indian community? Is it a good thing to have on the reservations?

There is a game called pinon . It is a gambling game where the players will line up and face each other while one person holds black and white sticks in his or her hands. You had to guess what hand had the black and white sticks while being distracted. There are a few more gambling games as well. I think in society, as far as human beings, gambling is in everyone, in every culture. The casino gaming industry started in Cabazon, or the Palm Springs area. They had virtually nothing to attract people to the reservation to generate any revenue for themselves, so they created bingo. They were living 100% off of the U.S. government so they were very poor and had nothing until the 1980s. When I went there, they were still living in shacks, while we were living in regular, modern homes. They still didn’t have water or electricity, because they are so remotely away from everything else and this was in 1995.

What Cabazon did was, in the 90s, the gambling and bingo attracted more people. When you built it up, people come and go. So everyone contributes to it. They found an avenue to generate revenue for themselves. Some of the tribes up North, who are more established, don’t have gaming because no one is visiting them. Alaskan Natives instead have natural resources in which they can live off of, like natural gas and timber. Here in Los Angeles, gaming became prominent because the tribes had nothing else to really offer to the public in exchange for 70

revenue growth.

Between your tribe and other tribes in Los Angeles, is there a lot of communication and intermingling towards educating the community? Or does your tribe remain separate?

No, we communicate extensively. As a tribe, we are still under the U.S. government. The U.S. government is so large, there are so many different departments and structures you have to run and organize. Some people may have ten or fifteen different jobs. In the beginning of my statement, in which I told you what I have done, that is just a handful of what I do, but there are people who have done much more. The coalition among all the tribes in California meet and talk about how to work with the state, local, and county government and developers who are building homes how to protect cultural resources. Cultural resources are ancestor remains, cemeteries and other places that are not disturbed yet, but maybe possibly be discovered or disturbed by a development. Then we also have a coalition for human rights to ensure quality of healthcare and social services. We also have a community coalition for child-care, to make sure our children are protected, and when they become older, what types of services are available to them.

Do you have an overall goal for what you want to achieve?

One of my goals is to try and achieve recognition for our tribe. My father started pursuits in 1950 and we recently filed our petition to the Federal Bureau of Federal Acknowledgements. We're the only tribe who submitted a digital file of a petition, so instead of sending 20,000 sheets of paper, we sent one 16 GB USB drive - so they saw our full petition digitally. That is one of the achievements we would like to accomplish for our tribe. With that coming in, it would give us what we've been trying to do with the audits. We quasi-achieve Indian house services for our people, social services, and opportunities for scholarships. We did that in our home, but not to the magnitude or scale that we can do, once we are federally recognized. Federal recognition will also create more jobs for L.A. County, because you are talking about an Indian health hospital or clinic in Los Angeles where you need to employ people in order to run it. So you're talking full operations that not only Indian people would be able to apply and receive employment from, but the community itself. For the federally recognized tribes here in Los Angeles, you are talking about gaining money, because Prop 5 was passed a couple of years ago. No money comes into Los Angeles because there are no federally recognized tribes. The gaming money stays within the counties that the tribes are in, like San Medino, Riverside, and San Diego County. There is no profit sharing from gaming revenues in Los Angeles because there are no federally recognized tribes. The money goes to the governor's general fund, but not here. So there are a lot more opportunities when tribe is federally recognized, not just for itself, but also for the surrounding communities.

Do you think federal recognition affects people's belief in their own culture? Do you think 71

federal recognition would bring your tribe closer together culturally?

I think in terms of confidence, my tribe will be affected. Since my tribe is not federally recognized and one of my people go to an Indian program that only serves federally recognized Indians, we’ll be denied just because we’re not federally recognized. Then, if you go back to the regular services, you're kicked out. So you're literally stuck in no-man's zone where you really don't have an identity. Federal recognition secures your identity and gives you confidence to say who you are. If you're going to receive services or be part of society, you have to lose one or the other. You either keep your pride, your heritage, your culture, and decide that you're not going to get any services and rough it out as best you can. Or you lose your identity and mark down Caucasian or Mexican so at least you can receive services instead of experiencing this ping-pong effect that many people who are not federally recognized experience. It's more of a frustration because the leaders tell you that you are Indian or Tataviam or Tongva and when you go out there and broadcast that, there are people who don't know even know what that means. That's one thing the leadership really has to do - we have to go to local governments and tell them to recognize our people because they want to be proud of their heritage. That's currently where we stand. As far as people believing in their culture, I think it's more of an issue of confidence and pride, because you lose it if you don't have recognition.

What do you think is the most effective way to promote your culture and educate the community about Native Americans?

We have tried many different ways and I think that we need to continue to strive to demonstrate our culture. We have our little festivals locally where we show our dances and songs, which attract a lot of people, and we try and educate and tell people that not every Indian is a dancer and singer. Some people are very bashful and shy. In society, there are a lot of Indian people who sit and watch the dancers who don't perform at all, but they're still Indian, it doesn't make them any less Indian. That's one thing we try to educate people on; that Indian people are just like anyone out there. Some are dancers and singers, some are spiritual people, and some are not, but we're all Indian people, American people. Some even take up police jobs. We used to have our travel newsletter where some Indians were promoted in the Los Angeles Police Department and in nursing as well. They took civic jobs and made good achievements in the community and that is what we try to broadcast. However, this type of broadcasting that shows Indian people in this manner gets much less attention because it's not so romantic. Since they're not in feathers or singing song, there's no attention, but once we start singing or dancing the attraction comes back because it speaks to the more romantic Hollywood Indian image.

What are your personal plans in the near future for promoting your tribe?

I would like to see my tribe develop more jobs. This past year we received the stimulus package 72

from President Obama. In the past year we have created 20 jobs in Los Angeles and I would like to see us do more of that in terms of sustaining the community and jobs that we have created here in Los Angeles. With recognition or not, that is the ultimate goal for me. My tribe would build our community and economy with the revenue generated from jobs. Unlike other tribes who are not so close to Los Angeles, I think our tribe has the unique opportunity to be in the Los Angeles marketplace. There are much more opportunities here for our tribe and I think we are just looking for that one opportunity that would make us fruitful in building our community, since we have so many resources here in Los Angeles. 73

Bridghid Pulskamp

United American Indian Involvement

Navaho

By Isaac Tovares and Abby Chin-Martin

Bridghid Pulskamp is the cultural coordinator and parent family coordinator at United American Indian Involvement (UAII). She is a member of the Navajo tribe and graduated Magna Cum Laude from California State Fullerton. She is highly educated in Native American history. In addition to her demanding job, she is a trainer for the Indian Child Welfare Act and is also a co- convener on the American Indian Community Council. She is very devoted to her work and dedicated to spreading awareness about Native American Culture. She is a loving mother and is passionate about making sure her children receive a rich and fulfilling teaching of Native American culture.

Where are you from?

I was born out here in Los Angeles, actually in Panorama City, and I grew up in a community called Granada Hills, which is northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It’s also known as the San Fernando Valley.

Why don’t you give us a little background on your life?

I’m Navajo, so I’ll introduce myself in Navajo. Introductions are really important, especially within the American Indian community. It’s really important to introduce yourself correctly to other Navajos, because we have a clan system. If I met someone who was Navajo, I would have to tell them my background and with that they’ll know who I am, what family I belong to, where I came from, and probably a lot more in depth information. I’m from a clan called Tsi'náájiníí, which in English means Black Streak Wood people and I’m half Irish from my father. My material grandfather is from the clan Todich'ii'nii, which is Bitterwater and my paternal grandfather is of Irish German decent. All Navajos have four clans, two from their mother and two from their father. I was born here in Los Angeles, but my mom actually came to California to attend the Sherman Indian School, which is an Indian boarding school. She came out here when she was probably fourteen years old, during the time when the U.S. government forced Indian children to go to boarding schools. My tribe’s original place is in Arizona, so they took my mom out of Arizona and sent her here to California. Her sister went to another school in Oregon and her other sister somehow didn’t go to school, but stayed on the reservation. So they split the girls up. When my mom graduated from high school, they put her into a work training facility and sent her to Sequoia National Park where she was a maid and cleaned up the 74 bungalows. That’s actually where she met my dad. It was a summer job for them and they both came back, went to the valley, and my father pursued my mom until she finally agreed to marry him. That’s how I got here to Los Angeles. I’m one of eleven children. I’m the middle child - dead in the middle.

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry or Indian identity?

Navajo culture is a matriarchal system. So basically it goes by the mother. The woman will be in charge of the land and when she gets married to someone, her husband will move to her family’s land. They are strong women, so my mom, being Navajo, brought us up that way. I can remember from my childhood that as soon as school was out for summer, we were back on the road heading to the Navajo reservation in Arizona. Any breaks we had from school, we would head back to the reservation and spend our days there. The boarding school system was meant to assimilate Native American children into the American culture and lifestyle. They took Native American children from their home and families to attend these schools and learn certain trades. They taught my mom how to clean; they weren’t really getting educated to pursue a higher education. The boarding schools were designed to just give them little skills and then to throw them into the cities or suburbs off the reservation. At the same time, they didn’t want any Native children to speak their Native language. They wanted to them to speak English only. When my mom entered school, she was already a teenager and she only spoke Navajo. The Navajo reservation is as big as West Virginia. We have that biggest land base and I believe that we may be the largest Native American tribe. We have about half a million people in our tribe and we’re very secluded. To this day, when I go back home, I will stay in a hogan , which is the traditional round Navajo home made of cedar wood and adobe clay. There’s no running water and no electricity. The nearest highway-paved road is about a forty-five minute drive from my family’s land. The drive to the nearest grocery store is about an hour. We still raise sheep and horses and maintain cornfields. Most of my elders only speak Navajo. I would say that most of my generation is bilingual. When I would go home, I would be immersed in that culture. If I tried to sleep in, my mom or someone would wake me up early and I’d have to go help out with my duties of that day. You just live it. That’s how I knew I was Navajo. My mom always said “you’re Navajo” and I just knew it because I went home and I was Navajo. Everyone around me spoke Navajo, but there were problems with that, because they told my mom not to speak Navajo. She didn’t want to teach us because she believed it was going to be better for us to learn English and live like Americans. So she tried not to teach us Navajo. Imagine going back to see your grandma and grandpa, but you can’t communicate with words. Eventually I learned some Navajo, but I’m not fluent. Of course you pick up on the important words. Part of my identity is that I want to say something, but I’m not able to say it because I can’t really say it in English. When you speak another language it doesn’t really translate properly. I would always have a hard time with that and my mom would also, because there are no words in English for some 75

Navajo sayings. Having eleven brothers and sisters, I didn’t realize that I was different at home. The Native population in America is only about one percent and I never realized anything different about myself until I went to school. I would use Navajo words amongst my siblings at school and people would just look at me like “what are you saying?” They’d have no clue.

What has been your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life? How often do you visit the reservation now?

I visit the reservation probably about four times a year. I make a strong effort to do so. I go during the four different seasons, because a lot of the time we didn’t get to go during wintertime. There are very important things that I missed out on, like our creation stories that we can only told during winter. Our creation stories are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old and they’re from the beginning of time. They are really important teachings and philosophies of our traditions. Unfortunately, I was never exposed to those stories, but I’m hoping that my kids will be able to learn them. As far as the Native American community, when I was younger in Los Angeles – and I don’t know if you know this, but Los Angeles has the world’s largest population of Native Americans – going to school was still tough. I went to an alternative school, to a public school, and to a Catholic school, but I can’t remember a time when I was in a class with another Native person. Even though Los Angeles has the largest Native population, we’re still spread out all over the place. You know how there’s Little Tokyo and Chinatown where people can experience their culture’s presence in food and language, there’s no one place like that in Los Angeles where you can just go and be surrounded by Native Americans. I grew up like that, but I didn’t see many other Native people while growing up in Los Angeles. My mom is the only one from her family that moved out here. The rest of her family lives back on the reservation. Now with my generation, some of my family has moved out to Phoenix or Flagstaff, but that’s about the furthest that they’ve gone off the reservation. So that made it kind of difficult for me growing up. I was okay with everything until I started going to school and realized that I was different. To me, going weeks without running water or electricity was not a big deal, but to other people, it was crazy. I started noticing those little cultural differences between mainstream America and what my mom exposed us to. Being Navajo and my father being an Irish-German American, I ran into a lot of complication with that as well. I’m fair skinned, so people would automatically assume that I was Caucasian or Mexican, but they never really realized that I was Native. I knew who I was, but the people who were around me always questioned me. They questioned me so much and so often that eventually, I didn’t even want to talk about it anymore and I didn’t want people to know. When I was in fourth grade, I didn’t want anyone to come over to our house because I didn’t want him or her to know that I was Native. I would do little things like that just to avoid people knowing my cultural background. I think there’s a word for that – microaggression? When I would tell people that I was Navajo, people would say that I didn’t look Native. I would think, “Well what am I supposed to look like?” I began to question my identity. Now as an adult, I work with people in the Native community because I can relate to 76

how they’re feeling. I give advice to the younger generation and even parents who might have children struggling with identity issues.

You mentioned you have children. How do you raise them with regard to Native American culture?

I have four children. My oldest is twenty-two. She is my stepdaughter, but I raised her. She’s not Native American, but she’s been exposed to everything. She goes back to the reservation with me, though not quite as often as my other kids now that she’s older. It was a culture shock for her, but it also gave her a lot of perspective when viewing her life in regards to necessities like electricity and running water. I have three younger children that I’ve adopted. I foster care for Native American children because there’s such a need for it. There is a law in place called the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which protects Native children. However, the “protection” enforced by the law is not the best thing for our children. Non-Natives go on the reservation and take the children away and say “you don’t have running water or electricity so you can’t have those children.” Those children have all the love and support they need from their families. Non- Natives look at the cultural differences and put their own ideals onto them and take their children away. Even in the city, the way that people are bringing up their children is misinterpreted. So there was a really big problem with us losing our children to the system. Those children grew up not knowing that they were Native American and they were never able to reconnect with their tribal people appropriately. Being a Native American, I just decided I had to do this.

How old are your other three kids?

I have an eleven-year-old daughter, an eight-year-old daughter, and a four-year-old son. It’s a wonderful blessing. I originally wanted to adopt Navajo children because I thought, “oh they’ll be from my tribe and we’ll be able to share our culture together.” There are so many tribal differences that I was kind of timid to adopt other children, but I eventually realized there’s a reason why everything happens. My two girls are biological sisters and they’re from a California tribe called Morongo, Band of Mission Indians. They’re located by Palm Springs, CA. My youngest son is from the tribe near the Gila River, which is located in Arizona just south of Phoenix. He’s from four different tribal backgrounds: Maricopa, Pima, Pawnee, Katchan. Our household is like an intertribal household. Although my kids identify as Navajo, they also identify with their other tribes. This really gave me a big challenge, because I felt like I needed to expose them, not only to my tribe and the urban Native community, but also with their own tribal community, culture, languages, dances, and relatives. If I didn’t expose them to their own culture, I’d be doing the same thing as the oppressors; keeping them away from their identity. I do raise them and I take them out to different powwows very often. My girls are champion powwow dancers. My little one, he likes to dance, but it’s on his own terms. They also perform their own tribes’ traditional dancing, which are called birdsongs and birdsinging. They do basket 77

weaving, sewing, and jewelry making. I’m really trying to push cultural influence on them, because to me, it’s a great strength. I want them to know who they are, so they can feel good about it and be proud. At the same time, I’m skeptical. My daughter’s tribe is close to a city and has a total population of about a thousand people. The missions have bombarded them and they’ve forgotten a lot of the old tradition and languages. Actually, their language is no longer being spoken. There are some elders that speak another dialect of the language though. I encourage them to learn that dialect and eventually go back and learn the old words. It’s a great battle, but it’s worth every step.

Can you describe what you do for a living?

I feel like I have to give you a background so it makes sense. When I was growing up, I attended a Catholic high school with a mascot called “The Indians.” I played sports and I attended football games. I would hear really terrible and racist things, like “scalp the Indians” and lots of other terrible things from the opposing teams. I only went to school there for a year and then I decided to go to a public school. At the public school, I was able to re-identify myself. No one really knew who I was there. I never really talked about my ethnicity to anybody. None of my friends knew I was Native, because I just didn’t talk about it. No one would go over to my parent’s house. My friends probably would have never even guessed it. Back then, in the eighties, I had my hair bleached platinum blond. There was nothing in my appearance that would have identified me as being Native American. It was really sad that I was hiding my identity and it was horrible that I was trying to be someone else to the outside world. I ended up getting kind of discouraged because we didn’t have much money and I thought, “Okay, well I guess I’m not going to go to college now, what’s the use of high school?” So I started ditching school and I started misbehaving. I was pretty much a straight A student before then, but when I started ditching, my grades totally slipped and I ended up not graduating from high school. Which was just another sad thing because that’s such a big statistic in the Native community. Anything negative that you can think of (number one dropout rate, suicide rate, abuse, alcoholism), Native Americans have the worst statistics when comparing any other ethnic group. From my own personal experience, it’s just because we’re in this environment and we’re being torn so many different ways that we have to learn how to go in and out of both own culture as well as the American mainstream culture. I ended up going back to school almost ten years later. Before that decision, I was running around doing my thing and I was working in the office, but I realized it wasn’t my passion. I was doing fine financially and I’ve lived on my own since I was 18, but I wasn’t doing what I liked. I always knew I wanted to work with kids. When I was little, I thought I was either going to be a teacher or a child psychologist, definitely something with kids. I finally decided to go back to school to pursue this passion. At that time, my youngest sister was about to graduate from high school and I felt like I had to be a good role model for her, because I looked up to my oldest sister. I saw my big sister with so much potential. She was smart, artistic, athletic, and beautiful, and I didn’t see her do anything with it. I think it kind of gave me 78

the feeling that “it’s okay for me to not go forward.” With my little sister, I wanted to better role model. She was already a smart kid and a good kid. When she graduated, she got into UCLA and was studying psychology. By that time, I was transferring to Cal State to study psychology also. We started doing parallel education in the type of work we were both interested in. She was my inspiration to go back to school. I started with a dual major of child development and psychology. I also took all the cultural anthropology classes that I could, like sociology. Those types of classes were so interesting to me. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and received my degree in psychology at Cal. State Fullerton. It took me four years and everyone was so surprised, because I had just woken up one day and decided I was going back to school. All these things were against me: waiting ten years, my age, having a family, being Native, and the lack of support from everyone who thought I wasn’t going to make it. I was so happy when I graduated. My sister graduated that same year at UCLA in psychology as well. A couple years before, I had started working with the Southern California Indian Center in the education component. I worked as a one-on-one tutor with Native youth all over L.A. and Orange Country. I would do cultural workshops and plan enrichment trips because a lot of our kids don’t have the money to go out and go do things. We would plan those trips and get them all on a bus to go to the museum or beach or somewhere like that. We just wanted to get them away from what was holding them back, just so they could see some good things for a day. We also planned trips for them to college campuses. We taught them that college should be their goal and they should strive to achieve it. I worked there for many years and we would always get laid off for the summer, which I liked, but my husband didn’t like. One year I was laid off longer than a summer because we had to wait for the governor to sign the budget. The governor took too long and my husband kept saying, “You need to get a job.” Finally I gave in and looked for a job. This was also around the time the adoptions had gone through. I was like, “okay, I’m settled in with that,” and so I applied at United American Indian Involvement, and that’s where I am at now. I’ve been there for almost four years now. I work in the child and family services department and we offer mental health services. We use western therapy, equine therapy, and art therapy. I am the Cultural Coordinator as well as the Parent Family Coordinator. We’re all about culture, so we make sure that all of these kids’ needs are addressed. For example, if they were from a particular tribe and they wanted to learn more about it, then I would be the one to seek out the information. I usually find out whether the child needs to be enrolled with the tribe or how to get them enrolled. I connect with the tribal members to try and find out about events going on in the community. I teach beading and basket weaving to the children at cultural workshops and if I don’t know how to do a craft, I hire someone and bring them in from the community. That’s what I’m doing right now and I do plan on applying for my masters in social work really soon. After I went through the adoptions and the foster care, I got really active with The Indian Child Welfare Act and actually I’m a co-convener on the American Indian Community Council. We have a sub-committee that deals with child welfare issues for Native children and I became one of the Indian Child Welfare Act trainers. I went through training and there are about five of us. We go back to the social workers for L.A. County and we train them to know the laws of the 79

Indian Child Welfare Act and cultural appropriateness. It’s a really big thing and it’s my passion: protecting those children.

Do you attend Indian powwows and festivals? How and when did you begin attending them? What brings you back to them?

I attend quite often. There is something going on almost every single night of the week in the community. There are powwows at least two or three times a month. This weekend, starting tonight actually, is LA Skins Fest, where they show Native movies by Native authors. That’s a big thing with our image up in Hollywood. That is how people see us. There are different events in the community that are constantly on. Tonight we have a speaker coming in and her name is Lisa Tiger. She is going to be talking about HIV and AIDS in the Native American community and she will talk about her own personal experience. There is always something going on here in Los Angeles where the Native community can gather. I take my kids whenever I can.

Do they like it?

They love it. The usual people who attend are like their second family. They are going to watch each other grow up, they are going to go to school together, and then they will come back to the community to work. Like I said, we go back home (to the reservation) for those special occasions and I go back to their tribes whenever I can as well.

What is the importance of powwows or festivals to the Native American community or to Indian cultural renewal?

I think it’s great, for instance, tonight I have to choose which event I am going to attend. How great is that? We have so many programs now that are really looking after our kids and families. I know that the organization that I work for started in 1974, but it was very small. Now it’s big, and not only that, but there are organizations interested in collaborating with each other, so that makes all the difference. They are sharing their love. I didn’t have that when I was growing up. My kids are going to see those same kids over and over and they are going to make good friends. They could share that culture and identity and be proud of it. It’s going to make you a stronger person and not feel so alone in this big city. My mom and I would go to powwows here and there, but because they weren’t specifically from our tribe, my mom didn’t let us dance in the powwows. She explained that powwow is from a different tribe and that’s not how danced. My mother is very traditional and when my family and I go back home, we do our dances and stuff over there. When I went back to Los Angeles, I wouldn’t be able to do those dances. Eventually, by the time she had my younger siblings, she gave in. I think my younger four siblings all danced in the powwows. They learned how to dance and my mom helped make their regalia and all the other accessories. I guess by that time she realized it was okay, as long as they knew they were 80

Navajo. I think she was afraid that we were going to lose our own Navajo identity.

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples of Los Angeles?

I am really interested in films right now. There is such a big movement with getting Native directors and many Native actors. Many times in Hollywood, the people playing Native parts were rarely Native American. That’s just one way to be able to give your own personal voice as a Native person and put it on film. I think it will have a big impact because it’s different than someone on the outside looking in and saying, “oh this is how we see you.” The outsiders then decide how they are going to make you look, make you act, and make you play our part. I try to keep an eye out for different people in the communities that are Native, like Native doctors or sports figures. I just want them to show our children that they can be anything they want to be and they don’t have to just accept the fate of those stereotypes. It’s just about finding those good role models out there and bringing them out to the kids and the families and letting them tell their success stories. In that way it promotes hope in the kids and it gives them that possibility to achieve whatever their destination is supposed to be rather than being bombarded with all these negative stereotypes or other issues that are going on.

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

Growing up surrounded by stereotypes, like the mascot of the Indian, is a big issue. There is that sports team, the Redskins, and people don’t realize what that means. It’s someone who pays 10 cents for the scalp of an Indian and they have to leave a little bit of their skin on their hair. How sick is that? I hated history, well, I loved history, but I hated learning history at school because of the way it was taught. It is so one-sided; they don’t want to talk about the truth. There are a lot of truths about the way our government treated Native Americans and are still treating our Native people, which are never recognized or revealed. They don’t want the general public to know. They want to keep the Native American image oblivious and romantic, like “they were so spiritual and engaged with nature.” They also show the flip side, that Native Americans are savages or drunks. They don’t want to look at us as real people. However, we have real needs and we have real issues. There are big problems in history that continue to this day with the government and trusting the future of our people. There are so many things I could think of, like Halloween. Seeing women dressed up as sexy Indians. Thanksgiving time the kids are making crafts and it seems all so innocent, but that’s where they start teaching these stereotypes to children. They have their little pilgrim things, little Indian feathers, and that kind of makes a mockery of it all, because those are all religious items. The eagle feather is very important to us. I don’t think you would ever hear of the Catholic Church saying it was okay if you were dressing up as the Pope. I think Columbus Day is another big one. There is a big movement that’s trying to get rid of that dedication and call it “Native American Day,” instead. It would call attention to 81

the fact that we are still here.

What is your opinion of the gaming industry in the Indian community?

I have mixed feelings about it to be honest. For example, in my tribe we have one casino that opened about two years ago and they plan on building five more on the reservation in the future. From what I have heard, it’s been a really difficult process. The elders did not want the casino built. I don’t know how the tribal officials got that passed through and how they were able to do it. It kind of worries me. There is not enough revenue coming in yet and I worry about how this is going to affect my community. I went to visit the casino and I saw a lot of my elders in there. That kind of hurt me because I know that a lot of my family members are very poor. To see these other elder tribal members gambling their money away made me feel really sad. Now my daughters’ tribe, the Morongo, built a pretty big casino. It is a four star resort and there’s only one thousand people in the tribe, so the revenue is a lot. The members of the tribe make a lot of money. Because of where they are located, mostly non-Native people are in there. I also see other California tribes making good revenue from their casino. There are pros and cons to it. I am glad that they are making money and have been able to come out of poverty. They give back to the communities that surround them. I know that San Manuals is pretty close to Los Angeles and I know they do a lot of stuff with those communities. Other tribes do the same. They give back to local fire stations and other kinds of things that are going on. I feel like so many positive things come out from that. At the same time, I worry for my girls, because when they turn eighteen, they will start getting their money each month from their tribe. What is going to happen when they realize they have this money coming in? Are they going to become dependent on that money and give up on their goals? Right now my eleven year old is in the “gifted and talented program” at school and her goal is to go to UCLA. She is on the campus all the time and has made her friends there. She has all these goals and dreams. She doesn’t know yet that when she turns eighteen this money will come to her. I see a lot of families that get this money and sometimes its up to twenty or thirty thousand dollars a month. It all depends on what they make that quarter, but each tribe is a little different. These are just stories that I have heard about how much people have gotten. The people that have money given to them usually don’t seek higher education and they have drug and alcohol abuse problems. That worries me, but at the same time, so many good things have come out of it. I know that the local tribes out here are really focusing on cultural renewal. As I was saying, a lot of those traditional teachings have been forgotten. They are really trying to bring them back. They are taking that money and putting it into teaching their children those languages and dances. It’s important to get that balance. Teaching those kids about their culture and how to deal with the money is important. Maybe there needs to be more goals set. I don’t know, it is not my money and it is not my tribe, but they are my kids and if it were up to me, I would advise them to put a set amount away for college. There are different things that worry me, but I think overall I am glad that those tribes have been able to come out of poverty and help their own community. 82

David Rambeau

United American Indian Involvement

Pauite

By Binh Vuong and Taryn Predki

Dave Rambeau, a member of the Paiute Tribe, serves as Executive Director of the United American Indian Involvement (UAII) in Los Angeles. UAII is a non-profit agency that provides social services to the American Indian community through a variety of programs. He was President of the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) from 2008-2010 and currently serves on the Board of Directors.

Where are you from?

I came to work in Los Angles in September of 1974. During the 1960s, the American Indian people joined in with the Civil Rights Movement because there were a lot of problems going on. Nationally, the rights of Indian people were being violated. American Indians have reservations that are controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is part of the United States Department of Interior. The big reservations up in the Dakotas, specifically the Pine Ridge Indian reservation of the Oglala Sioux tribe, used to be controlled by a guy named Dick Wilson. Wilson was considered a “half-breed,” meaning that he was half Indian and half white. He was elected chairman of the Pine Ridge reservation and he hired people to work with him, who were also half-breeds. He set up a rather mean administration, meaning that anyone who wasn’t a full- blooded Indian wasn’t included in the government process. So the national Civil Rights Movement was going on and there was a group called the American Indian Movement that started in St. Paul, Minnesota. They started as a group of Indian people who had moved from the reservations to urban centers. They wanted to be able to get together on weekends to sing, dance, and socialize, because they were away from the reservations. A little further back, in the 50’s, the government started this program called Relocation. They offered opportunities for Indians to move off the reservation and go to school, learn a trade, and get jobs. The real motive for Relocation was to move the Indian people from the reservations to urban centers. The idea was for the Indian people to assimilate into other races and ethnic groups. If you’re less than a quarter of Indian, the government no longer has responsibility to you. They were trying to have the Indians assimilate into these other groups of people, until the blood quantum was cut so much that the people were less than ¼ Indian. Moving forward again, the young people who had moved from reservations into the urban settings were the American Indian Movement group that was just gathering as a social group of people. However, living in urban centers, they were subjected to the cruelty of the non-Indian population that was creating the same problems for other people, especially Blacks. Being an Indian wasn’t a good thing. These young Indian people organized into the American Indian Movement and that movement became militant because of 83

the fact that they were also trying to gain civil rights for people living on the reservation and off the reservation. During the 60’s, the American Indian Movement started protesting and did some things that I think were necessary. For example, they took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building and ransacked it. Moving forward again, into 1974, the Indian people who were full bloods on the Pine Ridge reservation were tired of Dick Wilson doing bad things toward them, so they took over a place on the reservation called Wounded Knee. Historically, Wounded Knee was the place where the Indian people were camped and the military came in and killed everybody in the 1800s. They killed all the men, women, and children, and left them there for a couple days in the snow before they buried them. The military ambushed the camp because of one small misunderstanding, but they killed everyone for it.

How many people were killed?

I think there were over a hundred people killed. Again, that was a hundred men, women, children, and elders. The Wounded Knee location on the Pine Ridge reservation is a sacred place for the Indian people. The tribe now occupies the area. There was an old church there at the time of the massacre. The government wanted the Sioux tribe to leave the area. Dick Wilson wanted the government to take the Indian people off Wounded Knee because it was starting to become a national issue. Dick Wilson and the government really didn’t want the American people to see what was going on. There wasn’t too much press during that time and some of the elders from Pine Ridge asked the American Indian Movement, who had become a really militant group by that time, if they would join them. These were young men and women who came from urban sites like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Denver. They went to Pine Ridge and joined the people on the reservation. When the American Indian Movement arrived, the press followed them and then Wounded Knee became a big issue because the press was there. Then it became a national issue and the occupation at Wounded Knee went on for about 75 days back in 1974. During that time the Los Angeles Police Department became more negative towards the Indian population, especially in the Skid Row area. They would pick up drunks on Skid Row and put them in an old paddy wagon and drive them around all day and there was no air conditioning. They wouldn’t let them out to pee, so they ended up peeing in the paddy wagon. At the end of the day, the police drove them to East Los Angeles, dropped them off, and told them to walk back to Skid Row. That was what was going on in Los Angeles during the Wounded Knee uproar. Prior to that, there was a woman named Bubba, or Barbara, Cooper and she and her friends decided that the Indian people needed a safe place to go because they were being harassed on the streets and in the alleys. They all got their funds together and opened this organization in June of 1974. The facility had a place for people to come and eat one meal a day. It was like a mission and it had places to sleep with separate floors for men and women. The men and women who came could receive counseling or go to detox centers. The organizers tried to get the homeless into rehab or off the streets. This program started as a crisis drop-in center and 84

one of the funding sources at the time saw what they were doing and gave the program money to keep the doors open. I came to work for the Indian Programs Inc. in Los Angeles in September 1974. When Nixon came into office, he signed the American Indian Self-Determination Act, which gave the Indian people the right to run their own businesses and govern their tribes. With that came money for urban Indian programs. Indian Programs Inc. started in the 1970s and in 1974 I came to work for them with education and tutoring. I was the Education Director and as time went on, I became the Executive Director. I quit because it wasn’t what I needed to do. I told Marion in 1980, who was then the director of this program, that I’d like to go work with her on Skid Row. In June of 1981 I came to work here and I’ve been here ever since. Our program had a budget of around $160,000 at that time. Part of my job was to look for new money. From that period up until 1996, we had increased our dollars from $160,000 to $360,000 annually. Marian eventually left and I became the director. In 1996, we secured our first major contract through Indian Health Service to provide healthcare for Indian people in Los Angeles and from 1996 to present we increased our dollars from $360,000 to $8.5 million. It was a lot of work. We had people coming into our program that were right off the street: men, women, families, women with children, elders and people who lived in old seedy hotels in the Skid Row area. In the beginning, when I was working there, people could still come in intoxicated or loaded. Many of the women on the street had children who were in foster care. During the course of three or four years, I would talk to them while they were still loaded or drunk and I’d ask them, “What would you want for yourself and your family if you were sober?” They would tell me “I’d like to have my kids back.” I’d say, “Since you can’t have your kids back right now, what would you want for your kids? Wouldn’t you want them to have a place where they can be with other Indians?” The kids are put in non-Indian foster care homes that don’t care about our kids being Indians. Some people are in it just for the money. They get paid a certain amount. If a kid is compliant, for example, and not a problem, the foster family might get $800 a month to take care of that kid. However, if that kid had problems and needed to be dealt with, the foster family might get $1200. I know several foster families who have Indian kids but really wanted the kids that were hard to take care of because of the money issue. They wanted the $1200; they didn’t want a compliant kid that only brings in $800. This still happens today. There are a lot of foster families who are in it just for the money. It’s obvious because we hear every now and then on the radio of a foster kid who dies because they were not properly taken care of. But anyway, in 1996 our budget tripled and as the years went on, we kept developing proposals. If a person came in and told me the things she wanted for her kids, I would write them all down and put them on these big sheets of paper and hang them on the wall. Eventually, we had all these things on our walls, so we started looking at current programs in the city that could fulfill some of these issues. Some programs included: alcohol and drug rehab, detox, retraining, employment, and work experience. What we did was look at everything the people told us and tried to find resources for these people. Say a person has a job but can’t keep it because they are drinking. The first step would be to get them in a recovery program and help them stay in recovery by encouraging them to go to support groups like AA. We encouraged them to complete a job-training program. Some of 85

them would never do it though. They were just alcoholics who have been drinking since they were 9 years old. They drank the booze that their parents drank and when their parents would pass out, they would drink more. Since they didn’t have enough to eat, the booze would alleviate some of that pain from being hungry. They would start drinking then at an early age and then they drink their whole life. Some have been to prison and some are 55 years old and still live on the street. I always think, “What are they going to do?” The hope of them going though rehab and making a recovery to operate in a normal fashion, is almost nonexistent. A lot of these people just do not want to have the responsibility of paying rent or utilities, so they just drink and use drugs. In 1996, we got our first contract to provide healthcare for Indian people because the clinic that was then in existence in Los Angeles was having problems. However, we were an alcohol program and not a health program. The Indian Health Service, part of Health and Human Services, decided that they didn’t want to have a clinic, but wanted to have a public health case management program that would address prevention through public health nurses and case managers. They wanted to give us treatment money and we decided we couldn’t do two brand new contracts at the same time. So we refused the alcohol contract, but a year later the people they gave the contract to mess up and we were ready, since we had a year to get the public health case management concept working. We went around in our service area, which is south of the San Gabriel Mountains down to Orange County down to the ocean. We talked to old existing community clinics, because a lot of them started as free clinics in the 1960s so they knew how to deal with people. We partnered with them to provide services to the Indian people in their area and that’s how we got started. We still have the memorandums of understanding with about ten clinics throughout our service area. Then when we got the alcohol contract, we did the same thing. We didn’t open up a rehab center, but we partnered with existing rehab centers. The reason we did this was because we realized that we can’t have one rehab center that will satisfy the needs of all the people. We decided we had to make a choice of whether we were going to have a rehab center for men or one just for women or coed. So we decided that the best thing for us to do was have partners. We have nine or ten partners who are in the business of providing rehab. For example, we have a partnership with the Tarzana Rehab Center, a coed program. Then we have a partnership with a rehab program in Downey, who take in women with children (something Tarzana doesn’t do). We have partnerships with rehab centers that just take men and other treatment programs who take just women, like Casa Up in Pasadena. We figured that to get the bigger bang for our buck, we would do it that way. We could put more people into rehab this way also. So over the years, we were able to get more money into the organization through government funding sources like Indian Health Service. We now have four contracts with Indian Health Services: one contract to do the medical part, another contract for small clinic we opened, one to do treatment for women and children, and one for men. All the programs we have in this organization came out of what those people said they would want for their kids or themselves or their families. So every program we have here is based on the needs that those people living on the streets express to us. For example, we have a clinic because people wanted to have a place to be able to go for primary medical care, but still be in an environment where there are American 86

Indians. Our medical doctor, Dr. Blackwater, is a Navajo Indian, so when people come in they feel more comfortable, just as any other person would. If a person was from Pakistan and found a clinic with primary doctors from Pakistan, they too would probably gravitate toward that clinic because they could speak the language and understand the cultural similarities. We have contracts with dentists in the area who we can refer to for dental treatment. We have our public health case management contracts that work with prevention. We teach a lot about prevention of the flu, diabetes, and obesity. We have sessions and sessions and sessions on that with our population to make them aware of the problems with those chronic diseases. We have case managers that follow our clients and make sure they get to their appointments, take care of housing issues, and get them to rehab. We have two diabetes programs. One is for potential diabetics with indicators like heredity. We have sessions to show people how to prolong their health by talking about what foods to eat and how to take care of themselves. We have a program for people who are diabetics and what we want to do is prolong their lives and we teach them how to manage their diabetes. We have a monthly session with our diabetics and we talk with them about losing their kidneys and eyesight and what signs to look for. We also have a Healthy Heart contract that talks to people about eating properly so that they take care of their heart. Those programs are done in different sessions throughout the year. We also have a program that helps families and kids get medical care through Medicare and Healthy Families. We also have an elder program and a case manager that works with the elders. On the third floor we have our wellness program, which is one of our two alcohol programs. We also have programs funded through another grant from the Indian Health Service for health promotion and disease prevention. The grant also provides money to help with immunization and counseling. If you are not a diabetic, but you find out tomorrow that you are, some people think that is a death sentence and they become stressed by it and depressed. We try to have a psychologist talk to the person and help them work through that initial terror. We also have a program called SAFE, Strengthening American Indian Families. We have different sessions where the members do things that normal families might do, like being active with your kids, going camping, or going to Disneyland. We have a Fatherhood program that does the same thing, except with the dads. It works out really well. One of the things the SAFE program and Fatherhood program did was sponsor a Halloween party for their families. The idea is to teach parents how to interact with their kids. Across the hall from the community center is the Youth Program that picks kids up (ages 5 to 18) and brings them here two to three times a week to do different activities. With teens they talk about teen pregnancy and dating and violence in their social life and health issues like obesity. The teens have a student council that they hold elections for every year and one elected member is chosen from the council as a member of our Board of Directors. They have the same authority as the other Board members except they can’t sign contracts because they are not 21. They are the voice for the youth. They mentor the kids and encourage them to participate in activities. Through the Youth Program, we take the kids to a summer camp every year. In fact, this is our 20 th year taking kids to summer camp. We started with about seven kids and we went to the Bishop, CA area. This year we took about 120 kids to summer camp. In the wintertime, we 87

have a winter camp for the teen group and we go to Bishop, CA again. During the stay we take the kids to Mammoth and they ski and snowboard and in the evenings we have sessions with them again about healthy dating and relevant medical issues. One week we will take just the girls and they talk about their issues and during that time there is a sweat ceremony in a sweat lodge. Another week we will take just the boys and talk to them about their responsibilities as young men. I mean their responsibility within the community, responsibility to young women, no violence against women, all these issues. Then on the ground floor we have our 7 th Generation Program, which is named as such because Indian groups believe that everything you do in your generation affects the next seven generations. We have a million dollar contract with the county to provide mental health and case management services to Indian children in foster care. We have about 500 kids in foster care. Under the Indian Child Welfare Act, if a child comes to Los Angeles County Juvenile or Youth court, they have to ask if that child is American Indian. If they are Indian, they are referred to a special court in the children’s court system that deals just with Indian children. Those are the kids we provide mental health counseling to. We also have other programs through the 7th Generation Programs funded by SAMSA, a federal agency that provide cultural activities for our kids. Also, through the 7th Generation, we have a Domestic Violence program that is funded through the state. We also have a Family Preservation Program that is funded by the county. If someone is having problems and their kids are on the verge of being taken away from them, our professionals will go in once they are referred and try to help them work through the problems so the kids don’t get taken away. We have a Family Assistance Program that helps families maintain their households. For example, if a child has been taken away from their parents and the grandma is going to get the children through the Children’s Court, the court can’t give them to the grandma because she’s got a couple broken windows in her house. So we’ll go in and fix the broken window and when the house is checked again, they’ll say, “That’s fine, grandma’s house is fine.” We have programs for children who are physically and sexually abused, that’s through the county, and we have a couple more programs that deal with children and their caretakers. Basically that’s what the organization is all about. Last week the mayor of the city of Los Angeles honored our program for being around a long time and running services and things. It was a really nice ceremony and celebration. The mayor actually stayed the length of time he was supposed to.

Where are you from, originally?

I’m from a small town called Big Pine, California. Bishop, California, is about 60 miles south of Mammoth and Big Pine is about 15 miles south of that. It’s a small town about 1,300 people. I was raised a few miles west of an Indian reservation in Big Pine, in a small community called the Indian Camp. The Indian Camp is actually not connected to the reservation. It’s quite a property. There are about 10 families that live there. I was born in Bishop and raised in Big Pine.

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What is your tribal affiliation?

I am a Paiute. The larger group was called the Paiute-Shoshone Band of Indians, but I’m from the Big Pine Paiute reservation.

So what personal family experiences have helped you recognize your Native American ancestry or identity?

I grew up in that area where there were just Cowboys and Indians. We were always Indians because we belonged to that tribal group and all our family are Paiutes. The community that I grew up in was a small all-Indian community. I always think I am extremely lucky because when I was a little boy, there were people who were old, in the 1980s and 1990s, which we associated with and their language was still spoken. You have to think that those people were born in the 1800s and they went through several transition periods. We were really fortunate to have them around us to talk to us and teach us about being Indian and teach us the traditional ways of our culture. It’s always home. Sometimes you feel sad for people who don’t have a home. People move around a lot. They might be from Ohio, but there are no roots there for them. There’s no family there because they’ve all moved away. There’s no one real place you can go back to every year and say, “This is nice. We’re having Christmas here and Thanksgiving here. And all of our family is here and all of our extended family is here.” For me, going to Big Pine is a four hour drive and when I get there all of my relatives are there and it’s just home.

So you still have that connection?

Absolutely. When I retire that’s where I’m going to go live because that’s where my family is.

So when you were growing up, do you remember any behaviors or reactions from the white community towards your community?

Because there were just Cowboys and Indians in my community, there was a problem with prejudice against the Indian people. That came with the people who came there to establish ranches, but there was always that feeling about Indian people and there was always discrimination. In fact, when we were kids, because we were Indian kids, the school system treated us like we were all mentally challenged, like we could never learn. That was a problem because we were never taught at the same level as the white kids. Because we were Indian we were considered D students. Once people started to accelerate, we became A and B students, but 89

something happened. Something was wrong.

Was it an integrated school?

Yes. In 1922, the school was separated. There was a small school in my little town that was run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and my grandfather and a whole bunch of the other guys that were alive didn’t want their kids to go to a segregated school. So they took the school district to court and won.

Do you attend Indian powwows and festivals?

Not all Indian tribes have powwows. My children would go home with me, when my mother and other family members were still alive and we would go to Big Pine a lot. We would participate in whatever was going on. For example, one of the things that we do for food gathering was pick piñons from piñon trees, which is a traditional way to gather food. Piñons are one of our stable foods. Every year we collect piñons by the sacks and during the year we would eat them. We would eat the piñons either as nuts or by making mush by cooking them. You can buy piñons from China and put them in your salads and things like that. So every year we would go and get everybody together, aunts and mothers and whoever else, and we’d go collect piñons. Now today, with the dances and powwows and things like that, we take our kids to the powwows. My son, whose grandpa is a Kiowa Indian and his grandma is a Delaware Indian, is not enrolled in my tribe. He is enrolled in the Delaware tribe, but when we go to the powwows he would dance with the regalia of the Kiowa Indians. Our daughter would do the same thing. We are slipping now because we have two granddaughters and we are not taking them. But that is how we would interact with the language, not much of the Paiute language is spoken because after the years we just did not associate with it. My sister was really into the Civil Rights Movement. That’s what we do. It’s difficult keeping the Indians identity because we are the minorities within the minorities. One year, two hundred thousand Armenians could move into Hollywood, but we don’t have two hundred thousand Indians in Los Angeles. During a one to two year period, all these Armenians would move in and we become even less of the minority. Then we have all the people across the borders, from the Asian countries and everywhere.

How do you feel about the way mainstream media depicts Indians?

It was a big problem in the past. There were the stereotypes, just like when you were asking me the stereotypical question in the manners of powwows. Not all Indians go to powwows or go to sweat ceremonies. It used to be a real problem, especially with John Wayne and all the 90

Caucasian heroes who killed more Indians than Japanese in the cowboy and Indian movies. But recently things have changed a lot because the Indian people honor themselves through awards and there are a lot of good Indian movies out with Indian people portraying themselves. In the old days, in the cowboys and Indians movies there were non-Indians playing Indians. But now we have actors like West Studi that have quite good parts. There is a movie called Edge of America and it’s a really good movie about this black guy who goes into Navajo land. Because he is black they think he should be a basketball coach, but he has no experience being a basketball coach. The actors are Indian people.

What are some ways that you think would educate the public about Indian affairs?

To the ones that want to listen, it’s a constant effort. We are involved nationally with the government. When the election came and Obama was running, the Indian people nationally got behind him. They honored him. One of the Montana tribes honored him and adopted him into their tribe. He made a lot of speeches to the Indian people and he made a lot of promises to us. The problem is that when Obama leaves there is going to be a new president so we have to constantly, constantly work on who is in power, and that goes for the Congressman and the Senators as well. For example, Dorgan, who lives in the Dakotas, was one of our big supporters of Indian people in Senate. He’s retired now. The new guy that is coming in, we don’t know if he’s going to be a supporter of us or not. We’re going to really work on him and have him aware of what is going on. In the government, we have an Indian affairs committee and people who are interested, from the Congress or the Senate, in Indian business are on the committee. They are the ones we have to educate, to say we need their support. Sometimes we stay quiet because we want to make sure that when we play in the game, the outcomes are going to be positive. When Obama was the president in elect, he had several listening sessions and we have a national urban program called National Council Urban Indian Health . I was the president for four years and we went to these listening sessions of Obama’s staff and we talked about Indian issues. Because of the promises he made and the huge support Obama had from the Indian people, Obama during increased our budget, the Urban Indian budget, thirty seven million, a seven million dollar increase. He was keeping his promises, but we would make him aware that he made those promises. We would constantly contact his offices, as well as the Senators and the Congress offices. There is a whole process to that, a lengthy process.

What kind of values do you carry in your life? Is there any value specific to your heritage?

I think there is and I think it depends on your generation of people. On the news they were talking about how rude American people have become whether it’s on the road or even simple things like when women are coming up and a lot of men will not hold the doors open for them. 91

They just walk in and the women have to open their own door. Whereas in my generation that is not the way it’s done because we have respect for women. When women come and we see them coming twenty paces from behind us, we still stand there and hold the doors for them. That is something we teach our kids too, like my son he does that now. We carry those values with us. We have respect for people and different genders and elders too. I was riding a bus one time and there was this old Mexican lady barely hanging on, those young guys didn’t even get up and give her a seat. They just looked at her and obviously she was doing the best she could to stand up. Then this guy got up and a young Mexican guy was going to sit down in that spot and I blocked him and told him, “This old lady needs to sit down.” He gave me a look like “what are you talking about.” We respect things around us. When we pray, we pray for everybody, for the environment and for the animals because, like a lot of tribes believe, we are brothers and sisters with the animals on this earth. We all carry a spirit, whether you are a dog, an elephant or whatever. Common threads that run through us are prayer, song, and dance. We pray for the people who are having problems with alcohols and drugs. We pray for ancestors too. We understand their life role when we were growing up in the communities. We acknowledge them in our prayers, except for the ones that are Christian. The other common thread is that we all pray for one God. A lot of people in their prayers refer to God as the grandfather or the Great Spirit. There are some of us who are more traditional in our feelings and we don’t follow Christian practices. We try to maintain a lot of respect for everybody though. We try to teach our kids that too.

Do you know how many recognized tribes there are in California?

There are a hundred and three state-recognized tribes in California but during the Eisenhower administration back in the fifties, they terminated a lot of tribes. I don’t know how many terminated tribes there are, however if you would come in and say: “I am Indian but I’m one of the terminated tribes,” I will still provide services to you because you were a recognized tribe at one point. California probably has the most recognized tribes in any state. It has the largest number of American Indians than any other state. California has many unrecognized tribes. California has special criteria, not like other states because most states don’t have state- recognized Indians like the Tongva/ Gabrielino. All California Indians were counted by the state and some were counted as, because they weren’t federally recognized tribes, as state-recognized tribes. So if you came in and said: “My grandfather was a Tongva Indian and here’s the letter from the state that says he’s a Tongva” then we will accept that.

Do you have any reflections or final thoughts?

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In the American Indian community, one thing that is really important to us is being involved with the military. This is our country and we really are nationalistic people. Because we experienced the negativity of war against us, we would rather fight on somebody else’s land then fight again on this land. This is our land, the Indian people. Men and women join the military in large numbers. For example, the Indian people didn’t start being citizens of the United States until around 1924. However during World War I, a large number of Indian people fought even though they weren’t citizens of the country. That was when the Code Talkers started. The Navajo Code Talkers were very important in World War I. The Navajo Code Talkers created an unbreakable code that was used during the war and the Japanese could never break it.

I’m a Vietnam veteran. During the Vietnam War, there were only about 1.8 million Indians in the country. During that time, twenty percent of the Indian adults were veterans. There has never been, throughout history, any other ethnics group that has a higher number of people in the military than the Indians. There were 48,000 of us that went to war in Vietnam, except 260 of us did not come back. All our uncles and fathers were veterans. That’s something we all follow. Even today there are a lot of Indian guys in Afghanistan and Iraq. When we came back from Vietnam, we did not have the same stigma that was put on other veterans that came back. Non- Indian communities were calling them “baby-killers” and being real negative towards Vietnam veterans. Our people never do that. In fact when we left for Vietnam, they had a ceremony in the community for us and when we came back, they had a welcome-home ceremony. The community treats the people differently than the non-Indians communities. That’s because historically, before the Europeans came here, the job of a young Indian man was to protect the village and all the women and children. So as we move along, we maintain that duty. That’s our job: to protect the country from other people. 93

Anthony Ruiz

Tarzana Treatment Center

Cherokee and Yaqui

By Sean Curran and Elliot Kaas

Anthony Ruiz grew up in Los Angeles around Eagle Rock and the nearby Highland Park area. While he was young, he was without a significant Native American influence in his life except for his Grandmother. It would not be until later that he reconnected with his cultural heritage. As an adolescent, Anthony became involved with alcohol and drugs, but after going through rehabilitation programs he denounced substance abuse and connected himself to the Native American community. His time getting clean led to his realization of the importance of his Native American roots, and of maintaining a healthy mind, body and soul. Ruiz, a Cherokee and Yaqui by blood, decided to use his experience dealing with addiction to help those in a similar position through his work at the Tarzana Treatment Center. Ruiz himself cites the Native American community in addition to the rehabilitation as reasons he succeeded. So in turn he helps other Native Americans battling drug and alcohol addictions, hoping to be a positive mentor like the one he had received. Now he not only helps treat substance addiction, but also promotes cultural awareness at pow wows all across Southern California on behalf of the Tarzana Institute and on his own.

Does this center specifically treat or focus on Native Americans?

Well I oversee part of the clinic; we have a Native American contract that comes out of Sacramento. If patients are native or they’re self declared or a tribal member or their related to a tribal member, I can bring them in here pretty quickly under the native contract we have, which is good because you know it helps the people seeking treatment.

So, just for a little background information about you, where are you from? Are you from Los Angeles or…? Can you tell us about your life before you began working here?

I was born in Glendale. I went to grammar school out here in San Fernando Valley. I went to Roscoe Elementary, and then my family moved into the Highland Park area nearby close to Occidental. Not too far away, and I was raised there. I went to continue my grammar school there; afterwards, I went to junior high in Burbank. Then I went to Franklin High School in Highland Park for a little bit. Then I went to Eagle Rock a little bit then I went to Lincoln, I went to a lot of those schools because I myself got caught up a little bit in the lifestyle of alcoholism and drug abuse.

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Did you have a strong tribal affiliation growing up, how would compare your sense of self identity now with your youth?

By blood I am Cherokee nation, from Oklahoma. And that is one side. On the other side, my grandfather’s, I am Yaqui. There are some Yaquis in Sonora, but the reservation is in New Mexico. So, I am actually two tribes, but spiritually I follow the Lakota way, I follow the Lakota Path.

What part of your life led you to this path?

The area I was brought up in was mostly white or Mexican American. Being brought up out there, in Northeast Los Angeles, I just blended in. I really didn’t have a concept of what being “Native American” meant because I was from two different tribes. So as far as being in contact with my “native-ness,” there was only my grandmother on my mother’s side. Her name was Kathleen, full blooded Cherokee, she was on the Trail of Tears, and was a part of the relocation. The family tree goes all the way back, and that was beneficial because the family is traced. I’m carved into the tree; I’m a tribal member, enrolled with the Cherokee Nation, but during my childhood all that got put on the shelf. You know, I was going to school. I just blended in, I really didn’t know. I wasn’t brought up with ceremony, traditions, by having a Native American parent aware because my grandmother was there, I was over here.

Growing up, you mentioned that you were part of two tribes. Do you feel more strongly connected to one or other? Additionally, do you think a lot of people have a split tribal identity?

Yes, from my experience, especially now in Los Angeles County. A lot of the tribal members in Los Angeles County are mixed. They have a tribal identification, according to how they were raised, but that might not play a major part in which they identify. Until you come to a point where are able to locate that identity yourself and you research who you are, and I was saying that was done for me. I was always a carded member of the tribe, but still never really related you know. I just blended, and that didn’t happen till later in life that I started to identify with who I am and who my people are. That’s not just about one tribe. Like I said, I am two tribes, I am Cherokee nation, I am in the process of learning the language, and I am also Yaqui. Though as far as my spirituality goes, I was adopted into the Lakota way of life by going to ceremonies and that has helped me tremendously in my personal recovery. Like I said, when I was brought up I started to get high real young, you know smoking weed, drinking, not going to school, hanging around with the group that also did that. It was like “let’s go get loaded, let’s not go to school. Let’s get loaded all weekend,” then the weekends turn into a daily thing. That is the disease of addiction; that is what happened to me as a young adult.

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So what kind of values do you carry as a Native American, as someone who follows the Lakota?

Well the value is to always treat others as I would like to be treated, to be honest, to be proud of who I am, and in my “native-ness”, my identification as a tribal member. It took me a while to come to that point, and I had to be introduced to the way of life, not just saying “I am part Native American and I am two tribes,” and leaving it at that. The journey had to go deeper than finding out who I was and where I belonged.

If you have children, or if you are planning on having children, how would you raise them in regards to Native American culture? Would you try to encourage them to participate by introducing them to their culture, or would you let them explore and hope to find it on their own?

No, I would encourage them to participate, and give them the opportunity to learn. I do not think I could force anything upon them, and I wouldn’t want to, but I would want to give them the opportunity to enjoy and find out who they are and [help them] be proud of that. Those are the opportunities I would give them. Perhaps, it would start off with me learning/teaching the language. Not Spanish, not French. Because we had languages before those boats ever sailed. We had our own language. That is one of the things I would encourage them to follow, the path of learning a language, because, I also believe in prophecies. There is a winter time and a spring time. The winter time was when the natives were relocated. Families were broken up. We could not speak the language in the boarding schools. All those things came to pass. But now I do a lot of outreach to help our people. What I do here is I’m a native counselor. I teach “well-briety.” I have made a stand against alcoholism and drug addiction. The prophecy that was foretold by elders was that the children will speak the language and they will begin to dance. They will learn to be proud of who they are. And I see it out there. They’re putting on the regalia and they are dancing they are learning. They are proud to be drummers, they are proud to speak their language, they are learning their language. So all this is a joy to be part of and I would want to pass that onto my children, to expose them to that part of who we are.

In your job, you get to work with Native Americans who have substance abuse problems. How prevalent is this problem that you have seen in the Los Angeles Native community?

Well Los Angeles County is drafted up. They call Los Angeles the melting pot, so like other big cities we have a lot of Native Americans here. They come here off of tribal lands looking for something, finding a new way of life. They say “I want to go to Hollywood and I want all these big dreams.” Usually what happens, especially if they have a problem to begin with, is that they get stuck in Los Angeles being on skid row or just being homeless, going from place to place. They might be sleeping in their cars, drinking all the time, or using drugs. It is not just about 96

alcohol anymore. It is meth, heroin, oxycodone. All those come into play especially if [they are] not familiar with Los Angeles itself. It means a lot to be present letting them know there’s a place to come and get better.

How did you first get involved in your job? I know you mentioned that you had problems with drugs and alcohol when you were younger. Did play their influence play an important role on your career choice?

They played a major role. I was in and out of jail and a couple of treatment centers. What it took was me going into treatment myself getting and understanding of what the disease of addiction is. Also, it was very important because the way that I came into recovery was a group called United American Indian Involvement; I did not have any money, but they knew I was native and they placed me in a treatment center and this is where I began to participate in a talking circle and learning what the circle was. This is where I was taught. This is where I was established, where I took my stand. I had to find out who I was, make a stand myself, and this is where [native] elders came in. I have an elder up there. I have what is called a recovery sponsor to take suggestions from. Similarly, I have a Native elder, a spiritual advisor who has helped me in this path. It worked for me so that now I am able to help other natives in that aspect.

How did you kind of learn the skills and experience needed for this job? Also, what was it like getting started?

Well before getting started, like at the treatment center, I went through one myself. I had to go to a detox unit, go through a treatment center and then start participating in my recovery. I did that for over a year and I was just focusing on myself. I found a job I was given assistance from native assistance programs here, because I started out with nothing. I re-established my prayer life and my faith in a creator. This all came into play over a period of time so after I completed the treatment, got a job in a warehouse, I started to go to school. So I went to Pierce College over here and they had an addiction studies program. I was working in the warehouse and I had a friend here was in recovery. He told me “hey, if you want to work as far as your internship, come to work here, we will give you a part time job” so I started to do that. I started to work here part time; then I began full time. They knew I was native and they told me “we have a Native American program here.” I said yes. I was almost finished with school and went through the certification process as an addiction counselor. That was my whole intention to begin with anyways. I wanted to work with people. So the door opened for me right here with Tarzana Treatment Center. While I was here, they gave me a full time job and now I oversee the program.

How do you think in your job, you sort of talked about how for you personally, your process of getting clean/sober really helped you indentify and find your spirituality do you think that’s happened to a lot of your patients? Since your personal story, have you seen 97

that with patients of yours coming here maybe with not quite a strong feel of their cultural heritage. Once they are healthy, they turn to Native American culture…is that something that happens?

If I was not helped by others to find out where I fit then I would have still been lost. It was other natives that helped me find out who I am and where I belong. The priority is staying clean and sober. That helped me tremendously. Before sobriety, I did not know who I was or where I fit. I just became somebody else. If I wanted to go to the beach, I would dress in shorts. I want to blend in. We were chameleons, especially the drug and alcohol addicts. We will just blend in or look like a certain way because that is the environment. The longer that a person is exposed to who they truly are, the more comfortable they become, and it works here. People will come to me, and they will know that their grandmother was American Indian. I will say what tribe? They do not know. Okay well, we can research that. Let us put some work to find out who they are. Even people that do not know too much about Native American culture come to my classes because they are interested. To me it’s a matter of the heart. Where your heart is remains important. It is not a matter about what degree or how much blood you have. Your heart is important.

Along those lines, would you say that it is one of the clinic’s and one of your personal goals to help people rediscover their identity in addition to help them maintain sobriety?

Sure, I would say that is our overall goal: to help them be comfortable and learn how to be comfortable with who they are. Firstly stop getting loaded because if they do not even, [they are] really no good to anybody because [they are] a bad example to [their] family [they are] a bad example to [their] loved ones, the ones that care about them. This is what I teach.

Switching topics a bit, do you attend many pow wows or festivals?

Yes those are all the pictures. That’s me at UCLA. They are all different pow wows. All are schools I go to. I go all over the place. The clinic lets me travel. I got to Long Beach and Cal State, I will be going to one on the 27 th in Northridge, and I will have a table there. I often get called by schools asking if I would like to attend and I will say yes.

Do you go mostly to talk about your work to them or your personal enjoyment/enrichment? What brings you back to pow wows?

I get benefits from both. Even if I am not going to represent Tarzana, I go. It is a part of the culture. There is a pow wow circuit. Everybody knows everybody. All the dancers, drummers, sons, families, daughters know each other. My cousin is a drummer; he has his own drum group and knows most of the other groups who perform. 98

What do you think is the importance of the festivals? Do they bring the community and people together? How important are these pow wows/ festivals to the native American Community?

They are events that are important especially for the children; especially if they have never seen dancers, it is important to be a part of and to see the culture represented. There is a lot of advertisement. People make jewelry, they sell commodities but there is nothing wrong with the pow wow. It just represents a lot of different tribes getting together and dancing and singing, which is good.

In class we talked about the notion and importance of communal space for Native Americans and people in general in Los Angeles, which is such a sprawling city. Do you think that the pow wows offer a similar congregating area where you can share your culture?

Yes, like I said most of the dancers and people who participate know each other. It is like a circuit. It is a great event to go to because the kids get to run around having fun and they see different things about their culture so they are positive events.

You said something interesting there: that they are fun. I think that is really cool. Do you think that keeping things fun is important for passing on your heritage to the next generation, because it seems like if the events are more fun kids will become more interested and involved. Do you think that’s a fairly critical element?

Sure. Not only at the pow wows will someone set up teepees, but also there will be a story teller or a drum making class. They will learn something about drum making or another aspect of their culture and its fun. It is all pretty positive. It is good exposure.

How did you first get involved with the pow wow circuit?

I forgot how they started out. I got my stories from the pow wows. I went to one near Santa Barbara; that was the biggest one. There were many tribal members there dressed in different outfits. I have been to Pechanga up there. They have a big one there they have on 4 th of July everyone goes out because they put on the best firework show in town. It is packed!

What do you think are some ways in Los Angeles to promote the well-being and status of Native American peoples? Obviously this center and your work is a very positive influence, but what else do you think could be done to help people in any way really make their life better, or strengthen their feeling of community? 99

The change is in the process of being done right now. They have a few centers already that need more assistance there is one place called Southern California Indian Center downtown on Wilshire. There is another place called United American Indian Involvement that helps a lot. There could be more of those so more people could get online access to find out their tribe and who they are. There could be a center geared around the different tribes all of them, not just a few; a year-round cultural center representing the tribes if you wished to find out who you are. Having drum and language classes at all those cultural centers around is also important. That needs to be taught more, especially languages. There are a lot of tribes that have different languages. I do not know to the extent that this is already done if it is already done, but more would help. Maybe a little bit in school education, but not much is needed. It would be good to have a cultural center like that just in Los Angeles, because I know the different tribes as you go back [East] they will have their own learning centers for Cherokee nations. For me to go learn from there I would have to go back to Oklahoma. If something like that happened in Los Angeles a cultural center for the Native American population; that would be a good resource

So going along those lines of promoting American Indian education to the public, do you feel there are any misconceptions? What are some issues that the American public should be better informed of with regards to American Indians specifically?

First thing is that we were not born in India. American Indians, a lot of us are not in agreement with that term. Native Americans, coming from South America or Native Americans from North America either or. Another misconception is that everybody gets a lot of money from casinos; that has got to go. We have casinos, but not each and every tribe gets money from them.

Along those lines, what are your thoughts on the gambling industry in the Native American community?

Well the gambling industry is exactly that, an industry. Personally, I do not see any problem with the Native American being part of that business because what I have seen are good things happening with the money the tribe is generating. I have seen it helping the people and building, but the limitation I see is that it is not the overall picture for all of the tribes. There are only certain tribes that have that allocation, and I think they (the tribes who participate in gaming) should generate a fund for other tribes and everyone in their area. I do not know if this is done because I am not involved in the gaming protocol and what is happening with the money, but I have seen a lot of good come of it.

So would you say your overall view is cautiously positive?

Sure. Yes. It is legal and they are using it on land nobody else wanted. 100

What are your feelings about the way Native Americans are depicted in mainstream media, both now and when you were growing up?

When I was growing up it was similar to how the Mexicans were depicted, with a sombrero, asleep against a wall. There was the picture of the drunk Indian running around with the bottle. Little by little that has changed. It took the people to step up to the plate to dispose of the negative stereotypes. It took people to say we do not want that image for our families or about us because it is not who we are.

Looking forward, what do you think the future holds? What are your thoughts on the future of Native American communities?

Well, I see the future as a positive because now we have a little voice in the government whereas before there was no voice. Now we have a lot of positive elders, positive chiefs, positive people in the native community overall stepping up and educating others. The language is coming back, ceremony and tradition too and I see this. Hopefully in the future it gets better for the people I see a lot of the people coming back and that is good. And I think that there is a future for us as a people happening, and it will get better for the children all the way around. I see it in the process right now. It is a good future. 101

Alan Salazar

Spiritual Advisor and Storyteller

Chumash and Tataviam

By William Stanton and Jonathan Lopez

Alan Salazar is an educator, spiritual advisor, and storyteller of Chumash and Tataviam descent. His Chumash name is Spirit Hawk and he holds the title of "the village's fastest runner." He is endowed with spiritual gifts of performing sacred ceremonial rites. In addition, he draws on nearly twenty years of professional experience as a preschool teacher and counselor and institutional officer in the juvenile justice system. Mr. Salazar is a leading cultural resource consultant for the Ventura Indian Educational Consortium. He has been involved in numerous organizations, including The Kern County Indian Council, Candelaria American Indian Council, Chumash Maritime Association, Oakbrook Chumash Center and ANTIK - a coalition of Chumash people. He is past President of the Native American Heritage Preservation Council of Kern County. Alan Salazar has devoted his entire life to furthering Native American causes. He is actively involved in the Maritime Cultural Resurgence -- a movement that honors Chumash masters of the tomol, the traditional plank canoe. He is a member of the California Indian Advisory Committee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and his research on Chumash culture has been published in the Kern County Archeological Society Journal. Mr. Salazar participates in cultural and land use activities involving the interests of the Chumash people and he has conducted Chumash ceremonial blessings at public events like the dedication of Point Dume Nation preserve in Malibu, a State historic landmark.

Where are you from?

Mr. Alan Salazar: I was born in San Fernando, California, where my family originated and where I got my Native American heritage from. So I can go back six generations in my family and trace all of my parents, my grandparents, my great- grandparents, my great great-grandparents, and so on for six generations who were born in and around San Fernando and the San Fernando mission. In about 1803 my family was brought into the San Fernando mission and we are classified as federally non-recognized so we don’t have a reservation but we came from various villages around the San Fernando mission.

What is your tribal affiliation?

Ancestors on one side of my family up to my great great great great great grandparents were Chumash from the Chumash village of Tuopu, which is Tampo Canyon in Simi Valley. I also have Tataviam ancestry from the other side of my family, from just a little north of here, a 102

village by modern day Cascade which is where Magic Mountain is today. So I have Chumash and Tataviam that we know for sure and during that mission period there was a lot of intermarrying so my great great grandfather spoke fluent Gabrielino or Tongva language fluently. There is a possibility of having other tribal affiliation, but the one we can trace back through mission records, that we know for sure are Chumash and Tataviam. The Chumash we know a lot about and the Tataviam we know very little about so when I do my story telling as far as my cultural beliefs they are almost exclusively Chumash just because we don’t know very much about the Tataviam.

Was it hard for you to trace your family six generations?

It wasn’t hard, just frustrating because none of the missions let people like me come in and look at their records so we would have to go through the church and the missions recognize other institutes that’s just how it is in the American and the European culture. So if someone from the museum or a college professor goes to the San Fernando mission and asks if they could go through their mission records they say sure, while me just as a citizen and Native American, who wants to trace their family ancestry, they tell us we can’t just let everybody in so they kind of restrict it and monitor it. But there are ways to make it not so hard because there are anthropologists and college professors that are studying and understand the dilemma and they are very willing and helpful with the Native Americans like me.

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry, or Indian identity?

If you remember when I went to address your class at Occidental College, I mentioned that there are a lot of Native people, especially in California because of our large Hispanic population, so a lot of Native families with Californian ancestry identify more with their Spanish and Hispanic ancestry. It’ not until later on in their life do they start to research and try to find out if they have any Native American ancestry. My family members such as my grandmother, my grandparents on my father’s side, my father and all my aunts and uncles, have always been raised as Indian. Now as far as what villages and tribes we were always Fernandenos. When the Europeans came to California, lots of times what they did was identify the Indians by what missions they lived on, so the Tongva became known as Gabrielinos Indians. In San Fernando, the Fernandenos Indians are a little unique because the San Fernando mission actually borders three tribes so when they say Fernandeno Indians they brought in like three or four different tribes. They were all considered Fernandeno Indians, but actually some were Tataviam, Tongva, Chumash, and some were intermarried like my family so it is a little complex. It was a little unique in my family. I don’t know if all my aunts and uncles were as adamant as my father was because my father was 103

very adamant about it so in all of our birth certificates it says Indian on them, which was unusual because my sister was born in 1942.

If you have children, how do you raise them with regard to Native American culture?

Well, I have one daughter and one son and they both know that they are Indian. They have always known and are not shy about it. Now I don’t pressure them to being adamant about it. They are definitely not as involved as I am but they are nonetheless still very proud. When my son had his first child, it was all a very important time for all of us who were there. But the one thing that I had to make sure of, I asked him what it said on his birth certificate and he reassured me and said, “Don’t worry Dad, I made sure they put Indian.”

What are the values you carry in your life as a Native American?

Well, I ran track in high school. I was the fastest person on the team. I loved running just because I was good at it. I loved the competition but being on the team didn’t matter. I just ran because I liked it. My senior year, my coach made me mad because he wanted me to run a race that I didn’t want to do. So I quit. It wasn’t important to me to be a part of the team, I only did it for enjoyment and I still do run for enjoyment. The point I’m trying to make is that being an Indian has made me do what I do for myself. I don’t need anyone else to enjoy what I do. If I like it then I’m going to do it. Also being a minority, I’ve learned that I have to keep my eyes open, because we really are treated differently. Like for example, this is why I sometimes grow weary of anthropologists. If I want to go to the missions to try and check up on my ancestry, they won’t let me because I’m a normal person. But if an anthropologist goes to them and asks to see their records, they say, go right ahead.

Describe your job, volunteer, artistic, performance or leadership work in the Indian community.

I do what I know how to do and what I do best. I’m a storyteller. I’ve tried to do basket- weaving, I’ve tried making cloth, many kinds of replicas, but I just don’t have the patience or the skill to do those things. So I do what I know how to. I tell stories because that’s what I’m good at and that’s what I enjoy doing. I have also helped out with canoe building. This is also something I can do well because my father was always in construction so I have also helped with that but my main Indian job would be storytelling. 104

How did you enter this work or volunteerism? How did you learn skills and gain experience?

Well, to me it’s the way I got involved and how I learned my story telling craft was the most symbolic thing about being a Californian Indian. As to where I’ve had to research some stories and gotten books, recordings, going online, google this and google that and that’s how I learned half of it and the other half I learned the traditional way, which is the way I’ve enjoyed much better. So by knowing other Chumash story tellers and other Native American storytellers I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with and know some of them and hear them tell stories and, I would tell them I really like that story and I ask them if they mind if I tell it, so then I listen to them tell it a couple of times. Some stories I just learn doing the old ways, by just sitting down with someone who just has the knowledge and picking their brain and, just asking questions. Yes some I have learned from reading anthropology and listening to anthropologists, but if I had my choice I think I’ve learned more thoroughly the old way by sitting down with someone who has the knowledge and just by asking them to show me or tell me or, can I hear that word again or, can I hear that song one more time?

Do you ever change any of the stories or do you just repeat them?

Oh yes. I change pretty much all of them so yes. Some stories I’ll just change a little bit and some stories I’ll change quite a lot and I tell people that I acknowledge my American and Native American heritage and I’m proud of both. So I take certain stories and I tell my version of the story and my version of the song and I’ll change it a little bit some just because I envision myself as a great comedic genius so I have to add some modern humor into it.

What is the impact of your work in the Native American community or Indian cultural renewal?

I talk about trying to stay humble but I realize there are certain things that I have been involved in. But I realize that there are certain things that are very important and I don’t think I’ve done anything that makes me unique. I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to be paired with other Chumash people that have the same interests. I am smart enough to realize that I have been involved with some special groups of people some of which are small and consist of four or five men and women that have gotten together in our free time to try and build back our merit time, building our tomols and canoes and some have been with bigger groups. There are some special unique things that once I get older and look back on it, or my kids and grandsons will look back 105

at it 30 or 40 years from now when I’m gone, and say wow that was some important work. But I still look at it as I’ve been lucky and blessed t o have worked with some other really good Chumash people on some causes and issues and things such as language and canoes.

Do you attend Indian powwows and festivals? How and when did you begin attending them? What brings you back to them?

At least by my standards, I don’t go to a lot of festivals and powwows. I go to a handful so I’m kind of selective on the ones I go to. The majority of gatherings and ceremonies and powwows that I usually attend are in Chumash territory. On occasion, I’ll go to other powwows in Arizona and New Mexico to see what’s going on there and to experience the differences in their ceremonies and powwows. Ninety-five percent of what I do, I do in Chumash powwows and Chumash gatherings. As a young boy in the 50’s and 60’s my parents were just trying to make a living so we didn’t go to a lot, but we did go to some. As a young boy I lived in Hanford, California and there was a reservation 12 or 15 miles away and as young kids we never went there when they would have ceremonies, gatherings, and things like that, but my dad would go. Then in the 70’s when I became an adult and that’s when I learned my ancestry when I went to the Tuli reservation and I went to the Santa Ynez in the late 80’s. But when I was a kid in the reservations there in Lemoore in the 1950s and 60s it was a ghetto; the majority of the tribal members were alcoholics and my dad would just go there to visit his Indian buddies but it was like taking his kids into a bar and we weren’t going to go to a bar. So it wasn’t until I got older and became an adult that I learned about the gatherings and festivals and now when I go to them, I go to see friends and other tribal members. So I know that if I go to the heart pound powwow in Newhall I know I’m going to see some Chumash people there and, I know if I go to the Bakersfield pow wow I know I’m going to run into other Chumash, Apache, Navajo and other people I know so now I just go to powwows as much to socialize with other tribal people.

What is the importance of powwows or festivals to the Native American community or to Indian cultural renewal?

For older Native Americans they are a way to stay in touch with old friends you know: Native people from Native families. But as a story teller and educator, we also realize that it is important for the young people. I have nieces and nephews and grandkids and I do the story tellings and blessings at the Malibu pow wows and I have taken my grandson into the dance circle or dance arena for grand entry for the last two years. The first time I took him in there he was about 9 months old and the second time he was about a year and a half when I took him in there. So to expose kids to that is great! I mean if you want to dance or sing that’s great or if you want to go and throw your Frisbee around or throw the football around too, you can do that you know. This is a Native American gathering and we are trying to show our pride as Native Americans so most 106

Native people would believe that the most important thing is for the young people to see the dancing and the drumming and see us interacting for them to see that we are still around and doing that.

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples of Los Angeles?

You know that’s a tough question actually. You know that that’s probably not just true of Los Angeles because you can go to small town in America and the problems we have in Los Angeles we have in Hanford, California and in Frasier Park, California so we have cyber bullying, drugs, and stuff like that. I think that is the biggest challenge and the most difficult for Native people for our way of life. I tell people when they ask me what are my religious beliefs that I am a person of the Earth so my religion is the Earth: the animals, plants, thunder, lightning, rain, wind, fire, and those things it’s simple, but like all simple things there is some complexity to them. The struggle for Native people in the Los Angeles area is just finding places where they could go to just feel comfortable. I mean, you have 405 and 101 highways and thousands of millions of people and it is a challenge for them to gather. It is hard for them to gather and to just do some simple basket weaving where there are oak trees or even sing a few songs. So that old kind of attitude I use which is, I am a simple person with simple needs is the same for Native people who just want those simple things.

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

I realize that I’m may not be the last, but I am part of a generation that is a dying breed. And it may be good in a way because many Native people of my generation don’t have many initials behind our name so we don’t have a Ph.D. an M.F.W. or a Masters degree. Most of us are just hard working-class people but what we know about our culture we taught ourselves. So when I go out in American culture, I struggle and fight to get recognized. Meanwhile the younger generations of Native people have degrees and because of that, there are doors opening for them. We have one or two Chumash people with Ph.D.s so now there are doors opening to them that weren’t open to me. I’ll give you an example. There are organizations that have outdoor environmentalist schools that instead of teachers they have naturalists, so young people go to outdoor environmentalist schools to campout and stay there so they can learn about Earth Science. And I’ve been involved with a few because a lot of them, besides teaching Earth Science, I teach the differences in the environments, and also teach something about Native Americans. Because as Native Americans we use the plants and we were basically naturalists 2,000 to 10,000 years ago and every tribal member was a naturalist, but we do not have degrees. And I remember I was helping one of the environmentalist schools because, besides the Earth 107

Sciences, they taught them about the Chumash culture and how the Chumash lived and picked the fish, acorns, and the plants and various things like that. I asked one of them if I could be a naturalist and I said I know about the plants and things I’ve learned from the elders and various other medicine people, and she asked me do you have a degree in science or earth science? And I said no. And she said well then you can’t be a naturalist. And I said but you’re a naturalist. Do they teach about the Chumash culture? And she said yes. So I ask her do they have degrees in history or Native American history? And she says no, we just give them a little script that is four or five pages in which they learn general information. So I say someone can teach about the Chumash culture and not have a degree or very much knowledge and that’s ok, but if I have knowledge about Chumash plants and know how we use them, just because I don’t have a degree why can’t I teach an Earth Science class? Well can I teach the Chumash class? She asked do you have a degree? And I said no but I know more about the Chumash culture then any of your naturalists. And she says but they have degrees. So our image within the public is still one that many Native people are uneducated but they are actually very knowledgeable. I actually learned a lot of things from my grandmother and she learned many things from her mother and we learned much more from things passed down generation to generation.

How do you feel about the way the mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

It has gotten a lot better, but there is still a long way to go and I think that movies and television have gotten a better and more accurate but we still have a long way to go. I’ll give you two examples. There was a movie that was made about 11 to 12 years ago named Smoke Signals and it was basically about modern times in Indian reservations in Idaho, and for a small low budget movie it was very successful for the director of the movie, the gentleman who wrote the book and did the screenplay the movie was based on. Once they had success with that movie they thought well now we will be able to make a lot more movies about Native American struggles and what their lives are like. I heard this from them directly when I was at a festival on the ten year anniversary of Smoke Signals, which was about 2 to 3 years ago, and in those ten years all the projects that they got asked to make were about Native Americans in the 1800’s. But they said well we want to make a movie about Native Americans today and what their struggles are now in 2010 and what life is like in the reservations in 2010 for Native people in whatever reservation, it doesn’t matter which one you pick. But the movie industry says no, we want to make Dances with Wolves again and movies like that. The Cleveland Indians have a cartoon Indian on their baseball cap and I have said this for years and years there is just not an ethnic group in America that if they were the Cleveland Negroes they would not have that goofy cartoonish character on their baseball caps. If they were the Cleveland African Americans they would not have that there; if they were the Cleveland Mexican Americans they would not have that. We have gotten rid of those images but we still have them, like all Native American men are still portrayed as drunks or the 1850’s warrior with the Native headdress. But all Native 108

American men are also nerds that do computer stuff and some are skateboarders and hip hop musicians and some are like myself and are canoe builders and things like that and we are still not portrayed like that.

Have you seen the film The Exiles ? Was it a movie or was it a documentary? It portrays Native Americans as people who segregated themselves and were drunks and violent people.

Yes, and I ask, do we have an alcohol problem in the Native American community? And I tell them yes and it’s higher than any other ethnic group in America, but still there are people like myself, like my brother who trains horses and is one of the better cowboys in Bakersfield and in the cowboy community and everyone knows him, and are those things portrayed? No, I mean in California some of the best Vaqueros were actually Indians. So there was the Indian Vaqueros in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s they were throughout southern California and it’s not even out there! You know make a movie about that.

What is your opinion of the gaming industry in the Indian community?

This is probably the shortest answer I will have and it is that there is good and bad, but I think that the majority of the gaming effect on the Natives is positive. And I think it has a lot to do with our culture and the tribal people we know. The tribal people I know that have casinos realized that it is a business and must be run like a business, so we must advertise and promote it like a business and make sure we follow guidelines and run it like a successful business. Almost every reservation I know has taken a percentage of their profits and have set it aside for cultural renovation, such as basket weaving classes, language classes, and trying to bring back some of the older songs. They also try to do things for the elders and the young people so even if I’m not a member of the Santa Ynez Chumash reservation but I am Chumash just from another area, I know that they will support groups that I am a part of. They have funded me in order to go to schools and do story time. And I think that when it comes to organizations, most Indians know that it is a business and they donate to causes that are important to them and not just Native American causes but boys and girls clubs as well and the YMCA.

William: I know that the casino at the Tachi Palace, I know that they always say that they use some of the money to pay for the big pow wow that is held once a year.

I was at Santa Ynez 4 weeks ago, and there was a group from the Tachi there for a weekend of cultural days, and they had singing and they play traditional dice and stick games and give out 109 prizes and it’s not advertised real big. But the group the Tachi come down and they say, we have a group of young singers so we give them gas money, money for a nice room, money for a meal, and they share their Yokut songs with the Chumash people and this goes on with various groups. I don’t know what the statistics are but I know you can take the Santa Ynez reservation 20 years ago and the Tachi reservation 20 years ago and look at their numbers as to see how many were unemployed, how many were on welfare, how many were seen as alcoholics, drug use, suicide rates, and look at those numbers today and they have all gotten better. All of them have gone down so you have to say casinos overall have been a big positive influence. Even with money there is going to be some problems, there is always some feuds and fights and things. They should have a machine for Native people, so that every other time they hit the jackpot, so that if I go in there and bet my hard earned dollars in the slot machine it should be paying big off every other time for me; but that hasn’t happen yet but I have suggested it. 110

Abe Sanchez

Basketweaver and Native Foods Educator

Purépecha (Michoacán, Mexico)

By Chris Caldwell and Michael Fujita

Abe Sanchez is a distinguished member of the Native American community and is an authority on the art of basket weaving. He currently educates Natives who reside in the city of Los Angeles and who are now trying to reconnect to their roots. His tribal affiliation is Purépecha, who are the indigenous people of the Mexican state of Michoacán. He currently resides in Laguna Beach, CA, where he offered to be interviewed.

Life Story

Where are you from?

I am born and raised in Orange County. My parents came from Mexico. They came in 1958, so I was born here in California. So I am native to here.

What is your tribal affiliation?

My tribal affiliation would be Purépecha, from the region Michoacán in Mexico.

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry, or Indian identity?

I pretty much always knew it, but like many Native people, I didn’t talk about it. We’re involved in the dominant culture, so we’re going to go along with that. Not until later in life do we start tapping into these parts of our heritage and try looking into them. But like most people here, growing up in Southern California, you’re brought up more, well, Southern Californian, not Indian. My personal experience would just be the knowledge and the interest and being proud of my heritage.

What has been your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life?

My relation to the Native American community today has been in the revitalization of indigenous arts; specifically with basketry because it’s the biggest thing I’m working on right now. There is a movement right now to revive the basket among many tribes throughout the 111

state. Basketry here in California was lost probably over maybe 75-100 years ago. Lately, for the last twenty years (myself having gotten involved 12-13 years ago), we have been reviving the whole craft: from learning how to gather the materials, learning how to identify them, and learning how to process them. We also emphasize the learning of how to make the basket in the traditional style that was done here in Southern California. In each region of California, basketry is different because of the different materials and different techniques. Here in Southern California, we have a specific technique and specific materials that were used traditionally in this region. So that would be one of my main contributions to the Native American community in my lifetime.

Values and Vocations

What are the values you carry in your life as a Native American?

I’m just myself really. I don’t feel I need to identify to that.

Describe your job, volunteer, artistic, performance or leadership work in the Indian community.

Well, I’ve already covered a lot of that earlier with the relationship question, but let me give you a little more specifics in my role. I’ve worked with many tribes around the state, including Indian and non-Indian people. I believe it’s important to teach this basket making technique to as many people as I can, but there’s a lot to it. Everyone will come to you saying: “I want to make a basket,” but it’s not as easy as people think. That’s what’s very challenging today. I teach city folks now who were born in the city and Native people who don’t know the woods. I have to teach them how to go out there and then they’re worried about the spiders, snakes, and bugs. I’ll take these people out in the field and we identify the plants. Foe example, one plant called Sumac is a relative of the poison oak and it looks exactly like the poison oak. A lot of people have difficulty identifying that plant and they’re afraid to work with that plant because they don’t know how to find out whether it’s a Sumac or poison oak. So that’s always kind of a little barrier. I know the craft and I understand how to make the craft, but it’s how to get people to learn it. One of the things I’ve been working on lately is how to keep these people entertained. For example, we have to get permits from the forestry service to go out and collect the material. Now, the collection of materials happens only certain times throughout the year. We’re coming into the winter, so Sumac and deer grass are two materials I’ll be coming in to gather. The problem that I have there is that when I’m going to get my permit, I have to go out there and contact the forestry authority. If I’m lucky, the same person who remembers me is working that day and it makes the process easier. If that person is not here, I’m going to have to be dealing with someone else. I’m going to have to go through a little more hassle getting this permit. Gathering is something you have to do continuously throughout the year during certain 112

seasons. So again, for me, the challenge has always been to first, try to identify the locations where the materials grow and get people involved, then work with the forestry service or private owners, so they will continue to keep letting us in. I have to keep these relationships with private property owners and the forestry service staff because they are interested in basket weaving as well. If I take people out to gather Sumac this year, I’ll have to wait till next year. I’m hoping they will still be interested and that they’ll want to come back, but most people don’t. So those are some of the things that I’m always kind of challenged with in trying to revive the culture. We’re moving and moving, but there is a lot of support among the Native people, at least for basketry. I can say that it is important among many tribal people here in the state of California. Basketry is very valued among them. There are people who make these baskets and sell them for good money, so that always helps people who might depend on it for their livelihood.

How did you enter this work or volunteerism? How did you learn skills and gain experience?

I entered this work on my own because I was interested in the art and I just kind of started playing with it. People starting to see what I was doing, and then it was kind of word of mouth. I started meeting different people in the right places in the basketry community and I started to developed relationships with those individuals. It took me years to really develop those relationships. Myself, being a man, was also sometimes a barrier because basketry is a woman’s skill, a woman’s job. But I do basketry as an art. My focus is to try to make a basket as authentic in the old ways as possible. People have asked: “Abe, don’t you want to do contemporary styles of baskets?” and I tell them “No, I’m not into doing all these contemporary designs.” My interest is more in reviving the old way. That’s enough of a challenge as it is already. That’s a big challenge to do because there aren’t any traditional living people who I could just go and ask. I’m stuck here and I don’t have a wise grandmother who knows how to make baskets. I learned by myself; alot of it was trial and error, a lot of that was research, a lot of that was reading. For example, the J. P. Harrington notes a lot of information there. A lot of it was just tapping into museums and developing relationships with these museums, so I could go in to see their collections and study the pieces. Just looking at them under a microscope and getting the chance to study them closely made me figure out how they were made and what materials where used. There are a lot of little details in making a basket and researching helped a lot. Of course being with other people, who weave baskets and learned from others as well, helps me so much. Like anyone else, you start with maybe basic experience but you just build upon that. I was very fortunate that when I was learning how to do this craft, I was ready mentally, physically, and psychologically. I wanted to learn how to do this. I was also fortunate that I took a class with a gentleman, Justin Farmer, who is a collector and knows Southern Californian basketry. He was able to teach me all the basic rules of how to make a Southern California basket. So for me, I couldn’t have been in a better place at a better time to learn. Once I learned that basic information, I was able to just build upon that. For example, Southern 113

Californian baskets are woven to the right and Northern Californian baskets are woven to the left. Part of the reason they are so different is that the starting points are different (from those in Central Valley as well). Interestingly enough, our very own Occidental College used to be part of Chumash territory. But despite the differences, the baskets share commonalities, such as certain techniques and materials. The overall way in which these materials were manipulated made each area unique. So I was fortunate that I learned the basics and how to make a basket from this part of California. But I’m also always learning different techniques throughout the state.

Powwows and Festivals

Do you attend Indian powwows and festivals? How and when did you begin attending them? What brings you back to them?

We have what we call here in California: fiestas and festivals, you know, gatherings. Probably one of the big ones that I would attend every year is the California Basketweavers Association. What brings me back every times is the camaraderie and reuniting and exchanging ideas with people. You always hear, “What did you learn last year?” The Californian Basketweavers Association (a.k.a. CBA or “see•bah”) uses these gatherings for a good location to share and provide information and talk about where we’re at with this whole concept. I do attend many festivals. It is interesting because a lot of people associate Native Californians with powwows. However, powwows are not Californian. Californian Native people had gatherings. They would meet different tribes that would come from a certain areas during the seasons, like fall or spring, to gather and trade, etc. The powwow is a copy of what was done by Midwest or Northern Indian tribes. One of the things that make me sad is that I see a lot Native Californians dressing up and doing all the powwow things, which traditionally was not theirs. Right now with the revitalization, it is very much at risk of being tainted with other non-traditional concepts or culture. It is difficult to keep it pure; it’s almost impossible to keep it pure. However, many people know about the importance of trying to keep it pure. Anyway, I kind of frown on powwows, I just think it’s too bad that they’re not really Californian. It has kind of taken off big here in California among the tribal people in this area. Now they all have their powwows and they’ll dress in non-traditional, powwow attire: like feathers, etc., like the kind you’d see on TV shows and that’s not traditional. The powwows are probably here to stay for a while, but I’m not really into powwows.

How often do you attend powwows?

I go perhaps once or twice a year and more if friends are there. I prefer to go to gatherings more. California gatherings are preferable over powwows any time.

114

Summing Up

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples of Los Angeles?

Well, they’ve been trying to get recognition and that’s always going to be a long-term thing. I think the neat thing that’s going on is that lots of people I know from Los Angeles, the Gabrielino/Tongva tribes, etc., are involved in bringing their culture back and they’re also exposing it to their children. So I think we’re seeing this whole new generation of people who want to revive some of their culture and they’re trying to teach the young people. We’re kind of starting over again and kind of picking it up again. I would probably say that’s something that’s good and it’s going to help promote the well-being or status of Native Americans here in Los Angeles and Orange County. Also, again, recognition, but that’s going to take a while. I guess if people identify that they’re Native, of course, that’s the big thing today, people identifying that they’re native.

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

Well, I can tell you from my experience I don’t belong to a casino, but I think a lot of Native people get the bad reputation with casinos. The casinos have brought some good, I’ve seen myself. Certain tribes that have casinos have hosted me and they pay everything for me. But whenever people get money there’s always going to be something to argue about. There’s a very good documentary coming out on how Native people were portrayed in Hollywood. The documenters went out and did this whole thing on how they get away from that Hollywood portrayal of an Indian “savage.” That was, I thought, a very good thing for public Indian affairs. It wasn’t like “shame, shame Hollywood,” it’s more like “Hollywood, this is how you used to portray Indians and now it’s time you change.” We’ve being seeing that change already, where some movies have been a little different. Some of the actors in that movie were not [Native]. There was that “don’t litter” commercial, where that Indian guy comes up and he’s standing on the side of the road when somebody throws trash and he has a tear. That actor was not a Native, but he was Italian. He was really into the Native thing, but he was an actor and he would dress up in many Indian movies. He’s in the documentary. That happens in Hollywood though because it’s part of acting.

How do you feel about the way the mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

One of the big misperceptions is that everybody thinks if you’re Native American, you’re rich because you have a casino. That’s probably the biggest fallacy because it’s only very few people who are receiving this fund from casinos, not all Native people. There are different tribes that, depending on how big their casino is, get big money, and some, not all. You have to remember 115

not all Natives are not receiving [money]; it’s only a few people. Then you have tribes who have excluded certain members on the tribe, and there’s tribal fighting. That’s a whole other issue.

Additional Questions

What parts of your culture have you already lost?

Well, you have to remember that most native people were brought up to follow the main dominant culture here. So you’re going to do what you can to lose some of those things potentially. Like I said, we’re reviving some of these things. But myself growing up in California, I don’t know if I’ve lost much, but I’ve put back on hold what I grew up with and visit those cultural behaviors once in awhile. But you lose some and you gain some.

Do you prepare all of your traditional food using the traditional method?

I do work in preparing food. I’ve been involved lately in that revitalization of Native traditional foods. It’s still elementary here in California, but here in this region of Los Angeles and Orange County, even Santa Barbara, all this area, people are not very familiar with a lot of Native foods. You hear a lot, for example, “the acorn, the acorn.” Very few people actually make the acorn in this region. Besides the acorn there’s a lot of other foods made using the traditional method. I have been instrumental with the Native people on the revival of gathering the chia seed, which is a seed local to this area and the chaparral. That was a very important food source and we’ve been, in the last few years, locating sites where the seed grows and gathering. They would use these big baskets and seed beaters to come up to the bushes and whack them and gather the seeds. It’s all very new, it’s all up and coming. You’re going to see a lot more of that traditional food in California. Some of the insects, the grasshoppers for example, would be something that we’re kind of working on. Twice a year they have a cultural food fair and they have the gathering and processing of the gavae. You would have to gather in the springtime and cook it with stones. For me, I eat like everybody else, but I do try to implement some of these Native foods into my diet, for health purposes. 116

Ian Skorodin

Filmmaker and Philanthropist

Choctaw

Interviewed by Eden Radovich and Arthur Modell

Transcribed by Daniel Harrison and Jonas Wiertz

[There is also a video interview including film documentary footage provided by Ian Skorodin that was filmed and edited by Eden Radovich with support from Arthur Modell. Contact [email protected] for a copy of the DVD if interested]

Ian Skorodin is an American Indian filmmaker and philanthropist who has produced award- winning films and television programs with an American Indian point of view since the early 1990's. Before he even graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Skorodin had already completed his award-winning feature film, Tushka . It premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and won Best Feature at the 1998 Arizona International Film Festival. In 1994 Skorodin founded the Barcid Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the causes of indigenous people. The foundation is in the process of preserving archival American Indian materials that are located on microfiche and microfilm and working with the community providing multimedia production for tribal award shows and historical centers. In 1996, Skorodin combined his community work with his love for filmmaking and to create the LA Skins Fest. Skorodin started this American Indian film festival to offer opportunities for American Indians to showcase their talent and gain distribution.

Where are you from?

I was born in Oklahoma but I was raised in Chicago, IL.

What is your tribal affiliation?

I am Choctaw from the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma.

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry or Indian identity?

That’s kind of a weird question, it’s very Eurocentric, it’s very academic, I don’t really know the answer. It’s like asking ‘When did you discover you were white?’ I guess it comes from your parents, and what they do. It’s what makes a White person a White person, and what an Indian does is what makes an Indian an Indian. 117

What has been your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life?

I’m a Native American commissioner with the City of Los Angeles. We oversee the community’s relationship with the bureaucracies of Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles. I have a Native American film festival that runs during the Native American heritage month where we showcase Native American films. We also try to find access to studios and networks for Native American filmmakers, writers, producers, and so forth. This is the largest urban population of Native Americans and a lot of those Indians are from working class families, so taking their family out for dinner and movies and so forth is not a luxury they can afford. So the film festival provides that for them. That’s what I do for them, for the most part.

How do you raise your children with regard to Native American culture?

My tribe was removed from Mississippi in the mid-1800s. Even before that, my tribe, along with most of the Southeastern tribes, adopted a lot of the European culture. We were Christian, we had a [European style] government, and we had constitutions. During the 1800s, there was more White intrusion, so they moved us, the five tribes, to Oklahoma. They called us the Five Civilized Tribes. The original culture of the Choctaw people of Mississippi was already integrated once the Europeans came. Once we were moved to Oklahoma, our culture was completely changed. Our language is still there, but now our tribe is predominantly Christian. Now the culture is seen more or less through an academic lens. That’s why we struggle to define the original Choctaw culture. Now the Choctaw culture is only depicted through books, but Indians did not write the books. White anthropologists wrote the books and it’s their interpretation. The Choctaw still speak their language and there is probably still some practice of the original religion, but it’s not like it was, a lot of its assimilated. My child is a quarter Cherokee and a quarter Choctaw, and her mother is more into being Christian than being Indian, not to say that’s a bad thing. Actually, that’s what being an Indian is to her. Oklahoma is the Bible Belt, and a lot of Indians are Christian, that’s just a part of being in that part of the country. When regarding culture, there’s so much assimilation and so much of it has been lost or destroyed. It’s a confusing situation, but it’s more about being who you are, and that goes for anybody. Everyone has those identity problems growing up, especially the over-culture. There’s a real sense of trying to really associate yourself with something, whether it be indigenous or African or what have you. It seems that everyone has an identity issue and it’s overriding in every human, especially if you watch a lot of T.V or interact with media often.

What are the values you carry in your life as a Native American?

I grew up in the city of Chicago. There’s a large Native American community there and they 118 powwow and so forth. I’m not a powwow Indian though. Choctaws don’t really powwow, because it’s not our original culture. Most tribes do not do powwow, unless they are Northern tribes. It’s something that’s called pan-Indian or inter-tribal, which means that Indians of any tribe can go to the powwow circuit and dance and drum and sing. The Indians share values by being around somebody that looks the same, acts the same, and comes from the same kind of class structure. Those are the values that you look for in other people, and those are the values you exude. So in terms of that, Native values are just like everyone else, a lot of it is based on class and where you come from. It’s across the board: if you’re any color and poor or any color and middle class or rich, you’re going to have those values. As a poor person, you value, maybe more than people who have more.

Describe your job, volunteer, artistic performance, or leadership work in the Indian Community.

The film work that I do is always based on real events. The documentary work I do is to preserve culture for a lot of the tribes. I direct an animation series that airs in Canada. It’s about a Native American military leader that reclaims North America, invades Europe, and puts the Europeans on reservations and sells them to Africans. The point of it is to show Native American audiences and audiences in general, a Native American action hero. Most Native Americans in television and film are killed. There’s this savage image of Native Americans. My film work is supposed to dispel that. The film festival is a free event. I try to give to the community a place to watch films and I try to give the filmmakers a venue to screen their work. It’s difficult to get into festivals because they’re expensive. Even if you pay the submission fee it doesn’t mean you can get in. I try to provide Native filmmakers with a venue where they don’t need to worry about that kind of expense.

How did you enter this work or volunteerism? How did you learn skills and gain experience?

My father is big on activism and he does a lot of work in the community. My grandfather was an ‘Indian cop’ in Oklahoma and he was the only law in several counties. He was a community activist for the tribe. So more or less, I got my influences from them.

What is the impact of your work in the Native American community or Indian culture renewal?

I teach youth workshops. I teach Native American kids how to shoot, edit, write, and produce their own films. Then I’ll screen them at the University of Southern California during the film festival so they can not only learn how to make the film, but also how to present it, answer questions, and speak in front an audience. 119

I know you mentioned how powwows aren’t traditional for every tribe, but have you ever been to one?

I go to powwows just to be around Indian people. I have a powwow of my own, the USC powwow. I’m not into the dancing, it’s nice, but it’s an acquired talent to actually understand what they’re doing and understand the differences. I have my own powwow just because it’s part of the Native American community.

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples of Los Angeles?

The over-culture needs more education. I think the impression is when non-Indians hear Indians talking about the issues we have, there’s the impression that there’s blame and an impression that there’s misunderstanding. You have to understand that although the non-Indians today weren’t involved with the genocide, they’re still benefitting from it. Native American are still suffering. Regardless of however we’re doing economically, because we’re able to survive in this economy, we are limited from what everyone’s been benefitting from. We were here for over twenty thousand years and it was a good place to live. Five hundred years later, the majority of it’s not so nice anymore. The water is polluted. Our minerals and resources are running out quickly. It’s more about the non-Indians understanding how they got to be where they are and not so much understanding our culture and where we come from, because that’s not the issue. Raising our standards is more about everyone else understanding how they got to be where they’re at, rather than understanding our position.

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

That’s a question we have. Is there resentment toward Indian success? It feels that way. There are a lot of government policies in place that are against the Indian people. There are a lot of different agencies and branches that come down on us. We’re supposed to have sovereignty, which means we’re supposed to have separate nations. I don’t see why it’s okay to tax Indian companies twenty-five percent off the top. They don’t do that to the casinos in Vegas or Atlantic City, but we have this special ‘status’ to where we’re taxed twenty five percent off the top. It seems strange. Then there’s the mascot thing. It seems like people were confused as to why we were offended by that. But, I mean, those are offensive images. A lot of simple things like that show the real misunderstandings.

How do you feel about the way the mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

It’s obviously negative, but the mainstream media is what it is. They’re a business and they’re 120

out there to make money. So, it’s not incumbent on them to make things right. Just like it’s not really incumbent on British Petroleum to follow every safety regulation or every gas company to clean up a gas leak right away. It’s the same thing; they’re trying to make money. They do that to everybody, it’s not just Indians. I think television is more misogynous than anything else, because that sells. Misogyny is more of a seller than making fun of Indians. They’re racist towards Indians, Blacks, Hispanics and everybody. Yet we’re here and we want to work in that industry. If we want to change it, that’s fine, but we have to understand that it’s an industry and it’s about making money, and that’s the bottom line. 121

Appendices 122

NATIVE VOICES – Los Angeles Native American Oral Histories

QUESTIONNAIRE

LIFE STORY

Where are you from? (Los Angeles, migrant to Los Angeles, relocated from another reservation, etc.)

What is your tribal affiliation?

What personal or family experiences helped you realize your Native American ancestry, or Indian identity?

What has been your relationship to the Native American community in the course of your life?

If you have children, how do you raise them with regard to Native American culture?

VALUES AND VOCATIONS

What are the values you carry in your life as a Native American?

Describe your job, volunteer, artistic, performance or leadership work in the Indian community.

How did you enter this work or volunteerism? How did you learn skills and gain experience?

What is the impact of your work in the Native American community or Indian cultural renewal?

POWWOWS AND FESTIVALS

Do you attend Indian powwows and festivals? How and when did you begin attending them? What brings you back to them?

What is the importance of powwows or festivals to the Native American community or to Indian cultural renewal?

SUMMING UP

What are some ways to promote the well-being or status of Native American peoples of Los Angeles?

What are some issues to educate the American public about Indian affairs?

How do you feel about the way the mainstream media depicts Native Americans?

What is your opinion of the gaming industry in the Indian community?

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Commentary: The Exiles

by Michael McLaughlin

[Editor’s note: The Exiles is a 1961 film made by Kent Mackenzie, who conceived of the film while making his short film Bunker Hill—1956 while a student at the University of Southern California. In July 1957, Mackenzie began to hang around with some of the young Indians in downtown Los Angeles. After a couple of months, he raised the idea of making a film portraying their lives. In collaboration with cinematographers John Morrill, Erik Daarstad, and Robert Kaufman, the shooting of The Exiles began in January 1958. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival that year but never found commercial distribution. Thom Andersen's compilation documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself led to rediscovery of The Exiles . Andersen contacted the daughters of Mackenzie to obtain permission to use footage to illustrate the lost neighborhood of Bunker Hill. Although the original negative and fine—grain (interpositive) existed for the film, it was decided that a theatrical distribution of the film could put the materials at risk. So Milestone Films, in cooperation with USC's film archivist Valarie Schwan, brought the film to preservationist Ross Lipman and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. A restored version of The Exiles premiered in July 2008 at the IFC Center in New York. This material is excerpted from this website created by Milestone Films: http://www.exilesfilm.com/]

[Begin text by McLaughlin…]

The Exiles is a glimpse into a largely invisible, unfinished chapter of modern American Indian history under U.S. control. But in order for the film to begin to make any sense, some background information is necessary.

I. Background of The Exiles the film .

The Exiles is the only feature length documentary that focuses on the first generation of urban American Indians relocated to Los Angeles during the early days of the U.S. government's Relocation Program of the 1950's/1960's.

Released in 1961, The Exiles was an independent film school student project, not connected with the federal government or a Hollywood studio. The student filmmaker probably never thought it would be viewed beyond the world of film school academia let alone how it would be regarded by future audiences or American Indians. As a school project, it was not intended to be a statement about federal Indian policy, nor a statement about American Indians, nor about any of the perspectives from which it is critiqued today - it was simply an unscripted documentary student film project that followed a group of then newly relocated American Indians in Los Angeles. However, the experiences of the people in the film are common enough to those of other first generation urban American Indians nation-wide who participated in the Relocation Program; they are the fore-bearers of today's urban Indian populations. In a very real sense the 124

film is instructive as an introduction to the outcomes of the entire history of U.S. government control over American Indian lives.

In recent years, the film was resurrected by a younger generation of film school academics whose focus is largely on the film making methods or interest in the rare footage of "old" downtown Los Angeles - their focus has not been the American Indians depicted in the film. Coincidentally, the film became known to younger generations of American Indians who attempt to assess the film from their own perspectives. Any assessment of the American Indians in this film needs to start with an understanding of the world they came from that set the stage for them to volunteer for the Relocation program.

II. Background of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

By the mid 1800's most American Indian tribes had succumbed to the superior military power of the U.S. government. In the aftermath of the widespread bloodshed of the U.S. Civil War, the "Peace Policy" of President Grant sought to build reconciliation across the American continent, including American Indians. U.S. policy towards American Indians shifted from warring with them to "civilizing" and "Christianizing" them - the BIA was established to accomplish this. Because officially the U.S. government regarded American Indians as "uncivilized", American Indians had no voice in the laws and policies established regarding them. As with other racial minorities and women during that era, American Indians were placed in a category of "passive" existence, made totally dependent upon White bureaucrats to determine every facet of their lives.

Starting in 1871, the goal of the BIA was to "destroy the Indian and save the man", in essence to eradicate any characteristics that made them American Indians in order to recreate them as "civilized Christian Americans". From that point on, the BIA planned and directed every aspect of life on the reservations, which at the time was the only place American Indians could live and remain “tribal members” or American Indians. The civilizing process included religious training, education, restructuring family relationships, workforce development, economic development, and internal-tribal governance. To further the civilizing process, the BIA outlawed speaking traditional languages, practicing traditional religions, conducting traditional ceremonies, traditional recreational practices, traditional family relations, wearing traditional clothing, living in traditional structures, in short, anything that recalled or affirmed traditional ways became illegal. BIA workers collected, burned or destroyed all traditional personal possessions – sacred objects, clothing, musical instruments, tools, artifacts - anything connected to traditional ways, but the major crime was teaching young people and children anything about traditional culture, an offense which was punishable by imprisonment.

Essential to the civilizing process were the BIA boarding schools, which were made mandatory for all American Indian children to attend. BIA agents rounded up the children and sent them to schools far away from their home reservations. Instances in which adults tried to hide their children when the BIA agents came for them resulted in imprisonment for the adults and the 125

children were taken anyway. For the BIA, the boarding schools were the ultimate opportunity to save children from their uncivilized state which necessarily included severing all ties to anything familiar. Children from the same family were shipped to different schools. When the children arrived at the schools their clothing and any possessions they brought with them that might remind them of home were thrown into the fire. Their hair was cut and their appearances made uniform in government issued clothing. At the schools, children likewise were forbidden to speak their native languages, speak about their tribes, their families, or engage in any activities from their traditional cultures. While at school the children could not communicate with nor receive visits from family members. For the youngest children it became common for them not to see their families until years later when they graduated as teenagers. After graduation they were returned to their reservations as strangers to their families, their communities, unable to speak the language, unfamiliar with reservation life, nor without direction as to how to adapt to their new role, whatever that was. This was the experience of those seen in The Exiles , as well as their parents, grandparents, and sometimes their great-grandparents. Any thoughts or questions they had about their traditional ancestry before the BIA had long been officially silenced, lest those thoughts or questions be evidence that they had not been completely saved from their "Indianness", so most of them remained silent and in a state of ignorance.

A major characteristic of all BIA programs has always been the lack of looking ahead to see possible outcomes, this is particularly true of BIA programs until the 1970’s. Rather, BIA programs were characterized by trying to obtain some immediate objective, which often resulted in less than desirable outcomes not only for the American Indians and the federal government, but also for state and local governments, and the general citizenry as well.

A key point to keep in mind through this entire time neither the BIA nor the U.S. government permitted American Indians to question or challenge any BIA program or decision, to do so was a punishable offense. And in the world outside the BIA, a few academics and social reformers challenged the policies but were powerless to stop them. In 1934, the U.S. government rescinded its prohibition of the practice of traditional culture, but by that time many of the traditional practitioners had long since died. In 1966, through court case brought by an outside interest group, American Indian tribes finally gained the legal authority to challenge the BIA and to sue the U.S. government, but by that time almost a century had passed and the major damage had already been done.

III. Background of the Relocation Program

Established in 1952, the Relocation Program was a voluntary program that involved moving American Indians from their reservations to selected urban centers across the U.S. In the post- World War II economic boom, President Eisenhower's administration came up with the Relocation Program. The BIA spent much time and effort promoting the program on the reservations. The U.S. government had long struggled with its "Indian problem" - what to do about the American Indians – because to be blunt, American Indians had always been in the way 126

of U.S. ambitions from the very start. The ultimate goal of the Relocation Program was to disburse all American Indians into the "melting pot" of urban American life as quickly as possible in order to set the stage for the U.S. government to finally extinguish the reservations, in effect, at long last, resolving its "Indian problem".

IV. Lack of preparation for Relocation

For many relocatees such things as concrete sidewalks, electricity, plumbing, traffic lights, elevators, telephones, television, supermarkets, freeways, etc. were totally beyond their experience. The "culture shock" often experienced was beyond their abilities to cope. As more relocatees returned to their reservations, it became evident that they weren't prepared for this new experience - and that without some kind of preparation, they could easily be overwhelmed by it. But the BIA continued to promote the Relocation Program and did nothing further to help them adjust to urban life.

In the late 1800's the U.S. government funded "settlement houses" for new European immigrants. The "settlement houses" taught the immigrants the basics of living in their new environments as they prepared the immigrants to adjust to their new lives in America. But for the participants in the Relocation Program there were no "settlement houses", and in those early days of the program urban American Indian organizations had not been established to help them adjust to urban life - they were totally on their own. Considering the fact that the U.S. had experience in establishing "settlement houses" for European immigrants, (although not for immigrants from Asia, Africa, or other non-European groups), it was conceivable that the U.S. government might have done something similar for these relocatees, particularly since it was the U.S. government that established the Relocation Program, but nothing was done. What does the failure to prepare the relocatees for their new lives say about the intentions of the U.S. government, particularly when compared with what it did for European immigrants?

While White America had been indoctrinated to believe in its "progress" based on its economic growth and "cultural superiority" with the expectation that life would just get better and better, and that Whites would "rightly" be the world rulers and decision-makers, reservations had remained essentially desolate "third world" enclaves whose inhabitants had long been indoctrinated to believe their lives would be nothing without continuous BIA direction and management – what has subsequently been called the “BIA mentality”. It is from these "third world" environments that these relocatees found themselves thrust into these new urban environments. What they did receive was a one-way train or bus ticket, and after arriving at their new urban location, they were allocated a couple months rent money and directions to the local unemployment office. Sometimes local churches and other local organizations helped when they could. But for the most-part, no ground-work was officially established for them to successfully transition into the challenges of an entirely new life.

V. American Indians in 20th Century America to 1960 127

As products of the boarding schools, all American Indians lived in a time before the "civil rights" movement, before "Red Power", before "Indian activism", before the American Indian Movement's (AIM) March on Washington D.C. and the take-over the BIA building, before "American Indian studies", way before it became "cool" to be Indian or to claim Indian ancestry, before Cher had her number 1 hit "Half Breed" broadcast on national television, and before groups such as the ACLU or other national or international groups paid any significant attention to them. Indeed, in their world such things were inconceivable. Their world - legally, socio- economically, culturally, and psychologically - was one in which concepts of "Indian Pride", Indian initiative, or self-direction were completely unimaginable, and the same time they were largely ignored and deemed insignificant by modern America.

America was in is "boom" years of economic expansion, and all things American, for White Americans, epitomized the highest form of civilization. For White Americans it was the start of the "space age" and conquering space seemed a realistic possibility. But for people on the reservations, and other racial minorities, nothing had changed, because among the many unspoken assumptions of the dominant culture, was the assumption that "those people" didn't fully "belong" in this new world, it belongs to "us" - "those people" will be permitted to remain to serve us.

A. Reservation life. In the rural and semi-rural environments in which the majority of reservations still exist, tensions between the Indians and local White populations has always existed, and this has not changed significantly today. Growing up on a reservation, traveling to nearby towns was a potentially dangerous situation that was generally avoided. Even while on the reservations when Whites traveled through, it was not uncommon for Indians to be yelled at "prairie nigger" or "red nigger" or get things thrown at them, and sometimes get beaten up as a form of entertainment. For local Whites, particularly young people, the lack of significant law enforcement on the reservations made them places to go to "get away", to "let off steam", to "have some fun", to engage in activities they couldn't or wouldn't do at home or in the light of their own communities and neighborhoods. If in the process some Indian got in the way and was injured or killed it was no big deal, because law enforcement rarely if ever prosecuted a White person for injuring an Indian. So for Indians, even being on the reservation didn't equate to having a safe place from the outside world. Their world did not include a "civil rights" commission, the ACLU, nor any other governmental, religious, nor private group to complain to or to tell their side to - so even though the tense relations were common knowledge, officially they kept silent because complaining wouldn't have changed anything anyway, or it might make things worse. Reservation life was comparable to that of poor Blacks in the rural South - you stayed in your "place", you never complained, and most importantly you never "made waves", lest you be deemed a "trouble-maker" and receive a midnight visit from the KKK and wind up swinging by the neck from some tree. This all began to change after the Civil Rights Movement, but in the world in which the people in The Exiles were born and raised - this was their "normal" 128

daily life on the reservation and the possibility of changing it was non-existent. This state of affairs was an incentive to volunteer for the Relocation Program.

B. Education. Even up to the 1970's BIA schools did not have “college prep” classes nor did they prepare students to develop careers, rather BIA schools were training centers for blue-collar laborers such as carpenter assistants, plumber assistants, seamstresses or domestic help. The BIA educational emphasis seemed to train them to think that the best they might be capable of or hope to achieve might be to assist someone else who WAS capable or competent to be a leader, a manager, a boss - the unspoken message seemed to be that they themselves were not capable or competent to hold management or leadership positions - that such positions were beyond their abilities, and therefore unrealistic for them to consider.

The generation of American Indians who appeared in The Exiles , as well as the generations preceding them, are prime examples of those who had been effectively cut off not only from their ancestry and traditions, but from the education and social-interaction with the outside world that might have created in them the incentive to join the modern world other than as laborers or domestic help. In short, they were denied any type of mentoring and guidance that makes and keeps members of dominant cultures successful in those cultures.

A critical question about the people in The Exiles is how did they internalize or make sense of the realities of their reservation environments, their boarding school experience, along with their historical distrust of the BIA and the White world in general, to become "exiles" in an unfamiliar urban environment dominated by those who historically suppressed them, and whom they historically avoided, distrusted, didn't challenge, and continued to see themselves as separate from?

VI. American Indians in popular American Culture

In American popular culture, the text books and the movies "taught" that American Indians and their ancestors were usually the bad guys, blood-thirsty savages, thieves bent on killing innocent (White) people and stealing or destroying everything they could get their hands on. In sympathetic depictions of Indians, the Indians were mostly noble stereotypes doomed to extinction against the "natural" advance of civilization. In either scenario, the message was clear - American Indians as traditional people had no place in the modern American world, and therefore, necessarily would not be part of the future, unless as cultural artifacts, remnants, and curiosities, or laborers.

All the above sections describe the background of the Indians in The Exiles.

VII. Personal Recollections of that time

One of my clearest childhood memories is when I was 9 years old in 1960, newly relocated to Los Angeles from my reservation in Nebraska. My great uncle, a tough decorated World War II 129

veteran, awarded twice for bravery, loud and boisterous, built like a football player, took me and my family to Disneyland or it could have been Knott's Berry Farm. He had come to L.A. in the Relocation program a couple years earlier and had a job as a janitor. We were the only dark- skinned people anywhere among the crowds of White people. As we walked past the store where the cigar-store Indian a man picked up his child and maneuvered it face-level to the cigar- store Indian, the child proceeded to hit its face repeatedly, slapping it, saying something like "dirty Indian"... other people slowed and watched this child, they chuckled and laughed, encouraging the child as if to say "...isn't that cute..." We stopped briefly and watched. Some people looked at us, obviously Indians, and turned back to cheer the child on. My uncle led us away. I was puzzled. Why were those people doing that? Why didn't we say or do something? None of it made sense to me. I had witnessed this uncle beat up policemen and take on guys as big as he with no fear, but here he was totally different. What I remember most was his facial expression, he put his face down, he tensed up holding himself back as if flooded and over- whelmed in a combination of rage and absolute defeat. As he led us away he softly (totally unlike him) mumbled something like "just forget it". That event made the rest of the day seem hollow and joyless, we continued on as if it didn't matter, but the sting lingered long afterward. It was one of those childhood memories that continued to resonate long after it was over. That was my first clear awareness that somehow I and my family were "different" - it took me decades of living to gain any understanding because at the time the event was never discussed.

That took place just before The Exiles was released. Uncle Dave could have been an older version of one the guys in the film. When I first saw the Exiles many years later, memories of Uncle Dave and others I had known during that time came back, with a combination of delight, disgust, pity, and sadness. With the perspective of time and having survived to become an educated urban Indian, I recognized for the first time that underneath their bravado and playfulness was a sense that something was very wrong – a desperation in themselves, their lives, which they couldn't quite seem to get a grasp on, and which they attempted to cover-up by having "a good time" usually at one of the Indian or Indian friendly bars or out in undeveloped landscapes like that shown in the film's final scenes. The "good times" seemed to be desperate attempts to be free of the prohibitions that governed their lives, the BIA rules and regulations, and perhaps most pointedly the unarticulated sense of powerlessness to do anything about any of it. The "good times" were always short lived, and always seemed to end in violence, in physical injury, being hospitalized, put in jail, in getting fired, etc. It would be easy and convenient to dismiss them as simply "no good" drunks, but people don't become "no good" drunks without reason.

Like my family members, the people in The Exiles , were the 3rd or 4th generation that had been indoctrinated by the BIA boarding schools to think that their "Indianness" was a dirty and disgusting thing. The White world taught them that they were remnants of savage and ignorant cultures whose ways were bad and deserved to be extinguished. In the modern world, the best these Indians could hope for, if they were very, very good, according to some White overseer, 130

was to be good imitation White people, but I believe that they knew deep inside that even if they succeeded in that, they would never really "belong", and I have come to believe over the years that their deeper unarticulated belief was "I'm not sure if I really WANT to."

VIII. Reflections

In recent years I've seen The Exiles several times. I began to view it as a glimpse back into my own past and that of families of others I know who relocated to Los Angeles. I found myself focusing on that nagging sense in the characters that "something wasn't right" - which was the start of a deeper sense of how they might have viewed themselves, which since they did not articulate it, can only be surmised from their actions - actions that seem driven by self- destruction. I asked myself - what causes one to want to self-destruct? A lot of words came to mind - defeat, victimized, betrayed, heart-broken, but the word that stood out because it seemed to encompass all of those and more was hopelessness. A life without hope. Defeat, betrayal, heartbreak, being victimized, etc. can, with work and support, be turned around, but there is something very final about having no hope. Without hope, there is no sense of power to change anything, nothing to build toward, nothing of lasting value, and no real future. Without hope life becomes as if focused on - watching your species die off, and you spend your time conscious of being a survivor waiting for your own time to end, and the only available option seems to be death.

I began to understand that without hope, most people succumb to grabbing what they can in the moment, no matter how destructive it might be, because the moment may be their last. Unlike, for example, the Jewish Holocaust survivors of World War II who although they had experienced devastating demoralizing losses, at the war's end, they had the hope of Israel and they also had world recognition, sympathy, and support to recover from what happened to them. But Indians never received recognition that what they experienced under U.S. control was drastic life changing demoralizing multi-generational trauma. Even on their reservations, they knew that any moment the BIA could and did make new rules that impacted their lives and brought major changes – in essence, Indians not only had no control over their "place" in their world, nor did they possess the final word within their own homes. Even though the BIA told them repeatedly that the Relocation Program was their entrance into the modern world, I believe in their hearts they responded to it as they had to every other BIA program they had been forced by that time to submit to over several generations – the reality of their experience was that whatever the BIA promised, the real result would be further suppression, alienation, and loss.

From today’s standpoint I began to understand that like most of my family members, those people in The Exiles were still trying as much as possible to dull the emptiness and pain of a life without any real hope, but the truly unfortunate fact was they hadn't the foggiest comprehensive that that was what they were actually doing. Their denial and incomprehension were reinforced by a government whose laws and policies created it in the first place, and worked hard to reinforce it, and by the general disinterest of dominant culture. Neither did the filmmaker or 131

anyone involved in the production comprehend the "bigger picture" of the larger history of which the film was but a small slice.

For those in The Exiles at most they had was a faint hope that maybe their lives might get better somehow in this new environment, but in the meanwhile many if not most of them never made it. Uncle Dave died in 1962, he collapsed in front of a bar on San Fernando road in Burbank, he drowned in his own vomit before an ambulance was called. A year later, Uncle Al was found in a park in Glendale. He either passed out or was held down as one end of a children's seesaw or teeter-totter crushed his skull, his body found the next morning. No one was ever charged with killing him – he was just another Indian succumbed to some stupid random violent act that ended his life. His wife had died earlier in a car accident, and he left behind children who became wards of the social welfare system. To this day, I don’t know what happened to them.

More recently when I’ve seen the film I find myself looking past the obvious outward behavior and focus on their silent moments, and now knowing more about their histories, I try to put myself in their place. One can only guess, since all except Yvonne died long ago and today, she has removed herself from any connection to the film. They all seem totally disconnected from the world they found themselves in and from everything around them, except for that deep place inside that gets exposed inadvertently in their quiet introspective moments. I have come to believe they knew in their hearts that this modern world was not for them nor would it ever be, because even though they may not have known the specifics, they knew deep inside that the worlds of their ancestors had successfully existed long before the first White man came, and that's what they belonged to, and that this modern world was merely an imposed substitute. The barrier they faced in their time was that the place did not exist for them to further investigate, explore, or re-connect to their ancient selves, yet alone articulate the possibilities.

Unfortunately at that time, the idea that perhaps being an Indian who could be connected to a traditional past and still be part of the modern world and the future, had yet to be articulated anywhere. How does one internalize a life-time of conditioned shame and intimidation in which articulating some kind of response, especially an opposing or conflicting one, was not an option?

IX. Put yourself in their place

Today it is difficult especially for young people to comprehend living a world where every thought, belief, goal, and action was decided for you, and you had no right or option other than to obey. You have no title to your house and you have no bank account because your meager subsistence is rationed and managed by the government. Imagine being in your home, hearing a knock on the door, strangers come in and tell you - "you can't have that book, you can't have that music, you can't wear that, you can't have that, you can't speak that language." They go through your home and take away your personal possessions and mementos - no discussion allowed. They take the children without your consent - send the younger boy to a school in Maine, the 132

older boy to one in Oregon, the girl to Louisiana, and you are not to contact them, or you will be punished. You couldn't visit them anyway, because you could not get approval to travel.

Perhaps the only real difference between how the U.S. handled its "Indian problem" from how Nazi Germany handled its "Jewish problem" was that the final step of outright extermination did not take place - even though the U.S. Congress debated doing so before President Grant's "Peace Policy" won out. Imagine yourself in the place of one of these "problem people", knowing there is no ACLU, no Public Defender, no family counseling, no "consumer action" group, no law enforcement nor government officials to turn to, and no lawyers willing to hear your case . Would you have faith in or trust the people and institutions that put you through this? What would this do to your family? How would you/they cope with all the immediate issues and those that came later? Now imagine this being was done to your family for several generations - when you watch The Exiles you are getting a glimpse into the lives of people who have gone through precisely this experience.

X. Conclusion

The entire history of Indian-White relations since Europeans first stepped on this continent is full of unspoken thoughts, ideas, and beliefs from both sides. Perhaps one of the most fundamental unspoken beliefs that remains in the heart of most Indians to Whites is: we still really DON'T want to be like you, we want to be what we were. We've been taught your version of history, but we've lived the other side of it, and we'd still rather be what we were before you came."

On the dominant culture's side remains the assumption that "we" are the superior ones - "we won" and that Indians should simply fall into place in our version of U.S. history. U.S. institutions - government, religious, economic, education, and the general public still largely refuse to acknowledge the possibility that perhaps American Indians experience of U.S. history is very different from theirs and that as a result American Indians have a very different view U.S. history. U.S. institutions and White people in general still see themselves as the "good guys" in this history and cannot comprehend how Indians might think otherwise, but for the most part Whites have never really thought it was worth serious consideration.

It is these unarticulated ideas and assumptions that remain at the center of Indian-White relations and will remain the source of problems until they are brought into the light of reconciliation where the less heard voices are given the opportunity to share equal status as the historically dominant ones. Franklin High School Tongva/Gabrielino murals.