 are 10th year. We have a two-year-old that has a published poem, a capitalist station nurse, and we have a 92-year-old. Wow. And every age in between. We have school kids, we have college kids, and seniors. You just have a lot of different voices, a lot of different programs, and it's really great that you're here tonight. Whole City happens because we are sponsors. We're about Humanities Council, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Humbermount Hall, National Life Group Foundation, and the Poetry Society of Vermont. I have trouble saying that two out of three times. And George Logan Eckers is the president of the Poetry Society of Vermont. I'm glad that he's here. He is also on the Palm City planning team, which makes my life a lot easier. And so tonight's program, Native Music and Poetry, is with two very special people, Brian Glanschette and Roland Luto. Our citizens of the Malawikistan and the Tusa Tukabunaki. Luto has been writing poetry for about 25 years, and he says, my poems are about my proud path I walk being a native. That also includes nature at times, and very personal writing. Brian Glanschette, a Berkeley College of Music alum, and a member of Black Hawk Singers started cow-out drumming in 1996, and began writing songs in Abinaki in 1998. Beautiful music and Abinaki heritage combined to create one of New England's most original artists. So we will have music, and then we'll have poetry, and then back to music, and back to poetry. And at the end, we would love to hear comments, questions, and conversation. So please help me welcome Brian and Roland. I think I'll talk in a little easy to cook mottage. Wulewski sings along me with Zowice, Seneca, Nien Daki, Friends. My name is Strex twice. The Wulewski flows along the mountain to stone. That would be grand ago. That's where I live. That's my name, that's my place. This is a song that was first written for the Black Hawk singers. We literally played this on a picnic table before the first time we played it in public at a big pow-wow in New Hampshire. And I recorded this old Ticket Tower. This is Quaiine. This is the green song on sacred water. And we just learned that one of the schools had tested a hundred times higher for uranium back up to the point where one of the women that was there was her son. He told her, hey, don't drink the water to school when you're able. So I came home and said, I'm sorry, Nomi, but I was thirsty today. So I got to hear the VP ask for a woman who was putting on the event, the symposium. He said, who were they at? And she had just received her doctorate from Dartmouth College on colonialism. So who better to be speaking about this? And she said that she spoke about the resolve of the Avanaki people. So I'm going to do a take on a Tom Penney tune. This is, I won't back down. And I translated the chorus into the Avanaki language just to put a roll of twist on it. Be it in Hong Kong, but all the way across to the Pacific Ocean, decree in any way. We still have. So I talk sometimes when I sing the Tom Penney tune, I say in almost 20 years of the war, we had a hundred and hundreds of years of oppression, but we still have our language. Most people don't fully speak it, but there are still some people, and Father to Son and Jesse Grushak, a great teacher of the language, actually taught his son. So his son's first language in New York was Avanaki. I started speaking English to him. And now his girlfriend, not true speakers of the language, heard me say that's not something I wrote out. And, you know, it's from memory. This is a translation from... This is a Pentecost country. My name came up on the Facebook post on the leaving page. And I'm like, well, I've translated it, recorded it, and passed it on. But this is Merrimack County, AKA Pentecost country. Don Stevens, you put out a post on Facebook about saying prayers to the elders last year. As I was, you know, living in that, that I bought a foreclosure in Grandville that I'm working on. So I'm living in a mess, no TV. Got a couple of young kittens that I rescued and they're laying in my lap, and they've got a glass of wine next to me, and I'm leaving the post. And this next song gave the mind, because this is prayers for my elders. This one's in English. But there's my friend, Gali, who's separated some songs, you know, that were just called in Florida. And I was talking to someone on the phone that was a school psychologist who started crying when they realized that the student resource officer never went into the school. And we had a hype that started following that by the kids wanting to get into civil disobedience, really, right? When you're saying high school kids doing civil disobedience and for generations we haven't even really heard about something like that. I was pretty much inspired by that. So it kind of ties in some of the happening to the rest of the population. It didn't happen. It isn't the same thing that happened to our people because this is called truth. But I will say, by the way, which is welcome or good evening, citizen of the Malhegan band of the Kusak Abadake. Malhegan is the place where the wooden traps are made. Kusak is people that live in the pines and the Abadake are we who see the sunlight first. So we are known as the people that make the traps that live in the pines who see the sunlight first. As Rachel said, I started writing probably about 25 or 30 years ago somewhere if it was my inspiration. I had lost two friends a period of time and I wanted to do something to honor them. I didn't want to make a little monument or memorial because eventually I would fall in disrepair. So she suggested maybe I write a story about each. Well, I'm not really a story writer even though my stories probably tell a story. So she reminded me that my father's mother and my grandmother wrote poetry and some of her poems were undisplayed on in the chapel years ago. So my first poem that I did was for these three people and because it's so personal I will not read that one. But I had written several and a good friend of mine who lived in New Jersey at the time asked if she could borrow my poems and take them home and read so I let her take them. And a couple weeks later she sent them back and she had put them into a book form for me. And she got titled The Reflections of Red Hawk Red Hawk being my native name Thoughts of the Native Man. And so in the front of the book she wrote a little story about me I guess and I'd like to share that with you it might help you understand a little bit more who I am and how I write. So she says Red Hawk The Reflections shared on these pages are a glimpse of daily events easier or hard that have occurred in one man's life. Red Hawk is a Native American with Babanaki heritage who resides in the state of Vermont. He works hard, dances when he drums laughs easily and walks with an open heart. He is a son, a brother, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Keeping in the oral tradition of telling a story without telling all the story the background of these reflections are not shared. Red Hawk leaves it to the reader or the listener to glimpse the events that is found in the spaces between the words. In this way we take from each page what is needed and we learn it or remember. These shared thoughts contain the universal feelings. We can find connections from whatever ethnic heritage we descend. My first one I call my dreams and I try not to be political sometimes I might throw in a little bit that might sound that way but it's mostly what is in my heart that I write about the path that I've been on for close to 50 years. I started in my early 20s I'll be 73 in June so my dream, I had a dream the other night I dreamt our people were not alright I asked creator what shall I do he said choose a path and I will walk with you I chose a path and walked not wrong for others walked with me into the unknown we did not run, we stand in flight and hopes our people will be alright I learned traditions, customs and songs so all these can be carried on the old ways must come back to help our children on the right track for those who are yet to come our work here is far from done for time is short, the end is near creator tells us not to fear if your path is straight and your words are true creator will always walk with you that was the second poem can everybody hear me okay? I walked one great dark day and did not see beauty in this day I did not hear the small birds sing or see the deer who stopped to eat I did not look to see the goose or hear the cry of a lonely moose I did not feel the sun morning rays or the gentle rain to wash away I did not feel the breeze that blew or the clouds above as the day was through as night time fell and day was done I sat up and wondered what was wrong did I not see these things before as I stood and looked out my door I closed my eyes as day was done and heard a voice from up above slow down my friend I heard him say tomorrow is another day for beauty is but all around just take your time and slow your life down point in my life seemed like I had been pulled in many different directions sometimes these words come to me and I can sit down and write a poem in just a matter of minutes sometimes it takes I start one and it might take a few months before I finish it and then sometimes I feel like I am an instrument for the ones that came before me for those voices that still need to be heard so do my best for them as well as for myself people sometimes come to me and say I got a title can I give it to you or you can write a poem about it so good friend of mine who was a school teacher and she had a lot of children throughout all the years that they were in school came to me one day and she said you know Roland she said I I walked along the wood lines and river banks and she said down country roads and she said I see these little birds nest all over the place and she said if I give you a title can you can you write me a poem so I said well I'll try she said how about cradles in the wind so I said okay so it goes cradles in the wind high up in the tree empty to the world now swinging so free once filled with little life and days gone by high up in the tree tops up near Father's sky these cradles hold a lesson of how life begins anew with each new season passing our answers will come through these cradles tell a story with each new passing day of love and kindness and hearing these cradles show the way cradles in the wind we see them every day as we walk our path of life these cradles lead the way as my wife crossed over seven years ago for cancer but I know she's with me here tonight because she was my inspiration and she pushed me on and even towards the last of her life she said don't forget you gotta keep writing there was a long time from the time she passed until just recently I started writing again I called this one a visit a heart came to visit me one day and stayed not long and flew away he sat in my tree and just looked around not leaving the tree to fly to the ground he sat and looked he sat and we looked at each other that day and I wondered why he came my way was it a message or sign he was given to me who should I ask or who should I see and my answer came through so loud and clear as the hawk took off and left me here he was free to fly he was free to go he came back two more times on two different days he sat in my tree just looking at me he has not returned in quite a long time perhaps the last was the end of the line I know he's my friend I felt it that day when my friend just up and flew away it was a little little hawk my tree is probably about from here to that post over there out my front window I have a picture of him somewhere I took a picture he just sat there and posed it was like Ryan I was on a native drum doing the powwow circuit for many years for like 12 or 15 years I sat on two different drums and the drum is something very special to me when I'm drumming and setting on a drum I have that total peace with myself and I drum for those that came before me that didn't have the chance for different reasons throughout our history and a lot of our people went into hiding for those particular reasons and that's something political and I'm not going to get into that but I titled this one the drum and you'll notice I try to make my words rhyme but they all don't rhyme all the time and I don't go back through and try to change it so it sounds they come out the way they're supposed to come out and so that's the way I put them down so this is called the drum a piece of high to piece of wood a song from your heart that will make all feel good to own a drum is a disgrace for no one can own that sacred space to sit on the drum is the highest grace but to do it wrong is total disgrace to feel it beat is to feel her heart for mother earth is always a part sometimes we forget what the drum is about but to be honored there is no doubt it's not for performing or to show off and sing it's not for power or material things it's for teaching and learning and respecting and pride it's more than wood it's bringing together not tearing apart it's looking at others not with your eyes but with your heart if one who sits on the drum cannot do these things then for them there's no place to be like I said the drum is something very special to me I hold a lot of respect for it it's really not I call it the view I climbed I climbed a hill the other day I looked over this piece of clay I looked through the eastern door and saw it as it was before the air was so light and sweet and mother earth felt good below below my feet and all the rest was like a dream the water was so pure and clean I sat and looked at it today and wondered why it went away the water does not fit to drink and the air has a terrible stink we put all kinds of things into mother earth then wonder why there's no rebirth did I do this was I a part this question eats out my heart if all of us would try a little more I'm sure we could find a simple cure to bring back water clean and pure and the air as it was before and mother earth as she should be to feel so good below my feet I was not a pow wow on time on our drum and the particular drum I sat on and there's mixed feelings on this because some people will allow women on their drum others don't the drum I was on was an all male drum and the women stood behind us and they rattled with their rattles one of the women dropped her rattle on the ground and she said oh god she said I can't maybe my rattles broke and so I sat there in the floor your mind goes crazy sometimes and then the rattles not broke I wrote a poem about it it's called broken rattles broken rattles and this woman busted out into tears I mean this was a special rattles broken rattles crying tears broken spirits of yester years broken promises broken dreams all hope is gone or so it seems a rattles tells a story of how life used to be a once proud people just wanting to be free the rattles speaks of spirits promises and dreams of family ties and happy times and all that's in between a rattles never broken its spirit still lives on it finds a way of showing us that things are never gone for life is what we make of it and rattles show us how by picking up a broken one and listening to its sound my wife and I used to do a lot of things actually we did everything together except when I went to work she had to stay home and raise the kids but whenever we got a chance and we had five children people would be willing to watch the kids we'd sneak off for a few days or a week or whatever we'd go to Maine or whatever so anyway I sat down one day and I wrote this for her its called our love we'd walk the rocky shores of Maine walk through meadows symptom plain we'd climb up mountains to their peaks we'd done it all we never had to speak we raised a family with nothing coming in and watched them grow from small little kids we did what we always thought was right and never once got into a fight you've touched my heart and I've seen your soul from our young days to as we grow old we've always been true without a doubt and never once had a falling out I trusted you as you trusted me and that's the way our love would always be and one fine day as our lives will part and leave the other with a broken heart remember that one will always wait on the other side until we both meet again and then sweep by and by to once again walk the rocky shores of Maine and meadows symptom plain to climb mountains to their peak and I'll hold you in my arms for all eternity and I'll always give you a kiss this one I call Mother Earth Mother Earth is something special because she gives us everything we need she gives us our clothing our food whatever we need it's always there for us to take and we don't take but what we leave something in return so I always pick up a stone or something I always leave a pinch of tobacco to repay what I've taken for everything is has a spirit that spirit must live on anyway Mother Earth the Earth is our mother she gives us our needs I've walked in her beauty and I've seen her great deeds I've seen her great forest and climbed her tall peaks I've walked through her meadows I swam in her rivers and drank from her lakes I've seen her great oceans and felt their great waves I've seen her small creatures and seen her great beast I've seen her birds fly in the crawlers below this is her love for this I should know each day I give thanks for all that she gives and I thank the creator for allowing me to live upon this place we call Mother Earth I was sitting on my back deck one day with my wife and she was drinking her coffee and smoking her cigarette and I was just gazing around and looking at the world I had to look up at the sky and the sky was such a beautiful brilliant blue so I spoke out loud and I said I wonder why the sky so blue and she put down her cigarette and she looked at me and she said well there's your next poem what do you mean? she said you wonder so I called it wonder I wonder why the sky is blue I wonder why they say water is too I wonder why water is wet I wonder why we worry and fret I wonder why up is not down I wonder what makes a circle around I wonder why we kill for peace and look for problems from the east I wonder why the clouds don't fall but rain and snow will all day long I wonder where do the breezes come and wonder where they go when they are done I wonder why the moon will light up the night sky and why governments will tell their people lies I wonder why the sun's so hot I wonder what makes a mountain top I wonder now if I should stop I wonder what I wonder and then I put a little footnote on the bottom and it says to wonder is to question to question is to learn to learn is to know and to know is to wonder here's a few more minutes trying to stretch it out a very dear friend that was way up in northern Maine and a lot of times I'd go to him when I'd eat questions answered and he was originally from Canada and they sold their house there and they moved over to northern Maine and he bought something like 100 or 150 acres of land and they cut down the trees and they built their home out of there and everything he was out exploring his land one day and he came across these three huge rocks one was in the north one was in the east and the other was in the south and so when I went up there he said I've got to show you this so he took me up to these rocks and my thought it was going through some problems at the time some health problems at the time and so he said you know you got to sit here in the west and talk to these rocks and they'll hear your prayers and everything will be alright so we called them the grandfathers which they are because they're older than time so I called them I called them the grandfathers these grandfathers they sit in their own special place calling out to the people of the human race to give them their hurts, prayers, dreams in their homes and to give them to ease what bothers us most I've been to these rocks to ask them for help and each time I've left I've left a part of myself the first time was for my daughter who was facing a terrible fate the next time was for my granddaughters that they would be worn okay these grandfathers had listened and heard my sad plea and each time I've asked they have answered me I've been there many times in my mind when they've got one good of a guidance from time to time I've also been there to just set and think and to listen to what these grandfathers have to say keep walking your path keep walking it straight these grandfathers are with you in your native faith I follow my native faith I was born and raised Catholic but I get more more substance out of my native faith than I do the religious faiths and I walk in two worlds and that's kind of difficult because I walk in my native world but I also walk in the white man's world I don't need to I'm certainly not trying to offend anybody I was traveling down the road one day with a good friend of mine and he said you know these roads that were on these were all Indian paths at one time and they just blacked up all when we go on the highway so I said well okay so I got home and I got to thinking about what he had said and it made sense I mean our people were here 10,000 years before anybody else and they didn't have highways to ride on and walk on and everything else so they made their own paths and when we came along we just increased those paths and made them bigger and wider with Indian roads Indian roads they lead all from here to take me to places I long to be near Indian roads which one do I take what do I want and what places do I see my ancestors traveled the waters and paths it took them to places they thought would last as time went by and those paths turned to roads these native people no longer did roam Indian roads from east to west Indian roads which ones are the best I've traveled these roads all through the year in hopes of finding a place that is so dear and what do I find as I travel along these roads always lead me to the place I belong I wrote this one just a few days ago we had a place over in the eastern part of the state it is very sacred to the Appalachian people it's a place called Brunswick Springs I don't know if you people have heard of it or not if you haven't Google it it's on the banks of the Connecticut River and there's a story behind it and it's protected by our ancestors and the spirits that roam the land there and the story part of the story goes that the water that flows there will never be used for any profit so I called this our sacred springs there is a place I like to go a place where seven different waters flow a place that brings me lots of peace high above the river facing east very protected day and night keeping it safe keeping it sacred for what is that is right if you haven't been there then you should go to see the beauty and watch them flow respect is all we ask of you for it's always the right thing to do as I said this is a very sacred place to the Appalachian people it must be almost Brian's turn to come back I have other things to I'll come back you can come on up Brian okay thank you I would just like to introduce my chief Chief Don Stevens Don is our our go to man he does so much for the people of all our people here in the modern wall he doesn't just take care of not even a great deal of death are you in our blood this is a this is a song that was inspired from some artwork by a friend of mine down at White River for the last Black Hawk a CD we called called Moon Hawk written by a friend of mine named Joe Vishad and he has a friend named Tony Moon Hawk so he pulls in a bunch of that stuff but this is Moon Hawk and then Wayfield and I think it's there are falls, mossland falls I don't remember but there's a picture of me standing on this I was in my early 20s and I'm like this is a there's a sign down the bottom that talked about all the people that it crossed were actually kind of reused by it so I walked out the picture I've had ever since when I came back up here to settle down I was actually recording something else in my private studio and while I was recording I started writing a song don't ask me how that happened but this is called Waterfall it's a he's on a life long mission preserving a language so you have to move down to Florida and mine's fried with language coming out of this because in the Avanaki language you can't double talk everything is specific you conjugate nouns and depending on the prefix or the suffix you put on so you have to listen to what somebody's saying to understand the actual sentence so it's a language that's meant to be listened to um Steve Tingley was writing songs three or four different songs and he had the luxury of having a check to make sure all the grammar was correct so he was absorbing everything that was coming out of the songs at the same time with proper Avanaki grammar this is a canoe song so just to speak to how profound it is what he's writing as we paddle upstream to the St. Francis River inside the bird's fire canoe this is the Indian way of travel we travel by canoes for 100 in fishy grounds I mean he's not just saying simple expressions he's really spelling it out anyways this is we've all been total gone canoe song for like 30 years and I hated mascots but he was sitting in my camper and his hands were going crazy on the countertop and he goes I could put in a million different things oh my god and that's kind of funny because you are kind of playing influence my guitar playing and I actually had a chance to record him and when I listened to what he was doing I had to record my guitar practice because he was actually doing stuff that he was doing with my right hand which was pretty cool but he's the one that inspired me to write some songs about contemporary issues and this is a song called White Dog I'll leave it up to you it's called It's called Eight Swans I never saw any of the young ones but for some reason the state stepped in and said they are not native to this area so they my story will tell you I called it Eight Swans there is a small lake in my hometown where Eight Swans lived almost year round they were a symbol of beauty and a symbol of peace they lived on the shore facing the east they gave joy to the young and joy to the old and they had lived there for eight years as I was told but the state stepped in one summer day and said these swans must go away I begged and pleaded to save their dear lives but to no avail for the state is always right first they shipped them to Texas to a safe park to be and the swans returned just wanting to be free I drummed that I played on the state house lawn in hopes that the governor would give them another dime but he sent his men in with high powered guns in the day's time their job was done now these swans spirit live in a much better place and our ancestors enjoy their beauty and grace I think of them often I am one voice in a very large world and I did I called the governor's office and he referred me to the fishing game department and the fishing game department referred me to another department and then I was referred back to another department and this was a number of years ago I think this one was this happened in anyway their spirit flies free in another place now and I'm sure they're making our ancestors happy and often was told that I was not native and there's a lot of reasons behind that and there again we're getting into political stuff and I don't want to go political input if you don't know too much about the eugenics program here in Vermont I would suggest you Google it online and read about it because one of my ancestors hid in plain sight we literally hid in plain sight and so even my grandfather on my father's side told me that we were not native even though I concluded that his mother came from Three Rivers, Quebec she was cold-blooded at Mackie so I wrote this in my native I am am I native? I do not know for some say yes and others say no I feel my native pride in sight but I'm not sure this pride is mine my head is high but my spirit is low my heart says yes but my mind says no I cannot prove my native mind for all my older relatives are on the other side I only know that what I've been told yet feel my native path restored I'm not a wannabe for that's for sure my skin is white but I feel red like you if I should find that I'm not red then the disappointment I would dread I walk my path I know it's true but how can I continue if I'm not red like you for maybe one day I will learn for this is what my heart now yearns and my native I do not know I hope she asks but it could not be so I have long since documented my my native side I joined the union I submitted my paperwork that was about that click I get it on three sides of my family two of my mothers and one of my fathers my great grandfather on my mother's side was an apnaki guide up in Swanton and I have pictures of him sitting in an apnaki can along with his son and one of my uncles or great uncles so I am who I am I call this one the circle the circle is a path in my in life that most of us walk each day some choose to stay on this path while others walk away the circle has no beginning the circle has no end when walking the circle straight and true the circle will never bend it will teach you how to listen to what it has to say it has so many lessons you cannot learn them in a day that's for sure from east to south from north to west do not be afraid to walk for it will never let you fall it will show you how to learn respect to care and how to love for creator has given us this circle from high up above to walk it in my daily life for this he has given me and when I walk my circle I know that I am free day is gone by as the snow falls and it seems like it's falling all the time as the snow falls and it tells us it's time for us to sleep I think about the year just past with all its valleys and peaks I think about the trouble times and friends who wanna stray I remember the time we sat and drummed and laughed throughout the summer day of walks we took by the lake shore and trips we had to make I think of the babies that were born and the friends who passed away and as this year draws to an end as they always do we look forward to the spring again and know what we should do for nothing lasts forever not snow not life nor dark of night for as we walk our path of life creator will keep it right seasons of life seasons bring us many gifts the quiet time is a time of to wish to allow us to slow down from our fast pace to see the love in each other's face the springtime brings us a time of renew green grasses and gardens and new births too summer allows us for the busy time of the year when each of us run from here to there as fall comes and harvests the year a time to give thanks for our gifts of the year to reflect on our lives and what we hold dear for some will hold material gains in their heart like money and greed and power to start all others will live day to day and let the seasons of life show them the way path I walk is special to me I walk out on my mother I walk it free the path I walk has stories to tell just listen to the wind and listen well the breeze will tell of my people and land of giving and caring and offering a helping hand the path I walk has meaning for me from its valleys and rivers to its mighty peaks but if I don't learn and listen well I could be in for a big big fall and nothing the signs in there and the lessons ring true so now it's up to me and you to take care of our mother as she has cared for me and maybe the path I walk will keep me free remember when we were kids and used to play all day remember how we used to talk and laugh at things we say remember how we stayed up all night remember how they're gone remember all the things we did some right and some so very wrong remember how long the summers last and never seem to end remember how close we were you were my bestest friend remember when you moved away and how we said goodbye remember how we hugged that day we both had tears in our eyes remember all the things we ever did remember all the things we ever said I must say this to you my sister of all the sisters I could have had I would have loved you the best