 There is a lot of things on my reservation that is totally in the wrong in the wrong way and I figured maybe if I have a gathering here that They hear about it, and they would come to attend the black Hills one time it belonged to the Lakota people and the surrounding natives around here and now It's the only time that we can go there is is when we are in prayer The time that the grandmothers are going to be here. There is three special places in the in the black Hills, and there's one in Wyoming that I would like to take the grandmothers to So that they could put down their prayers over there First of all, I'll introduce myself. I am Retalong Visitor Holy Dance and I am from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota And I am very pleased to be here with you people Since we have to be talking about generations I I went I was put to a Catholic school when I was seven years old and I left that school after ten years. I was in that school and All during the school all during the time that I was going to school there They didn't allow us to talk Lakota our Lakota language we got punished for for speaking our Lakota language, so I Just want to let you people know that I speak English and I understand Everything but since the sisters Punished that punishment punished us for speaking Our Lakota language. I'm going to speak my Lakota language to you people But my son that's sitting here with me. He will interpret for me So don't think that I don't know how to speak English I Had to speak it because I've been punished so many times by the sisters the Catholic sisters So anyway, I thought I'd let you know You might think that why is she speaking Lakota when she could speak English? so first of all, I'm gonna I'm gonna say a little prayer for Each and every one of us and throughout the world for the poor The helpless for the children and the people that are all locked up so and for our For our enemies We all have to love our enemies no matter what you all know that So I'm gonna say a prayer in my Lakota language Oh Yeah Lino I Tiki show thank you Tuck would ship in on taco krapse check well, I like I'll know me. I'm a下去 Tom, yeah oh, yeah, OK, job Oh, yeah, I'm gonna show my walk he would drop her My mother said that I hope you all heard and understood what I have just spoken to you about. A long time ago, seven generations ago, when we were children, my grandmother and my grandfather and my father, they told me many things. And so that is where I'm going to be speaking from. The things that I was told, I tried to thoroughly understand it. And as I came through the years, I eventually had children and they also grew up. And it seems like some of the things that I've shared and told my children, it seems they just didn't sometimes grasp the concepts of what I was telling them. And so I am now standing in my seventh generation and it's difficult to translate. And so I will tell it the best that I can in the English language. I am a great, great grandmother and I appreciate that very much. But nowadays you have to really, really talk to our children. But now our generation, our generation is out of control. And so we have to, my age, us that are my age, we have to try very hard to control the future generation. Because even if you're sitting there telling them this and that, they're not going to listen. They'll just stand up and walk away from you. And they just go ahead and do whatever they want. And so I have, of course, I have all these boys and then my grandkids are all boys. So it's really hard to talk to them. I have one daughter and she's got boys. And my son, he's got boys. And, you know, my whole family, out of my family, there's only maybe four girls and the rest are all boys. And so as I'm sitting here telling you these things, I have to use harsh words on them boys. And so you know what a harsh word is. I'm not, I'm not very, you know, they get me mad. And I tell them, what are you going to do in the future? When I'm gone, what are you going to do? Who are you going to come to? Who are you going to ask for? Oh, grandma told us this. It's going to be too bad. You know, I'm not going to be around to hear it. And that's when I just sit them down and I talk to them. The future is yours, not mine. I mind my futures now. And I tell them, the future is yours and you have children. You've got to teach them children. The future that you're walking, you've got to teach them. And I tell them, do you hear me? And they'll say, mm-hmm. What? Yeah. And I don't, I don't have all my grandchildren. They don't call me grandma. When they call me grandma, I tell them, look at me in my face. Do I look like a white man? Do I look like a white lady? Do I have blue eyes? And they say no. And I say, well, what are you going to call me? They don't know. So I tell them, you call me. Umji. Umji, that's grandma in Lakota. So now they don't, they don't call me grandma. If they say grandma, I don't listen to them. I have deaf ears. So they call me umji. So even Joe T and the rest of the girls that the grandma, you know, the 13 grandmas, they call me umji. So if I say grandma to me, I don't know who they're talking to. Anyway, when I was young, my dad, my mother, they talked to us. If we do something bad, you know, we get it. My sister and I, she knows. We were crazy kids too at one time. That is when we're out of school. But with the nuns around, you know, we have to be. That's why I have bad knees now. I can't walk very good. I pray too much. So anyway, that's the way I bring up my children, my grandkids. I talk to them every day I talk to them. And they're there. And when I'm talking, and if they walk, walk out, I make them come back in. Hey, you sit down, you sit here. I'm not through talking with you. So I'm at them kids, at the mom boys. And I tell them about the future, the future that's coming. Not today, not tomorrow, but the years and years that are coming. I talk to them about it. Get a book, read. Don't miss sitting there watching that TV. I'm really strict with my boys, even with my son. And he knows it. That's why he's quiet. So I thought I would, I would cheer you guys up. There's a lot in my life. I joined the grandmothers. And when this young lady sitting here, when we first had the meeting, and then she spoke, she said, I was wondering if the grandmothers thought that we would get together. And without thinking real good, us 13 grandmothers sitting there, oh yes, we all said yes. You know, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Every time we go meeting, he's got all these books that, he writes everything down. And then when we get home, I have to study that. Here, read this through, mom. And then one time I thought to myself, I didn't tell him, but I thought, oh, did I get myself into the generation that is ahead of us, all of us sitting in here. We have to look forward to the generation ahead of us and talk to our younger ones and tell them about our past and their future. What we all went through, the rough times we went through. We have to let them know that they will not go through what we went through. Thank you. Right at the moment, us grandmothers, we need funds. So if you would be so kind enough to help the grandmothers, please do.