 We are the irrecord, we are strong, we've held on to our culture now. Oh, food and the chain. I can see to the other side of the stars. The stars will guide you. I can hear the other side of the stars. The stars will hear you. And the land is sacred. You don't live off of it like a parasite. You live in it and it in you or you don't survive. That is the only worship of God there is. The soil that you see is not ordinary soil. It is the dust of the blood and the bones of our ancestors. To get to the real earth, you have to go through the upper portion. That upper portion is Crow Indian. This is the story of a family, of the great spirit of Mother Earth and her children of how they became the dispossessed in the war against the Indians. Being masks of memory and with memory comes knowledge. A memory of where the native people believe they began. Our witness, Gloria Kramer Webster. I remember coming home from school and saying to my father that I was taking an anthropology course in which we learned that we were supposed to have come across the Bering Straits. And my father and others laughed and said, well, no, no, that's not true. We know where we came from. Our family came from the river, from a sea monster and a thunderbird. It doesn't have anything to do with Bering Straits. And much later, I was back at the university teaching. There was a young Indian student who, when he heard this Bering Straits theory, got quite upset and said, well, Jesus, now they're trying to make second-class Chinaman out of us. Our first ancestors were some supernatural creature. The West Coast Indian is especially skilled in carving, in telling stories of the past, something like bibles carved and created in wood. Bill Reed. Well, as many as the creation is, there are groups of people on the coast that I suppose. But the one that I illustrated this piece on up at the Anthropology Museum was a story of the raven and how he finds the first man. The great flood which had covered the earth for so long had at last receded. And even the thin strip of sand now called Rosebit, stretching north from Naikun village, laid dry. The raven had flown there to gorge himself on the delicacies left by the receding water, so for once he wasn't hungry. But his other appetites, lust, curiosity, and the unquenchable itch to meddle and provoke things to play tricks on the world and its creatures, these remained unsatisfying. At first he saw nothing, but as he scanned the beach again, a white flash caught his eye, and when he landed he found at his feet, the sand, the gigantic clamshell. When he looked more closely still, he saw that the shell was full of little creatures cowering in terror of his enormous shadow. So the raven leaned his great head close to the shell, and with a smooth trickster's tongue, he coaxed and cajoled and coerced the little creatures to come out and play in his wonderful shiny new world. So it wasn't long before one and another of the little shell dwellers timidly emerged. Some of them immediately scurried back when they saw the immensity of the sky and the sea and the overwhelming blackness of the raven. But eventually curiosity overcame caution and all of them crept out or scrambled out. Their descendants built on its beaches the strong, beautiful homes of the Hytas and embellished them with the powerful, heralic carvings which told of the legendary beginnings of the great families. Blackfoot legal scholar Leroy Littlebear. The Indians have always been here. As far as the Indians know, creation started here. Human beings came into existence here. They've been here from time immemorial. You will find that in some of the mythology of the Indians, just like my people, talk about creation starting with the stars, the cosmos, and some of those spirits up in the sky, you know, the stars and so on, marrying. And they had, you know, in our case, they had two sons out of a particular marriage. One of those sons stayed here in North America and the other son, see, it simply says in the story, went across the water from where the sun rises. Now, that son that went across the water was going to return. So when the white people, when the Europeans appeared on the shores, it was, it was that expectation, you know, and that's the reason why they were welcomed with open arms. It is, as tides flow, a short time, 500 years since contact was made. Now, that story, by the descendants of those who lived it, those who suffered it in their own voices and at the very locales where it all began. Actor Graham Green. Some legends say that our people, the red people, the four colors of people, the yellow, black, red and white, the red people were in charge of looking after the earth. They were to be her guardian. The yellow people were in charge of the sea, the waters. The black people were in charge of the air and the white people were given the gift of fire and somewhere along the line it got way out of balance. It is an October day. A Friday, a 12th, the year is 1492. Three ships will change the world as it is known then. Three ships that have departed from Palo, Spain the day before Spain expelled its entire Jewish population and ordered its Muslims to embrace Christianity. In Europe, it is of violent and tolerant time. 90 men on three ships led by the admiral of the ocean seas called Coulomb, who we know as Christopher Columbus, have sailed into a kind of paradise. From the diary of Columbus. The island is so green it is a pleasure to look at and its people are very gentle. Your Highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better or gentler people. They are quite lacking in evil and not warlike. I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me they had no religion. I seek gold and precious stones. And so the goal of gold and conversion to an alien faith was set from the start. A land to be plundered, a people to be harvested. One of the few surviving caribindians, Garnet Joseph. Well frankly I feel at Columbus who for some people is a hero doesn't mean anything to the carib people. On the 3rd of December in 1493 Columbus sighted our island which at that time we called Waitukubuli in the carib language. And on his first voyage Columbus came in contact with the carib people off the island of St. Thomas and it wasn't friendly contact. And at that time, on that occasion Columbus got from our carib people was a show of arrows. May the event, the man would be glorified. Daly saw Columbus as a hero of all time. Columbus had mistakenly called Indians. See something very different. Playwright Thompson Highway. Well I mean it's laughable that you discovered us. I mean we weren't exactly sitting around to be discovered. Columbus was just someone who happened to get lost here on these shores. Truth be known we found these guys half-starved washed up on the beach and all you poor sods come here and cured him and look what happened. When Columbus came over he acted as if he had discovered people living on the moon as opposed to the world and thought we were Martians and therefore should be treated equally as alien entities. Columbus had a hollow heart as Cherokee artist Jimmy Durrow. He was a liar. He was a crook. He was a murderer. He was totally self-delusionary. I think he was basically a monster-crazy man and he certainly didn't discover anything under any terms. To be discovered someone must be lost and the question is who was lost and who was found. Columbus's voyages were confined to the Caribbean area. He never set foot on or saw the North American continent itself. This is the way it was. Several hundred years before Columbus there were the talking rocks. Legends and histories told by a people steeped in a faith that was inseparable from the earth they call mother and the force they call the Great Spirit. There were then perhaps 2 million, some say as many as 15 million of them, maybe 500 or so tribes. Today we can find our messages, our dictionaries out there on the hills that we've seen, the formation of the rocks, the animals that they have drawn on rocks and all those things are leaving us messages of the past of our people, how they lived in harmony, how they were able to identify and in there we have sacred things. To the North, a separate people, the Inuit, we have called Eskimo. Their own saga of their voyage from the past carved in stone. Faces of a people and history and art that became the model for the moderns. And this is their dance. Rosie Oakpick is an Inuit elder. I think it's always there in the Northwestertries because my ancestors, my ancestors, when you're really looking at them, how they were strong, very, very strong. They survived in the very cold weather and they didn't have this kind of house. I really, I sometimes I wonder, who do I say thank you to that? My ancestors were survived in that country. They didn't have everything what we had today. In the South, the Navajo and the Hopi rich in culture, government and art. Caves that indicate a civilization before a civilization. The Hopi elder, Thomas Banyaka, tells of his people. Well, Hopi means a peaceful people. Word Hopi is humble person, truthful. They live in what is now called Arizona, northeast corner, Arizona, just east of Grand Canyon area. Because Hopi believed that within that four corners area, four states coming together is a very sacred spiritual center. It's surrounded by four sacred mountains. On top of them are sacred shrines that were built by our ancestors long, long time ago. And those mountains represent to the ages of land in four directions. So actually Hopi land is all of this western hemisphere. We recognize the law of great spirit of law of nature. And through a religious society we're able to learn spiritual as well as things in nature, elements in nature. People, white people came with donated people of any money system. They trade. In Hopi we do dry farming with planting stick with no irrigation. But we're able to survive there by planting corn, beans, melons, pumpkins. Hundreds of independent civilizations flourished in middle and south America. Mayans and Incas, but that's another story. They thrive for thousands of years. The estimates of how many people populated the individual sections vary. The native people have their own estimates. The native people would have covered pretty well the entire area of North America although not as densely populated as it is today. But nevertheless it was well spaced out and because they were largely hunting and gathering type of societies they used pretty well all of the land that we now know as North America. I have a good idea of Cherokee population but this is from my own personal studies and if I say it to white Americans it sounds too outrageous. But I'm not an outrageous guy I'm not an exaggerated guy. I think about a million Cherokees minimum. Cherokee alone and they were in what part of North America specifically? This is another problem but I think I can approve to any anthropologist that we were from close to Chesapeake Bay down to what is now northern Florida all the way over through Georgia and Tennessee. A great huge chunk of the southeast of the U.S. was originally Cherokee territory. The Indians of the Americas are the world's farmers much more than any Asian culture or any European culture. That is our genius I think. In the northeast the Wyandotte who were later called Huron George Sewey is almost the last survivor of his tribe of the Columbus invasion and those that followed. To go back to 1492 there would have been very close to 30,000 Hurons or Wyandotte if you will prefer that term more authentic. There are people that had evolved very refined social ways. They had learned to live off the land and its animals in a kind of calm harmony. Ray LaValley an elder at Pia Pot in the Capel Valley, Saskatchewan tells of a time 500 years ago. Living here I guess 500 years ago was very important to us Indian people because as we were given a history that was given to us as Indian people we always were to live with harmony with mother nature. We had life that was like a calendar for us and it was very important because the animals and the flowers and the trees that you see here in this country of ours lived with seasons and each season was we lived in harmony with it and all these things were telling us the animals talk to us every day but we don't know how to do it now today because along with the elders taught us how. In the west there were the buffalo before the arrival of the horse the native people had developed a complex system of hunting and killing them by stampeding a certain number to cliff tops harvesting only as many as were needed. What I just told you my name is beaver boy. What you want to find out is about the buffalo jumps here. What you see right here is the main going over the cliff over here this whole down here you run some horse in the neighborhood of 500 to 1000 head of buffalo they say this buffalo jump was being used about the same time as the pyramids were getting built over on the other side of the world this is what they claim so out on the road over here on the plains over here you're going to see some horse in the neighborhood of 60 million buffalo excuse me you said 60 million 60 million but that's just in the local area here you got more than that going right down into Arizona down and then right up into the north so suppose you wanted to cross where the buffalo were how long did that take you if you're going to go across country night buffalo just happened to be going by and you're going to have to wait three three days and three nights just that one herd will pass by this is what they claim along with the harmony with the land they had established complex relationships with each other in the great plains the Sioux, the Crow and the Cheyenne there were many tribes here in this part of the world in this hemisphere and our tribes are nations just like the nations of the world on the other side of the globe so in that respect we were no different we traded with one another we competed with one another for agricultural lands and for hunting choice hunting grounds we competed, we traded and at times we warred and at times we had peace we formed alliances wars did take place between various tribes and slaves were taken war games were seen by native peoples on the prairies anyhow quite different the objective was not to kill somebody the objective was to humiliate your opponent I think to kill somebody was was so difficult to understand to take the death of somebody because they were put on this earth for several reasons so certainly you could hate somebody or dislike somebody but you could do that in different ways the roi little bear blackfoot, blood a scholar of the land the idea of owning the land was one of collective ownership but there's a little bit more to it than simply saying collective ownership because native people think of all creation as being animate it means then that these trees were around or have a soul in them have a spirit even the rocks have spirit and in the same way that all animals for instance have spirit and we all you know were simply part of this much larger picture of creation according to chief john snow of the good stony people who was also a minister indian traditions and oral history say that his people were always present in his part of the great island which is the native name for the North American continent the mountains are very precious, sacred to my people over the years they have gone there for vision quest they've gone there for prayer and searching for divine guidance so the mountains have always been a sacred area the mountain hot springs my people went there for healing and medicine men would and some of our people there for cleansing for healing for dedicating and so on so it's a very special place for us some of the trees that have not been desecrated have lived here for at least 800 years what was it like in those pre-columbian days you'd have to think of trees that just never ended and I guess you'd have to think of people that were sure of themselves and content in their own way of living I think you probably would have found a bit of paradise there it was neat the environment easily supported all of the people and of course one of the densest populations anywhere in North America, aboriginal was here on this strip of land that runs down the northwest coast of British Columbia runs down the coast of BC so this was the land Columbus stumbled on even though he never touched foot on the American continents and these were the people he said had no religion who he said he would harvest the slaves and converts for the queen that October day in 1492 they would make fine servants and they are intelligent I believe they could easily be made Christians for they appear to have no idols but Columbus was no better judge of personality than he was navigator, he converted not one Indian and in the rape and lust that followed from his brother Diego and his men in their empty search for gold the entire population of Arawak Indians perished I lived from having their hands cut off for not producing gold dust which did not exist from suicide with cassava poison out of desperation or disease imported by the exploiting whites perhaps half a million Indians perished some say as many as six million died the people who populated the island I mean that is Hispaniola which is a person called Dominican Republic they were forced to go out to get whatever gold they could find in the rivers and they were given a certain quota to come up with at a specified time and if they were not able to do that their hands were chopped off so they were forced to go out to give their time forget their survival and go out to get whatever which is that could be found on the island for the Spanish people at that time the population was wiped out very fast I mean in the Dominican Republic within 50 years the population was almost completely wiped out and they were hanged in numbers of 13 in one of the 12 disciples and Jesus Christ and they were burnt with green wood so that the Spanish people could enjoy their Christ longer It is October 1500 after his final voyage because of charges of mismanagement and lack of gold but not because of the killing of the native people Columbus returns to vain disgraced in chains these were the words of Tennyson Chains for the admiral of the ocean Chains for him who gave a new heaven and new earth Chains for him who pushed his cows into the setting sun and made the west east and sailed the dragon's mouth and came upon the mountains of the world and saw the rivers roll from paradise a great native nation vanished, the land ransacked of its wealth it is only 8 years after the admiral has arrived to a friendly native embrace and the age of exploration had only just begun the brave new world seems hardly brave in the war against the Indians it's not so much a paradise found and lost a paradise stumbled on a paradise perverted a paradise almost destroyed the vikings of course had come and gone perhaps assuming this was no place to stay the challenge of Columbus is soon met by others sailing for other monarchs but always with the same goal gold Giovanni Cabolto a naturalized Venetian using the anglicized version of his name sails for King Henry VII of England he will arrive at either Newfoundland Cape Breton or Maine from a third voyage he did not return like most explorers he will die disappointed a friend said of him he found new lands nowhere but on the very bottom of the sea John Fernandes a Labrador or small landowner will find his way to Labrador for Portugal Gaspar Coriel names Terraverda or Newfoundland in 1500 the most complete description of the time will come from Giovanni de Verrazano traveling for France who will be the first European to enter New York Bay on the Hudson River the land in situation is of goodness and beauty this is the most beautiful people and the most civilized that we have found in this navigation we do not know what the natives thought of him but we are told that Verrazano died on an island off the coast of South America in 1528 killed and eaten by caribindians inside of his crew perhaps a reaction to the exploits of Columbus there is a manuscript of the thoughts of Jacques Cartier in 1534 by May 21 he is at Funk Island which he calls Isle of the Birds Cumberland Harbor I landed in many places except at Blanc Savillard there is nothing but moss and short stunted shrub I am rather inclined to believe that this is the land God gave to Cain on the 24th of the said month of July we had a cross made 30 feet high which was put together in the presence of a number of the Indians on the point at the entrance to the harbor Gaspe under the crossbar of which we fixed a shield with three fleur-de-lis in relief and above it a wooden board engraved in large gothic characters where was written long live the king of France the bulk of all those there perished but a few Hurons did survive to tell their side of the story this is George Seewee the writings of Cartier are rather clear on that topic he says that he describes the the Stadeconians because they were the people from Quebec city which was Stadecona as having a strong and immediate reaction to his planting of a cross in Gaspe the people started the gesturing especially the chief Donna Cona indicating to him that they were in charge of that territory they were entrusted with the care and the political order to be respected in that territory and of course they didn't pay much attention to them but they reacted and probably they associated the sign of the cross with some kind of invasion some kind of a odd idea that was in the minds of these French people we did everything to make him feel at home we give him food we show him how to share and we even give him a land we didn't try to destroy them if we were savages cannibals they call us warlike I don't think any white people would be here with that kind of people