When the white man first came to this world, it was a new world. The new was new to them because historically they had a history of destroying. They came to the new world and here they found an abundance of everything but they still had these millions of people living over there and they were being sustained by this land. Pure air, pure water. You could drink out of any stream on this continent. There was no pollution.
I remember the days when we drank water out of the Missouri River. Today it startles people if I say when I was little I drank water out of the Missouri River at least until I was ten years old. Today you drink out of that Missouri River and it’s ten toes up you know. So what do we do? Live long enough to readjust our bodies genetically to one long ear lobe and one short one. The cancers. They are glowing now.
I was up in Washington State and the medicine man said that he was called to this house. This Indian woman was banging the meat and she went in there to the smokehouse and the salmon was hanging to dry too and she called him out of his bed in the middle of the night. She says, 'come out here and look. Come and look at the lights in the smokehouse.' He come out there and all of those salmon were glowing. Everybody knows where it comes from. It's the atomic dumps they are putting out there by the reservations.
They just gave a big award to Grace Thorpe. They honored her for her long fight about not putting nuclear waste on Indian lands. She's a friend of mine. I admire her courage to stand up to bureaucrats.
When you're growing up around the white people as an Indian person in a small town the first thing you notice…
I used to ask Mom if I could go over to Edna's to play after school and she'd say, “No, you come right home after school.” I said, “Why can't I go?” “Because you're an Indian.”
I never knew the right questions to ask. Edna's Mom would write a note to mine and ask if I could come over after school and play and it was all right. I could go over then. It took me a while to figure out what this being Indian was all about. I could come to their house to play but only with written permission.
If I did get invited I had to remember not to take more than one helping of anything and a little helping. I remember them trying to give me seconds on ice cream and saying, “No thank you.” Ccause that's what I was told to say. I was dying for some more ice cream. But I remember them telling my mother, “Your daughter is so well behaved.” Then my mother told me she was really proud of me.
So I know that at home we could be wild little Indians but we couldn't be when we were off our property where we lived. Then I noticed at Christmas time they'd come to our house with pieces of candy, toys and food. But they didn't the rest of the year. I think about those things today.
Several churches asked me to come and talk. I say, “It must be Thanksgiving, huh?” That's the only time they remember Indians. I spoke at this one church three thanksgivings in a row. So when they called me to speak at the third one I told them, “Well, I would be glad to do that if you tell me what you did for the Indians since the first time I spoke.” They said, “Well, nothing really.” I said. “Well then I can't come. It's a waste of my time to come talk to you. Let me know when you do something to help the Indians.”
So I quit doing that. I'm still that way. If l see people honestly making an effort in their own way – it doesn't have to be in no big way, just in their own way trying to make changes – I'll gladly help them. But I can't see giving lip service to something they are not doing. That's like eating ice cream in front of a little kid and telling them they can't have it.
I've got a quirky way of looking at the world. I don't look through rose colored glasses. I see what's real. I see when they are hurting. I see when there's need. And you know the creator works in mysterious ways. So comes from the Christian book. I make myself available to help other people. Through whatever methods come to me.
Sometimes I go to the casinos and I win. If I win big it because somebody needed help from me and I'll give it to them. It doesn't hurt me and it helps them. It's one of those things very few people know about me. All my life I've given any excess money I have away.
I have to laugh because I have a lot of material things you know and because I never wear out a pair of shoes. I think I have all my shoes from the time my feet quit growing because I don't throw away. I just keep wearing them and add another pair, add another pair so the other night I decided it was time to pass on my soles so I did.
I saw this beautiful desk, this antique desk, those ones you stand in the living room. They've got a high back with a little cabinet. They were going to junk it and I said, “Sell it to me.” And so I bought it from them and I took it to refinishing. It's got gargoyles up on the top. It's beautiful. Even the guy who redid it asked me if I'd sell it to him. He said, “I've never seen one that small.” I said, “That's the reason I wanted that one cause it's small. It fits in my apartment.”
My children said, “Mom, can I have it?” “I just got it cause I wanted it.” “Well, put my name on it so when you die…” I said, “Oh, when I die! What if never die?” They laughed you know. “Put my name on it!” I said, “I already gave this desk away before I bought it. I gave it away to my oldest son.” He didn't ask me for it. I gave it to him. There's a big difference. I gave it because I wanted him to have it. You want it for whatever pleasure it would bring you. That's not the way to look at things. Even though I put out the price for this I also knew when I did my son would love it too. My first born.
I think about those things. I've got five sons. My second son I can't give him anything from this world anymore cause he made his spirit journey.
And you know that is something that the ministers wanted to know was how we looked at death. And I said, to us death is just an extension of life. It goes on. This is just a phase of it, of life here. We're on this planet but the spirit never dies. The spirit is energy. Energy doesn't diffuse. It might go dormant but it doesn't diffuse. As long as you've got energy it moves. Even when you stop with the muscles of your heart and remembrance and speaking...
You ever hear people who just had someone make their spirit journey? They'll say, “I'm really sorry for your grief. I know your loss.” No they don't. Cause they would never use that term. You don't lose. You don't lose people. You keep them in your heart. You keep them alive. You feed them. You water. You do all the things that are necessary for them.
With my son. He had a name. They ask me, “How's Jim?” I hope he's happy wherever he is! I hope whatever he's doing he's enjoying it! Same for my husband. Wherever he went. Hope he's happy there. I know I'm happy. He's still with me. These memories are still with me.
But I think that hurts a person worse...somebody that wants to convey sorrow. The living wants to know that you remember their loved ones.
I know one white guy lost his wife. That's the way he puts it. I always use her name. Jessie. I say, “Now that Jessie has been away for so long, is it getting any easier for you on a day-to-day basis?” “I don't go to the cemetery as much as I used to. I found out that there are memories that we carry.” So that's the way.
But to forget the name? For us, we don't utter the name for a year and many people wonder if we are trying to forget. No we are not. We don't want to call them back to this place because when your loved ones make their spirit journey they have to make that journey and if you're hanging on to them you make it very hard for them to go. You need to let go. You need to release them. That's why we had the ceremony. To release the spirit. Their strength to make their journey comes from your strength in letting go.
It's hard when you have a lot of them. I had my husband, my mother, my son and four brothers all in the space of seven years go. So I went through the mourning period for nine years. One morning I opened my eyes and I said, “I can now go out and kick up my heels if want to. Now I can behave like I'm not grieving if want to.” That's a great relief.
I was coming home, driving the other night and you know I had a grandfather who used to always say, “Look for your answers in the clouds.” My grandpa said, “Put your head in the clouds,” and what he meant by that, if you notice in the sky the formulation of clouds. When they have a message for you they take on form. Some see a big fish up there, a whale and you wonder what that means you know, for somebody living in the Midwest.
So what all does a whale represent to you? Maybe it's the oils. Maybe it because you need some new light in the darkened comers of your heart that will come through that whale oil. That's what they used for light. Kerosene lamps. Many of our coastal people and Indian people used fish oil that way...soak up the wick and burn it.
There's many little things that go on day to day that people have forgotten about.
Look at what repatriation itself. What does the word mean. To return. To give back. To repatriate is to make as was. Replace where it belongs. That what repatriation is.
And when we talk about repatriating our ancestors remains that means only the skeletal remains that was taken out of their grave sites and put on shelves and in boxes and out of the normal burial place. The grave goods are those articles that were buried with the body. Their clothing that they had on…the bead work, the stones work, the pipes, the things that were taken, the medicine bundles. All those are grave goods. Funerary objects are those things that are associated with the burial. Associated funerary objects is like the altars where ??? these were held and have to be preserved as sacred places.
That's what the whole act is about. Repatriation came about because of Iowa's law for protection of the ancient burials. It started in 1971. NAGPRA didn't come in until 1990 and they're still struggling with it. They're still trying to figure out ways to manipulate the tribes. They're still fighting with the tribes because they're hoping in the future, and I've heard many archeaos say this, and bureaucrats, “When these Indians forget about this we can go back. They'll still be in our possession.”
Why they want to possess us is something that I do not know. Except they must look at us as being a subculture. That way we can tolerate what they're doing to our dead. If they look at you as a subculture you are less than human and they can treat you anyway they want to. [When you talk to children] you just tell them that your ancestors are in boxes on shelves. It's a desecration.
Out of respect for the dead. Everybody has a choice of where they want to be buried. Ancient ones had a choice of where they wanted to be buried. They have laws enacted that say if you want to will your body to science you can. I have no objection to it. That's your choice. You can do anything you wish to with your body. It's yours. But I don't will my body for you to take out of its grave.
Nowadays you buy that piece of land. In the old days we didn't buy Mother earth. It's not ours. How do you buy your Mother?
There's so many just simple questions. How would you convey this to a child? In very honest and simple terms you tell them that when they go to the funeral, when they go to the graveyard that's where they are interred. To repatriate means to return back to that grave where they took it out. Back into safer ground.
Not all people bury. They have above ground houses, burial houses. They still build houses above graves.
[Maybe we'll have to have a buffalo fry. A hundred fifty dollars for the buffalo fry and an evening in the park with Running Moccasins and tales of wisdom.] [laughter] [I got anew black leather jacket with a zipper, real lightweight and it's comfortable in the car. I got to make elk medicine this year. I don't talk about anybody. Just me. One of my favorite subjects that I know about!] [ I was thinking the other day. It was a nice day and I had a break. I think I'll run to Lincoln today and see those girls and I thought, “I could do that but where will I meet them at?” I don't mind following you to your house but my first visit is somewhere right off the interstate.)
We have the Braveheart Society, women and we take care of the bones. Women in our group are assigned to take care of the remains.
Q: Is that a woman's role?
Yes, who takes care of your dead? If your kid died, whose going to take care of it? You are. The first washing of your loved one. You do it. Who brings that baby into the world? Who sends it out? Who receives it on the other side? The creator. Who initiated the first movement? The creator. All credit goes back to the creator. You're only a helper in the creators world.
I always have people who like to get together.
[Wouldn't it be neat this summer in July, on the 12th of July on my birthday, if we would get together and have a buffalo steak fry. I know where I can get permission to hold it. Right over here at the Living History Farms. I'd just get a picnic area and tell them we'd like to have a steak fry over there. I used to have a friend here in Des Moines. She used to go bow and arrow hunting for bear up there in Alaska every year and she'd bring the steaks back to me. I had a picnic in the park one year. I said, “Come eat bare with me in the park.” B.A.R.E. [If you don't bit that bear the first time] you'd better hope like hell you're on another continent. You don't get two chances with a bear.
Have you girls ever been to a Spirit Dance? Did you ever eat with the Spirits? Do you have anybody that you just really love? Like you have your gramma that you really love and you've never been to eat with her. The food that your grandmother liked you'd have to fix. The normal cultural food that she would have had then. You fix a dish that she would have liked. I always make coffee, Kool-Aid, drinks that they would have liked. Cigarettes if they smoked, you know their brand of cigarettes.
We could use Dallas County arbor any time of the year. If you’re going to do it at night you have to do it indoors and if you do it in the afternoon you can do it outside but you have to have everything done before the evening darkness comes on. The thing that is really important about this is that you can't........
About four times they asked me a question... when I took my car into valet parking, when I come out to get my car this young boy says, “What kinda car do you want?” I says, “The same one I came in unless you could give me a better deal!” And I bet you he just asked me that question three times the same way. “What kinda car you want?” I says, “Same one I came in.” “What color is it?” “It didn't change color did it?” It was really funny cause it was the way that he worded that question that my answer to him every time is “same one I came in.”
But you know if you ever answered a question the way they asked it. If you give the proper answer to the way people ask you questions, it’s really humorous to know people don't give much thought to what they're saying. It's just whatever tumbles out you know. How you're feeling that day. It's like “How you doing?” “As compared to what?” You have to clarify what you say. Make people stop and think about what they're asking you. Like most people say, “Hey, how are ya?” “Fantastic! Pretty near perfect!” Those are my standard answers. It startles them. That's not what they're expecting to hear.
I was born and raised in South Dakota. I was born on the banks of the Missouri River. I was affected by the Moon so the moon is very important to me. I have a real good relationship with the wind. The things that affect me have affected me all my life. You know Nebraska and Eastern Colorado have the highest rate of mental illness because of the wind. I love the wind. When it's windy out I just love it. But a lot of people it scatters their brains.
I ran a little beer tavern out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Out in the County. I remember the first time when we first opened it up. This big heavy set guy with a big round hat come walking in there. He says, “I’m gon let you know I'm the con sta bull of this here county and I don't wanna have t' come in here and cloud up and rain all over you at one time. You weel run a cleeen establishment heer!” [laughter] I was so impressed by his voice. This little man with this big round domed hat. It was just sitting right at the top of his head. He just come up to the edge of the counter and he put his arms on the counter. “I'm con sta bull this here county. I don't wanna have t' cloud up and rain all over you one time,” he says. “You gonna run a decent establishment here.” “Yes sir!” [laughter] That was so funny. The highlights of my checkered career.
I laugh though because people say when they meet me, “You' re so different than what I thought I would meet.” I say, “what did you think you was going to meet? An old Indian woman full of wisdom? I'll be toothless!” I used to be til I got my new dentures. Don't say anything because I come all the way downtown one time and forgot them at home. I'm comfortable without them or with them so it don't make any difference to me. It's never bothered me.
There's times when I just want to playact. There's a little act in all of us. I'd like to be one of those, how the writers describe it, look pensively off into the distance. I think about it and start to laugh. How can you be these things? So you have to act! You want a sage old Indian woman? A wise old Yankton Sioux woman? Wise in ways of nature? That's what I am! [laughter]
When I go home me and my tribal sisters just laugh. When I went to court for them they were really proud of me. They told me I made a really good witness. When you do something every day it's a part of you.
That attorney she was really hard on the rest but she couldn't shake my testimony. They tried real hard to get around it but they had that cross examination for two and a half hours. I was the second one to testify for the tribe against the Corps of Engineers on that White Swan Cemetery where they were supposed to have removed all of the graves back in the fifties. They told the tribe they did. And then in the sixties there was some bones coming up and then the water was too high. So now that the water level is low enough caskets and all are coming up. And so now they got over eighty graves surfacing. And they're telling the tribe they can't do anything about it, that the Corp will remove them.
Well, we don't want the Corps to remove them. The people need to remove them. The tribe. And the argument is the Corps of Engineers now designated as an undertaker. Are they designated as a funeral director? Do they have the right to claim possession over our dead ancestors? It's on Corps land. They don't recognize this was tribal land that they took with no compensation. They've got so much access land that they took they have to return it and they want to sell it to somebody else. They have to return it to the tribe, the original owners. The world is interesting and all the people in it.
We had a meeting here one year with our governor. The Indians from Nebraska came over to our meeting cause they wanted to meet with their governor and their governor at that time was Kay. And I said, “Well, Terry…” Just showing off a little bit to the visitors you know. I said, “Well, Terry, you're good friends with Governor Kay from Nebraska aren't you?” And he said, “Why yes, we get along really good.” I said, “Can you talk to Governor Kay and tell her her Indian people would like to meet with her?” “Why sure. I'd be glad to.” Within three days that group of Indians was meeting with their governor.
So John Blackhawk was tribal chair of the Winnebagos. It was after Reba Whiteshirt left as Executive Director of Indian Affairs. I always open my mouth with my brain in gear knowing this too could be recorded. And I never say anything that isn't true or couldn't be supported so...
I found a caricature of myself on my desk that somebody had made of me and it is just funny.
I got a phone call yesterday that says, “Is this Running Moccasins incorporate?” I said, “Yes, it is.” “Who am I speaking to?” I said, “Who do you want to speak to?” “Well, Running Moccasins incorporate.” I says, 'You're speaking to her. Who wants to know?” Somebody off the internet wanted to know if I wanted to put my company in good hands. I said, “No, thank you. I am in good hands. Good bye!”
Somebody told me one time these people get all kinds of mailing lists. All the phone calls that come in from people I know get returned within twenty-four hours unless I'm traveling a long way.
[south dakota] The Judge ruled in favor of the tribe. They wanted the extension. They got the extension. I’ll be calling up there maybe Monday or Tuesday to the tribe. If the week looks good I might make a trip up there. I'm still their cultural preservation consultant. We've got a new chairman and a new tribal council.
Courtesy of Iowa History Museum