The Rosebud Battle Ceremony

[00:00:00]Good morning everyone.

[00:00:04]>> My name is Quinn Cuka. I'm your tribal liaison and diversity coordinator for Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

[00:00:11]>> We're going to start with our color guard from the northern Arapjo. Could we all please stand? Be wary of where they're coming. They're going to come right down the middle.

[00:00:25]>> Leading the Northern Arapjo is Mark Blackburn.

[00:00:32]Hey, we're high enough. What?

[00:00:48]That's a simp Taylor's our northern Cheyenne prayer.

[00:01:06]So your head Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[00:01:44]Hey hey hey.

[00:02:12]Hey hey Oh, harder. Punch.

[00:03:20]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:04:00]anymore. Yeah.

[00:04:10]Hey y'all. Hey. Hey.

[00:04:27]Hello. Hello.

[00:04:34]Hello.

[00:04:52]Stone.

[00:05:12]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:05:31]window.

[00:05:49]It's all Power.

[00:06:20]Breathe.

[00:06:40]Can we get Mark Wilbur to say a prayer?

[00:07:00]All that water.

[00:07:19]No way.

[00:07:30]Oh god.

[00:07:39][snorts] >> Hey or arms [screaming] >> side.

[00:08:05]Hallelujah.

[00:08:20]stupid.

[00:08:39]Hello.

[00:08:48]Oh, it Hey, baby.

[00:09:42]Woohoo!

[00:09:53]Hello paradise.

[00:10:17]Down harder.

[00:11:21]Six.

[00:11:28]Now I would like to invite Frank Star comes out the president of the Great Plains region. He's representing 16 tribes and the Sue and Oala are coming together today because of the 150th commemoration of this battle. Please join me in listening to Frank's prayer of the Sue Nation.

[00:12:04]President Frank Stark Frank Star comes out the Oaloo tribe. I'm also a chairman of the Great Plains region uh which is 16 tribes. I also have here I'll let the president of Rosebud introduce herself.

[00:12:24]>> Hello. Hey, I'm Kathleen Woodnik. I'm the president of the Rosebud Sue tribe and it's an honor for me to be here. I am an al also a member of the executive committee of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association. It's an honor to be here before all of you to celebrate this event. It's with um my heart that I'm grateful to be here.

[00:12:45]Um at this time, you know, uh as you know, today marks a very important uh day for for our people. When we stood together, we came together as tribes to protect our people, protect our land, protect our our culture.

[00:13:06]That's something that the United States does not tell.

[00:13:10]It's always a one-sided story.

[00:13:14]So this 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bigghorn, it's our turn to tell our story. And that's why we're we are gathering at the battlefield site in a couple couple weeks here to come together in unity with all the seven all the Sun tribes.

[00:13:37]The Oete Shakobi is what we call it, the seven council fires. have come together along with our ally to to celebrate in unity >> and let them know that we're still here.

[00:13:58]We're still here. We we work together and we want to know let the United States know that it's time to hear our voice.

[00:14:12]It's time to tell our story.

[00:14:16]It's been a long time coming and that needs to happen. You need to hear our side of story. And it all started right here with our great leaders, our war chiefs.

[00:14:29]So at this time, I want to call on our elders to to come up and say some prayers um as far as protocol. So at this time, she Hey, that one.

[00:15:19]At this time I'll give it over to Lexi Richard MCAP.

[00:15:29]Good morning relatives.

[00:15:31]Today is a a beautiful day to remember many things that happened over 100 years.

[00:15:41]And today also with a celebration we say prayers for all the human beings that are here.

[00:15:52]50 years ago, our ancestors gathered here to defend the human being, children, women, elders, and most of all the land, the four-legged, the wing nation.

[00:16:13]And today, the descendants of those ancestors are still here today. that are also a part of remembering.

[00:16:23]So we are very proud today as the Lakota and many of the allied tribes that are generations have come a long way >> and they are continuing to lead our nation, lead our reservations, lead our lands, raising our children [clears throat] to become a good human being in the world. Today all walks of life we are the allies. We are all together to say what is important is that human being the children have a safe place to live in America.

[00:17:07]My nephew my niece here the young generation the tribal leaders they are leading our people to make a better world. As we all know, our struggles continue.

[00:17:22]We have to continue to find a good way of life and educate and raise our children.

[00:17:29]Our greatgrandfathers were part of the ancestors that gathered here. And today we're going to remember one of my greatgrandfathers Chips Opa who was friend of the renown leader Praos and during those times they sang some songs of encouragement and I'd like to continue that song 150 years later for our generation many people all walks of life all of the generations ations of tribes. Many tribes gathered together here.

[00:18:14]Let us pray.

[00:18:26]Okay.

[00:18:30][clears throat] Okay.

[00:18:45]I High.

[00:19:13]I high.

[00:19:36]Oh.

[00:19:40]I sh continued in sacred songs 150 years later to save are human beings and our children in a better health, a better world today.

[00:20:14]Let me talk.

[00:20:21]>> Next we have Mr. John Eagle.

[00:20:41]John Eagle Shield Senior.

[00:21:02]She woke up.

[00:21:32]>> [laughter] >> No problem.

[00:21:51]I think you have eagle worship.

[00:21:56]My friends, my relatives, I offer you a good heart and hand in the most humble way. [clears throat] My name is John Eagle Shield Senior.

[00:22:12]I'm a hunter.

[00:22:15]I'm from Standing Rock. I'm from a little community called Little Eagle.

[00:22:21]Now, Mija had a lot of relatives that were here and I'm glad to be here and we were a good way to to say all of that is a song.

[00:22:38]So my uh collection fine guy made a song and I think it's appropriate.

[00:22:57][singing] Hey, I bet you Let's go.

[00:23:38]Hey.

[00:23:48]Hey.

[00:23:58]The words are I am the first to fly.

[00:24:03]I am the first to fly. If father eagle says this, as he comes, I'm done.

[00:24:12]It's true.

[00:24:14]It's a It's a good day.

[00:24:19]I'm the first to die with a lot of first year.

[00:24:24]A lot of remembrances.

[00:24:27]I have a relative with us today.

[00:24:31]a bunch of 10 rings John Jr.

[00:24:39]My son has some songs that are appropriate for this.

[00:24:44]So introduce Mr. Tim former historical president.

[00:24:57]Oh [clears throat] yeah. [screaming] Hey.

[00:25:21]Hey.

[00:25:24][screaming] I HEY [screaming] [screaming] >> [screaming] >> It's not [screaming] HIGHER [screaming] HEY.

[00:26:51]Oh yeah. [screaming] Hey My CALCULATOR [screaming] [screaming] [screaming] I am. Hey hey [screaming] [crying] [screaming] [screaming] It's not we [screaming] [screaming] Hey, [screaming] it's your name. We [screaming] love you.

[00:29:06]When uh in closing, I want to say we talk about unity.

[00:29:13]We talk about healing.

[00:29:16]But today we have the Lakota and our allied tribes coming together for this 150th anniversary of the greatest battle of our people >> where we were victorious.

[00:29:35]And that needs to be recognized that we also have our side of the story that needs to be told.

[00:29:45]America needs to hear this. America needs to understand our way of life, our culture, our people, our land.

[00:29:59]Today I'd like to say I'm a lineal descendant Sonka Chief Big Bigfoot who was massacred.

[00:30:12]That massacre happened after the little big horn battle.

[00:30:20]And to me that's it it means I take it personally because I also pushed legislation all the way through Congress to get it passed that the battle the or the a massacre at Wine. There was a massacre and we need to recognize that as a massacre and and we talk about unity even with the United States government that they recognized that that sad day as a massacre for me. That's the beginning of healing on how we can all work together here in the United States. Tribal nations need to stand up together, unite and tell us tell our story.

[00:31:23]>> So I believe this is a healing process for us all. I want that uh to be recognized. Oh wa ha.

[00:31:52]>> Thank you. Please be seated.

[00:31:58]Morning.

[00:32:00]>> Good morning, my relatives.

[00:32:03]>> As one of my elders shared with me, our first people's relation to the natural world is we are all related.

[00:32:11]From the plants, the berries, the bugs, the trees, the dirt, the rocks to the wildlife who are more than just our food source, but our teachers and our story.

[00:32:25][singing]