- 3 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01In Southern California, many diverse Native American tribes intertwine.
00:07Today we embark on an adventure into the high desert terrain along with our majestic mountains.
00:14Native people hold within the DNA of who we are medicine, powerful medicine to heal.
00:23And in that, we need that protection because what we're doing is we're interviewing like the last of this nation from this earth.
00:33And there are secrets here that have been passed down because we're sharing with the world, not our stories, but the stories of all these different Native people.
00:42We're just really kind of beginning.
01:23Our first guide is Gerald Clark, a professor, artist, and rancher, but above all, a dedicated and proud member of the Cahuilla tribe.
01:37So I love the fact that you have, like most of us, so many little side hustles going.
01:43Yeah, that's just this world we live in.
01:47You've got to have two or three things going on.
01:48I was part of a panel discussion of artists, and I introduced myself as a 30-year emerging artist.
01:56Oh, they're beauty.
01:58So this is the summer pasture.
01:59They rotate them around.
02:00It's a lot of work, but so rewarding.
02:03It is.
02:04It's very rewarding.
02:05Yeah.
02:05Carrying on the traditions, too.
02:07It's a nice balance to an artist or academic because you get stuck in your head, and this is, this kind of wakes you up.
02:14This keeps it in the real, right?
02:16Yeah, that's right.
02:17That's right.
02:17And then this is the shop, and I've wired all this up myself.
02:20Man, it seems really cool in here.
02:22Not bad.
02:23Not bad.
02:23So I do a lot of different things.
02:25I don't have a recognizable style.
02:27My ranch practice, you know, informs my art practice and vice versa, you know?
02:32The really great artists are never completely left brain.
02:38They're also right brain because one is feeding the other.
02:42So the practical act of actually creating something, like working with your cows or working on a project that has nothing to do with art.
02:50I feel like, you know, creativity and all that's part of it, but also, like, obligation, reciprocity, you know, responsibility back to the tribe and the people and our history.
03:02Because I'm a professor, I know a lot about the history, and that history is heavy, you know?
03:06So I bring that weight into the studio.
03:08Well, let's see what you're working on.
03:09I feel like I'm right here going, let's go.
03:12A lot of times I work in layers, you know?
03:14So this background layer, the maize that you see there, that's the Hemet maize stone design that's a prehistoric petroglyph down in the Hemet area.
03:22I'm also a bird singer, so I sing, you know, I'll go around to different gatherings.
03:28And these are the rattles.
03:29So the rattles, first of all, in the Quea Creations story, it all starts in darkness.
03:35And the first thing that happens is there is colored lightning, blue, red, green, and yellow.
03:42Like, this is the basket design, this is the deer toe design.
03:46So I'm referencing the animal world here, as well as the eagle feathers here.
03:50I'm referencing the climate and the weather here with the lightning bolts, you know?
03:55The flowers across the bottom are tobacco flowers.
03:59A lot of people talk about white sage for praying or whatever, but Cahuilla, we always use tobacco when we pray.
04:06And it's not just any tobacco, it's an indigenous tobacco plant.
04:09And so this is just a blank DVD, and I'm planning on mounting this in the middle.
04:15You know what I love about you, Gerald, is you're not afraid to break all the rules.
04:20A little bit of a rebel, you know, to bring in these modern elements with more of a traditional design.
04:28Yeah.
04:29And that's what makes it really unique and kind of, it's kind of your signature.
04:34It's because the mainstream media and society still sees us as stuck in history and not as contemporary people.
04:43Your artwork really has a lot of layers to it.
04:45I'm making a statement that we are here, we are now, we are part of the fabric, right, of contemporary America.
04:55Native American music is the roots of rock and roll, and San Diego has some of the best.
05:01Meet Warpath, an all-native metal band.
05:04They are contemporary, they are outrageous, and they're making a statement about who they are as Native musicians.
05:12We are Ipe, part of Ipe-Tipe.
05:15Okay.
05:15You were born here also?
05:18Yeah.
05:18So you go back, you're pretty close to my age.
05:22Yep, I go back to 1970.
05:24I think we came up here in 75, you know, and the years that went by here were, they were res years.
05:28They were, some were hard, some were good, you know, but the thing was that we had, was, we had family.
05:34My mom told me when I was little, she says, don't be that, don't be that Indian boy, that poor Indian me, poor boy, poor this, that.
05:40She goes, you go to school, you get an education, and you go out in that white man world, and you work.
05:58What do you play?
06:04I play everything.
06:04I mean, I can play piano, guitar, drums, bass, all that.
06:08I taught Chance how to play guitar.
06:09We bonded that way, and it's crazy because right around the time in high school, I had this dream and this vision of these bands, and I drew these things on paper, and it was a stage, right?
06:19And it was lights, and there were amps and drum sets and risers and all that stuff, and that's just high school fantasy stuff, you know, but I wanted that.
06:26I really wanted that.
06:28Warpath, you know, everybody's just going crazy on stage, you know, headbanging, just bringing the energy, and just, you know, shooting that out into the crowd, and then the crowd just shoots it right back, and it's a, you know, a two-way street.
06:48Basically, I wanted to start playing metal again because that was just like a whole other side of, like, expression that you don't get from other genres of music.
06:57There aren't that many Native people out there doing what you're doing at all.
07:02At all.
07:03They're not going all out and doing it.
07:05No.
07:06But you're bringing some wisdom and truth to people in a way that's relatable as contemporary Native men, and that, to me, is powerful medicine.
07:17We do.
07:17When we actually come out and connect with ourselves, and then the crowd, man, that's good medicine right there.
07:25A vision flurry, the walls are closing, and a dream.
07:36As a California Native American, these are our relatives.
07:43These are baskets that have been passed down for thousands of generations, and now we're going to meet a Native artist that is carrying on that tradition.
07:51Hello, greetings.
08:03I grew up here on the reservation.
08:06My grandparents and my mom and dad and my brothers, we all grew up across the street there,
08:12and my grandmother had her house also across the street, which would be a part of this schoolhouse here that we're sitting on.
08:21It's a pretty sacred land here that we're on in Cahuilla.
08:24This is basically the heart of our people here.
08:28Our main village was called Powi, so we're sitting here at Powi Park.
08:33So, this tradition, besides the fact that it goes, dates how far back?
08:39I mean, thousands of years?
08:41Yeah, so I usually like to start off giving respect and honor to our moon maiden, Menyeel,
08:47who actually, before she went up into the sky and became the moon,
08:51she gave a lot of different gifts that she had taught the people to take care of themselves and to doctor themselves,
08:58and basketry was one of them.
09:00She had made all the designs that went on the animals and plants.
09:05Some of these baskets that are so, you know, intricate and beautiful,
09:10and how long they last, it had to come from somebody greater than just a regular person, you know?
09:16So, there's a lot of spirituality in these baskets because we use them for everyday use to keep our families alive,
09:26to cook, to eat out of, to gather with, to dry our foods, store our foods, carry our babies in.
09:35Can you kind of take us through the process, I guess, to get to this point?
09:39Right.
09:40Because you can't go out and get, you know, make a basket like that in one day.
09:45It would take you just to sit down and weave.
09:48It would take you a couple of months if you're weaving like a job, an eight to five job, like eight hours a day.
09:54But first off, you have to go gather the materials.
09:56And there's so much prayer in those baskets, you know?
09:59That's why they become, you know, they're alive and they're sacred to us.
10:04And they have a spirit on their own and you have to have a good heart.
10:08And there's no easy way out as everything in Kauia, you know?
10:13So, anyway, you just got to go along with it.
10:16We basically start with the yucca and it looks like this.
10:20It's just a basic knot.
10:22But to get those fibers, we have to go out and gather the material.
10:26You know, it's not like bead work.
10:27I always say it's kind of like beading without the beads.
10:30And we're going in a circle and we, you know, you have to make those patterns match up.
10:35I was just going to say the mathematics inside the basket and the science behind all of the things that, you know, that we do, you know, gathering and, you know, making different herbs and medicines.
10:48We use our mouth basket weavers as a third hand.
10:51So, you know, we put a lot of these materials in our mouth.
10:54There's a lot of DNA within a basket then because if you're also utilizing your saliva to soften the basket.
11:04So when I pick up my baskets, I really feel the energy from my great-grandmother.
11:09Her hands were on it and obviously my plant ancestors.
11:13And when you are gathering and creating, do you feel the energy from the ancestors?
11:21Yes, I do.
11:23Especially if I'm going and looking at a collection, there's many a times where I pick something up and I felt the sadness inside of it to where it almost makes me want to cry.
11:36My grandmother, Rosinda Pappas, she and my mom, that's how she kept my mother and her alive during the Depression is that she wove these beautiful baskets, but she traded them for food.
11:49The basket weavers, I always like to mention too, is that they were really respected within the communities because they could actually take care of themselves.
11:59They could take care of their communities because they could trade and make all these beautiful things, you know.
12:05Sometimes, you know, people can look at the baskets and go, oh, that's my grandma's basket, you know.
12:11I recognize her designs.
12:13I just hope that more and more people try it because, you know, we get shy away because there's a lot of work that goes into it.
12:21And there's no more special feeling than the ending of a basket that you've just made, you know, so I can see why all those grandmas would just, you know, dance with their baskets and sing to their baskets, you know, and it's just so special.
12:38We can try it, you know, go ahead and do it, you know, and make your ancestors proud.
12:43Driving up to Palomar Mountain, I find myself immersed in the vibrant tapestry of the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
12:54Here I have the privilege of meeting a true indigenous talent, Tracy Nelson.
12:59Once an L.A. City Indian and punk rocker, Tracy has returned to the res and his roots as a songwriter and blues musician.
13:07So tell me a little bit about, you know, your experience being here in La Jolla and did you grow up here on the reservation?
13:18No, I didn't grow up on the reservation.
13:21I lived in North Hollywood.
13:23Okay.
13:23Went to North Hollywood High School and my mother, she lived on Mesa Grande.
13:29So my mother is Duganio Kumeyai from Mesa Grande, which is right up the hill here.
13:33Right, okay.
13:34And my father is from La Jolla Reservation here.
13:36My mom, you know, they lived in the old days.
13:39They lived a hard life.
13:40She lived in an adobe home.
13:42Dirt floors.
13:43Dirt floors.
13:44She decided to move with my other brothers and sisters to L.A.
13:48So why L.A.?
13:49Did she have a job there?
13:52She wanted to be a nurse.
13:54Okay.
13:54So she went out there and we all just kind of adopted to the L.A. scene.
13:58We're about the same age and so there was the whole punk rock movement.
14:01Well, that's what got me started, too, was, well, actually Beatles started, but then I
14:05gradually started going into punk rock back then.
14:08Okay.
14:08And I started playing.
14:10I started my own punk rock band.
14:11We played all over Hollywood.
14:13When I was in high school, I had a blue mohawk, kind of weird, you know, a guy with a dark
14:18skin with a blue mohawk.
14:19North Hollywood High School.
14:20So you are a true Indian with a true mohawk.
14:23Yeah.
14:24I love it.
14:25That's great.
14:26And then my friend who was my roommate was a D.H.
14:29Pelagro.
14:30So we traveled all over, like, the underground alternative scene.
14:34It was pretty wild because then the movement of punk rock was really moving in Hollywood.
14:40How did you, you know, end up, you know, getting into the blues?
14:45And, I mean, that's really what you're known for is everybody knows you for that.
14:48Well, as a punk rocker, I was always a rebellious person, a rebellious kid.
14:53A friend of mine, which was a bass player of our band, he kind of turned me on to, like,
14:57the blues.
14:58Boy, you know, the blues is a great way to tell the truth and tell the story.
15:03I need to share up a rock with his flashing red lights.
15:06We'll scout up to the hills until the morning light.
15:09There's a party on the red.
15:11After this incident that took place, I was going in Hollywood to rent a video.
15:18And I passed the homeless guy right there in the bottom.
15:21I opened the door, and right as I was walking in, he said,
15:24You damn foreigner, go back to your own country.
15:27Wow.
15:27So I said, I looked back, and I was like, man, natives, no respect.
15:33Yeah, that guy needed to go get a history lesson.
15:36Yeah, exactly.
15:37So then that's what sparked my idea of coming up with the blues, but from a native's perspective.
15:45So I started, and the first song I wrote was 500 Years of the Blues.
15:49It's a slow blues song, of course, covering the genocide, the holocaust that took place with us.
15:55That's powerful.
15:55You know, so I'm going to start writing songs that pertain to native issues, what we're up against now, you know, and what we did and how we survived.
16:05You know, we're really lucky.
16:07You're right.
16:08I mean, we probably have more things to talk about being the first people on this land as far as adversity than anybody.
16:18Bring in awareness, you know, and I don't want people to forget.
16:21We keep our culture intact as much as we can, and we even build on it, like what you're doing.
16:27I made my basket.
16:29It's, I used my guitar strings.
16:31All the weavings are from shows that I played.
16:35You're actually a triple threat.
16:37So you sing, you play, and you're also an artist, so I love it.
16:42But I think within all of that, the beauty of our story is that we remain resilient people.
16:48Welcome back when it is, and it's all the same.
16:56In the vast tapestry of America's military history, the Native American community weaves a compelling thread.
17:08Still defenders of their land, they've answered the call to serve at a rate of 19%, surpassing all other ethnic groups by a significant margin.
17:17One remarkable example is Rose McFadden, a Navajo native and third-generation warrior.
17:24I'm Navajo.
17:25I'm full Navajo.
17:27I grew up there my whole life on the reservation.
17:30My dad was also in the Marine Corps, so he really brought this structure into our home.
17:36My mom was an educator also.
17:38And I believe when we were about four or five, she decided that she wanted to really just live for her kids.
17:47And so she shelved her career and was a stay-at-home mom.
17:51Did you find that your family was unique?
17:54Because when I talk to a lot of people who are Navajo or they're from the Navajo Nation, I don't hear very many stories like yours.
18:02My dad, he grew up on, like, tons of acres.
18:07So they had cattle, they had goats, pigs, everything.
18:10They had cornfields.
18:12They lived off the land.
18:14My dad actually grew up in a hogan.
18:16You know, for him, I feel like the way that he grew up, he really instilled a lot into us.
18:23So we went to Grandma's house to help, you know, with the animals, chop wood, all of the stuff.
18:32You know, all my grandpas were in every war.
18:34There were multiple Purple Heart recipients.
18:37They were always injured.
18:39They would come home, have their ceremonies and things like that so they could mentally, spiritually, and physically be ready to go back out.
18:47We were doing this for our family.
18:49We were defending our homeland, our people.
18:51How did you end up getting into the military?
18:54Oh, wow.
18:55I went to college like my mom and dad wanted me to, and it just wasn't for me.
19:02When I went in, it was 2000.
19:05So I finished basic training and 9-11 happened, and I was so young.
19:10I was in Afghanistan not too long after that.
19:15What a trip.
19:15Was that really?
19:16Like, you know, here you are, you're from a rural community as a native woman, and then you join the military, and then boom, you're off to a totally different land.
19:30Yeah.
19:30The people actually are kind of like natives.
19:32The way that they live, they do live off the land.
19:35It was very difficult for them because a lot of people I worked with, they were from the cities.
19:42You know, if we had some of our friends that grew up on farms, it still was difficult for them as well.
19:48Did you ever have anything really seriously, like you were like, okay, this might be it?
19:55Oh, yeah.
19:55On January 7th is when I got injured.
19:59We had a very bad attack.
20:02We had people in our unit and other units that died that night.
20:07What happened?
20:08Where did you get injured?
20:09I had a brain injury and a cervical spine injury and shrapnel, like, you know, just pretty, pretty banged up because of the brain injury.
20:21I couldn't walk.
20:23I had to go through a lot of therapy, and I didn't die.
20:28My friends did.
20:29That actually played a little differently to who I am today as well.
20:35Now you're creating these incredible pieces of jewelry.
20:40When did you start doing that?
20:42They kind of have a little bit of a native vibe.
20:45They do.
20:46You know, I really started this because I had major back issues.
20:50It just, it took a while for me to be okay with having the challenges that I would probably have for the rest of my life.
20:59You have to use your hands to have a little bit of healing.
21:02You have to give yourself something to help your healing process.
21:06It's just something I didn't know was going to turn into what it turned into.
21:12Southern California has such beautiful terrain.
21:16We are rich with the ocean, the desert, and the mountains.
21:19And today you were able to meet Native Americans who are living on reservations right here in Southern California.
21:25They're holding so tight to their traditions, and they're bringing this beauty through art and music to the world.
21:33So next time you visit Southern California, remember the people who have been here for thousands of years.
21:39We're still here.
21:40We're still bringing beauty, and we're still taking care of the land.
21:43California natives, high up in the mountains, way up in the sky, where the eagles flyin' high on the California sun.
21:59We're still herein' high on the rocks.
22:19Let's give you a little standpoint.
Be the first to comment