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60 Minutes - Season 58 - Episode 27: Return To RAM; Ghost Train; The Mardi Gras Indians
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00:06parking for the free clinic fills days early people sleep in their cars for a chance at
00:13medical care if you didn't have remote area medical what would you do
00:24with millions losing insurance we saw desperation meet compassion looks good
00:38californians got on board for a 33 billion dollar high-speed train that was supposed to connect
00:43la to san francisco by 2020 instead they have this an unfinished line connecting wait for it
00:52bakersfield and merced why have 20 other countries managed to build high-speed rail
00:58while america hasn't we've heard people saying what happened in the past is the past
01:02failure is not an option failure is always an option
01:11every year on mardi gras day an extraordinary sight emerges from the back streets of new
01:17orleans they call themselves mardi gras indians or black masking indians and they roam the
01:24neighborhoods in dazzling hand-sewn suits this easter sunday take in the sights and sounds
01:31of one of america's last true secret societies
01:39i'm leslie stall i'm scott pelly i'm anderson cooper i'm sharon alfonsi i'm john wertheim i'm
01:46cecilia vega i'm bill whitaker those stories end in our last minute an article of faith by evangelist
01:53franklin graham tonight on 60 minutes
02:04about one-third of americans say they have skipped meals borrowed money or cut back on utilities
02:12to pay for health care that's in a gallup poll released in march the trump administration has
02:18lowered prices on more than 50 drugs but it also let premiums rise even double in the affordable
02:26care marketplace and made the biggest cuts ever to medicate already three million have lost insurance
02:34and it's estimated it'll be 10 million in three years all of this reminded us of our story in 2008
02:41about a charity called remote area medical ram started out parachuting doctors into south american
02:50jungles but in the 1990s it turned to another isolated people americans cut off from health care by the
02:58cost recently we returned to ram at one of its free pop-up clinics for americans long on pain and
03:06short
03:06on hope ram is a ray of mercy in the darkness the parking lot in knoxville tennessee began to fill
03:17early
03:18in a frigid february many drove hundreds of miles in desperation nearby remote area medical would open a
03:27clinic inside an empty exhibit hall but ram can take only so many patients on a weekend so they joined
03:35the
03:35line days before we met sandra talent at 5 a.m sandra where'd you come from huntsville alabama and how
03:45long
03:45have you been in the parking lot here since 4 30 wednesday night wednesday night yeah so wednesday night
03:54thursday night and this is friday morning two nights sleeping in her car a 200 mile drive
04:01all for lack of dental insurance if you didn't have ram how would you get your teeth taken care of
04:09i wouldn't a few spaces over dave bird spent the night in his truck aching for a full set of
04:18dentures
04:18what happened to your teeth uh several things i had a uh uninsured drunk driver run a red light
04:25and i was doing 80 hit me head on almost killed me two years of rehab and three surgeries and
04:32140 000
04:33later i was able to go back to work at work one day i'm drilling through a basement wall and
04:38the drill
04:39hangs up on a piece of rebar and it comes around smacks me in the mouth cracks my jaw and
04:43broken back out
04:45again by then i was uh pretty uh pretty thin on money to do much about it so i didn't
04:52have a lot of
04:53choices i just kept working but working was rare employers on construction jobs just assume he lost
05:01his teeth to meth addiction burge told us his only habits are nicotine and caffeine
05:07and right now he could use a cup he's wrapped in four layers against 27 degrees if you didn't have
05:16remote area medical what would you do something
05:22a little annoyed away right
05:26they're uh life changing life changing
05:32when they hand you your life back that's why it changes it doesn't mean to me
05:39i can be a normal human again i sure do appreciate you yes sir thank you good luck
05:48your dentures okay you're gonna be over here he had the luck of being near the head of the line
05:55which stretched to 1200 patients in knoxville over a friday saturday and sunday hold on to that
06:03when you go up there for service you got to bring them that ticket if you don't brad sands a
06:08former
06:08paramedic is a ram clinic coordinator i'm number four number four head on up who are the people in the
06:16cars everybody i mean it's your neighbors it's your parents it's it's your friends it's the community
06:22around you it's everybody and it's nationwide somewhere in america brad sands sets up a clinic
06:30like this most every weekend it's all comers no questions no insurance needed you don't even have
06:38to give me your real name we met a woman at a ram expedition who was so grateful for the
06:46help she
06:47received but she said i just hate to ask i'm not going to judge your story nobody here that's working
06:56or volunteering today is going to judge any person that comes through that door we are here to help
07:04about half of the patients have no insurance the rest have insurance they can't afford to use
07:11because of co-pays and deductibles and many health insurance plans have no dental correct no vision
07:19care correct no hearing care correct this is our triage area so once chris hall volunteered at ram when
07:26he was 12 years old now he's ceo so when you look at the patients that come through our door
07:3365 of those
07:34patients are requesting dental service 30 of those patients are requesting eye exams and glasses only five
07:40percent are requesting medical care dental and vision are two things that are isolated that
07:44people do not have access to or can't afford the access to there's also screening for blood sugar
07:51blood pressure breast cancer skin cancer and more depending on the size of the clinic ram will spend
07:59between 100 000 and half a million dollars over a weekend how do you pay for all of this it's
08:06the
08:06generosity of the public over 81 of our supporters are individual donors people that write 5 10 20
08:13dollar checks every month those checks are leveraged with donated clinic space donated supplies and
08:21volunteers 887 volunteers on this knoxville weekend alone this sheet here is extremely important medical
08:31professionals paid their own way from 30 states and brought medical students with them treat these
08:38patients with dignity with respect talk to them like they're human beings please if you ever lose faith in
08:45humanity go spend 10 minutes at a ram clinic you're gonna see hundreds of people there that are donating
08:52their time and they're coming out and they're donating large swaths of their own money slash time to help
09:00their neighbors i remember there was a guy many years ago who had a broken tooth and he told me
09:07that he tried to remove it with a screwdriver so if that doesn't move you to help you know that's
09:15the
09:16desperation let's see what we got here dentist glenn goldstein volunteered from new jersey he sees
09:23patients suffering from a past without health care and no hope for the future you know i've had
09:29young people in you know i said well you know some of these teeth can be saved you know that
09:34right
09:34because yeah i don't care please i i don't have any money i don't have any way to get these
09:40fixed so
09:40please please take them out i got a bunch of loose food and gross food and it doesn't bother me
09:46but i'm ready to get them all out and it's heartbreaking to take all the teeth out it's it's
09:52it's terrible patients ask you to take all of their teeth out all their teeth let's see one two three
09:59four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirty four sixteen because they know going forward
10:06they will not be able to take care of them 100 percent relieving pain was the mission of ram's late
10:14founder an eccentric englishman daredevil pilot and amazon cowboy tell me about stan brock
10:23stan was a magnificent leader magnificent man humble we basically had we met stan brock and ram
10:33in 2008 we're very happy that you're here this morning we've got a lot of really fine volunteer
10:40doctors dentists eye specialists it was built stan was an adventurer who once walked 26 days in the
10:49amazon to be treated for an injury so he started his airborne medical charity with an army surplus c47
10:59that flew on d-day when we met he was 72 had no family took no salary lived in an
11:08office donated to ram
11:10and showered with a garden hose he died in 2018 in the office he was
11:19perhaps the most dedicated person i've ever met i agree with you completely on that i joked around
11:24a lot when i tell people working with stan it was really hard to ask for a day off when
11:28your boss hadn't
11:29had a day off in 20 years when we met in 2008 stan brock was staging 12 clinics a year
11:35after our broadcast
11:38four million dollars in donations poured in along with thousands more volunteers ram has grown from a
11:46dozen to 90 clinics a year it's because of you and your story back in 2008 that brought me to
11:55almost
11:56the tears and as soon as your segment was over about this organization i immediately went online
12:03looked it up and registered down here i'm from jersey i understand that volunteering at ram has become
12:10a family thing yes sir yes sir got one left so my son who's here with me now my wife
12:18has been here
12:18my daughter-in-law my daughter my other son we've all they've all been here multitude of times sounds
12:24like you get as much out of this as the patients do maybe more then you have high blood pressure
12:31or anything like that only when i'm in pain remember sandra talent the woman we met in her car
12:39and dave burge who lost his teeth in two accidents they're here for dentures a process that would take
12:48weeks were it not for this trailer and the 22 year old engineer who helped build it connor gibson
12:57uses computer design to make dentures with 3d printers they can print a set in an hour or so gibson
13:06has slept in here to keep the printers running non-stop he's inspired by something he calls the mirror
13:14moment we say it's worth a million dollars but truly it's priceless when you give them that mirror
13:21you just see all that stress melt away and no matter if they're 18 or 80
13:30we see grown men cry sitting in the chair
13:38and so it was for dave burge the man who told us in the parking lot that he wanted to
13:45be
13:45a normal human again you're a new man thank you there we go all right
13:55and the mirror smiled on sandra talent looks good yeah
14:05happy tears yeah
14:08what does this moment mean to you i don't know what i do you know the lord would make a
14:14way
14:14but i feel like he has made a way through ram over the knoxville weekend ram allowed more than 500
14:23patients to see 700 live without pain and restored the smiles of 24. with insurance out of reach for
14:35growing millions ram will hurry to another city to make health in america a little less remote
14:43you look beautiful do you think they look pretty yeah you look gorgeous good seriously good thank you
14:51for being here honey have a great day you too have a great life get some sleep
15:05it's hard to exaggerate the role of the train in the american story or the romance of train travel
15:11those iron horses galloping down tracks of steel
15:15why then has high-speed rail so common in other countries not tracked in the u.s
15:21an ambitious state-run project connecting l.a and san francisco has lurched derailed cost billions and
15:26may never happen one private company is betting that it can succeed where the public sector is not
15:32but that too has had its bumps as u.s high-speed rail remains a mirage a ghost train it's
15:39become a
15:39stand-in for a broader question can america get its act together and still build big things
15:47the very model of modern engineering it hums across the fruited plains at a top speed of 200 miles an
15:53hour it's revolutionized travel it's a source of national pride in morocco here in the u.s high-speed rail
16:04looks like this hardly passenger ready america's hopes for its first high-speed rail were kindled
16:11in 2008 when california voters approved a ballot measure for a train connecting los angeles to san
16:17francisco in less than three hours the estimated price tag 33 billion dollars completion date 2020
16:24it would cut pollution revitalize local economies clear gridlock
16:31status update today the state's high-speed rail authority is preparing to lay its first tracks
16:37at roughly the same cost only slight course correction here instead of l.a to san francisco
16:44it will run one-third of that distance connecting wait for it the metropolis of bakersfield and merced
16:52population 96 000 oh and when will it open 2033 maybe i think that the california high-speed rail
17:01nightmare is the probably quintessential example of government waste and mismanagement you say this
17:05needs to stop needs to stop congressman vince fong a republican from bakersfield sits on the house
17:11transportation committee he says that when california voters first approved high-speed rail the promise
17:17and price tag were more marketing campaign than realistic projection we're now in 2026 there are
17:24no trains there's no track laid there's a complete bait and switch if i vote for a mansion in malibu
17:31by next year and someone says actually you know what in five years we're going to have a doghouse in
17:35modesto how do things go so off the rails the business plan that was put out in 2008 was very
17:41theoretical you know this is what we think is going to happen and it became very clear that they didn't
17:45have
17:46the specifics it worked worked out this project on that point management doesn't disagree toks on
17:52mashakin is california's secretary of transportation and anthony williams a rail authority board member
17:58both are relatively new to the job left to answer for their predecessors there were mistakes made some
18:04of the criticism on this pro on this project i think are very fair what happened i don't think the
18:10voters fully understood and neither did we in the public sector what it was going to take to actually
18:16get this project delivered to get the necessary political buy-in from the whole state the plan
18:22called for the train to run inland threading the farmland of the central valley yet the rail authority
18:28hadn't answered basic questions like precisely where it could lay down its tracks what's known as right
18:34of way three thousand parcels had to be negotiated just for the segments that we're working on today
18:40in the central valley it seems to me one one farmer doesn't want high-speed rail going through his field
18:46and you've got a guy that can gum up the works for for a long time yeah that's what happens
18:51uh
18:51sometimes in these processes more snarl california's exacting environmental regulations which triggered all
18:58manner of reviews lawsuits and delays as anyone who's renovated a home knows delay adds to price
19:06so do the high u.s labor and construction costs at least compared to many other countries and while
19:12the federal government contributed modestly under the obama and biden administrations the burden fell
19:17largely on the state when construction started was the financing there to complete this this rail it
19:25wasn't let's be real we had a lot to learn and we had a lot of growth to do and
19:30you know there's
19:31it's arguable whether you know we should have been clearer about that by 2019 cost ballooning in the
19:36timeline years off schedule bipartisan political pressure mounted newly elected governor gavin newsom
19:43said this in his first state of the state right now there simply isn't a path to get from sacramento
19:50to
19:50san diego let alone from san francisco to la under newsom who didn't respond to repeated interview
19:57requests california decided to focus on that initial central valley segment a route few clamored for and
20:05fewer are likely to ride though the ultimate goal remains connecting northern and southern california
20:11when you have a project like this and when the when the budget no longer permits you to finish it
20:16the
20:17way you wanted to you start cutting off your arms and legs lou thompson helped found amtrak in the
20:231970s and until 2024 sat on california's high-speed rail peer review group we've heard people say time to
20:31cut bait we've heard people saying what happened in the past is the past failure is not an option failure
20:36is always an option is that what's going to happen here uh no i don't think so but i think
20:43what will
20:43happen in the short range is that they will cut back and do the best they can with the money
20:49they
20:49have available here outside fresno in california's central valley one of the few signs of concrete
20:55progress literally structures like this locals here jokingly refer to it as their own stonehenge
21:02ideally these bridges and viaducts will one day be used to support california high-speed rail
21:08but for now these are curiosities in a field monuments to promises that haven't been met
21:14and plants that haven't been executed ironic because american rail was once the world's envy
21:20in the 1800s the u.s government oversaw the birth of the transcontinental railroad stitching the country
21:27together as it expanded westward we turn to the future in the 1950s the eisenhower administration
21:34decided that the transportation vanguard was off the tracks creating and critically continuously
21:40funding the interstate highway system and the family car is in tip-top shape fueling the world's
21:47proudest car culture meanwhile japan's famous bullet train opened in 1964 and today more than 20 countries
21:54have high-speed rail generally defined as cruising at 150 miles an hour or more yes germany and france and
22:01china but also turkey indonesia egypt has broken ground the obvious question there is like how can it be
22:09that we can't get it done and they can get it done right we know we can do this it's
22:15an economic engine
22:16mike reininger is managing director of brightline west a private company that believes it can achieve
22:22what california hasn't oh wow next stop zurich it's like a european trade system this train which
22:31opened in 2018 and runs between miami and orlando hits top speeds of around 125 miles an hour not
22:38quite high speed but close it's akin to a beta test for brightline's next project a bullet train connecting
22:45la and las vegas in just over two hours a trip that can take five hours by car brightline west
22:52will be
22:52true high-speed rail first time in the country and we'll operate at speeds of about 200 miles an hour
22:58maximum out west brightline is solving the right-of-way issue by running on the median of the i-15
23:05highway construction has already begun on some of the station structures the plan is to start service
23:11in 2029 what are you telling people to get them out of their cars or getting them to avoid the
23:16airport
23:17it's more enjoyable it's safer it's reliable this really is all about changing people's behavior you
23:24don't think we're just this car culture is intractable it's so hardened and it's so much a part of the
23:30american psyche it just can't be cracked i i don't think so at all cultural questions aside brightline's
23:37florida trains run at street level through crowded neighborhoods and according to numbers compiled by
23:42the miami herald and local public radio more than 200 people have been hit and killed by the trains in
23:48near decades since operations began brightline says that running rail in the desert out west where track
23:55crossings won't be at street level will be a safer proposition then there are the finances the
24:02stratospheric costs of building and running a rail line vastly outstrip revenues analysts have downgraded
24:08brightline's debt to junk raising questions about private rail as a business to what extent big picture
24:15do you worry about the future financial viability of brightline the business has built slower than we
24:21originally expected it to build we thought we would be carrying more passengers today than we are the
24:26business is in fact growing month over month year over year that's a great thing that solidifies in our
24:33mind the viability of the business brightline's west coast project has already received some federal
24:39funding and is hoping for a six billion dollar loan from the trump administration if you look around the
24:44world for the most part the infrastructure systems are funded by the public sector you do see a role
24:51for government here absolutely we we welcome it back in california the rail authority insists state funds
24:57can cover the cost of the central valley leg as for the rest just to be clear as we speak
25:03right now are the
25:04funds there to complete la to san francisco the entire amount of money we need not there today but do
25:11we
25:12believe we can get those funds to get the project done absolutely how much do you estimate it's going
25:18to cost to connect high-speed rail san francisco to la today we estimate with the right optimization just
25:24over 125 billion dollars i think 126 billion dollars is the current estimate for that that's more funding
25:30than amtrak has received in its history and still leaves a shortfall of roughly 90 billion dollars
25:37that's a big gap to fill it is a big gap to fill but again we have an understanding of
25:43how to get
25:43there and to fill that gap a gap the authority hopes to fill with a new plan to cut costs
25:49lure private
25:50investment and connect to bigger cities much sooner but there's another challenge to building anything
25:56today the swirling winds of a political climate in which one party pushes and the other reflexively
26:03polls remember gavin newsom's pessimism in recent months he's championed the project this is not
26:10just a transportation project this is about reimagining the future of this region meanwhile in 2025
26:17president trump canceled four billion dollars in federal grants for the train swiping at a political
26:23nemesis in the process did you ever hear of gavin newscom he has got that train is the worst cost
26:30overrun
26:30i've ever seen in a statement to 60 minutes secretary of transportation sean duffy said the
26:36administration is in favor of high-speed rail but this project has quote wasted billions in taxpayer
26:42dollars yet delivered nothing can this be done without help from the federal government this initial
26:49segment we believe so the ultimate 494 miles of building this out without the federal government's
26:56help will be challenging there's no doubt about that is this a non-starter to build a project like
27:01this without federal funding well not only can't it be done it shouldn't be done uh because a lot of
27:09the
27:09benefits of the project the reason why you build a project is public pollution reduction uh congestion
27:16reduction improved safety comfort reliability all of those things are public benefits there are other
27:24ideas for u.s high-speed rail say dallas to houston but nothing else in the building stage leaving
27:30that uneasy overarching question morocco has high-speed rail and serbia and china and japan and western
27:38europe why don't we what's your simple answer well the simple answer is they've decided they want to
27:43do it and pay for it and we haven't you think we will in our lifetimes i don't know i'm
27:49dubious i'm
27:50dubious absent a national political will to work with the states to create some of these systems i
27:57think it's going to be in of course my lifetime almost certainly not but maybe yours i don't know
28:15every year on mardi gras morning something extraordinary emerges from the back streets
28:20of new orleans groups of black revelers most tourists will never see they call themselves
28:26mardi gras indians or black masking indians and they roam the city's neighborhoods in dazzling hand
28:33sewn suits the tradition dates to the 1800s as a way to honor their ancestors and according to mardi
28:41gras indian lore is rooted in profound respect for native americans said to have sheltered enslaved
28:47africans who had escaped it's an expression of joy protest and pride passed from generation to
28:54generation on this easter sunday you'll meet the artists and musicians preserving the culture
29:00and take in the sights and sounds of one of america's last true secret societies
29:14if you're lucky enough to find them you'll discover a vibrant tapestry of african caribbean
29:21and native american threads part of the cultural gumbo that is new orleans
29:30these extravagant suits plumed bejeweled beaded and sequined are handcrafted in secret for an entire
29:38year to be unveiled on mardi gras day
29:45chawa that's big chief demand melanson of the young seminole hunters announcing his arrival
29:53chawa who the best who got the best b work who got the best rhinestones who could sing the best
30:00who got the biggest tribe who don't that's what it is there are dozens of groups calling themselves
30:07tribes the leader is known as the big chief who along with his big queen and their crew strut through
30:14historically black neighborhoods searching for other tribes when big chief demand meets another big chief
30:24they square off in mock battle competing to show whose suit is in their words the prettiest
30:32we saw demand face down tribes all over the city what just happened back there looks like he just
30:39bowed out but you won yeah i think i did yeah yeah because we don't fight we don't fight
30:48we don't fight who are you on mardi gras day when i put that suit on i'm big chief demond
30:56malone song
30:57is that different from the demand who's sitting here in front of me yes indeed yes how different
31:01somebody that's ready to honor everything that i was taught by my elders and i'm ready to kill you
31:07day with the needle and thread needle and thread to do the work of his heart and hands big chief
31:14demand
31:15and his wife alicia meticulous as surgeons sew beads the size of chia seeds on a canvas and stitch
31:22rhinestones in place with dental floss painting with beads making artwork for his suit what to you makes
31:31a suit pretty the hookup what do you mean how it's laid out how the velvet gets around it how
31:38you break
31:38the feathers how you manipulate the feathers how many rows of rhinestones you have around the beadwork
31:43that's the perfection of knowing your hookup if you're that good oh wow this year's suit tells
31:49the story of the amistad a slave ship seized by the captive africans in 1839 led by a man called
31:58sin
31:58k this panel shows when the africans won their freedom in a case that went to the u.s supreme
32:05court
32:05look at this john quincy adam he was one of the lawyers on the case my god so you're doing
32:12this
32:13like non-stop i sold some six in the morning at 12 at night and this is every day every
32:18day every day
32:19why that's it man it's it without these beads i couldn't breathe
32:28and every breath is hard-earned it can take thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to
32:34design and sew a suit for years big chief demand was laying concrete and cooking lobsters pouring
32:41all his spare time and money into his creations he now makes a living as an artist this year's suit
32:48cost twenty five thousand dollars but this flamboyant display is not a beauty pageant it's the flowering
32:55of deep roots the community is what makes me it's my fuel the people your fuel yeah it fuels the
33:03fire
33:04because you're doing it for them like you do this for your community and your people it is the greatest
33:11kept secret in america been throughout the world today is the mardi gras indian culture this culture
33:17dates back to slavery days i have hope howard miller is the president of the mardi gras indian council
33:24a governing body for the tribes and chief of the creole wild west he told us it's a culture shaped
33:32by
33:32resistance to oppression and sustained by resilience how would you explain the mardi gras indians to
33:39people who don't have a clue what they're about well we wasn't allowed to go to those big parades and
33:45stuff so this in our community was about a lifting our people in a proudly manner there's no one
33:53definitive origin story but historians have found references to the tradition dating back to the
33:59mid-1800s according to stories passed down through generations when enslaved people escaped new orleans
34:06native americans in the bayous gave them refuge today many tribe members claim indigenous and african roots
34:13masking some say began as a way to honor those indigenous tribes while disguising or masking their african
34:21identity because here in america especially here in the south everything about africa was forbidden so
34:29we went behind a mass as enemies to practice our culture was it easy to join a tribe no it
34:35wasn't in 1969
34:37it took then 12 year old howard miller six weeks just to get in the door of a big chief's
34:43house the tribe's
34:44headquarters i had a friend of mine he was in it and i would um go around there with him
34:50trying to
34:51get in but they wouldn't let me in the gate i wouldn't even let you in the gate no i
34:55had to stay
34:55outside of y'all while he go in there eventually i got on the porch and i was watching all
35:00this
35:01shit magic with the suits and what they was doing and started rainstorm thunder lightning raining hard
35:07i'm getting wet and the chief said that boy's still on the porch and somebody said yep tell that boy
35:13to
35:14come on in here that's how i got in the house we visited the home of joseph pierre boudreau
35:20better known as big chief monk of the golden eagles tribe big chiefs aren't just heads of their tribes
35:27they're mentors and community leaders and big chief monk is one of the most respected
35:33but the working class neighborhoods that sustain the tribes have been thinned and scattered by
35:39hurricane katrina and gentrification 84 year old monk boudreau is determined to hold on to the
35:46community and legacy and is preparing for his 72nd year of masking it don't do it it can do it
35:55let the world know that we're here and we've been here we ain't just got here we've been here
36:02we joined the boudreaux in a sewing circle before mardi gras for decades big chief monk sewed suits
36:09for his children and grandchildren this year they gathered and helped him sew his my whole family's
36:16talent you know by just sitting there watching me for all these years you know as kids it was always
36:23right there while i was sewing sitting right there all those long hours of sewing inspired a song
36:39in the 1970s monk was one of the first to marry mardi gras indian chants to new orleans funk his
36:48albums
36:49earned two grammy nominations his son joseph and grandson juwan often sang back up
36:56we met them monk's daughter winoka and grandson marwan at one of monk's favorite new orleans clubs tipitinas
37:05what's his impact on the culture the impact that michael jordan had on basketball yeah i'll put it like
37:11like that like you can't mention mardi gras without mom yeah i'll achieve i never saw him take a break
37:16like i never said i never saw him say oh this year i'm not coming you know my father he
37:22took something
37:23that was made for the culture in the streets and he was one of the pioneers that took it global
37:29there's
37:30not a person in the city of new orleans that sews an indian suit and they don't put on his
37:36music
37:36that's what you want to buy big chief demand included
37:43that man make me cry like monk he do me something
37:50he's moved by the music and the weight of his calling the expense almost left him destitute
37:57you sacrificed a lot to make these suits you lost a house because you were so
38:03consumed with making your suit yeah yeah because it's it's hard i know it's hard but it's hard
38:11losing the house didn't make you stop what why why because you got put out of your house no indeed
38:18i i'm preserving the culture and the fine art world has taken notice his suits and beaded portraits have
38:26been displayed in museums and galleries all over the world it's allowed him to buy a new house
38:32every inch of which was covered with plumes and patches the evening before mardi gras
38:38y'all ready after working through the night big chief demand emerged transformed in a suit that stood
38:46more than 10 feet tall and weighed 120 pounds he used a u-haul to move from place to place
38:53but he tells us there was something else carrying him along the spirits come down every time we put it
39:00on
39:00especially with me you know my elders lived through me and it's a opening of the gates what do you
39:07mean
39:07that means they came down they're coming through me to walk in their shoes on the streets of new
39:13orleans like they taught us so what we're doing is we're preserving it for that next generation to be
39:18able to walk like i walk it's going to change my life the spirits it seems are opening other gates
39:24for
39:24him his work will be featured next month at the venice biennale in italy the world's most prestigious art
39:32exhibition do you think your success in the art world will encourage a younger generation to
39:40carry on with this culture i pray it does and i pray one of them picks up a need and
39:45won't do what i do
39:46you know preserving tradition for the next generation we heard that a lot here it's what big chief monk
39:55lives for but this year he was too weak to march with his tribe just before mardi gras he was
40:02diagnosed
40:03with cancer but he came out on his porch to see the tribe off with the mardi gras indians most
40:14sacred hymn
40:24what's it like for you to see your tribe march off and you're not joining them this year well
40:32i knew that time was gonna come but i didn't know when but you got to see this day yeah
40:37right
40:38well i was gonna see this day and the day is coming he told us for him to pass his
40:45crown on to
40:46the next chief like i say if you don't keep it going if you lose it it's gone forever finished
40:51you know
40:52i think just disappeared not here in new orleans not here in new orleans no
40:59you keep it rolling keeping it rolling and chanting and showing off a culture in full bloom too
41:10pretty too rooted to fade just yet
41:20the anatomy of a showdown it's warfare it's basically a battle
41:25the last minute of 60 minutes is sponsored by united healthcare
41:40coverage you can count on for your whole life ahead
41:46evangelist franklin graham has preached in all 50 states and provided disaster relief to more than 100
41:53countries for tonight's reflections on america we ask graham which value does he believe shaped the
42:00nation the most faith faith in god is the value that most shaped america remember the pilgrims they
42:08came from this land to find freedom to live out their faith and it's people of faith who have been
42:13the bedrock the driving force behind our nation in years past where did people turn after a disaster
42:20not fema not to the government it was the church that took them in fed them gave them shelter clothed
42:27them it was people of faith who established our health care in this country our higher education was
42:33started by people of faith harvard yale princeton were founded to train ministers of the gospel
42:40from the remote villages of alaska to the tip of the florida keys today you'll find houses of worship
42:46and people of faith making a difference as a follower of jesus christ i want all people to know that
42:53god
42:53loves them that he cares for them so i see faith as the most important defining value in our nation
42:59and in every single life i'm bill whitaker we'll be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes
43:08happy easter and a joyous passover
43:18anything that's wrong with america can be fixed by what's right in america we are defined more by
43:24our shared values and our differences and we're having a conversation about how
43:30the stars shine brighter on cbs morning watching rocky with rocky morning goodbye gail came in singing for me
43:37for that cbs morning weekdays at 7
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