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hi, remember me?
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Sunkmanitu tanka Isnala Najin
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Sep 11, 2003 12:24 PDT
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I’ve got a new webpage with some recent pics online now. And I put a
temporary pic on my Indigenous Awakening homepage as a link to the new
one-page site. (You’ll have no problem discerning which photo on my
homepage is the link.) The url for this new page however, is
http://bad.river.gathering.tripod.com/
The pics were taken in Fort Pierre, South Dakota last week. The place is
the Casey Tibbs Arena, the event was a dress rehearsal of “Bad River
Gathering”. This is a pageant sponsored by a Lewis & Clarke Bicentennial
organization out of Ft. Pierre. Bad River Gathering is a production of
the Lakota Heritage Society, from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Originally, I was asked to be a stand-in for Lewis & Clark’s
interpreter, Pierre Crusatte. Pierre was half Omaha, half French; he
interpreted Lakota & other languages into French, while another
interpreter translated the French to English. For this play however,
Pierre just goes between Lakota & English. The problem was that the
first guy hired to do the part turned-out not to be able to speak Lakota
as good as he had claimed, so he really messed things up in a previous
dress rehearsal. Then, the LHS hired Rick Good Weasel to do the part;
they hadn’t heard from him though, so they began to worry. So, with just
three days before the dress rehearsal, they asked me if I would be
interested. (After I said okay, that’s when they told me I had only
three days to go over my lines!) I was very glad to see Rick show-up on
the day we were heading out for Ft. Pierre.
Everyone else had been studying for this for several months. I just
started acquainting myself with the two main scenes that the interpreter
was in a few days beforehand. Of course, I wasn’t able to put much time
into it even then, because I was also helping with some last-minute
preparations with wardrobe & a hide. Anyway, my little girl & I just
went along for the ride. I said I’d help the tech guys with setting-up
the tipis & such. So, I was quite surprised when, just minutes before
show time, I was asked to change into a breech cloth & leggings!
I ended-up being “forced” to play the part of an Omaha warrior. Shy guy
that I am, not having a clue what was supposed to happen in Act Three, &
not at all excited about being topless in public, I tried like hell to
get out of it! As you can see from the pics however, I did it. I felt
very insecure; I’ve lost nearly everything except my pot belly recently!
I weigh between 50 – 60 pounds less now than I did when I appeared on
the cover of Briarpatch magazine a year or so ago. Also, I wasn’t really
sure just how long I could hold my gut in without exploding… or hurting
myself!
During the dress rehearsal (actual play is at the end of the month),
after our first (first of many) takes of the Scalp Dance (where we were
all Lakota again), one of the sponsors came down from the grandstand
into the arena. She came up behind me, touched my shoulder, & told me,
“We’d rather see you guys’ faces, rather than your butts”. (Apparently,
we were all so “bucky” that we turned our back on the audience when we
started dancing, without even realizing it.) Anyways, clever guy that I
am, I immediately responded with, “Are you sure?”. The lady then said,
“Well…”, lifted the back of my breechcloth up, “I’ll have to get back to
you on that”! The other dancers seemed to get a kick out of that.
Later that evening, as I was returning my skimpy outfit to wardrobe, the
woman came up to me & informed me that, “The others want to see your
face, but I want to see the other”!
Also, during one scene, I overheard one of the older ladies in our cast
commented to another that I looked just like Tasunke Witko, Chief Crazy
Horse. This made me feel quite good.
I was pretty down on myself lately, & I was very embarrassed to be out
there shirtless. Those two things really made a difference in how I felt
though. Apparently, now I’m expected to go back & do it all again for
the actual performance too. Geez…
And, the next morning, as we were tearing everything down, that one
woman returned to the arena. As she got out of her vehicle, she told me,
“Turn around”! Well, apparently, I’m the whore of the Lakota Historical
Society now!! (just jokes) One of my buddies assured her that next time
I’d have a skimpier breechcloth on, or none at all! (I don’t know about
that though!) Everyone’s sure having a good time with the situation, at
my expense, though!
Butt, of course, I couldn’t be happier! Well, I could, butt…
Anyways, the pics are where I said. There were ten, but I deleted one
because it was getting to be too much. It was hard to choose which one
to delete, so I just took out the one that was taken at a moment that I
was letting my gut out! I’m in most, but not all of these pics. You’ll
see my boney arms in a sleeveless black t-shirt, then shirtless. My
bitty is in the last pic. My buddy, Archie Little, plays Chief Black
Buffalo; but the only pic I have of him there is after everything was
over.
And, the page may take some time to load properly still; I have nine
roughly 8x10” photos on there. Hit your refresh button if the page
doesn’t want to bring everything up the first time around. I don’t have
time to mess around with it anymore though, so how it is is how it shall
be.
On to other news, Between The Lines publishing out of Toronto informed
me yesterday that they will not be publishing my book. They said it was
either not coherent, or not cohesive enough (I forget which). I guess
I’m just too stupid to be a writer. Someone else suggested that it was
because I was just too controversial though. He then suggested, as many
others have before, that I publish it myself.
So, even though the only money I’ll be making this summer will be from
the Bad River Gathering play (which will be very little), I’m going to
attempt to get my own publishing license, then pay an independent
printer to print my book. This way, I’ll be starting a new business (my
own) & retain full rights to my own work. The profits will also be all
mine, as opposed to only receiving cents back on every copy sold.
Also, I’ve been using a friend’s computer these past few days; I signed
in to MSN Messenger the other night, then couldn’t sign out. My friend’s
wife uses this for her business. Every time anyone here logged on to the
internet, everyone who had me in their Friend’s List was told that I was
online. We couldn’t figure it out, so my friend’s wife blocked everyone.
Now, next time I’m at another computer, I’ll try to straighten it out.
As usual too, nothing will be said in regards to my battle with the
northern colony until I decide. For now, I have children to think of, &
I need to have money set aside for their well-being. The Creator placed
these holy little ones (“wakanyeja” –children) in my care. They come
first.
Ho, hecetu yelo.
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