WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.610 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.610 --> 00:00:10.610 align:middle line:84% I want tell you a little story, because this came from Wyoming. 00:00:10.610 --> 00:00:16.407 align:middle line:84% And I began to have visions last night, 00:00:16.407 --> 00:00:18.365 align:middle line:84% because I've driven through Wyoming many times. 00:00:18.365 --> 00:00:21.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:21.090 --> 00:00:27.810 align:middle line:84% And I live in Indian country, part of the year. 00:00:27.810 --> 00:00:30.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:35.220 align:middle line:90% And it's in Minnesota. 00:00:35.220 --> 00:00:38.550 align:middle line:84% And the county is Kandiyohi County. 00:00:38.550 --> 00:00:41.430 align:middle line:84% There was an incident, which took place in 1862, which 00:00:41.430 --> 00:00:43.350 align:middle line:84% I want to tell you about, because it tied me, 00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:46.740 align:middle line:84% inextricably, to a kind of union. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:53.250 align:middle line:84% It started me thinking very deeply about things. 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:55.680 align:middle line:84% And I wonder if you know poem by James Wright, called 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:00.215 align:middle line:84% "A Centenary Ode To Little Crow," which is a great poem. 00:01:00.215 --> 00:01:01.590 align:middle line:84% If you don't know that poem, it's 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:05.790 align:middle line:84% in the Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. 00:01:05.790 --> 00:01:06.540 align:middle line:90% It's a great poem. 00:01:06.540 --> 00:01:07.582 align:middle line:90% If I had it, I'd read it. 00:01:07.582 --> 00:01:09.635 align:middle line:90% 00:01:09.635 --> 00:01:11.760 align:middle line:84% There's an incident which took place, which I think 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:13.980 align:middle line:90% might be of interest to you. 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:16.650 align:middle line:84% At the same day, on the same day with the same pen that Abraham 00:01:16.650 --> 00:01:20.340 align:middle line:84% Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:23.700 align:middle line:84% which was in late December 1862, he also 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:28.910 align:middle line:84% signed the death warrant of 62 Indians, Sioux, 00:01:28.910 --> 00:01:34.500 align:middle line:84% were to be hung in a place called Mankato, Minnesota. 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:36.720 align:middle line:90% He signed this, their execution. 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:39.330 align:middle line:84% And they were to be hung on Christmas Eve. 00:01:39.330 --> 00:01:45.420 align:middle line:84% But the townspeople who had provoked these Sioux 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:50.160 align:middle line:84% to respond, by riding through their various villages, 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:52.535 align:middle line:84% slaughtering their wives, children. 00:01:52.535 --> 00:01:56.200 align:middle line:90% 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:58.610 align:middle line:84% They decided they didn't want their Christmas fouled up. 00:01:58.610 --> 00:02:01.355 align:middle line:84% So they postponed the execution until the December 26th. 00:02:01.355 --> 00:02:04.138 align:middle line:90% 00:02:04.138 --> 00:02:05.680 align:middle line:84% And I've always had great difficulty, 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:09.910 align:middle line:84% particularly when I was in Illinois, dealing with Lincoln. 00:02:09.910 --> 00:02:13.390 align:middle line:84% Not so much that I didn't think he made some major decisions, 00:02:13.390 --> 00:02:17.660 align:middle line:84% changed the nature of things, but because he was so 00:02:17.660 --> 00:02:20.210 align:middle line:90% schizophrenic in his behavior. 00:02:20.210 --> 00:02:22.973 align:middle line:84% And that tendency has carried on. 00:02:22.973 --> 00:02:24.890 align:middle line:84% And I want to read this poem, because before I 00:02:24.890 --> 00:02:26.432 align:middle line:84% knew about that incident, I'd written 00:02:26.432 --> 00:02:31.010 align:middle line:84% about this particular problem without being very specific. 00:02:31.010 --> 00:02:32.960 align:middle line:84% And this is called, "History as Bandages: 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:34.550 align:middle line:90% Polka Dots and Moonbeams." 00:02:34.550 --> 00:02:38.920 align:middle line:90% 00:02:38.920 --> 00:02:45.430 align:middle line:84% "One is an igloo of whalebone and oil and a poisonous gas. 00:02:45.430 --> 00:02:48.760 align:middle line:84% One is a canoe underwater, laden with wild rice, 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:52.660 align:middle line:90% grubs, and Indian arrows. 00:02:52.660 --> 00:02:55.000 align:middle line:84% One is a banjo, packed with thin dirt 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:00.340 align:middle line:84% in Richmond, Virginia, Gabriel, 1800. 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:02.830 align:middle line:84% One is a round bubble of mustard rock, 00:03:02.830 --> 00:03:06.430 align:middle line:90% broken on an Indian squaw. 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:10.240 align:middle line:84% One is a print of a buffalo, bearded, masked, 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:13.780 align:middle line:90% made musty skinned hair. 00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:16.210 align:middle line:84% The white rectangular patchwork covers 00:03:16.210 --> 00:03:21.130 align:middle line:84% all these national wounds kept secretly bound at night, 00:03:21.130 --> 00:03:26.470 align:middle line:84% absorbing color and blood and bones 00:03:26.470 --> 00:03:29.770 align:middle line:90% of all shapes and disguises." 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:32.530 align:middle line:90% 00:03:32.530 --> 00:03:34.250 align:middle line:84% The reason why I mentioned Wyoming before 00:03:34.250 --> 00:03:38.390 align:middle line:84% was because there's a fine book written by a woman 00:03:38.390 --> 00:03:41.210 align:middle line:84% named Sandoz called, Cheyenne Autumn. 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:44.420 align:middle line:84% And I wasn't very far from Cheyenne. 00:03:44.420 --> 00:03:46.040 align:middle line:84% And I'd written a poem about Colorado, 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:47.873 align:middle line:84% about some men who had come to Colorado, who 00:03:47.873 --> 00:03:49.175 align:middle line:90% went to Alaska to go on a hunt. 00:03:49.175 --> 00:03:50.300 align:middle line:90% And I won't read that poem. 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:51.063 align:middle line:90% It's too long. 00:03:51.063 --> 00:03:53.480 align:middle line:84% But I want to read you the epigraph to this section, which 00:03:53.480 --> 00:03:54.897 align:middle line:84% are interesting, because they come 00:03:54.897 --> 00:03:58.912 align:middle line:90% from various Indian utterances. 00:03:58.912 --> 00:04:00.620 align:middle line:84% And then I want to talk a bit about this, 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:02.620 align:middle line:84% because I think that there are some things which 00:04:02.620 --> 00:04:04.460 align:middle line:90% ought to be said. 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:06.710 align:middle line:84% This is from a poem called, "Love Letters, the Caribou 00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:07.940 align:middle line:90% Hills of the Moose Range." 00:04:07.940 --> 00:04:09.490 align:middle line:90% And-- 00:04:09.490 --> 00:04:10.000 align:middle line:90%