WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.900 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:04.450 align:middle line:90%
This is a kind of a found poem.

00:00:04.450 --> 00:00:07.770 align:middle line:84%
It's called "Not Because
of Any Objections,"

00:00:07.770 --> 00:00:10.650 align:middle line:84%
and it's taken from
a letter written

00:00:10.650 --> 00:00:14.070 align:middle line:84%
by the former superintendent
of the Fort Mojave boarding

00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:17.850 align:middle line:84%
school, which was the boarding
school on my reservation, which

00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:22.200 align:middle line:84%
is where some of my relatives
and my teachers were.

00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:24.990 align:middle line:84%
And it was written by
Superintendent [? Sam ?]

00:00:24.990 --> 00:00:30.270 align:middle line:84%
McCowan to a former student who
they then called Pete Lambert.

00:00:30.270 --> 00:00:33.120 align:middle line:90%
But his name to us was Homoseh.

00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:35.700 align:middle line:90%
And he was our last great chief.

00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.640 align:middle line:90%


00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:40.860 align:middle line:84%
And this is an exact
quote from the letter

00:00:40.860 --> 00:00:44.010 align:middle line:84%
that the superintendent
wrote to this young man who

00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:46.650 align:middle line:90%
had become chief.

00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:49.230 align:middle line:84%
And at that point in time,
the chief had been diminished

00:00:49.230 --> 00:00:53.130 align:middle line:84%
and was under the control of
the United States Army slash

00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:90%
government.

00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:00.480 align:middle line:84%
I can remember when I first took
you in the Fort Mojave school.

00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:05.459 align:middle line:84%
And what a time I had in cutting
your hair for the first time.

00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:09.120 align:middle line:84%
I can see now all the
old Mojave women standing

00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:13.890 align:middle line:84%
around crying while you covered
your long hair with your arms

00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:17.490 align:middle line:84%
and told me that I wouldn't
dare to cut that hair off.

00:01:17.490 --> 00:01:21.990 align:middle line:84%
But the hair was cut in
spite of all your efforts

00:01:21.990 --> 00:01:26.550 align:middle line:84%
and the direful predictions
of the Mojave women.

00:01:26.550 --> 00:01:29.520 align:middle line:84%
I compelled you to
have your hair cut off,

00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:34.170 align:middle line:84%
not because of any objections
to the long hair in itself,

00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:39.090 align:middle line:84%
but merely because the long
hair was a symbol of savagery.

00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:44.240 align:middle line:90%


00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:48.200 align:middle line:84%
And the part that gets
me most about that,

00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:52.040 align:middle line:84%
is that this man is doubting
the direful predictions

00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:56.180 align:middle line:84%
that the Mojave women made
of what would come of cutting

00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:58.720 align:middle line:90%
this young man's hair.

00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:00.054 align:middle line:90%