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By Root 415 0

about these things in what I shall say. And I might be able to talk to you about this all night long. In the morning you’ll still be here. I could fill up those [cassettes]. I have knowledge about everything. So that’s why I’m just happy talking about this here Drum Ceremony and things I remember to teach these young men, the young people who listen to me and understand me. Then one time they will use these things themselves to become knowledgeable about how the Spirits are spoken of in a gentle way, and the one Spirit too. There will be a lot of Spirits who look after us here, the Spirits who take care of us. Sometimes it used to be, sometimes I used to be just stingy when I used to be thought of to talk about this. Then I remembered about how I was told to share. That’s why he knows me, so that I will help him when the Spirit I speak of thinks of me. Always, I’m often asked this by different people, “How come you know so much about this yourself?” Intentionally, when I help these ones with such purpose, the Spirits think of me in how those old men told me about things long ago. Now I have since forgotten many things that old man told me. And now I’m an elder. I’m a learned elder as it’s called. So now I do know about how the Indian has good fortune now and how one becomes knowledgeable about that.

[40] There’s something, something I want to tell you too, tell you about how the Drum Ceremony used to be. This is why I am happy when someone often asks me about things I’m knowledgeable about. And I have come to be knowledgeable myself, although that one [elder] is more knowledgeable. And again some of these young people now are sixteen years of age—I can’t count any more—maybe ten years, twenty, I don’t know. That’s why I help my fellow Indian, the young ones who understand. It’s so that they’ll become knowledgeable too. One time when I was fifty-six years old [I was told], “Since you know about this and remember our culture too and how we have good fortune as well, your children, grandchildren, companions will have good luck and your grandchildren wherever they’re at. This time and always it will be a blessing wherever your grandchildren are at and your great-grandchildren are too.”

[41] My great-grandchildren now number five, one boy and four girls. Wow! I have such strong feelings for them. I might or might not have been considered to have great-grandchildren. My grandchildren are numerous too. There are nine of my grandchildren. And the five [great-grandchildren], maybe three are at my house. I have been able to live to have great-grandchildren. But maybe I knew that. I didn’t know how many would come into being. The Great Spirit has brought us here at this time until we will no longer exist.

[42] It used to be that a long time ago, a long time ago I used to misbehave. And I was [a] chronic drinker. Sometimes when I wanted to drink, I used to consume way too much [liquor]. I was a drunk. I didn’t know when I arrived at my house, standing around in the morning, “How did I get here?” Someone watched over me. I am protected. I was protected in things. And then I wanted to know why I was being looked after. Then I wanted to help my fellow Indian, as I belonged on the Drums I helped. That’s why I was protected in things. It was like my Spirits protected me. It was said, “Wherever you go you are certainly protected by the [Spirit], so you see these things,” he tells me. “When something comes [at you], you dodge off to the side. When you want to sleep they will envelop you too. And you are protected. You are protected by those Spirits, that’s why you are learned, why you know things.” And that’s what those old men told me. “You are protected for that reason,” he told me one time. “You will help your fellow Indian,” those old men told me.

[43] And truly, I do help him in what I am able to do to the full extent of my abilities to help my fellow Indian. Then I thank him as I think of how someone asked me to tell him these things. And then this here, what I’m telling you here is what I remember so that my fellow Indian becomes