Program 301

October camp on the Snake River, ca. 1842, (Fremont: 1887) Courtesy of Trailtribes.org

The Lemhi Shoshone

with Arlie Neskahi

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Arlie Neskahi:
Welcome to Wisdom of the Elders. I’m Arlie Neskahi.

It was mid-August. Summer clouds tore at the peaks of the Beaverhead Mountains. The Lemhi were spread out in the pass below, gathering roots, hunting and fishing. They were preparing for their annual buffalo-hunt on the plains. A lone warrior caused a minor commotion when he returned to camp claiming he had seen four men as pale as ashes walking up the pass. No one believed him. They had never seen a white man.

It was August 11, 1805. An advance party of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis, was at the headwaters of the Missouri River searching for the Shoshone people. Lewis had known from the start that the success of their journey depended on the availability of horses and Native guides to take them across the Rocky Mountains. Failure to locate the Shoshone or some other tribe with horses meant they would have to endure another winter east of the Rockies. It could mean the end of their mission. Then he spotted the Lemhi warrior, on, what Lewis called his “eligant” horse. Read more »

Emma George

Leo Ariwite, Rod Ariwite and Emma George

with Brian Bull

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Arlie Neskahi:
Sacajawea stands out as the most prominent of the Lemhi Shoshone, yet some Shoshone question her role in the expedition. It helped facilitate westward expansion, eventually affecting her tribe’s homeland and traditions. The forced relocation of the Lemhis to Fort Hall, Idaho in the early 1900′s is also a painful chapter for many tribal members, who still long to return to their ancestral homeland in Salmon, Idaho. In today’s Elder Wisdom, Brian Bull explores the determination of the Lemhi people to hold on to their cultural identity. Read more »

Don Addison Photo by Larry Johnson

The Shoshone Language

with Don Addison

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Arlie Neskahi:
Welcome back to Wisdom of the Elders.

Don Addison:
Halito! I’m Don Addision and this is speaking native.

Our featured tribe today speaks Shoshone, part of a very large language family called Uto-Aztecan. It spans a huge portion of the American West from the Oregon basin into Mexico. Read more »

Detail from E.S. Paxson's 1912 Painting, "Lewis and Clark at Three Forks." Courtesy of the Montana Historical Society www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2001/07/project.html

Sacagawea’s Legacy

with Judy Bluehorse Skelton

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Arlie Neskahi:
Few women in American history have achieved the mythic status of Sacajawea. Her role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition sparked the imaginations of all who would read of her exploits in the popular journals. While mystery still surrounds accounts of her life after Lewis and Clark returned home, Sacajawea serves as a larger-than-life inspiration to young women everywhere. Judy Bluehorse Skelton shares her perspective on the legend and the woman. Read more »

Circle Dance, Judith Vander recording http://judithvander.com/Multimedia%20NA.htm

The Ghost Dance

with Nico Wind

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Arlie Neskahi:
More than a century ago, in isolated places in the west, groups of Native men, women and children would gather in secret to sing and dance and pray. A note of fear, pain and suffering would pervade the atmosphere. The people’s lives had been turned upside down. Disease had killed many of them. And the rest expected to be killed by the U.S. Military. They asked the creator to spare them, return the buffalo herds in abundance, and magically resurrect all their dead ancestors. Read more »

Ernest Wahtamy Photo by Larry Johnson

Ernest Wahtomy

with Rose High Bear

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Arlie Neskahi:
Today, one in seven Native Americans suffer from type II diabetes. Diabetes is an inability of the body to process insulin, a hormone that allows blood sugars to enter the cells and be used for energy. The disease leads to kidney failure, blindness, amputations and death. Although there is no cure, the good news is: diabetes can be controlled. In today’s Health and Healing, Rose High Bear introduces us to a person who has met the challenge of diabetes and shares his experiences.

Rose High Bear:
Since time immemorial, Native people have maintained a healthy lifestyle by gathering and using their traditional foods. Today’s epidemic of diabetes in Native peoples has resulted in part from a change from this traditional diet to one based on processed foods, sugars and fats. Read more »

Rozina George Photo by Larry Johnson

Rozina George

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Rozina George:
My name is Rozina George. I’m honored and proud to be talking about Sacajawea, one of the most famous women in history. I’m a great, great, great, great niece of Sacajawea. I, like Sacajawea, I’m a Agaidika Shoshone. Originally I’m from Salmon, Idaho.

Arlie Neskahi:
On today’s Turtle Island Storytellers, Rozina George tells of her great great great great aunt, Sacajawea, who was captured as a child, and then reunited with her family as a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Read more »

Rose Ann Abrahamson

Artist’s Circle: Traditional Arts of the Lemhi Shoshone

with Bruce Crespin

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Arlie Neskahi:
Among Native people in North America, the “arts” were inseparable from other aspects of everyday life. Tools, clothing, and dwellings were fashioned with great care and close attention to detail. Special effort even went into rarely seen works that were used only on ceremonial occasions. Nowadays, our society is full of things mass-produced from synthetic materials, while in contrast, Native American artisans made things from what existed already in their natural world, such as wood, stone, hide, clay, tusk and shell. Today, in Artist’s Circle, Bruce Crespin takes a look at some of the traditional cultural arts of the Lemhi Shoshone. Read more »