AIRP 1474

BC: February 17, 1997, Billings, Montana.

(Drum performance)

AH: Thank you very much. That was the Night Hawk Singers; we will remain standing, we'll go through the River Bottom Singers of the Arapaho nation: (they perform). Thank you. Okay, we'll record through normal proceedings--Rising Hills Singers from the Yankton Sioux tribe: (they perform). Please be seated now. Thank you very much for showing respect for this song. In fact I mentioned earlier we have three different tribes who brought the drums here today and we're very honored that we have then over here. This process of selecting of artists to do this monument work has been long and the committee has met many times to review but this one man that would like to introduce at this time. I think he's been very instrumental in putting this together, he's the superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, he works for the National Park Service; I'd like to introduce you to Gerard Baker.

GB: Thank you very much, relatives, friends, neighbors interested people. Thank you very much for coming tonight, this afternoon for this occasion . We've been at this for a long time, in fact this was probably 121 years overdue: and we're still not there yet. This is one phase, a very important phase to get the winners identified. And the next phase is probably just as important; that's the construction. This project is not complete until it's up on top of the hill on Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. From the Park Service this is going to make their job both challenging and also a lot easier. I say easier because as we progressed in our interpretation of the battle this particular project makes it easier telling both sides of the battle; and especially the side, I think, that's been lacking and in some cases has missing for so many years; and that's the American Indian side. We have started this in the last three or four years and we continue to keep going until we're there which means we're giving the balanced interpretation. To a lot of people who have been involved in this project, a lot of people we owe thanks to, and which you will hear from later on. One of the groups that is helping us out is brand new, I'd like to introduce, is Rick here? Rick Meyer and Joe Marshall from South Dakota are establishing The Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, which is the first time we got a Friends Group at Little Bighorn and it's going to represent both sides, so I'll introduce Rick Meyer so he can show off his face now. (drums) Again, this means a lot to Little Bighorn, it means a lot to the tribes, it means a lot to the nation; it means a lot to the world as far as what's coming up. At this time I would like to introduce to you the chairman of the committee that's worked many hours; he's worked long and hard and he's given us good direction he's given this committee good direction and his job is not over. So at this time I'd like to introduce Dr. Leonard Bruguier, the director of the Institute of American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. He's been the chairman of this committee! (drums)

LB: I want to greet each and everybody with a hearty handshake and thank you for having a safe journey here today. It's hard for me to talk because they talked me out the last two days. And also my heart is overworking and so I don't want to say too much now, maybe later on when I get over the emotion I get up and I'll bore you all to sleep. I wanted to introduce members of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Advisory Committee at this time. And as I call the name I would appreciate if you come up here with me: Grandma Redcherries, Mr. Chauncey Whitright, Linda Pease, Dennis Sun Rhodes, Kevin Red Star. We have other members that had to leave yesterday after the deliberation, they had to be back to work and several things; Dr. Paul Hutton, Mr. Don Malnourie, and Gay Kingman. And Mr. Dick Pohl who had to leave, too. And Arthur Amiotte, I can't forget him. I think he's on his way to France. These people here are the ones that were asked to serve as citizens, as private citizens. They come from a lot of different occupations and a lot of different places in the country; and they and they belong to Indian nations and they belong to the United States, too. And they were charged to conduct a contest and then to sit down and find the one that best commemorated Indian participation at the Little Bighorn in 1876. And it sounds mighty easy but as I assure you that it's been a long, long difficult journey for us and we finally came to one place there where we can actually have a design concept that we can begin to put our love and our hopes and our prayers into for that next stage and that is to get it built! In that sense I wanted to introduce today Miss Nina Jaeger, who came to us from the National Park Foundation and National Park Foundation will assist this Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Advisory Committee in their fund-raising efforts. They don't want to talk so maybe I should just go ahead and get right to the business of announcing the winners. There's only three people that know who these are in the whole world! Third place winner: Mr. Robert E. Lundgren, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I feel like Bob Barker, I don't look like him, though!! Bob Barker is Indian, too; he's an Indian guy. Second place award: Richard Allen Borkovetz from Alberquerque, New Mexico. (drums) And the grand prize winner is Mr. John R. Collins from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (drum, applause) We had two winners from the city of brotherly love! And today I want to say it's also a city of sisterly love, too. At this time probably the most important person in this whole last week and the person that I relied on throughout the last years of deliberations to make sure that we insure the integrity of the competition as well as kept it even for everybody to compete I would to like him to share a few thoughts in that process that they came to where they beat over 560 entries and then found that one that best represented Indian participation at the Little Bighorn, Mr. Bob Burley.

BB: As an architect I've been involved in quite a few design competitions; I think about a dozen in my lifetime. Sometimes I was in the competitions as a competitor so I know what it's like to have to get drawings in the mail, postmarked by midnight on a certain date. And sometimes I was on the jury, as a chairman, sometimes--actually once I was a sponsor of a competition; so I've had some experiences. I think out of all those competitions I think this one might be the most memorable to my standpoint. I think it's outstanding for one thing because of the number of entries there are, over 500 entries is a tremendous response on a competition! And also I think it's memorable because it's so important, so significant to get the design and the construction accomplished. But personally I think it's memorable because of the committee, the Indian Memorial Advisory Committee that I worked with as a wonderful group of people, some of those people constituted the jurors on this and they worked together, we all worked together for five and a half days coming to the conclusion. I think when you work with people for five and a half days on something like this in this rural United States--we ate breakfast, we ate lunch here together, there were no breaks, every member of the jury attended every day session that we have; so I think there is just a tremendous personal effort on the part of all the jury members and when you do that you develop friendships and you develop a confidence in each other and a respect. And that's what this jury did; it was just an excellent jury. The way that they came to their conclusions was to start with the over 500 entries that we have here and do a series of tough eliminations. Before we did that every jury member had a day and a half to walk through the exhibition and read all of the summaries that were written on each design and look at each design and make certain they understand what the designers had in mind when they were doing it. It's very important for jury members to be able to do that! That's the only chance they have to make their individual opinions and then come back as a group and do a jury. Once they did that we did a first cut and reduced all those drawings down to, I think was 116 drawings. And there is going to be a traveling exhibit of these entries and those first 116 were the basis for putting the, or selecting the drawings and entries that would go into that traveling exhibit. Once we got past that point I think we went down to about 45 and we did that in a series of majority votes; we would each take a ballot and after a discussion, take the ballot and find out which ones were coming out ahead. And each time that would narrow it down to fewer entries looking for the first place entry. We finally got it down to nine entries and at that point we all went out to the battlefield, out to the site and we took the drawings with us. And we held the drawings up and we looked at the existing monument, the ridgeline of the environment, we discussed the scale of each one and I think it was very helpful to the jury to actually be at the site and be able to do that. And we discussed each one of these nine entries more. Then we went down to five entries, four entries, three entries and finally the first place winner by this series of majority votes. I felt very good about the first place winner because it wasn't won by one and half points but won by a clearly wide margin over the other entries. And actually as we did this voting that particular entry kept coming out ahead on the votes; so I feel confident that the jury was really well decided on the one that they thought would be the best entry. I feel good about it, myself personally, too. Looking at it I think it's very buildable, it answers virtually all the goals that you'll see in the program for this; I think all the jurors felt it was a design that should really be built, to do the job of the memorial. I've been privileged to work with the committee and the jury in this project. I think the results you see up here are outstanding. One comment the jury had was that they applauded every one that put an entry in. And I think the regret that they had in the whole process was that they couldn't build all of them. Hopefully, there were so many excellent ideas here and out in the other room that they hoped at some point a lot these excellent designs could actually be constructed some place in the country. I think you find a very high quality of works here, some very interesting designs and I feel confident we do have the best winners there on the floor of what can be constructed as soon as possible. Thank you. (drums)
(The advisory committee members take turns announcing the honorable mentions.)

LB: At this time we will also announce the winners of the honorable mentions. I didn't mean to slide them at all! It was just that I got excited, Excuse me.

KRS: We have an honorable mention. His name is Kirk Fric. (drum,clapping)

LP: The next honorable mention, the second one in, is by Mark Lewis Goodman of North Miami Beach, Florida. (drum)

DSR: The next honorable mention, over there, is by Michael Stewart, Crow Agency Montana. (drum)

Chauncey Whitright:If I get this correct as honorable mention is John Wenz, Chicago, Illinois. (drums)

CR: The honorable mention for John S. Reynolds, from Eugene, Oregon and he has eight team members. Their names are Kendra Carson, Mansoon Chu, Samson Man, Eric Mayle, Samuel Chazia, Eunice Baruta, Nicolette Le, Peter H. Straus, all from Eugene, Oregon. (drums, applause) That one was number 601. I would like to say a little bit more that just reading the names to you. I am really glad to be at my Cheyenne elders could come up and be participants of this occasion. That's really important for all of us! The Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Arapaho to finally come to this conclusion of honoring our warriors and all the families and children that gave their lives in that battle back there in 1876. And it's an emotional thing for a lot of us because we have chiefs and we have the descendants of the different ones that died there and giving their lives. And when that battle took place these people that performed in that battle and fought for the freedom that they, had they won! It was good that we won that battle! And they were never honored but now over a hundred years later we have that privilege to pursue honoring them because they gave their lives and at that time they didn't realize that the freedom that they were fighting for was a different kind of a freedom. It would have been nice to have kept that freedom but when we won that battle another type of freedom was awaiting us. And you might say there are different kinds of freedoms that we came into because they were limited freedoms! We weren't as free as we were before the battle. And so even though we have come into different new types of freedoms which are restricted for us. We are glad that we won that battle! Because it was real serious to go forth and give your life--

(END OF SIDE ONE OF AIRP 1474)

(BEGINNING OF SIDE TWO OF AIRP 1474)

CR: --a part of that pursuance of the memorial and some of our young men were insistent on honoring our people. They took their own plaque up there and they got in trouble and there a lot of sufferings and hardship from trying to get this memorial going for those that gave their lives and it finally came to that place where legislation brought forth and everything was put in place and we were able to make this time an honorable time for them. We will always have that memorial up here and we will always honor and celebrate there because it 's a "living memorial". I am really glad that we traveled so far to be here with you. It took along time for us to come to this day. but I'm really glad that we have finally come for that place where we're going to have that memorial for ours that gave their whole lives and we can be content they're going to be honored and remembered. Thank you. (applause, drums)

LB: The last but not least is Peter J. Kindel from Chicago, Illinois. Two Chicagos--(drums, applause)

LB: At this time I am going to have the advisory committee come forward and I am going to ask Mr. Gerard Baker to come forward and introduce members of the National Park Service Support Team. You know they teach us that way when we go some place you always give thanks when we're fed and given hospitality and these kinds of things. And this National Park Support Team has taken care of us for the last three years; they've helped us make sure that we had a meeting place and that we had some place to stage and have the things necessary to make sure that we could deliberate and get everything done. So Mr. Baker: (Applause)

GB: Thank you, Leonard. As you all might know, there's a lot of work that goes into this as Leonard was saying and a lot of work that a lot of people had to sacrifice for, including putting overtime in and sometimes not getting paid, sometimes getting comp; a lot of hours go into that and, I think, from my angle at the Little Bighorn all of us, I think, at the Park Service wear many hats, do a lot of things and this takes time away from our families and so I will say this is that I've been gone quite a lot. I know I owe my family a sincere thank you for putting up with me. The kids haven't forgotten my name yet, anyway, and so they are still there, but my family is here; I'd like to have them stand so we get to know them and I know they're all blushing right now but : my wife, Mary Kaye, Theresa, Kristie my daughter and Tasha, the little one. (applause, drums). I come home sometimes they ask who I am . The people I'd like to introduce now put a lot of time into this project, I guess, you wouldn't believe how much time we put into this project, as far as dedication and making sure this thing works and has worked. They owe a big round applause once we're through. Foremost to this was our deputy director for the Inter-Mountain Field Area, or he belongs to that area now. I'd like to introduce now Ron Everheart and have him come on up. (drums, applause) Also like to introduce the one who is, I guess, leading a lot of people right now, doing a real good job to make this thing together, from a cement standpoint, that is Linda Stoll. (Drums, applause) It seems like you have people who can do a lot of things; answer phones, making coffee, making schedules, you name it, she's done it; a very big hand, please, for Miss Dawn Carey. (drums, applause) Likewise a lot of times, when I've been calling the regional office and need information, sometimes 11, 12, say 1 o'clock in the morning, sometimes she is usually there, is Chris Jones. (drums, applause) Also, one who has been here a long time; in fact, before I came to the Battlefield, she was a superintendent enjoying the good in this particular contest, but it was only good for 300 people in the National Park System, Barbara Sutteer. (drums, applause) One of the new ones to the group is to be here for the duration of this ____ the top of the hill. He is responsible for most folks here from the labor aspect. He's responsible as far as far as our displays and making sure everything's well organizedm from an engineering standpoint, Rudy Labota. (drums, applause.) There's one more that couldn't be here, right now. She's still doing work on the newspapers, that's her main job; that's Karen Breslin. (drums, applause)

AH: At this time, you know, we ask each drum group, again, to sing a song in honor of these people; to honor, maybe our loved ones or our relatives that died at the Battle of Little Bighorn; or your relatives that the descendants are still alive. I know that all the tribes that participated got songs about their travels; got songs about what happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn; so at this time what I would like to ask the drum groups to do is to sing that song that they have in their tribes; that song to the Little Bighorn here. So, we'll get this started. The Night Hawk Singers from Crow Agency--Please stand (drums, song) Thank you, very much. O,K, We're going on to our drums from the Arapaho Nation. (drums, song) Thank you, we're going to the Rising Hill Singers, from the Yankton Sioux Tribe. The song that they are going to sing, this is the song that the warriors sang when they traveled up here to fight.(drums, song)

GB: I guess, in closing, what I would like to say is that this whole contest has been under one theme, that you will hear about later on and probably more and more as time goes on; and that theme has been "Peace and Unity". It's been--there was two gentlemen, initially, that are both gone now; Enos Poor Bear and Austin Two Moons, that were instrumental, I guess, in putting the theme together. If I could stress, with that theme a thought for you to take with you, it is this, and I think especially Indian people, you need to get together and through this theme, through "Peace and Unity" to acknowledge their opportunities. A lot of people in 1876 died on both sides. A lot of people were there for one purpose, and that was to save their homelands and save their families, and save their children for generations, and they've done that. So I'd like to thank the people who represent the Crow Tribe, the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, the Lakota, for coming, and the other folks here, I welcome you and you, too, need to stand up with your brother for "Peace and Unity". Thank you. (drums, applause)

AH: I want to thank everybody for coming today, especially like to thank the singers that come from the different tribes to help us here. Leonard told me say that there's coffee available, juice, I think; and some food that you're welcome to help yourselves, and go out and enjoy the pictures and find your favorite one--take it home. (Laughter) Thank you, very much. (drums, applause)

(End of recording.)