Listen With Your Spirit

In this final episode on the Blackfoot language, host Eugene Brave Rock sits with language expert and Elder Rod Scout as he shares his philosophy on language, world views, and what it means to be Blackfoot.

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Transcript

Multiple Speakers [00:00:00] [cheerful electronic music] Sim gigyat, Sigidim Haanak’, K’ubawilxsihlxw. Oki, wishing you good life. Kuei! Kuei! Yo! Wik’sas. Dánet'e, negha dágǫ́ht’e.

Announcer [00:00:14] This is Words and Culture, a series on Indigenous languages funded by SiriusXM through the Community Radio Fund of Canada. [music fades out]

Eugene Brave Rock [00:00:25] Oki, niisto nitahnakok (continues introducing self in Niitsíʼpowahsin)

Welcome to Words and Culture. I’m your host, Eugene Brave Rock. Well this is it, the final episode of the Blackfoot episodes. So thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to go home and share time and space with my Elders. To listen. Not just with my ears, but with my spirit.

Every word they share isn’t just a story, it’s memory, it’s identity, it’s life itself being passed forward. Through this project and the Oki Language Project, which I am a founder of, these moments become something more than moments. They become medicine. They become a bridge between where we’ve been and where we’re going. I don’t take that lightly. To sit, to learn, to carry, and to share. That is responsibility. That is honour. That is everything.

Rod Scout [00:01:31] Well first, I’ll introduce myself. Niisto nitahnkokwa (introducing self at length in Niitsíʼpowahsin)

So I wanna speak English, just to kinda translate. So. I talked about the importance of our language, knowing about, you know, understanding. I started out by introducing myself. My name, “He Rode Back,” that's my name, Máátiihkitópii.

My great-great-grandfather, Bob Dale Chief, named me that. He died in 1963, so it was about a year-and-a-half, just before he died, when he gave me that name. And that was from a war exploit that he had against the Crees. His other name was Ni’tanáímsskaan. Lone Medicine Pipe. He also knew of his (speaks Niitsíʼpowahsin)

But that old man was the one that named me. That's when he raided the Crows and took some horses.

But the reason why he called me, “He Rode Back,” was – when he was chasing those horses out of that Crow camp, he saw a gray horse tied to a Lodge. So he swung around and rode back down the trail. And the Crows were attacking, he rode through them and cut that horse loose from that tipi. That was that man's prized horse.

He jumped on that gray horse, really fast horse, and ran back through them again. And they couldn't hit it. They were shooting and everything, they couldn't hit it. And that gray horse, he rode it into camp, pushing with other horses that he had taken from the Crow.

So my dad was given the name Gray Horse Rider because of that. It was – it had nothing to do with (speaks Niitsíʼpowahsin) I got the name he rode back because of because of what he did. And I believe in that name because, you know, in my career I've been shot at, I’ve been – a lot of things, but I've never been hit with a bullet. They've gone by my head, they shot my mic right off my shoulder, everything, but I was never hit.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:07:27] Mmm.

Rod Scout [00:07:28] You know, that – the significance of it was that, you know, it was a warrior name. And that's something that a lot of people don't understand because – and that's what I talked about in my Blackfoot. I talked how our young people, these young kids, seem to emulate other cultures and never really looked at what our culture is about.

So, I mean, we see a lot of these – the dissemination of other cultures. And they never stopped to realize that Siksikáí'tsitapi, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Blackwood culture. No matter where I go, I can say I'm from the Bloods – of a Blood Indian, because I was born there.

But wherever I go, with other cultures in the world, even in the Indian world. They never called me a North Blackfoot or Peigan or anything. They always called me Blackfoot. Because, well, that's who we all are. Siksikáí'tsitapi. The Blackfoot Confederacy.

Just that we gave ourselves labels later on. Aapáíaitapi. That's the word for Bloods or Akáínaa.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:08:48] Akáitapii.

Rod Scout [00:08:49] Yeah. You know, that was the word, but the translator got it wrong when he used that term, because aapá means – it was weasel, so white vermines. And the Bloods at that time always wore the white buckskin – the weasel tail suits. And it's (speaks Niitsíʼpowahsin) you know, it’s like a, you know, vermin skin. Like a weasel.

[indistinct]

You know, glow in the sun, they’re white. So that's the term somebody mistranslated and said, “They're Blood Indians,” but it could be another term or – because of, you know, all Blackfoot and – most notably the Bloods were very proud, so they would spill blood pretty quick, eh?

That's one of the theories but what – but the main story I kind of start to believe is that it's supposed to mean The Weasel Tail People, you know, Weasel People.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:10:09] Right.

Rod Scout [00:10:10] So I mean when we look at it that way, you know, that was a mistranslation, but you see a lot of these young people – they don't understand, you know, the importance of language. Language is important and that's what I said when I said it in the Blackfoot, our language.

When I was going to university, taking ethnology and anthropology, one of the things was the language component. They had talked about the fact that when a language is lost, the worldview is lost. We lose who we are.

You can never fully comprehend or understand the ceremonies unless you know the language. And that's the difference. And people don't understand or they don't appreciate the importance.

What impresses me the most is when I see these young people addressing – like that young girl that addressed the UN on water.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:11:18] Mmhm.

Rod Scout [00:11:20] She spoke in Anishinaabe, but that's how she started, and then she talked about it. And she made more of a valid point, but they didn't give her the exposure she needed. Yet, you know, she was – she should have gotten a Nobel Prize for the environment.

But then a white girl went in and Greta Thunberg comes up there and all she does is make faces and tell these politicians, “How dare you.” If it was a Native girl that said that, they’d probably would have had her handcuffed and tossed out (Eugene laughs) but they didn't do that for her. It's all about optics.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:12:00] Right.

Rod Scout [00:12:01] And with our own people, you know, sometimes we have to put ourselves in those optics. But push the language.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:12:10] So with – we said that we lose that worldview or we lose that – our worldview with our language, right? So what are some words that you – that right now, I mean, I'm curious – I know a couple of words, but I – like, you can't explain them in English. Did you know a couple of those words, like…

Rod Scout [00:12:01] Well, there’s words that – it’s really hard to explain. It all on the context you used and, you know, ikoohwapáttsii. Ówaawa. Ikupuwapsi! That person ikupuwapsi. Meaning they’re very meanful, they’re very – they’re like, you know, cruel.

And puwaiitaksin is, for lack of a term, it's more like, “To think in a cruel way. Think in a very negative way.”

That's one word but yet, you know, it has so much meaning. Because it's used in so many different applications and contexts that –

Eugene Brave Rock [00:13:17] It changes.

Rod Scout [00:13:19] Yeah! It changes and that's what people need to start understanding and they need to really, really work at – again, the optics. But…

Eugene Brave Rock [00:13:31] Mmhm. I was sitting with Dale Low Horn –

Rod Scout [00:13:36] Yeah.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:13:37] – and I asked him – we're talking about optics and how we're translating, or how we are taking it in. So even the word oki. I said, “How come oki sounds like aohkíí? What is the meaning? Why is there a connection?”

He said, “Well aohkíí, that's water. Because that's what gives life. So when you're saying, ‘Oki!’ You're wishing them good life.” It's not hello. Nowadays that's what hello translates to.

Rod Scout [00:14:05] Yeah! Yeah, that's an old term, oki. You know, and that's what it means. To give life. And even me, when I'm not catching myself talking like the old guys from old times, you know, oki’kan. Again, that word it's hard to translate because it's used as an opening. It's used as something, you know, you're giving life to this conversation when they say that. At least that's my thought. You know, like anything else, there's always going to be somebody out there, “(speaks Niitsíʼpowahsin, Eugene laughs)”

They’d be, “Ah, that Rod Scout, he’s full of it.” (Eugene laughs)

I don't care. I know what I say. I know, you know, I can – I know what I have working – look at things. You know, even the term sikaapisskaan, they think it means black, but it's not. It's when you take things and you put them all together and you tie them up, and then you give them to someone. You're giving it away. (speaks Niitsíʼpowahsin) nitsííkaapisski, you know, that's my offerings. That's what I gave.

But yet at the same time, another word, ikkitstaki. You put it up when you make an offer. It's the same thing but two different things. One is to give to get something. The other one is you put it up for Naapi Naató'si.

So – but they both mean the same thing. You look at these different values and how things are put together but bottom line is that eventually people are not going to know it anymore. They're not going understand it.

Every time we lose an old timer, we lose just that much more of our people. And pretty soon, we're going to be like some of these other cultures who had to reinvent themselves. Because in their foolishness or in their effort to gain – to be accepted and to fit in the white world, they sacrificed our culture and our language.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:16:26] Mmhm.

Rod Scout [00:16:28] And sometimes we have to hold them back. The impression I got when people were – even during elections, you know, all they talk about is, “Oh, we're gonna get this, we gonna get this, you know, or we're this rich.”

Eugene Brave Rock [00:16:45] Yeah?

Rod Scout [00:16:46] But someday, you know, the international monetary system could collapse. And that 1.8 billion dollars that, you know, even like my tribe has, it's gonna be just a pile of paper.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:17:00] Mmm.

Rod Scout [00:17:02] And I’ve heard people say, you know, the power of – this one guy kept saying, “Oh yeah, I gave this much offerings, and I gave you this much, and I gave him this much.”

And I remember this one guy said, “Well I couldn't give much, but I gave what I had.” He said, “But, I don't look at how much money it is.” He said,”What I look at is – these prayers are gonna last me for the rest of my life. They'll always be there for me.”

And I've dealt with Elders who say the same thing. Blankets wear out. Horses get old and die. Money, you spend. Tobacco, well, I don't smoke, so I give it away. I offer it and would do all these things. But the prayers will last me for the rest of my life.

That's a worldview and some of these guys won’t understand that.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:18:00] Mmhm.

Rod Scout [00:18:01] I would like to see more and more immersion schools, like what Piikani did – Amskapi Piikani did with the Cuts Wood School.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:18:11] Mmhm. I mean, I've seen it bring second language learners to the point of almost first language speakers.

Rod Scout [00:18:19] Yep!

Eugene Brave Rock [00:18:20] And now they're teaching it, right? And they’ll – and that's the only way. From another Elder I heard of that, Ankshay told me, he said, “The only we're going to learn it is in the home. If you know something in the home, don't ever say it in English.”

Rod Scout [00:18:36] Yep!

Eugene Brave Rock [00:18:37] “Say it in the home, say it in our language.”

Rod Scout [00:18:40] Well, you know, when I first went to school – residential school, I didn't speak English. I only spoke Blackfoot. My grandparents didn't speak English, my grandmother was hidden from the missionaries in the early 1900s. So she never went to school. My grandfather did, but he told me all they did was work. But he could read and write.

But, you know, at home, I never heard any English. I didn't even know what English was. Growing up, I remember you can count on one hand our peers that didn't speak Blackfoot. And even smaller percentages, maybe one finger on one hand, where these ones didn't speak or understand.

And that's why I think language, language-work, immersion schools, that's what's going to work for us.

But not going with that White concept, that Indian affairs concept of, “Well, if this person is going to be teaching the Blackfoot language, he has to have a piece of paper that says he's an expert.”

It's sort of like when I went – I applied for a job years ago with – when I first got out of police and I applied for a job with the cultural department, and I got a nice little form letter saying, “You failed to meet the academic requirements for this job.”

The guy they hired at the time, he didn't last very long. They asked me about what I know about Blackwood culture. I said, “Well, I was in the warrens. I owned about 12 bundles, you know, Beaver Bundle, Medicine Pipe. I've been part of all of that. I grew up with it. I'm an Elder for the Mototiks. I do all these different things.”

And then, you know, they, “Oh, okay, okay.” And then they asked me, “So how's your knowledge of the Blackfoot language?”

And I said, “I probably speak it better than anybody in here.” Because most of the people interviewing me couldn't speak Blackfoot.

One guy said, “I don't think so.”

I said, “Well, I was raised by my grandparents. They didn't speak English.”

“What do you know about Blackfoot culture? Or the Horn Society? Owned other bundles?”

I said, “I grew up in ceremony, and I know all the plants, and their names, so yeah, I think I know a little bit.”

But anyways, I get this. So I go back to university, I took my international Indigenous studies at the University of Calgary. And I remember my professor taking me aside one day. I thought I was in trouble. I had a meeting with him. And the first thing he asked me is, “Why are you in my class?”

And again, I took it as a negative. I said, “Because I need it?”

He said, well, he said, “Don't be offended.” He said, “But I don't think you need to be in this class.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “Well, you could teach it.” And then he said, “So, you know, why are you in this class?”

I said, “Well, I applied for a job working in culture on my reserves and they gave me a nice little form letter that said, ‘I need a piece of paper from a recognized White institute that says I'm an expert in Blackfoot culture.’” (Eugene laughs) And he rolled his eyes.

So colonial thinking and colonization has permeated every aspect of our people. And even Blackfoot speakers, they need to decolonize.

They need to more or less go through – heh, we've got to cleanse that – the whitewashing and cleanse it off of it. So that they can start thinking and appreciating who we are.

Eugene Brave Rock [00:22:45] (narrating) That was Rod Scout who was born on the Blood reserve in 1959 and raised by his grandparents who spoke only Blackfoot. Immersed from childhood in our people’s language, ceremonies, and teachings, he grew up grounded in the deep respect for the land and the traditional way of knowing.

If you want to know more about the Blackfoot language, check out the Oki Language Project with me.

Next time on Words and Culture, I’m handing the talking stick over to Shaneen Robinson, who will take us into Gitxsan country.

I’m Eugene Brave Rock, kitakitamaatsin.

Announcer [00:23:23] [cheerful electronic music] Words and Culture is made possible with funding from SiriusXM, through the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Words and Culture is produced by Kim Wheeler. Kaylen Belair is our audio engineer and editor.

Multiple Speakers [00:23:37] Hami yaa. Iame! K’achu naohdá nǫ́. Halakas'la. Kitakitamaatsinyo’pau, we’ll see you later. [music fades out]