Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to coast AM on
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, Ernie LaPoint featured speaker and author. We have
Speaker 1: a term, and you know, even within capitalism, called the
Speaker 1: servant leader. I thought you might track with, which sounds
Speaker 1: a little bit more like the way you were describing
Speaker 1: your great grandfather. You know, it's the leader who puts
Speaker 1: the example by serving the others and making sure that
Speaker 1: their dreams are fulfilled first or what we often use
Speaker 1: the expression. And I do this with my the people
Speaker 1: that I work with in the radio station. I run
Speaker 1: that great leaders eat last. It's an effective way of
Speaker 1: understanding what proper leadership is. Again again you know the
Speaker 1: anous concept. It's not a leader, you don't you You
Speaker 1: can't identify him like you do a president or a
Speaker 1: governor or something. Right, He's just a caretaker, you know,
Speaker 1: and ceremonies. He didn't really approve appreciate the part about being.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm putting titles on him. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I get that human being who carried, protected and fed
Speaker 1: the people when they needed it. And he said, I've
Speaker 1: spoke for them, I've spoken or behalf. So you know, basically,
Speaker 1: you know, the the historians and all the moviemakers and
Speaker 1: whatever they try to equate our culture sacred culture. Was
Speaker 1: there what they what they identify as the way I
Speaker 1: left that they have, right, Nope, I get It's all
Speaker 1: I got. So, I mean it's I can do it
Speaker 1: somehow is to try to see that equation. But it's
Speaker 1: a fair point. Yeah. And uh, they always, you know,
Speaker 1: they when they make movies and you know, different historians
Speaker 1: write books, they always call the savages and bloodthirsty killers
Speaker 1: and we raped their women and all the scalping them.
Speaker 1: And well, I hope we're past that. I hope we
Speaker 1: don't do that anymore. I mean I actually actually what
Speaker 1: they were doing is they're talking about themselves. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: interesting that, you know, Like I was telling you. You know,
Speaker 1: they said customer, his men happy, his men in command,
Speaker 1: had symphilist, you know, and stuff, you know, got the
Speaker 1: little big one, and you know, I always said, you know, wow,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, these guys are trying to glorify
Speaker 1: this man for since eighteen seventy six. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean he I tell people, you know, I says,
Speaker 1: there's winners and losers, but in the end, the winners
Speaker 1: were the losers too, because they didn't call the division
Speaker 1: to the end. And on the other hand is the
Speaker 1: downfall of our people. You know, it just kind of
Speaker 1: knows that, you know. And basically the government came in
Speaker 1: and they took away our ceremonies because they were they
Speaker 1: feared it. Yeah, I think it was the voodoo or
Speaker 1: you know something. But we could we couldn't use our
Speaker 1: ceremonies anymore until was reinstated in nineteen seventy eight. You know,
Speaker 1: petitioned Jimmy Carter, he did it. But in the end
Speaker 1: around with Reggae's one who said he did but he
Speaker 1: really just took the became president and said he he
Speaker 1: did that. But actually was Jimmy Carter who was the
Speaker 1: guy they petitioned, and he, you know, signed it back
Speaker 1: into law that we can burn stage to our ceremonies,
Speaker 1: so you know, our spirituality is still intact. You know,
Speaker 1: they took an underground. A lot of these the elders,
Speaker 1: they talked about it. They showed us, they did everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, even though they couldn't perform the ceremonies, they
Speaker 1: instilled it in the young so that we carried it forth,
Speaker 1: you know. And so when they re enacted it, didn't
Speaker 1: you know, it became the songs were still there, sacred
Speaker 1: songs and these ceremonies. But the difference between it then
Speaker 1: and now is back then the ceremonies or just year
Speaker 1: toward the men, and there was only one ceremony that
Speaker 1: year toward the women. That was then tea we call it.
Speaker 1: They live alone away from the camp because all the
Speaker 1: whole the whole camp had teep pipes in there. And
Speaker 1: they live alone because that's during the minstrual cycle, right,
Speaker 1: all their bad sauce, bad trainers come out, and the
Speaker 1: scent didn't want to didn't want to they didn't want
Speaker 1: to infect the bowl of the pipe. So that's why
Speaker 1: they lived away. But they once a month they had
Speaker 1: this the women did, right, that's when or wisdom was enhanced,
Speaker 1: where a man didn't have that. So we had to
Speaker 1: go into a purification lodge and scald ourselves of water
Speaker 1: to to understand just one percent of a value of
Speaker 1: a woman's wisdom, which was kind of like I said,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes as you get older, you know, you
Speaker 1: start to know, you know that a woman's wisdom is
Speaker 1: so beautiful. You know that you know, But now I
Speaker 1: also see women who wanted to be like a man.
Speaker 1: They want to jump out the airplanes, go to war
Speaker 1: care and gun kill people. And I tell him, man,
Speaker 1: I tell the young women at these schools, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, why do you want to be like a man.
Speaker 1: You're a life giver, You've given life. Why do you
Speaker 1: want to go to war and kill somebody? You know,
Speaker 1: somebody's child, you know. I mean, it just shocks me
Speaker 1: that women want to do this. But you know, the
Speaker 1: thing is you have to get the young men to
Speaker 1: understand the value of the mothers and the grandmothers and
Speaker 1: the woman you know, because you know, you have to
Speaker 1: respect them for what they're worth. And one of the
Speaker 1: one of the best stories that my mother told me
Speaker 1: was my granduncle had a pipe there and she tell
Speaker 1: me the bowl of the pipe and then the stem,
Speaker 1: and she said, this is a very sacred instrument that
Speaker 1: a man carries. She said, you have to be responsible.
Speaker 1: You have to be humbled before you can pick one
Speaker 1: up and walk with it. She said, because on one
Speaker 1: side is very good, but it could be very bad.
Speaker 1: On one side. She said, when you when you use
Speaker 1: this pipe to pray to the creator, you don't want
Speaker 1: to have unwonted desires in your heart when you're praying
Speaker 1: with it, because the spirit reads your heart, read your desires,
Speaker 1: so you don't want you want to have a clear
Speaker 1: mind when you pray with this pipe, she says, And
Speaker 1: she says she the ball, she says, represents the female,
Speaker 1: the stem represents the male. And she says, when you
Speaker 1: connect it together, it's a sacred union, she said, because
Speaker 1: you can communicate with a creator with this, And she said,
Speaker 1: it's the same way with a man and a woman.
Speaker 1: The bullet represents the woman and the stem represents the man,
Speaker 1: and when they get together and they connect, it's a
Speaker 1: sacred union. From that comes children, she says. To carry
Speaker 1: this pipe, you have to be responsible to take care
Speaker 1: of the things you pray for. She says, the same
Speaker 1: way with a man and woman. Will comes from that.
Speaker 1: You have to be responsible to take care of it.
Speaker 1: A child and a child is a sacred thing growing
Speaker 1: and you have to nurture, take care of it. Never
Speaker 1: go hungry, you never go cold, and share with it
Speaker 1: because it's a future generation of our culture. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've always remembered that, you know, she told me these
Speaker 1: things when I was six seven years old. And you know,
Speaker 1: I always looked at women in a way of their sacredness,
Speaker 1: you know. But when I was in the military, I
Speaker 1: see guys didn't treat women the way that you know
Speaker 1: that Like I said, you know, all these things I
Speaker 1: experienced in my life, you know, they're their learning experiences,
Speaker 1: the dudes, and don't you know. And uh, I see
Speaker 1: how the American guys who treat other cultures and how
Speaker 1: they acted. It just kind of you know, made me
Speaker 1: step back. It says I'm not part of that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to be part of something
Speaker 1: like that. And uh, in war, you know, the bad
Speaker 1: things have happened that I've seen. It goes against the
Speaker 1: teachings of Canton cool and and you know, taking care
Speaker 1: of your adversary, you know, without having to kill him,
Speaker 1: you know. And you know, all the all the negativity
Speaker 1: that came from that war in Vietnam went against me.
Speaker 1: I think that's where my post traumatic stress come came from,
Speaker 1: you know. And I just felt, you know, but didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't prepare myself for that, you know, for for
Speaker 1: seeing that. So yeah, you know, they used to do
Speaker 1: a ceremony and put paint on her face. Now, John Wayne,
Speaker 1: it's over. They're putting a war paint on. It's not
Speaker 1: a warpaint. It's a paint that protects your spirit that's
Speaker 1: in your body. And the same way with your horse
Speaker 1: that you ride, you give it that horse, you paint
Speaker 1: that horse, or that paint protects the spirit of you
Speaker 1: and the horse. So when you go into not even babble,
Speaker 1: but you know, you go into a hunt, and you know,
Speaker 1: something that happened to your friend falls off a horse
Speaker 1: and million buffle around over and you're gonna pick up
Speaker 1: pieces of him. Traumatic event. But your paint protects your
Speaker 1: spirit because it's a most a vulnerable part of your equation,
Speaker 1: your human equation. And you pick up your friend, you
Speaker 1: bring him home and you say, well, that's what happened
Speaker 1: to him. Me tell his story. And then you understand
Speaker 1: that his spirits moved on to the spirit world, and
Speaker 1: that you put his body back to his mother Earth.
Speaker 1: And then when you wipe out, you go to a ceremony,
Speaker 1: wipe off the paint, you're still the whole person, your
Speaker 1: spirits own wounded. But that's what happened to a lot
Speaker 1: of us who went to war. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of I mean, actually ninety percent of the guys from
Speaker 1: the reservation I was warning went to Vietnam. I mean
Speaker 1: most of them were airborne rangers, special Forces, Navy seals.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know why we did all that,
Speaker 1: but you know we're nuts, I guess. Yeah, well, part
Speaker 1: of a warrior tradition in that I thought we thought
Speaker 1: we should be what you might call it elite, but
Speaker 1: it was really actually nothing was elite. War is not fun, man, No,
Speaker 1: it's not. Well, let me ask you about the role
Speaker 1: of of visions and dreams in both in your recovery
Speaker 1: um from ps PTSD and from perhaps drugs and alcohol,
Speaker 1: and the role of dreams and visions in your great
Speaker 1: grandfather sitting bulls life. Well, you know what was my
Speaker 1: great grandfather? You know his his uh, his role. You know. See,
Speaker 1: I'll take a step back. When a human being is born,
Speaker 1: a young man is worn, a woman is born. If
Speaker 1: you have a certain the spirits, I already know you
Speaker 1: have a certain value in you, so to choose you.
Speaker 1: You know, some guys are choosing to be medicine man
Speaker 1: or spiritual man who conducts ceremonies. And when you're chosen
Speaker 1: to do this It is not an easy life. It
Speaker 1: is a hard life because you have to be neutral.
Speaker 1: You cannot be favored to. It's not talk like we're
Speaker 1: talking to each other here. You have to be always
Speaker 1: be humble, never speak the medicine man I worked with
Speaker 1: you always. When when he's in a group like you
Speaker 1: were at the house here, he says nothing and you're
Speaker 1: asking him, what do you think of this? Yeah? Oh good, good,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know he says nothing else. No,
Speaker 1: I don't like it. That's all he says. He doesn't
Speaker 1: really say anything. But when him and I are together,
Speaker 1: he tells me a lot of things too. I think
Speaker 1: he was preparing me for what's what I have to do.
Speaker 1: So I think my mind was I have to be
Speaker 1: a messenger Obahoshi. He said, it's a guy who brings messages,
Speaker 1: a message to the people. And that's my message. Is
Speaker 1: to understand the message before I give it to the people.
Speaker 1: I have to live with myself up, which is tell
Speaker 1: people to the god fear. I don't have fear. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't fear nothing. And you know I look at people.
Speaker 1: I go out here and I mean I leave the
Speaker 1: house and getting a car, get on town. And man,
Speaker 1: I see these people and I could just sense it. Yeah, fear,
Speaker 1: you know, and why, you know, why are you so afraid?
Speaker 1: And then what it is they're gravitating? They follow a
Speaker 1: man or a woman. I mean, they just follow them.
Speaker 1: It's like a bunch of cows at the slaughter house.
Speaker 1: The one goes into the slaughter house and the rest
Speaker 1: follow them. And at the end, you know, they come
Speaker 1: out on the other end, they're hamburgers at McDonald's or
Speaker 1: Burger Kinge or someplace. But they don't realize that, you know,
Speaker 1: they're following somebody into something. You know, you see examples
Speaker 1: of those Jim Jones guy, maybe all these guys boys
Speaker 1: and stuff. And you know, I say, you know, how
Speaker 1: come they weren't taught like I was to be who
Speaker 1: they are. They're individuals who came here to learn as
Speaker 1: a spirit, not to follow somebody, you know, and thinking
Speaker 1: that somebody they're following is going to save them or
Speaker 1: whatever or help them or something. The first thing they're
Speaker 1: following is capitalizing on their fear and controlling them. Like
Speaker 1: you said at the beginning, you know, they know how
Speaker 1: to do this, and the basic entity that controls all
Speaker 1: this is what comes shoot. You don't see this entity,
Speaker 1: but it's all around and if you if you have
Speaker 1: no fear, it can't touch you because you know, it's
Speaker 1: a coward. It's the biggest color, and it's not going
Speaker 1: to come around you because you don't fear them. And
Speaker 1: but if you show fear to it, it's going to
Speaker 1: capitalize on you. It's going to turn you to become
Speaker 1: you know, controlling, or envies or or greedy, or be
Speaker 1: a racist. So you don't want another that you know,
Speaker 1: so you always got to stand in the center, you know.
Speaker 1: Like I was telling Brands before, I said, when I
Speaker 1: was in Vietnam, I was the only native guy in
Speaker 1: my in my company, we had Mexicans, we had blacks,
Speaker 1: we had white guys, and we go into the bush.
Speaker 1: Everybody got them blue. Were brothers who took care of
Speaker 1: each other. But when we came back onto a fire
Speaker 1: base or base camp, they split up in groups. The
Speaker 1: white guys are over here, the blacks are over the
Speaker 1: Mexicans overre. In me, I'm over here, and I'd go
Speaker 1: see the Mexican guys and we'd sit around and eat
Speaker 1: helopeno peppers and listen to mariachi music and have a
Speaker 1: And then next day I go over to where the
Speaker 1: blacks were listening to the Four Tops, to Creames and everybody,
Speaker 1: and jam with them, smoke a little, you know, bowl,
Speaker 1: and I go over here to the white guys and
Speaker 1: listen to Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash and then and
Speaker 1: all that, and drink some whiskey with filmy stuff, and
Speaker 1: I go on with all of them. I mean I
Speaker 1: I showed no favorite to them because of their skin color.
Speaker 1: I showed my friendship to them because they were brothers.
Speaker 1: You know, we were on the field, and I could
Speaker 1: never understand why they didn't like each other, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, they just had this this animosity toward each
Speaker 1: other because of their skin color. Or I always thought, man,
Speaker 1: you know, how how can you be so ignorant? You
Speaker 1: look at the soul of the person, not at the outside.
Speaker 1: So you know, I know the visions that we have,
Speaker 1: you know that I have, you know, to help me
Speaker 1: with PTSD. Was was the spirits told me to said
Speaker 1: I have a spiritual wounding and that they will help me.
Speaker 1: And but I have this in other words, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're gonna help me do this, but I have
Speaker 1: to share this message with the world as many of
Speaker 1: people listen to me. Listen to more Coast to Coast
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