Interview with Ladonna Harris

Harris, Ladonna ; McKiernan, Stephen

Ladonna Harris is a Comanche Native American social activist and politician from Oklahoma. In addition, she is the founding member of Common Cause and the National Urban Coalition. Harris is also the president of the group Americans for Indian Opportunity. She has been an outspoken advocate on the agendas of the civil rights, feminist, environmental and world peace movements.

2011-03-08

In copyright

2018-03-29

McKiernan Interviews

191:34

McKiernan Interviews
Interview with: Ladonna Harris
Interviewed by: Stephen McKiernan
Transcriber: REV
Date of interview: 8 March 2011
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(Start of Interview)

SM (00:00:04):
Testing one, two. And could you describe your upbringing and the importance that being a part of two cultures played in your life? Because I know your parents were, one was from Irish background, I believe, and one was Comanche?

LH (00:00:23):
Yes.

SM (00:00:24):
So-

LH (00:00:26):
Well, my Comanche side overrode my Irish side because my father left to California like all the good Okies did at that time to try to find work. And so when I was just a baby, he and his folks, all of his mother and sisters all went Bakersville, California, which was kind of the whole, The Grapes of Wrath, I guess. They were not quite that bad off because they were able to buy a little motel and use it for resources. But he never came back to Oklahoma. So I heard from him, periodically. I never really got to know him. So, my whole upbringing was Comanche until I started school.

SM (00:01:18):
What was it like growing up in the (19)30s, being Native American background at that particular time?

LH (00:01:27):
Well, in relative terms, my grandfather, my Comanche grandfather, was well off because his father was a Spanish [inaudible]. And during when they allotted the Comanche land to the Comanches, he put all of his children's lands together. So, we had a large with several, it was 180 acres.

SM (00:01:57):
Wow.

LH (00:01:57):
160 acres, excuse me, 160 acres. And then each allotment, each person that was alive at that time got that. And so he put his sibling's land together and my grandfather then farmed it, which was not the Comanche way necessarily. But what was interesting was, that my grandmother was the second Comanche to be converted it to Christianity. So that was kind of the difference between us in the growing up. My grandfather was, he had eagle medicine and then took up peyote as part of his medicine way. And so, I grew up going to... grandfather driving me to church, driving us all to church, and going to church services. And he would sit out in the car. And then, after the church was over, we would visit around with people and then go home. And then he would sing his peyote songs in the evening as the sun was going down and he could cure certain illnesses with his peyote medicine. So that was kind of the atmosphere I grew up in, and we did not know that there was a Depression going on because we were pretty self-sufficient. By that time the grandfather had gotten... and my uncle lived close by and they had farmed together. And so that we had reproduced things. And so relatively, we were better off than say, French folks, who were kind of migrant, not migrant workers so much as, but sharecroppers. And he lived across the creek, but I never knew him at that time growing up. So, we just played on the creek, had lots to eat, we had all kinds of farm animals and grandmother had a garden. And we went to town on a Saturday and took milk and eggs and whatever that grandmother had to produce to take into town for trade. And it was a weird town, not weird, but it was a weird situation. In Temple, Oklahoma, there was a big department store that two brothers built right there in the flat plains of Oklahoma and Cotton County where there was not a population, but it worked. People from all around the region came and traded there. They had from cars to dry goods to everything, farm implements. So it was kind of like one stop shopping. And it was kind of fun to go to town and they would drop off the produce and grandmother would get money for a produce and give us some change to go to the movies and the Lone Ranger and all of those crazy Indians, kind of. So short subjects.

SM (00:05:16):
And Tom Mix was big then, was not he? Tom Mix-

LH (00:05:18):
Tom Mix and...

SM (00:05:18):
Gene Autry.

LH (00:05:18):
Gene Autry.

SM (00:05:18):
Yeah.

LH (00:05:27):
Lone Ranger was much later because he had an Indian's house. And... Go ahead.

SM (00:05:30):
Yeah, you are very proud of your Comanche heritage and could you give a little history about the Comanche heritage with respect to their traditions, cultures, and history?

LH (00:05:45):
Well, they just recently came... a book has come out talking about the Comanche Empire. And because of our ability, we came out of the north, out of the Shoshone from... We were related to the Shoshones, and we came because our family story is that they had a great illness outbreak. So we came south and then dominated and got the Spanish horse and dominated the plain. And they called it the Comanche Empire. There is no reason the author did with prejudice, with Western educational knowledge. So, he really investigated it and said that we were the only tribe in the United States that dealt with the Spanish, the French. We actually made treaties at different times, trade treaties with these different governments and then the Mexican government and the US government that we had actually worked with that many countries, nationalities and countries. So, that we dominated the plains and even came over the mountains here to New Mexico and that every tribe here has a Comanche dance, recognizing the... acknowledging the power of the Comanche. And the Hispanics have a theater performance about the Comanche, so that we had a great impact in this part of the country. So, from Colorado to down into Old Mexico, to over to Louisiana where we dealt with the French and up to Arkansas and Missouri corner, that corner. So, we dominated those because we became the horseman and we created, I mean, we embraced change more rapidly. When the Anglos killed off of the buffalo, we created a trade route. And what we would do, we would go down to Old Mexico and steal horses and come back and sell them to the New Mexican Hispanics, the Spaniards here in New Mexico, because they were treated... Since they did not find gold and precious everything in New Mexico, the Spanish in Old Mexico did not pay much attention to them so that they were very well... they did not have very many things to continue their lives. So, we developed a trade system and we were also very fierce. And we burned down Santa Fe a couple of times and we have great stories about our fierceness. And that when you saw a Comanche footprint, you could tell it was Comanche because it had a fringe that it would come across it and looked like a snake walked across the foot.

SM (00:09:05):
Oh, wow.

LH (00:09:08):
And so we were greatly admired in some ways and feared in others. We also stole children, and I have got a lot of that history of Spanish grandfather on one side and the Mexican Indian grandfather of my grandmother's, so that most of the Comanche have that kind of history that somebody in their family were.

SM (00:09:40):
And at it is high point, how many Comanches were there?

LH (00:09:46):
You know what? I will have to look that up because I have heard it and then I cannot remember. Now I know that there are 4,100 of us. And that is really a growing number. I think all tribes have grown in this decade. But we were very proud. Growing up with my grandparents, they were old enough to remember the old way and knew, but also smart enough to know how to deal with the contemporary situation. And whereas my mother, on the other hand, was really the transitional person who had to really make real hard changes like Indian boarding school. Though my grandparents went into Indian boarding school. They both got out of them before they were destroyed by the boarding school system, grandfather running away and grandmother having to go back to help get her aunt who was sick had go take care of her. But they got out of the Indian boarding school where they were.

SM (00:10:59):
What is the role of women in the Comanche culture? Is there a respect for women?

LH (00:11:06):
Oh, yes. And in most tribes, not matriarchal, but you inherit through your mother, and cure your mother's [inaudible] and you are our child. And inherit and they were the property owners. They owned their house, the teepees or the housing in most tribes that is how. And even in the Iroquois Nation, they had a formalized ways the dim mother's... [inaudible] what they were called. They were called pine mothers and felt that they were variations of that. But we were very much more democratic and participatorial. And the things that made the Comanches different when they came down on the plain off the mountains of Montana, that we broke up into bands, and we never were together until the after the Civil War. All of the military that was left in the Civil War came down to dominate us. And the Comanche powers and the Cheyenne, and they were all looking... the generals were all looking like... Oh, what the General's name?

SM (00:12:33):
Custer?

LH (00:12:34):
Custer. Yes. Like Custer, they all wanted another star on their...

SM (00:12:39):
Oh wow.

LH (00:12:40):
And so they built with them to help with the Buffalo shelter, built Forts from Fort [inaudible 00:12:46] to New Mexico. And in order to control us because the regular military did not until all of them had the guns from the Civil War and the people who wanted to go gain... What am I trying to say? Gain recognition or gain... go up in the military, like Custer.

SM (00:13:23):
Before I get into your high school years, if you could name some of the leaders of the Comanche in the 1800s or early 1900s. We all know about Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, but were there ones that really stood out?

LH (00:13:40):
Quanah Parker. Well see, that is the difference too than the other tribes. We did not have one Chief over all of them. Each band had different leaders. And it was that if people followed you, then you were a leader. There was not a leader who was inherited the position. There was not a leader who was selected by the group. Each person had certain divisions of responsibility. Like there were the elders who decided where we would move to. There were groups who would protect us to see that we were secure when we camped out. They all had different responsibilities. And so, for instance, if it said that when a person, particularly a man, would need to go on a hunting trip, he would send his nephew up to the camp and say that so-and-so is going to go down into Texas to either raid or to hunt buffalo, and if you want to come, join him under the tree at this section before sunset. So, if people came, they followed him because he had the right characteristics of a good leader, of a person who was generous, mostly, that was the first most important thing. Generous and was seasoned in combat or knew how to deal responsibly with other people's lives. And so that people followed you. So that we did not have... We had a transition leader that the government picked out for us, which was Quanah Parker. And he was a... After we were brought to the reservation, it's like we do today, when we go to Afghanistan, we have to have appoint some leader, one person. And when they're all tribal people, we always say, if the State Department understood Native Americans, they would understand how to deal with Afghanistan and other countries where tribal people exist. And so, what they do, just like they have done in Afghanistan, put this guy up who is corrupt. Well, this was not the case in Parker's place, but installed somebody so that was the person they had to make a deal with. And so that all of these different bands, there were about nine different bands of us who roamed all over those plains and rarely ever got together in one place. And so that it was... There's a book called On Being Comanche. And for a long time, Western anthropologists and people who studied different cultures never said that Comanche did not have any structure, so therefore they were not valuable. But there was value in, well, we did have structure, but it just did not conform to Western value systems, so they could not interpret it. Until just more recently seeing how valuable it was and how that the fact that we supposedly chose disorganized, that we could control the whole southern plains from Kansas down into Old Mexico. And so that they are now at a whole new different viewpoint of it. And my grandfather's father was a captive who became a War Chief, and that meant that people followed him during battle because he was brave. And it is the whole idea of being more, I say we're more democratic in participatorial than what we now refer to as democracy. Because all people were valued. The difference about tribal people is that we are communal and that we live, we're collected, and that the land we own, we own collectively. And the resources that come from those lands that are divided up amongst us. So that is so different than the capitalist society.

SM (00:18:20):
Is that still present today?

LH (00:18:23):
Yes.

SM (00:18:24):
So you kept it. Because when you read the history of Native Americans and different tribes, one of the pressures that you have always seen in America is Americanized. You must become Americanized. And that was one of the battles that I think of, at least from my study, culture meant a lot.

LH (00:18:49):
Absolutely. And that is what those Indian boarding schools and the missionary, they tried all these different things and they had a policy of... What do I want to say? Of assimilating. The federal policy was to assimilate into the American society where we would no longer exist. And then probably they could disband the treaties and what lands and things that we did have, because every time we would have land, like in Oklahoma, they had found oil there, then they would open it up for white settlement. So those kinds of things, but other people of color are integrated, but we were assimilated. So totally different approach to it. So that they used every method that they could think of to assimilate us, which was very hard and very difficult for my mother.

SM (00:19:59):
Yeah, I noticed that... Well, I have some questions that will follow up on this in a minute or so, but what were your high school years like? I know you met your future husband, Senator Fred Harris. How did you meet him and then fall in love and get married? And I know you played a very important role in getting him through college too. So just a little bit about that.

LH (00:20:29):
Well, I had lived in Bethany, Oklahoma, which was a suburb of Oklahoma City, but my sister was working for the... during World War I, I think, working for an airplane, Boeing airplane, putting airplanes together. So I was taking care of my little niece in the summertime. And then I just stayed over and went to school there a couple of years. And then I moved back to Walters. So when I moved back to Walters, my aunt was going to school there, and I asked her, "Well, who is the student president?" And she said, "Freddy. Freddy Ray," she said. She pointed him out. And I said, "Ooh, him?" And then later, he took the initiative and finally we started dating. But it was interesting, really. I was convinced that he must have been... He told me he worked for The Walters Herald, and The Walters Herald was our local newspaper and I just saw that he was like... I visualized him being a reporter, but of course he was a printer. But anyway, we had great fun. So, we became very close, got married, and probably my senior year he went off to college. We got married the next year, and then, which was the sign of the time that women were mostly, they were coming back from Korea. [inaudible] would come back from Korea, and wives were working and putting their husband... I guess, still the veterans from World War II who were going back to school so that they had a large segment of wives and families there. And we lived very, very, very simply, I guess. Folks would give us produce from the farm. My mother would buy clothes from me. And then we had Catherine first year and our first child. But I did not really have that much skill just coming out of high school but I was able to find enough work to... And then we lived in a greenhouse where we could grow flowers to pay for our rent, and then we would have some money to make. And then he would get scholarships. He was smart enough to get scholarships all through undergraduate and into law school. So, we just became... And so in his classwork, he shared what he learned with me. And then in law school, all of the law students, his class, would come over and study at our house, because he had great notes and they could discuss it. And so that I was a part of all of his learning experience, although I did not take the classes. And I was very dyslexic as well, and impaired learning going through the public-school system and through educational systems so I had to learn other kinds of ways. But I managed to hold down jobs and work. And then we went, after he graduated from law school, he immediately went into this law firm. And then there was a death of [inaudible]. But we became real partners in our relation... interdependent on each other in our relationship. And it went on for 31 years of existence. So, I think...

SM (00:24:29):
You see, in a sense, that your marriage was similar to just about all the marriages of that period where family and husband came first, and the wife sacrificed is basically for their husband and family. Is that true?

LH (00:24:46):
That is right.

SM (00:24:47):
Yep.

LH (00:24:48):
That is right. But the interesting part, from my Comanche background, one of the things that I learned, so I would not get my feelings hurt, I would study people and figure them out, and figure out how to deal with them in a way that they were comfortable with. So it was a skill I learned in high school, actually, to get through high school. I wanted to belong to this whole high school sorority. I would figure her all of that out and get myself in there. I was the first Indian person to be nominated for Football Queen and all those little things that... the popular things in high school. So, that was unique. And then after he graduated from law school, but even in his classes, he shared with me in a different kind of way. Like with his botany classes, we would go out and look at the trees and he would explain them to me as he was learning it. And then in anthropology, he said he took anthropology so he could understand me better. And then he became quite involved in Comanche culture. He can still sing today and still very well remembered in the Comanche. [inaudible] he does not miss being married to me. He misses being part of the Comanche family. But it was a fascinating, wonderful experience. And then when he ran for state senate, well, when he was in law school, he ran for the House of Representatives, and he would be 21 years old when he got sworn in, and he ran against the 68-year-old County Commissioner and lost by 16 votes, I think.

SM (00:27:07):
Wow.

LH (00:27:08):
So that was down in Cotton County, our old home, and then the ran for Senate to Creek County, Cotton County, and Comanche County. And we organized and just worked ourselves. And we had friends who made homemade posters. And television had just come in too. And I was the first wife that would appear on television. I was the first wife who would go to Oklahoma State legislature, and we were known as Freddy and the Indian by the older members of the-

SM (00:27:41):
Oh my gosh.

LH (00:27:44):
And because it was enduring. That was an enduring thing for me.

SM (00:27:49):
I noticed, I saw you were on the Dick Cavett Show once, and Dick Cavett was speaking to both of you then, but he immediately went to talk to you because you were well known, because you were the wife of a Senator in Washington, and you were getting more press than your husband. And you have probably seen that on YouTube.

LH (00:28:09):
Oh yeah.

SM (00:28:13):
What were your activities on behalf of Native Americans prior to going to DC?

LH (00:28:19):
Well, when Fred went off to the State Senate, I had too much time on my hand. I had two children though, but I had lots of relatives and friends who helped babysit for me. So what we did, I went to the University of Oklahoma that Fred was supposed to go to in the Southwest Center for Human Relations, put on the program to see about white-Black relations in Oklahoma. And it was early in the (19)60s before the [inaudible] in the South. And so, I said, " What about the Native Americans in Oklahoma?" And they said, "Oh, they do not have problems. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is taking care of them." And just said, "They're the problem. They're part of the problem, the major part of the problem." And I was so frustrated that I could not explain to them. They had no knowledge, these were the cream of the crop, OU University. And they had no idea about what was happening to Indians in Oklahoma. And we had 36 different tribes in Oklahoma, but some were pushed in for the [inaudible] from the eastern side of the state. And then the plains people were on the western side of the state. And so, I cried. I got so frustrated because I could not get them to understand what the problems were. So I burst into tears and that embarrassed them. So they started coming down to... They came to our house in Lawton, Oklahoma from Norman. And once a week [inaudible] seen people together and they began to articulate our own needs, mostly were Comanche relatives of mine. And then we organized and organized part of the state, the tribes on the western part of the state went over to the east-

SM (00:30:27):
Could you speak up a little bit too, please?

LH (00:30:29):
Okay. We organized the western side of the states, which mostly were plains tribes. And then we moved over to the eastern part of the state. And we ran into a lot of trouble that we did not realize. Because there were no books or nothing published about how to work in race relations or even about Blacks, much less Indians. But we organized, and because we had such high dropout rate, 75 percent dropout rates in some of our schools, so that was something we could organize around. And so, we organized the first Indian statewide organization of all of the 36 tribes in Oklahoma. And that was a major accomplishment. And then by that time, Fred was in the [inaudible] and we were able to get the war on poverty, our charter, and Chris Mondale could come to Oklahoma [inaudible]. And Ron Bart came to Oklahoma to talk to our youth. And so, I was organizing the tribes and we changed policy. The tribes in the east, the federal government is still appointing their leadership. But we asked them why they let them do-do that, and they tried... turned it around. And that really took a lot of power away from members of the Congress, which we did not realize at the time, because the Congress would recommend and they would...

LH (00:32:00):
...would recommend [inaudible] they would get somebody that they liked with. The Congress members were all friends [inaudible] because [inaudible] the US Senate by then. One day a week, we were doing that, and the other day a week, we were integrating [inaudible]. We had the railroad track that had the Black community on one side and the rest of us on the other. One of my babysitters was African American. I saw her picketing at this theater and I said, "My goodness. Why in the world are we letting that happen?" And so, one day a week we would integrate African Americans and one day a week we would stop assimilating.

SM (00:33:01):
Yes. Different word.

LH (00:33:02):
It was interesting. Interesting thing to go on working both sides in the different. They were the same, but had this different ending that the folks wanted. So we were very, very good about integrating Lawton. The [inaudible] we used to tease him. He was on the mayor's committee and they could not get anything done. But our group was kind of an ad hoc group that we would find somebody who knew this restaurant owner and go and talk to them. We had the churches involved. Finally, we had one holdout. We got the military, Fort Sill, military college off base so that the soldiers could not go there and that was their main constituency or patron. So, they finally gave up and we integrated the whole town. Had one holdout, which was a swimming pool. We finally closed them down rather than them integrate. So...

SM (00:34:05):
This is [inaudible]

LH (00:34:05):
But we were very successful in Lawton in integrating. This was just at the time of the sit-ins in the South.

SM (00:34:11):
What year was this?

LH (00:34:18):
Oh, I am so...

SM (00:34:18):
(19)60s, (19)61, (19)62, or?

LH (00:34:18):
Yeah.

SM (00:34:18):
Yeah?

LH (00:34:18):
In that time period. I will make sure. I cannot think chronologically. I am... part of my...

SM (00:34:28):
What is interesting about the kids, I am one of them, growing up in the (19)50s, is that what the history of Native Americans or the American Indian is, they used to say all the time on television, from the Civil War till about the end of the (19)50s, what you learned about, basically, was a history of broken treaties between the government and various tribes. I know there's the one with U.S. Grant was well known in history books, perceptions that Native Americans were forced onto reservations, they lost their land, had to battle over everything with people coming West. You had to constantly fight and battle for everything. You lost the buffalo. Then on top of that, you had this perception out there that many Native Americans were drunks, were derelicts, and the labels being put on a population by the white population.

LH (00:35:43):
We were the vanishing race, was even part of the [inaudible].

SM (00:35:46):
Yeah.

LH (00:35:47):
We even got national reports that we were vanishing. But what happened during the civil rights and the War on Poverty Program, we came alive and changed our whole methodology. The First Americans, the Native Americans, we changed the terminology to help people see us differently. Then this lazy, drunk Indian thing, though alcohol was a major issue, but that was something that the press would focus on it. Every Thanksgiving, there would be a story about poor old Pine Ridge, of course it still is one of the poorest counties in the country, but they would go and focus on them and their poverty level, whereas the rest of the country was not that bad. But we would be all stereotyped into that Pine Ridge drunk Indian syndrome. It still kind of goes on that way. But the press has changed quite a bit, mostly because the Native Americans got organized under the War on Poverty Program, Johnson. People say, "Well, it did not work." But it worked for the Indians. For instance, in Oklahoma, because we did not have reservations, we do not have reservations; we have individual land allotments and tribally-owned land. They were not called reservation. So, we were not able to get funding from the War on Poverty Program because we did not have reservations. That was some termination policy made in Washington. Soon as we moved to Washington and got with Art Schriver and became an advisor to our tribe. He changed the policy because what the money was going to the counties and the counties were the ones who would discriminate against Indians and they would not be get any of the funds to grow and help themselves. So, we changed that policy. Then we worked to change and break many policies. What we did, we used the money from the War on Poverty to undermine the Department of Interior's control over us. They were still acting like colonial government and had control of our lives from childhood to adulthood and controlled our resources and all of those things. So, we organized. We organized Americans for Indian Opportunity. So, we had a national organization then as well as the Oklahoma one. And we learned from that Oklahoma experience, was not an organized, and then the War on Poverty gave us a platform and we saw Schriver's support and Lyndon Johnson. We really made a lot of gain. Interestingly enough, we made a lot of gain under Nixon, who had another strange relationship with Indians that shows him to be pro-Indian Indian with all of his other faults.

SM (00:39:17):
But your husband had mentioned, I remember last summer in an interview, the Taos Pueblo?

LH (00:39:25):
Mm-hmm. Taos Blue Lake.

SM (00:39:26):
Yeah. That that is one major thing that you did in your life.

LH (00:39:31):
Yeah.

SM (00:39:31):
And also, the Menominee tribe...

LH (00:39:34):
Gained recognition.

SM (00:39:35):
...gained recognition. Could you tell a little bit about those two? Because those are supposedly very historic events in Native American history.

LH (00:39:42):
Yes. Well, the government took the land that was designated to the Taos people. They took a part of the land which was part of their creation story, that they came from under this lake at the volcanic crater. It got way up in the mountain there above their pueblo. They took it over and let cattle run and people could use it. So, it was very painful for the tribe to see their sacred site being decimated. And they fought for 60 years. Some reason they came to Fred, I guess because they knew that he was married to an Indian. Fred, of course, called me in and then we all met with them, and Fred told the staff said, "If we do not do anything, we're going to help these folks." It was a very interesting... But this is how we worked together so well. Because by that time I had been involved with the Urban League, and because of my work in civil rights, I was known in the Black community as well as the Indian community. And then started women's rights as well, too. But by that time, women's rights were not the big issue of the day. So, we made it a civil rights issue. That was my part of the job. He had to convince the Congress, and he could not get it out of the committee because Senator Anderson from New Mexico was against it. [inaudible] go against a sitting Senator. He told Fred that, "I do not mess with your Indians and you do not mess with mine, and we're not your Indian's senator." So, they started this struggle. Then I had a young friend who became a White House intern and White House fellow, and she got very interested in the issue, and I became her mentor. She got me into the Lynn Garment and Nixon. The only picture of Nixon and people of color were with the Taos people, and it went all around the world and it made him look like he was really for brown people. So, I says, "I think they will owe the Taos people [inaudible] for your election." And he agreed. He called the Republican side of the Senate and said that the White House going to make a non-partisan bill and to work with Fred. And so he did. He said, "Come on over." And I went over. So, they sent me over and he gave a staff person to work with me and Fred, and then I would go and work with maybe the civil rights issue, not just an Indian issue. I got all the civil rights groups, labor and other people to support it outside. But Fred had to get it out of committee, which was where Anderson was ahead of that committee. So, that is how we would work [inaudible] could work both sides of any issue and make it happen. And that was the success of it. There were so many funny stories in that, getting there with Fred was the knothole gang with Rich Mandell and by Bobby Kennedy. We lived right around the corner from Hickory Hill. McLane got to be friends with them. And that is how I got to know Schriver so well, and we would go up Anisburg as well. So anyway, there were four of them that were all came to the Senate at the same time and worked together as a group, called themselves the Knothole Gang. But Congress passed the Taos Blue Lake. That was a great first victory of any Indian reclaiming their land, getting their land back. So, that was why it was so historical. Then the next one that was there was the Menominee that had been terminated. That was during the Eisenhower administration, though Eisenhower himself was not for it, but the study came out and he just let it happen. That was that vanishing race syndrome. So, they were terminating tribes, which means they were no longer tribes; they would just be a part of the county or whatever community they were in. And so they had terminated the Menominees when they got a big land settlement. They told them that they could not get their settlement money until they terminated themselves. So some of them did, some of them voted, about half of them. Anyway, it was poorly done... carefully done. Ada Deer, who was the Menominee woman who came and told us that, and I was concerned. I could not see the Congress ever changing their mind on termination. But she worked and she stayed with us most of the time and ride in with us and then walk [inaudible] calls to Congress and get somebody, and then we would have a reception for the Menominee. People would come into town to lobby their Congressmen. Just doing things like that to bring attention to the issue. Not only did they reinstate the Menominees as a tribe; Congress voted that they would never use termination as their national policy because it was so destructive. So, that was turning around old policy, the past into contemporary more understanding of what it was like. Then there was another piece of that with the Alaskan claims. The Alaskan claims would not be settled. So, they came to Fred again. But the lawyers, I have forgotten to ask who the lawyers were who were for the tribe, were going to agree for, what, 10 million acres and a whole bunch of money. Then the Eskimos way up where the oil was, and they discovered oil there, and that is why they finally decided they have to settle with the Natives in order to produce that oil. So, these people came to Fred and said that "we were subsistence. We live off the land, and land is more important than the money." So, Fred introduced legislation for 60 million acres and the White House and their lawyers had agreed to 10 million acres. But we got enough support where they got 40 million acres and a whole bunch of money...

SM (00:47:45):
Wow. That is...

LH (00:47:46):
... settlement. But we were not smart enough to know that they're getting [inaudible] in Alaska, made them into corporations because we did not think about how they were going to govern themselves. So, they set up corporations and they felt that they could buy the corporations and do away with the Indian profits ownership, but they still are going. Some of them are going better than others, the corporations up there. They tried to change it back to governing like we do down here.

SM (00:48:26):
Who were the Knothole Gang again?

LH (00:48:29):
Mandell, Bobby Kennedy, and Tidings.

SM (00:48:33):
Senator Tidings.

LH (00:48:35):
Uh-huh.

SM (00:48:35):
And Teddy was not part of that?

LH (00:48:37):
No.

SM (00:48:38):
Oh, okay.

LH (00:48:40):
He had already been in the Senate.

SM (00:48:43):
Yeah. And you were part of the Knothole Gang, right?

LH (00:48:46):
Yeah.

SM (00:48:47):
Behind the curtains.

LH (00:48:48):
Yeah. I drug around and plotted with them. Then Fred was chairman of the party. When Jonathan appointed me to be a... He was really doing different things. He said, "You're not owned by the Department of Interior." He appointed the first Indian to be head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They would go to the Smithsonian and get a war staff and knock the deadhead wood out of the Department of Interior. So, with that kind of attitude, then he appoint me to the Indian Opportunities Council, where I was the only woman and non-elected leader to sit on it. Then, of course, after the war came along, I mean, not that it is already there, but the war just destroyed all those good works that the civil rights movement and all the things that we were doing.

SM (00:49:56):
I have a question here, which is just based on a perception as a white kid growing up in the late (19)40s... Well, actually the (19)50s, early (19)60s, because this is what white boomer kids became, and this is how they entertained themselves in the (19)50s. Bear with me as I just give these descriptions, and it gets to a question here. The boomer perceptions in the late (19)50s and early (19)60s, television and movies and comics and coloring books, everything was about cowboys and Indians. They were the biggest toys. There were outfits, TV shows. Indians were always the bad guys. Saturday morning movies was very big, would be Westerns for kids. Then the adult movies were in the afternoon and the evening. TV had a Lone Ranger with a very good Native American in Tonto. But the majority of the TV shows, Native Americans were portrayed as the bad guy or the enemy or the evil one. Every white boomer had played cowboys and Indians, never thinking about the true meaning of what they were doing as youngsters.

LH (00:51:20):
Uh-huh. It is a stereotype.

SM (00:51:23):
Pardon?

LH (00:51:24):
They continued the stereotype.

SM (00:51:29):
Yes. Did these experiences shape many attitudes of the boomers to the point that when they matured in the early (19)60s and late (19)60s and (19)70s, they saw the lies and the real truths here, too, just like they saw a lot of lies throughout America because when you looked at television, you saw the stereotypes of Native Americans, but then you never saw African Americans. I think during the (19)50s, Nat King Cole had a show for six weeks. There was a show in the early (19)50s called the Amos and Andy, but it was more slapstick. You did not really get to see any African Americans until the (19)60s. So, there's a perception here, in different approaches, that African Americans were second-class citizens, and then the way they portrayed Native Americans, that they were second-class citizens. So, just your thoughts on the influence that this had on a whole generation of young people.

LH (00:52:33):
Yes. Well, where it starts is in our educational system. We do not study American history. We study Europeans coming to the Americas, and so there is no knowledge; you have no working knowledge about Native Americans until you get to college and you have to take a special course in Native American study to learn about them. So, there is no place to have an experience or a learned experience, even, about Native Americans. So, that starts the problem. Why we were so effective and our organization became so effective, is that people became so embarrassed on how little they knew. That is how we were able to get them to change the federal policies about Indians with every department having an Indian policy statement. But what the boomers did when they went through that whole Vietnam War exercise, they had a little broader mind experience, but they did not have any base of learning to fall back on. But all of our time and energy was to educate the decision makers, policy makers, and the general public. And it's still a major issue.

SM (00:54:06):
Yeah. I can remember, and you may remember this as well, but in the (19)50s, there was a cereal that came out in the early (19)50s, and it that had pictures of Native American leaders. You could the whole box up, and I still had them. That was a respectful portrayal of Native Americans. I do not know if that is Kellogg Sugar pops, but I remember I still had those. That, to me, upon my reflection was the only respectful portrayal that I ever saw of a Native American except Tonto on The Lone Ranger.

LH (00:54:43):
That is right. The next one came was... Ohm God, what is the name? What is the name? Oh, the wolf... Oh. What is the name of it?

SM (00:54:58):
On Daniel Boone?

LH (00:55:00):
No.

SM (00:55:00):
Oh.

LH (00:55:02):
Wait. No. He was not. Daniel Boone was an Indian color.

SM (00:55:08):
I mean, Ed Ames was on one of those shows. I forget, which one.

LH (00:55:13):
Yeah. All of they were just kind of marginal. We were always marginalized. Yeah. I was just trying to think of...

SM (00:55:19):
When...

LH (00:55:19):
…of the first movie that showed Indians and that they had their own language and own culture with... Why cannot I think of it?

SM (00:55:33):
I know another one where there was a sense of respect. That was on the Walt Disney. The Native American who was in a lot of the movies there. There was an advertisement of his crying, a tear was coming out. They always treated him with respect, I remember.

LH (00:55:50):
I had an opportunity to meet him in California. They honored him for his good work and his imagery.

SM (00:55:58):
When you raised your three kids in the (19)50s and early (19)60s, how did they handle these perceptions that were on TV all the time? They had to go to school with kids that had grown up and seen this. What were your kids, and how did you explain this to them as they were growing up, particularly since you were in Washington when they were probably in elementary school?

LH (00:56:25):
Catherine, the oldest, was exposed to that whole civil rights and then the beginning of Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity. So, she was knowledgeable about all these things that we were working on. When we got to Washington, she said at dinner table one night... You remember the Love case that was at the Supreme Court to decide where there were some states had laws against mixed marriages, mostly was between Blacks and whites. But this particular Love case was a Indian and a white person, I guess that was it. So, Catherine came home and said, "Mother, you and I should go to jail because you and dad are breaking the law," and we were living Northern Virginia. I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, the Love case, if we went to jail, that would really dramatize the unfairness of that law." So, we had a long talk about it at the table. My son, who was, I do not know what age. He was about 10 or 12. He said, "You mean you and dad are not married?" We had to explain it to him. But he was real proud of his great-grandmother, my grandmother, came to visit us and her Comanche clothes, but she always wore Comanche clothes. She campaigned for Fred in her Harris headliner shaw. She met Lady Bird Johnson and gave her a shaw when the Johnsons were out campaigning Oklahoma. Then, she invited us to the White House and we have pictures of grandmother. Fred said, "I am not letting y'all out of my sight. I am going with y'all to the White House." So, she gave us a tour of the White House and picture of my mother and my grandmother and Catherine and I and Fred in the Green Room with Lady Bird. She got so much attention and all the members of the Congress, and of course, Vice President Humphrey was showing her around and doing all kinds of things for her. The press wanted to interview her. They asked, "Would she be interested?" I said, " Yes." I said, "I am sure she would, and let me ask her, though." I asked her and she said, well, if I would be with her, she would. And then I said, "Sure." Because it will not be hard. You're smarter than they are. You can keep this laugh then. They asked, "Well, what do you think of Washington?" She said she had been in the White House. She had met with the vice president and every member of the Congress, practically. So, she said what impressed her the most was all these trees because we lived in the southern plains of Oklahoma and did not have any trees except on the creek banks. She said, oh, these trees were the most things that impressed her the most.

SM (00:59:44):
Oh, wow.

LH (00:59:46):
So, she just had a great, great time. The children invited her to their class to meet their teachers and their classmates. So, it was a big [inaudible] surprise that they [inaudible] her off. Then Ethel and her children, because I was teasing, their children were asking me if I lived in a teepee, and I would get after Ethel about, "Gosh, what are you teaching your kids?" [inaudible] grandmother came to visit. She invited us over for tea and all children were there, and the big old slobbery dogs. They would ask her questions. Carrie Kennedy would ask her the most questions. So, grandmother said, "I will give you an Indian name," and said the one who is always curious or always interested. So, she can tell you her Comanche name now even as a grown woman.

SM (01:00:50):
Wow.

LH (01:00:50):
She remembered that so well. That was kind of the way we lived in Washington. We were different, Fred and I. I was told, somebody asked...

SM (01:01:06):
Could you hold on one second here? I have to turn a light off here. Yeah.

LH (01:01:08):
We do not have weather like we did before. We jumped the mountain. The snow would be in the mountains, and then we would jump it and then go onto Oklahoma and have tornadoes and stuff, ice storms and rain. So all those, you just watch it go from here over the mountains to the East Coast. They are going to get some more and bad weather right now. I think Dallas is predicting, and Oklahoma, predicting tornadoes.

SM (01:01:43):
Yeah. We had snow just a couple days ago.

LH (01:01:47):
Where are you?

SM (01:01:48):
Well, I am in Philadelphia.

LH (01:01:48):
Oh, okay.

SM (01:01:51):
But we did not have much. It melted already. But my sister lives up in Binghamton, New York. Her daughter and her family lives up in Rochester. They got 26 inches two days ago, and my sister got 15.

LH (01:02:02):
And some more weather is coming their way now.

SM (01:02:09):
Yeah. It has been a crazy winter here. You can finish that story you were talking about.

LH (01:02:14):
Okay. Where were [inaudible]

SM (01:02:15):
You were talking about Ethel and the kids and...

LH (01:02:21):
Oh. Well, it was the first time she had ever flown in an airplane. It was just a really wonderful experience. Just to describe that, I always had a space, but when he was in the state Senate, I would sit on the floor of the Senate at a chair next to his desk and go to his hearings. But I was very different. I was the only wife that would go. But it made a lot of difference to the older members. They would invite us to go, the old guys who were not messing up or messing around, and they would invite us out to eat with them and help Fred go up the ladder of leadership in the Senate because he was serious. I would act as hostess to all those guys in do the ashtrays and fix them drink or do something. Then Fred would ask me, "What did I think about so-and-so?" Because I would know enough about the subject that Fred was working on to listen to what was being said. So, he would depend on my interpretation of people a lot because I studied them all my life.

SM (01:03:48):
That is what I call teamwork.

LH (01:03:50):
It was.

SM (01:03:52):
Yes.

LH (01:03:52):
He had enough Comanche language that we would tell that here comes somebody. "Here comes your friend, or here comes your enemy."

SM (01:04:01):
Yes.

LH (01:04:02):
And it just [inaudible]

LH (01:04:02):
...becomes your enemy.

SM (01:04:05):
Yes.

LH (01:04:05):
And then nobody could even pick up, it is a very soft thing. And we had teased each other in Comanche. And when he was chairman of the party, I had a room in the Watergate there, where we started Americans for Indian Opportunity, actually, when Nixon was listening, was taping them, I guess, we used to accuse one of our people for. But they would make a decision in the evening and I would always be there and ride back with Fred, listen to all of them. And then they would always, a lot of people would say, even in Oklahoma, would say, "There is [inaudible] LaDonna," because I was the first wife to ever do anything like that, be prominent. And what we found out was when we campaigned, that my presence, men would behave differently and then we would get all of his classmates in law school to come and their wives would come and it would create in a whole different environment because we had not had the women's rights movement come along yet.

SM (01:05:13):
Yes.

LH (01:05:13):
And so it was a real important thing. It changed people's behavior. And we found it as an asset. And besides, that is the way we worked and that is what we were comfortable with. And we just did it, whether it was popular or not. It became popular, then everybody.

SM (01:05:30):
Before I get into your work and yours, a lot of the appointments to various committees by President Johnson, you mentioned a couple of them already, could you discuss, what you know here, the role that Native Americans played in the Vietnam War? I know many were drafted or joined, like a lot of African Americans, to improve their circumstances in life.

LH (01:05:56):
Mm-hmm.

SM (01:05:56):
How many went? And how many died? And how were they treated upon their return, particularly into the tribes? And were they treated like Vietnam veterans all over America? Well, they were not treated very well. And were they stereotyped during their service? And I say this because I read a book once, where one of the leaders in Vietnam, at a platoon, and he put the Native American on point because he is Native American, so he must be very good at that. So that was stereotyping right there. So, I am not sure if that happened a lot. But in your experiences with Native American Vietnam vets, how have they been treated?

LH (01:06:41):
Well, in every war, we would have more Native American volunteer and go into service, percentage to our population than any other peoples in the United States. Every war. World War I. World War II. And in World War I and II, we had code talkers, not just the Navajo code talkers in the Pacific, but the Comanches had code talkers on the Normandy Beach and going into France.

SM (01:07:11):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:07:14):
But they were never recognized. The French government honored us, the Comanches, but the US government did not, until just recently. And then everybody had died except one of them. Then next to us were Hispanics. So that it was kind of like... And you say, "Well, why would they do that?" Well, it was their homeland. They were protecting their homeland and they were always honored. We would always have feast and religious ceremonies and powwows honoring them when they came back. And I was just reading, they had a big front page, in our tribal newspaper, about our World War I veteran and naming them and they have honored them. It's a big thing. They have veterans mother... World War II started that mothers have... If your child was in the armed services, they have these mothers, I cannot remember the right title for them, where you put a flag up in your window and all of that. Well, all through the Vietnam thing, when they would come back, we would honor them. We would have a powwow and religious ceremonies around them. Dances, ceremonies around them. Returning safe, though.

SM (01:08:41):
That is really more than anybody else did in America for any vets coming back because we all know, most were not welcomed home. They just came home.

LH (01:08:52):
That is right. I have one friend who went twice. And I said, "Why in the world did you go back and volunteer again?" And he said, "Well, because it got where I had learned some, had so much experience in the first time, that all I did was keep those boys alive. And they all would figure out how to get in my platoon." And he is a lieutenant. And he said, "And my whole thing was to keep them alive." But that is why he went back the second time.

SM (01:09:34):
Was there any issues with post-traumatic stress disorder amongst the vets from the Vietnam?

LH (01:09:41):
Yes, because [inaudible].

SM (01:09:41):
Was there a good, strong support base?

LH (01:09:43):
They were always put up front, just like you described, that they were good scouts. They would be good scouts.

SM (01:09:51):
Right.

LH (01:09:52):
But of course, they never had those kinds of experience by the time Vietnam came along. Maybe World War II. I mean, One. But not since then. That was the stereotype. And then they got more Medals of Honor and anything than any other group of people, percentage of their population, too. So that was the other thing. And I do not know how we are doing in this horrible thing that we are in now.

SM (01:10:30):
Yeah. Your kids are boomers and they are defined as part of that generation that was born between (19)46 and (19)64?

LH (01:10:40):
Yes. Kathryn was in Harvard and she would bring all her Harvard kids down, who were protesting in the war, and they would bail them out with you and oh, it just would make you cry. They were getting ready for protesting. They had their blood handkerchief, their Vaseline to protect from teargas. And all of them were just awful. And my youngest daughter participated more marches than anybody in history, I think. Poor People's March. The Hispanic, Chavez's March.

SM (01:11:21):
Oh, yes.

LH (01:11:22):
Vietnam marches. And I have forgotten that. And the women's.

SM (01:11:25):
Wow. Now, your oldest was at Harvard. What year was she there? Or years?

LH (01:11:46):
She graduated a year early in school. We were just talking Sunday night.

SM (01:11:46):
Was she there when Harvard Yard happened?

LH (01:11:52):
What was Harvard Yard?

SM (01:11:52):
That is when they protested. They took over Harvard Yard. Took over the building.

LH (01:12:00):
Yeah, I guess so. The other thing, too, was that that horrible Democratic Convention in Chicago.

SM (01:12:07):
Oh, yes. (19)68.
LH (01:12:07):
And she was with us. And we sat up in the windows and watched the sight below us and cried and cried and cried.

SM (01:12:19):
Yeah. That experience in Chicago, was the whole family there in Chicago?

LH (01:12:26):
Yes. Well, the two oldest ones, the littlest one.

SM (01:12:30):
What did that experience of seeing.... Some people say it was a riot and some people say it was police brutality. It depends on what angle you're coming from. What was your read?

LH (01:12:39):
It was police brutality. Just outright craziness. And it was such a horrible time. We were, of course, for Humphrey. And Fred and Mondale were running his campaign. And then Humphrey was considering Fred for vice president, told his vice president running mate and what is the name? What is our senator's name that became his running mate?

SM (01:13:07):
Muskie. Senator Muskie.

LH (01:13:10):
Yeah. Had he chosen Fred, that we might have gotten past a lot of this anti-war stuff. I mean, because of Pres position. And we tried to change Humphrey and we never could. I do not know exactly what hold President Johnson had on him, but in some way, he would not... I guess it was his own belief because he was such a good man, that he just would not let go of that war. And that campaign was horrible. He battled with him, all over the country.

SM (01:13:43):
Yeah, in my interviews, I had somebody that was very close to Senator McCarthy, who was looking out the window of his hotel room, looking down, just like you were. And the person told me, he showed no emotion. Just watched. Whereas others had tremendous emotion and he was shocked because he thought he would be upset about what was happening, but he just did not say anything. Yeah, that (19)68 year was unbelievable.

LH (01:14:16):
And campaigning and it was just horrible.

SM (01:14:21):
Well, what did that say about, not only about the experience of how Native Americans have been treated, and we all know the civil rights rule was happening, the women's rule was starting, the environmental movement, the Chicano rule, the gay and lesbian. They were all evolving at this time. But what did this say about America to you?

LH (01:14:45):
Well, I never separated. One of the things that we... We have an ambassador's program, a leadership program for young Native Americans between the age of 25 and 35.

SM (01:15:00):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:15:01):
And we reinforce their cultural identity and say, "How do you do that and live in a contemporary situation?" Because if you try to divide it up, you get paranoid that people say you live in two different worlds. And I said, "You cannot live in two different worlds." You can be who you are and know your cultural identity and you still be contemporary at the same time. It is not an either/or. And always, the American society's always try to make it an either/or. You had to give up being Indian in order to be a good American. But we say that is nonsense and that is what hurt us most, by trying to live like that. But I could never separate my stuff, that I was a Comanche Indian doing. But I was doing these things that were in the women's movement. I was the convener of the women's political caucus and bidding for Dan and Bella, Doug and Gloria. And started off with all those people. Now, it was hard to make people understand how to bring people of color into the circle though. That was the hardest part.

SM (01:16:28):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:16:31):
But I learned so much from the experience of it, even the negative part of it, that I do not resent it. There were times I probably... Somebody said, when I talked to these young people, I said, "You're blessed because you have an Indian worldview, your tribal worldview, and then you have an American worldview." And so that gives you two ways of looking at an issue and said you have to figure out techniques and methodology to overcome barriers that you are confronted with, that I have used every time, from trying to use logic, to that I cried or flirted. There is not any method I did not try. So just have a broad conception of how you solve a problem. Not just that there's just not one way of solving it.

SM (01:17:32):
You worked with many boomers in your life and you certainly raised three. Based on the people that you witnessed, remember there are 70 million people in this generation, of which only between five and 10 percent may have been activists, based on those that you knew or witnessed, what are some of the qualities you admired about the boomer generation? And which you did not like about the boomer generation?

LH (01:18:00):
Well, I liked that they did take on the war and that they taught us how to look at it differently. So, I admire them for that.

SM (01:18:14):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:18:17):
And most of them have stayed involved, like Kathryn has stayed involved with non-profit kinds of work or education. So, she has got a law degree. She works mostly in education and then nonprofit. And within the Indian community, she's an advisor to our program, where my youngest daughter is actually the director of our program now.

SM (01:18:38):
Excellent. Yes.

LH (01:18:41):
And our son is out in LA television production, so he is a little different, but he is still involved with his cultural identity.

SM (01:18:51):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:18:53):
And so, we still go to Comanche there... Things that we do at home, back to Oklahoma. And so, it has been a real... So, I do not see the need to make it an either/or, that I see to go in way that I can do that as a Comanche Indian woman and do it as effectively as anybody else can. And kind of that attitude. And that I have, in many ways, have a special responsibility.

SM (01:19:34):
Yeah, you have been in it for the long run. Longevity means a lot. And that actually means genuineness, too, in terms of your passion for something. Your work, over the years, on behalf of not only Native American issues, but you have been involved in women's issues, environmental issues, peace, you have even gotten involved in mental health issues. I would like you to define activism, in your own words, and why it is today that some people fear this term and feel more comfortable with the term "volunteer"?

LH (01:20:14):
Okay. They are telling me I am going to have to ditch my write-in. I think that is a very good question. I think it is because my Comanche culture, that the more... What's the right word? What is the... The more blessed you are, or I do not want even put it in a religious term, but the more you have, the more you have to give back.

SM (01:20:53):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:20:53):
You have a responsibility to give back, so that the good things that happened to me are the recognition that I received, that I have more obligation to give back to the community. So that value came through my Comanche [inaudible]. And a lot of people have it, through their religion or other kinds of ways of looking at it. And it is terrible that we have, and particularly it seems that liberals have, kind of dropped the ball this day and age. And that fundamentalists have kind of taken over. And in some way, they seem less generous and caring for the general public, for all people.

SM (01:21:51):
Right.

LH (01:21:53):
And I have a great concern of that. We teach our young ambassadors and we also have a sister organization in New Zealand with the Maori. And we are working with now with Ainus in Japan. And Bolivia, Indians in Bolivia. But that they all have those same values, too. It is interesting that when you belong to a communal society, like tribal society, that you have an obligation for the group to move with you, that you cannot move by yourself. The whole group should be moving up with you, is the ideal. And that is what the value, that most people value the most, is they see it in the person that does that. You are valued in the community because you are generous.

SM (01:22:58):
You have to leave in eight minutes?

LH (01:23:00):
Yeah. We got one more question.

SM (01:23:04):
I got two more questions. I got a lot more, but I guess I can get these two in.

LH (01:23:10):
See if we can call it again tomorrow and finish up.

SM (01:23:12):
Maybe. Would that be possible?

LH (01:23:13):
Uh-huh. Sure.

SM (01:23:16):
Yeah. What time would you like me to call tomorrow?

LH (01:23:19):
Tomorrow is Wednesday, huh?

SM (01:23:22):
Uh-huh.

LH (01:23:23):
Okay. Let us try 10 o'clock tomorrow.

SM (01:23:26):
10 o'clock, which would be 12 o'clock my time.

LH (01:23:30):
Yeah, because I wanted to tell you about Pennsylvania [inaudible].

SM (01:23:33):
Yeah. This will be my last question at Aiden.

LH (01:23:35):
Okay.

SM (01:23:36):
What are your thoughts on the American Indian movement? It is a group that one could describe as more confrontational group willing to do violence to protect Native American rights and property values.

LH (01:23:52):
Yes.

SM (01:23:52):
And the question is, were they the Weathermen and the Black Panthers of the Native American movement?

LH (01:24:00):
Well, I probably should not put them in that category, but they were urban Indians. That is the other thing. Half of our population now, they live in urban areas.

SM (01:24:14):
They were from Minneapolis?

LH (01:24:15):
Yes.

SM (01:24:16):
Yes.

LH (01:24:16):
That was started in Minneapolis, then all over. So, there were people from reservations that joined it. But like you say, their style was more confrontational. Our was more trying to be reasonable, reasoned. But they were helpful to us because when they acted out radical, then we looked like we were tame. But we had the same goals. But our methodology was different.

SM (01:24:46):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:24:47):
So that they were valuable to helping bring about change. But it was because they made us look reasonable and easier to deal with.

SM (01:25:01):
Yeah, your work I would say was more in the system, like Martin Luther King and Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, John Lewis, and Jesse Jackson. I think they were more in the system.

LH (01:25:19):
Yes. Change the system because they are the ones, they have control.

SM (01:25:23):
Right. And the people that were a little more confrontation where the John Trudells, Russell Means Dennis Banks. They were like Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Cleaver, Hampton, Brown, Davis. Those people.

LH (01:25:37):
And they let their hurt... They were hurt. And that one of the things we had to deal with a lot in our leadership program, is how to manage that, so that you do not medicate yourself with alcohol or dysfunctional behavior.

SM (01:25:57):
Right.

LH (01:25:59):
Because those things can hurt so bad that it is difficult to overcome them. So that is one of the things we examine, in our program.

SM (01:26:08):
And then the last thing in this question regarding the American Indian movement. Maybe we ought talk about this tomorrow? And your thoughts on when they took over Alcatraz in (19)69.

LH (01:26:20):
Yeah.

SM (01:26:21):
The Bureau of Indian Affairs in (19)72. Then the wounded knee situation in (19)73. Those were historic events in the (19)60s.

LH (01:26:34):
Yes. And I was much involved in a particular one at the BIC, BIA takeover. So, I will have a lot to comment on that.

SM (01:26:40):
Why do not we do that tomorrow? And thank you very much.

LH (01:26:43):
You are very much [inaudible].

SM (01:26:47):
Yeah. I feel like I am a friend of yours already.

LH (01:26:51):
[inaudible] share with us, but he was thinking about it, either. We were already committed because Humphrey had been such a good person to us, as a young... He came and campaigned for us. And he did just so many good things. And we would always wind up... I would have Oklahomans come visit us and we were lined up at his office and he would come out take pictures [inaudible].

SM (01:27:20):
He always had a friendly nature. He would be on Mike Douglas Show. And he was on Mike Douglas quite a bit. And he was always jovial and friendly. And one thing people, and I will close with this, people do not realize he wrote a book in 1948 on civil rights.

LH (01:27:35):
Yes.

SM (01:27:36):
1948.

LH (01:27:41):
He deserves much more credit than he [inaudible].

SM (01:27:41):
Yeah, I agree. Well, I will call you tomorrow.

LH (01:27:43):
All right, my dear. I look forward to talking.

SM (01:27:47):
Yeah, same here. Have a good day. Bye.

LH (01:27:48):
Bye-bye.

SM (01:27:50):
... as we were ending our conversation yesterday. And so I just wanted to hear, again, your thoughts. I think I was trying to rush through that last question. Just your overall thoughts on the American Indian movement. And I was trying to say, I was wondering if you thought it was more of a confrontational group, similar to the Weathermen that SDS became, or when the civil rights movement changed from Dr. King and Bayard Rustin and the non-violent protests, the Gandhian method to the more confrontational Black Panther method?

LH (01:28:30):
Well, I hate to compare them.

SM (01:28:31):
Yes.

LH (01:28:32):
[Inaudible] them because they were different, but in some ways similar. And I do not think it would be appropriate to compare them to those groups. Two things, is that they were urban people. I think I mentioned that yesterday.

SM (01:28:49):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:28:50):
And they were, half of it was, and this was government policy, putting them in urban area. That was part of the relocation, it was called. It was a national policy of taking, because there were not any jobs on the reservation, because it was lack of imagination and creativity. There were not any jobs on the reservation. So, they said, "Well, let us send to the cities and sent them to manufacturing jobs." So, they just went around. And I had a cousin who went through it and he was sent to Detroit to work on cars. And the amount of suicide. I mean, the program did not work at all and it was just a horrible program. But they kept it up for about 10 years. I do not know why, even after we proved, over and over again, it was not working. And it was part of that termination and relocation, part of that Eisenhower report. It was not his report. It was some paint group that came out, that I mentioned earlier, about we were the vanishing race. And so they were... Again, it was an attempt to assimilate us. So, they took people off the Navajo and took them to Los Angeles and dumped them. And they said, "We are not going to put them together because we do not want barrios," or whatever we call the Black community. And so, they scattered them all over town, which made them really lost.

SM (01:30:29):
Yes.

LH (01:30:31):
And I think one of the things that drove them, drove the AIM group, was to reaffirm their identity. And that is how I view them, because I have gone to their meetings. I know them all very well. And so they were trying to reaffirm their identity as well as try to change the policy. And how to articulate that whole failure of the urban relocation program. And no one could quite articulate it at the time, but just the anger and the hurt from it, was part of their behavior.

SM (01:31:23):
I know the three names that are the most well-known are Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and John Trudell. And I remember reading about John Trudell, that his family died in a very... I think there was arson. And he lost his wife and two kids. And they never quite understood what happened there.

LH (01:31:42):
I know. The FBI was supposed to have looked at it. He accused the FBI.

SM (01:31:44):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:31:50):
But he worked for us in Oklahoma, for Indian Opportunity, for a while, when he was passing through. And then he went out and got... And then that is what happened and it radicalized him.

SM (01:32:00):
Right.

LH (01:32:01):
And so, he has been a real strong activist. And course, Dennis, Dennis and particularly Russell. Russell was a dance instructor for... I have forgotten now, where. And I am thinking out in Chicago, but someplace. And the whole... Finally, they all got together. I mean, what happened that the urban people organized themselves, sometimes it was just the bar where they went to have a drink after work or something. And then they finally started urban Indian centers. And I was very... Under Johnson and I had hearings on, because I said half of our population were... Sorry, I have got a frog somewhere.

SM (01:32:49):
That is all right.

LH (01:32:54):
Let me drink a little bit of water here and get [inaudible].

SM (01:32:55):
Okay.

LH (01:32:55):
And under the Johnson administration, as part of his National Indian Opportunities Council... Excuse me.

SM (01:33:14):
Some of the events, I am just listing them, but the four major events that I remember and what I have read about two of them-

LH (01:33:23):
I... Go ahead.

SM (01:33:25):
... that certainly was the takeover of Alcatraz in (19)69 and Wounded Knee in (19)73. And I know they also took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs in (19)72, in Washington. And they also took over Mount Rushmore. Those are four major activities that AIM did during that (19)69 to (19)73 period. But Alcatraz and Wounded Knee were the big ones.

LH (01:33:50):
Well, they were not responsible for Alcatraz. That was kind of the... It was a local idea that started up, so AIM did-did come in, Trudell and everybody. It drew a lot of outside people.

SM (01:33:58):
Mm-hmm.

LH (01:34:08):
But I do not give them credit for that takeover. But I do not need to say that. But I do not need to be putting-

SM (01:34:17):
What was the purpose of Alcatraz? I know they were there 13 months or?

LH (01:34:26):
... Well, they wanted to make Alcatraz their urban center, take it over and run their programs out of it. That was the urban Indians. There were two groups in San Francisco when I had hearings there. There was what? In Oakland and then San Francisco proper. And had the hearings about how many arrests they made. And the sentences were longer than other people. There was all kinds of horrible complaints about how the city treated them. And so that was one of the reasons that they did the Alcatraz. But the first one they did was the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Was not it first?

SM (01:35:05):
You may be right. Yes.

LH (01:35:11):
Yeah. Well, we were of cursing Washington then. We were courting some plunders, my director and I, Margaret Gover. And who happened to be Kevin Gover, who runs the museum now. She and I were having dinner with some possible funders for AIO. And we said, "Well, we heard that they were some Oklahoma Indians down in the occupation." So, we said, "Let us go down and see who is there." And we went there. And of course, there was the big crowd all around. And John Trudell saw us and said, "Oh, there is LaDonna. Come in." And Mike, he would come in. So, it was kind of like the Red Sea opening up.

SM (01:35:56):
Yes.

LH (01:35:56):
It all bear [inaudible]. So, we went in that night and Commissioner Lee-

LH (01:36:03):
And Commissioner Louis Bruce was there, and they were... It was being occupied, but here was all of the BIA [inaudible] trying to figure out how to get them out, or see what they want. Well, my God, it was so weird. You just cannot imagine. It was like... What is the term? Unbelievable, given how you could get in that set of circumstance. Well, when they got in there, Louis Bruce loves to say that they spent the night with me that night. So we stayed there all night, to keep them. I did not think they would storm the... US Marshals were going threaten to storm. So, then the AIM guys, Russell and them says, "Well, we are ready to negotiate out, but we want to negotiate with a certain party," like... Oh, God, I cannot think of everybody's name. He was Secretary of Health and Human Services at the time, in the Nixon administration. So, I said, "Well, have we all requested it?" And they said, "Well, no, we do not know who to talk to." And I said, "Well, do y'all have any contact with him?" And they said, "Oh yeah, they are in the building with the US Marshal." So, I said, " Go sit down and talk to them and tell them that you are ready to negotiate under these, with this thing." So, they did. And they came back and said, "Well, they did not have the authority to make any decision." So, we stayed there all that night. And the next morning I went back and started calling. And of course, so much like AIM's activity, the whole city was out of session, and Nixon was back in California. So I started calling Leonard Garment and everybody I knew in the White House to say that it's going to be horrible if... because the US Marshals, again, said they were going to storm the building. So, I kept calling and calling and calling, and finally found out, and Brad Patterson was one person they would talk to, and the guy, [inaudible] who later became Head of the Pentagon. So finally, they agreed, but in the meantime, they kept threatening and threatening. And then I do not know why, some of the young people in there busted up some toilet and did some stupid things. Anyway, they got out. They negotiated out. The government paid them to go home, paid for their fare to go home. And then the next day we went back down there, and Margaret was taking in some food and they said, "Oh, every tribe has an office, and there is a Comanche." And I said, "Well, I better go see who's there from my tribe." And it was my kids, had gone earlier with Maggie and her children, who were Comanches too. They were sitting in that room and acting like they had taken it over.

SM (01:39:25):
Oh my God.

LH (01:39:25):
The ridiculousness of it was so absurd. The whole strategy and the outcome, they did get a lot of attention, and it was so hard to work through because there was not any logical... They did not have a set thing that they wanted, but they did negotiate out. So, what I was trying to show you, they could get into situations, but they could not figure out how to get out.

SM (01:40:06):
Was that what happened at Wounded Knee too? Because they were there for a long time, but their grievance at Wounded Knee was the terrible tragedy of 1890, I believe, and the original Wounded Knee.

LH (01:40:19):
It was Wilson and the Goon Squad, remember?

SM (01:40:22):
Yes.

LH (01:40:27):
And it was chairman of the Pine Ridge. And he was supposedly... He had his law enforcement. And again, I do not know exactly all of the grievances, but as soon as it happened, I called the same people that negotiated out the White House. And I said, "Why do not you set up a committee like Vine Deloria and some prominent Indians, come up there to talk to them and see what their grievance, and let them articulate what it is, the grievances are, and see if we cannot get them out?" And so, Brad Patterson of the White House said, "Oh, Ladonna, we think we have got it all figured out." And I said, "Well, if there is any deaths or any violence, that is going to be in your cat." Of course, they constitutionally sent in the National Guard, which they did not have the authority, the governor did not have the authority to do. So, nobody was convicted of anything except, what is his name, that is still in prison today? He is the poster child of that. Everybody perceives him to be a political prisoner and not-

SM (01:41:33):
Oh, Peltier.

LH (01:41:34):
Yeah, Peltier.

SM (01:41:34):
Leonard Peltier.

LH (01:41:36):
And he was there and apparently he had... When he was arrested, had guns in his car, illegal guns he did not own, or whatever. So they had to chance to arrest him. And he became, because the judge let everybody else go, because they did not have enough, they did not anything to charge them with, and the action of the state was all wrong, and the Federalist government was wrong, and what they did. So all of that, and the two deaths happened at the very last of the occupation. So, I think Peltier was guilty of carrying those guns, but whether he was guilty of the death of the FBI, but FBI just went nuts. And to this day, they cannot get him out of there. We thought we were going to get him out under Clinton, and Clinton had to back off. So, if you can imagine, that former FBI man picketed the White House, I would have fired their behind [inaudible 01:42:46] the President. He had to back down that off of it. So that shows you that he was an example of-

SM (01:42:55):
Yes.

LH (01:42:55):
It was revenge more than it was justice.

SM (01:43:00):
I think there were two Native Americans killed there as well as, I think I heard over a thousand were arrested, or 1,400. It was a large number, were arrested.

LH (01:43:13):
They were all in the church there, and people were smuggling food in, they could go past. Oh, again, it was the not ridiculousness, but I was trying to think of it, of how they got in there, how they got fed for all that time. And then the people that got killed in it, it was like a bad grade B movie. And very poorly planned and executed, the whole thing. And so, the White House was not, on my part, and Vine Deloria and others, and let us get them out, and find [inaudible], but the White House would not move on it, because I guess they thought the governor was going to take care of it.

SM (01:44:06):
Right. You and your husband were in DC during an unbelievable time. I guess it was (19)65 to (19)80 or (19)78, I think it was. When did your husband... You started in (19)65. When did he leave?

LH (01:44:25):
When Carter came.

SM (01:44:28):
Okay. Yeah, seven... So those 15 years were, well-

LH (01:44:33):
Yes. They were the best years actually, in many ways, because of the civil rights and the war on poverty, all the good things that were happening, positive things that were happening. Of course, that horrible war.

SM (01:44:46):
Yeah. I have just your response. This is a general question, and then just you can respond to it, that your husband was a key senator looking at all these issues, from civil rights, anti-war, Native American issues, obviously, women's rights and gay rights, gay/lesbian rights were coming about in (19)60s9. Then you had Chicano rights.

LH (01:45:06):
Oh, yes.

SM (01:45:07):
And I have talked to even Asian American rights, because I have talked to several people on that. And then you had the environment, of Earth Day in 1970. And when you look at all these events during the time from the Chicago that you talked about yesterday, in 1968, and Kent State in 1970, and you had the King and Kennedy assassinations in (19)68, you had McCarthy running for president in (19)68, and McGovern in (19)72. And then Carter of course ran for president and won. And Humphrey, you were supporting of him. LBJ withdrew in (19)68, and then Nixon came in in (19)68. You had Watergate in (19)73, and Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon. And then in 1980, you had Reagan coming in with his law and order, kind of a backlash to what had happened in the previous administrations. You witnessed all this.

LH (01:46:02):
Yes. And was involved, to some degree, almost in every movement that took place, particularly the women's movement. As I said yesterday, I was the convener of the women's political caucus that still exist today. It was an exciting time, and a person can make a difference. That is, I think the main thing to say, that an individual could contribute to it. And a lot of people came, did that, in the women's movement, and the civil rights. And it was a very tragic time. Of course, Bobby and [inaudible] were our neighbors. And when we... Oh, it was just awful. And we were friends and we supported Humphrey over him. Just the tragedy. And then it made it harder when we went to the funeral, we attended the funeral, on the train and all of that. It was very emotional and very tragic for those kids. And even after that, we supported Joe Kennedy when he ran for Congress. Me and my daughter, his age, my children grew up with those kids. So, it was-

SM (01:47:43):
Did you feel, basically you, because I did speak to your husband, did you feel that we were heading toward another civil war? The divisions were so intense, especially in (19)68.

LH (01:47:51):
But you know what? I feared today more than I did then, because I guess we had some successes. We had successes along the way, that made a difference in how people behaved. So there was a lot of tragedy involved in Birmingham and all of those things that the African American community had to go through. I served on the board of the Urban League and the Urban Coalition. So we cross-generated. In many ways, I was kind of the token Indian, but I felt that I was learning a lot of different kinds of strategies and that it was very useful. I played all those roles. I said I did not mind being token, if you know you are being token. That was all right. And people then started... Like, the Girl Scouts of America asked me to be on the board, because they were trying to be diversified. And unfortunately, still all of that is... We are going backwards in all the gains that we made in the (19)60s on civil rights, and the attitude of the government now, with the interesting Tea Party group.

SM (01:49:31):
Yeah, and the budget cuts, they are unbelievable, particularly in education.

LH (01:49:35):
And they do not make sense. They really do not make sense in the scheme of things. But what to say about it? It is just weird.

SM (01:49:45):
Yeah, but you saw that period when the anti-war people were coming to DC, and they were not very popular, because most of the nations supported the war. And then as we got into the middle and late (19)60s, more and more people started going against the war. But you saw the tremendous divisions support the troops, and it was just an unbelievable period.

LH (01:50:13):
Well, Fritz said he would go over to briefings at the White House, and all these generals were telling them, not like what we are doing now, telling them, "Well, we will be able to do this. We will be able to take control." Excuse me.

SM (01:50:32):
Yes. Yeah. That was interesting. And then, of course, when Richard Nixon talked about the, what do you call it, the silent majority?

LH (01:50:43):
Yes.

SM (01:50:43):
Most of America was supporting him and the pro-war forces. What did your husband and you think about that?

LH (01:50:56):
By that time, we had finally decided that... because we were so entrenched in civil rights, and Fred was head of the Kerner Commission. I was on that. I was appointed on the National Mental Health Department. Anyway, the department had a committee of people to look at the mental health of children. And I was appointed on that board because I had been active in mental health for Fred in Oklahoma, looking at them and reporting to him, because he had... So, I was only Senator's wife, but was interested in that and they asked me to be on it. And I start staying. Of course, I was very much involved in Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, and had not quite started [inaudible] yet. And I always felt, well, oh, I am so glad, because I want to be around psychiatrists and psychologists, because they may have some answers that we could use. And unfortunately, they were just like everybody else, that they had not had any learned experience about people of color.

SM (01:52:29):
Wow.

LH (01:52:33):
And I was the only person who was not a professional in the field, a psychiatrist. And so, I would periodically say, "Well, that would not be so with Indian children, and I do not think it would be so with children of color." And I loved them individually, but collectively I just was so... I felt frustrated. But I liked them so much. I invited them over to my house for supper, and for Fred to meet them. Franklin Roosevelt's granddaughter was there. I cannot think of her first name now. But anyway, everybody came. And it so happened that my folks from Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity were there. And in Oklahoma, there was the African American Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, who was doing some work in Oklahoma. And I forgot why he was there, but he and I were like the token black and Indian on lots of the boards and things. So we got to be friends. And he went back to Harvard.

SM (01:53:57):
Is that Dr. Pusant?

LH (01:53:59):
No, it was not Pusant. Pusant was a mentor of his. It was Chet Pierce, Dr. Chet Pierce. He did a lot of work with the... And when he would come to Washington and go to dinner or lunch with him, he would say he predicted the people's behavior about me and him going, not that they recognized me, but just an African American and perceived to be an Anglo, how their behavior was. So it got to be quite a thing. It was a long friendship from Oklahoma, then back to Washington. Anyway, I invited him to that dinner, and my relatives who were running Oklahomans for Indian Opportunities was intimidated by everybody had at least two or three degrees in psychiatry or sociology or social worker. And one of the men with these two or three degrees had a bolo tie on, but it was wooden. Bolo ties, that was the Indian neckwear. And so, he had a little too much to drink and he went up to this man and said, "Just be [inaudible] glad [inaudible]. I am glad that that was not turquoise, or I would have to whoop your ass." They just shocked everybody, that they saw that kind of anger in the Indian community, because they would not believe me. They would just like... It was like so many places in my life, I was always at... When is it when you just give somebody a little bit of a nod of acknowledgement, but not take them seriously? I think it was [inaudible].

SM (01:56:04):
Yeah.

LH (01:56:06):
So, they would never, because I was not professional, and so they would not take me seriously. But after they talked with Chet Pierce that evening, and he of course was very professional, and he talked, and he was not threatening, but here comes the Indians, threatening. So they accused me, or teasingly accused me of planning it. And I said, "I did not. They just happened to be there, and I had already invited this group over for dinner," but we did not match because we were looking for new ways of dealing with problems in Oklahoma. So, they started a commission on the mental health of minority children. And they put me on that committee, and we got Chet Pierce and Price Cobbs, who wrote Black Like... What is the book? Black Rage.

SM (01:56:59):
Oh, yes.

LH (01:57:01):
So, we got [inaudible], one a Puerto Rican, and one a Mexican-American from Mexico, people from the Jewish community, and Japanese, a person who was a psychiatrist who was interred in one of the Japanese camps, and generation growing up in a Japanese concentration camp here in the State.

SM (01:57:30):
Yes.

LH (01:57:31):
And what others? And myself and Ada Deer, of course Price Cobbs and Chet Pierce. So we came out, we immediately were all working in civil rights, and we immediately came to an agreement. And the committee who appointed it, or created it, said that the blacks had taken over. They were too radical. And of course Ada Deer and I were the two Indian, two radical ones. Ada Deer was the social worker. And so, we came out with... White racism was the number one mental health problem, because the people that were discriminated against were hurt, and the people who did the discrimination were hurting too, that they had issues that we should pay more attention to. Well, they would not accept our report. So all the professionals resigned from the committee. Business things I get into, and resigned from the committee. And we kept... Those of us who did not have anything to lose professionally kept on fighting them, but they never would print our report. And then when Fred... Fred was doing the Kerner commission, he had us come and testify. And the white racism was part of that Kerner Commission report. We testified before his committee. So, I just said-

SM (01:59:11):
And what year was that?

LH (01:59:16):
It was early in the Johnson period, because I was trying to think of who was the head of... Who was Johnson's First Secretary of Health and Human Services?

SM (01:59:31):
I should know that. Do not know.

LH (01:59:35):
But he was the one who set up the committee. But it was right at the time of the Kerner Commission, or what do we call it now, when downtown was burning and the-

SM (01:59:58):
Yeah. It was the Commission on National... Oh my God, I have it. I have the book, I have the paperback of the Kerner Commission book. I will have to check it.

LH (02:00:12):
And of course, Kerner turned out to have a bad reputation. Turned out was a bad reputation, but he still gets the name of it. But the worst part about it, it was a real good report, and Fred worked very closely, I do not know if he told you about this, but that Johnson got mad at him. And when Johnson got mad, he [inaudible] like a dead dish. Otherwise, he would be with his arm around you and talking right in your face. And we went to something at the White House and he told Fred, he said, "Well, Fred, I am surprised to see you up." And Fred says, "Well, why's that, Mr. President?" And he said... because he called him... You would have to get Fred to tell you this, he called and appointed him on the Kerner Commission because it was a recommendation Fred had made, to do a commission report. And Fred said, "What do you mean, Mr. President?" He said, "I thought..." Who was the mayor of New York at that time?

SM (02:01:12):
Lindsay?

LH (02:01:16):
Yeah. So me and Fred were the hardest workers on that commission, and really we're basically calling the shots, though Kerner was supposed to chair it. And then they had some people who really did not believe. It was not strongly forced civil rights on it. So, Fred went over and talked to him and said, "Well," like Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, that you have to figure out what's happening and get some solutions, or they will just keep festering. So, what was happening, the FBI was coming over there and telling them... It was Hoover still in office at the time, was telling them that this person met with somebody two years ago.

SM (02:02:17):
Can you hold on one second?

(02:02:23):
All right. We are back.

LH (02:02:23):
So finally, Johnson told Fred, said, "Well, the FBI was here, saying that they were communists." And he said, "They are not communists. They're people that are hurt about discrimination." And he suggested to be like Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, that if you do think it is communist, then to take the fire out of what they are upset about. So, they had a good talk then. But yet, what really happened was that the Washington Post came out and reported the report, that white racism was the number one mental health problem, before Johnson got to see it. And I do not know who leaked it to him, to this day. But it really upset Johnson and he did not ever embrace the report. But it was the handbook of the times, along with Black Rage and other-

SM (02:03:31):
Yeah, I have that book too.

LH (02:03:34):
Yeah.

SM (02:03:35):
What were the successes of the Native American movement in the (19)60s and (19)70s and beyond through today, and what have been the failures? And what are the main grievances today within the Native American community? So it's kind of a two-part question. What were the successes of that period, the (19)60s through today, and the failures in the efforts? And then what are the main grievances today?

LH (02:04:09):
The successes were those three things that we talked about earlier, was that the [inaudible] getting their land back, doing away with termination as a policy and reestablishing the Menominee and the Alaskan claims. So those successes gave us in voting, and then there was a whole new set of leaderships that came out of those programs, that became community organizers and then became chairmen of their tribes. And I feel like I was the product of that, as we organized Oklahomans for Indian opportunity. So a new set of leaders who came with some ideas of change, and we did. We have Indian 101 and you can-

SM (02:05:05):
Yes, I saw that.

LH (02:05:05):
And it starts moving up then. And then what we did when we organized Americans for Indian Opportunity, we started working with the federal agencies to... We took Johnson's message seriously, that we were not... The Bureau of Department of Interior was in our colonial office, that all agencies in the federal government had responsibility to Native Americans. So, we really took his message, and took it around to his secretaries, and interpreted it for them, to mean that we have to work with tribes, like EPA and environmental things and health and all of those kinds of different programs that were never doing anything. But we had gotten the Department of Labor and Commerce involved during the war on poverty, to put resources into the Indian community. So we got a whole set of new resources. And that emboldened and brought about new leadership and change on the reservations, and then within the government. So we were still in Washington, we had Indian desk in every federal agency. Well, the next time then when Nixon came in, he did away with all of them except the war on poverty put over in ANA, over in Health and Human Services. So, it is still alive today, in Head start. They were going to kill Head start over in Health and Human Services. So a group of tribal leaders came to me and said, "Would you help us set up a meeting with those people?" They were all friends. We had a national network of about, oh, 25 people, that if something went wrong, we could call everybody and it would activate this group of people over in leadership positions, and we would all move on it. Slade Gorton, we killed Slade Gorton because he was so anti-Indian. We did things like that. And then we took it on ourselves as AIO to... It was every new administration, that we would go. And then Nixon came along with his policy statement, was self-determination. So, we interpreted that to the department, saying self-determination means we had the right to self-government and make our own decisions, and that they cannot make policy decisions for us within our own tribe, and that we get to determine our tribal membership. It was before the federal government did it. So, a whole bunch of things changed. Just amazing. Many of the organizations that exist-

LH (02:08:03):
Amazing. Many of the organizations that exist today were started during that time. The NARF, Native American Rights Fund. And then, one of the things that we did, there was a report that came out, an international report, that there's going to be a food shortage and a fuel shortage and water shortage. We said, "How is that going to impact us?" And all of a sudden, we said, "Why are we the poorest people in the country, when we have land and resources?" So, we said, "Well, what are the resources?" So, we tried to find that out, and the Bureau could not even tell us. We sent some interns over there who did some research. We added percentages to it, like 35 percent of all the coal in the United States was on Indian land, 75 percent of the uranium was on Indian [inaudible], and oil and gas. So, one of the things we did in the Nixon administration is said, "With the creation of the new Energy Department, that you cannot have an energy policy when this much private land is held by Indian people, but Indian people had to be at the table." That was what we said. Frank Zarb was the Czar at the time, and he worked with us, and we slapped around the Bureau of Indian Affairs and got them to change their policy. We brought in experts from international negotiation, and said that the leases that the tribes got into, whether it was oil and gas, or coal, or timber, all of those things were negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and they were running things as bad as [inaudible] that may be one of the African countries had a poorer contract than we did. We picked that and ran with it, and organized the Council of Energy Resource Drive. They called it the OPEC. But what that did for us, then, is that we got involved with Department of Energy and changed the policy of the Department of Interior, and then gave more control of their tribal resources in the hands of the tribes. And then, from there, the timber tribes got organized. We brought some people with specialty in to help interpret, because they were clear cutting Indian timber and not replanting it, and all of those things. And they were getting the lowest price possible for the resources. And that is why they were poor. So, we brought people together, the tribes together, that had oil and gas, had energy resources, and brought them together and they got organized, and we helped staff them until they got their own funding. And they are still alive today in Denver. And the timber tribes are organized. The fishing tribes are organized around natural resources to get a better price for their product. And then, going through that, it is an evolution. We find that the next thing that hit you in the face was that we were not under EPA. That we were considered part of the state, which the state did not have any jurisdiction over us. And so, we said we were falling through the cracks. So, we, under the Carter administration, got a ruling from the Assistant Director, who is a very dear friend of mine to this day, of the Profit Post, Barbara Blum. And she made an administrative decision, so we did not have to go through the tribes, we tried to get the agency to change their policy, and she made the policy that tribes had the right to create their own tribal environmental regulation. So, it gave us a lot of [inaudible] development on the reservation. And that also provided that the companies that were on the reservation had to renegotiate their contract with the tribe, because the tribes can set up their environmental policies to stop their forms of development. That-

SM (02:12:56):
That is a lot of success.

LH (02:12:58):
Yes.

SM (02:13:00):
As we stand today in 2011, what is the greatest need?

LH (02:13:05):
Well, it mostly is an informed public. It goes back to in the educational experience that people have has no basic knowledge of Indian people. And that is what I was going to tell you about Pennsylvania. Two years ago, I do a lot of lecturing around the country in colleges and universities, and the University of California there in Pennsylvania? Familiar with it?

SM (02:13:34):
Yeah.

LH (02:13:35):
They invited me, and I gave them my regular talk, in which I even said to you, is that we do not study American history, we study Europeans coming to the Americas. Well, the good president said that was so shocking to him, here he had two PhD degrees, and he did not know anything about Native Americas. So, he invited me to come back. They made me an honorary doctor. Then, we took our ambassadors and had a week-long program. And then, they're wanting to set up a Donna Harris Indigenous Institute there at the college, which they have done with African-Americans. Instead of having Indian studies or African American studies, they set up an institute where they would bring a teacher in that would work as faculty with the university to help to integrate it into the total college setting instead of just having women's studies and African [inaudible] Hispanic studies, and all that. Because that marginalizes. That is why we are not making any gains in education, because that still marginalizes, and particularly Indians, because the tribes are governments, and unlike any other minority in the country, we are governmental entities, and we should be in the textbook of government, political science. We should be a part of the literature of all those departments, so that they can see us in a different way rather than just a minority group trying to work for its rights. Basically, Laura, my daughter, was on Clinton's minority rights thing. And that was what they found on Indians that the lack of information about Native Americans was the biggest problem that we had, because we had to spend more than half our time educating people through the Indian 101 thing for them. And we do not mind doing it. But that keeps us from doing the activist kind of things [inaudible].

SM (02:15:55):
Probably Native American college students that go off to predominantly White campuses, just like African American students, the one thing that upsets them more than anything else is when they are in a class, and hopefully teachers do not do this, but I still know they do, that if there's a student of color, they will immediately, "Well, you are a student of color. What do you think?"

LH (02:16:16):
Yeah.

SM (02:16:17):
You put pressure on a college student to be the educator of the other peers. And the people doing it are the teachers.

LH (02:16:25):
That is right. And they are probably one of maybe five students on the whole campus. So, really it is pressure. I know when, oh, yellow Springs, oh, what is it the little college up there? I was chosen by the students to be on the Board, there.

SM (02:16:45):
Yellow Springs?

LH (02:16:47):
Yeah.

SM (02:16:47):
Is that in Ohio?

LH (02:16:49):
Yes. [inaudible] college.

SM (02:16:51):
Antioch.

LH (02:16:53):
Yeah.

SM (02:16:53):
Yes.

LH (02:16:53):
And it is very progressive.

SM (02:16:58):
Oh, yes.

LH (02:16:58):
And that was what the Indian students complained to me about, said that, "We were always having to try to explain Indians to [inaudible] when we're trying to figure out what our role is. And the other thing is that, if you go through the American educational system, you still cannot find yourself within the history of the United States. And then, if you go on to Law or to some other specialty to get your PhD degree, by that time you have almost, not divorced yourself, but you have become less connected to your community, so the people back home get annoyed with you. It's one of the issues now. And that is what we try to work at in our Ambassadors program, is how do you maintain your cultural identity?

SM (02:18:03):
Another thing here is, you were involved in the Women's Movement, and I know you were involved in that organization at the very beginning. One of the things that the history books teach us is that one of the reasons why the Women's Movement came about was because of the sexism that was so prevalent in the Civil Rights and Anti-war movements. Not all, but many of the women who were in secondary roles went into the Women's Movement so they could begin leadership roles. And I think I have already asked this question, because I think you have already said that women are treated with a lot of respect in the Native American communities. But your thoughts on whether that is indeed true, that the Women's Movement that really came to fruition in the latter part of the (19)60s and early (19)70s was because many of the women had had it up to their ears with men in these other movements. And...

LH (02:19:08):
That is absolutely correct. One of the things that I noticed, and really got me involved, is I got to know a lot of the women in government who had offices, and they could not travel, which would have allowed them to gain higher positions in their department. Only men could travel. Women could not travel without being escorted, junk like that which kept women from raising in their position in the government. I was not really ready to jump into the Women's Movement. But when I got to know that as an issue, I got involved. And again, the women played a major role as, what is her name, that rode the bus. She was a major player in the movement, but never got the recognition. Again, it was always the males who got the recognition. So, that became an issue. We went through a lot of stress, and then they even had to organize the women of color, because they were not enough women of color moving in to the national movement. There were all kinds of reasons why. But just all of those things, it was taking a course in college to see how all of those evolved.

SM (02:20:52):
Yeah. What is interesting today is, when you interview people, you see what they call the mainstream feminists, which they say it was Gloria Steinem and Betty Fredan, the Frustrated Housewife as some people have told me. And the Feminine Mystique, the book that was written. And then, you had what they called the radical feminists, who look down upon the mainstream feminists, respect them, but do not like their approach. When you look at the movements that have really changed and grown and evolved since the late (19)60s, there is this split between the radical feminists and what they call the mainstream feminists.

LH (02:21:40):
If you look at who the radical feminist is, their lesbian. And it was an interesting interaction between the two groups. I remember meeting in New York, and a big group of them came in together, and were going to challenge our whole movement, our whole activity. And Maggie Glover said, "Well, do we all have to declare our sexuality to be in the Women's [inaudible]?" That was basically what they were demanding. They wanted to be-be more accepted, which was not a bad thing, but [inaudible] probably pretty radical [inaudible]. But we got past that. It was more of, how do you get women of color involved than it was a bigger [], so that they have the voice. Indian women did not really need it, but Black women felt that it was being disloyal, because they could get jobs easier than their male counterparts, because they were less a threat. And there was a whole underlining [inaudible].

SM (02:23:00):
Yeah. I know that Johnnetta Cole, former President of Spelman, in her book, Sister Present, I forget the name of the title of the book, she talks about those pressures of being an African American, then being an African American female, and then wanting to be involved in the Women's Movement, all these different pressures.

LH (02:23:21):
Yes. And that was so. And it was very hard. And Anglo [inaudible] Movement people did not know how to deal with it. And it was with great pride that I was the bridge, but I could not make it work. I could not figure out how. Something would just break down right in the middle of it. And it was not intentional. It was...

SM (02:23:53):
Why did the ERA fail?

LH (02:24:01):
I do not know. I really do not know. I think, by that time, I have forgotten what it was all happening in my life. I got diverted. I think we were out here in New Mexico a bit [inaudible 02:24:13] Mexico. I cannot remember. But it was such a threat to people, the two-party people, all kinds of social things, threats, "Who do these people think they are?"

SM (02:24:37):
Yeah.

LH (02:24:38):
And so, that is my interpretation anyway.

SM (02:24:43):
One of the things that, when you talk about all the movements that were taking place in the late (19)60s and early (19)70s, the Anti-war Movement and Civil Rights was ongoing, going through unbelievable changes in strategy. But then you had the evolution of the Women's Movement, the Environmental Movement, the Gay and Lesbian Movement from Stonewall, and Native American Movement, you had Chicano and Asian American, as well. And even the beginnings of the Disability Rights Movement was around this time, too. And certainly you brought up the issue. I am really glad you were involved in mental health issues, because I remember the only female that really seemed to care about this was President Carter's wife. She took it out as an issue. What-

LH (02:25:31):
I served on her committee, too. We did a special thing on Indian Mental Health, which there is no program for. There's one institution. And she was just amazed at our report. I had a Native American person who was on my Board, actually, he called and said, "Could I help you work on that?" And I was calling her on the other line saying, "Would you come help me?" But we visited heavily Indian populated states. And then, the mental health providers not knowing how to deal with different cultural people, and she was just amazed at that report. And of course, look what happened to her stuff, too, even Mental Health for Children. And was it Reagan that came along and just [inaudible] mental health, threw them out onto the streets where they're homeless now. We call them homeless, not mental health.

SM (02:26:34):
Yeah. The question I was getting at here is, these movements, when you saw a protest, you saw the signs of all these movements together. At the moratorium in (19)60s9, you might see the Native American movement, all the movements had signs. Now it seems like they are never together anymore. The movements have all become isolated and unto themselves. Am I reading correctly into this?

LH (02:27:04):
Yes, I think so. And that is what troubles me. My youngest daughter had a birthday party, Catherine and Manuel who were really the baby boomers. And I said, "You all are getting a lot of blame because you all are not activist enough." They are, she and her husband. But I said, "What happened to the Anti-war Movement? What happened to the Civil Rights Movement, which you were part of?" But there is no movement out there. I told you I went around and lectured in colleges. And at one point, I think about five years ago or more, god, [inaudible], but that I was going through liberal arts colleges [inaudible]. And those liberal arts colleges were all, "How are we going to go [inaudible]? They were majoring in business and da da da da da da, so that the whole direction turned toward obtaining wealth. And that is how I am seeing it now, trying to evaluate where in the heck we are, right now.

SM (02:28:26):
Oh, yeah.

LH (02:28:28):
The whole big push for about the last 10 years or more has been, "We're going to all be millionaires. How do we go to Wall Street and learn how to do that?" so that we have now all of these people that do not know how to function in what they're confronted with during this recession. We also do not know how to organize ourselves, because we disassociated ourselves from those groups. And we do not know who they are anymore. I try to stay in touch. I was made an honorary sorority sister of the Deltas, which is a Black woman's sorority. And I stay in touch through them. And of course, New Mexico, they have a very small African-American community. But I stay in touch with them. And they recognize that my national work, because it was the national organization that made me an honorary member, and the local membership has brought me in, which gives me some ties to all parts of the community.

SM (02:29:43):
Right.

LH (02:29:44):
Because we are mostly heavily Indian and Hispanic, Hispanic being the larger. But now, New Mexico has a lot of middle-class Hispanics, and they do not fit. The national, you have the Caribbean Hispanic, and Florida is dominated by the Cuban. And then, you have Puerto Ricans in New York, and that is another kind of island people.

SM (02:30:19):
Right.

LH (02:30:20):
And then, out here we have the Mexican, and now the immigrants that are coming, which is also an issue. One of the things we are confronted, with, the majority of them are Guatemalan who are [inaudible] escape persecution from their own country. And they have to go all the way through that horrible Mexico situation, and then get to the border, and they get across the border, and then they are deported back. It is something that, as an Indian organization, we have to look at. But the other thing is that it is a continuous program like the federal teachers. It is like the volunteer teachers who are very well-educated and they are come out here to work on Indian reservations, and they do not know [inaudible]. They have had to hire us to come and give them Indian 101 so that they can become effective teachers. Because all of a sudden, they are just thrown out here without any [inaudible]. But we accept that responsibility, and it brings in some resources for us. But again, it is time consuming, so that the continuous education of the general public is probably one of our big-

SM (02:31:48):
You taught 101 to the United States Senate, did not you?

LH (02:31:52):
[inaudible].

SM (02:31:52):
Because I remember you had mentioned yesterday that your husband, obviously there's 100 senators, but did you do 101 for the 100 senators?

LH (02:32:02):
No. It was a group that had members of the Congress and the Senate who had Indian populations [inaudible] get the White House involved. And we brought Indians in. And again, that was one of our big success stories, because at that time, the Indians were the experts. And members of Congress [inaudible] so they did not have any excuse, and it was interesting. We had the literature on it.

SM (02:32:35):
In your opinion, when did the (19)60s begin and when did it end?

LH (02:32:41):
I think, to me, it began with Johnson and the Civil Rights and [inaudible]. That was the backbone that started people changing, and changing their vocabulary, and changing what was politically correct, which has been a real disservice by many people by saying, you can go overboard with politically correct language. But it was so necessary. Even Fred's father who came from specifically Oklahoma, he had to control his need to say "negro." Including Johnson, too. Johnson had to learn to change his rhetoric, too. It was a great learning experience. And now, it's all [inaudible] nothing. I always wondered, during all this time, remember we were still fighting the great communist threat-

SM (02:33:52):
The Cold War.

LH (02:33:53):
Yeah. And all of that. And Reagan gets to take credit for what Gorbachev did, actually, and everybody gives him credit for bringing down the wall, and all that stuff. But he was slow in coming, and forced into it by what Gorbachev achieved. [inaudible] said, "who are they going to hate when they do not have the communist to hate?" Because, oh, the people would just talk like they knew a communist was right around the corner and going to take them over. Now, the-the poor Tea Party people have now found somebody to hate, which is Obama and the "liberal democratic party."

SM (02:34:38):
And all the activists from the (19)60s.

LH (02:34:40):
Yeah. All the activist-

SM (02:34:42):
No matter what the issue.

LH (02:34:44):
No matter what, we are going to change the social nature of those. That is really true. And so, they truly do hate us. And why they are worried, and why they are so dogged about it, is that, in my opinion, they are afraid that the browning of America is occurring, has occurred. And there is no one talking about it. Nobody preparing our society to accommodate it. And that is why immigration is such a big issue, and English First, all the kinds of [inaudible] that they think up. But what is so obvious is the immigration, so that the Hispanics get all of the recognition. But if you talk to Clayburn out of Oklahoma, he hates Indians and will say so, and thinks that we have too much rights. That is the new thing that they say about Indians, we have too many, because we have the right to be self-governing. And it is a very peculiar thing. And we're kind of glad that people are ignorant sometimes, because I think that they understand, here we are a collective tribal institutional government, but in the middle of capitalism, that we own things collectively. And people, they do not understand it, so they cannot quite figure it out.

SM (02:36:20):
And the attitude is, they do not like the victim mentality. The-

LH (02:36:24):
Yes.

SM (02:36:25):
And the anti-environment hatred. Oh, my gosh.

LH (02:36:30):
Oh, gosh. Well, goes particularly against how they interpret the Bible [inaudible] them interpret the Bible. There was the article in one of the Indian magazines, that one of the fundamentalists was preaching, they were going back to the first part of the Bible, saying that we were not the lost tribe of Israel, and we were not good enough to own this land. He was just far out. But you see how they are thinking, and where they are going to come from. And we are going to have a lot more trouble, I think, with this group than we had with any Republicans in the past.

SM (02:37:18):
Yeah. The culture wars are really going on, here.

LH (02:37:25):
That is a good point. The culture wars, and that browning of America is a part of it.

SM (02:37:31):
Yeah. And the anti-environment. I hear, in Pennsylvania, so much disgust for those people that want to save the environment. The dislike is intense.

LH (02:37:50):
Oh. Well, everything they do is so intense and ugly and rude and vulgar. No-

SM (02:37:58):
What was the watershed moment of the (19)60s and (19)70s, in your opinion?

LH (02:38:04):
The war.

SM (02:38:05):
Yeah.

LH (02:38:06):
It just brought everybody down.

SM (02:38:07):
Did the (19)60s ever end?

LH (02:38:10):
Did not for me.

SM (02:38:11):
Yeah. I have got a couple more questions and we will be done. One of the questions I have been asking everyone is this. When you look at the boomer generation, which your kids are part of, and when I say boomer generation, I mean all ethnic groups, all backgrounds, male, female, gay, straight, you name it, all boomers, all 70 to 74 million, so you cannot even come up with an exact number here, do you feel that this generation, the boomer generation, will go to its grave, like the Civil War generation, as a generation not truly healing because of the tremendous divisions that were so prevalent, and the divisiveness that was so prevalent in their lives between Black and White, those who are for the war, those who are against the war, male against female sometimes, all these tremendous divisions and divisiveness. Some say the divisiveness that we have today is directly linked to the divisiveness back then, where no one listened, just basically screamed at each other. Do you feel that this boomer generation is going to go to its grave not truly healing? Is that an issue in your viewpoint?

LH (02:39:31):
I do not see it as an issue. I do not understand them. Mine have gone through this, but they have stayed connected to Indian causes, women causes, and productive rights, and those kinds of things that the far right is trying to over override, but they do not have the zest. They do not have-

LH (02:40:03):
They do not have the zest, they do not have the passion, and they seem rather dull.

SM (02:40:11):
You mean the boomers?

LH (02:40:12):
Yeah, and now. That they are dull now. They do not have any passion.

SM (02:40:17):
Well, as they have gotten older, they do not have any passion?

LH (02:40:20):
That is my [inaudible]. Because where are they? You do not see them organized. And we named a half a dozen real prominent people that were in that boomer group that stayed all night at our house to go demonstrate against the war, and they have all become very good professionals. They did not have children. Some of them did not have children. Like my oldest daughter, and her husband became a professional. It is a different kind of thing. I do not know. I cannot get hold of it. I do not know that I could interpret it. There is an AARP magazine section, there is a whole big story on the boomer's list. Boomers Mean Business, it says, but I have not read the story yet. But they are asking the same question you are. I guess I will read that and see if I agree. But I do not have to...

SM (02:41:24):
Some of the activists that I have talked to in my interviews have said that the activists themselves have continued to be activists in their own way, in different ways. But that the majority of the population that was not involved never got involved.

LH (02:41:40):
Yes. I just watched the, oh, flashback on Jim Taylor and Joan who sang with him.

SM (02:41:50):
Yeah, Carly Simon.

LH (02:41:52):
Yes, and how they were on drugs and everything. I cannot think of his name right now, but heavy-set guy with a gray beard and gray hair. Crosby would be-

SM (02:42:10):
Yeah, Crosby still is nice and young. Yes.

LH (02:42:14):
Well, he said it was a great life because it was between birth control and Aids. And that sex was fun and drugs, we could try anything, there were no limitations to what we could do. And said now they have to have reunions just to relive that, and trying to bring it back into some, which is alarming.

SM (02:42:43):
Well, the religious, not the Christians but the religious right or the conservatives will attack this era of the boomer generation, (19)60s, (19)70s as this is when the divorce rate started to rise. This is when people did not go to church anymore, they had inner spirituality. They were supposed to be such a social group, a community group, yet they all went internally and into their religion. This was the sexual revolution, drugs were rampant, they had no respect for authority, the protests were about law and order. That is how Reagan came to power in California's governor and as president on the issue of law and order. He was against those students at Berkeley and of course he was against the rise of the Welfare state.

LH (02:43:34):
Where do you see them? I do not see them actually psychologically affected by that, but seemed like they all went to become more wealthy and power, wanting power. I do not know.

SM (02:43:51):
I think the criticism really is of the counterculture and the people that did all those things. They feel that the breakup of the family and everything, everything started going downhill because of that generation. The people making these comments are Newt Gingrich, George Will in his writings, Fox News. Governor Huckabee talks about it all the time on his TV show. Rush Limbal on his radio show, Hannity, they all make these kinds of comments. Of course, that is Fox, but conservatives have been making this for a long time that America really went backward in the (19)60s and the (19)70s in their eyes. It is amazing.

LH (02:44:40):
Okay. Well, I guess we better quit because I just realized that long we have been talking.

SM (02:44:46):
Yeah. I got two more questions and then I am going to be done.

LH (02:44:48):
All right.

SM (02:44:50):
Let us see. Did you have any generation gap issues with your kids?

LH (02:44:56):
Not with my children, but I did when we started our program. We first started our program and we had kids, and we were going to run it and all. We found that identity, cultural identity, and people were trying to out-Indian each other. It was very hurtful, too, whether they lived in the city or they were... We always tried to have non-federally recognized tribes to make that one of the issues that people have to be confronted with. That was one of the main contingents of the group, that they were more Indian than somebody else, and that somebody's feelings were hurt because they felt that people were treating them as equal because they were from a non-federally recognized tribe like the Lumbees of North Carolina. We immediately jumped onto it and created a whole first part of the meeting into that they have to all know about their families, their tribes, their bands. And then the community from which they come, the Anglo community, the state, so that they can put themselves into the reality of who they are. We have a pretty close meeting, usually at my house, where they can talk freely, and it becomes very emotional. Some of the pains that they have gone through, how do they deal with racism if they have experienced it? How to let go of it and not let it control your life, and how not to have the anger that is so destructive it creates destructive behavior. But when I had that, I called one of my board members who was in his (19)60s and helped me with all this work. He said, "Well, how did it go?" I said, "Well, we are having trouble with identity." He said, "Hello, LD, I thought we did that in the (19)60s." I thought we had established identity back then but this generation, they do not have the historical knowledge of their ancestors nor do they have the contemporary knowledge of what happened in the (19)60s, because there is not enough written about it. So, there was that vacuum and that is why we created that Indian 101 to help them see a roadmap of how these things developed and how far down we have gotten in the 1800s. And how we have come up now in the (19)60s and how important the (19)60s were to them. And that it created this environment where they are more educated people and all those things, so they can get a holistic picture of how we got to this place. For ancestors historically and then through the (19)60s, which brought about so much change that created the situation we are not at.

SM (02:48:19):
I have two more questions, then we are done.

LH (02:48:19):
Okay.

SM (02:48:20):
This is a broad one. I am just going to list some names. What was it like working with and getting to know the following people? Now, you do not have to talk about everyone, but maybe there is a couple of anecdotes and I will just list them. President Johnson, Senator Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Wayne Morris, Everett Dirkson, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Spirow Agnew, Richard Nixon, Senator Hart and Proxmire, NOA Whiker, Baker Gurney, Montoya Irvin, Musky Culver, Ted Kennedy and Margaret Chase Smith. Those were all names that were so well known in the 60s. Then, of course, the women were Shirley Chisholm, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Lindy Boggs, who took over her husband. And then the first ladies, Lady Bird, Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Nixon, Mrs. Schreiber, who you got to know, and Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Reagan. I do not know if you have any anecdotes on these people because you got to know all of them.

LH (02:49:28):
Mm-hmm. Well, Hubert Humphrey was my hero. He was the most... He seemed to be right. I think as we discussed earlier, that he was the real civil rights and that darn convention, democratic convention to make the party take civil rights decision, and all the things that he did. There was something about him. He was so good-natured and when he talked to you, he was talking to you. He always showed a personal interest in and the conversation. He was not looking over his shoulder to see who was next in line. Johnson, we grew up in Oklahoma, so Texas is right over the border. He was much like Oklahomans, so we had a lot in common with him. He was sometimes prude, but his leadership was an interesting phenomenon. Bobby Kennedy was neighbors and a friend, and we were hosted by him and many times. They were very competitive. They even competed with each other, Bobby and Ted, and the Thrivers and their children, adults, would be competitive. It was interesting. They all had assets that you admired and some things that you said, oh my goodness. What drove them in these certain areas [inaudible]. Anyway, it was a wonderful time. I was annoyed with George McGovern because North Dakota was one of the worst states in the Union about Native Americans, and I made a statement thing that South Dakota was our Mississippi. I got a letter from his wife saying how dare I say something like that. He could articulate it, but he did not see it exotic, as in the Black/white relationship and not in... But we were friends, we were social friends, and there was a lot of social... You had dinner parties and you had members of the Senate, usually mostly members of the Senate, and the press, journalists. What do you call them? The dark and the little fish that goes with it? You had them too, because... And I liked the Eudaws. The Eudaws were great Indian advocates and great-

SM (02:52:29):
Oh yeah, Stuart Eudaw.

LH (02:52:29):
Stuart, he just recently died. I was sitting here looking at pictures of he and I. And Lee, his wife, and I did a lot of Indian art exhibits together. We were neighbors and we would share, and we would get to ride on the go with him on the Sequoia. Because we were kind of different, we got invited to so many ridings and going down the river in the Sequoias. Again, even the Republicans, you could talk to them. There were a few Republicans like Goldwater, and I am just trying to give a couple of others that would be invited to Democratic.

SM (02:53:06):
Everett Dirkson.

LH (02:53:08):
Dirkson and one-

SM (02:53:10):
Hugh Scott.

LH (02:53:12):
Yeah.

SM (02:53:12):
Yeah.

LH (02:53:17):
Some way, I got involved with the international, the Moroccans, because... Anyway, it was a wild experience to consider a Comanche girl from Cotton County getting exposed to all of this. It was just a marvelous, marvelous experience. I was just trying to think of how to do that. And we knew the journalist as well as we knew members of the Congress because they were so important to getting the message across as they were trying to...

SM (02:54:03):
Yes.

LH (02:54:04):
Now, that relation does not exist and it seems like we are not really getting good information. There is no investigative, well, the whole journalist.

SM (02:54:14):
My final question is, what is the legacy of Red Power or Native American Movement overall? As time goes by, when the historians are writing the books of this period, what will be the legacy of Red Power or Native American Movement, and what will be the legacy of the boomer generation, in your opinion?

LH (02:54:39):
Well, it was not just Red Power that did it. Well, I guess if you are putting Red Power, it is everybody that was activists are not the same. Are you just using it-

SM (02:54:48):
Yeah, I am using all.

LH (02:54:51):
Oh, okay. Well, we made such almost extreme changes in the federal attitude toward tribes, and that we gained control of our own lives and we were decolonized. That is what I said what the (19)60s did, decolonized us from the Department of Interior. We became now, where tribe used to work together, now they are all working on their individual, strengthening their own tribal government. Now, we have very wealthy tribes. The gaming tribes are over the top and other tribes are better off. We still have pockets, great pockets of property still up in South Dakota. But they have gotten together and they elected Johnson, and we can be swing votes. We found out that we can be swing votes in like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Montana, Arizona. When we get our act together like that, we can really make a difference. We did it for Clinton and for Obama, but we do not do it on a regular basis because leadership changes. But so that we are more involved in the political process.

SM (02:56:20):
What do you think the legacy of the boomer generation will be?

LH (02:56:25):
That they were born. The numbers and how ill-prepared we were for them. The sociologists who study the up and downs of our country gave us no warning that we were going to have this boom, and that created this problem. Then we rushed out and built colleges and overbuilt them for them. Just the peer numbers of them. Of course, that was because of the war. It was just their existence is their legacy. And that they made us change in some ways, and then we did not... But they made us change by the peer numbers of the positions. They took like sex, what is it? Sex, drugs and rock and roll, that period. And it gave a lot of freedom. It opened a lot of minds and freedom for people. So, I would just say that the fact that they existed was their legacy, that made us had to change, shift our gears to accommodate.

SM (02:57:54):
One final additional note here is books. You're obviously very well-read. We all know about Dee Brown's book, but who, in your opinion, are the greatest Native American writers? And that no matter what era anyone was born, if they read their works, they will truly understand the Native American's history in America?

LH (02:58:26):
Vine Deloria. His book, God is Red.

SM (02:58:35):
He would be the number one?

LH (02:58:38):
Yes. There was three books. His first book was best, I think, and then God is Red. And then, so we have got three books that he saw it and articulated it. The other is Scott Momaday. He had one book that was a Pulitzer Prize that cost him. It was talking about urban Indians, reading that, which is half our population. It was the [inaudible] that urban Indians went through. I count that as a very important book, too.

SM (02:59:17):
What is his name?

LH (02:59:17):
Scott Momaday.

SM (02:59:17):
How do you spell that last name?

LH (02:59:19):
M-O-M-A-D-A-Y.

SM (02:59:24):
Okay.

LH (02:59:25):
He is the Kiowa and his book was House Made of Dawn. We were invited to go to his, when he received the Pulitzer Prize. He was the first. He had never received it. Probably the only one to receive a Pulitzer Prize. There is some newcomers, but they're all anger books, angry. They do not give you a sense of direction.

SM (02:59:51):
How about, do you like Winona LaDuke?

LH (02:59:56):
Yeah, but she is narrowly an environmentalist.

SM (03:00:02):
How about Wilma Mankiller?

LH (03:00:05):
Oh, Wilma? Yeah, she wrote a book. She and I wrote it. We are in one book together, Beloved Women. She was at the Alcatraz, and we just lost her last year, latter part of last year. She became an urban Indian, then came back to the reservation. So, she's the picture of the transition of coming back and contributing to the tribe. I think she's symbolic of that. And she had a publisher that became quite a national speaker.

SM (03:00:49):
I am almost done here. Hold on one second. I know this is going to end it. I really appreciate the time that you have given to me. Bobby Kennedy's funeral train. But did you go to Dr. King's funeral?

LH (03:01:06):
No, Fred did.

SM (03:01:07):
Okay.

LH (03:01:08):
He and Bobby went to Doctor... I do not know exactly why I did not go. I think they were, the children, something about the children and I needed to say. Because it was very traumatic for all of us. We all took it so hard and personally because we were so involved, and he was such an image to it. In the same way, of course, with Bobby. The children would go over and swim in their pool and watch movies and do things, because they are special children. And besides, just the adults became friends, not just the children.

SM (03:01:51):
Did Fred ever talk about the picture of Robert Kennedy that was in Life Magazine? He was sitting at the funeral in Ebenezer Baptist Church and the light was coming through the window, and it was right on him. It made the front cover of Life Magazine. Was Fred with him?

LH (03:02:11):
Yes, they walked together in the parade. I mean, not parade, the funeral, the funeral [inaudible].

SM (03:02:21):
Did he ever talk about that after Bobby was killed, the light falling on him in the church?

LH (03:02:30):
No, he did not because... I do not remember. He may have, but it was such a tragic thing. Everybody was mourning in peculiar ways. Same way with when President Kennedy was killed. I remember where I was and how angry I became. I said, "I hope people are satisfied," because in Oakland, they were preaching against him with these Catholics.

SM (03:03:04):
Well, your kids are boomers, and I guess I will end with this. That is, that here we had a president of the United States killed in (19)63 and we had the distinguished civil rights leader killed in (19)68, and then a United States Senator killed exactly two months later in 1968. I know your kids were teenagers or going to college or younger, but how do you explain that as a parent to kids when they see these kinds of things happen, murder in your own country? How were you able to talk to your kids about why, and just being a parent?

LH (03:03:50):
Well, they felt some of those things. They felt them the same way that we did, that they had lost something, and thought why it was they were exposed to the hate. That is what makes the Tea Party people so painful is that their rhetoric is so hurtful. And that we were exposed to that, and during equal, we integrated into Oklahoma and other things, particularly against African-Americans, because it was so overt. And recognizing these. I do not know. I how we dealt with it. I think they felt so sorry for us, too, because we were in such mourning that they were comforting us. I guess that is [inaudible].

SM (03:04:53):
Yeah, and certainly your husband being in the United States Senate, having those two people killed a two-month period of time, it had to change the atmosphere within the Senate, too, I would think.

LH (03:05:04):
Yes, and I am sure it was very worrisome to the children, too, about going out and campaigning for Humphrey after Kennedy was killed. I am sure that they were, well, something, though they never articulated. I guess I was so stuck with my own grief that I would not considered them. Though, we discussed it to some degree and we sent food over and we did things that we're supposed to do to make ourselves feel better. It is an interesting question. I never thought about that.

SM (03:05:50):
I will end with this, and that is I think Dr. King, who was so prophetic in so many ways, and I want to see if you agree with this. He would always say... Let us see, what was the word I was going to say? Oh, my golly. I forgot my train of thought here. It was a word he always used when... Oh. He used to always say, you can kill the dreamer, but you cannot kill the dream.

LH (03:06:13):
Kill the dream. Yes.

SM (03:06:15):
That is a great lesson for young people, no matter what age they are.

LH (03:06:18):
That is right.

SM (03:06:19):
Because if people think they can wipe out a cause, it is like saying, okay, I am going to shoot...

LH (03:06:27):
Like it will stop. Yeah.

SM (03:06:30):
Yeah, it's like if you kill someone, it will stop what is going on. That is ridiculous. It is the idea. It is what is just.

LH (03:06:38):
Look what is happening in Northern Africa. They will never be the same. Just that is a gigantic world change.

SM (03:06:51):
Yeah, it is amazing. I am done. I want to thank you very much.

LH (03:06:56):
Okay.

SM (03:06:56):
You have given me three hours of your time and I really treasure it. I have nine to 10 months of transcribing. My interviews are ending this month, and then I got to just sit and transcribe all these. You will see your transcript. I am going to need two pictures of you, you can send by email to my address. A current picture and then maybe one when you younger with Fred.


LH (03:07:22):
Okay.
SM (03:07:23):
Because those pictures will be at the top of the interview. I was wondering, do you still go out and lecture?

LH (03:07:30):
Yes.

SM (03:07:30):
Have you ever gone out and lectured with your former husband?

LH (03:07:34):
Well, we did. Before we divorced we did. But we are very good friends and these other... Well, let us see. When our son comes in from LA, we always have a lunch. We manage to see each other at least once a month.

SM (03:07:50):
Well, I know when I interviewed him last summer, actually towards the latter part, he has tremendous respect for you. He brought up several points when I was interviewing him about, "You got to talk to LaDonna because she is the leader of this." You were an unbelievable team, and boy, what a life you have lived. You have got your legacy.

LH (03:08:11):
Yeah.

SM (03:08:12):
You have your legacy, and it is not only in your kids but it is in your deeds. I hope I can meet you sometime.

LH (03:08:19):
Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Maybe when I come back. I am right now going through a little cancer scare, so I am thinking sometime-

SM (03:08:28):
Well, I hope you are okay.

LH (03:08:29):
Yes, but I have to go through this medication. As soon as I get through that, I am going to California, Pennsylvania and start working on their institute, helping work on creating that institute.

SM (03:08:45):
Well, geez, I will drive over and meet you. We will take you to lunch.

LH (03:08:48):
Yes, and I have a crazy... Our only non-Indian board member is a crazy Greek. Dr. Christoff is there in Pittsburgh, and I was hoping he could come down. Maybe we can all get together and talk.

SM (03:09:03):
Yeah, and I could take some pictures, too. I was thinking, I have gotten to know Rennie Davis, the (19)60s radical. I do not know if you knew this, he became a multi-millionaire.

LH (03:09:16):
No.

SM (03:09:16):
Oh, yeah. You go on his website. Rennie is very successful. He went into some sort of technology business and made lots of money, then he sold it. Now, he has been doing spirituality stuff. One thing about him, when he left the anti-war movement in the late (19)60s or early (19)70s, a lot of the guys like Tom Hayden were saying, this guy has gone into a strange direction because he was into inner spirituality and all this other stuff. But he was the intellectual of the anti-war movement. He was the smart guy. He went to Oberlin College in Michigan. Now, because of what has been happening with the protests in Wisconsin and elsewhere, he's inspired now to go back out and talk. He hasn't talked about the (19)60s in 30 years.

LH (03:10:02):
Golly.

SM (03:10:03):
It's driving him. I interviewed him in Washington last summer when he was on one of his spirituality trips with his assistant, so he's a Facebook friend of mine. Now, he and Bobby Sealer are starting to go out next fall on the lecture circuit again, talking about this is the time, protest is necessary. America's going through some unbelievable changes.

LH (03:10:28):
I cannot understand how people can work and be so avid against their own self-interest. Like those Tea Party people are tearing down the unions and killing the middle class, being against... Can you imagine those poor people being against health?

SM (03:10:50):
Well, some people are comparing the Tea Party people to the anti-war movement of the (19)60s. I do not agree with that.

LH (03:10:59):
No. There was a positive outcome that they were trying to see.

SM (03:11:04):
Right.

LH (03:11:07):
You cannot see anything positive coming out of the [inaudible].

SM (03:11:09):
Yeah, and the unions are under assault. Oh, my goodness.

LH (03:11:13):
I know.

SM (03:11:13):
They are called thugs in Pennsylvania. Anyways.


LH (03:11:18):
Okay, we will get on another-

(End of Interview)

2011-03-08

Stephen McKiernan

Ladonna Harris

191:34

English

Binghamton University Libraries

audio/mp4

Sound

2 Microcassettes

Audio

Civil rights workers; Political activists--United States; Comanche Indians; Politicians--United States--Oklahoma; National Urban Coalition (U.S.); Americans for Indian Opportunity; Harris, Ladonna--Interviews

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