Trad Gang

This morning as I finished writing my column I searched the web for the perfect picture to compliment the story. What I ended up finding was a walk down memory lane. I hit on an image that solidified the times in the mid 70's and I was thrust into vivid and colorful walk down memory lane into out Nations past. Here's a video that should take many of you back to a day when Fred Bear was still alive, compound bows were just being tinkered with, and Coke-a-cola was trying to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Yo-yo's were the toy to own, bell bottoms were still hip, station waggons were considered a family car, and the nation was still reeling from the Vietnam conflict and somthing later called Watergate. I do think you older guys will appreciate the video I found. Remember when-  video (http://www.marsteller.com/movies/advertising/indian.mpg)   CK

A blast from the past.    Thanks  It still hits home and has meaning today.
ChuckC

CK,

Thanks for the memory. They could play it today and it would still have meaning. Iron Eyes was a great image of his people.

I remember that one and I think they made a couple more similar commercials about pollution with him.

Dennis

He would be sorely dissapointed at his own people if he walked through any reservation these days. I've never seen more polluted places other than inner city ghettos. You don't have to have a lot of money to have pride and respect.

A great message that generally falls on deaf ears. People are pigs by nature.

Mickey:
Only one problem with Iron eyes cody, He was not an Indian, He was Italian  Born Apr 3 rd 1904 died Jan 4,1999 He was born in Gueydan Louisana His real name was Espera De Corti the son of a Sicilian immigrant
Bob

He was adopted by the Mohawk nation.

i must say that commercial really brings back some memories. i remember as a young boy really being captured by the tear on his face and feeling his pain.      

it's hard to believe that before white man the native American's lived here and produced basically zero trash living off the land.  times have really changed! sometimes i catch myself drifting off and wishing i had been around then instead of now.

Curtis.. You do seem to have a way of "JOLTING" the complacency in all of us. WELL DONE Bud  :notworthy:    :notworthy:  

I Need these reminders and MEMORIES, more now than then.

I remember that one. Thanks for bringing it back up.It still has a lot of impact.

Yea, jolting, no doubt! I remember well the feelings it stirred back then. I think I was about 8 years old when I first saw the commercial. It always made me so sad. I believe that was the intended purpose.


Vance, you have mail sir! CK

Paleface.  I suspect wholeheartedly that they did indeed create waste and trash, especially in the larger settlements, however, theirs was not the type that stays around for centuries, except for the lithic type.    I also suspect highly that if they had plastic bottles and glass bottles and cigarettes with filters, the landscape would have looked like it does earlier. \\\\\\

One person throwing out some trash is nearly invisible.  Thousands, or millions doing so and it is no longer invisible...but...then it becomes an accepted and expected part of the landscape.  

How many people do you see and hear today that bitch like heck about the litter....but do nothing about it.   it is always "someone else's" responsibility or fault.

It doesn't end at litter.   We are...what we are.
ChuckC

I remember that well.

I'm on dialup. It wouldn't play for me.

I always carry a small plastic grocery sack with me when I go hunting. As I leave the woods each day I fill the sack up with throw-away garbage that has been left behind by others. I have been doing this for several years. I never run out of sacks and regretfully I never run out of empty cans, bottles,and other assorted trash either.
                                    Jim

Where did you find that!?  Yeah, I remember it too.  And for being Italian, he made a pretty good Indian.

At a film festival where I was playing once I had the opportunity to sit down with Iron eyes and I sang a song I wrote about Geronimo for him. He told me that he portrayed Geronimo three times in different movies.

I hate it when Curtis gets all emotional

Curtis,
     Very timely, our local archery club had one of our highway clean up days today, we have a two mile section in The Big Thompson Canyon.
     "Old Guys" I resemble that remark I remember the add well. Thanks for the memories.

                      Tater

Curtis, Thanks for the Vidio.  I remember that one. Brings back good times. Bob, I'm no Indian, but I love to shoot bows and arrows.......

Mark

Excellent find Curtis, and yes, it seems like yesterday when I saw it last.

Indian or not, the portaryal was very well done and should drive the message home for any self respecting american.

I hear ya Ferret.  

I have been out west many times and I told my wife, "These people must not have ever seen Iron Eyes Cody Cry"

Every culture produces a percentage of remarkable people, a percentage of average people, and a percentage of people with broken spirits. These percentages vary within any cultural group, and tend to change over time. This is true for any culture at any time in history.

It is true that many reservations are in shambles for a variety of obvious reasons, and also for deep seated, pervasive, far reaching reasons. Until one has lived through having their culture taken away, their language taken away, their land taken away, and literally their lives taken away, it may not be possible to comment accurately on what they have become, so easily. If one is raised in poverty and despair, one tends to pass it on to their children. It becomes a cultural story.

Many Native Americans have overcome their circumstances, and many have not. There are people all over the world who, is a similar fashion, feel trapped by their circumstances. Some find a way out through education and a sense of their own self worth, while others define themselves by their circumstances and remain trapped. This is a human problem and not unique to Native Americans, but it is typical of a people who have had their lives smashed and their culture scattered to the wind.

There was a time not so long ago when Native Americans were a cohesive, masterful race. They did not invite cultural disaster upon themselves. Fortunately Native American cultural identity is on the rise.  

   (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/ghostbow/native-american.jpg)

Mr. Moon...Well said SIR...Very well said  :notworthy:    :notworthy:

AHO!!!

Boy that takes my back a few years. That is one of the reasons I now work in the environmental clean-up industry.

Well said Bob, and great picture.

Danny

We are what we are, might it not be a good thing to try to become what we might be...decent accountable and humble,leaving the world a better place for our having been here?
chrisg

Thanks Curtis!

Well, that was a first for me. I'veseen many parodies of the advert (even on Futurama!), but that's the first time I've ever seen the original. It really does drive the message home well, doesn't it.

I just got back from a 1700 mile tour of Tennessee &, apart from one noteable incident, I was simply amazed by how clean & tidy the State is. Obviously someone there cares about litter & it's environmental impact. We regularly saw gangs of guys along the highways & Interstates just picking litter & filling trash bags, something that is sadly unheard of over here. Jules & I both commented many times about how clean & tidy the place is, to the point that a coke can on the verge can be spotted from a mile away!

I think the world would benefeit from the ad being re-released

I remember the first commercial.  It was powerful.

Nice words Ghost Dog.

As he always does with his stories, Curtis has once again managed to shake up our thoughts and send us reeling off on our own.

I would HIGHLY recommend every one taking a ride with him in his "Bowyer's Journal" column and get the "Rest of the Story"

I wonder how many Native Americans are celebrating Columbus Day today? They probably consider it Black Monday....

Yes,They do Gene.

Most excellent point Ghost Dog. To be stripped of your being and culture. Is a tradgity.

And thanks Curtis, it does bring back the past. Luckily I think things are better now than then.JMO Bottle deposits and returns have done alot to clean up our roadsides.

After this past winters first ever Amtrac train trip out west. There sure where a lot of small pretty little towns. Made to look like a dump along the tracks. Gives a whole (old) meaning from the wrong side of the tracks.

               Brent

That ad struck me to the bone when I first saw it. I always loved seeing Iron Eyes in the movies. Not that the story lines were all that accurate, nor the stereotyped portrayals, but the costuming would be superb. I love old westerns, before the color ones with women in orange lipstick and blue eyeshadow. The old black-and-whites usually had beautiful work purchased from old-style beaders and featherworkers. I bought Mr. Cody's book "Indian Talk", about sign language, but mostly looked at the beautiful costumes worn by him and his family. I was saddened by his death in 1999, as I feared his knowledge and the commercial would fade into the mists and be lost. There are, evidently, many who carry his impact in their hearts.

I just returned from the place where I spend three weeks every November. It is a place which never ceases to amaze me with the richness of the life with which it was endowed. It is unique, contains a wild variety of plant and animal life, has taught me many lessons and has humbled me with its many gifts to me.

Back on the trail, I always find discarded power drink cans, snuff cans, beer cans and bottles, and an unending chagrin that these sacred lands must bear the footsteps of those who do not love them. I have come back many times with my cargo pockets rattling, shaking my head and being angry. The choice is either pick it up and carry it out, or hunt. I cannot hunt with bottles and cans in my pockets.

I go to the spring which blesses the land it flows through to become the Potomac River, and slakes the thirst of the deer and the bear, carries the native brookies and shelters the beaver, to gather this magic and whisper a prayer. I find cigarette butts and a soda bottle, half full of a blue product.

The beat goes on.

Italian?? Yeah, go ahead and crush another childhood dream!!!  :rolleyes:  

Killdeer

hormoan said:  Most excellent point Ghost Dog. To be stripped of your being and culture. Is a tradgity.

That is a fact and it can happen to us too if we do not keep our guard up.

A strong border and a strong military is needed.  If not someone who is stronger or has better technolgy or has shear numbers will put us in the same place.

Interesting comments by all. Good to know I wasn't the only one who was impacted by the commercial. There's been a lot of stuff on the documentary channels lately. I don't watch much TV anymore but what I've watched here lately has been kinda reminescent. There certainly has never been any time in history when so much took place in such a short period of time as it did in the late 60's and early 70's. Man it was flying from all angles!!!    :scared:   Makes a guy wonder where all those thought processes came from. Heck, Wilber had a horse that talked and had his own TV Show.   :D  

It sure made for some colorful memories!   :thumbsup:

Ghost dog...you are correct, that is a fact, but with all due respect to our aboriginal folks...

many in this world, in our life times, have gone thru that same set of circumstances.  I am betting nearly half of the people that came to the US, Europeans, Asians, and nearly everyone else, has fled their country, their lives, their customs, their language.  They came here, some because they wanted to, but many more because they had very little choice, due to war, due to work, due to social disparities of all sorts.

My early family came here to escape the ravishes of World War I.  All the above changes were faced by each of them.

This goes on yet today, even as we sit here and chat.  

I don't like it, but I also don't have an answer.
People have been this way since the beginning and to my knowledge no group so far has been absent this trait.  

Someone different is not so easily taken in, is not so easily accepted as equal, and in fact is very easily, maybe traditionally, called upon to be the scape goat of our own problems.  Couldn't be MY fault, must be HIS.

Maybe that is one thing we can all work on.
ChuckC