Guarding Tribal Land - Louisiana Creole Native American documentary
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- #ancestry #findingyourroots #ancestrydna #dnatest #louisiana #nativeamerican #creole #familyhistory #genealogy #familystory
Come explore the importance of preserving and protecting tribal land for future generations. Chief Collum plays a central role in the film as a guardian of sacred spaces and traditions within his community and people, a Louisiana Creole tribe called the Butte Tribe of Bayou Bourbeaux from Natchitoches, Louisiana. Through stories, interviews, and sacred spaces, explore Chief Collum's family history, and his responsibilities as a leader, delving into themes of generational guardianship and the cultural significance of tribal land.
A film by NYTN
www.nytonashville.com
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Want to rewatch any of "Finding Lola"? Here's the series:
Watch the Episode 1 that started the whole journey:
• In 1930, our ethnicity...
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Thank you @nytn Danielle for helping shine light on our no longer Hidden Tribe. The documentary was really good and I know everyone will enjoy it. I’m so proud of my family and friends that help support OUR tribe. Being a grandson of White Smoke; it’s a honor to see history unfold right before our eyes!!!!
It was an incredible honor!
@@nytn 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I'm honored to be council member of my Tribe. Thank you Danielle and Daniel. Our ancestors would be proud of the way you have presented their story, our store our history. Not only do we advance our individual members community as a whole. Our family his left a mark on this world for many many generations, because of you it's now known. We have truly gone from hidden to highlighted
I love how this documentary sheds light on our history and shows the beautiful scenery of the land where our ancestors once walked. Proud of chief and our tribe!!
The land is an important character in the film itself!
I completely agree! It has been captured well! I also love that it isn't just ground level. Y'all did a good job Danielle, thank you ❤️
Awesome Documentary full of great history Great Work Danielle and Butte Tribe of Bayou Bourbeaux
so glad you were here live with me!
This was beautiful. Keep your ancestors alive! I believe in this! I love it
It's amazing how many stories were saved!
This is an important piece of information and oh how blessed you are to have sit down with this great Chief and these wonderful people!! AWESOME job!!
It completely blew us away when we showed up and realized just how deep the family story goes
As a mixed Native and Kréyòl myself, I'm not in the habit of questioning people who claim Native and have community. That said, I will question the iconography that this tribe uses. They claim to be Indigenous to Louisiana and yet the regalia and decorations are imitations of a generalized Plains aesthetic. They have naming traditions that do not match up with what I know from surrounding people's. They mentioned that the landkeepers were Chitimacha, but none of this aligns with Chitimacha. These are all things that make me, a person who is indigenous to Louisiana and descended from communities across the territory (including Chitimacha), squint.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it! I can't speak for their history or whatnot, as this was a project done for them as a client, although I personally descend from a Chitimacha line as well. I'd be happy to get you in touch with Belinda, their vice chief, if you'd like though.
Thank you NYTN and all who participated, great documentary!
Glad you enjoyed it!☺😌
It was amazing how they kept the secret of who they were.
At least someone was there to tell the stories.
My family kept so many secrets, no one knows how much history was lost.
Wonderful documentary.
Stephanie, I hate thinking about the history that is lost. Nothing is worse. so many stories to save still!
When they are traveling to the mound and the islands the scenery is so beautiful. There is something about the Louisiana trees, especially near the waterways, that tends to pull me in and I love it. There is a peacefulness that I was able to perceive at the burial spots even through the video. I can only imagine what it is like to be there in person. I loved hearing about the young boys jumping onto the horses and of how much fun they had as the horses did everything to get rid of their unwanted passengers. I like it when kids get to be kids so long as they don't get hurt too badly. 😉
This is a lovely documentary and thank you, Danielle, for sharing it with us. ❤
I agree, the cypress trees are....otherworldly to me. They scared me a bit, felt like they were alive and very ancient. It was incredible to be there
The trees are magical!!! Just think about how much they have seen and survived. Oh the stories 🍃🌿🍃🌿🍃
@@bnboerne Thats exactly how the make me feel! I have no idea how old they are
Who needs a history book when you've got this Wonderful Chief as family.... Love again what you are sharing. Thanks so much
Glad you enjoyed it!!
Fascinating! Thank you!
great info loved it
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great work by NYTN and helping them preserve their Indian Heritage for generations to come…Is there any family connection for you personally?
yes! Lola's mother's side is part of this family from the Texas Missions, Chief White Smoke from Mexico (Joseph Pareda) was her 3rd grandfather I think. Small world down there....
@@nytn Don't forget your Chitimacha bloodline through the captive, Marie Theresa De La Grande Terre. The Perot name is the Chitimacha bloodline which for you came from two of Pelagie Grappe's children, Alphonse Perot and his sister, Celeste Perot. Pelagie was Francois Grappe's daughter. He was the grandson of Marie Theresa. Your other Texas Indian names were: Perez, Cardova, and Flores.
@@belindabrooks8679 You are right! You're so good with these names
It is without doubt a small world! ❤💯
You know it makes sense now, reflectingon why Lola left behind this part of her life...they must have made her feel like she wasn't American enough or that by being so mixed raced she might have endured some prejudices..when he said they wanted them to become "civilized" ugh it just brought back the feelings of being treated as a less than person simply because u weren't from the right background...what their generation went thru is heartbreaking and im sure there's residual prejudices there still..thats why it's so important to get these stories documented, so much is lost within each generation. Thank god you did this film, we are all so lucky to have been able to see this and be aware of this part of Louisiana history that was covered up for way too long...🩷🩷🩷
Priscilla Perez. I've been fallowing you on finding Lola. Now here we are watching the same video.❤
Me too!
Beautiful production
Appreciate that
I am SO proud of our Chief Thunderstick and our tribe!! If it were not for him and our ancestors teaching him our history, we would have ended up extinct. He took me, he took the tribal members to these places and told us the stories of our ancestors!! He has given me a link and knowledge that is priceless!! I am proud of who we are. I am proud of who I am! And, I want to make my Chief proud!!!
My Chief is better than your chief!
Love y’all,
Te Ata
It was really amazing going to all of the locations, my favorite part was the boat ride to the mound!
Kimmie, we are so proud of you. Our hopes are in you and your generation to keep our history going. Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for. The chiefs being faithful in not only handing our oral history down, but listening to their hearts and picking the right descendants to carry the story to the next generation. Until a few years ago, there was no hope of our people ever knowing anything about our Native American heritage with White Smoke. We understood our history with Marie Theresa De La Grande Terre, the Chitimacha captive. But, the only family that can truly say that they kept it all together was the Desadier family. Awesome! bb
@krmarine123 Your chief is hardly even a real chief at all... with the blood quantum level that he has. So, yeah... is your chief better than any chief that lives in my state ((of South Dakota))? Not even close... at least the chiefs here are more Native than they are white. LOL!
Not sure why it is titled Louisiana Creole Native American Documentary? Appears to be mainly whites with some Native American blood from that area.
David, that was how they have self identified for a few hundred years! Im sure people have married in over that time like most places.
I didn't know about tribes keeping it a secret to avoid boarding school.
I guess the bigger tribes couldn't hide.
yes they are much more of a very large family, at least it was at the time! Now the tribe is larger and more spread out:)
@@nytn That was a good way to protect themselves.
What our tribe had going for it that others may not have, was the location of the tribe near Natchitoches. Natchitoches was a hot spot of world cultures. Being a creole Native American tribe our bloodlines were mixed with French and Spanish blood as well as some others. The Europeans wanted a true claim to our Louisiana territorial land. Did you know that Native Americans were the first slaves in America? When the Europeans raided Native American villages throughout the 1700s, their captives were Native American women to have children that carried their bloodline. Our tribe is a mixed Native American tribe with bloodlines from Chitimacha, Teja/Texas, and Caddo Indians. Most of our Native American ancestors are women for that reason. To get back to my first thought, because our blood was mixed with European blood, we could hide in the midst of our communities without being noticed by those who did not know us. We could claim French, Spanish, Mexican, Black bloodlines. Our skin tones varied. As long as we did not claim to be Native Americans, we had nothing to worry about. Any culture with the exception of Native Americans, could own land and not fear for the lives of their children who could be taken away to boarding schools. The census takers who were from the surrounding communities would not list families as Native American even if they knew for a fact they were. Very few were listed as Native Americans.
I went to Christian Harmony. My mother was baptized there. I grew up on Bayou Boobie. We lived in the old farmhouse that Wilmer Trichel had on his land. My brother used to play on Rodger Lee’s softball team. There used to be a nice field out there in the bayou. I have no idea why it was left to go to seed. My grandmother was a Deshay. My dna report says that I’m 1% Native American-Mexico and 1% Cameroon, Congo, and western Bantu peoples. This video says that the values instilled were to help those that needed help. I guess my family didn’t count as “family” because all we ever saw was poverty and bullying on the school bus by this dude’s oldest son Shannon. I’m just saying all of this to point out that there are two sides to every situation. You’re only hearing the side of this person and his followers. Go down further on bayou Boobie and speak to other people who have lived there all their lives. They might paint a different picture for you. That’s a documentary that should also be made. There’s plenty of oral history to be found in that area.
Hi Mary! Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. There are often many sides to every story, but everyone I talked to (dozens of dozens of people) from the area all seemed to confirm the same experience over there. I’m not from there, and so can’t speak to things but I’ll tag Belinda Brooks in the other comment who would be happy to talk more with you
I grew up in the area and went to school with some of the Desadiers.
They’re everywhere! Lol
Very fascinating story.
Wonderful! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
It was an amazing project!
@@nytn it was such a wonderful coincidence that I saw your initial videos but I’m an so happy that I did. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the journey with you and your family.
Allan, Im so glad you are on the journey with us!
Who will be there to take over from the Chief? What about his family and heirs?
Time will tell. No one can replace Chief Collum. We have applied for federal recognition. A lot of what happens to our tribe in the future depends on what happens with the petition.
@@belindabrooks8679 . I came across this video yesterday. My cousin has been working on our family tree for several years now. This family is in our tree. Soo excited to have found this video.
that is awesome, Debbie! I hope your family loves learning about this piece of family history
@@debbiejarvis8177 Who are some of your ancestors?
@@debbiejarvis8177 This statement is not in reference to you or your family because I am not sure who you are at this time. All of our ancestors lived on this land in Bayou Bourbeaux.. all of them. We have had some people who married into our families from other areas of Natchitoches like Coulterville, the Cane River people going South of Natchitoches, Saline, Shreveport, etc. If they married into our Butte families and had children, then they were accepted as part of the family. All the branches of our tree connect to the same ancestors except for those who married into our family.
I was the person who made the decision to start a tribe in Natchitoches. That tribe of the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana (NTL). I was elected the first chief of that tribe, but I chose to give that position to Fred Simon because I knew he wanted the title of Chief. I could care less about the position. My goal was to get state and federal acknowledgement in memory of our ancestors who were treated so badly. As I was writing NTLs federal petition, I realized the tribe would never go anywhere without an oral history. Not only that, there was no family in Black Lake that could prove their existence as a Native American family since 1900. None! So, at that time, I decided to petition for State recognition. We got that by the back door, because we couldn’t get pass the Senate committee.
That’s when I found Rodger with all the oral history, the land with the mounds, the mystic springs, the buffalo lick, the artifacts, and so much more. I left the other tribe due to a disagreement with the council about. Rodger, who had recently joined that tribe because of pressure from me. He decided he and the rest of our families did not want to be a part of a tribe that I was not in. He asked me to be his Vice Chief. I committed to his/our tribe. Our goal is federal recognition! We’re very close.
Said all that to say this, all our members need to be a part of our tree. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) explained to me that federal recognition has to do with being a tribe/family… not about having Native American blood. If a person has Native American blood, but does not relate to the family then they do not belong to your tribe. Does that make sense? That’s why I always ask for who a person’s ancestors are. For Butte Tribe, our families include all the families on both sides of the lakes in the Trichell, Clarence, Campti communities. We’re one big tree.
We have so much history that I can only hope that Rodger and I have time to record it all. It is so exciting!
My question for chief here is does he remember the presidential primary of 1984? Does he remember saying, “It’s time for me to go vote for the ______ (with a hard r)” in reference to voting for Jesse Jackson? Let’s just say chief here integrated into “white society” very well. I lost all respect I might have eventually had for him on that day.
Are they your relatives?
It was a client project, but I learned we were related!
@@nytn Amazing! We should only identify as HUMAN BEINGS! Leave the RACE thing alone.
5 Dollar INDIANS NOT ABORIGINE AMERICANS NOT AFRICAN R MONGOLIAN WE BEEN HERE
???
They look black to me