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tv   United Shades of America  CNN  May 14, 2017 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT

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♪ /s [cheering and applauding] >> this is the episode we did about the indigenous people of this country. [cheering and applauding] >> a lot of times b people feel in america we own the deed to the suffering. every time i talk to indigenous people in this country, i'm just like, i'm not saying we haven't suffered, but you, you really -- you've more than done your part. i mean, even some of the expressions that come out of the history of native people in this country. indian giver? yeah, there you go. one black man said, huh-uh.
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indian giver -- the idea of an indian giver, someone gives you something and they want it back. the part of that definition we're missing is because it's theirs. [ laughter ] >> what did you say? >> european giver. >> european giver. we have a winner. there we go, everybody. [ applause ] >> for now on, that's what you say. take that home for thanksgiving, everybody. [ laughter ] >> sitting there with your family. i got something for you this year. [ laughter ] >> i'm going to ruin the holiday. [ laughter ] >> my name is w. kamau bell. as a comedian, i've made a living finding humor in the parts of america i don't understand, and now i'm challenging myself to dig deeper. i'm on a mission to reach out and experience all the cultures and beliefs that add color to this crazy country. this is the "united shades of america." ♪ >> normally when i think about america's original sin, i'm thinking abo slavery.
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but if i'm honest, americans started screwing up before that. before america had a name, the cake was already being baked, christopher columbus landed in the caribbean and said, hello, indians. and the people said, nope, you're way west of india, pal. instead of columbus saying, what should i call you, he said, hello, west indians. the treatment of the indigenous people of this country is a story of massacres, sexual assault, serial lies and betrayals that were all wiped from the pages of american history books by two words. happy thanksgiving. but in the last year, a movement has emerged that began as a dispute between the standing rock reservation in north dakota and the oil industry. and it has turned into a reckoning. on one side there are over 300
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tribes from all over the country in the world and on the other side there's big oil, the federal government, and the indifference of millions of americans. yep, while millions of people were screaming no dap l, millions of others were screaming for this guy. look, i'm not a cubs fan, but i'm sure happy that their win meant more of this and less of this. yikes. that's why this week i'm going to the standing rock and pine ridge reservations and i'll be starting my journey here at the camp site. just outside of bismark, north dakota, a few lines from the front lines of the department n demonstrations. most times i go places where i'm like one of the few black people, i feel much like i'm the only black person. here i just feel like i'm not native american. it's not about my blackness, it's about my lack of indigenous
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status. just hoping i'm not intruding and hoping you're not intruding. [ laughter ] >> they would say, thank you for your struggle. thank you for saying -- thank you for saving everything, the beauty of mother earth. >> now, in case you haven't been paying attention, a company, etp, is creating a pipeline to take oil from north dakota to illinois. when they first got permits for construction, the pipeline was going through here. but the u.s. core of engineers scrapped that plan, citing among other things, the proximity of water supply from business mark. apparently it wasn't a problem to reroute it through here, lands which the u.s. government said they owned. but owned isn't really the right
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term. per the treaty of 1851, the sioux indians own it, but uncle sam broke the treaty and many more through the years because that's what he does. and modern courts won't give it back. regardless, they are saying they don't want the pipeline close to them because of the same reason the u.s. army corps of engineers scrapped the original plan. it goes through their main water supply and also pipelines have a long history of doing things like this. water is supposed to be available. about this, i think they have an idea this specifically native american issue. >> no, it's not. this is a global issue that we're speaking of. it really comes to looking at it, we live in a very small world and we need to keep our water clean for everybody. >> so, how long do you think this is going to go on? >> till the black snake is dead. >> that's poetic and hard core, till the black snake is dead.
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yvonne, how did you come to be here today? >> i came to be here because it affects my kids. i'm sorry. >> that's okay. >> i worry about them. i worry about their kids. >> can i give you a hug? [ laughter ] >> thank you very much. the emotions you see here are real because despite how it is portrayed, it is a life and death situation. >> dan. >> dance, nice to meet you. my real name, a little bit of tongue twister. >> for those of us who are not from these parts. what made you decide to come here? >> i came here is to stand for our treaties, stand with the treaties, stand with the people, stand for the land and water, protect it because, you know, this is allowed, permitted to happen. who says it won't stop here? >> if dan sounds paranoid, oh, he ain't.
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because even though the constitution of the united states clearly says that treaties are the supreme law of the land, uncle sam has made and broken over 100 treaties with natives taking land and cheating them in every conceivable way. my personal favorite example happened in 1829 when president jackson promised natives their new land would be protected as long as grass grows or water runs. but guess what? once they found gold in them thar hills, the grass stopped growing and the water stopped running. tell me about the context of native americans and, you know, america historically. >> historically, 1978 was the first time that -- in the united states they permitted us to do our ceremonies. for a while when they started these reservations, that was outlawed. >> really, aren't reservations you weren't allowed to do your ceremonies? >> we couldn't do. so, is has beea real hard
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struggle the people have had to learn their identity. >> yep, you heard it right. natives weren't protected under the first amendment on their reservations until the disco era, which means man had walked on the moon and on the hustle before natives were able to pray on their own lands. dan, are you leading me to believe that the government of this country and maybe even the white people who run this country were trying to make your race feel inferior to their race? because that sounds familiar to me >> we know what we're talking about. >> that's right, brother. and what do you think it was the future for native americans in this country, how do you see it? >> really right now, it's a reawakening of our warrior spirit, our people, the face, the black snake, whatever is going to come at us in the next few days, few weeks, few months. i'm dressed in the finest, and then one day, if i have to make that stand, you know, with my life, i want to go with the best.
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>> well, i clearly did not dress up in my finest. so, today is my final day, it's going to look quite sloppy. thank you for standing next to me. you're making me look better by standing next to you, so i appreciate that. i appreciate that. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, thank you. this is rosenberg. he loves taking pictures. and with sprint's unlimited plan we can post whenever we want. (vo) lease a samsung galaxy s8, and get a galaxy s7 edge lease on us. that's two galaxy's for the price of one. plus, get unlimited $30 per month per line for four lines. and now your fifth line free. for people with hearing loss, works for me. visit sprintrelay.com. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after carefuconsideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations
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this is the second episode we shot. as you watch more episodes, you'll see i started to dress better. [ laughter ] >> after standing next to dan who was in full ra gayle i can't, i was like, i need to start dressing better. if he dies, he goes outlook being like a warrior. if i die, i look like a substitute p.e. teacher. [ laughter ]
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>> being here at standing rock, itd not to feel all the feels. anger, inspiration, resignation, craving froyo, the kind where you pick your own topping, shaved coconut. i'm sorry, i'm off topic. i know one of the keys to learning about people is dismantling the stereo types about those people. i'm going to talk to an attorney for the ajibwe tribe and founder of not your mascot.org and also with senator bernie sanders. she can help me debunk misconceptions about indian -- native -- that should be my first question. what should i say? what is the right thing for people to say who are not native to this land? >> i think the safest thing to say would be native or indigenous. >> so not native american? >> some folks have an issue with
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being called americans because that citizenship was forced upon native people. >> okay, that's good to know. those of us who are not indigenous to the land like the idea of casinos and especially black people feel like why can't we get casinos? it sounds like a dream. it sounds like something where you think of all that money going in and the money coming out. >> casinos aren't all they're cracked up to be. it's not like it just made every native american a really, really rich person. instead, you know -- >> or even not a poor person. >> not a poor person. there are some very, very wealthy tribes that have been fortunately -- their reservations were located next to urban centers. but for the most part, we're living -- we're in north dakota right now, right? >> yeah. your casinos in north dakota are sort of like mostly dealing with people who live there already. >> dealing with communities of low wealth. so, most casino operations are humble economically. >> of the 562 tribes in the u.s., only 223 even have
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casinos. and of those, only 73 actually pay tribe members. while a few casinos like the one outside minneapolis pay members upwards of $84,000 a month, most are barely even profitable, like the nearby prairie one casino which if they even paid each member of the tribe, it would be around ten bucks a month. i know you worked deep in the movements to eliminate native mass koscots. a lot of focus gets put on the washington football team, you feel the same way about the cleveland baseball team. >> can you imagine a team called the asians or african americans? it would never happen. >> no. >> it has been clinically shown it harms the native american youth. it increases the likelihood they are going to adopt those stereo types. >> people get so used to these logos and mascots they forget how offensive they are. unless you flip the script.
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in early 2016, espn jones went on tv with this shirt on. not that different than the cleveland logo. naturally, some white folks went crazy. saying that the shirt was racist. but the other logo, that's just my team, man. i, of course, brought one for every member of my family. >> dee humanization of a people is systemic and it leads to so many other problems. if people aren't viewed as real people, it's a lot easier to treat them really badly. >> another place where natives are dehumanized is the rate of sexual assaults that take place on reservations. >> 70% of rain offend erdos are non-native. that's made even worse by the fact that tribal courts have a lessened jurisdiction over non-native offenders. the violence against women acts is a piece of legislation that gave back some of that jurisdiction that had been stripped from tribes. but it was fought against by lots of members of congress.
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i remember hearing, if this law happens, every white male in america should be terrified to step onto a reservation. and the response, this woman stood up and said, then don't rain anybody. that's all we're saying. don't hurt people and you're fine. >> yeah. what are we going to do in this country if the white man doesn't feel comfortable? >> one thing that's always hard, you don't want to be the downer, right? when you're like the one native person, you don't want to be the downer all the time. >> yeah. >> i constantly have to correct people all the time. it becomes a little bit exhausting. >> it happens to me as a black person. hold on one second. yeah, yeah. >> to be that person -- >> always got your finger up. hold on all the seconds. >> we do not do that, please. >> i had one final question for tara. actually it was a confession. it's about to get awkward. a lot of people like to have fun with the quote-unquote native
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names. a guy who works on the show always eats two lunches. someone may have called him ron two lunches, which we immediately all had a discussion about like we shouldn't say that, especially here. >> humor is actually part of native culture. and when you are very, very oppressed people, having a sense of humor is pretty important. >> okay, all right. i still feel sorry. sorry, ron, for calling you ron two lunches. since most people only get their images fm tv and film, i want to talk to someone from tv and film. luckily actor adam beach who was in the movie suicide squad is here at the protest. adam is one of the better known na native actors and he uses his stature to raise awareness for native american causes and he's kind of dreamy. talk to me about your career a little bit. you made very particular choices. i feel like you're clearly trying to make choices that help up lift your race and certainly don't put down your race. >> you know, i find my choices
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in my work has to come with the respect of who i'm portraying. so, when i did wind talkers with nick cage, they're like, oh, adam, we'd love for you to come and read for this role. we think you'd be great. i told them they have to ask permission from the navajo nation before i could even come in the room. they thought i was crazy. [ laughter ] >> what? you have to ask permission from who? >> yeah. >> are they your agent? >> exactly. they phoned back and said we talked to the navajo nation and they said, yes, adam can portray the role, but you have to hire a real navajo person for the other role. >> okay. >> so, they had to follow lead since they wanted me to play the role. i'm pretty lucky to be the hollywood indian. [ laughter ] >> normally when you say somebody is hollywood, you're
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saying they're fake. there doesn't seem to be anything fake about your indian status. >> when i'm in hollywood, they want to see that, ha-ha-ha or whatever they call it. but they don't want to see, you know, us now. it's like that's the mentality that's out there and we have to change it, you know. >> yeah, yea they like us in the 1800s. >> wow, they like us in the 1800s. >> yeah. >> they like us in the 1800s, too. [ laughter ] >> i feel like if we play oppression poker, i don't feel like the black man that stands up to the native. we're even. i gotcha. this one i feel like, no, i'll move along. i don't want to go full on that one. thank you, bro, appreciate it.
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the time i've spent at the standing rock camp has been enlightening. i want to find out what life is actually like on a reservation. the dam at the pine ridge in south dakota, if you're not up to date on your ethnic cleansing, reservations were reserved for native americans when the europeans took the rest of north america. those of you who we haven't killed yet can live here. originally they were supposed to be independent nations within the u.s. but they're ultimately
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under the control of the federal government. not surprisingly, this long history of being screwed over has led to dire conditions. 97% of the people here live below the poverty line, and the average household income is less than 3500 bucks a year. and while not all reservations are dry, on pineidge r alcohol isil gal. but even with these restrictions, 75% of adults here still suffer from alcoholism. and meth use is higher for natives than any other group in the country. add to that a chronically under funded police force and you've got what would be one of the poorest countries in the world if it was actually an independent nation. and this is all happening smack-dab in the middle of the self-proclaimed greatest country on earth. >> kamau. >> sicily.
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nice to meet you. >> sit down over there. >> kamau. nice to meet you. you have a house full. i see there are a few kids here. how many kids are in this house? >> there's three -- >> ashanti, toby, terrence, trey son, tal an, you. >> you that one. i've never spent any time on a reservation. this is my first time. what do people get wrong about it? >> most of the time they think we live in teepees, and we don't have televisions, phone. >> what's it like living here in pine ridge? >> hard. >> the way you want to live with it and the people you keep around you, other than that it can end up pretty rugged. >> tell me what you love about living here. >> this is my family. this is my people here, man. >> is that the order, hoerzs, family, people? >> most of the time. my family is my main thing.
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>> what do you love about living here? >> more about the traditions, ceremonies and all that. my boys go around and they have real long hair because that's how we grew up. >> what job do you people have here if you live in this town? >> a flagger. >> stand on the road all day. >> and that comes through now and then. i haven't found too much work down here. >> got to be hard to avoid criminal activity or drugs and alcohol because there is not a lot going on. >> it gets boring. >> yeah. with alcohol, is it hard, the fact it's illegal here and acro across the border -- >> it's hard because it's not going to stop. >> do you think making it legal would make it less tempting? >> i'm not sure. >> you're not sure? >> man, i'm totally against it. >> really? >> yeah. >> why is that? >> i would be totally against it because i'd rather teach my kids that that's not the way. they see it in everyday life with one of their aun at thisti.
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they know that's not the way they want. they have hard feelings of alcohol, too. >> alcohol on the pine ridge reservation is a complex issue. in 2013, tribal members narrowly voted to end the generations long prohibition on alcohol hoping to use the sales taxes to improve the community. but many people felt as sicily does legalization would lead to worse abuse. they tied the new law up in court. if you could change something -- there is talk maybe breaking up the reservations, you wouldn't want to do that? no, i wouldn't want to break up the rez. then everyone would be lost again. we're a whole different breed. we are. we're not black, we're not white. we're a whole different breed of lakota people. it's good to be an indian person, i love it. we have to make it better from the inside out. we can clean it up. it's possible. >> sounds like it's important to you. you want to make the community stronger for this generation. that's what everybody wants.
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>> we can't stop what's going on now, but we can make it better. >> for them. >> yeah. >> what's noticeable about pine ridge is it has a lot of the same things many poor communities have around the country, unemployment, drugs, and crime. but unlike a lot of those communities who just want good cops, it seems here the problem is not enough cops. to find out what it's like to police a reservation, i want to talk to mark, the pine ridge chief of police. thank you for talking with me today. i appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> first of all, one of the things that people who do not spend time on reservations hear about is they hear about high crime rate. do you feel like there is an especially high crime rate? >> here in pine ridge it's just a steady stream, you know. assaults, you know, rapes, more drugs coming in. >> do you feel like you have enough officers? you just answered my question.
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>> they say we should have anywhere between 150 to70 law enforcement officers. >> howyou have? >> we have 33. >> 33? >> 33. and we're covering over 3 million acres. >> wow. you heard right, there are 33 officers to patrol an area that's three times the size of rhode island. and with the amount of crime on the reservation, that's nowhere near enough. in 2015, these 33 officers fielded 95,000 calls from a population of 30,000 people. that's an average of 260 calls a day at the precinct. come on, there are more than 33 cops at a taylor swift concert. those swifties get rowdy. >> here on the reservation, alcohol is not allowed. it's against the law, so, a good majority of our arrests are alcohol related.
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>> i just think it has to be pretty difficult with, you know, nebraska out here, it's not that far from here where alcohol is legal. >> from where we sit now, there's the nebraska state line on the other side of that stop sign. our jail is directly behind you back here. >> why did you put the jail so close to the escape route? >> well -- it was before my time. >> before your time. seems like we should put the jail a little further away from the next jurisdiction. so, i was in there talking to the chief of police about how if inmates escape from the prison, which is right over there, and they manage to escape and cross the fence into nebraska, they're in a totally different jurisdiction, they can't go get them. i had a good idea we check out that fence. let's go. bam! there it is. that's the fence. it's not going to take a criminal master mind to get over this fence. in fact, watch this. freedom!
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only in america can a white person go to a professional football game wearing a racist logo on their shirt while they watch a game where black dudes mostly play the game in a
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stadium that was built by undocumented mexicans. [ laughter ] >> while they eat a polish sausage with canadian bacon on it. while outside native people protest what is going on inside the stadium and the white people are mad, how come that black guy isn't standing for the anthem? i don't understand that. this is nonsense. [ applause ] ♪ >> over the past few days, i've seen and experienced a lot of the problems facing our native people. i mean, even the police here are victims of the man. when i'm hoping to find are some solutions, so i'm meeting with the man who found success off the reservation, but decided to move back home to help his people. his name is chase iron eyes. he's an activist and a lawyer. and if anyone can help me see solutions to the problems, i'm thinking it's him. there is a reputation that reservations have as being places where the crime is high and the drug use is high. it does not sound like places from the outside you would want
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to bring you famy to. >> tribal natns have a history of being disempowered, having their economic models destroyed. we were emasculated as warrior people. we had a tough time. you can still see that. my grandfather was born in 1900 so it's not like ancient history, you know what i mean? >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> this is real talk. my grandmother went to a boarding school where her hair was cut and she was beaten and scolded for speaking her native tongue. this is my mother, and her mother as well. >> i know what you're thinking. aren't boarding schools where rich people send kids they don't want to pay attention to any more so they can learn how to be even more rich? usually, but the boarding schools that uncle sam forced many natives go to were much worse. since the 1870s over 100,000 native children often taken from their families by force were brought to so scald indian boarding schools across 15
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states. the model for these institutions was the carlisle industrial school in pennsylvania. started by richard henry pratt. his mission statement for carlisle, all the indian there is in the race should be dead. kill the indian in him and save the man. imagine having that on your school bumper sticker. and he stuck to his mission, by any means necessary. at these schools children were often beaten severely for things like speaking in their native language and wearing traditional clothes. conditions were so bad that thousands of children died from malnutrition, disease, physical abuse, and emotional trauma. and just in case you think this happened a long time ago, this was going on, in part, up until the 1960s when teachers still felt their role was to civilize, not educate, the native youth in these schools. what do you think is the big issues that are stopping more economic development, more jobs on the reservation? >> part of it is that indians don't own their own land, you
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know what i mean? the federal government holds this land in trust for the benefit of indian use rights, which is a clever way of saying, indians can't really own the land. they can use the land. so, if i wanted to build a house, own this land we're standing on, if i wanted to develop it, if i wanted to put like a resort here, build my own house here, i have to get the permission of the agent of the united states government. >> oh, wow. >> to even collateralize it or to borrow money against it or to do anything that, you know, any economic development which is facilitated anywhere else in the world. that's why there's no private housing developments here. we moved from a 3,000 square foot, you know, five bedroom three bathroom -- to us it was a mansion. you know what i'm saying? >> yeah. >> it was the first time we ever moved on up like the jeffersons. and then we moved to now we live in an 1100 square foot three bedroom one bathroom house. and there's me, my wife and three kids. because there's no private
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housing development here. >> if feels like i'm on an island. it feels like right now i'm on some sort of separate part of the world in another country. >> yes. all of that stuff is real. but what else is real here is just an undeniable hope, even like an unconquerable dignity, you know what i mean? like we're still here. native people are still here and we're survivors and really we were trying to turn us arou.eve here. so ammara, you're a verizon engineer,
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walking around the reservation, it's easy to see that this is just like any other community in america. there are good parts and bad parts. and no matter where you're from, the pull of home is real. bree ann is someone who moved away for school in southern california, but then moved back. did you ever think after you were going to school she would maybe -- i mean, l.a. is right there. did you ever think, i'll move to -- >> yeah. >> and sort of live a different life than the reservation life? was there ever a temptation to do that in >> yeah, and i think a of a lot of kids that don't know their place yet or are still
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constantly being told all the negatives about the reservation, i guess, and they move away from home. people say we're dirty and we're all drunks, we're all drug addicts, all of this stuff. none of us have jobs. i mean, you know, i grew up, my parents weren't alcoholics or anything. they worked very hard. >> so, talk about life on the reservation because that's something that people like myself who don't live on a reservation just hear about. this is my first time on a reservation. >> is it really? >>yeah. i think i've driven around, sort of like, but i've never been in a home or certainly don't want to be, you know, like the white man and just walk up and start looking around. [ laughter ] >> that's a nice house. i think i'll take it, yeah. >> i think i'll take it. >> yeah. so, what is life like on the reservation? >> truthfully, this is again me personally, i am a full-time student at college. i have my kids all the time. so, when i'm not at school or not in class or not studying, you know, i'm here with the kids
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and we're doing whatever it is we do here. but there is a lot of good happening here. for example, the pipeline stuff has made natives who maybe weren't so proud of who they were proud to be native american. i mean, it's really amazing what the camp has done and i'm really excited to be working with some other females from this community to kind of translate what's happening out there and into our communities and -- >> keep it going is? >> yes, keep it positive, keep moving forward all the time. i wouldn't want to live anywhere else. >> i can't talk you into l.a.? i can't sell you some property in l.a.? >> no, not right now think. [ laughter ] >> hollywood and vine where everything is happening? >> where everything is happening. there's a lot happening here. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> as i'm nearing the end of my time in the dakotas i want to head back to where i started,
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the protest site at standing rock. i'm going to visit with my friend activist and his friend comedian tito. first it's time for our favorite segment, awkward questions with w. kamau bell. what's up, man? >> good to see you. >> good to see you, too. so, this is better than a tent that you buy like at a store. >> right. >> you can have a fire in there. you can't have a fire in a regular old tent. >> and why can't you have a fire in a regular tent? >> because it's made of plastic and it will burn up. >> oh, thank you. i don't camp a lot. >> ideally buffalo robes, you could hang buffalo robes in it and that could survive negative 40 degree weather. >> it's going to be cold like that shortly. >> yeah. >> you'll be able to survive in this? >> no. ideally you'd survive in it, but this is not the buffalo hyde teepee i could survive in negative 40 degree weather. >> what are you going to do? >> there's a hotel up the road. >> i'm so focused on the old
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ways, i forget there are new ways. >> we live in both worlds. we walk two paths. [ laughter ] >> despite my painful ignorance, i've been invited into the teepee for a fire side chat with the guys and their friend tabitha. >> thank you for inviting me into the teepee. tabatha, nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> in the background i can hear drumming and chanting. >> they're ceremonial songs, particular songs. i can tell the difference. >> it's beautiful. >> people talk about other tribes coming together to fight against the pipeline, but it also seems like a moment is being seized. >> women are pacing themselves back in their role. you know, our people, matriarchal people. we learned how to be a male dominated society. we adopted those, too. our women were pushed to the back burner. that wasn't our way.
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they're also leading us, leading us back to where we're supposed to be. >> you said women are taking their role back. i was like, what is he about to say? noally in erican society when you say women are finally knowing their role, it doesn't usually mean in the front. >> males tell us so many times it is the women that are going to lead us out of this, out of this darkness. >> i feel like black people are acknowledging the power of our women through black lives matter. a transformative moment happening for us, and a moment started by three black women. >> us men are shocked. [ laughter ] >> dudes have totally [ bleep ] this up. >> thank you. >> thank you for saying that. >> we had a good run, dudes. let's get in the back seat for a little while. yeah. so, you're hopeful for the future? >> we have been traumatized for so long that we need a space to feel that part because really we are the descend ants of our strongest ancestors that with stood everything and to remember that is beautiful.
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>> the descendants of our strongest ancestors, i like that. people don't normally think about that. >> i feel like as natives, you often get associated with sort of stereo typical behavior. but then -- >> we have a lot of money, we drive nice cars. [ laughter ] >> we're really, a. >> kwae yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody might make fun
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it's our last night in pine ridge and just as we're about to head out to town, a friend said
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there was family we should talk to. they had just come from a candle light vigil for their son, vinnie brewer, iii. vinnie had been murdered by a non-native gang a few days before. i was nervous and honored to be invited to their home while they were clearly still mourning. thank you for letting us come into your home on this occasion. it seems like everyone here has come together to celebrate and try to mourn together, is that what is happening here? >> that's what happens with our people. we come together at times like this. people know what a great guy he is, what a big heart he had. he loved everybody. >> and this has happened recently? >> sunday at a basketball tournament. >> at a basketball tournament. >> at a basketball tournament with kids all over. known as a great basketball player. maybe one of the best ball handlers around. >> oh. >> in the country.
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>> yeah. >> i got a video you can see it. >> ok. [ laughter ] >> just because i'm his dad, i'll show you this video. >> i'll show you. >> breaking ankles and you'll know. >> he could break ankles. >> he had this monkey on his back, which is addiction and he got caught up with whatever is going on around here, these people bringing stuff in and filtrating the reservation with these drugs and trying to -- so what it's really doing is destroying our reservation and we have enough problems as it is already but they have picked poverty stricken areas because they know it's easy to get people corrupted and to use them and that's what happened. they used him and killed him. >> and so how hard is it for young people to pull away from this life here? i mean, it seems like -- >> it's extremely hard.
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like vinnie talks about, dad, there is no jobs out here. there's not. there's no jobs. we're 80% unemployment here. >> without having things to do, a lot of times young people get involved in things they shouldn't be doing. >> yes. i worked at the school, elementary school for like 20 years and worked with kids and just love them and you just see the ones that really get to school, they get to eat. you know, but then when they leave there, you don't know what they are going back to. >> you think a lot of kids have talent but don't get out of here. >> so much. so many. so much wasted talent. >> what do you think should be done here so that there is not more young people like your son who get caught up? >> we need a task force that understands the meth problem here. it takes people a long time to get off of that. and there's no help. i didn't know what to do for my
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son. i have all these issues and we don't have no help and these kids get to be adults, there is no help for them. >> resources are very limited, you know. >> no resources. >> more cops. you know to watch the community. we don't have that many cops here. >> people don't realize how tough it is on the reservations but we're here, and we can't be forgotten. >> but we are. >> we are. and we need more resources. >> so i tell you why we're forgotten? >> yeah. >> because we beat custard the battle of the -- [ laughter ] >> look at all these people. where did they come from? we got the choir here. they are like say it! say it! say it! say it! [ laughter ] >> come on. because you beat custard in the battle -- >> yeah, the government hates our people. they hate our ancestors. >> the white man should hold the grudge. >> they should. >> let it go, our people.
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>> white people. [ laughter ] >> let it go. [ laughter ] >> you got your butt kicked one time. let it go. i'm sorry to swear. let it go white people, let it go. they beat you. they beat you. they beat you. you got beat. let it go. >> oh, shoot. ♪ ♪ the brewer family was amazing. here they were at what had to be one of their worst moments ever and they made me laugh. and i saw that same spirit through all the natives i met this week. joy, generosity, and laughter when malcolm x said we didn't land on plymouth rock, nobody did because it wasn't calle plymouth rock. it's way past timeor a real look into how we treated the people of the country and they are not fighting for our water,
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all of our water. it's our turn to finally fight for them. this episode is all about chicago and we're going to the places they don't think we should. people have a skewed reception because all the news about chicago is all about how the violence, the gang violence and people sort of take that and put it only the whole city without going to the city or doing research about the city and i noticed we do that every now and again a city gets the label like you don't want to go there. you don't want to go to new york city. yo u don't want to go to washington d.c. the. you don't go to detroit. you don't go to chicago. i'm noticing a pattern. those are heavily black cities. many don't sayou

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