the deal is off. i said they don't know nothing about that. >> that is what i can trust them. forget it. >> i can give you 20,000. house? >> i will make you this city consultant. >> now have to hire a racetrack consultant he said make it 25. that is the reason why we have a performing arts theater down there today but those are stories that happen that you never read about in the providence journal or anywhere else but in the book

>> good morning. it is my honor and privilege to introduce our distinguished authors. the mayor can in the and resource center has done a fantastic job bringing the panel to us today. above like to start with a question coming from our first distinguished guests is out american and it is miss america. 1419 this was not part of trivial pursuit. growing gap in the home affected by poverty and domestic violence and alcoholism she sought refuge in the native american church in advance and a cheerleader with the straight day average with a presidential scholar and

awarded the internship with carl albert and won a national merit scholarship and crowned miss sokol, 1971. spoiler this the eastern extinguished authored walter echo-hawk is in that embody the roots of injustice in the legal doctrines upon the property and cultural rights of indigenous peoples why

they have said it is okay the survey of the legal travesties looks for reform with american jurisprudence. taken together they may seem to tragic for consideration but they offer davidians-- been stereotyped of those americans so please help me welcome susan supernaw and walter echo-hawk. [applause] it. >> your book is much more of

an account how you became miss america to compete but growing up with cultural confusion sometimes and a lot of stress. navigating the world between your native culture and the larger american culture. tell us about that. >> and growing up i started off in a very rule area in oklahoma. we lived there and for the times taking place in the '50s and '60s so there was a different mindset with a lot of racism that had to be dealt with by my parents and especially since my father was indian and my mother was not come even they have a lot of racism aimed at them or being the integrated

marriage at the time. but the story is about finding strength of than yourself to be able to push through those hardships and make it through the night and in the morning when the sun comes up to give banks sometimes you have to get help. when times get hard for me, whether when i was seven or eight more had to leave home as a junior, you have to go somewhere to get help. the church offered a place to stay and recover from the domestic violence. but before then, i had my own problems of self-esteem

and i was the youngest of four girls feeling that everybody was picking on me and doing those main things that the brothers and sisters do to you. but it is about getting in touch with your inner self and your spirit finding something to hold onto. as a child, we had a church and religious activities but also i had some dreams in which i have a spirit guide who came to help me. although i had seen her before but when i broke my back in was unconscious but as a kid fortunately i healed. part of overcoming that was

not believing the doctors when they said you should be glad you could walk. yes. but i wanted to do more. i went to a chiropractor who said maybe exercise is okay. you could tried jogging to strengthen your back. i latched onto that and got into dancing and cheerleading which was a physical escape. said i got my body back. have been life has a tendency to slap you down. i did good tractor queen and a lot of people would not even admit to they were tractor queen even if they were. [laughter] i would have rather have driven the tractor.

this was the tolls the state fair and could kiss the guy who won the tractor poll. but i got even later bed to do is to take a minute to tell you how that happened because not some at -- home then you stick your foot in your mouth to say the wrong thing in here is a good example but when i was a presidential scholar in 1969, of boy and a girl from each state comes up to meet the president.

this was nixon but he was president and i was excited. the vietnam war was going on so he was late coming back for our luncheon. so they took good saw in some two hours and one of the big areas and bud wilkinson was there. he was president nixon's presidential aide at that time and was super -- susan supernaw a un relation? >> that is my dad. i remember when he went out for the football team. he remembered because of the name but it lies great. had you seen the old sob at?

you may next seven? there was silence. [laughter] he had as rate base and he said i mint the senate office building. now they have more than wind there was the new and the old and i got to see them both. but after doing that guy and backing out and carl albert heard that. he said come back. i want you to come work in my office this summer. why? anybody who can call nixon in the sob to get away with it has to work in my office. he became speaker of the house i did become a registered democrat to work

in the office. that was fun. i like to go ahead to tell another story. and when i became a so-called of. i had to do a fair marinara pageant. they have gray hair now. we are old days also old we remember bill cosby when he was young in that name was taken for the bill cosby character after joe namath but again of a trend of the times we tried to do something so all the zero

club enough to have their representative because it will is a student activity and anyone could nominate people and i go through the stories. but the surprising part is that i won because i had never been in a pageant before. i have a lot of help from people. but i did win. i fell down the steps. they were bill well. [laughter] but they were not built wide enough to hold the chair in good girl sitting in it and ever ready running up on stage. almost have an accident. i did fall down but i fixed my crown and got back up. that that was the worst but nothing compared to the

miss oklahoma up by jim. for jimmy waited until after i was ground. that is another story but just getting through the pageant was another story but after words i am crowned sitting there with my first press conference with the kiwanis club going up to the five-star restaurant and fortunately the press was not there. tony spencer was the pageant director trying to pin on my a crown. they never fit. they put the banner on me to say to a great year you have to wear this the whole year intones bill. and had been raining. it had been raining the whole time. looking outside i grew up on

a farm open the door in here she goes. took about three steps and i felt. i ripped my banner and fell flat on my face. i get up soaking wet and i will make the last five into the car a good car is open. i am not used to wearing the crown and it sticks up off of the head. as i jump in, it knocks me backwards again and breaks the crown. tony spencer is running around trying to pick up the pieces of my ground then may finally get me into the car

for the press conference looking like a drowned rat. charlie welched is there and since she fell down a broker crown and tony came running after. you are right. it will be a route long year but then say you have to speak to these people. i am trying to get it together. it reminded me of bozo from the sisters with the beautiful singing except i did not sing my part and ran off the stage crying per cry was seven years old. of meant michael jackson can do it why can't buy? of tango in and said you are

miss oklahoma and you are in the end. i stand up and say charlie asked me to give you a typical indian greeting i don't know if you kind of look cody at baseload enchant gave to custer at little bighorn or their the kind indians gave to the pilgrims at plymouth rock. [laughter] so i say hello in my a native language so i could stand in front of a group now make up dripping wet and still pull together enough to talk. having electricity go out this morning at 2:00 is nothing compared to what i have been through in the past. >> you were thrust into the spotlight not only as representative of the state

goods seven main then asked to represent all these people. how you balance that and become an advocate without taking on the representative as they hold? >> mainly because i never felt normal. if you read the book it is hard to think of myself as being normal. i cannot speak for other people. i only speak for myself but people do say that you sell out. you could just by getting your degree from high-school not to mention college. the higher the degree the more you sold out. that was the mentality.

but yet people were honored and all of the tribes and representatives got together to raise the money for my page for the miss america pageant booklet. in an so there's those that were supportive of me. women's liberation was protesting. i did not know any better. [laughter]

paris and new have strong women but being a strong woman was not enough to hold me back.

but what grosses people out is i cried. i cannot keep a straight face. and then is one of the things that embarrassed me. they would say i was not supposed to cry. [laughter] >> without giving away anything you do not want to but tell us about the process of your name. >> varies with each tribe and a varied with me because there is day naming ceremony and the dividend then came within a certain period of time. with me, that did not have been. i received my name in a dream and it was up to me to go earned the name and i knew what i had to do.

it took me and another eight or 10 years to do with. i was just a kid and i had things to overcome but that was the high point* of it all. i don't think i could have done it without the mess oklahoma because i had to perform publicly. my chances in high school my mind is not thinking about earning my name but being a teenager provide needed the extra chance to prove myself to myself. >> it just occurred to me for those who view the program, it may think that was odd about earning her name. her name is susan supernaw please explain the difference. >> i have an indian name which means fancy feet. it was hard because when i

got the name was through the horseback riding accident. then you find that you are paralyzed and were given the name of dancing feet. i thought that was a cruel joke but i did promise if i got my feet and legs working again i would turn my name. i thought that is what it was therefore to keep pushing me. >> as you think of the experience readers will have reading your book, what is the most important thing you would like readers to take away from your story? >> laughter. in spite of the bad times may need to sit back and laugh and feel good. there are sad parts that were hard to write but i

would feel good as somebody said i had a good laugh because there's a lot of silly or stupid or 90 things that i did and put my foot in my mouth and open long enough to switch feet. >> tell us about the inspiration for rating a book. what encouragement did you get? >> a few important people have helped out. one was who was my mentor and father figure for a long time. when he was getting very ill, he did the ceremony. when he was getting ready to

die in the late 80's he made me promise i would write the story down. he said i am asking. write it down and it took me another 10 years to get stuff together. then another 10 years to get it published but i think he was instrumental plus both parents passed away it seemed everybody was dying so i'd better righted down before we forgot people's names. >> the earlier draft won an award for the first book. what was the change like from the first book to those we have with us now? >> it is all lot shorter.

it was a collection of more family stories been doing things around the it we end in about 100 pages but not the other fun stuff. >> sayre maybe a naphtha this film mecca of flood those back jim. [laughter] >> i would like to bring walter into the discussion we heard susan talk about her personal story and we expect we expect the writing was personal but dealing with a much larger scope. what was your inspiration? >> first of all, let me say

good morning. thank you for inviting me to be a part of the program. in part, susan storey is a smaller story of native american up. her personal struggles for fulfillment to transcend her problems to become recognized that we have seen on a larger level, the same thing zero indian country throughout the modern era of federal indiana law of the late fifties into the present, we have seen the tribal sovereignty movement where indian countries at the beginning of the fifties

was probably at some of the land holdings were less than 2% the people are living in poverty at the bottom of a budget to have the tribal religions and ways of life touche terminate the political relationship between the indian nation and government. low point* of native life and then since that point*, our nation has

witnessed a historic social movement that steers the human heart is that we have seen the rise of our moderate in the nation through the sovereignty movement to transcend the social and legal and political problems that have held our people down. but it now to the point* today we can look around to see a great social movement that rivals the women's movement, a civil-rights and environmental and american history movement. one of the reasons we're

able to do that was the american law. what they call federal indian law with the rise of the modern indian nations prepared by 122 study that because but for that body of law there has been paid showboating but been awarded since 1985 where indian nations have lost 80% of their cases coming before the supreme court and sometimes losing more than 88% which means that prison inmates fare better or receive better treatment by the supreme court they and

the indian nations. as a lifelong bring tisch -- practitioner of federal indian law, that troubled me and also with our tribal leaders and concern of legal scholars to ask his indian long dead? i have been inspired by the nation's a justice to try to write the book has a unique study of the law to try to understand the forces that work that sort of explain that amazing those cases that relate to american legal history and have someone just decisions that

i think many of us take for granted today but cases that were decided by the courts during the course of manifest destiny when our nation was spent on colonizing the land and appropriating the indian land and subjugating bad tribesmen stripping away our ways of life to make way for the settlement of the nation. that process was up held by the courts every step of the way creating a body of law with some harsh outcome is. i want to understand that. they resulted in a body of legal doctrines that make it

easy today but it to be based on race and colonialism embedded in federal and indian lot to this very day. . .