that is what we would do. >> when people read your book, what is the thing that people think most about? >> i think that the distance that we went in the timeframe that it took us, i think that was important and people think well, maybe you just go out here today but when a wagon train lasts for six months and all the experience that goes along with it, it can be really important to have it documented. our younger generation is losing history i think when you do this and document it, it kind of keeps our history going. >> is there a life lesson to learn on a wagon train enact. >> oh, you bet.

the thing is that on a wagon train you get up the same way every morning and you do your chores and you go all day and you do your chores at night and then go to bed and day after day after day that is a life experience within itself and it's the greatest experience that there is to go on a wagon train and get up in the morning and do your chores and i think it's a great experience. >> why did you want to re-create the oregon trail at all? >> i enjoy it and it's something that i just like to do and i guess it will always be there and i want to continue to do this as long as i can.

♪ ♪ ♪ of. >> up next, hear about the arapahoe indian tribe. the author spoke with booktv during a recent visit to wyoming with the help of our cable partner chart. >> bare bones bare-bones in a world that is traditional and modern and those who are making big strides both economically and politically and socially. and they still have a strong sense of basis in their traditional culture for

ceremonies and their way of life and it is located in central wyoming you may not notice a lot that is different from many areas of the rural west. and middle-class american lifestyles are part of this. and it's the same in that way. underneath they are very different in the sense that the family structure is very

traditional and there's a lot of interest on doing things in the right way and that includes paying great respect to family members to tribal elders were also the spiritual elders and participating in traditional ceremonies of various kinds which is extremely important to the people there. in 1973 i had developed an interesting situation and i started taking pictures. in 2000 or i ran out and i did some interviews and i thought, i seriously thought when i started that i would have photographs. but after a couple of years, people were telling me things about their lives and they talked about stories and almost immediately i realized that it

would be a book about stories and some in their own words, some in my word and about the community and what they did in the community. from veterans, people who work with veterans groups, all of those kinds of things were the things that people were telling me. the first two things that i wrote about wound up in the book and one of them was a man who is actually passed away and then there was an oral history project on by the park service, interviewing people who had heard stories about this massacre. the idea was they were going to

set up a historic site in colorado. and this man was one of the people who had talked at length about his family history. the part of the oral history talked a little bit about this. the next thing that they did included a sweet and quiet woman and i was so stressed at the difference between the two of them, all of a sudden that i realized that we have to start looking at these people as individuals and not just tribal members or others. but people with distinct personalities and distinct

places in the world. she was very quiet and shy, she didn't go out much and she belongs to a small fundamentalist church and they basically talked about it and every summer her family would talk about this and she would cook for other people as well that there would be a traditional ceremony or something to bring her all of the ingredients to make fried bread and fried chicken and she would cook all this in her backyard and she had all of this , the story about their lives that they were trying to tell in different ways. and then avis stayed home and

her family didn't know very much about her life, just a little bit here and there. so i realize the uniqueness and that is kind of what got me going. from then on i tried to explore the uniqueness as well. and for example one wasn't noted horseman and a razor and so when i interviewed his family i asked him about that and what was his life and what was he about. and so then i tried to pick up something different with the individuals as well and there were these little babies who were traditional.

they made dresses of calico fabric. and they would have a blanket or a shawl wrapped around them if they were going out. some still wore moccasins and later on they wore shoes. they spoke almost exclusively arapaho and they had it in this distinct way of dean that i love. it was very humble. and it was very quiet. to be respectful is to be quiet. and so they were very quiet and very respectful and they were stunning. you definitely knew them by the stories that they told and i remember they ate with their

hands and they would take a little piece of me and take a little bite one at a time and then when they were all through they would rub the whales over their hands and then they would run it on their hair and threw their braids. and so you still sought out. in the 1970s there was a large percentage of the people that still spoke traditionally. so in a way it was a fascinating thing. and i have talked to a lot of people who have come later as researchers and i feel very blessed to have been here as early as i was because i still see some of that, the little glimpses of thet