legacy, we excavate and what are known as maidens -- middens and the landscape features. archaeologists have had 75 excavations in over 30 years to understand this place and these people. a midden means debris of life. so essentially garbage. within the midden nouns are environmental change in the past as well as the artifacts and things were that tools left behind, these are eastern oysters, and these are crested oysters. crested oysters exist in higher salinity waters. we get those throughout the etuary but also when there are pro longed periods of drought and not as much freft water coming into estuary.

on the eastern side, we find boring holes such as sponges which indicate higher salinity waters. the banded tulip shells are some of the clues or indicators to where people were going to collect food, particularly when they are in an assemblage or mix with other pieces. they other near shores, shallow sea grass. they don't require hook and line fishing technique. so by careful, detailed analysis through this landscape, we begin to understand the resilience of the people here and parts of their cultural development and formati formation. we also know that they endured an extreme period of long-term cold and that when that happened, fish were not available in the harbor, and people abandoned this site for about 100 years around a.d. 800.

when they returned around a.d. 900 was when they began to use the middance and the midden mounds for everyone live okay top of them and to be building massive structures as well as excavating a canal here that took the route of what was likely a fresh-water stream source to begin with. it was widened. it was excavated until it was 30 feet wide, 8 to 12 feet deep and went all the way across this island two and a half miles. the evidence for that kind of construction work, the tools for that work is also in those middance and midden nouns. going in to the 1600s, they established a policy of isolationism. what that effectively did as well was it kept them somewhat removed from conflicts that broke out between the british and the spanish. and when those conflicts began

and when the british and their allied creek indians prevailed over the spanish in 17041, it set the stage for creek and yamasi people who became professional slaves and who were equipped with guns and came into south florida to take indigenous people as slaves. the kalusa had stayed noufsh their own territory. by the 1690s, though, their numbers had been reduced to around 2,000 people, and when the slavers came into their their tory equipped with guns, they had only their basic tools and no guns. in 1711, there is known to have been a group of 2 sent indigenous people including kcalusa who went to cuba. there were 1700-something people who were not able to make the journey because there were not spaces on the ship.

it's possible that some calusa and other indigenous people also survived in the hinterlands out of their towns in florida so that later when other native people flee into florida, and african-american runaways flee into florida and there become to be an amalgam of cult tours, it's part that calusa became parts of those groups as well. there is a saying so long as you are still speaking of thems, they are not gone, that they are not extinct. when people visit the heritage trail, the randal research center, what we hope they take away is a sense of place a sense that people have lived on this landscape for thousands of years, that people came before us had families here, lived here, fished the estate estuary here we find that sometimes people think of early indian people as being privilegeative

savages. we think when they leave here, they will understand there were people living in a place, living well, developing art and music and spirituality and that there were times of conflict which caused that culture to be today gone. if we can take lessons from that about how we relate to other people from around the world, that's very important and special, and we do feel by visiting the randall center and the calusa heritage trail people, people can personalize history, look at other cultures even today and understand a bit more and that they can look at our southwest florida environment and understand it a great deal more as well. today's look at the people, places and event did of native american history is part of c-spaven's cities tour where we travel across the country highlighting the literary life and history of each city we

visit. you can see more from c-span cities tour from our website, c-span.org. click on the series tab and then c-span cities tour. more american history trail of native americans. from 1656 to 17041, mission san luis in florida's panhandle was can devoted today converting them to christianity. today, it is a living history museum f. >> mission san luis is a state archeology park, a living history site that portrays appalachi and the spanish in 1656 to 17041. in addition san luis is place where you and your family are stroll through the grounds, talk

with knowledgeable interpreters about the world ofl and its effect on the appalachi over time and how that engages and informs an emerging hispanic world that we are more familiar with today. in 1528, am a landing in the tampa bay area, calvares was looking to gather the riches that the spaniards are found in what they call the new world, that they were hoping for gold, we might think, or other valuables that they could take back to europe. it had certainly happened in latin america, the aztec empire, the great silver mine of mexico and they thought, well, north america surely must have some of those resources as well. by the time he got to

tallahassee, in the area of saint marks, just to the south of here, he thought better of the expedition. he thought he had missed his supply ship and they decided then, at that point, to build some crude ships, more like rafts, and that they would try to find their way back to new spain, which is present day mexico. so that was really the first europeans that are well-documented in this area. the next person to try it was hernando de soto. it's really from the de soto expedition that we know more about the apalachee. spaniards establish saint augustine in 1655 and apalachee begin to approach the spanish about around interest in christianity. they ask for some priests to be sentence to them. this is in the early part of the 17th century. eventually, priests do come to minister to the apalachee.

now, whether this is about becoming more secure militarily to protect themselves from the surrounding other native american culture groups or not, i am not really sure about that, but that certainly would have been a motivator. but in any event, by 1656, there had been an agreement between the apalachee and the spanish friars and the spanish militia, military and government, to establish what becomes san luis in the western capitol of la flor i did a. we have the eastern capital in saint august e and the western capitol in the second largest mission established here, on this hillside, only three miles from the modern capitol, we have the capitol. this mission was established, one, 41 mutual protection. two, it wthere was a need in saint augusteen for food. saint augusteen was reliant on a paramount of exported food.

the soil is very poor there and sandy. the spanish who wound up forming a living in saint augustine were not inclined to be farmers. they need add reliable source of food. there were crop lands than site as far as you can see. so this was the food base, the bread basket of the early colonial effort. so for the spanish, it was important from that standpoint and, also, that it had -- there was a fortified outpost between the el cam i & o royale that connected pensacola with the port of san augustine. this was essentially midway. it provided that security link as well in the ultimately failing efforts of the spanish to secure their borderland. it t it. >> with the establishment of the

village in 1656, that it continued on until it was burned down in july of 17041 in anticipation that it might be attacked by a column of native american allies of the english and a few english militia. in order to reflect site from falling into the hands of the english and potentially, then, setting up their own military presence here, that the native americans and the spaniards and others burned this mission to the ground. the secular plaza here at mission san luis is really center of town. all of the buildings are organized around this plaza. there are the three main ingredien ingredients, if you will, of the life of the village. the council house and the native americans and their continuing heritage and custom diametrically opposed, across the plaza is the catholic church and the religious complex.

the reason in many ways why this particular spot was organized. so here they are, sort of facing off each other, door to door, and at the same time, to me, their repositions reflect a mutual respect, that each honored the traditions of the others. missio visitors to mission san luis will often speak about the council house. it is so impressive. this was the center of apalachee life. their governments met to consider complaints. every village will vem them. apalachee law was pretty much intact although the spanish law, over time, became the more often referred to. the chief and the sub chiefs would meet along with other elders of the apalachee to hear

the various issues of the day to make decisions. it was a place of celebration. it was the community center. people would come in, and there were certain celebrations that perhaps followed a seasonal cycle, for instance, that would be celebrated here among the entire village, and particularly among the apalachee. it's just awe-inspiring to walk into the volume of that space and to look up at the blue sky and the occasional hawk or vulture that drifts across and just speculate what it must have been like in the day when it was the heart of this community. the church would have pictures, religious pictures of saints and scenes and so on because these are not literate people. they can't read the religious text. they don't have access to printed religious text. the priests would use them to

tell the story of the gospel and so on through the paintings you would see on the wall. there was probably a somewhat elaborate altar or altar piece, a screen, but we really haven't been able to identify that well. we do know that it was somewhat su sumptuous because there was an inventory of what priests took back to saint augustine. one of the things we are looking for is the mission bell. we found a piece, but we know that they buried it, but we just have not been able to find it. somewhere here near the church, we presume, the ancient missing bell is still yet to be discovered. mission san luis's campus is now consolidated, the state of florida archeology collections. they are here for visitors if they wish by appointment to be able to see the archeological

representations, the tangible things that represent this colonial period of florida and on up to modern time actually. we have a modern archeology lab where we have a staff of archeologists who are now analyzing approximately a dozen years of materials that have been excavated on this site so that we can make a coherent picture of the pass through the tangible items recovered to learn how rich the heritage is here, how it evolves over time. you know, history is largely written by the victors. american history is largely portrayed through english eyes, yet spain and the hispanic culture are so much an integral part of what we call the border

li land /*land and yet that part of history is a great mystery to people. the pend lum is swinging back. increasingly, there are many, many more people in our population who are of hispanic origin and that this is their heritage in the western hemisphere. >> c-span's american history tour visited the petrogliph national monument. a park ranger showed us the 241,000 ancients rock drawings left by the pueblo people. >> today we are at petroglyph national monument, the volcano's area still located within albuquerque, new mexico. it provides trails to five

volcanos and, and it looks ought over the city of albuquerque. the volcanos are important to petroglyph national man ument because they begin to tell the story, the geologic story. about 200,000 years ago, a fi fissure formed and hot molten lava poured out in a series of six volcanic eruptions. some spreading a couple of miles to the east. as these eruptions took place, they flowed out overlayers of alluvial soil that were here in the rio grande valley. as these layers hardened, they hardened into basalt. we have a 17 lin yard escarpment in which we have over 241,000 petroglyphs. while we are here at the volcanoes, the story of the monument isn't just about a

single petroglyph or petroglyph concentrations. it also includes the volcanic cones and the mesa top that spreads out towards albuquerque. the pueblo people would come up to the mesa top. we have evidence of them carrying water and farming. sometimes, they would send their children up here to keep the rabbits away from their crops. so we see many ancient trails up here, and this becomes part of a larger spiritual landscape that's important to most pueblo people. we are here at boca negra canyon about halfway along that 17-mile escarpment. we will walk on the mccaw trail. al volcanic escarpment, 113 feet tall. these black boulders once came from several sheet flows from the volcanos. the canyon is the easiest place to see petroglyphs.

most of our 150,000 visitors stop here first. this is one of the first petroglyphs that people who come to petroglyph national monument might see. it's a carving on a rock, and pueblo people would use stone which is he wills and hammers to peck, abraid, insize and carve out the dark plaque patina, exposing the light color of the rock which varies from a gray on a light brown to sometimes a red. some ask us how these were discovered. but for the pueblo indians, they are as old as time. they have known about them since their creation story. modern day archeologists date most of these images from about 1200 to 1650. a few are older, those which are done by early spanish sheep hearders who were out here as part of the land grants. in the 1970 did, archeologists came out to the west mesa and began to inventory these images.

late ter interest in these glue andement, it became a national monument. to the pueblo people, they believed that the petroglyphs choose when and to whom to reveal themselves. sometimes, it's the shadow. sometimes, it's the glare, or sometimes, it's just the attitude and the sensitivity with which we look at these petroglyph images that reveal themselves. sometimes, telling people not to touch the petroglyphs is not enough. we know that nobody should touch the petroglyphs. but we do give people an opportunity to touch an art official bolder that we have created for such purpose so they get the touching out of the way. we want people to understand that these are sacred images and they continue to be impossible to the pueblo people. eventually, over time, a patina will form, and that's what's meant to happen. until then, we ask people not to touch these images. petroglyph national monument is

one of the few national park units that's actually owned and operated not solely by the national park service. petroglyph national monument is managed by the city of albuquerque and the national park service, and we work together with the city to help protect and preserve these resources for the future. in the last 20 years, we have had several challenges: land acquisition, being everything for everybody, the creation of trails, vandalism, the construction of roads through the monument, the expansion of a general aviation airport, but probably our biggest challenge is storm water run-off from upstream suburban development because we are completely surrounded by the city of albuquerque. as you walk the trails of petroglyph national monument and you are looking along the escarpment, you might notice large concentrations of black boulders. >> that's where we often see concentrations of petroglyphs.

we are in the heart of macardas canyon where there is a dense concentration of petroglyph did. we have documented over 241,000 petroglyphs within the monument pound arteries. it is home to 5,000 of them. we see animal over here we are not really sure what it means. something that looks like a sheep brand and it may be a cross. it might have been carved by early spanish sheep hearders. we see something that looks like a bird and some unidentified animals up on that rockrders. we see something that looks like a bird and some unidentified animals up on that rock here are, we see a concentration of boulders with many hand images of different sizes, some of which have an additional appendage. the pueblo people believed if a child is born missing a finger or with an additional toe, that that's a sign of power. with a concentration of hand images here, we have to wonder why. maybe it's because people passed

through this way. maybe this is a type of a calendar. we don't really know. only the people carved these images know for sure. what we do know is if we followed the arroyo from the heart of the piedras marcadas can kwon, welded end up in the pueblo, an 1100 room, multiple plaza structure. it was important to them because of the location to the petroglyphs, the high peaks where mother earth meets father sky. they would come up here, follow spirit waves. they would say prayers. they would make offerings. and they would carve images into the rock. sometimes, it's a form of passage way or a map. others might be a counting mechanism or clan image. but to many pueblo people, they say the spirits would leave this involved and go on to the next world through these petroglyph

images. the pueblo people called this place the place that people speak about. it belongs to all of us, all americans, not just today, but future generations. it's a place of respect. it's a place of solitude. it's a place of wonder. today's look at the people, places and events of native american history is part of c-span's cities tour where we travel across the trdid the cou you can see more at our website, c-span.org. click on the series tab. them click on c-span cities tour. c-span's american history tour cons with a historian talking about his book on the little shell tribe of chippewa indians of montana and their struggle to

become a federally recognized tri tripe. >> the little shell tribe, a fascinating group of people here in montana. their official name is the chippewa tribes of montana. actually, that's a name that has come in to formal use only in the 1970s, as part of the way this tribe deals with the federal government and their petition for federal recognition. there are a group of chippewa indians as they are base, but they are really a polyethnic group really representing more of what was occurring on the northern plains in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century as europeans came in on the east coast of the continent and moved their way west. indians relocated, dislocated,

enter married, allied, confedrated and became new peoples. and so this group, the little shell tribe of chippewa indians really is a -- is more complex than their name suggests. in the upper missouri currents tree that montana, on this side of the divide, the eastern slopes that wewe are on right h really, the first time the federal government negotiated with the peoples who were already living here was in 1855 as part of the isaac i. stephenson treaties to come to terms with who was where so that the united states could assure safe passage for the northern route of the railroad coming through all the way from chicago to minneapolis to puegot sound, seattle. so, there was a treaty in 1855, but that treaty was not

really about land, although the government has afterwards used that information they gathered to say who was where. the people who are the ancestral people of today's little shell tribe were party to that gathering. and rather than the negotiation, there really wasn't a negotiation for a tre treaty r s rights. it was the native people telling the federal government, we are here, they are over there and this is disputed land. and so that the government got a sense, this is where the black are, this is where the crow are, the flat-head are on the other side of the divide. >> the shishonee are down south. and people got a chance to say, this is our territory. and their head chief, a man by the name of brok"broken arm" si it as a quote/unquote witness. but they weren't part in the

eyes of the federal government, at least, in subsequent years, in interpreting what this treaty was about, they were not party to the treaty. and that's because the treaty was really about all of the lands south of the missouri river, and most of the cree, mixed blood people, mixed-decent peoples, were north of the missouri river at that point. what was supposed to occur was another treaty was supposed to take place. >> decree would be treated in. all of the lands north of the missouri river up to the canadian border, the 49th parallel, that those lands would be considered along with the brack feet and then that was -- that would be assessed.

the problem was the civil war occurred before that treaty could take place and then after the civil war, the united states basically had had it with indians. so they didn't bother with any more treaties. so the cree, asinobin, chippewa, matee confederacy sometimes called the neheu plat, which is the native term. that alliance of aboriginal peoples were never dealt with. and it just sort of was just left ignored. and then, in the united states went right in to defining the border. so by 1872 to 18741 was when these boundary commissions went along the 49th parallel actually putting the boundary markers on there. and how a national defines itself, it has to control its borders. and so the people who were living in that country were

these ancestral little shell people, this poly ethnic group of people. so all of the people who were living there and this group of people, because they weren't treated with, say, at the 1855 treaty, the black feet were on reservation, the crow were on the reservation. the flat heads were on the reservation. the shishonee, the nez pers, but this appreciate chippewa, matee, poly ethnic group of people weren't on a reservation. there was no treat couple. they had to be ethnically cleansed from the territory. and was basically from the early 1870 did, there were a couple of examples in 1868 after the civil war, but really, it started in earnest in the early 18 sent did all the way to 1896.

cleansing of this group of people from the border regions. this modern group of people, they were fully developed with towns, shops, schools, churches. still, people lived in their lodges or canvas tens. there was a mixture between townspeople and the buffalo hunting people. they would maintain -- what i mean to say is there was a fully developed society here. a modern aboriginal society. troops would come in and they built a fort next to have her, montana. this indian fort was built specifically to clear indians from the border.

here in montana, most people are unaware that there was his active campaign by the u.s. military, supported by the political establishment, to ride in and burn these villages to the ground, all of their possessions. with troops, drive them over the border. or drive them and disperse them so that they were not a cohesive community. these folks would come back and builder villages again. troops would come back and drive them out. it was really great hardship. after the buffalo went away, then what? where do the people have to go? they were able to sustain themselves in her own communities. -- they were not able to sustain themselves in their own communities.

there were no resources for them. that means working on the new cattle ranches that were developing at that point, and some did that. many along the highlands of montana, all the way to the north dakota border. many of the small towns and enclave populations of little shell tribe people to this day got work on local ranches or agricultural work, but there were a lot of folks who were not able to find network. there were only so many kinds of jobs like that. they were still living in a band environment -- and environment. the cohesiveness of those family relationships, they knew nothing else.

they had to disperse because large populations cannot live together. there were no resources for that. the family bands would go off to different areas and they would live on the outskirts of these newly forming anglo american communities. they would pitch their lodges intense next to the dumps. next to the slaughterhouses. that is the resources they have. these new communities started realizing who are these vagabonds, lice ridden, vagabond, lyse-ridden,ns doing poverty stricken indians doing on the edges of our towns? aren't they supposed to be on reservations? wasn't the land cleared? what's the problem? who are these people? in 1896, little do most americans know, on the other

hand, most americans do know about the chinese exclusion ac . and what happened with orientation people and that racism but precious few people have ever heard of the cree deportation act where congress passed in 1896, a cree deportation act. cree is the name that was given this group of people. they were referred to en masse as cree. cree was the lingua franca of the northern plains tribe during the 19th century and was the main language that this poly ethnic group of people spoke along with multiple other languages, but the thing was, cree were considered to be canadian indians, although they had been here documented since

the 1600s. we have primary source accounts of the cree and asina buta being in montana. the congress passes the cree deportation act, which was kind of the last hoorah for the u.s. army in the indian wars in our part of the world here of the american west, where john j. pershing became the first 5-star general was a young lieutenant up at 40 asinibin. those were buffalo sold troops, african-american troops that this one vein glorious american lieutenant out of westpoint on his first assignment was lead to go go all around montana and literally round up, a human round up of all of the half breeds, all of the vagabon,

lyse-ridden, garbage can indians from great falls, down to butte, to missoula a, up the front range here to augusta, to shodo and literally rounded up and drove in a human cattle drive to great falls and placed these people on cattle cars and on the railroad, shipped them up to canada in alberta north of the border here and dropped them off. the last group, when they ran out of money, they force marched them on foot to the border. most of the folks came back. they hid out in the coolies along the front range here and ended up back at the dumps, in the same cycle because they had no other option. and so that went on, and that went on until 1916 that that

outrage of -- that white outrage about indians not being on reservations continued. but the fear, the fear of indians was gone by 1914, 15, 16. wounded knee had happened, and all-star, we are in the progressive era in american history, and all the sudden, there is a new compassion for the unfortunate. indians aren't the threaten that they were in the 19th century, even in 1896 when the cree deportation act. so all the sudden there is a different take on how to deal with these unwanted, left-over displaced peoples living on the margins of these white communities. this time, the indian wars are over. what 40 asinowin was created for

was no longer necessary. so, it had been decommissioned and was this military reservation was sitting there and the identify idea came around, let's create a new reservation to take care of these people. so in 1916, the rockie boys' reservation was created. rocky boy being one of the band chiefs of the numerous band chiefs who compromised a large group of quote, unquote landless indians as we call them here in montana. that was good. that was good. but the problem was there weren't enough resources to take care of all of the landless indians, all of the displaced peoples unaccounted for through treaties in the 19th century. and so a number of families, 570

families, show up in bash elder, rocky boys' reservation but there are twice as many if not three times as many people still left out of the settling. those people left out of the settling in 1916 are who we today call the little shell tribe of chippewa indians of montana. and so, what we have today with the little shell tribe is a group of people that are directly related to at a time integrated history of the northern plains but a cross between miscommunication, misunderstanding and negligence have been left out of settling. you know, there is another one that i will add to that.

just not enough money. at certain points in the history of the u.s. government dealing with the little shell tribe, really up until and through world war ii, they recognized their responsibility to deal with the landless indians of montana. and the only reason they couldn't deal with them -- and they understood this when the robertingy boy reservation was created, too, but they didn't have enough money. congress wouldn't allocate indian affairs enough money to purchase more land so that more people could settle there. so, it really came down to congress, the indian department said, it's not our fault. we understand. we would love to deal with you. we would love to give you a place to live, but congress won't give us our money. and we can't lobby congress. so, it's one of these catch-22 situations. you see it all down the line whe where the indian, the indian

department can't lobby the federal government for more funds, even though they understand that's what's necessary. congress can't do it because, well, they really don't understand the situation. and they don't -- their projects and their priorities are different than the indian situation. and it goes along and the people end up just everybody got used to the landless indians living in their enclaves on the margins of montana communities and living in poverty. and the people, themselves, got used to living in poverty. and so, it became a homeostasis. and if you just let it go and didn't deal with it, if you ignored it, basically, it wasn't there. and that's been the circumstance with the little shell and current situation. what we never back talk about in

this country, the foundational issue in the creation of the american possession is the dispossession of the aboriginal people and the genocide that occurred in that event, that ongoing event that actually remains a current issue. the little shell people is one of those stories because it happened right on our border, and it has showed. it shows the ethnic cleansic that went in. it shows how we deal with nationalism. it shows how we deal with racism because this is a quote, unquote half-breed group of people. and throughout the primary sources, many, many times along the way, these are not indians. these are children of squaw men, and that was a way the government didn't have to deal

with the problem because they weren't indians. so this is one of those stories and by reading the book, you see it is a complex story but by moving through it, you dive in, and if you can stay with it and come to the end, you come out the other side, you come out the expressties, there is a path through the complexity that makes sense, and you come to know that america is in all of its beauty, it's flawed and that there are still places where we need to refine our society and our national identity. >> c-span's american history tour of native american life ends with a trip to palm spri s springs. in the 1950s, ortner led the

first women tribal counsel. she co-wrote a book of her agua calienta band and the tribe struggled for political independence and economic developme development. >> it was an interesting thing after my father died, my mother was living in seal beach. there was a meeting she wanted to attend down in palm strings. so, i took off work and drove her down for the meeting. i don't know. i guess i spoke-up and said something. and the next thing i know is that we have an election, a regular month -- yearly election. and i got a call the next day saying that i had been elected as a member of the tribal council. i was absolutely floored. i couldn't believe it. so that was my start in our

local politics. >> she transformed this tribe in a way that no one can deny. and the ramifications of her efforts here in palm springs had many impacts across the country because what she was doing here was setting in motion guidelines for modern of governorance that would lead to economic development which is what the tribes desperately needed. they transformed this tribe into one of the richest tribes in the country by virtue of her efforts? >> i grew up in palm springs, california. i was born in 1921 and i was born in section 14, which is right in downtown palm springs now. and my parents had a motor

course there and i just grew up with kids and going to school, you know, just a regular life. >> it was interesting because of the fact that i had joined the women's republican women's club and was an officer, and i was used to very much of a well-run thing, and down here, we didn't have a constitution. we didn't have bylauds. we didn't have anything. we just had meetings and that was a shocker to me, that we didn't have any of that. >> that was never a tribal attorney before mrs. ortner got involved with the tribe. the first year she was on the tribal council, she paid for the attorney out of her own funds. knowing the necessity for having legal counsel to go through the

thick thicket of all of the regulations that the government had developed around indian land. and she was determined to maximize this sole asset. it was the land and the natural resources. you have to remember that this is before gaming came in, and so mrs. ortner knew if they had any chance of building a better future for their tribe, it was to maximize the land. >> the section 14 became a very bad form, and because of we didn't have leasing. we didn't have any leases. so, we would have some people would say, oh, yeah. you can come and be on my land, you know. you can live on my land. so, then, it became very congested and it was not a good site. >> if you only lease add land

offer 10 years for. imagine if somebody is only going to be on your property for five years with a house. they would bring trailers, or they will bring a tent. they are not going to bring substantial property investment into the land. and the same thing if they are planning trees or other types of crops, they are not going to take it as seriocertainly. people would say, we could develop palm springs. we don't have access to long enough leasing laws. and so in her case, she wanted to change that. she was going straight for 99 years. shechtd 99 year leasing. >> had been used in other contexts, 99 years. at first, the government, no, we are not doing 99 years.

she kept plugging away. she got the first 25 years with a renewal of another 25 years for a maximum of 50. so the first long-term leasing law is called public law 255. and that was put through first, and then she was right back to work testifying before congress. you can just imagine mrs. ortner with the other tribal council members going to washington, d.c. they needed, you know, this one interesting concept that she presents to congress where she says, you know, we feed -- we need vitamin money. we don't need vitamin b. we need vitamin money. so we have to -- we have to develop our land. and we can't do that unless we rewrite the leasing laws. >> that was quite an achievement for our tribe to do that. and through that, we were able to eventually build a spa hotel downtown and a bath house and

everything turned around, being able to lease the land and get developers to come in, to help, to do all of that. so, it was an opening for our tribe through that hard work. the thing that really makes me extremely proud to, too, is that with the conditions that we have in washington today that we had no lobbyist, and we had -- we had just eight attorney and we five women, and so that was quite an accomplishment. one of the things that i am very proud of as a tribal member is that i was able to get with the help of my counsel, the reasons

why we need add constitution and bylaws. that was an exciting time, because we literally went around to the different homes and explained about a constitution and bylaws because the men were not very happy with us because we turned out to be an all-woman tribal council, and we thought this was a good idea, which it was, a wonderful thing. it gave us a way to organize and to have respect in the community and everything, that we were not just letting things go by and helter skelter. they took the position that we listened through the city too much and it was -- you have to listen to learn to make a right decision. we didn't always agree with the

city or do what the city wanted us to do, but it was -- we had this relationship to where we could talk about it and discuss it. and the men just, they just didn't think we should be doing all of this, shouldn't be talking to the city that much. it was one of those little things that had to overcome. the city has helped us at different times when we needed help with our legislators in sacramento and in washington, d.c. so, it became a good working relationship that's continues to this day. i don't think the men ever really have gotten over it all the way, the women, a strong woman. >> as opposed to the traditional style of the male tribal leaders, they were very closed. they were very inward. they weren't trusting of the government. they didn't want to work with the city of palm springs, very

averse to this and they had to work together. i mean the way the land is constructed, the reservation inside the city limits of palm springs, bear in mind, the book describes how 7,000 acres of the city limits are tribal land. >> that's huge. so that has to be managed somehow, and you have to inter face with the city somehow and because of her willingness to stretch out a hand, she was able to ail come accomplish those things. there is an interesting quote in the book. she says, because i was a halfbreed, i wasable to do this. i was willing to reach across because her father was white. he's european ancestry. her mother was agua caliente.

and they married here, and they settled here and mrs. ortner was brought up in those two cultures. and so to her, it wasn't something alien to do, and it was actually the asset that allowed her to achieve the momentous thing she did. >> i have always been a person that, there is a job to do, you do it. if you are elected to do a job, you sweep the floor, have the cleanest floor. so whatever it was, just did it. i think we -- i didn't have any apprehensions about not doing this or advancing. >> the modern palm springs that we know today is a result of what that five-women tribal council did because they reached across the aisle, so to speak, and they worked with the city to come up with new zoning, with new rights of way, with new plans for infrastructure, new

plans for gaining aspects of the reservation. before, they were distrusting. let's look at this this way. the reservation represents a very small portion of what the native americans once had. let's face it. >> that's true. on the other hand, mrs. ortner's attitude was: okay. we can sit around, and we can be bitter that we had so much of our land taken, or we can get together and work and really maximize the assets we do have. and she did that and made the agua caliente the richest tribe in the nation. >> today's look at the people, places and events of native american history is part of c-span's cities tour where we travel across country highlighting the literary life of each city we visit. see more at our website, c-span dovrping.

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