we have carried our identity and culture into contemporary times. that is part of what makes us unique. the traditions are being carried into the future. today is an important day because we celebrate the new year and we also celebrate our sovereignty. president lincoln in 1862 gave the pueblos sovereignty. that was important that the current foreign government, the united states, recognizes tribal sovereignty. it makes for good relations in retaining our cultural identity, which is unique in the country, and also important for moving forward because we live with non-native people in this area.

the governor of new mexico, in 1974, gave a came from spain, in the 1600s, the king of spain gave the pueblo the cane. and recently spain also gave the pueblo another cane to recognize is sovereignty. these canes are held by the governor, the leader of the pueblo, in his house. they are also referred to as canes of authority. each governor the tribe elects is responsible for holding onto the cane and passing it on to the next governor. today we had the eagle dance.

that eagle dance is important to many tribes across the country. we celebrate it with a unique dance. the eagle is an important part of the ceremony. it is looked at as power and the feathers are in almost every ceremonial outfit we have. so as heart of the ceremony, we have the dances and all of the tribal members come to bless the cane and bless me and bless themselves. all of the people were tribal officials, and the next was a lieutenant governor and then the tribal secretary and treasurer. those are the four elected officials. all of the officials of the pojoaque pueblo are elected by the general population, males

and females over 18 years of age. it is very hand to hand campaigning because we are such a small population. we get a hold of each other and visit each other either at work or on the phone and talk to each other about what is going on in the pueblo and was the goals are for the future. the relations with the state and the federal government are essential to the pueblo. all of the laws that implement, that are implemented on the state level and federal level, it is important to keep up with that as well as the collaboration we are going to do together to benefit the people in whatever ways it is, whether it is through social programs or economic development, or just enforcement of general laws. it is important we are in communication with each other. poverty has been a big impact on communities in northern new mexico. as a result, you have different addiction to drugs and substance abuse, and so the only way to

really get communities out of that is to have some kind of opportunity to move into and look forward to. what we have done is tried to say the most important things for us are the education and employment. that is where we focus. we have seen a huge turnaround in the few short years, offering people a better life. it is an ongoing challenge, but it is something that works. we have seen a huge turnaround. we have gone to almost 100% graduation rate with our tribal members coming out of high school. we spend about a million dollars a year on our scholarships, going from kindergarten through phd level.

we do try to encourage all of our members to be traditional and also to be caught up with contemporary times and with their education and doing well for themselves. it is important for them as a unique people to practice their traditional songs, their traditional ceremonies. but then also to advance themselves in life in some of the contemporary ways they will need to survive. most of our youth are very excited about who they are as pueblo people. they are also out there getting a great education. the pueblo area is one of the most beautiful places in the world. if the landscape speaks to you every day, the clouds, and when you look at native art and symbolism, you see the landscape

and the clouds always communicating messages. and so when people come from other places, that is what they see, they see the landscape and they see the people and the integration of the culture and everything into how people portray this area. starting with the architecture and the native people all the way to contemporary times. mims ton visited fort hear about an author. native americans known as the red stick stormed the military garrison and went on to massacre

settlers in the area. . >> we are at fort mims park. it is a little park in alabama and this is the location of a major battle between americans and indians in 1813. the fort was full of all kinds of folks taking shelter from an impending attack here at including indians that were allied with the americans, local settlers, militias from the mississippi territory and a lot of slaves. about 500 people inside of this fort. and on august 30, a faction of the creeks was upset and attacked the -- ford there was a long battle in the end almost 300 people inside the fort were killed.

i first learned about it when i read about about the massacre but there is more to the story. like most american indians had to find the way to deal with the expanding american in settlements. in this area, the creeks were successful as the cherokee to assimilate to american life style. quite a few wealthy indians owned slaves with a big plantation and raise domestic livestock and largely gave their way of life to the american norms of agriculture. the large part of the nation did not see the advantage. they wanted to maintain their traditional life. there was a rift in 1813, a civil war broke out and what happened here is a continuation

of the civil war but it brought the americans into the of war against the anti-american faction. there was a religious component. the shawnee prophet and tecumseh were proselytizing for a religious way of life and to he -- tecumseh came here and converted a lot of creeks to their religion. so there was a political angle as well. most of those leaders the were in the pay of the american government. so they were profiting, while others were suffering. by the early 1800s, there is a lot of reasons why individuals chose one side or the other. in this area, most of the local creeks were pro-american and decided to stay on that side of the civil war. william rutherford was from this area. he was the leader of the red

sticks attack. the folks inside fort mims had been boarded up for about a month. there was a skirmish in july around fort mims. apparently the red sticks attack was in response to that skirmish. the creeks had been in their own territory and they were attacked by americans. they felt they were wronged by that and decided to take revenge in this area. so in the morning, the folks inside the fort had to go out and find food. there were 500 people inside the fort, so very cramped conditions and they had to forage every day for food. people dispersed and began to harvest crops from nearby fields. that went on throughout the morning.