this day and we are humble two- leggeds. we give thanks to you on this wonderful day. give thanks to be able to gather and honor our own, remember our veterans, those that have passed on, those that are still serving abroad, our men and women in uniform. a moment of silence for corporal ware, my cousin. we know that no war is a good war. as native people, we have always supported our troops, creator. we know that to be true.

bring them home safely and we pray for their families. their loved ones. we pray for everyone here in attendance, safe travel. we asked for blessings upon the food, the hand that created the food which we are about to partake. remember our young ones, our young ones not yet born. we give thanks and praise to their families. we remember our four-legged, the fish. we remember our elders, our young ones this day, and i

believe we say these things in your name. [singing]

thank you. >> once again, thank you for coming up to the seventh annual american indian heritage celebration at city hall. this event is hosted by native american aids project, a french ship house association of native americans, neighborhood office of services, san francisco

native american health center, east bay native american health center, it indian health center of santa clarita valley, and kqed. at this time, i would like to introduce the president of kqed, john boland. [applause] >> thank you. kqed is pleased to join with the wonderful organization that are all just listed in sponsoring tonight's celebration of american indian heritage month. as you know, kqed celebrates throughout the year all of the heritage months that we mark, here in the united states, but since i am the great grandson of thomas patton, a member of the law bay tribe in new jersey and pennsylvania, which is where i grew up, american heritage in the amount is particularly

special to me and i am happy to be with you tonight. as part of kqed's celebration during the month of november, we sponsor the american indian film festival, and we have also scheduled over 60 television programs about the native american community and of special interest to the community. these programs you can find out about, listings on kqed.org/heritage. there are three programs that i wanted to mention that are coming up quickly. the first is "we still live here." that is airing tonight at 11:00 on kqed +, channel 54 or 10 on comcast. it is the story of the wamp and not nation of southeastern

massachusetts and how they ensure the survival of the pilgrims and lived to regret it. this tells the story of their language. the first time that a language that has had no native speakers for generations has been revived in this country. the bill is part of the pbs series "independent lens.' the second program i wanted to mention is the journey of sacajawea. this program looks at the woman who is behind the icon, and shows how cultures and events that have shaped her. the special goes beyond the sparse comments found an expedition journals and goes into the rich oral history of the laney shawnee, and others.

it includes dramatic reenactments and seeds of wild areas of montana, north dakota, wyoming, and oregon, that the youthful sacajawea new. the last program is "gallery, the national museum of native americans." this charts the unveiling of the first smithsonian museum exclusively devoted to american indians. the grand unveiling on the national mall coincided with a six-day outdoor first american festival and native nations festival and the colorful opening day ceremony that is captured in the film began with a native nation's recession, which was the largest gathering of native people in modern history. both gallery and a journey of sacajawea will be airing on sunday, november 20. i know we want to get to our heroes, and i want to congratulate all the heroes while i am up here.

thank you for being here and thank you for giving kqed an opportunity to co-sponsor the event. [applause] >> how many native americans and do we have out there, by a show of hands? how about a big round of applause for yourselves. [applause] good to see all of you. pow wow on sunday, independence high school. we better see you there, singing and dancing. a whole lot of fun. indian tacos. be ready. i am looking for mark. is the mayor close by?

once again, all of you native americans, go ahead and raise your hand. you have all been drafted. [laughter] i have not seen this many native americans in one place since we were out at ifh, picking up our settlement checks. you did not get yours? [laughter] president obama said they are in the mail. all right. we're going to go right into this next introduction of our dancers. are our dancers ready? get ready for our dancers. just one minute.

let's go over to our napsters. how about an intertribal? make them dance. you are listening to one of our intertribals. depending on which the tribe, which area of the indian country you are from, a lot of these songs, we were not able to sing

these songs publicly. we were not able to dance. when that happens, when we cannot speak our language, sing our song or dance our style of dance, we lose a little bit of ourselves, our indian identity. a lot of these dances and songs were ceremonial, prior to powwows. they are religious in content. the words that were being some. the style of dance or ceremonial and religious over the years, the federal government' sent the u.s. cavalry out to stop the singing, dancing.

this forced a lot of our tribal members that loved to sing and dance, to go underground. to share these songs, style of dance with their young ones underground. in oklahoma, the kiowa tribe did not have a reservation. there are one of those land less tribes, but we were a lot of 160 acres per family. we would go out and sing, dance. we would set up patrols, guardians, to make sure that non-indians would not come out

and make us stop, arrest us, so this is just part of who we are. when you see these dancers, years of dance styles combined, because of our ancestors who said they wanted to remember for their young ones to be able to sing and dance. once again, calling our dancers, or rocaurora, we are ready to g. maybe not. how about our veterans?

many veterans out there? stand up. [applause] calling all of our veterans forward. come on up, right in front. veterans, lineup, just like you are going to the chow hall. we are going to honor our veterans at this time, as we always have. there is a period of time when our veterans came home, they were called names, baby killers, spat upon. but native americans, native

americans, we have always honored our veterans. we do the same today. going over to our friendship house drum, veterans song please. please stand if you are able.

[applause] >> once again, thank you veterans. ross mirkarimi, our newly elected sheriff of san francisco

county, and a former supervisor? welcome, good to see you. . our dancers are ready. how about a big round of applause for our veterans? the marine in me wanted to call them to the attention and dismiss them. veterans, thank you for your service. at this time, we want to recognize our dancers, going over to our napsters. grand entry. our native american dancers from throughout the bay area. welcome. here we go. how about a big round of applause for our dancers as they

make their way into the arena. here they come. good to see all of you dancers. dance hard. sing loud. here we go. looking good. good singing, good dancing, live from san francisco city hall, good to see you. leading our dancers in, no.

traditional dancing. good to see you. followed by our women's southern claw. right behind them are women's no. traditional. good to see all of these dancers. we also have our women's dingell-dressed dancers. followed by our women's fancy shalwl. naomi and baby, good to see you. how about a big welcome for are a tiny tots, our youngsters.

good singing, good dancing. looking good. grass dancers bringing up the tail end of our dancers. one more time, big round of applause for our intertribal dnacers. i am sorry just watching them dance. all right. bringing our men's traditional to the arena. mr. swimmer. mr. baird child.

going to friendship house drum. an appropriate song for our dancers. make them dance. all right. looking good out there, dancers. there you go. show us what you got.

how about a big round of applause for our men's no. traditional dancers. all right. then, southern straits, stand by.

all right. thank you dancers. thank you, singers. do we have any mends southern strait? ok, going back to our women's southern claw. make your way into the arena. how about women's northern traditional as well. i just realized we do not have a southern drum. no. the ladies, stand by. when you are ready. make them dance.

[singing]

how about a big round of applause for our women's traditional, southern claw. good dancing. all right. thank you, ladies. how about men's grass, boy's grass. are you ready? looking pretty good or rather --

over there. kick one out. make them dance. show us what you got, boys. dance hard. women's jindal, stand by. -- jingle, stand