mongolia, they talked about the fact that they knew they were the distant ancestors of the north american native americann there 15,000 years ago, and they had an oral tradition which went back much, much further than anything written down and that's where these stories come from. you were a teacher. if you were trying to explain to children who are a bit leery about history, or indeed novels, but particularly history, why it is that it's fascinating by saying, you know, how do we explain this, what happened, how do we know? my mother always said that, for her, history was a series of stories about people, with dates. to me, that's the absolute heart of it. people are interested in people. we are fascinated by extraordinary moments of courage and betrayal and love and despair, and history is absolutely chock full of those, because it's the story of millions of different people. it is an absolute treasure trove and always has been. and in this case, whether it's darien, a fantasy, or whether it's dunstan, based on, you know, a real man and a real historical period, the point about storytelling and where i

mongolia, they talked about the fact that they knew they were the distant ancestors of the north american native americanwhere these stories come from. you were a teacher. if you were trying to explain to children who are a bit leery about history, or indeed novels, but particularly history, why it is that it's fascinating by saying, you know, how do we explain this, what happened, how do we know? my mother always said that, for her, history was a series of stories about people, with dates. to me, that's the absolute heart of it. people are interested in people. we are fascinated by extraordinary moments of courage and betrayal and love and despair, and history is absolutely chock full of those, because it's the story of millions of different people. it is an absolute treasure trove and always has been. and in this case, whether it's darien, a fantasy, or whether it's dunstan, based on, you know, a real man and a real historical period, the point about storytelling and where it takes us is the same. yes, i've been at the end of the day, its characters. i think kurt vonnegut says there's this guy, right,

native american and environment all al history. her 2001 book, "pox americana," the great smallpox academic -- epidemic of 1775-82 unearthed a devastating effect of a smallpox epidemic that went through the north american continent during the years of the american revolution. she is now at work on unaccented -- expensive -- extensive biography of sacajawea using her life story to illuminate the wider history of the northern plains and rockies. elizabeth fenn is also the author with peter h wood of natives and newcomers, the way we live in north carolina before 1770, a popular history of early north carolina, which appeared in 1983. with no further ado, i would like to welcome elizabeth fenn. [applause] elizabeth: thank you all for coming today. is a real privilege to share this most american of stories with you. some of you may feel a bit disconcerted as you look at the title of my book because you are not quite sure who the mandan indians are. you know, mandan does not have ring of cherokee or comanche or seminal, but i want to put you at ease because in fact you do know about the mandan. and the reason you know about them is because, the explorers lewis and clark in their discovery, spent the winter

native american population and talk about the multiple times that this expansion has been so important to our native families. in north dakota, the republican bill would cause an estimated 984 native americans to lose cost-sharing reduction subsidies. the senate republican health care bill would also get rid of the medicaid expansion and cap the amount of federal funding states can get to cover those on traditional medicaid. as a result, it would drastically reduce the amount of medicaid funding going to the states. this would push the remaining costs to the states and counties that can afford it. the american hospital association estimates that north dakota medicaid would lose $1.2 billion -- let me say that again. north dakota medicaid would lose $1.2 billion through 2026. right now 9,000 rely on medicaid for affordable quality care, but this bill would rip it away in so many wrong ways. the uninsured rate for native americans has fallen nationally from 24% to 15%. largely due to medicaid expansion. and so we go on and on. currently medicaid accounts for 24% of the indian health workforce. senate republican bill would strip away 772 billion from medicaid and the white house proposes an al