Marlon Brando - Interview (June 12, 1973)

Oh [Music] tonight six guests are Marlon Brando will the Indian tribal chairman Sam Hagee project director for the Lummi tribe dr. Wallace heat from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council Dennis slipper head chairman of the government by you tribe bourbon right [Music] ladies and gentlemen Dick Cavett [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you'll go too far and then hate yourself in the morning pretty nice to see you say there was a slight typographical error about tonight's show my guest is Marlon Perkins of God of super 8 but I know that no one will know happy I'm kidding I hope what was the other thing I just want a minute rose I don't want to waste any time right now just a brief quiz see if anyone in what context was the line said I could have been a contender does anyone what on the waterfront no a senator must be commenting on the Watergate area as you can see I don't want to waste any time I'm here even I already had my guest tonight special guest is Marlon Brando and with him tonight our mother gentlemen live in the Lummi Indian tribal council Sam ke a project director for the Lummi tribe dr. Wallace Heath from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council Dennis limber hand and chairman of the pipe and that's the pyramid Paiute Tribe Mervin right to save time take a pause we'll take a message we'll be right back [Music] my guests flew all the way from Tahiti to be here tonight which set some kind of record I think I'm very honored to have him here you have caught glimpses of him in the past as Stanley Kowalski and streetcar named desire Zapata and Viva Zapata Marc Antony and Julius Caesar Terry Malloy and on the waterfront Vito Corleone in The Godfather and Paul in Last Tango in Paris he despises superlatives he's often been called the best actor in America or in the world but I want to downplay that tonight cuz I don't I want him to be happy will you welcome please mr. Marlon Brando I guess how are you would be as good as anything kind of weary are you wiped out from the jet trip yeah mm-hmm yeah I appreciate the amount of miles you have been covering to get here and you've been you were delayed and it was a ghastly story but I'm nice nice of you to come and put up with it all I'm so self-conscious I don't know what to do because we spoke on this what we spoke on the phone for over six hours and a lot of it was about what neither of us can stand about this kind of program to the point where I know I don't know how to avoid all that stuff will you help me as we move well I think I had a special treat because you've allowed me to come into your your life and dick describes his background as a young boy in Nebraska which I think would be worth telling for about 20 minutes you mind if I go into all that I've said and they forgotten it all yeah anyway I have you seen any good movies lately either super rich Adam oh that's supposed to be in my dressing room oh that's part of it yeah that's really that's really part of it part of the commercial where was that deed go to the movies come to think of it what's in a while I'll tell you what happened we we talked on the phone and at one point in the conversation you reeled off about seven or eight things that you had observed about me watching the show about how I sometimes don't like people and pretend that I do and vice versa and and about a dozen more and they were so uncanny and on the nose that I decided I could never work again now I feel it would you like a glass of water a bug just flew out of my glass I knew it I'm terribly embarrassed as he started to pour the water a bug flew at probably a critic anyway let me ask you an obligatory question and we can get that out of the way right now and if at any time I get into things that you don't want to talk about give me a signal about your cheeks put you at you that'd be fine if you had the Academy Awards night to do over again would you do any of that definitely well I don't think so no I felt that that there was an opportunity for since the American Indian hasn't been able to hear his voice heard or have his voice heard anywhere in the history the United State I felt that it was a marvelous opportunity for an Indian to be able to voice his opinion to 85 million people I guess that was a number and I felt that he had a right to in view of what Hollywood has done to him and I was embarrassed for a sheen she wasn't able to say what she intended to say and I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled and stomped even though perhaps it was directed yeah but myself they should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her but I think she did very well and I was I was I was very glad that she did have what opportunity she had to say what she did and why didn't you get to read your entire entire statement as you planned it well I think that they felt that it was inappropriate and that I actually don't know I think they just they didn't want her there they didn't want the evening interrupted with that particular note and from their insular point of view I felt that perhaps they they had a point but I don't think that people genuinely realize what the motion-picture industry is done to the American Indian as a matter of fact all ethnic groups all minorities all non-whites and people just simply don't realize they just cut it for granted that that's the way the people going to be presented and these cliches were just going to be perpetuated and so when someone makes a protest of some kind and said no please don't present the Chinese this way or please I mean unless Network every night well perhaps not every night but you can see silly renditions of human behavior yeah leering Filipino houseboy the wily Japanese of the the cook of the cook and the idiot black man and the stupid Indian and it just goes on and on and on and people actually don't realize how deeply these people are injured by seeing themselves represented not so much the adult because they're already inured to that kind of pain and pressure but children Indian children seeing Indians represented their savage as ugly as nasty vicious treacherous drunken they grow up only with a negative image of themselves and it's it lasts a lifetime did you is that an answer to your question yeah did you did you expect the kind of outrage that you got from people I believe well that very night Raquel Welch made a joke against you saying what I hope the next person doesn't have a cause who's the Indian who's the Western star followed later Steve McQueen Steve Clint Eastwood yes of course I very seldom make mistakes he did his version of a joke and then John Wayne looked like he was about ready to get a posse together he looked looks like does that did that surprise you that they would be angered that you desecrated their role in it I wasn't surprised now there were a number of people that that felt that sashing had had not been welcomed and not been treated properly and and people that was sympathetic to what she was trying to say and I received an awful lot of mail in support of that the booing made me sore well I think the people were booing at me they were booing and they thought well this is this moment is sacrosanct and you're ruining our fantasy with the intrusion of a little reality and I suppose it was perhaps unkind of me and to do that but there was a larger issue and it's an issue that nobody in the motion picture industry has ever addressed themselves to and this forced to I mean the blacks of brought about changes because they were just damn angry about it and they sunk that tub and threatened and made some noise about it but if they had just been silent and thought well gradually wisdom will come to those who learn the businesses the movies and they will do right by us and today would never have come we you know have a lot to be grateful for that the blacks were as consistent as they were that the image of banks were changed changing but it's it's a block-by-block fight it if people are very timorous now about showing blacks and unkindly like and but they would go on with the Filipino houseboy or the the Indian when you see it every day on television not every day was the world war two movie in which X it's John Wayne again I don't mean to pick on him which he refers to mister Tojo's little yellow-bellied rats there was so much racism in world war two movies you see now it's really really surprising I mean it was so crude that it's worse than you remember it the thing that bugged me too is that people said there's Brando jumping on it on a social cause bandwagon now getting in on the Indians of forgetting that in the 50s you were not according the first people fishing with leaf pile up Indians up in in the West Coast you must forgive me we must take a message and we'll be right back stay where you are how much of what's been written about you can be trusted there are a couple of books there's what I've noticed that you always say you look at your nothing you say to the interview II guess it was once someone said about you once that this and that and the other thing in and it's I always wonder why why you did that looked at them I said it yeah well if I look at them and say nothing the show becomes so quiet nobody actually hear you means I mean I think it the prince is a poor they poor reference for knowing somebody I don't know what to say about that yeah well there are two books in print purporting to tell the story of your life your rages your excesses your lusts your dreams I think that I'm almost boating from the cover of one of them can we trust those and if not how do they get away with it I don't think it's worth going into I mean I remember buying it now well news news of course is big business and there are news items that are worth $100 that are some that are worth several thousand dollars some news items there was a hundred thousand dollars in summer $2 items but news is business and people sell news and unfortunately people in my position people in the public eye are sellable commodities but they're not any different the Kleenex a dial soap or anything else and so if we you know find something out that's about your sex life or something that you do with your fingernails after you cut them off if you smoke the grime from your navel then that's that's that's big nose that's important smoke the vine from his navel and he seizes your nail parings I'd rather you hadn't mentioned that about me I revealed that to you in private that I thought I can trust you but anyway it doesn't matter because finally you know and I've found that people really don't believe all the nonsense they read and they look at you when they meet you and wonder if it's true but they finally make a decision on what their experience with you personally is except for five minutes or you know if you say thank you to the hostess and she brings you a cup of coffee and but then she thinks you're courteous person if you're tired and cranky and you put your you're ill or something and you don't want to be disturbed or sign autographs and things like that then they say well he's that funny person whether or not you threw horse manure out of the top window of your old place on 52nd Street when you were young and yelled Oh watch out for the flying red horse which is I'm just picking one at random that they always seem to write about you it is irrelevant when people are watching you on the screen I don't know whether they wonderful I always wonder with if those aren't true then where do they come from well but I think you and did you I think that I think that that's a kind of a question that well that's part of example on your show you have money items as well you have items that you sell to the audience and items that were entertaining or they offer some sort of sparkling interlude for what otherwise might be a sea of Donath Adamas yeah I mean if you have if you have a guest that's it's it's very boring and you you you ask them some questions like that that's it well I'm getting far afield I think that it that you have to think about your ratings when you're giving the show when you're doing the show and you have to make the show as interesting as possible and to the question of whether or not I throw manure out of what story window of a sentence be I throw manure out of some window yes it's sort of provocative and people would rather listen to that and listen to the fact that yesterday the the Supreme Court refused to hear the Pyramid Lake water right issue I mean that's that's as part of the sea of dullness yeah people don't want to hear that they want to know they want to hear me describe how I I can only tell you that I was on 52nd Street today and they haven't cleaned it up yet so I probably is true but why people are more interested in that I don't know I was hoping we could find that out it's I'm not gonna quote anything else out of the brass is there anything else you were gonna say about the Academy Award night where shall we close can we close on that there was there were simply we're gonna go to Wounded Knee and I wonder what changed your mind about that I wanted I digress just for a second there I have a great deal of sympathy for the fact that you try to put on shows that deal with serious issues and there's a terrible conflict that you must have trying to make the show entertaining and you have to do that in order to keep that segment of the audience who's not particularly interested in the issues tuned into the station and I think you do a yeoman's job there's nobody else on television that does what you do and very often you you you're forced to make concessions I mean asking me questions about what I do horse manure and somebody not you know that it seems ridiculous on the face of it but then it has a part you know that day but if you don't ask those questions you don't have that kind of conversation there are a lot of guys in undershirts drinking beer just gonna turn the station over to some other channel alright God what are they talking about yeah nobody wants to hear about malnutrition among Indians nobody wants to hear about about the fact that the Indians have the highest suicide rate and of any group United say that's dull stuff they people come home they've got enough trouble they don't want to listen a bit they want to listen to the fripperies and the foolishness and the fun and the giggles and all that so I think that you have to you really deserve full credit for being able to wind your way through the broadcasting show and but I think that there's not like you've you've touched an awful lot of people and they they've responded when they wanted to take you off the air for whatever reason it was there was the human cry went up and people did support you in full and was very glad to that and I think everyone finally even those beer drinkers will be benefited by it I got a lot of beer drinkers watching thank you I'm humiliated when I'm in complimented and I must move on quickly did you dream that that last tango would be such a bombshell in every way that it would explode all over the place in the way that it did or did you think it would just be accepted as another movie well I I know I didn't know no those are just rolls of the dice and you never know yeah okay I'm sorry I interrupted you or something on the subject of you were gonna go to wonder knee and then decided not to and it was never made I interrupted you you're right again I wounded knee was surrounded by federal officers marshals State Police deputized Ranchers anybody who wanted to hold a gun and make him feel make himself feel good also there were there were Indians local Indians that represented the administration view who were opposed to aim and all it was needed to make it a flock was for me to go to Wounded Knee be arrested by a vigilante group or stopped by US Marshals or something and turned over to deputized conservative Indians so then the headlines would be Indians repulse Brando Wounded Knee which was perhaps be the the thing that the the government would be looking for and I tried to get into Wounded Knee and but I wasn't able to go I went to Denver and said I thought I was gonna meet somebody there and they had trouble getting out the wounded knee to meet me down didn't look up well now it's now slaps back again I think I'm fascinated with the furor over Last Tango I wonder if anybody's able to see that movie for what it is because of the fact that before it came out a review appeared that said it was one of the greatest artistic events since Stravinsky's debut of sacre de bruyne tones I'm Pauline kales review have you found that anybody is able to watch the movie and see it for what it is much too much about it beforehand well I haven't seen the movie and I I really don't think that I can I don't know what I could say about it that might be useful to amusing or interesting then we'll get off of that what do you downgrade acting as a profession well I say what whether you downgrade acting as a professional many years you know what makes you think I do well I've read it in the press starting black-and-white I can't believe the press I don't know what we can believe in this country you know what I mean you know you've said over the years it's not a fit profession for a man in an effort to to help your ratings maybe say something I think that we couldn't survive a second if we won't be able to act that that acting is a survival mechanism and it's a social element and that's a lubricant and we act to save our lives actually every day people lie constantly every day by not saying something that they think or saying something that they don't think or showing something that they don't feel or kind of give the appearance of feeling something that they don't don't actually I said that didn't I yeah but that's not acting that is acting that is no it isn't yes it is but you know what I mean even your you I wonder when you're nervous and when you're frightened and nervous in in this chair you're distressed or uncomfortable or you're very angry yeah and you know that that is not what is necessary to to what what cannot be shown here you control your face you're a highly controlled person and dirty and you have to do that I see but you know what I'm what I mean is when we got into this on the phone you say that that's acting that's not I'm motivated at that moment to do that and I can do it and I suppose there's a guy here that I think is the schmuck is a boor and you invite frankness and I can act like he's interested for a time my motivated by that but if you wake me up at 9:00 or 8:00 the following morning and say do that same performance before a camera and then do it again and again I can't some people can some people do it wonderfully and you seem to do it better than almost anybody so there's got to be I I won't hear of the fact that what I do is what you do is no more than what I do well that isn't true if you're working for an ad agency and you hate the guy that the idea man the boss and you know that every time he comes in with some impossible notion something that really makes you gag when you drive home in the freeway you know damn well that you're not gonna get a raise or you're not gonna get it shifted out of the position that you're in if you don't say Leonard I think that's terrific it's beautiful and you even lean forward put your elbows on to show enthusiasm and you get a face court and you do it day after day after day in order to survive in your job but if you had to do an align Leonard I think that's terrific six times and get something deeper and better into it time after time that takes an actor what did you say I said those are one-time things where you have an immediate motivation no they're not one-time things because it's a daily procedure yeah but the dialogue changes all the time but your changes but the motivation doesn't I know that I could play any role you can play as well as you can well that might not be true but I don't think that that I could play some roles as well as you could play them I don't think I could play the role that you're playing now this is me I'm letting it all hang out no it isn't st. me I mean I I think that you I mean you're thinking of 60 things at once how is it going is it getting dull you see its he upset and distressed inarticulate is he wasting board is he offended yeah here's a good time for a joke we haven't got much time that you you're thinking about nine million things and reacting to what I say and exact how's that gonna be that gonna be offensive no that's good so you're doing this this editing at an insane rate and I mean and and you have to do that and that's your job and you have this demeanor of levity and lightness and amusement and zest and and it's it's easy to ascertain it that finally isn't what goes on in your mind or your feelings at all I just feel like all my clothes have been taken off no but that's that's that's that's something that I couldn't do I couldn't do what you do and that's that's a different kind of acting you're playing a different kind of role in anyway we've done enough we made enough concession to be doing them oh nothing I just have a commercial to do and you say you couldn't do it let's see if you're any good at it all you do is look up and get read wäôre as I saying commercial them have fun with it no I'm glad you did night what do you mean ah the man is incorruptible and that's what I hope how long since you've tried a new shade of eyeshadow there are 25 beautiful colors super rich shadow by Revlon oh I'm good maybe even more self-conscious now I feel like a kid whose look what is it the Stevie Wonder gave me this in the airplane today and and I was very nice he took it off his wrist and said I want you to have this very very nice for them very kind of him let me ask you something um several a it's gonna say I feel like a kid in a candy store because I only have we can only take about two pieces out of all things I want to talk to you and ask you about I'm interested in today many things about you were you happy with the way the Godfather came out talk about movies I don't think ok if we could figure out some way did you like the book The Godfather well we have so well I we have so little time to talk about Indians and there's so much to say about them that I I think that talk about movies and stuff like that it's such a misuse of time but then I'm your guest and I don't want to horn in on what your program is gonna be about I wouldn't want you to okay I'll talk about something it bugs me that you over the years have acted so little and it seems like there must be about 14 great plays and great films that you ought to do and ought to make and I I worry that this feeling that you that acting is not a noble profession for a man maybe is what's kept you from it um I can now move on to something else if you like but does that observation bug you at all no it's none of my business are the roles you wish you'd played you crave acting no it's been a good living I mean if you were in the lumber business and you went on the Dick Cavett show and tell me how you like the lumber it is a business it's no more than that and those who pretended it's or not I think you're misguided acting is a craft and it's a profession not unlike in electrician plumbing or an economist the way of getting on and providing food and shelter for yourself and family may I ask you one thing here you've referred a couple times two things you did to make up for certain things you have done in the past this is an interview with Truman Capote and you refer to the wild one it's one of the things what is one and I don't think that it's it's useful to to refer to you know confirm or deny anything that was written in the prizes it's mostly money-oriented them there therefore I don't think it has any value okay tell me then when way back in the 50s when you got interested in when you were interested in the Indians fishing rights before it was fashionable to be so what triggered that I read a book called Indians of the Americas and I I after reading the book realized that I knew nothing about the American Indian and that everything we are taught about the American Indian is wrong it's inaccurate and our school books are hopelessly lacking perhaps criminally lacking in revealing what our relationship was with the Indian when we here as we've heard throughout all our lives no matter how old we are that we are a country that stands for freedom for rightness for justice for everyone it simply doesn't apply to those who are not white it just simply doesn't apply and we were the most rapacious aggressive destructive torturing monstrous people who swept from one coast to the other murdering and causing mayhem among my Indians as one Indian but and that isn't revealed because we don't like that image of ourselves we we don't like to see us we'd like to see ourselves as that's John Wayne Caesars and that and also what we've learned about the Indian that's been largely talked to us by Hollywood and by motion pictures they have educated us so we naturally believe that when the Indians came that the wagons circled and the Indians rolled rode around and and subjected themselves to terrible fire and died at a ratio of 65 to 1 both barrels of a shotgun would always get to Indians yeah and that wasn't the way it was at all but anyway Indians have been tragically misrepresented in films and in our history books in our attitudes in our reporting and so we must set about to re-educate ourselves who you're looking at you oh no there's a message coming but oh I one thing I wanted to get into on that too was a subject of not only had the industry view on the screen but off the screen I know a guy who was in it another thing at a time when when we say especially that we are going to keep our treaties and that we do keep our word and that we above all people do keep our word I think it's important to mention that there have been nearly 400 treatise written by the United States in good faith with the Indians and every single one of them was abrogated means broken or change their alter no exceptions and Indians howl when with laughter I guess when they hear a public figure like a president saying other nations will laugh at us if we don't honor our treaty commitments when they can think of 400 and what the exact figure has 31 examples of how we haven't in the past and this would only be the 430 second case we didn't but I do go on but we have a message we'll be right back I remember some years ago I read a a piece by James Wexler I think of what I'm pretty sure it was and he said that I don't think there's anybody who is concerned or a few people that I've met cares so much about the quest for human dignity something like that's that we're involved in right now that was referring to the civil rights movement did you ever meet Rosa Parks there's nothing the lady who never did who refused to give her seat to a white man on a bus and was it Atlantic and kind of kicked off the whole bus protest was in Birmingham better than ever and I've never seen you then in like in Washington and have you found that any effective comes from these these things well I think they say that it's the it's the it's the squeaky hinge that gets the grease and the blacks would still be shuffling around picking peanuts and dying and starving cause they you know they haven't been all that much improved if they hadn't made that noise that they hadn't made that racket somewhere there's some some person out there that tells us just be quiet become everything will will aright itself and and everybody will get their just desserts and but it never happens it walkabout right it never happens people if they just sit back and wait for that for white America to do something on their behalf to recognize their right to the people to recognize the sovereign rights of the Indians as a separate people the separate political cultural entity within the confines United States nothing's gonna happen the Indians have to shuffle and we will meet some in a moment we have a message in my local stations we should take it right now be right next time we just been joined by four gentlemen let me introduce them to you Mervyn right who is pyramid lake paiute councilman from Nevada on my far right Dennis limber hand Northern Cheyenne councilman from Wyoming dr. Wally Heath project director for the Lummi tribe and Sam cagey over here who is councilman of the Lemmy's a situation the crux of this is that Indian land is being threatened all over the US outside industries try to come in and set up shop on reservations they would pollute the air and water always seems to say nothing of wrecking the land and strip-mining is one of the greatest of these threats the Lummi 's have somehow avoided this fate although it almost happened to them the northern Cheyenne's and the Paiutes are threatened with it right now and we have a film which spells this out pretty clearly we'll get into that shortly let me ask Sam first how did the Lummi x' manage to avoid this disaster I think just the fact that the industries that wanted to come in take mining not so much coal but with medium oxide and the promise is that they would all be a sort of Heaven Sent Savior the Lummi people with a little research we found out there we're up looting industry in their byproducts were not at all usable in any way shape or form and I think what the Lummi people were looking for when we started was something that it would be compatible to our own culture and we found this in the fish farming idea that it sprung up out of nowhere and developed to what we have today it's an incredible thing I don't know how many know the word aquaculture but what the lemmings do now is farm the sea in effect they build a sensational dike that one engineer told them would not work and you at the very lowest tide managed to build this thing and have a booming business going in in farming to see the way the ancient hawaiians used to do I guess and we have a film that shows this project that you're talking about can we can you tell us about that I get do we roll it and dr. Kate dr. Heath right will you tell us what we're gonna look for in the film what we're gonna see we've narrated as we roll it I think the theme really is a this was probably the first time in history that government agency is namely Office of Economic Opportunity and economic development administration gave money directly to a tribe in large amounts on the order of two million dollars really sticking their necks out a few key administrators like secretary Podesta and Jim Wilson OEO allowed the tribe to build a very expensive dike with a lot of risk and said ok sink or swim and they swam very well the Lummi Indians have are one of the many Northwest tribes whose cultures been close to the sea they're expert fisherman but now they're growing fish here you see seed oysters under a microscope they have the first oyster hatchery in the northwest they prepare a seed for sale as you see here or they grow it themselves in a tray very much more modern way of doing it this is a Lommy Indian oyster hatchery it's built on the Indian longhouse design using Indian culture modifications to let the light in through plastic surfaces the assistant director of this is alum who started out as a carpenter and is now one of the experts in this field from the area you see the beginning of the dike which the mummies built themselves they ended up purchasing about ten trucks and the process built three miles of dike between the tides a very difficult and risky thing to do but as a result of this enterprise they branched out into other things such as a home building they built 40 houses on their own in six months first class and they're now going to build 60 more eventually 400 homes here is the sea pond 700 acres a three mile dike and you can see the plankton bloom inside which is food for the oysters it gives you some idea there is no other sea farm of this kind and they're about 75 jobs 90% of the work forces Indiana and eventually will be a hundred percent Indian yeah not all at all Indians are so lucky to its monthly the solution to their problems like this and reven Wright is a Paiute from Nevada Nevada I guess you say and they've got a tremendous problem with their water rights what is it so if you want to know my aspect of any water rights is that with this paint when the Supreme Court denied to take the case was that they will put this thing back into that to to Nevada who is the ultimate enemy I've been introns and yet we have to contend with the courts to feel that we mm you know what about your senators I think we have good strong now representing our representation as far as Sanders our own and of course if you wanted going death I think it Senator Kennedy and honey what to bet for the tribes also for others to what we will move to will show you how the descending order of how these problems spiral downward who have a message we'll be right back I'd several distressed phone calls there some few months back saying you must come out too lame deer the Cheyenne reservation is threatened with disaster I couldn't go then and I don't know what happened there but anyway Dennis limber hand is here right now is it true that something like you're from lame deer you're from Cheyenne reservation is it true there's something like half the reservation has been given away well not exactly given away about 55% of our reservation is under coal company control coal help me alright well the Indians have the right to that land or don't think well we think we do had prompt their Tribal Council in to take an action against United States government we as the u Bureau of Indian Affairs to declare all permits and leases null and void is that pretty loud I believe it is your Congressional ordered reservation as strip mining started there well not not on a reservation but joining the reservation there's a lot of strip mining yeah on north south and east and west of us or strip mining are some of the people for that well-known Indian people I would say no they live off the land they respect the land for what it is I understand the problem it always is that they need they need money immediately and it's tempting for them to say well let's get some money quick from the coal companies and because they can't afford to wait a year or two for a better deal and often correct me if I'm wrong they're shafted by the fact that they accept money now is there worried about paying next month's rent and the companies have power companies have been more than willing to take advantage there's people like you that that can give me 100 hours have a dinner with you and maybe we'll go out have a good time and yes but the essence is really that that this land is is there it's a reservation land this is all we have left and and it goes back to the old I don't like my it's been raped it's been uh didn't rape and getting back to water right so that everything's been taken away from the tribe we're trying to maintain what we have left excuse me I gotta get this film clip in right now would you tell us Dennis what what that what we're gonna see in this film clip it's a but it's about strip mining and well why don't we just roll it and then we can go back to where we were this is a the use of the total energy plant and the Yuma reservation showing that a power plant can give off waste heat which can be used to grow plants year-round and it shows an alternative to strip mining that is the tribe could grow 170 dollars for the vegetables for what would they get 17 cents worth for their coal this show is strip mining the land being blown up and carried away and fantastic proportions they have a billion tons of coal on the reservation and this could all be removed in a 35 year period leaving total destruction for 200,000 acres that's the issue this week for the tribe is discussing this tribal council and the question is whether to go that leaving power plants surrounding them which put hundreds of tons of material in of the day which I think would have create sky is with 20 times the pollution of Los Angeles now has these are these are factual things even your reclamation records themselves yeah was that black Mesa some of that film yes black Mesa and Arizona Arizona that couldn't call one of the great ecological disasters of all time and that the four-corners plant down there puts that more pollution than la la in New York by saying that that black Mesa is is located on the Navajo Reservation down Hopi reservation yeah and unbelievable amount of pollution at its best I know those companies have a concern for their public image I've also had menacing and threatening letters from Peabody Coal and others and I never answered one one of them was carbon to all the people who could have me fired which I thought was interesting the guy who wrote it is watching I answered you but I only sent out carbons I didn't send you a copy to everyone influential in America Kate Smith John Wayne everybody we have a brief message we'll be right now I'm sorry I can't hear you I've been using this this of a book promoting the fisheries that parent like that far as developments concerned it's very interesting it's a it has a history of the pyramid lake paiute tribe and as far as Wars also the desert lake our efforts and tonight developing nothing there's there's so much to read and master on this reality I just wonder it I always want to know who the Indians friends are in Washington since that's where things get done who wants to grab that Senator Jackson has been despised by Indian leaders at times senator scoop Jackson and lately I hear that his reputation has improved what takes place in a case like something I might be in opposition to the Indian because some of the Indians are now because Jackson has turned around and been more or less cooperative with the Indians he has been the enemy of Indians over a long long period of time and since he want wishes the polishes in his image he's using the Indians as a polishing rag and doing favors for Indians and being attentive to Indian Affairs but when the when the Paiute when the the Blue Lake was given back to the Pueblo Indians and the his comment was that it said a very bad precedent and he was very adamant about about that correct me if I'm wrong so I it puts him in a time sort of biased because Jackson Magnusson means what I feel is a very powerful force in Washington DC and because they're my congressional people that I feel that he had to walk the middle of the line like any other politician that I do not want to comment any further but I do want to say this that if there is a friend in in Washington it's in the form of legislation that is now pending for the last three years and I don't know whether the Congress knows it or if it's there or who has informed them that this legislation is there that would help relieve the problems that we used Bureau of Indian Affairs as a scapegoat would it help with people watching who write in after we talk say what can we do to help that would they got in touch with their congressman and said what do you mean legislation are you concerned with and what's your opinion of well there's financing bills there's Indian trust Authority bill there's a education bill amendment to Johnson amalia act of obtaining the Indian education the whole package is there and what we don't need is hearings we need action from the American citizens that could write their senators and congressmen and and get this legislation passed and get us off the receiving end of this richest country in the world we are ready and willing and able to go ahead and start economic development on reservations and utilizing our enormous resources it takes the almighty dollar to do this and these this legislation that's in Congress right now pending would be the means to that end let me the circus general can do it I'd like that first of all I think we all meanwhile wanting to find the bad guys and the good guys you know in Washington elsewhere I would like say senator Jackson senator Magnuson congressman Lloyd Meads and others in our district have gone stuck their neck out a mile against heavy opposition to support the Lummi project and many other Indian projects everyone's very courageous about this many other senators have done this the vice president's office through Bob Robertson and ncio have done this we have a long hours you like to think of the Republicans the Democrats or there's far more variation within a party it's reporting Indians than there is between parties and Indians don't like to pick favorites and generalities they like to zero in on specifics and in these cases these senators and congressmen have a long record the agencies have very good records many of them very bad records in some cases an important thing though is the great and inertia and between those who just don't care they don't even show up to vote in Congress on these bills they've been there for three or four years that he's mentioning for example to create more economic development reservations the money should go directly from the BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs to the tribes and let them make the mistakes like any other agency or any other group does and enable them to hire and fire their own personnel so that they can move ahead at their own rate and there is now author they're asking for authorization for block grants what do you do this for the first time they say congressman forget about Indians when they get to Washington because they don't have that many Indian constituents but if if the white constituents began to write to them and say I'm not an Indian but I'm interested in how you're going to vote on this you feel making postcards with all the difference yeah they certainly listen to that mail are you sorry you came on a show like this no I wish I'd been more helpful and funnier and more articulate and amusingly [Music] I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a chance I seldom give people you come back tomorrow night I have a dick which message and we'll we'll be right back Lummi pacific ocean trout let me Indian Enterprise marry out of Washington mr. Brando is eating it and looks great yeah yeah that's you're really you're really in business I'm delighted to see that can you chunk of it that's wonderful my minute stop doing a show and start eating more but thank you for being here it's a rare treat [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Koyaanisqatsi

Views: 990,183

Keywords: The Dick Cavett Show, Dick Cavett, Marlon Brando, Interview, Movies, Films, Cinema, Indians, The Godfather, Acting, Last Tango in Paris, Ultimo tango a Parigi, Le Dernier Tango à Paris, Life, Hollywood

Id: uU-4wmwc2Rw

Length: 58min 29sec (3509 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 27 2018