Ute Wisdom, Language and Creation Story | Larry Cesspooch | TEDxYouth@ParkCity

mic beast you good morning young people it's good to see you all here this day said my name is cesspit my name means white belly and you my great-great grandpa had a big white birthmark on his tummy and that was his Indian name and I don't have that birthmark but he did and so that name comes down generation to generation my Indian name is I pledge I'm a Vietnam veteran I'm 64 and I can still run a couple miles easily still do a lot of things younger people can do so I'm very happy with that I'm told I'm gonna be around for a long time so I'm a storyteller I tell my stories in film play music and do these kind of things but it's all in telling stories everybody has a story my name says boots comes from around Montrose y'all know where Montrose is over in Colorado our people pretty much occupied Colorado and Utah and when the Spaniards came they were the first non-indians came into youth country around 1600 they called us Utah why you ta and it eventually became the name of the state here Utah so it's named after our you people and when the Spaniards came they brought with them the Horace we call it pretty much the same that they did Gluba and that was a wild mustang and while Mustang was very appropriate for this area for the sagebrush and and for a short Utes for most of us were short set their younger generation they're pretty tall and we were relocated out to the reservation where I live which is just over a couple of hills over on a un tan or a ute reservation and we're the second-largest reservation next to the Navajo Nation in the States we all occupy 3.5 million acres but that's a drop in the bucket when you figure we've lost Colorado and we've pretty much lost Utah all of our Utes that lived on the Wasatch Front were also relocated over on the reservation so that's where we are today every tribe they have their stories to talk about creation and how they came to be where they are today and what they do to exist well are you people are the same way we have our stories and these are passed down we never wrote anything down they were passed on generation to generation my grandmother told me these stories and so I've remembered them and in today's world a lot of our younger people don't know those stories to tell their kids so I'm grateful that I'm here to pass on those stories there's something in these stories for each of you and you take that knowledge with you today to use it to do good things in this world our creation stories begin with Suniva he's the Creator can you say his name Senoia Sonoita is a creator and in the beginning there was nothing and Senoia is a great theater thinker of 1su my so he was thinking one time and he snapped his fingers and when he did there appeared light and it began to talk to this light saying we get the but you are the Sun and began to tell it of its responsibilities and every day you will come up and everything will come to me through this light and when he finished he put that Sun over his right shoulder now he could see but there's nothing to see so as we know how much the Sun can be pretty hot sometimes so sanoviv created rain and snow called him boom we can you say that boom ween rain and snow rain snow and he took the rain and snow can we put those over his left shoulder now everything was just right nice and cool he was happy about that but soon I wanted more Sonoita wanted to create Mother Earth so he has a magic staff and he begins to cut a hole to the heavens and he works on this hole for a long time and when he had finished his hole he took the contents dropped them through and he took that rain and snow rain and snow put those through the hole and he did this for a long time finally it was curious what's in the hole so he steps through the hole and he was stepping standing on snow-capped mountains pretty much like the mountains here during the winter and everything was very cold and desolate and he didn't like that so he tells the son Dutch shine to this hole and when it did it began to melt all the snow and the ice and they turned him to rivers and streams and eventually flowed into the ocean with his magic staff he breaks off a piece and he puts it into water and they turn into fish and they swam away he takes his hand her staff and goes all across mother earth and everything turns green and he goes around and gathers leaves of all different kinds from the different trees making magic he blows on them and they turn into birds of all different kinds and fly all over the world with his magic staff he created all the animal people and they got along pretty good everything was in harmony how he creates come on honey yo Kovac coyote can you say its name yo Kovac louder yo covert look over to the trickster for many tribes so your goal refused to always create chaos and problems so he'd go round to the animals you'd say hey those other animals are talking bad about you and the animals looked at the others hey what are you saying about us and he come over to the other animals and they'd say hey they're talking about you over there and it's not good and his animal said hey don't be talking about us and all of a sudden all the animals began to fight and every time you go creates chaos his tail wags crazy and he runs away well there were spur and teeth and feathers flying everywhere and creator comes back and he sees all this says no no no this won't work so he creates we uh get can you say his name we uh get the bear he said squirt I would like you to be the leader of all the animal nation will you do this for me we all get says move yes I will do that mm yes so ever since that time we all got has been the leader of all the animal nation when coyote gets rowdy and he just sets on coyote coyotes legs just flop around and he can't get out from underneath how do you say its name we uh get well the creator created the butts boom we do weep mother earth and all the animal spirits but he wanted more his intention was to create human beings so he has a magic bag and he begins to go around the earth gathering twigs from all different trees the black mumble the Russian olive the Chinese elm and the cottonwood and he puts them all in a bag and he does this for a long time and the creator gets tired it's annoying oh boy wait I'm tired so he decides to go take a rest and who do you think is watching all this time he's doing this he'll Kovich the Kovich is very curious what's in the bag what's in the bag so he comes takes us sniffing and the bag but then still move and he hears all kinds of sounds coming from the bag now he's really curious what's in the bag so he has a stone knife and he cuts the bag how many of you have stepped on an ant here what happens all the people start coming out and coyote tried to put him back in the bag and there were so many people he freaks out and runs away well so noif came back and seen his bag was emptying and he knew who had done what he's seen the hole in the bag he was bummed he reaches inside the bag there's only one more group of people and it's the Ute people and he says we get the votes we get new to you are you people we get chichi gay you are strong and we'll be able to defeat all the rest so I'm going to put you high over in the Rocky Mountains in the UN a mountains and high in these Wasatch Mountains and that's how we became known as mountain people pretty cool eh well creator was still bummed at coyote coyote bacon come here so coyote came with his tail tucked between its legs a new creator was upset and he says you Govich I had plans to put people equally all over the world but because what you've done now they fight over everything so every night you're going to hell to the moon how many of heard coyote otter yeah still paying penance when creator decides to make life everything has purpose takes mother earth do bleep is what we call it and water make mud pies this is all the plant people all the animal people and all us human beings everything has a purpose in his life he blesses us with a mission to accomplish something here and he blesses us with gifts to be able to accomplish that mission each one of you especially these ones who will be here performing today have been blessed with something special never want for somebody else's gifts because you have your own you already know what you do better than anybody else that's your gift use it learn to use it they'll take you anywhere you want to go the last thing the Creator does is blesses us with part of our spirit of its spirit Insano Eve is not only male it's female and animal so it blesses us with part of its spirit and spirit moves with breath when we take that first breath in this life as babies that spirit entered our body so this saw part of our skull we call that apple walnut and it's like little triple-a battery weighs about the same amount but it's what keeps our heart beating throughout our life and hopefully if we realize what those gifts are and we use them eventually the day will come where that heart will stop beating and that spirit we'll leave this body again to that bucket and go back to the Creator back to the circle of life where all energy comes from some call it heaven in this body we return that back to mother earth spine native people say all my relations because we're all the same we come from do bleep and ba ba is water were 85% water and the rest is just minerals Sonova wanted the way to show us how we're all related so he gave us this medicine we know this medicine will circle is the circle of life this is where we all come from these feathers are representing all the animal nation in the hoop is made out of red willow and all nations of the world are in this circle you have the yellow man to the east the red man to the south the black man to the west in the white men to the north all nations are here together we call that none Amma can you say that none Amma together and that's the way the Creator intended us to be no no ma our word in you for thank you and goodbye or one in the same the way up thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 180,640

Rating: 4.9216032 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Humanities, Culture, History

Id: gv201ILHXhc

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 06 2016