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Transcription: [00:48:10]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
What's gonna be?
[00:48:22]
{SPEAKER name="Barry"}
I don't know...
[00:48:23]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
We can ask em some questions.
[00:48:25]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 4"}
Yeah Right.
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
I don't know if we wanna ask this crowd any questions, they look sort of surly.
(laughs)
[00:48:30]
Well how about a question? Anybody have another question out there? Margy had one just a minute ago. Barry, you have a question?
(silence)
[00:48:44]
{SPEAKER name="Barry"}
He's scared to, I'll tell you that! He knows as much! (laughs)
[00:48:54]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 5"}
Well I'd like to hear Glenn tell a little about what it was like down in Mountain View. It's pretty rough territory down there you know.
[00:49:00]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
How about a geography lesson then about Arkansas.
[00:49:03]
{SPEAKER name="Barry"}
Geography lesson? I hadn't really thought of it in that way. But if we're gonna get serious, I'll go back to talking about the only thing I know much about which is animal husbandry.
[00:49:16]
{SPEAKER name="Barry"}
And I'm gonna tell about an experiment that I carried on over many many years. And I still have the results of the experiment at home some of 'em.
[00:49:29]
Like when I mentioned I moved there in '54 it was all free range where it wasn't fenced and you run your cattle on the outside, so, I spent a lot of time just riding the whole country and looking it over pretty close, see if it was really worth turning 'em out there, if there was any feed.
[00:49:47]
There was the acorns for the hogs but that was so dagum hard to get 'em for 'em, you know? Under the circumstances, but I was- I just run cattle anyway, I never had a hog.
[00:49:58]
So I'm looking the range over, and I rode it for years out there in heavy timber, and deep canyons, steep mountains, it takes a long time to cover any territory and I kept hearing about Bullpen Holler, Bullpen Holler.
[00:50:12]
Everybody talked about that and I took a chainsaw along with me one time and cut some brush and trees out of a little tiny trail I found, and I found the rim of Bullpen Holler.
[00:50:26]
I went over the rim into there, that's where the road is now that goes down to the mine where Kenny got blowed up anyway, so they're using what was the trail I found now for that.
[00:50:37]
But anyway, I rode down there into Bullpen Holler, managed to get over the rim and down on this old trail that went off down in there, and I found lost mountains.
[00:50:48]
And I'd heard of that, no one had ever seen it in years and years, and you can't see it, really, because of the timber you can't see it from on the other mountains and you have to get to it and bump into it before you find it and that's what I did.
[00:51:01]
I found lost mountain and it was at the confluence of Murphy and Bullpen Holler. And it was almost perfectly around, going around it, and then it was sort of steep.
[00:51:12]
There were several little springs trickling down the sides of it. And I'm kind of exploring around the edge of lost mountain and I found some cattle trails.
[00:51:27]
But I got, you know any cowboys studies tracks a lot, especially cow tracks and I got to looking it was all cow tracks going around the mountain. But in one trail it'd be going one way, the next trail up the steep mountain it was going the other way.
[00:51:43]
I thought that was pretty interesting. They never was mixed up going different directions. So I waited there for a while, one day, and I had rode off down there real early and I'd seen these cows coming to water at these springs.
[00:51:58]
And some was going one way to the spring and some was coming the other way and the they was raised on this steep mountain side and they had short legs on one side, you see, so they could stand upward real steep.
[00:52:11]
And that's what they call side hill winders and I'd always thought it was just kinda a tale that they told until I actually saw em, you see. And they had clockwisers that went around clockwise and they had counterclockwisers that distinct other breed that went the other way, you see.
[00:52:27]
Clockwisers and counterclockwisers. And I thought, "now by golly on the free range you brand everything to prove ownership" and there wasn't a mark on 'em, and nobody had been down in there since, before the Civil War.
[00:52:42]
So, I thought, "now by golly I'll catch one once in a while and run my iron on 'em and I'll own a bunch of cattle that didn't cost me anything."
[00:52:52]
But the heck of it was, I branded 'em all in my own brand but I couldn't trail 'em off of there and take 'em out on top, Dawton mountain is flat on top, and when you got 'em on a level stop they'd run on in a little circle and fall flat because their legs were short on one side.
[00:53:08]
So, uh, I always been able to figure things out pretty good so I packed in some poles, and chainsaw, and all kinds of tools, and some barbwire, and one thing another, and shovels, and I made a series of traps.
[00:53:25]
And what I'd figured, if I could get, say, for instance, a clockwiser into a trap where he had to turn back, or she had to turn back, and into a place where she couldn't go no further going the wrong way and I slanted the ground under her so she could go around and come back the other way there was bound to be, in the course of time, some natural encounters between the clockwisers and the counterclockwisers and I'd cross em this way, you see, so that um,
[00:53:58]
maybe I'd get an animal with the same length legs on all sides. They wouldn't be short on one side and long on the other.
[00:54:06]
Well, but I had to go there everyday and get 'em turned around and out of these traps and headed to water so they wouldn't just die there, you see. But after I experimented about, oh, a year and a half I started getting my first crop of calves.
[00:54:20]
And they was still kinda disappointing, and they had the same length legs all the way around, alright, but some of 'em were real short and some was real tall.
[00:54:30]
But I did trail, of sorts, in the longs out on top and put 'em out there on my own place and I crossed the shorts and the longs and got just kinda an average looking critter which sold a lot better at the sale barn, now if they can find anything wrong with an animal they'll knock 'em way down on the price.
[00:54:47]
So I had a pretty good set of cattle going there from them and that went on for years and years and then one day I looked out and some people are picketing me.
[00:54:57]
And, uh, I went out to see what it was all about and they're carrying signs back and forth in front of the ranch house. And I, "what's going on here?" And they was animal lovers, and ecologists, and all that, and they said I had single handedly bred out of existence the only side hill winders left in the world.
[00:55:20]
And now they was just like any other cattle. And they thought I should pay some kind of a penalty for that. I thought a little bit, and I said, "well, you know, uh, by selective breeding you can breed for any trait and I know which ones trace back to the clockwisers and otherwise, you know.
[00:55:42]
And why don't I sell you some heffers and we'll trail 'em back down there, one's that still show a little bit of the traits, if not physically short-legged on one side. We'll put 'em down there on lost mountain and just leave 'em there, and I bet you nature will take it's course and they'll regress back to the same sidehill winders."
[00:56:04]
And they said, "well boy, that's a good idea!" And they bought six heffers from me. And I helped 'em trail 'em down there, I was about the only one who really knew how to get down there anymore. And we put 'em on lost mountain, and they was real happy, and we all shook hands, and they went back to where they'd come from.
[00:56:22]
A few months later, they showed up again, and knocked on the door, and I opened the door and there these bunch of people stood and they was kinda grinning at me.
[00:56:33]
And I said, "well, you figured it out, didn't you?" and they said, "Ya we did." I says, "I guess I kinda done it to you, didn't I." And they said, "yes, you did." I says, "You realise you need a male animal in there don't you?" And, uhuh, they said "ya that's right." So I sold 'em a counterclockwise steer.
[00:57:00]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Hey well we're getting to the short end of our time here, I wonder, Ken do you have a poem you could give us to, kinda take us up to the end here?
{SPEAKER name="Ken"}
Which one?
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Any one!
{SPEAKER name="Ken"}
Well, maybe I'll get killed for this too, I don't know. Ah, this is a poem about a rancher that was a havin' ah well any rancher, or farmer, that has days, little things that shows up in his life that bugs hell out of him and you know, that little things that he ain't looking for. And this is a poem about such a rancher in our country that just stopped to talk to him.
[00:57:39]
"I was talking to a rancher just the other day out by the sail yard loading shoot.
His Levi's had seen better days and his socks showed through his boots.
[00:57:50]
He had a sort of lonesome look, so I thought I'd stop and chat and ask him how things was going,
He said, 'Oh well I'm glad you asked me that.
[00:57:57]
Now I've been a rancher for fifty years and I think I've been a fool,
My daughter's married to a city dude and my son's away to school.
[00:58:06]
The piece of machinery I need the most is the one that's busted down,
and every time I need him real bad, my hard man's drunk in town.
[00:58:15]
Last spring I bought an expensive bull, my calves were rather small,
they never weighed what neighbours' did when it was time to sell each fall.
[00:58:24]
Then my cattle got that trespass they said I was to blame,
tried to tell 'em it wasn't my fault, my saddle horse had gone lane.
[00:58:32]
Well, I went out to round another up and I had him almost caught,
When a government man said 'did you think he's yours? I'm telling you he's not'.
[00:58:40]
I guess, you know, this upset me some and a frown come on my face,
he was mine when I turned him out, now just what the hell is taking place?
[00:58:49]
Then this government man tried to explain to me just how this range was used,
but when he got to that wild horse law he had me all confused.
[00:58:57]
Now if the horse was down the hill aways, inside the fence, he's mine,
But where he's at he's not, and that don't make no sense.
[00:59:05]
My horses roamed that side hill since christ was just a child,
and he's gonna have a lot of trouble making me believe they've all gone wild.
[00:59:13]
Then I read that Podiatry law to see what sense that makes.
And I hope the ones that wrote it up have to live on coyote states.
[00:59:21]
I thought this government was supposed to help us folks but instead of that, they just fight us.
[00:59:26]
Why don't they try to find out why our calves die off with that poor arthritis .
[00:59:31]
I thought things was about to level off,
We'd see better days ahead,
I heard that Russia was selling us some wheat so we could all have a little bread.
[00:59:37]
Then I was thinking about scientists, why they won't.... the nurses! Why.. the scientists don't start working for us, and not be so concerned with Mars and Venus,
when the bull I payed 5000 for had come home with a hehheh broken.'
[01:00:01]
[laughter]
He was in trouble right there and I just left him.
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
If you've enjoyed this, and I can tell that you have, all you have to do it wait 15 more minutes and they'll have a full scale performance over on the main stage right over here.
[01:00:15]
The big tent just down at the end of the walkway. And when they're done there, they'll come over and entertain each other at that little red and white tent next to the orange juice stand.
[01:00:24]
We hope to see you at either either of these places. We'd like you all to give a big hand to Clent Oarland, Ken Trowbridge, Johnny Wheelan and Gus Severe.
Thank you!
[01:00:36]
{SPEAKER name="Martín"}
Uh, discussion on Mayan culture, we're gonna talk about that instrument you just heard over the uh, sound system here.
[01:00:46]
Which we have a larger version with us on stage and some uh, uhhh, artists. Musical artists also with us.
[01:00:58]
This is a marimba and these are Maya Native Americans from two different, uh, townships and language groups that are adjacent to each other separated by a sacred mountain.
[01:01:12]
The sacred mountain is named Canil I might add, which is the name of the marimba and the marimba group. Uh, Pedro here, Pedro Francisco is a marimba player who knows the uh, one of the few people who have been able to preserve the holy music.
[01:01:33]
By holy music I mean the music that is exclusively played for the complex dance-theatre creations that are done once a year in the usually at the festival for the uh, the Saint of the town, the Saint's Day or Titular Festival Fiesta Titular as it's called in Spanish.
[01:01:57]
And he was taught by elders, most of whom are now dead, um, some of whom died in the violence in the early 80s in Guatemala.
[01:02:07]
These are all also refugees that all fled Guatemala because of the uh, government violence and the uh, are now living in the United States. Pedro is one, we have Pedro, another Pedro here who is also a uh, master uh, player of the marimba.
[01:02:28]
We also have uh, Juan Gaspar here who is uh, not only a player of marimba but knows how to build marimbas, and comes from a long line of people who play the marimba. Um, and his brother who was also killed, uh, built the marimba we have here, and we have Geronimo Composeco, who in addition to being a marimba player and a rather accomplished one, he is also an anthropologist. As am as I am myself.
[01:02:57]
Um, uh, one of the very few native Americans of Maya origin in from Guatemala who has been able, had the opportunity to get a western education as well as an education in his own culture.
[01:03:13]
Um, and been able to turn around and study his own culture from both the Maya and the occidental perspectives.
[01:03:21]
So we have quite a star-studded cast with us here and we thought what we would do, um, we'll have some discussion as well, but what we'll do first is present some of the lesser-known sides of the marimba.
[01:03:33]
Um, by, uh, having uh, a little bit of the various kinds of sacred music played rather than the more commonly heard, commonly recorded musical tunes and have some discussion about what- what culture conservation is for a Maya from a place like Guatemala, in exile, living in the United States.
[01:03:55]
I just wanna point out that the only reason why Maya's are here in the Culture Conservation Program is because they have had to flee as refugees to the United States and they do not want to just melt into American culture and give up their cultural traditions.
[01:04:11]
They want to be Maya Americans. They want to preserve being Maya at the same time as becoming members of this great and diverse country.
[01:04:21]
And so, what they're bringing to us today is a special and new treat, as someone said, "well, their loss is our gain," um, they're bringing to us a piece of what it is that is particular about their cultural background.
[01:04:37]
Um, maybe before we hear more about the um, uh, the circumstances of being a Maya in the United States, we'll hear a little bit of music, uh. I thought um, we might hear a little bit of the sacred music um. There's various kinds of sacred music.
[01:04:56]
One of them is a kind that's done in the context of a dance-theatre. In the picture in the background, for example, is one of the dance-theatres. There are many dance-theatre, uh productions. There's nothing else to call them but productions.
[01:05:12]
You can read a little about one of them also in the book- the cultural conservation booklet- in the article that I wrote about the conquest dance, but the one we're going to talk about today is the deer dance, and the deer dance has-- we counted it last night-- about 60 dancers, all in all. 'Course we don't have the 60 dancers to do the dance part, but I thought we might get Pedro to play the essential middle piece of one of the many parts of the dance.
[01:05:43]
Now, all of you are probably familiar with music like Peter and the Wolf, where each part of the music characterizes a different animal or character within it. The same is true of these marimba parts; each marimba part that's played either is, in addition to an entrance and a closing part of the music, enacts a sound that relates to an animal or other character. We have a deer, of course, we have a monkey, a dog, a palam the jaguar. We have a Mexican. We have a pastor or a shepherd. We have an old man and an old woman. We have a chitzimit, which is a magical, sort of a spiritual dwarf who hops around all dressed in red.
[01:06:30]
We have various characters who act out various roles within this very complex dance theatre. It takes them three months of rehearsing every year in order to put it on, and they put it on once. It takes them often about 12 hours to put it all on, and they rehearse with Pedro and there would be three musicians, originally, but here only Pedro is-- Pedro is the only one who knows how to play the three pieces of music right now.
[01:06:55]
He's in the process of teaching the others because right now there are very few people left who know how to play this highly sacred music, but I thought Pedro would show us what is the central musical part of this, just for one of the animals. You have to imagine that there are all of these different animals and all these different characters dancing it, and three people on the marimba playing it. We'll just have that little piece of that, and maybe he'll show us a few dance steps as well, since he's pretty good at that as well.
[01:07:23]
Pedro, nos podemos mostrar una de las canciones del baile de ropa? No se cual es que...

[01:07:30]
{SPEAKER name="Pedro"}
Martin

[01:07:32]
{SPEAKER name="Martín"}
[[indecipherable]]

[01:07:33]
{SPEAKER name="Pedro"}
Martin

Transcription Notes:
Hello, I tried my best on the Spanish bits and was able to get most of it, but I´m not fluent, so I may be missing some accent marks and the indecipherable bits at the end. I tries to clean up some if the Spanish. It still needs some work.