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Transcription: [00:22:14]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Um, Walter is Mr. Carballo a professional mask maker
[00:22:18]
or is this just done at a particular time of the year; does he have another profession?
[00:22:22]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
No, he is a master-he is a master craftsman
[00:22:25]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
He is one of the masters, but he works.
[00:22:28]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
He never, uh, quits his work, he works in a tuna packing company,
[00:22:34]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
but in the evenings he works and Saturdays and Sundays he works.
[00:22:37]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Both father and Miguel is a student and an athlete.
[00:22:41]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
He has won 28 medals as a runner and also his marks are wonderful, so what more can we ask?

[[laughter]]
[[applause]]

[00:22:54]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
You might -- you might find it a little bit odd that a fellowship would go to a father and son combination,
[00:23:00]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
I mean sometimes people say 'Gee Whiz' it's supposed to pass down in families anyway.
[00:23:05]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
But I might point out that a small fellowship like this, that may be $1500, $2000,
[00:23:11]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
is pretty good help in a family in Puerto Rico,
[00:23:14]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
and it might have -- and I think probably it may have -- helped Miguel not have to go and work at the local Burger King,
[00:23:21]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
while still bringing a little bit of money to the family.
[00:23:24]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
And also there is the psychological and sort of PR value of having federal agencies say,
[00:23:31]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
'Gee, this thing is worth having--passing on. This thing is worth learning to do'.
[00:23:39]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
And I think it certainly is, as you can see by the extraordinary beautiful results. We'd be the poorer if we didn't have it.
[00:23:48]
[SPEAKER name= "Speaker 1"]
[[Softly, in background]] Talk about [[inaudible]]
[00:23:49]
[SPEAKER name= "Bess"]
I'd like to talk to you now about--and introduce to you two other people who are with us--at this point: Mr. Glen Orland, and Mr. Duff Severe. And they're representing --[[applause]]
[00:24:09]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
They're representing another idea that we've worked on and brought to pass in the National Endowment for the Arts Folk arts program.
[00:24:17]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
We have every year, we select out 12 or 13 or 14 of the very most extraordinary and special craftspeople, singers, musicians, dancers, storytellers,
[00:24:32]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
of all of the different kinds of ethnicities across the country
[00:24:38]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
and give them a special award which is called "The National Heritage Fellowship".
[00:24:45]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
It's a beautiful plaque, a nice check goes along with it, you get to come to Washington, and there's a big hullabaloo, everybody gets on TV, with their pictures with their congressmen,
[00:24:55]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
and it's a big blast, and it's very very beautiful.
[00:24:59]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
I hope you can come, we'll be doing it again in October,
[00:25:04]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
um- I'm sorry, September, I got it wrong- September 12th and 13th, here in Washington.
[00:25:09]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
We'll have an honorary concert at the "Ford's Theatre", at which time our friend on the end, Mr. Glen Orland, the extraordinary cowboy singer and storyteller from Arkansas will receive a National Heritage Fellowship.
[00:25:24]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
Before that, our friend next to him, Mr. Duff Severe from Pendleton, Oregon, received a National Heritage Fellowship for his extraordinary rawhide work in his beautiful saddle making.
[00:25:38]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
And I'd like to ask Duff to say a few words about that whole experience if you wouldn't mind, Duff.
[00:25:45]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
Now- I remember you telling me about how you didn't really much wanna come to Washington to begin with, you though it would be kind of awful.
[00:25:51]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
That's true. Yes, this has been one of the rarest experiences, or the first time in 1982 probably that ever happened to me.
[00:26:01]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
To start out with the- like Bess says- I'm strictly from the West, and all we know about the East is what we get on the news.
[00:26:12]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
And the news paints Washington D.C. and these big cities here as just uh- places where women are raped and people are killed and we get nothing but bad news.
[00:26:24]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
So I- I had no desire to come East at all, and I thought if I did come all I would see was probably pavement and blacktop.
[00:26:34]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
So I- I'm really glad I got the chance for that reason at all to come here, and see all the beautiful parks and all the countryside that's here,
[00:26:44]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
and I've sure had to change my mind about the Eastern country. I've seen some really beautiful and outstanding things here.
[00:26:54]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
But, getting back to the award that I won- believe it or not, I was photographed and interviewed unbeknownst to myself, I didn't even know what was going on.
[00:27:05]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
A man took pictures of my work and interviewed me.
[00:27:10]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
The reason I didn't pay any attention, and he also- I guess it's kind of supposed to be a surprise or at that time-
[00:27:18]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
at the time you're being photographed your work and interviewed you really haven't been selected to receive that award yet, isn't that right Bess?

[00:27:27]
{SPEAKER name="Bess"}
That's right.

[00:27:29]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
It has to be- go before I suppose a panel, and they- whatever they do- but anyway,
[00:27:34]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
I didn't even realize this was going on because at our place of business we have photographers and writers there almost- oh I'll say at least once a week people are there taking pictures while working, talking to us
[00:27:49]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
So, uh, so I really didn't pay any attention to this fella that interviewed me, and I don't want to take a lot of time, but it's kind of humorous the way it turned out.
[00:27:59]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
Uh- not only it was the greatest thing that I suppose ever happened in my life, but it was quite humorous, part of it, too.
[00:28:06]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
To start with, I have a friend in Canada that, he calls me at least once a month, and he always disguises his voice and he can fool me every time.
[00:28:16]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
He can talk like a ship's captain or he can talk like an old trapper out of the mountains, or he can talk about any way he wants to.
[00:28:25]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
So this one particular day I get a phone call, and as soon as I said hello, he knew- he could tell my voice said it - he knew it was me.
[00:28:35]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
He just started talking, he says, "I have 20 beaver pelts to sell," and he said, "I've got about 20 or 30 coyote pelts and some muskrats,"
[00:28:45]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
and he says, "I have some squirrels," and he says, "I have two or three beautiful otter skins," and he says, "if you will buy the whole thing from me," he said, "I'll throw in a packhorse," he said, "he's only got one eye but he's a fine horse."
[00:29:01]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
And I said "I'm not interested in buying furs" and I goes on and on too, and I said, "you got the wrong man," and every time when he's convinced he got me fooled, then he starts laughing that fiendish laugh and I know who it is.
[00:29:16]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
So that happened one day and then about four days later approximately, I get a call from a young lady.
[00:29:24]
{SPEAKER name="Duff"}
She said you've been chosen to receive the highest award that this nation gives for uh artwork, and she went on and kinda explained it, and I was kinda listening and I thought- I thought that friend of mine named Chris, I said he's gone so far this even to get a young lady to call me up and give me this big line of bull [laughter] I was thinking.
[00:29:48]
So I said, this young lady I said, oh yeah yeah I suppose you want to sell me a bunch of beaver pelts too uh? [laughter]
[00:29:58]
She said, I don't think you believe me do you? And I said, I'm sorry but I don't believe a word of it. [laughter]
[00:30:06]
And I said, tell Chris I said that too, that's my- that's my friend.
[00:30:11]
But anyways, she said, well, if we wrote you a letter on Smithsonian Institute letterhead, would you believe it then?
[00:30:18]
And I said, yes, I probably would have to believe it then. And so she laughed and we hung up.
[00:30:23]
And in a few days I did get that letter and I had to believe it. But uh- I was really, really flattered about that event.
[00:30:32]
I'd like to take just a little more time,

[00:30:36]
I know this is short we're limited time but I wanted to tell you how it affected me.

[00:30:40]
Up till that time I had to work very hard to learn what I knew about raw hides and saddle making.

[00:30:47]
I'd worked so hard at it though I'd become kind of selfish I didn't care really if I taught any young men or not.

[00:30:54]
But after uh after coming to Washington and finding out that maybe I was doing something important it gave me the desire then to teach at least one young man, ya know,

[00:31:08]
and I say right now that any craftsman that's not willing to pass this trade on to at least one of the younger generations is a poor excuse for a man and that's the way I feel about it.

[00:31:22]
Because I do know craftsmen that are very selfish.

[00:31:27]
If you go around for their work they will lay down their tools and they won't even work in front you.

[00:31:32]
and I think that's very selfish. So that's one of the goods things this did for me. It gives me a desire to teach at least one young man which I'm doing and he's doing real good.

[00:31:44]
And if I can, possibly, it's quite expensive to teach somebody because you lose all your time and you have to pay them too but if possible, before I'm through, I'd like to teach one or two others and I can give all this feeling that I have, I can give the national endowments of the art the credit for the feeling I have now.

[00:32:07]
which has just reversed from what I originally felt.

{Unkown Speaker}

[00:32:19]
And Glen Orland who's down there on the far end is going to be a recipient this year as Bess said and we're very proud of him and his work. We should say one thing about the Heritage Awards,

[00:32:32]
it's an award for people who are still living, who are still passing on the traditions, as Duff said. It's, so not everyone is old and moldy. Glen down there is still fairly young. He still gets around pretty well I think, but he has made a tremendous contribution to

[00:32:48]
both song and the history of cowboy song and traditions. Glen has - in addition to being a rancher himself, having a ranch in Mountainview, Arkansas -- he has written a book on the subject of cowboy songs called "The Hellbound Trail", he's recorded albums, he's done any number of things, but he hasn't gotten away from the ranching traditions he grew up with. And so, Glen maybe you could talk a little bit about being a new Heritage Award winner, but maybe also you could do something else and that is give folks here a little bit of a sample of maybe a poem or something that you do, so that they'll get the idea of the sort of things that you do in your spare time.

{Glen}
I do lots of things in my spare time--

{Unknown Speaker}
Don't tell us about everything--

{Glen}
Okay, I'm glad I don't have to do that.

[00:33:40]
But uh I know all the old-time, hardcore cowboy songs and poems, and by hardcore, I don't mean that they're bad, I mean that civilians don't hardly ever sing them, you know? I'll sing a little song for you that I've heard recited as a poem several times, and I did hear it once by an old fella who's world's champion steer roper at the time [[Ike Rude?]] it's called 'Windy Bill.' It's about as typical of the stuff that I know as anything could possibly be, and before I do it I want to say I was really surprised to hear I was getting this and didn't know I'd been nominated, and I've been in this kinda singing at these festivals for about 21 years now, and it's helped support my cow business I figured one singing job would support two cows for a year [[Laughter]], and then sometimes it turns right around and I've got a bunch of calves to sell I ain't had no singing jobs for awhile and that kinda pulls my irons out of the fire but this award is really gonna be a wonderful thing it sure is, and I'm really happy to get it. So, a couple years ago I played for the Nevada Cattlemen's Association at their convention and it was mostly old cattlemen around there and some young fellas just startin' too, and I told all them young ranchers that was just startin' now there ain't many of them it's hard to get into now. I said: "Whatever you do for god sake's learn some songs." [[Laughter]] But anyway, here's 'Windy Bill':

[00:35:42]
"Oh Windy Bill the Texas Boy and he could rope you bet, he swore the steer he couldn't tie he hadn't met us yet. The boys knew of an old black steer that ran down in the drawett. The bottom of the Aplines, sold her bad outlaw. Now many a boy had tried to steer but he got away for fair. We bet ol' Bill a two to one he couldn't quite set there. He saddled up his old gray horse his back end withers raw. He started after the ol' black steer that ran down in the draw. With his sand stack dream, his new maguey, his spurs and shaps to boot, his rope tight to saddle horn he tackled that old brute, but when he caught the old black steer the census broke like straw and his stand stack tree, these new maguey when driftin' down the draw. Bill laid in a flint rock pile, his face and head was scratched. We got him and dusted him off and sorta got him patched. He just stood there just cussin', maddest man you ever saw, while his stand stack tree, and new maguey went driftin' down the draw. There's a moral to my story boys, as you can plainly see, don't ever tie your catch rope onto your saddle tree, but take your Dally Welters to the California Law. Your stand stack tree and new maguey won't go driftin' down the draw."

[00:36:38]
Thank ya. [[Applause]] I just wanna add one thing. Lot of people can't tell when we're singing or just reciting, but I was singing at that time. [[Laughter]]

[00:36:54]

[[Unknown Speaker]]

I'd like to point out that-