[Singing in an indigenous language]
That was a song that was composed
in mission times by
three children.
[Tongva song lyrics]
is "We three children are suffering,
we want to get away, we want to run
away." And when I first
started singing that song, I was so
sad because all
I felt was how they wanted
to run away.
Suddenly I realized that it was a
good thing to sing that song,
to remember those times.
Because you have to remember what
your people went through.
Now it takes me into the future and
I see it as a future song that we
have not just run away,
but we've gone somewhere on purpose.
There's my village.
Most of you are familiar with it.
"kuuyam" is
guest.
Who are you as a guest?
What do you contribute to?
Is any of your energy about the
original people who are still around
you?
You know because kuuyam, you are
guests in our home.
What this was really called was a
Coyote's Tails.
So it's, well, it's me.
It's about me and how I feel about
my homeland. It's me and how I feel
about history.
And it's me and what the hell am I
going to do about it?
There I am jogging people's
memories.
This is called Waiting for the
Grant, you know, because we natives
have to be magicians just to piece
some of the pieces together.
So it is like a magician's act
many have to do.
Everything is set against us.
Everything. Because everybody
who has something thinks that
they're going to lose it
and they don't want to lose it.
They think that we're climbing the
Bastille walls and,
you know, heads are going to roll.
But that's not what all of us are
looking for.
We're looking to protect the land
and the waters.
But that might mean upsetting oil
people or that might upset this
person. And all we can do is our
best. And that's all that's required
of us.
We're not required to win.
Creator didn't say "make sure you
win," you know, Creator
just said, Creator of Creations just
said "do."