January 30, 2024 • 10 mins
This episode is a heartfelt exploration of "The Root Experience," where 2023 Cultural Capital Fellow James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of Colville Reserve) unveils his journey to breathe new life into Native culture by weaving together the threads of ancestral tales with the vibrant energy of modern art forms. We embark on an auditory pilgrimage, traversing the landscape of historical narrative and contemporary issues, such as the influence of the Grand Coulee Dam on tribal life, all while championing the resurgence of indigenous identity through film, hip-hop, and dance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
So this has become a purpose of mine to begin a new
beautiful circle of culturalreintroduction through
contemporary forms, through film, through hip-hop, through
contemporary indigenous dance,and using those new models of
(00:23):
storytelling as a way to connectwith our traditional forms.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit
Podcast.
The Collective Spirit moveseach of us to stand up and make
a difference, to pass onancestral knowledge and simply
extend a hand of generosity.
The Collective Spirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of indigenous art and
(00:59):
culture.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
If ask, canchkeach koalamnom teatukupcha is the
canchute.
Stem tamul skeuchinch.
Hello everybody, we've allarrived.
Thank you for being here.
My name is James Bacodas.
Indian name is stem tamulskeuchinch, which means grizzly
bear paw In the Moses Columbiadialect.
(01:24):
I am part Moses Columbia andit's a dialect where our last
fluent speaker just died in thelast couple years ago.
So me introducing myself in ourlanguage is a form of
revitalization and trying tokeep a piece of our culture
alive.
It's really important to methrough my work.
I'm a performing artistproducer, film director so I
(01:49):
explore a lot of mediums in theform of storytelling.
I was born in Spokane,washington, close to our
reservation, but lived all of mylife like in Republic.
Inchilim, cooley Dam, nespielumthese are all four very small
communities.
Republic is off reservation butit resides in like the north
half that was taken away fromour people.
(02:09):
So we still have hunting rightsand land rights and water
rights up there, but we justdon't have the ownership of land
.
And that's where my mom'sfamily is from, so from the
Sample oil tribe of our people,we're from 12 different tribes
and then on my dad's side theygrew up in Inchilim, the home of
the Sinai people, and some ofmy lineage breaks off into
Nespielum tribe, calville tribe,moses, enneachaline, wenatchee
(02:34):
a product of assimilation, ofCatholicism, and settlers coming
and quitting 12 differentpeoples on the same reservation.
But even though living smackdab in the middle of my
reservation, I didn't have astrong connection to my native
culture.
So it wasn't until all of myearly 30s I'm 40 now, it's only
(02:56):
10 years or so that I've reallybeen on this trek to find myself
and come home to my people andcome home to our traditions and
our language and our ways.
I'm a student now, back in astudent mindset, learning our
cultural ways, practices, truthand history so that young native
boys and girls that were my age, living smack dab in the middle
(03:18):
of the reservation, don't feeldisconnected to their own
culture like I did growing up.
So this has become a like apurpose of mine to begin a new
(03:39):
beautiful circle of culturalreintroduction through
contemporary forms, through film, through hip hop, through
contemporary indigenous dance,and using those new models of
storytelling as a way to connectwith our traditional forms and
our traditional culturalknowledge and have those
(04:01):
traditional ways, beliefs,practices, principles in form,
the new Practices that we engagein art these days.
We come from living cultures.
We got to change, grow andadapt with them.
You know this projects inmid-production it's called the
root experience and we appliedas a duo.
(04:24):
I was the applicant lead, but Iown a Business here in Spokane
called New Age Warriors with mybest friend and brother, devonte
Pearson, otherwise known as TSthe solution, and he's black and
I'm native.
He has continuously shown upfor all of our native
communities.
When I've got thesehair-brained ideas to go back,
(04:46):
and whether we're doing concertspeaking events, workshops like
whatever, always trying toengage with our school systems,
I'm always trying to engage withour communities back home to
further that Thought or thatbelief that they can be
connected in their old community.
That TS has been Likeinstrumental in coming back
(05:06):
there with us.
This project, the rootexperience we wanted to see both
of ourselves reflected in thisstory, reaching back into our
native American Ancestry andtalk about some of our old
creation stories and do the samein his African ancestry and
bring forth some of thesecreation stories.
But yeah, it's the.
It's the coming together of ourtraditional deities into a
(05:28):
real-world problem which isconnected to our tribes and 75%
of our tribe is surrounded bythe Columbia River.
And as part of the public worksprojects.
Back in the 20s and 30s, to getAmerica out of the Depression,
they built a Grand Coulee Damand this sits right on the
corner of our reservation andand while is a feat that
(05:50):
provides electricity all acrossthe West Western United States,
it still stopped the run ofsalmon to the upper Columbia,
into Canada, ever since that damhas been built.
Two years ago I got to go withFish and Wildlife and hold one
of the one of the tails of thesalmon as we let it go above the
(06:13):
Grand Coulee Dam for the firsttime in 77 years.
So For us this piece is not onlylike a coming back of our
cultures and trying to reachback into our cultures to tell a
living story, but it's also themagnitude of what's happening
to our peoples in present daybecause of colonialism, because
of systematic oppression.
(06:35):
So it's us, in our firstattempt in theater, try to
navigate these new ways oftelling stories, of Reaching
back into our past to tellsomething present, something
that's needed and something thatempowers our people.
It's funny because we startedthis project pre-covid and
(07:04):
Through the building of thisproject We've slowed things down
into.
It's funny.
A new partner of ours fromCanada uses this term, eleanor
Stacy, from the Civic Theater inNelson, british Columbia,
moving at the speed of trust.
And so this piece has beenbuilt very intentionally, very
purposefully.
(07:26):
And some things that's happenedin the history of our peoples,
that are very Moments in historythat we want to capture and we
want to tell are very important,are two years ago our people
won the reversal of an activeextinction order in Canada.
So the Seneich people arereturning to Canada at a Supreme
Court level have reversed inactive extinction and with that
(07:51):
the narrative that has alwaysbeen told is that when the
Seneich come back, so will thesalmon to the upper Columbia.
So this piece of the rudeexperience that we started
before Covid, before that westarted before these things have
happened in history, justcontinues to point to our
purpose and our intention ofbuilding this show.
(08:12):
So now, with these historicalthings happening, we will be
enveloping actual lived historyof our peoples into the telling
of this story of tradition, offishing and the powers of our
river Is, with that activeextinction being reversed.
Calville Confederated TribalBusiness Council just traveled
to Washington DC and signed inwith President Biden Proving a
(08:36):
20-year program for thereintroduction of salmon to the
upper Columbia above GrankeleyDam at the tune of 200 million
dollars.
So here we are building a showabout salmon, building a show
about returning to culture, whenour peoples on the reservation
we're sitting are actually beingreturned to their ancestral
homelands.
They're actually being returnedsome of the power of their
(09:00):
language, their lands, theirconnection to each other and
being returned to community, andso are the salmon.
It's a beautiful moment time inhistory to tell a story about
our salmon with so muchhistorical context, right now,
in the living moment, aiding thestorytelling and the structure
(09:23):
of how we engage in communityaround this show.
So any more, this is way biggerthan a show.
These are nation to nationbuilding, this is the erasure of
a border issue.
These are so many differentissues that we can bring to the
table in educational speakingpanels, in workshops, in
masterclasses, in in the showitself.
(09:43):
This is so much more than atheatrical show than it is an
entire ecosystem Around therights and protection of native
peoples internationally, inCanada and the US.
It's all.
(10:05):
I'm excited to see what's gonnahappen at the end and what the
ending of our play will be afterwe find out the beauty and
power of the lands in which wecome from.
So lots to be shared and lotsto be told yet in this story.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The collective spirit podcast is produced by first
peoples fund, whose mission isto honor and support indigenous
artists and culture bearersthrough grant making initiatives
, culturally rooted programming,and training and mentorship.
Learn more at first peoplesfund.
Dot O R G.
So this has become a purpose of mine to begin a new
beautiful circle of culturalreintroduction through
contemporary forms, through film, through hip-hop, through
contemporary indigenous dance,and using those new models of
(00:23):
storytelling as a way to connectwith our traditional forms.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit
Podcast.
The Collective Spirit moveseach of us to stand up and make
a difference, to pass onancestral knowledge and simply
extend a hand of generosity.
The Collective Spirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of indigenous art and
(00:59):
culture.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
If ask, canchkeach koalamnom teatukupcha is the
canchute.
Stem tamul skeuchinch.
Hello everybody, we've allarrived.
Thank you for being here.
My name is James Bacodas.
Indian name is stem tamulskeuchinch, which means grizzly
bear paw In the Moses Columbiadialect.
(01:24):
I am part Moses Columbia andit's a dialect where our last
fluent speaker just died in thelast couple years ago.
So me introducing myself in ourlanguage is a form of
revitalization and trying tokeep a piece of our culture
alive.
It's really important to methrough my work.
I'm a performing artistproducer, film director so I
(01:49):
explore a lot of mediums in theform of storytelling.
I was born in Spokane,washington, close to our
reservation, but lived all of mylife like in Republic.
Inchilim, cooley Dam, nespielumthese are all four very small
communities.
Republic is off reservation butit resides in like the north
half that was taken away fromour people.
(02:09):
So we still have hunting rightsand land rights and water
rights up there, but we justdon't have the ownership of land
.
And that's where my mom'sfamily is from, so from the
Sample oil tribe of our people,we're from 12 different tribes
and then on my dad's side theygrew up in Inchilim, the home of
the Sinai people, and some ofmy lineage breaks off into
Nespielum tribe, calville tribe,moses, enneachaline, wenatchee
(02:34):
a product of assimilation, ofCatholicism, and settlers coming
and quitting 12 differentpeoples on the same reservation.
But even though living smackdab in the middle of my
reservation, I didn't have astrong connection to my native
culture.
So it wasn't until all of myearly 30s I'm 40 now, it's only
(02:56):
10 years or so that I've reallybeen on this trek to find myself
and come home to my people andcome home to our traditions and
our language and our ways.
I'm a student now, back in astudent mindset, learning our
cultural ways, practices, truthand history so that young native
boys and girls that were my age, living smack dab in the middle
(03:18):
of the reservation, don't feeldisconnected to their own
culture like I did growing up.
So this has become a like apurpose of mine to begin a new
(03:39):
beautiful circle of culturalreintroduction through
contemporary forms, through film, through hip hop, through
contemporary indigenous dance,and using those new models of
storytelling as a way to connectwith our traditional forms and
our traditional culturalknowledge and have those
(04:01):
traditional ways, beliefs,practices, principles in form,
the new Practices that we engagein art these days.
We come from living cultures.
We got to change, grow andadapt with them.
You know this projects inmid-production it's called the
root experience and we appliedas a duo.
(04:24):
I was the applicant lead, but Iown a Business here in Spokane
called New Age Warriors with mybest friend and brother, devonte
Pearson, otherwise known as TSthe solution, and he's black and
I'm native.
He has continuously shown upfor all of our native
communities.
When I've got thesehair-brained ideas to go back,
(04:46):
and whether we're doing concertspeaking events, workshops like
whatever, always trying toengage with our school systems,
I'm always trying to engage withour communities back home to
further that Thought or thatbelief that they can be
connected in their old community.
That TS has been Likeinstrumental in coming back
(05:06):
there with us.
This project, the rootexperience we wanted to see both
of ourselves reflected in thisstory, reaching back into our
native American Ancestry andtalk about some of our old
creation stories and do the samein his African ancestry and
bring forth some of thesecreation stories.
But yeah, it's the.
It's the coming together of ourtraditional deities into a
(05:28):
real-world problem which isconnected to our tribes and 75%
of our tribe is surrounded bythe Columbia River.
And as part of the public worksprojects.
Back in the 20s and 30s, to getAmerica out of the Depression,
they built a Grand Coulee Damand this sits right on the
corner of our reservation andand while is a feat that
(05:50):
provides electricity all acrossthe West Western United States,
it still stopped the run ofsalmon to the upper Columbia,
into Canada, ever since that damhas been built.
Two years ago I got to go withFish and Wildlife and hold one
of the one of the tails of thesalmon as we let it go above the
(06:13):
Grand Coulee Dam for the firsttime in 77 years.
So For us this piece is not onlylike a coming back of our
cultures and trying to reachback into our cultures to tell a
living story, but it's also themagnitude of what's happening
to our peoples in present daybecause of colonialism, because
of systematic oppression.
(06:35):
So it's us, in our firstattempt in theater, try to
navigate these new ways oftelling stories, of Reaching
back into our past to tellsomething present, something
that's needed and something thatempowers our people.
It's funny because we startedthis project pre-covid and
(07:04):
Through the building of thisproject We've slowed things down
into.
It's funny.
A new partner of ours fromCanada uses this term, eleanor
Stacy, from the Civic Theater inNelson, british Columbia,
moving at the speed of trust.
And so this piece has beenbuilt very intentionally, very
purposefully.
(07:26):
And some things that's happenedin the history of our peoples,
that are very Moments in historythat we want to capture and we
want to tell are very important,are two years ago our people
won the reversal of an activeextinction order in Canada.
So the Seneich people arereturning to Canada at a Supreme
Court level have reversed inactive extinction and with that
(07:51):
the narrative that has alwaysbeen told is that when the
Seneich come back, so will thesalmon to the upper Columbia.
So this piece of the rudeexperience that we started
before Covid, before that westarted before these things have
happened in history, justcontinues to point to our
purpose and our intention ofbuilding this show.
(08:12):
So now, with these historicalthings happening, we will be
enveloping actual lived historyof our peoples into the telling
of this story of tradition, offishing and the powers of our
river Is, with that activeextinction being reversed.
Calville Confederated TribalBusiness Council just traveled
to Washington DC and signed inwith President Biden Proving a
(08:36):
20-year program for thereintroduction of salmon to the
upper Columbia above GrankeleyDam at the tune of 200 million
dollars.
So here we are building a showabout salmon, building a show
about returning to culture, whenour peoples on the reservation
we're sitting are actually beingreturned to their ancestral
homelands.
They're actually being returnedsome of the power of their
(09:00):
language, their lands, theirconnection to each other and
being returned to community, andso are the salmon.
It's a beautiful moment time inhistory to tell a story about
our salmon with so muchhistorical context, right now,
in the living moment, aiding thestorytelling and the structure
(09:23):
of how we engage in communityaround this show.
So any more, this is way biggerthan a show.
These are nation to nationbuilding, this is the erasure of
a border issue.
These are so many differentissues that we can bring to the
table in educational speakingpanels, in workshops, in
masterclasses, in in the showitself.
(09:43):
This is so much more than atheatrical show than it is an
entire ecosystem Around therights and protection of native
peoples internationally, inCanada and the US.
It's all.
(10:05):
I'm excited to see what's gonnahappen at the end and what the
ending of our play will be afterwe find out the beauty and
power of the lands in which wecome from.
So lots to be shared and lotsto be told yet in this story.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The collective spirit podcast is produced by first
peoples fund, whose mission isto honor and support indigenous
artists and culture bearersthrough grant making initiatives
, culturally rooted programming,and training and mentorship.
Learn more at first peoplesfund.
Dot O R G.
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