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I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of North America | 0:00:02 | 0:00:07 | |
with my reliable Appletons' Guide. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Published in the late 19th century, | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
to all that's | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
beautiful, memorable | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
and striking in the United States. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
As I journey across this vast continent, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West... | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
..and how the railroads tied this nation together, | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
helping to create the global superstate of today. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
TRAIN HORN | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
My rail journey along the Upper Mississippi has brought me | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
to a part of the river where Appletons' says there's | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
"grandeur and sublimity in every mile. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
"It becomes monotonous after a time, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
"the eye becoming surfeited with too much beauty." | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
In my travels around the United States, I've learned that you can't | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
understand the nation's history or even its psyche without grasping | 0:01:29 | 0:01:34 | |
the geography of its rivers. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
With 31 states draining into the Mississippi | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
and two Canadian provinces, this is the mightiest of all the waterways. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
I want to understand how white settlers altered its flow, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
supplanted its population, and introduced new customs. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:55 | |
I started my journey in Minnesota in the Twin Cities. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
I'm now travelling alongside the Mississippi River | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
before crossing into Wisconsin at La Crosse. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
I'll then head east | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
towards the shore of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
Turning south, I'll spend time in Chicago | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
and then travel the length of Illinois via Centralia. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
I'll rediscover the Mississippi | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
as I end my journey in Memphis, Tennessee. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
Today's leg runs along the river. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
First, I'll aim for Red Wing, Minnesota, | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
to find out about a famous settler storyteller. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
I'll learn about the Native Americans | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
forced off their lands at Winona, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
before crossing the river to take in | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
the Wisconsin city named after | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
what has become an international sport. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
On my travels, I immerse myself in Native American culture... | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
-How do you like it? -I love it. -Yeah? | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
..visit an extraordinary wildlife refuge... | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
Is it a healthy bald eagle colony? | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
At one point, we had single digits for eagle nests | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
and now we're up over 300. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
..and take a crash course in lacrosse. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
That's all right. We've got a helmet for a reason! | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
Didn't even see it! | 0:03:27 | 0:03:28 | |
My first stop will be Red Wing, which Appletons' tells me is | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
"beautifully situated on a broad level plain | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
"at the foot of majestic bluffs. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
"A favourite resort in summer | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
"for hunting, bathing, fishing and sailing." | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
I want to find out what the place was like | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
before the tourists arrived, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
when the settlers wrestled with raw nature. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
Named after a Native American chief, Red Wing is on tribal land. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
Like much territory west of the Mississippi, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
this area was bought by the United States from France in 1803, | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
as part of the Louisiana Purchase. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
Within 50 years, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:31 | |
white settlers began to arrive in this unknown wilderness. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
These were the determined pioneering Americans | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
whose lives were made famous by the popular children's TV series | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
Little House On The Prairie. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
Many of us grew up watching the show, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
which was based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
The stories reflect her own settler childhood, | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
just across the river from here. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
Pamela Smith Hill is the author of Laura's biography. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:03 | |
-Hello, Pamela. -Hello. How nice to meet you. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
Michael. What sort of life was her father trying to have? | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
I think he wanted a very...uncomplicated life. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
He liked being in the wild. He liked being surrounded by wild animals. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
He was a hunter and a trapper | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
and I think that's a love that he instilled in his daughter, Laura. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
Laura's first book, Little House In The Big Woods, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
was inspired by the cabin where she was born, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
a replica of which stands here today. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
It sounds rather desolate for a childhood. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
I think so and if you drive out from Pepin today, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
it's about a six mile drive | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
on a windy road and if you think about all the miles and miles | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
of wood, that makes this cabin seem even more isolated. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
You can really get a sense for how alone the family was out here. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
So what happened to the family? | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
The family moved from here outside of Pepin | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
when Laura was about two years old | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
and they eventually settled in Indian Territory | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
on the Osage Diminished Indian Reserve in about 1869. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:15 | |
They lived there for a couple of years and then moved back to Pepin, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
and when Laura was about five or six, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
she was back here and Little House In The Big Woods is based on her | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
memories of the second time the family lived there. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
Charles Ingalls had this incurable wanderlust, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
and he sent the family further west | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
after a few years here in Pepin. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
The family shifted between Wisconsin, Minnesota, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
Kansas and South Dakota, | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
all before Laura was a teenager. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
I think her overriding theme is an American family, moving west, | 0:06:51 | 0:06:56 | |
struggling against adversity to find the Promised Land. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
But beyond that, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:02 | |
there are themes that deal with courage in the face of adversity, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
how to deal with poverty. There's also the sense of Laura growing up. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:11 | |
The family was like thousands of others on this new frontier - | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
self-sufficient and hard-working people, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
setting forth, seeking success. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
In Pepin, each year the community celebrates those times | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
with a festival devoted to Laura. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
UPBEAT FIDDLE MUSIC | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
-Good day. -Good day. That is the darndest instrument I ever saw. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
-What is it? -It's a cigar box fiddle. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
Something that folks would make in the United States here | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
if they couldn't afford a nice violin. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
-Where did you get this one from? -I made that. -Wow! | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
That is extraordinary. I mean, it's not exactly a Stradivarius, is it? | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
No, sir. Not a Stradivarius! | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
Does that simple life appeal to you at all? | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
Oh, without the health care and all the doctors and medication | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
and things, it would have been tough. It was a hard life. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
If you cut yourself with your axe, what do you do? | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
What happens when your wife is delivering a baby and you're out | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
there all alone in the snow storm? | 0:08:14 | 0:08:16 | |
It was very difficult. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
-How do you do? -What is the appeal, do you think, of Laura Ingalls? | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
Why are these people gathered here to celebrate her? | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
It's a simple, innocent time. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
-And I think all of us need that in life. -A very tough time. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
Laura's mother wouldn't have known any different. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
She only knew she had to get the meal on the table. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
They only knew they had to get the haystack. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
They only knew they had to get the crop in. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
This is a very enjoyable and also very impressive festival. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
There is a genuine enthusiasm | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
for their local heroine, Laura Ingalls Wilder. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:01 | |
And the tribute is paid in all sorts of ways, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
not least by so many people wearing the bonnet. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
And the settlers also learned a thing or two | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
from the Native Americans | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
who'd known these lands for thousands of years. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
Hello. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
-Now, what are you offering here? -We're throwing tomahawks. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
-We are, are we? -Yes, we are. -All right. And who would have done that? | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
Native Americans, frontiersmen, hunters. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
Any ideas on technique? | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
Keep your wrists straight, bring it up over your head, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
-step into it like you're throwing a ball. -OK. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
-Wow! -Perfect! | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
No, over the top, that one. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
Right idea. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:43 | |
Oh, that was a poor one. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
Sadly, just beginner's luck! | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
Returning to Red Wing, I'm picking up the Empire Builder service, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:58 | |
which runs over 2,000 miles across North America. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
Today, though, I'm travelling only about 60 miles. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
Next stop - Winona, Minnesota. Appletons' says, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
"A prosperous little city, one of the most important | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
"lumber distributed points on the upper Mississippi. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
"As a grain shipping point, it ranks amongst the first." | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
You can be sure that if it was a strategic place for the white man, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
it was also precious for the Native American. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
The settlers founded Winona in 1851. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
And by the end of the century, there were more millionaires per head here | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
than in any other city in the United States. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
The extreme wealth was generated by the lumber and wheat industries | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
that sprang up on the river. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
To find out what happened to that industry, I'm meeting Kurt, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
who maintains a wildlife refuge on the Mississippi. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
-Hello. -Welcome to the refuge. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
-It's wonderful to be here. -It's beautiful weather. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
-Great day to get out on the water. -Beautiful spot. Let's go. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
All right, hop on. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
At over 2,300 miles long, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
the Mississippi is the greatest river in North America. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
And it teems with wildlife. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Kurt, this is the most beautiful riverscape. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
Is this a natural environment we're looking at? | 0:11:52 | 0:11:54 | |
Well, it's a combination of natural and man-influenced landscape here. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:59 | |
The water level is unnaturally high now compared to previous times, | 0:11:59 | 0:12:04 | |
before the lock and dam, because they had to raise the water level | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
to maintain the navigation channel. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
So the mighty Mississippi was not navigable? | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
It would be subject to extreme water level changes. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
There would be dry land here where you couldn't even get one of these | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
boats through in certain places. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
-Who undertook that work? -That was the US Army Corps of Engineers. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
They built all the locks and dams | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
from Saint Louis all the way to Minneapolis-Saint Paul. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
In the 1860s, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:31 | |
the Corps cleared the river of debris such as log and tree stumps. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
For that heavy-duty work, they used impressive twin-hulled boats | 0:12:36 | 0:12:41 | |
which became known as Uncle Sam's Tooth Pullers | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
because of their capacity to extract whole trees. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
Did the river stand a chance against the railroads? | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
Apparently it did, cos it's still here and still functioning. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
Are you moving freight on the river on the Upper Mississippi today? | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
Oh, yeah. There's lot of freight going up and down the river today. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
It's still a very viable source of transportation. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
If we're lucky today, what wildlife might we see? | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
If we're lucky today, we'll see some pelicans and some bald eagles. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:11 | |
Is it a healthy bald eagle colony? | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
At one point, we had single digits | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
for eagle nests on this refuge and now we are over 300. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
Use of the river for navigation | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
takes its toll on vegetation and wildlife. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:31 | |
The winds that blow across these vast stretches of water make it hard | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
for plants to regenerate. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
So as part of the environmental restoration programmes, | 0:13:40 | 0:13:45 | |
the Corps and the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies have come | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
in and built these man-made islands to help break-up that fetch. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:53 | |
Trees can grow again and vegetation gets re-established, | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
so the water is cleared up, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
it's not muddy and it continues | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
the ongoing cycle of vegetation and habitat creation. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:07 | |
The light is wonderful. The colours are beautiful. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
The water is still. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
We can hear nothing but the sound of our own boat. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
-Divine! -Some pelicans up ahead of us. -Yes. I wondered what those | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
white things were. I thought they were too big to be egrets. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
They're pelicans, are they? | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
One of Kurt's jobs is to check the growth of the vegetation on which | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
the wildlife depends. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
Tool of the trade. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:32 | |
And grab some vegetation. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
-Is it this stuff you want to look at? -It is. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
Anything under the water there. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
Lots of wild celery hanging on that rig. That's a good sign. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
So this long leaf right here is wild celery. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:50 | |
That's good. We want to see that. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:51 | |
Favourite duck food for the canvasback. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
A sort of spaghetti for ducks. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:56 | |
So the islands are doing their job? | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
-The islands are doing the job. -And I think I'm looking at a happy man. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
Pretty happy, pretty lucky! | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
The name Mississippi | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
comes from a Native American word for "great river." | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
The Dakota Sioux Indians | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
had lived around Winona since the 17th century. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
But settlers were hungry for land | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
and the US negotiated two treaties with Dakota tribes to buy | 0:15:22 | 0:15:27 | |
all but a fraction of their lands. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
The United States broke those agreements and there followed | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
a century of hatred. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
Appletons' perfectly describes | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
the scenery that I see here around Winona. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
"Bluffs with precipitous fronts, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
"worn by the weather into most fantastic shapes, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
"the river almost filled with islands." | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
Winona was apparently a young Dakota maiden who loved a young hunter. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:58 | |
But she leapt over the precipice to her death rather than marry the man | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
of her parents' choice. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
The tribes have experienced much suffering. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
And today, groups of people gather | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
to understand the past and to be reconciled. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
SINGING | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
Today it's the annual Dakota Gathering, a modern-day pow wow. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:26 | |
It's a gorgeous display of colour, dance, and joy. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
What we have here is a gathering of many Native American tribes, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
but not at all exclusive. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
There are lots of non-Native Americans here as well. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
And the dancing is not by way of a performance or a display - | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
it's an invitation to the non-Native Americans to learn about the customs | 0:16:47 | 0:16:52 | |
and to participate, to join in friendship and to heal old wounds. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:57 | |
-Hello, Michael. -Hello. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:05 | |
You can join me in circle in a tribal dance. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
-Of course. Thank you. Lead the way. -All right. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
-How do you like it? -I love it. -Yeah? Good. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
-Not too bad, right? -Not too bad at all. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
Despite the treachery of the past, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
these days there's a unifying spirit. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
Aaron Camacho is the event's president. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
-Hello, Aaron. -Hello, how are you? | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
What a wonderful day. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
-Thank you. -How long have you been having these gatherings? | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
It's the 13th annual gathering. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
And what's the idea behind it? | 0:17:58 | 0:18:00 | |
The idea behind it is reconciliation, right? | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
When they were celebrating the 150th anniversary of, you know, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
Minnesota being here, they wanted to have Native Americans come in | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
and just kind of dress up for them and they realised that that wasn't | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
quite equitable and so what we decided to do as a city is make sure | 0:18:14 | 0:18:19 | |
that we're representing Native American culture | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
in an accurate and appropriate way. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
What do you think you've achieved? | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
A lot. If you think about it, in the circle, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
there are people of all different nationalities and we were all able | 0:18:28 | 0:18:33 | |
to do this in a peaceful way and everybody was smiling together. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:38 | |
Think about the 1960s, you know? | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
That wasn't happening. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
The hatred lasted for decades. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
The United States reneged on the land deal and paid the Dakota | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
less than a fifth of the agreed price. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
It led to the US Dakota War of 1862, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
during which 600 civilians and United States soldiers | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
and up to 100 Dakota Indians were killed, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
and a further 38 Dakota were hanged. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
To find out more about the bitter legacy, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
I want to talk to Danny Seaboy. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
Hello. May I tuck in here for a moment? | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
-Sure. -You've been MC-ing today. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
-Congratulations. -Oh, well, I've been doing it for 14 years. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
Danny's great-great-grandfather | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
was a chief who signed one of the treaties. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
After 1862 came about, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
then a decision was made by Congress | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
to eliminate the land that we were given along the Minnesota River. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:40 | |
It took a lot of harsh feelings to what happened to us. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
So there's uprising. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
When we left here, knowing that signing this... | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
His name, or using his X and witnessed it, that's who he was. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:55 | |
It was for the betterment of the people that he was a chief for. | 0:19:55 | 0:20:01 | |
And he felt very... | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
betrayed. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:06 | |
Today, despite everything, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
Danny wants to get along with his neighbours, whatever their history, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
to live happily, to understand each other. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
With all that the Native Americans have suffered, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
how can you be so big-hearted, so generous? | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
I guess I've been through a lot. We don't all have the point of hate. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
We don't all have a point of revenge. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
But if we can make them understand that | 0:20:30 | 0:20:35 | |
we've got to forget this. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
Given all that the Native Americans have endured, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
I've been struck by the generosity of spirit displayed by their | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
representatives here today. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
But this has been a gathering of people on all sides | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
who wish to be reconciled. They've thrown a pebble in the water. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
And the question is, how far will the ripples spread? | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
Picking up my journey, | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
I'm about to leave the state of Minnesota and cross into Wisconsin. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
I'll be leaving the train at La Crosse, Wisconsin, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
which Appletons' tells me | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
"is a city on the east bank of the Mississippi, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
"where the train crosses over the river | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
"and follows the West Bank amidst remarkably picturesque scenery." | 0:21:50 | 0:21:55 | |
I shall be intrigued to visit a little city with a sporty name. | 0:21:55 | 0:22:00 | |
-PA SYSTEM: -'Attention, ladies and gentlemen. We are now approaching | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
'our next station stop of La Crosse, Wisconsin.' | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
This had long been a Native American settlement. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
French fur traders came here in the late 17th century. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:35 | |
But it was New Yorker Nathan Myrick | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
who started a trading post here in 1841. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
The railroad arrived within 20 years and La Crosse quickly became | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
an important commercial and transport hub. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
And it has strong ties to the sport of lacrosse. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
At the University of Wisconsin, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:54 | |
I'm meeting the president of the men's team, Joel Vitrano. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:59 | |
-Hello, Joel. -Hello. -I'm Michael. -Nice to meet you, Michael. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
Good to see you. The sport of lacrosse, | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
how was that invented or discovered? | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
Well, when the first fur traders came to the area initially, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
they saw the Native Americans playing the game. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
-The Indians played it the way you do today? -No, not at all. The game was | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
originally played with upwards of thousands of players at a time. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
It was a game for combat. They used it to train and to settle disputes. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
So they were hacking away at each other with their sticks? | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Correct. It's kind of how the game a little bit today still goes. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
We're allowed to hit each other and it's a lot of fun. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
Have you any idea how it passed from being a Native American sort of | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
curiosity to becoming a mainstream sport for white people? | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
Yeah. In the second half of the 19th century, William George Beers | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
created a set of rules which was about the same set | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
of rules for years today. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:46 | |
It remains a very physical sport. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
What it is you're allowed to do in lacrosse? | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
Well, in the sport of lacrosse, we're given lots of equipment. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
We're given helmets, shoulder pads, elbow pads and gloves | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
and our sticks, of course, which allow us to hit each other | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
from the shoulder pads down, waist up. Anything on the head | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
is malicious and you get a minute penalty and you have to sit out. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
-And you volunteered for the sport? -Yeah. It's really great. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
One of the first weeks of volunteering, I got my nose broken. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
I think I was hooked ever since! | 0:24:10 | 0:24:11 | |
MICHAEL LAUGHS | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
It's a curious way to get addicted! | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Aside from all the violence, the idea of the sticks is to catch, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
carry and throw the ball down the field and into your opponent's goal. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
Now, I'm rather reluctant to say this, because it sounds really like | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
a pretty brutal and physical sport but would you mind showing me | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
-a few pointers? -Definitely. We'll get you a helmet and pads | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
-and we'll rough you up a little bit. Let's get started. -Sounds...great(!) | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
It seems like...getting right back to Native American times here. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:45 | |
Going to battle! | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
-Let's go. -Thank you for that! | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
-Hello, coach. -How's it going? -I'm Michael. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
-Mike, nice to meet you. -Now, I've never played this before. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
Give me some basics here. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:06 | |
All right. First, let's start with scooping up the ball off the ground. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
So the ball is going to be down. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
And you're going to come with two hands towards the ground | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
and you're going to scoop, just like shovelling snow, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
and up to your ear. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
Right. Hands well down, stick, come in low, a bit of speed and off. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
We could turn you into a pro yet! | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
Catching wrist, just going to slide up. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:25 | |
-So one hand's right at the top, one hand in the middle. -Gotcha! | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
-Arms out. -Yeah. -And when it comes in, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
-you're going to watch it in and then just give it a go. -OK. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
That's all right. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
Didn't even see it. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
-There you go. -Whoa! | 0:25:43 | 0:25:44 | |
That's all right. We got a helmet for a reason. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
Got it. Perfect. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
-Ready for the team? -That was nice. Ah...not quite yet. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
We do have something I think can handle, though. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
-Oh. -We're going to do a face-off. -Oh, face-off. OK. Great, great. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
Down! | 0:26:12 | 0:26:13 | |
Get those sticks squared up. Get those sticks squared up. OK. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
Set! | 0:26:17 | 0:26:18 | |
Go! | 0:26:21 | 0:26:22 | |
I don't know what I've started here. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
Suddenly, the field is populated with screaming people | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
hurling the ball around. Quite apart from all the physical violence, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
the ball moves at the speed of a bullet, or I should say, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
a small cannonball. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
-There we go. Nice. -You can see at once how the Native Americans | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
used this for war training. It's the most brutal and vicious game. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
They're smashing into each other. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:48 | |
Kill, kill! | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
While modern-day lacrosse gives us | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
a mere flavour of the Native American game, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
the influence of the tribes is still felt heavily across this area. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:11 | |
The gathering that I attended | 0:27:11 | 0:27:12 | |
brought together Native and non-Native Americans who were | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
intent on reconciliation. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
Even so, probably not many white citizens fully acknowledged | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
the heritage that is owed to the tribes | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
but is evident in names like Winona and Mississippi | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
and in lacrosse - a game which, oddly, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
bears a French name. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
The river has retained or regained gained its beauty, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
despite being a major freight thoroughfare. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
And its wildness fosters a nostalgia | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
for the pioneering days that were chronicled by Laura Ingalls Wilder. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:49 | |
TRAIN HORN | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
'Next time, I bury myself in a Thanksgiving harvest...' | 0:27:57 | 0:28:02 | |
We're moving a vast number of cranberries! | 0:28:02 | 0:28:07 | |
'..take the plunge in the water park capital of the world... | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
'..and find out how the railroad | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
'spread the joy of the greatest show on Earth.' | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
Here comes the train and there's an elephant trunk sticking out of | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
one of it. There's a clown sitting on the vestibule of another. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 |