Transcript: Healing Totem stops at White Earth Reservation

[Flute music playing]

[Jewel James:]

We need to be aware of who we are and where we're going to go in the future with the knowledge we have been able to retain. And so we don't know. There may be that one plant that's going to heal cancer worldwide in the mind of the elder someplace on one of our reservations. But it's up to us to maintain our relationship with the environment around us. It's up to us to protect the knowledge of our elders and to make sure it's transferred to the children.

[Flute music playing]

[Wanneta Bennett:]

When this pole gets out to D.C., you know, the majority of the people are going to go and look at it just as a piece of art. They're not going to understand the symbolic or the symbolism that to native people it means that healing, that rebirth of us as a nation with our identify of who we are and the pride that comes with it. You may not fully understand the importance and meaning of this to tribes. To native people this healing is a reality.

[Flute music playing]

Who can tell me how old this tree is? About a hundred years old. One, two, three. Totem pole!