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Transcript: Chief Arvol Looking Horse

The importance of beadwork and regalia for native identity

[Looking Horse:]
A long time ago when somebody comes through the door, they would know who that person is. Even looking at that person as a spiritual leader, as a medicine person, when that person comes through that door, we can feel, see that person, and through the designs, the beadwork that we’d know who that person is. So the story is that as time goes on, people would forget their proud ancestry and make their own beadwork, which is beautiful—the regalia—but soon, soon their family tradition, their family design will be gone, and they would not know who they are.