LeClair delivers message of pride during Indigenous Peoples Day event

WORLAND - Veteran and Eastern Shoshone tribal member Willie LeClair provided the keynote address for the third straight year at the Washakie Museum & Cultural Center's Indigenous People's Day.

With the rains that came, the outdoor event was moved indoors. LeClair was able to work the change into his presentation.

He said when the federal government continued to downsize the number of acres for the Wind River Reservation the federal government did not feel that the tribes could control millions of acres of land.

"We don't control the land. Mother Nature controls us. Today Grandfather, Creator, said you come inside, we're going to give Mother Earth a drink," LeClair said.

This year's presentation focused a lot on being proud of who you are. LeClair said he had mixed cultures with his mother being a white woman and his father a Native American rancher.

He said as he grew he felt he was a man without a country, not welcome with the full-blood Native Americans but also was not welcome within the "European culture."

LeClair joined the Navy and he said, "I'm proud to be called a veteran. I'm proud to be called an American. I would fight for the American flag. The American flag is for all people, the red, the black, the white, the yellow, the rich, the poor, the famous, the unfamous." He added later, "I am proud to be an Indian."

While he has worked in many fields, as a rancher, construction worker, air traffic controller, he is currently a religious coordinator with the Wyoming Department of Corrections. "I am proud of what I do," he said.

In most of his presentations, LeClair speaks about respect and Saturday was no different, with LeClair noting that respect cannot be given until it is earned.

He said it is important for people to have self-respect and positive self-image. "Be proud of who you are. I don't care where you come from. No one can take away who you are," he said.

This year's Indigenous Peoples Day celebration included two performances of the Wind River Dancers, a performance by the 2021 Wyoming Singer-Songwriter winner Christian Wallowing Bull, a presentation by artists of the Red Road Project, kids lessons and crafts.

There was also a showing of the documentary "Home From School: The Children of Carlisle," along with a question and answer period.

LeClair touched on the issue of having Native American children being removed from their home and sent to white boarding schools such as the Carlisle school in Pennsylvania. He said it was a way for the white man to "trying to take the Indian out of the child," and it did not work.