Al and the Indians

On Saturday, July 7, I made my way downtown through the labyrinth of fences and cement blockades around the Capitol to hear Al Gore speak about global warming at DC's version of "Live Earth."

The "Mother Earth" event was planned as a 12-hour marathon event at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Professor Henrietta Mann (on stage at left) started the opening ceremony with a prayer to save and respect the planet.

Professor Mann is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapho Tribes of Oklahoma.

Katsi Cook (photo above, on stage at right), a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation, spoke next of our responsibilities to the earth.

A traditional midwife, Katsi Cook is recognized for her pioneer study of the impact of PCBs and heavy-metal pollutants on breast milk of Native women in Great Lakes Indian communities.

After the grandmothers spoke, Al Gore made his way to the podium as fast as he could without stopping to shake hands or wasting any time.

Al made a joke about how this time, with the world in such an environmental crisis, we were looking for help from the Indians, not the cowboys or the calvary.

That comment raised wild applause from the crowd, now numbering several hundred sweaty families, students, grandmothers, and media stalwarts.

As for me, I was stuck behind the "pinkies," several women from out of town dressed all in pink with sponge-foam Statue of Liberty hats.

I was also stuck behind metal cowcatcher barricades linked one to the other so no one could get out. Of course, being a child of the 60s, I figured out how to disconnect the link between two of them, and I slipped out and away from behind the crowd.

And once I made my way to the street, I walked back to the Capitol and up to Louisiana Avenue to find my car and make my way home.