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Ann Marie Cannon . Armchair historians is

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that's totally cool. I just hope

1:11

you will continue to listen to our

1:13

free podcasts . Some

1:16

of you know that I live in the Colorado

1:18

Rocky mountains. I

1:20

love living here and I have

1:22

met some of the most interesting

1:24

people. Our guests today,

1:26

Leon Joseph Little bird

1:29

is no exception. His

1:31

family history literally goes

1:33

back to the beginning with

1:35

indigenous roots through his mother's

1:37

family line in pioneer

1:40

roots through his fathers , you

1:43

are in for a treat, not only

1:45

is Leon, a skilled

1:47

lyricist and musician. You

1:49

can hear him playing in the background right now.

1:52

He is an amazing storyteller

1:55

change in the seasons

1:58

that it's taught me to be strong.

2:00

I've got dirt beneath my

2:02

fingernails. Denims

2:04

are all chore from

2:07

chop and would not the

2:09

generation ancestral roots in

2:11

both pioneer in native American cultures,

2:14

Leon Joseph LittleBird inherited

2:16

a passion for local history, storytelling

2:19

and music. This passion

2:21

inspired him to do years of research

2:24

into the oral and recorded histories

2:26

of his ancestors and the neighboring

2:28

tribes. He is a guest speaker

2:31

for Colorado mountain college classes

2:33

on both Colorado and native history.

2:37

And his presentations are popular

2:39

with historical societies and tour

2:41

groups, little bird delights,

2:43

his audiences with stories that

2:45

we, the lies and talents

2:47

of the earliest inhabitants of Colorado

2:50

into a fascinating series of how

2:53

music was discovered. Using

2:55

many types of ancient instruments.

2:57

He performs examples of how music

3:00

came to be an integral part

3:02

of life in the tribes from mountains

3:04

to Plains and the Southwest.

3:08

That's the presentation per regresses

3:10

and the music unfolds. He includes

3:13

stories from his Colorado pioneer

3:15

family that come to life in

3:17

original songs. In addition

3:20

to being a renowned storyteller,

3:22

Leon is also an internationally

3:24

recognized songwriter and

3:26

recording artist who performs on

3:28

world-class stages all

3:30

over the country and evening

3:33

with Leon, Joseph Little bird

3:35

will delight and surprise you with a

3:37

unique look at local history

3:39

and wonderful entertainment. Thank

3:43

you for being here, Leon.

3:45

Well, I don't think I've ever heard anyone read

3:47

all that before. That was I'm blushing.

3:52

Well, it's a , yeah. It's

3:55

well written and made my job easier.

3:57

Cause I usually go and look for a bio,

3:59

but you sent me the whole bio and it's beautiful.

4:02

And I think it really gives a sense of what I

4:04

know about you. So

4:06

, uh , this is armchair

4:09

historians. And today

4:11

I'm going to ask you the question that I

4:13

ask all of my guests, which is what's

4:15

your favorite history that we're going to be talking about

4:17

today?

4:19

Well, today my favorite history

4:21

is going to be about my pioneer family.

4:24

Uh , it's really interesting. I've been, certainly

4:28

asked many times in my life

4:30

to write of book about

4:32

my family because the history,

4:35

they were some of the very first pioneers to

4:37

arrive after gold was discovered

4:39

, um, 1858 59.

4:42

Uh, so that's the story I'd like

4:44

to tell you today.

4:46

Okay. I'm really excited. I know a little bit about

4:49

, uh, your , uh

4:51

, ancestors, not too much, but I

4:54

love a good story and I know that you're

4:56

a great storyteller. So I'm putting

4:58

on my seatbelt and looking forward to

5:00

the ride.

5:02

Well, it could be a roller coaster, so make

5:05

that seatbelt tight. So

5:08

this all really starts with

5:10

my great grandfather, whose name was

5:12

Charles August , then Christian

5:15

[inaudible] and then we'll know is two

5:18

words in French. It's a small

5:20

Des capital Moyn

5:22

Eaux so like the Moines Iowa,

5:25

but with an aux on the end of the day, mono

5:27

means little bird. And

5:29

my dad used that in his art,

5:31

and I've used that in my music because

5:35

Damieno is a beautiful name, but

5:38

no one in America can say it or

5:41

spell it. So , um, so,

5:43

and then, because my mother's history

5:45

is, is more indigenous and

5:48

a lot of my family, including my dad

5:50

would call me a little bird out

5:52

of affection. I have adopted

5:54

little bird, but it's the same name.

5:57

So Charles Augustine Christian

5:59

mono own his wife, Sarah , Anna

6:01

, whose maiden name was Moore house

6:04

. We're married in Dubuque, Iowa

6:07

and had a three year old son

6:09

where my great grandfather was working

6:12

for the Dubuque mining company as a mining

6:14

engineer. And they

6:17

found out that there was gold and Colorado.

6:19

So can you imagine they packed up three

6:21

Conestoga wagons and an oxcart

6:24

with a three year old kid and

6:27

came from Dubuque to a rare area

6:29

, which is now Denver and that's

6:31

the confluence of cherry Creek and the Platte

6:33

river. And they bought more supplies

6:36

there and then headed up clear

6:38

Creek Canyon. Now imagine

6:40

what kind of trail or road,

6:45

right, right at the , uh, the fall

6:47

of 1859. So they arrived

6:50

in Blackhawk and let

6:52

me stop for a second. So

6:54

I get it right in my head. I want to make sure I'm following

6:56

the right story. So this is your

6:59

, um , on your father's side, on

7:01

my father's side, right? The

7:03

child is your great

7:06

grandfather. No , the,

7:09

my great grandfather is the father. The

7:11

child would have been my great uncle and

7:16

actually his name is Charles also. And my great uncle

7:18

Charles is buried in the Leadville

7:21

pioneer cemetery. And

7:23

, um, and he grew up to be

7:25

first chair violinist at the Tabor opera

7:28

house. So

7:30

there's a little musical history there. That's still

7:33

local to so Charles

7:35

and Sarah, when they arrived in black

7:37

hot built , uh , a

7:39

general store, which all shoe became

7:42

the post office. And so Charles

7:44

, uh , was the first postmaster

7:47

of the territory of Colorado. And

7:49

we have that document. We have all

7:51

his documents, he saved everything. And

7:54

in this document, it's from Washington

7:57

and everywhere. It's just state of there's

7:59

two black ink lines

8:01

through the word state. And T E

8:03

R R period is written in so

8:05

territory of Colorado. And

8:09

they also built

8:11

the very first brick building in black

8:14

Hawk . We have some old newspaper articles

8:16

about him building and encourages

8:18

other citizens to do same, right.

8:21

Cause fires was a big deal. And

8:23

, um , you know, all those wooden buildings

8:25

with burned down . So here

8:27

they arrive in Blackhawk with three wagons

8:30

, Shannon oxcart and in the ox oxcart

8:32

. Um, and this was one of my dad's

8:34

favorite stories to talk about this

8:36

oxcart. Uh , it

8:38

was all musical instruments and one of

8:40

them was an 800 pound

8:43

Rose Wood , Henry Miller, square, grand

8:46

piano. Um, there's one

8:48

just like it in the Hammel house in

8:50

Georgetown, they're almost exactly

8:52

alike, 85 key

8:54

, uh , ivory in Ebony made

8:57

in Boston, but also , um,

9:00

mandolin violins. Uh

9:02

, and I, we , my family have almost

9:04

all those instruments, all

9:06

the string ones. My , I have a nephew who has

9:08

the piano and , um

9:10

, so really, really interesting.

9:13

And , um, they

9:16

had four more children

9:19

and they all lived, which in

9:21

those days with the 70 plus

9:24

percent infant mortality rate,

9:27

I think that they all live for a number of reasons.

9:29

I'm pretty sure my family pretty well.

9:31

I think my great grandparents were very prosperous.

9:34

In fact, I know they were. And so

9:36

they were healthy. They had good conditions

9:38

and they were , um, but all

9:40

their kids lived and , uh,

9:43

left kind of fabled stories behind

9:45

them as well. And , and one of them was

9:47

my grandfather who was born in central

9:49

city in 1863

9:52

during the civil war. And

9:56

so back to Charles Augustine

9:58

now, Keith first arrived in America

10:01

from France, from the mountains of France,

10:03

Don C France. He first came at

10:05

when he was about 26 years old, I think

10:08

in 19 1844.

10:11

And he first arrived

10:14

in new Orleans. She traveled around down South

10:16

and it makes sense you would go to new Orleans because

10:19

of the French community there. And

10:21

, um , somewhere along the

10:23

line , uh, we have been

10:25

contacted and confirmed by the records

10:28

that he was in the army of the Republic in

10:30

Texas, the guys who fought

10:32

the Alamo, those guys, although obviously wasn't

10:34

there, but he was in the army

10:36

of the Republic, which is great. Cause when I

10:38

do gigs in Texas and I tell people that

10:40

I never have to buy a drink. So,

10:45

and he, during , in 1849,

10:48

when the big gold strikes

10:50

in California and the 49 or gold

10:53

rush happened, he led an expedition

10:55

trying to get across South America.

10:58

So they could sail up the Pacific to

11:00

California cause no one could get across the Rockies

11:03

because of all the research I do. I have found

11:05

distant cousins in Columbia

11:08

with our last name, Damon Oh , very

11:10

unusual name. And they

11:12

claim that their great,

11:14

great grandfather was a

11:16

Carlos Alejandro. So

11:21

it's virtually his name and

11:24

that's cause

11:26

I do a lot of ancestral family

11:29

history research. And when you have an unusual

11:31

name, it's so helpful.

11:34

Yeah, well, yeah, it was him.

11:36

And so , uh, and we don't

11:38

really know there was, my dad

11:40

was very unsure

11:43

about this cause the family didn't want to talk

11:45

about, he started a family and came back, but

11:48

what I have loosely pieced

11:50

together as he went, he did start

11:52

a family and his wife died.

11:55

And so he left, he had a couple

11:58

children and he left them with her family

12:00

and came back to the United States. And

12:03

now that's as

12:05

near as I know, but he came back and got

12:07

married again. And so

12:10

that, and that was to my great grandmother.

12:12

And so he was working

12:14

in Dubuque, Iowa. And

12:17

um , as

12:19

a mining engineer, now he

12:21

was a poet and an artist

12:23

and a musician, you know, he had, he was

12:26

hand Sarah , both you're trained and accomplished

12:28

musicians and also a mining

12:30

engineer. And in , um , he

12:32

built a bakery in central city

12:35

and had a confectionary store

12:38

and built boarding houses and had

12:40

mining claims and really

12:42

an entrepreneur. And really

12:45

, uh, somebody, I would wish

12:47

if I could go back in history and meet

12:49

one person, it would be him. Cause

12:51

I have a lot of questions for him. So

12:53

they get really well in central city

12:55

and black Blackhawk for a number of years, they

12:57

now had five

12:59

children and

13:02

I don't know why they moved,

13:04

but they moved to Idaho Springs. And

13:07

I think maybe things were moving up Valley

13:09

that way, you know, as far as gold strikes and

13:11

things, and he was looking for the next kind of rich

13:14

place to go. And I think maybe central

13:16

city had gotten a little wild kind of crazy.

13:19

There's another family story about

13:21

, uh , when Charles the oldest

13:23

son, my great uncle, Charles was a

13:26

young teen, maybe 13 that

13:29

a bank robber came into the bakery

13:31

and he and my uncle hit him on

13:33

the head with a hammer out

13:35

of fear because , and killed

13:38

them . That's why they moved now.

13:40

I didn't know a great story, but my

13:43

dad would tell me the stories. You held up this

13:45

five pound slit , hand sledge

13:47

and say, this is the camera

13:49

that my uncle killed the bank robber with.

13:51

You know? And so I don't know if

13:53

that's just family fable, but

13:56

they moved to Idaho Springs and they were there for

13:58

about six months, but their store burned down.

14:01

Then they moved to Georgetown and

14:04

, uh, they didn't stay in Georgetown

14:06

for long, but Charles

14:09

de mano and Louis Dupuis had

14:11

to be friends. And my grandfather

14:13

and great uncle ended up playing violin

14:16

in the hotel de Paris. So

14:18

, um, we know for sure, my grandfather

14:21

knew Louis cause , um, my

14:23

great uncles who I'm named after also Frederick

14:25

Lee on the composer and they were both

14:28

accomplished violinists. So, and I had

14:30

photos , I've seen an old photograph of them playing

14:33

in the dining room of the hotel.

14:37

Yeah. We've we would try to get a copy

14:40

of Kevin and I have looked forward a lot, but um,

14:42

they're holding their derbies in their fiddles.

14:45

They have a Derby in one hand in there and their fiddle

14:47

in the other hand and they then

14:49

moved to silver plume. And

14:52

uh, I think that the silver strike should really

14:54

take it off. And so they

14:56

were very prosperous and silver plume and

14:59

in the house that my grandparents

15:01

lived in is still there. Uh, Sarah

15:04

Taylor lives in that house. Now it's next

15:06

to the fire station there. Um,

15:08

and my dad , uh , although

15:11

my dad was born in creed , he came , uh

15:13

, Mike Grant, father and great

15:15

uncle went to create and started the King. Solomon,

15:18

mine got married. There started having a family,

15:20

but Charles their dad, Charles

15:23

Augustine, he was older

15:25

and ill and called the boys home.

15:28

And so my dad doesn't ever remember being

15:30

a Creek cause he was only two months old when they

15:32

brought him to silver plume . So

15:35

all his memories are silver plume, but

15:38

my Charles Augustine,

15:41

my great grandfather and some other

15:43

entrepreneurs in silver plume built a town

15:45

above silver plume called Brownville.

15:49

And you can see Brownsville or

15:51

Brownsville, but he was also the postmaster

15:53

and I've had some of the historical people say,

15:56

we've, we don't know if it's Brownville or

15:58

Brownsville. And I had his cancellation

16:00

stamps and one year the S was

16:02

left off. So

16:06

there are some, some posts , some postage

16:08

out there, cancelled Brownville , but it was

16:10

actually Brownsville cause that's Brown's Canyon

16:13

or Brown's Gulch. I think it was. Um,

16:16

and you know,

16:17

then after that , the next exit up off

16:19

of a seventies, Brownsville,

16:22

but there's like nothing there.

16:24

Right? Well, there was a town there and

16:26

it was never a really super prosperous

16:28

mining town. But if you research

16:30

it historically, it's interesting

16:33

for me because it's remembered as a

16:35

happy town filled with music.

16:38

So there were many musicians , it was maybe a little

16:40

music heaven or little artist Haven

16:42

. And um , and my family

16:44

lived there until the landslides actually wiped

16:46

it out. So

16:50

was that one, okay. I thought

16:52

the town that got wiped out by the landslide

16:55

was on the other side of like we're 90 is,

16:57

but was that

16:58

no, it's it's right there above silver plume. I mean,

17:00

it was, it was right there and

17:03

um , that , you know, that whole mountain slid

17:05

three times. And so

17:07

, um , you know, the first slides were in the

17:09

late 18 hundreds and it slid again, like in 1910

17:12

or something like that. My aunt Mary,

17:14

my dad, my great aunt, aunt

17:17

Mary was still living there and moved out

17:19

and her house was wiped out. She had it it's

17:21

in one of the ghost story books. She had this premonition

17:24

that came in the middle of the night and she called the

17:26

brothers and they were all, what do you want?

17:28

Come on. She got to move me. And the next day,

17:31

boom , it came down and took out the back of her house. So

17:34

it's kind of a cool story, but

17:36

I really love the idea of

17:38

, um, the town

17:40

of Brownsville was full of art

17:42

and poetry and music. And, and

17:44

I think that that's really cool. And then, you know,

17:47

there's the much fabled story in silver about

17:50

Clifford Griffin, the owner of the seven 30 mine.

17:52

Well, that was out of Brownsville. Could

17:54

you just tell us that because the

17:56

audience probably doesn't know that story Clifford

17:58

Griffin had left. I

18:00

believe England is where he was from because

18:03

his, this was just the story

18:05

goes, his fiance died the night before

18:07

their wedding and he was grief stricken and he and his brother

18:10

came to Colorado kind of, you know, to

18:12

get over it and do a whole new life.

18:14

And , uh , he became the owner of

18:16

the seven 30 mine, which is stands

18:18

for seven 30 in the morning because all

18:20

the other mines started at six

18:23

30 and they started

18:25

at seven 30. So the

18:28

seven 30 mine. But he would sit up

18:30

on the, on the mine, above the town

18:32

of silver plume in Brownsville and plays,

18:35

fiddle. And so people

18:37

liked his music. And then one

18:39

day, as they say, it was a really

18:41

beautiful night of music and then they heard a gunshot

18:44

and he went up there and he had done it , dug

18:46

a grave and shot himself

18:48

and put himself into the grave. So

18:51

yeah, so his own grave

18:54

grave and then shot himself. Yeah . And

18:56

, um, you know, he never got over

18:58

the , um, and so there's a monument

19:00

built up there. Have you ever hiked

19:03

up there and seen the monument? I

19:05

know about the monument. Bob has done

19:07

it several times. One of these days,

19:10

we'll right. There is where everything's slid. So if

19:12

you standing at the Griffith , Clifford Griffith's monument

19:14

and you look in your , in that gully where everything's

19:17

slid down, Brownville would have been directly below it. So

19:21

that's kind of a way you can tell which

19:24

where it used to be. But so Charles,

19:27

you know, had boarding houses

19:31

as a store owner. He was postmaster, but

19:33

he played piano, violin, mandolin,

19:35

and sousaphone. And

19:38

, um , my dad would tell me,

19:40

you know, the band stands the band show

19:42

in silver plume. Yes

19:45

. Well, my dad would always

19:47

say that my grandfather

19:49

and great uncle were very instrumental

19:52

in building that. So they'd have a place to play

19:55

because they were, they were, they had

19:57

a band, you know, they were, they were always

20:00

working as musicians . So Alfred

20:03

Victor, Dan winnows , my

20:05

grandfather and his

20:07

beloved brother was Frederick Leon,

20:09

which is how I get my name. So

20:12

they went to Crete for a while. Um,

20:14

got married, had some kids came back

20:17

my well, my dad actually the only

20:19

one kid and came

20:22

back to silver plume and to Brownville

20:25

. And then Charles Augustine

20:28

passed away. So now that the

20:30

boys had all of

20:32

his stuff and, but

20:34

at the same time, silver was getting devalued

20:36

and things were getting a little rough. You know, those mines

20:39

were starting to close. And

20:42

, uh , so with

20:46

all of history that

20:48

they had , um, here's

20:51

my grandparents living

20:55

in this town with this really

20:58

young boy, and then they have another young

21:00

boy. So they've got two

21:03

young sons running

21:05

around the town of silver plume. Think

21:07

of that in, you know , early 19 hundreds,

21:10

right. The

21:12

population at that time would , I

21:14

don't know, but it was well, yeah,

21:16

way bigger than it is now. I mean, it was a

21:18

real bustling town back then. I

21:20

mean, my dad remembers seeing a guy

21:22

that was shot out of the

21:24

saloon in the morning, on his way to school,

21:27

still lying in the street. I mean

21:29

, um, and so I'm going

21:31

to shift down more towards my father

21:33

because there's really great.

21:39

We're going to stop here for today, but

21:41

be sure to join us next week

21:44

for part two of the Leon

21:46

Joseph Little bird interview,

21:49

you're not going to want to miss it. There

21:52

is an interesting

21:55

and surprising plot

21:57

twist at the end. And

22:00

today I leave you with

22:03

my Colorado written

22:05

and performed by Leon,

22:15

my Colorado by

22:22

Colorado, living

22:29

in a cabin by

22:31

a mountain stream, spend

22:33

my evenings slit by lantern

22:35

, light fire that's flickering.

22:39

I learned to love the summer

22:42

when the winner's set in long,

22:45

it's the change enough of the seasons

22:48

that it's taught me to be strong.

22:50

I've got dirt beneath my

22:52

fingernails. Denims

22:55

are all chore from

22:57

chopping wood, not to

23:00

keep my winters warm.

23:02

I know where to hike, what

23:04

to ski and when to plan

23:07

in spring. And when

23:09

the time is right to let

23:11

my Greg full spirit sing

23:13

of Colorado, all

23:17

these things of beauty,

23:20

chimey to a dream,

23:22

they have charred me. I am part

23:24

of a Frith

23:27

.

23:31

[inaudible]

23:31

like the clear blue sky at Twilight

23:34

and the MASP and leaves

23:37

the wild flowers summer

23:40

and the set of evergreens,

23:43

the stillness of the beneath

23:46

blankets , a fresh snow in the

23:48

sky. So full of stars

23:51

wrapped in midnight, Indigo,

23:54

the high Plains of the East,

23:57

the arid desert West,

24:00

the San Juan sound. The song

24:02

gray is full of untouched wilderness.

24:06

And when I'm deep inside or canyons,

24:09

the chewed rivers flow

24:11

can remind me of the reasons

24:15

I love my

24:17

call , the route , my

24:24

call, the ride, all

24:30

these things of beauty,

24:32

chimey to a dream.

24:34

They have charred me. I am part

24:37

of the truth

24:39

.

24:43

[inaudible]

24:43

like cold , clear rushing water

24:46

had a high mountain stream flowing

24:50

into river, turn in

24:53

valleys . So green and the

24:55

proud 14 are standing

24:57

with the peaks up in the sky,

25:00

playing games with the cloud

25:03

ships. There's the jet stream Salem

25:05

by the red rocks

25:08

and the flat irons above

25:10

the grain that grow

25:13

all , make me lift my voice and

25:15

saying , I love my

25:18

call . A ride

25:23

[inaudible]

25:24

by Colorado by

25:30

call a ride or

25:42

[inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

25:54

[inaudible] [inaudible]

26:03

[inaudible] .

26:04

Bye . Call a ride home .

26:09

[inaudible]

26:09

my call. The route

26:15

[inaudible]

26:16

by Colorado.

26:20

[inaudible] [inaudible]

26:31

.