Anthropology
I was speaking to an older woman about previous anthropological research on the Gros Ventre. She said,
You should be careful about the information you get from people about the community and the people here. People told Flannery and Cooper many things that were not true or were exaggerated. Times were hard then. I was about 14 years old when she came here. I was talking to John Capture about it, and he agrees with me that people did not always tell them the truth and also exaggerated many things. Flannery and Cooper were paying their informants and people were coming for the handouts. They would say anything just to get the money.
John Cooper did his research in the 1940s, mostly about the Gros Ventre religion. Regina Flannery did a wider ethnographic study on Gros Ventre culture about the same time as Cooper and after him. They were doing a salvage study, as the traditional culture no longer existed. They were interviewing elderly people who knew the culture firsthand before the buffalo became extinct in the 1870s.
Dr. Cooper had passed away before I did my research on Fort Belknap in the 1970s. Dr. Flannery was still an anthropology professor when we did our work, and we corresponded regularly while living in Hays. She was kind enough to send me both her book and Dr. Cooper’s, along with all the articles she published from her research. When she was doing her work, she lived in the convent with the Franciscan sisters.
Interestingly, Dr. Flannery was the dissertation advisor at Catholic University for my advisor at Ohio State when he was getting his degree. He had been a former Jesuit priest.
Dr. Flannery explains in her book that Dr. Cooper was paying his informants. They were taking the time to meet with him regularly to answer his questions about the traditional culture. I didn’t have informants perse. There were many people in the community that I talked to regularly, and I was making observations in the community. I was a participant observer. We didn’t pay anyone. What we did was to make contributions in the community through our activities in the school and in Hays. These contributions are discussed throughout my blogs. We were hypersensitive to wanting to make a positive difference in ways other than paying people.
Unlike the work that was done by Cooper and Flannery, we were interested in the contemporary way of life. We were always interested in capturing the traditional way of life to the extent possible and when people were able to share their information. Given the amount of time that had passed since all this dramatic change took place, and the passing of memories, much of what we learned about the traditional A’aniii culture covered more about the times when acculturation was taking place. For instance, in my extensive interviews with Vernie Perry, a highly respected Gros Ventre elder in the community, she was able to describe from her personal experiences all of the changes she went through starting from her early childhood. She would include some of the traditional folklore in our conversations, but for the most part, she observed much less of the traditional culture than Cooper and Flannery learned about from the elders at the time of their work.
Flannery and Cooper were entirely dependent on what they were being told by the elders. They were unable to observe this culture for themselves, because it had already changed so drastically with the extinction of the buffalo. The traditional way of life was no longer being practiced.
During the work that Susie and I were doing, people shared a great deal of information with us. Sometimes we asked specific questions, but people spoke about things that were interesting to them. Sometimes we were told things because it was clearly and manifestly understood that we were doing anthropology and collecting information about their culture. More often than not, we were spoken to in the same ways the people would have conversations with any other person in the community. When I was driving the bus, the kids weren’t treating me like an anthropologist; they were torturing me as they would any of the bus drivers.
While I heard the warnings loud and clear from the elder who noted that we might not always hear accurate information from people, we weren’t entirely dependent on listening to what was being shared with us. As our interest was the contemporary way of life, we were also observing. There is principle in cultural anthropology that if you want to learn the ideal, you ask. If you want to learn the real, you observe. For example, if I ask any American who drives a car what you do when you approach the red, octagonal sign with the letters s. t. o. p. you will be told that the driver will come to a complete stop and then look for any approaching traffic before proceeding through the intersection. If you observe this activity, you notice that most people do not come to a complete stop; they roll through the stop sign. And they proceed often without even looking both ways.
The great advantage we had over Flannery and Cooper was that we were not entirely dependent on what we were being told. We were also able to observe the contemporary way of life. We also were diligent about asking more than one person to describe or explain something to us if it was important. We didn’t rely on just one person’s memory or understanding about a subject.
Edith told me that she noticed that Mary Jones had started to say really all the time, and that she picked it up from me. That was a revelation. First, it reinforced for me just how much time I was spending with Beatrice and Mary in the school kitchen, and how intense our conversations were about everything. We became very close friends over those two years. Secondly, it dawned on me for the first time that Susie and I weren’t the only ones being changed by our presence in the community. That it took me until December to come to this realization speaks volumes for how much I didn’t understand at the time. There is another principle in anthropology that one should leave the community just as one found it when you arrived. It is our place to learn, not to cause change. The example Edith put in front of me, was pretty interesting and actually quite charming. The changes we might have caused in the community should have been more apparent. Both Susie and I were involved in so many different activities, starting with our role as teachers. Teachers change lives … that’s sort of our job. Susie and I were teaching children in the mission school and I was teaching adults in the college program. I was also teaching adults in the GED program. It would have been near impossible for us not to change people’s lives in some ways. I can only hope that the changes were positive.
It is a good thing that I’m not a linguist. I was having a conversation with Susie and she pointed out to me that just about everyone in the community sticks the ‘word’ init onto the end of a sentence. It is used as in an affirmative, as in, isn’t it or doesn’t it. Until Susie mentioned it, I hadn’t heard it. From that point onward, I heard it loud and clear from everyone.
On one occasion, we were talking to Gordon and Edith about words or phrases that were commonly used and were distinctive on the reservation.
Dandy
Just dandy
Init
Us guys
Wait now
You are really moose (and that’s a good thing)
Mission
I had a conversation with Sister Giswalda. She shard the following information about St. Paul’s Mission and the Gros Ventre.
The original mission was built by Father Eberschwieler. He went up to the gold mines and he asked the Irish workers if they would build it. They told him that they didn't have time, but Father told them that they could do it in the evenings after they finished working on the mines. They agreed to do it. After dinner, he would drive his team up to the Ruby mines to pick up the Irish miners, and they would work til dark, and then he would drive them home- back up to the mines.
The Boy was appointed chief; he did not inherit the position. The chiefs who became Catholic really made the people toe the line.
The other mission has been there for a long time (The Christian Missionary Alliance). The protestants had the reservation before the Catholics, but they never did anything. President Grant let the Catholics come in. The other mission has been many other religions. They have never had much of a following down here.
The old church burned down, and John McMeel and another man ran in and saved the statue of Jesus. It is the statue at the head of the church now. They put it down on the road in front of the church. It took 4 men to move it from there. It was the only thing saved from the old church.
There was a boy’s school and a girl’s school in the boarding school days. There were fences around the schools, and the only way they could see around to the other school was to look through the cracks or knots in the wood. The convent is only about 12 years old. The sisters used to live in the boy's school, which became the day school in 1936, and when the girl's school burned down. This boy's building and day school burned just before Christmas in 1973. The fathers lived in the church basement until the rectory was built.
I came here the first time in 1947. I have also worked among the Umatilla, the Cayuse and the Crow.
In the boarding school days, the parents would come by the mission, drop off their kids and leave the area. They wouldn't come back until the spring when school was over. The mission had a bakery and laundry (behind the old mission which is now a bus garage).
Tom Main didn't know English before he came to the mission. He went to the 6th grade but mostly he studied on his own. He really helped his people, and he was on the council. He always used to say, you can't push the Indian any faster than he wants to go.
Gordon said that he didn’t understand why the mission wasn’t self-sufficient anymore. They used to have a big garden and a lot of cows and two bands of sheep. They didn’t have any volunteers then either.
A friend of Mike’s sent 80 coats to the mission today. He has a business in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They put labels and insignias on coats, sweatshirts and t-shirts. And some people do not come in to claim their clothes. So he collected up 80 coats and sent them to Mike. It is up to him as to how the coats will be given to people and to which people they will be given. Sister Kathleen was standing there with us when we were looking at the coats and talking about them. She told him that he better at least charge twenty-five cents for them or else he will get himself into a lot of trouble with people in the community, i.e., how is he going to decide who he’s going to give the coats.
This is me in the back of Mike's truck, in his toolbox, looking for a tool I am certain I didn't know how to use.
Sister Giswalda said that Senator Mike Mansfield has supported the mission for years. He sends us books and supplies and he has also been sending us the Congressional record. He has always been thought of very highly at the mission. Sister Giswalda said that she and the other sisters voted for Ford in the election because of the abortion issue.
In a conversation with Irma, she expressed that:
There's so much jealousy in this community. I think a lot of it is from the new homes and from the jobs. People are jealous when someone gets one of the new homes and when someone gets a good job. People don't like it when others do better than them. Father Retzel doesn't understand why we (people in the community) don't get together. Well, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. People don't want to get together anymore like they used to around here. There are just too many bad feelings in this community like the jealousy. Father Retzel doesn’t understand what's going on here. He's always trying to get this or that started here, but people don't want to do it.
This community wasn't always like this. We used to get together a lot and we had all kinds of big social activities. There was a group called the Catholic (Christian) Mothers. I was the last chairman and Hazel and Gootch were also officers in the group. We used to have big bazaars. Once we cleared $700 at one of these bazaars. They were sure a lot of fun. We used to do all sorts of things up at the mission. We would sew and do all kinds of things. And then people just lost interest in it, and so we just gave it up (around 1968). We just don't have the Christian Mother's anymore.
We also used to have big plays here. They would be in the mission gym, and everyone used to go to those. They were sure a lot of fun to watch. Everyone enjoyed it. The mission high school would put on a lot of these plays. Once on Memorial Day, we had a big dance. Really our oldest boy put it on. There was a big dance, and we had flags. I can remember when it was because it’s when the stars changed (Alaska and Hawaii) and so we got a new flag for the dance.
Susie and I took Chester with us to Harlem and the Agency. We took him out to eat. He kept looking at the menu and joking about what he would order. We told him he could get anything he wanted. He kept saying ‘anything?’ While we were at the restaurant, he got up and played the Bay City Rollers and Bachman Turner Overdrive on the juke box. (Chester, I once saw Randy Bachman who started with The Guess Who. Great concert).
This is a photograph taken on Route 2, the High Line. We are approaching the little metropolis of Zurich which is between Harlem and Chinook.
Both Edith and Irma had expressed that they don’t like all of the changes that have taken place in the Church. They are upset that the Latin mass has been cut out of the church. They had learned the prayers.
I was speaking to a middle-aged woman who told me that she really enjoyed going up to the mission to visit with Father Simoneau. She said that she doesn’t go to Church anymore because it isn’t the same. It doesn’t give me the same kind of feeling. I don’t like the service now. I can’t stand all that love, love, love.
Susie and I were visiting with Mary and BJ. We went to their house to give them a Christmas present. I asked her if everyone here was buried in the mission cemetery after they died. Mary answered that not everyone was buried in the mission cemetery. She went to their kitchen window and pointed up to the hill up and behind their trailer (to the west). She said that BJs father was buried up there (Buck Jones). Up on top of the hill was a grave. It was surrounded by a square white fence.
BJ told us that everyone liked the Latin mass better. Father Retzel voted on it once in church and people overwhelmingly wanted Latin. Father Retzel did it once, but he hasn’t done it since.
The mission held a food basket raffle to raise money for the Catholic Indian Congress this summer. People donated canned foods, oranges, potatoes, candy, meat, and vegetables. The raffle will be held on January 2nd. The mission was selling one ticket for a dollar or three tickets for 2 dollars.
Marge Chandler was filling out a form for her son, Craig, at the mission school. The mission policy has been that no one has to pay for their children to participate in the school breakfast and lunch program. If their income falls below a certain amount, the federal government subsidizes their meal (pays a certain amount for each child). If the parents make more, then the mission pays for all of the child’s meals. She was figuring out her and her husband’s incomes.
These are horrible photographs of Sister Laura. She never wanted her photograph taken. This was her first year at St. Paul's Mission and she was teaching the 3/4 grades. She moved to Lodge Pole with Kathleen and both sisters stayed there. Kathleen eventually took a post in Great Falls, but Laura remained in Lodge Pole, serving that community. She was so loved by the people on Fort Belknap. She passed away some years ago. Her memory should be a blessing.
Socks (the mission dog), Father Simoneau and Susie were moving between buildings during the school day.
These are photographs of the mission with Mission Ridge of the Little Rockies in the background.
This was a favorite place for me to take photographs during our two years in Hays; at sunset, standing on the steps of the church looking west at the Bear Paws.
Values: Generosity
We went over to Gordon and Edith’s to introduce Susie's father to them. We met Susie’s family in Billings for Thanksgiving. Her father came with us to Hays to spend a week before returning to Ohio. When we got there, they were busy beading for the Midwinter Fair. When we left, they gave Susie's father a beaded bolo, and they gave him two beaded key chains, one for his wife and one for his other daughter. When Gordon gave it to him, they told him that they give it to him because the Indian wants to show their respect, and it is important that they accept it.
Frank said that there was an Indian custom that you have to take food when it is offered to you. You have to stuff yourself even though you might already be full if someone offers you food. If you refuse it, it is an insult, and it is as good as saying, your food is not good enough for me.
In a conversation with a middle-aged woman, she told us that she has a daughter who is married to a white man and they live in Michigan. She was at his parents’ home once and a college friend of her husband’s was at the house visiting. His parents had the table set and ready to serve dinner but they didn't go to the table. Penny didn't understand why they weren’t eating and was starting to feel very uncomfortable. The longer they waited, the more uncomfortable she became. The parents were waiting for this boy to leave before they served dinner. And it was only one person. Penny was really mad about this and let her husband know it. She let him have it for not feeding this friend from college. The Indian way is to feed anyone who comes into your home.
The Indian way is to feed people when they come into your home. Tonight, we were about to sit down to dinner and a couple and their child came in so we set them a place to eat. I didn't think there was going to be enough, so my kids and I sat back and my husband was going to eat with them. Then another couple with their kids came over. They had five kids, and I knew there would not be enough to eat. The first couple and their baby got up and said they had to leave. I felt so guilty about not feeding them. I still feel guilty about that.
Recreation and Entertainment
There is a square dance tonight at the Old Mission Gym for the day care coop. They are raising money for the day care coop and they also want to be able to purchase Christmas presents for the children. About 100 people attended. They were playing fiddle music and there was also ballroom dancing. They served served coffee, hot dogs, candy bars, and pop. Attendance was $1.50 per couple.
There were about 90 kids in the parking lot visiting, drinking beer and smoking marijuana. They were doing all of this out in the open. It was 7th and 8th graders and high school kids. One of the older boys who was drunk, came into the rectory to use the bathroom and he asked for a bible.
There was a basketball game from the public school in the new gym. Hays Lodge Pole played Rudyard and there were three games starting at 5:00. The grade school team are the Chiefs, and the High School are the Thunderbirds. The grade school colors are blue and white and the high school colors are yellow and purple. The announcer for the game was one of the teachers from the school. During the half time, people go up to the all-purpose room to smoke and have coffee. The Hays Lodge Pole school runs the concession.
The grade school and the high school have cheerleaders with uniforms. Most of the high school girls follow along with the cheers and some of the mothers. None of the boys pay attention to the cheers. There were about 400 people at the game. The seats were packed. At the beginning of the game the players run out through a banner and are introduced by the announcer. The people stand and applaud for both their own team and the other team. The flag ceremony and flag song took place before the varsity game. Everyone stands and two cheerleaders march out to the center of the floor carrying the American and Ft. Belknap flag (later the Montana flag was added to the ceremony). They march out to a snare drum. Gordon stands at his seat in the front row at the center of the floor to sing the flag song. Everyone remains standing and removes their hat. Some of the players and coaches on both teams covered their hearts.
Beatrice told me during one of the games that this song was not the Gros Ventre flag song but was another flag song. She said that she didn't know how to sing the Gros Ventre Flag song, but that she knew that the one Gordon was singing was not the Gros Ventre song. She didn't know what the flag song was that Gordon was singing. We asked Gordon and he said that he didn't know whose flag song it was either. I never doubted Beatrice. Her grandfather was one of the last medicine men and a leader in the tribe. She spoke the language fluently, as did her husband, Jim. So few people really knew much about the traditional culture, but what was known, Beatrice certainly knew it. I knew when she was being serious with me. And when she was joking, there was no confusion about it, because she had a wonderful sense of humor, and was always the first one to laugh at her jokes.
Gordon called Lodge Pole a peek and plum town. You peek around the corner and you’re plum out of town.
Gordon and Edith were visiting and it was late when they left. Gordon told us that a good thing to say to someone if you want them to leave at night is – well, Susie, we’d better go to sleep; Gordon and Edith might want to leave.
For all the sadness, tragedy, and chaos that was a daily part of almost everyone’s lives in the community, just about everybody had a wonderful sense of humor. People loved to laugh and joke with each other. We got to be so close to so many of the people in Hays, and we spent so much of our time laughing with all of them. We also spent a lot of time crying with all of them.
Gordon said that the game against Box Elder in basketball this Friday was a grudge game. The high school basketball team has only been in existence for three years, and they have lost both games against this team, which is the only other Indian team in the league. It is part Indian and part white. The first year the high school team played, the coach left the first string in the whole game and they beat us 120-20. People here were mad about that.
Boxing is one of the major sports in this area and the people on the reservation are very interested. Many of the kids on the reservation get involved in boxing at an early age. Jay Willie Mount trains the kids. They work out in the gym at the mission. Some of the kids are not even school age. Most of them are in high school or have graduated from high school. Jay Willie arranges boxing cards or smokers and sets up fights for the kids that he trains. They fight other boys that have about the same amount of experience. Buzzy fights heavy weight and lives in Great Falls. He has been living in Hays helping out his parents with their businesses. He has been training for the past few months and said that he will start to fight at the beginning of the new year. He was the heavy weight golden gloves champion of Montana last year. His brother, John, lives in Great Falls and has been fighting in Great Falls already this year. He was the AAU heavy weight champion of Montana last year. Jay is planning a boxing smoker for the midwinter fair in February.
We were visiting with Ray, Irma and Cyndee. We gave them a Christmas present. Susie made a crewel and I made the frame. We were sitting at the kitchen table and Irma said that they used to have a lot of pinnacle parties. They were sure a lot of fun. We’d have prizes for the high score and for a travelling pinnacle, and we’d have a booby prize for the low score. But we had to stop. There’s just too much drinking now. People get drunk and they’ll tear up the house.
We went over to Joyce's house for a visit. These are her horses, and that is Gordon and Edith's house in the background.
This is the view of the Bear Paws from Joyce's house.
John David Quincy from Ft. Belknap has a radio program that is broadcast from Havre. He provides news about the reservations. He talks about people who are in the hospital and he discusses political news. He is a graduate from the mission school.
Jay Willie Mount told me that Gerald Stiffarm was hired by the tribal council as community recreation director up at the Agency. He was hoping that money would get split three ways, between Lodge Pole, Hays, and the Agency. Most of the time money winds up at the Agency.
I have to go up there to fight for money. We should make the kids the priority for this money. The adults have had their chance. I want equipment but heard there is a committee of 35 people on the recreation board. It's going to be tough to get anyone to agree and get some money. If someone doesn’t like you, you can forget it. It’s like the tribal council. There are 12 people, and they can't agree with each other.
Gordon said that last night they had a poker game over at Matt Gone’s house. Gordon, Edith, Matt and his brother were playing. They played some money games and also played with ‘junk.’ Gordon won a few cases of 30-30 shells, a set of screw drivers, a turquoise ring, a pair of gloves and an iron. He said that he also won $25. He played until 5:30 in the morning. Edith quit at 2:30 and gave Gordon her chips and went home.
These are two horrible images from the old mission gym. I was on recreation duty, and I brought my camera. The kids loved to play basketball. The light in the old gym was horrible and it was nighttime, so there was also no light coming through the windows. This is what it looks like when people are moving quickly, you are shooting at a ridiculously slow shutter speed, and you are hand holding the camera. (And it is a film camera that doesn't have image stabilization).
The Arts and Crafts
Susie and I made a trip out to visit Clarence in his new home. He was talking about why he built his home. He had applied for four years for a home but they turned him down because they said he doesn't need a home. He can build one himself. Clarence said that his people don't understand why he moved way out there. He moved there because he likes to be alone, not away from people really, but in order to paint. He said that he can paint about twenty pictures in a month.
The day we drove out to visit Clarence was a spectacularly beautiful winter day. The clouds and the color of the sky were perfect - perfect for Kodachrome film.
He was still finishing work on his log home, but they were living out there and Clarence with painting in their new place.
His paintings were all over the main room of the house. Clarence was an exceptional talent!
The views they had from their log home were amazing.
They had wonderful views of the prairie, including Three Buttes.
And they had the most awesome view of the Bear Paw Mountains. I love these images. A better camera, a wide-angle lens and a decent photographer would have done these such better justice.
This photograph reminds me of one of my greatest regrets from our experience. This could be the only photograph I have of Clarence. How could that be? And it isn't a good image. If I had it to do over....
Worse ... Susie and I were so close to Frank. The only image I have of Frank is one where he is sitting in the background at a feed and give away. I honestly can't believe that I let that happen. It makes me sick to think about it.
Camie told me that Gordon and Edith do such nice bead work and they usually sell all of their stuff. There is always someone willing to buy the things that they make. They could really make some money at it if they kept up their beading.
Edith really prides herself in her work. She always says about her beading that she tries to be perfect. She could work on something for hours and if she decided that she doesn't like the thing and the way it is turning out, she will start all over. Her work is excellent quality. Gordon does a lot of work in beading, and he also makes breast plates, hand drums, spears, pipes, chockers, and necklaces. He tries to experiment with the things he makes also, adding pieces of bone and antler and coloring them with magic markers. He also made a war club and he ground the stone head himself.
Frank told us that he had a brother who was an artist. He died. Frank’s father, Frank Sr., was an artist. A collector told him that his sketches would have been worth a lot but they lost them. There weren’t many anyway. Clarence had a painting of their mother walking to her log house. They had a tipi next to it. They used to live in it during the summer. It was a good place to sleep in the summer.
Carletta came up to the trailer one evening. She was teaching Susie how to bead. She was such a good friend.
Carletta's beadwork was exquisite. These are some examples of her pieces.
Employment and Economics
Gordon told me that he was laid off from work on his job working for the Forest crew. But he said he wasn’t going to look for a job for a while because he wants to see how much he’ll get on unemployment. He also said that they would be getting general assistance (welfare) until the unemployment checks started to come in. I asked him who had job security on the reservation. He said that none of the laborers did. Only the big bosses have security in their jobs. The tribal council staff, the PHS staff and the maintenance staff also have security. Then I asked him how someone gets a job like this. He said that you have to keep working at it or you have to be related to someone who can get you the job, or you have to know somebody.
Buzzy told me that his father sells propane for heating and hot water tanks to about half of the people in Hays. All the boys (Buzzy’s brothers) help them with the service. They bought a truck that cost $14,000 and now they have it paid off. They get the propane from Malta. The truck holds about 30,000 gallons. They also have a liquor store here in Hays, located near to the turn off onto route 376. Both businesses are doing well. He said that there is an alcohol problem here. They do not keep the liquor in the store at night, but take it home with them when the store closes. They have just put a trailer up behind the store and now someone is going to live there. They won’t have to take the stuff home with them every night.
I am rereading Regina Flannery’s book about the traditional Gros Ventre culture. The first chapter covers a brief history of the tribe before they were forced onto the reservation. Flannery mentions problems with alcohol way back to their first contacts with whites at the trading posts. This was nothing unique to the Gros Ventre. Tribes across North America met with similar experiences. There is a very long and challenging history for the tribe and alcohol.
Gordon said that his mother gave him a Vega, because she is going back to Seattle. The weather here is too cold for her. The car first belonged to his brother who is 24 years old and lives in Great Falls. He is going to school there. He ruined the motor in the car and his mother had to pay $600.00 to get it replaced. She had been making the payments on the car, but after he ruined the motor she told him to take over the payments. He said that he was going to, but she received a notice that she was 9 months behind the payments, so she took the car away from her son and gave the car to Gordon. They owe the company $50 per month or $400.00. Gordon said that he will have to help his mother with these payments. He said that he will have to get snow tires for the car, and he will also have to board up the rear window because the window is broken. He got the car a few weeks ago, and so far, it has never left his driveway.
Cyndee got a job at the restaurant at the Agency. She will stay with Ona Bell (Irma’s sister) up there while she works.
Just a couple of weeks later Cyndee said that she got laid off (she sounded very disappointed). They didn’t have enough business so they couldn’t afford to keep her on. Cyndee said that she went up to the Agency and filled out some applications and applied for another bunch of jobs up there.
Camie told me that Wade quit school when he was 16-17 and tried to find work. Ralph Wayne also quit school, but he finished his high school education through GED. He went to Kicking Horse near Flathead Lake. This is a job corps program, and he was getting training in working heavy equipment. He didn’t like it and threatened to come home. So, Camie and Darian went to see him, and before they could sit down to talk to him, he had the car packed up with his stuff ready to come home.
Edith told us that her sister, Caroline, is the secretary for the BIA superintendent. Bobby works on one of the irrigation crews.
A man came up to the trailer to hock a beaded belt buckle. He needed $10 for gas to get to Harlem. He said he would come back with the money in 10 days. Gordon told me that after ten days, I shouldn’t give him back the belt buckle. Edith said that you have to be sure the item really belonged to them that they were hocking. You have to ask because if the kids hock something that belonged to their parents, they might come for it.
A different person came up to the trailer and gave me $10. I gave them back the belt buckle.
It took me a while, as I’ve noted previously, that this was not something I wanted to be involved in … for so many reasons. It also finally dawned on me that if I wasn’t going to following the rules of this hocking system, I was really screwing it up for everyone. Even though this entire hocking system involved informal rules, the rules were the rules, and they needed to be followed for the process to work. People needed money for all kinds of great reasons. The hocking system was a way for people to get a short-term loan in an emergency. It was just accepted that if you couldn’t meet your obligation, you might have to pay interest or you might lose the object that was exchanged for the emergency cash.
Susie and I wanted to be helpful, and it was so difficult not to want to help people who desperately needed it. The reasons for the need were all over the place. They were sometimes dubious, but for the most part, the needs were real and of great concern, i.e., needing gas to visit a relative in the hospital or to be able to get to town to shop. We always had some cash on hand, and it didn’t take long for people in the community to figure out that we wanted to help, and we could. The people we were closest to never involved us in this. Fact is, if they needed the money for something, we would have given it to them, and there were times when we did. But given the entire horrible history of Jews and money lending, our involvement in this hocking system became emotionally and psychologically toxic for me. In going back through my notes, it amazes me that it took me as long as it did for me to get the hell out of this whole proposition.
Gordon asked me if I wanted to fight fire this summer.
You go to the Agency and pay $8 for a physical, 12 steps for woman, 18 for men. Then you take a blood pressure and heart rate. If you pass, they give you a card that lets you fight fire. You take a two-day course, and get paid $29 a day. It's fast money, and a lot of people go. Over 100 people from Hays. Each crew has 20 men and a crew leader.
Matt Gone is a crew leader. Many men don’t like him in this job because he doesn’t make the women work. If they go, they are supposed to do the same work as men. This is run by the Forest Department and the BLM. It is all Indian. There’s something about the Indian that is not afraid of anything. I was in Washington. A fire was coming at us from two directions. We were in a camp caught in the middle. Blacks and Whites were running all over the place, throwing their tools everywhere, but we just laid down in the creek and the fire went around us. Once you step foot in the bus, you are insured for $10,000. It’s not much, but it would help. They used the school buses to take us out. The crews sometimes compete. A good crew can fight a lot of fires. They come in and put out the fire. They dig trenches and patrol the areas. Then move to another fire.
Ray was a great crew leader. I do not like to go out with younger boys, younger than 20. They go out and make some money fast and then want to come home. You can be out for weeks at a time and make a lot of money, all over the west from June to August. That’s when there are the most fires.
I didn’t go out much last summer. I had a steady job making $293.00 every two weeks. We were mostly down in Missouri breaks. We were mop up crews. They give you a sleeping bag, a backpack, and tools.
I was talking to Camie at the Urban-Rural Christmas Party. She told me that she lived in Oakland the summer of 1955. She came home and married Richard. They just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary.
Gordon told us that the man who worked in the Hays trading post finally retired this month. He is just relaxing now. He has worked there since at least 1936. Gordon said that he reminded him of a slave because every time the store went through another owner, he kind of went with the store. The people used to give him the last name of the store owner, i.e., Murphy, Zitzenberger.
This is the Hays Trading Post Gordon was talking about. The owner and his family lived upstairs, and the bottom floor was the store. Allen was also the EMT, and the ambulance was in the stone building that was attached. He had the only gas in Hays, and as noted on the sign, it was more often than not empty or out of order. The next gas station was in Harlem, thirty miles aways.
Relocation Program
Marge Chandler was describing the Relocation Program:
It began in 1954-1955. It was run by BIA to get jobs for people. They sent people to places where there were jobs: Chicago, Oakland, Denver, San Jose. The BIA got them jobs. The BIA would pay them one month for groceries and one month of rent, and then the first paycheck would come in and you would be on your own.
There was no insurance, no nothing, you’d be out of luck if you got sick and couldn’t work. A lot of people went to cities on this relocation project. We sold everything but our personal belongings and went to Oakland with five small children. When we got there, they put us in a small shack to stay in until they could find us a place. I took one look at the place and told them, I'm not going to stay in that place with all these lice, bed bugs, and I named everything else I could think of. So, we left and stayed in a hotel. They found us a really nice place all freshly painted. George got a job working for a Chevy factory in Oakland. The place that we lived in was in a housing project and there were four different apartments in the building. We had a horrible time with our neighbors. The man who lived upstairs worked at night and slept during the day, so we had to keep the kids quiet and with five small ones that was a tough job. Our 8-year-old daughter took care of the kids and it was really tough on her. Davey Hawley came to Oakland on this relocation program, but he was only there for a year, and then he came back. We were there for seven years. Then there were riots and I told George, I'm getting out of here. And so, we came back to the reservation
Education
Mary said that BJ, Granville, Tall Chief and Mabel Hawley went to Washington D.C. from the school board to see about getting money for a high school to be built in Whitecow Canyon. She said that she was pretty sure that they would have the money. The public school is federally supported.
BJ has been on the school board for seven years. He said that they received verbal confirmation that they will get the money to build a new high school. The construction will take about two years.
Granville went to Washington, D.C. for the Title IV meetings for the funding of the Urban-Rural Program. He is the team leader and takes care of the administrative, non-academic matters of the school. While at the meeting, he gave a talk in a general meeting to a lot of people. During his talk he said "I don't care if my kids go to school. It's their decision whether they go or not." He has told me that the traditional teaching was done by a relative, an uncle or aunt. It was not good for outsiders to do the teaching. The parents also did a lot of teaching in the home, and that is why he feels the Urban-Rural Program is so good. The parents are getting degrees in education and they can go into the schools and be the teachers that will be educating their own children and the community’s children.
One of the 7/8 grade girls was cutting a lot of classes over the past few weeks. She was leaving school whenever she felt like it. She was having a lot of fights with Sister Giswalda as a result. Finally, she just went down to the Hays Lodge Pole public school and enrolled herself down there. Her brother was in the same class (7/8) at the mission school, and he was staying there. Her parents didn't know anything about her changing schools. They must have consented because they found out and she is still going to the public school. Sister Giswalda said that she is not going to give the public school any of her records until they call to ask for them. This girl was one of my students. She was not taking school seriously.
Shortly thereafter, she asked to come back to the mission school and Sister Giswalda has denied her request. She has a rule that if the kids transfer out of the school they cannot come back until the next year. She said that the kids don’t learn anything when they transfer back and forth and it’s too hard on the teachers.
Jay Mount said that he went to the mission school for all but two years. He went his last two years to the school in Flandreau. He said that if he had it to do over again that he wouldn't go to the mission school. At the public school they have better techniques and a better attitude.
Buzzy said that he went to Flandreau for four years in South Dakota. He said that it’s about 20 miles from Minnesota and about 40 miles from Sioux Falls. About 800 students go there. They have a boy’s and a girl's dorm and there is a mess hall in between the dorms. There is a campus there. He said that he left home and never got homesick.
I was very lucky because I never missed home. A lot of people got home sick and cried a lot, but I was glad that I got away from here, because there's nothing in Hays. I'm back here now because I'm helping my father with the gas business and store.
Hazel and Chinky have a son who works at Flandreau. He's a wrestling coach and he also went to school there.
Joyce told me that her son is home from Flandreau for winter vacation. He is going to graduate from high school on May 18. He enlisted in the army and just passed his physical. He has to report for the army on June 2nd.
Irma told me that the Urban-Rural Program caused a lot of problems for Ray and their family when he was the team manager.
Not everyone could go to school over there. Some people weren't qualified and there were a limited number of positions for students. He could only take so many. So, it created a lot of bitterness against the family. For those people who didn't get into school while Ray was team manager, they were bitter towards him and our family.
Granville told me that Harlem is a good school system. They have always abused Johnston-Omally Funds (Indian Education Act). It’s a good school, but they do use the money for their white students which they are not supposed to do.
Government, Politics, Law and Order, Mayhem
Marge Chandler told me that she got mad at the treaty committee meeting about what the off-reservation people were saying about wanting the per capita payment and especially since it only comes to about $45.00 per person.
It may not matter anyway, because the government may not let them have the money. The tribe made an agreement with the government during the first per capita payment that the rest of this money would be used for other purposes. It also makes me mad that it took so many years to get the money. There were a lot of old people who waited a long time for that money and really wanted and needed the money. They died before they could get it. I can never understand how the off-reservation or “suburban Indians” feel about the per capita payment. They want the money even though it really amounts to nothing, because they feel so left out of things on the reservation. Living off the reservation, they do not get any benefits of living here on the reservation. If they wanted to move back to the reservation, there would not be any jobs for them here. There wouldn’t be any housing. So, they want some of the benefits that we get on the reservation, and one of the only one's possible is the per capita payment. If we build something on the reservation, it doesn’t do them any good. Many of these people came back to the reservation.
Jay Willie Mount rode by the trailer on a horse and stopped to say hello. He was out looking for a quarter horse that he had for a year and gave to his son. He said that he had been all over the place, even up in the mountains looking for it but couldn't find it. He said that he was having trouble with a man from the community. In the middle of the night, they break down his fences and let their horses in to graze on his land. It is a nuisance, but he doesn't like to turn people in so he doesn't do anything about it.
He said that he could claim that these horses were predators and have them fined $50.00 for each horse. They graze on his land, and he knows that they have more than ten horses. There is a rule that they are talking about which would have horses confiscated that were grazing on someone else's land. The horses would be taken up to the Agency, and they would have to pay a fine on each of the animals. But before they could take the animals back, they would have to prove that they have land to graze the animals on. If not, the animals would be auctioned off. Right now, the rule is only being talked about, it isn’t on the books. He said that he thinks someone stole his horse, but even if I found out who did it, there is nothing that could be done about it. The horse was never branded. If someone else put their brand on him, there would be nothing he could do. I could have the guy who sold me the horse come and identify it, but I don't think that I would.
Frank told me that some people were going around now rounding up all the stray horses. The range area is not supposed to be used between November and May. But as soon as the cattlemen take their cattle out, people take their horses out into the land, and they say their horses just got out. People have to pay $25 a head to get them out. They are being impounded.
Frank said that the tribal council was trying to get a rule passed that there would not be any hunting on the reservation except during a prescribed season. The reason was that there were so many cattle being wounded and killed by people who were careless while they were out hunting. They couldn't get the rule on the books and it did not pass because it was so unpopular with the people. Indians can hunt on the reservation any time that they want. He said that I could go out and hunt any time that I wanted so long as I had an Indian with me. He said that he would look into getting me a permit so that I could go out alone. He said that I should talk to the reservation warden, who is Jack Plumage’s father.
Frank said that he quit at the last tribal council meeting that was held in Hays. He said that he turned in a verbal resignation, but that the rest of the council would not accept it. They said that he was doing such a good job that they wanted him to stay on. They told him to think about it and if he decided to quit, to turn in a written resignation. The reason that he wanted to quit was that he was having to be away from his mother too much. He is taking care of her. So, he thought about it and talked to his sisters, and they decided to get someone to take care of her while he was out on council business. They are each going to chip in some money to hire a woman.
Frank said that he has agricultural land that is leased out. These leases are processed in the area office of the BIA in Billings, and they send the checks out for this lease money from Billings.
Many people on the reservation lease out their land to cattlemen to let their cows graze. The usual charge is $7.00 per head per month. The minimum is $4.50 per head per month, but that is pretty bad grazing land and is probably overgrazed. People are letting cattlemen from off the reservation bring their cattle onto their land and some of these people are getting $9.00 per head per month to let these cattle graze on their land. And the off-reservation cattlemen are making money on this. They don't have their land overgrazed, and they can feed their cattle in the winter on their own land, while they are making a desert out of the reservation. Also, they have a land bank, and if they don't graze on their land, they get paid for the acreage that is not being grazed. The reservation brand inspectors count the cows at the beginning of the grazing which runs for six months, from about May 16th to November 16th. People bring their cattle onto the reservation after the count, and you can see the trucks. The land is being badly overgrazed. These people on the reservation need the money, but we have to protect the cattlemen too. So, the tribe is going to hire more brand inspectors and they're going to make a check every month. That should cut out these outside cattlemen. It is going to take two years for the grass to grow back.
Frank said that his sister is a nurse. She’s worked for 30 years and will be able to retire soon. She was in the army for a while, but she came back to the reservation because she said that she went into this to help her people. Frank told me that this is what he’s trying to do.
Marge Chandler works for the Housing Authority on the reservation.
They started building new homes on the reservation in 1968. Since 1968 they have built 310 new homes. They put up 10 homes in Lodge Pole and 10 in Hays. All these people were supposed to help each other build their homes, but the people in Lodge Pole never came to help the people in Hays, so the Hays people stopped going over there. The people in Hays couldn't move into their homes until all the homes were completed.
They worked on each other’s homes. The 10 original homes in Hays belonged to: Gordon, Virgil McConnel, Granville, Quentin, Ray, and JJ Mount. After these 10 original homes in Hays (and 10 in Lodge Pole), they built 310 homes on the whole reservation After these last of the 310 homes are completed, no more new homes can be built on the southern part of the reservation because REA (Big Flat Electric) says that we have to promise 250 more new homes on the southern part of the reservation, Hays, Lodge Pole, Beaver Creek, before they will run electricity lines to the southern part of the reservation. We cannot guarantee these 250 more homes down on the southern part. The Housing Authority on the reservation is part of the HUD branch (Housing and Urban Development) from Denver. The tribal council has been trying to take over the housing authority, but the director has been fighting it, and so far she has been able to keep the control away from them. It is controlled and directed by HUD out of Denver. The Housing Authority Office is in an old house at the Agency adjacent to the BIA building, but we are going to move into a new building as soon as they finish it. It will still be up at the Agency, and it is a beautiful new building.
A group of women were at Susie’s arts and crafts night. They were gossiping a lot about people. One of the women said, “Geez, Susie’s going to think we always talk about her like this too, but we don't.” They got a good laugh out of it.
Five of the women recently were awarded homes in Whitecow canyon. It must have been decided recently by a board at HUD (Housing and Urban Development). They said that to get a home you have to be an enrolled member, and you have to know someone. People don't get to choose their own home; they are assigned. There is a $70 deposit and a month’s rent has to be paid before they can move in. They were worried about getting furniture. One of the women was going to be paying $9 per month rent. Another woman was going to be paying $11. Rent is based on income. They also designated one of the homes for the Headstart Program. They are all electric homes. They also have a woodburning stove. The homes come with a stove and refrigerator. One of the women said that the only furniture they had was a bed and a tv.
Many of the people that received housing in Whitecow Canyon have moved into their new homes in the past couple of weeks. They have come up to the mission and have asked Fathers Retzel and Simoneau if they would come out to bless their new homes. The fathers have already been out to a few of the homes to bless them for these people.
Marge Chandler told me that three years ago, the government passed a law that Indians would not have to pay a state tax.
We do pay a federal income tax. I stopped paying the state tax, but I just found out that I owe them the past state tax for three years. It will come to over $200.00. I am enrolled on the Ft. Peck Reservation, and so since I work and live on Ft. Belknap, I cannot be exempted from the state tax. George is enrolled on this reservation and so he is exempted from paying the state income tax. I have to pay it, even though we are married, and even though I am enrolled at Ft. Peck. I have lived on the Ft. Belknap Reservation for 31 years.
Frank said that the vandalism and crime around here really isn’t the fault of the tribal council, but somebody has to get blamed for it. So, the council gets the blame. He said that most of the decisions about the police are made by the federal government and from the BIA Area Office in Billings. All the tribal council can do is the hiring and firing and tell these guys to go out and do a good job. There is a problem already with police brutality. We tell these guys to be careful. One policeman hit a guy who was going to shoot him. This guy sued him, and the case is now pending in court. A place is being built for the police now near Hays. It is located just north of the Lodge Pole turn off on rt. 376. The police will now be in Hays for 24-hour duty. We are telling these guys that they either cover this whole area like a policeman walking a beat or they can go out and look for another job.
Marge Chandler said that the police have decided that they really don’t want to make that their headquarters and stay there, because they are afraid that families will get shot up or something. It’s too bad. They will have to stay there, because they asked that the headquarters be built at that location.
Gordon told me that marijuana has been here for about three years. So has rock and roll music. His brother smokes it. Gordon said that he was afraid to try it.
Frank said that there have been drugs on the reservation for about three years.
I wish they could find the animal who brings it in here and lock him up for life. Kids do things and they don’t even know they’re doing it. They only use marijuana, but they’ll graduate to other things eventually.
I was talking to a middle-aged woman who told me that the kids are careless with guns.
Once I was sitting in the bathroom on the toilet. There was a gun sitting there. One of my boys had gone hunting. I never use guns, but I picked it up. I aimed and it was loaded. I shot a hole in the bathroom floor.
These are two images in our front yard. The first is looking at the mouth of Mission Canyon. The second image is a moonrise over Mission Ridge. Handheld ... not bad.
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