July 1977 Berry Picking

7-7-77 Gordon and Edith’s

Gordon said that now was the time to go out to pick juneberries. There were a lot of them next to the road going up to the canyon, but the kids have already picked out all of those. Mary said that there were some up on the hill behind the McMeel’s. Edith said that they would come and get us and we could go out and pick juneberries together. “Then I wash them good to get the leaves and stems off and then freeze them. We pick choke cherries at the end of August and the beginning of September. To prepare them for storage, we wash and dry them out in patties.”

7-11-77 Trading Post

I asked Frank how his mom was doing. He said she was fine. She wants to go out and pick juneberries. “Why don’t you guys come over to pick juneberries with us. Wait until they dry up though or you’ll come out of there soaking wet. We have juneberries on our land, and they’re ready to pick.”

7-19-77 rectory

Frank was at the rectory and was visiting with Susie. He told her that she better go out to pick the juneberries because they weren’t going to last longer than another week. People have been out picking them the last two or three weeks. They are all over Hays. Frank said that the berries were getting over ripe and were falling off. “And the rest, the birds are getting. So, if you want them, you better come out here. Next week is going to be too late.”

Susie was out picking berries near the star hill. They were near some buffalo berries. She was picking them to make juneberry soup from Edith’s recipe. Edith told her how to prepare them for use. She had to wash them and pull out the green ones and the twigs and leaves. Then you freeze them until you want them. Susie said that some of the bushes were so big that she had to pull them down to get to the berries. The choke cherries will be ready in late August and early September.

7-25-77 Clarence and Margaret’s

Margaret said she’s been out a few times in the past couple of weeks to go juneberry picking.

I went out with Matilda a few times and I’ve gone out here. We have a lot of berries down by the coulees near the water. There are a lot of berries here, two kinds of currents, thorn berries, gooseberries. You can go out now and pick choke cherries. They’re good now for making syrup. They’re red now, and when they get blacker, they’re not as good for syrup but better for soup. They’ll be good for soup when they turn from red to black. Matilda was telling me that all the women would go out berry picking and they’d go out all day to pick them. They’d take out a big bag of boiled potatoes and dry meat for their lunch.”

7-27-77 Hays

We went juneberry picking with Edith. We went up the hill above the Shambo’s. We went by their old house where Edith lived as a child. It was completely torn down and part of it had been burned. Edith said that it was a two-room place. “One room was divided in half. The boys slept in one half and the girls in the other.” Her parents slept in the second room. “They had a stove in there. It was a nice one. It was in good shape when they moved out.” Edith said that her father built it all himself with the help of the boys.

Edith looked down at where she lived as a child. She said, “Just think, not very long ago, it was only us and my cousins who lived here. There were no other homes except Ironman II lived near here – she pointed across the road. My cousin and I had a hood from an old car that we would drag up this hill and slide down. It was really fun. These kids today are too busy raising heck. They sure have gall. It didn’t take them long to ruin this house. We walked down the old path that they walked to the bathroom. They said they moved it a few times. The kids wrecked up that too.”

I asked Edith if her father worked. She said that he wrote stories and sold them. But he didn’t do too well. She never heard that any of them were ever published. “He never hunted or anything. She doesn’t even think they had a rifle around. It was his responsibility to feed all of them. He didn’t always do too well at that.” Edith doesn’t know how they ate.

I asked Edith if the Gros Ventre always had freckles. She laughed. She and some of her siblings have freckles and so do her children. She said that she was 7/8 Gros Ventre which is a lot, but they do have some white blood and that’s where the freckles come from. “We get our white blood from my mother’s mother. I’ve never seen a full blood with freckles, so we must get them from this white blood.”

Susie, Edith and I then drove to a large stand of berries between Jeb’s place and star hill.

Jeb and Lou's Place

Star Hill

Edith pointed out two kinds of currents, black and orange, juneberries, goose berries, thorn berries, choke cherries and itchy berries. Edith said that the currents could be good for jelly or pies. She said that you could make pies and soup out of the juneberries.

We found a large stand of juneberries, and we picked there for about an hour. Edith said that you could pick the dry berries and the ripe ones. A lot of people freeze the berries after they wash them, but some people just dry them out in the sun. “That’s the way it was done by everyone before we had freezers. When you add water to them, they come back fresh. You can tell the difference between currents and juneberries because currents are shiny and juneberries are dull.” Edith didn’t know what itchy berries were used for. Edith said that when the kids pick berries they sometimes break off the whole branch. They sure destroy a lot of bushes that way.

Susie, Edith and I were looking for juneberries, and we heard rustling in the bushes. Edith said that if it was a cow, she was leaving. I hate cows and I don’t care how dumb they are. I’m afraid of them. I think they’re real mean. When we got closer, we noticed that it was horses.

I asked Edith if anyone sells the berries in stores around here. She said, no, but then she said that the Hutterites sometimes pick the berries on the reservations and then sell the berries to the Indians. “They can sure get gally sometimes too. They pick them on someone’s land and they don’t even ask. There is a Hutterite community about fifteen miles north of Harlem and there’s another one near Havre. They also sell eggs and pigs to us on the reservation. They raise all these things themselves. The Hutterites don’t visit like we do here on the reservation. They hardly ever mix with people outside the community. You can see them sometimes in Harlem. They shop there sometimes. All the men dress alike and the women dress alike.”

7-28-77 Camie’s

Susie went to give Darian her piano lesson.

She and Camie went into her yard to pick choke cherries. She said you can make syrup, soup, pie, all kinds of things with them, but the kids just eat them right off the bush. “Most people don’t make syrup anymore though because they get them in rations.” We picked choke cherries, goose berries and currents. The juneberries were all dried up.

7-31-77 Indian Days Pow Wow

Susie and I were walking around the camp grounds in the morning. Matilda, Luke Shortman and Barbara Gardipee’s mother were sitting on chairs in front of a camper. We went up to visit with them. They were talking about berry picking. Barbara said that Tuffy (her son in law) used to have a grain grinder. “It was real good for grinding up choke cherries because it ground them real fine and the seeds were ground real fine. People brought him berries to grind and he used to do it for everyone in the valley.” Matilda said that she couldn’t grind her choke cherries anymore. “I had a stone slab (bowl) that I ground my cherries on and I used to do the grinding with a stone. But one of my daughters took it and I can’t grind anymore. I just can’t stand up on my own that long anymore.” Barbara’s mother said she had a good recipe for juneberry pie. “I make it with pineapple. I also make choke cherry syrup. It’s better when the cherries are just turning dark.”