January 1977: Life

Kathleen and Laura moved to Lodge Pole in January. Soon after, Susie and I moved into the green trailer at the mission. It sure made life more convenient. When I was at school, Susie was able to do arts and crafts or visit with people at the rectory. We also had gas stolen while living in the trailer by the canyon and had to walk to the mission so I could teach. We gained in convenience, and we sure lost a lot in the beauty of living next to the canyon. The mission was also beautiful, but the canyon area at the very base of the mountains was spectacular. We also gave up a lot of privacy. The mission was busy night and day. Lots of people came over to visit us. If my anthropological research had been based exclusively on interviews, I could have conducted the rest of my fieldwork by merely answering the knock on our door.

We got everything moved out of the canyon trailer and then Mike, Bill, Brian and I boarded up the place. After all of the boards were nailed up to cover the windows and doors, I realized that I hadn’t taken down the mezuzah from the front door. I would have to go down there to get it after Hazel arrived in the summer. The green trailer was far more sturdy with a great deal more insulation. Our water pipes wouldn’t likely freeze again.

We started out by tying up Gahanab in front of the trailer. He hated it and pulled on the chain and wouldn’t stop. We finally gave up and let him run. He spent all day long playing with Socks, the mission dog, and every other neighborhood dog that regularly came to the mission. Gahanab was going to have to learn to avoid the traffic around the mission buildings. Between the church, the rectory and the school, there was traffic going through the mission day and night. Gahanab loved running around the mission area. It was over 200 acres. He spent all day long inhaling the smells and playing with the other dogs. It was absolutely the very worst experience we could give him considering that after our two years there, he was going to be living in the suburbs.

Lunch at St. Paul's Mission Grade School

A rare photograph of Brian

Beatrice - The Birthday Girl!

Traditions

January 4th 

I was sitting in the mission kitchen talking to Beatrice and I asked her if she remembered much about the old medicine men of the Gros Ventre. She said that the medicine men were so respected by everyone. There were certain ways that you had to act around them. You didn’t talk to them. You couldn’t walk in front of them. If a medicine man was sitting in that chair (she pointed to a chair at the table in the kitchen) you would have to walk around the whole building to get around, but you couldn’t walk in front of him.

Beatrice didn’t want to say much about the pipes. “I don’t know much about it.”

Beatrice:

Lamebull had five wives, the youngest was my mother and Andrew Lamebull’s wife. I didn’t know the other women, and I don’t know what I would have called them. The Boy was my father’s brother, my uncle. And Singer was related to me. She may have been my father’s niece or sister? I was kind of scared of her.

The culture has changed so much in 100 years, but we were forced to change our culture. If a dance was held, soldiers would come and would chase the people away. In the mission school, kids were not allowed to speak Gros Ventre. Now they want the kids to bring all this back. They can’t. It’s not there anymore. Even Jim and I don’t say everything right. He corrects me and I correct him and when John talks, he makes mistakes too.

My grandfather (step-grandfather) used to tell me a lot of stories when I was young and we used to talk in Gros Ventre. But he never said anything about a pipe child. That is why I talk Gros Ventre so well. He used to talk to me a lot.

Jim’s father was the last Gros Ventre medicine man. He’s the last one to do anything. There were others who said that they were the last real keeper of the pipe. The Boy and Thick had the pipe, and The Boy opened it, but he did not have the right. A person became a medicine man by fasting – that’s what I always thought.

Mary went to a spirit lodge with Ben that Kenneth Gopher held. She doesn’t believe much of it. The rattles were the most real thing about it. “One fell near my legs between Ben and I. John (Stiffarm) said because we didn’t believe.” Mary didn’t want to say too much about it, but seemed really skeptical. “One man in the high voice speaking in his language (Cree).” She wouldn’t say what she thought the spirits voice was.

Frank said that his mother, Matilda, knew all about the medicines and cures for illness. “When us kids were ever sick, we never went to a doctor – mom always cured us. She knew all the cures and the medicines, and she always took care of us kids, even when we were very sick.”

January 12th 

Beatrice told me that Jim’s father (Stiffarm) used to heal people with a weasel skin (he was a medicine man). "He had other kinds of skins too. A woman at the Agency has the weasel skin now. I don’t know how she got it. She takes it out sometimes, and her kids play with it like it was a toy. It’s just awful, and it sure makes me mad."

January 15th 

Frank, Clarence and Margaret came up to the mission to make a phone call and to visit. They were talking about the tipi rings that are found in this area. They said that these rings were very old, because the tipis were held down with wood pegs in the recent past. The rock rings are very old, before the tipis that were held down with wood pegs. There are rings are found all over this area. There are a lot around Lake 17.

January 20th 

After the Gros Ventre treaty committee meeting, I talked to Davey Hawley. He said that The Boy was the last pipe keeper for one of the pipes and Curly Head was the last pipe keeper for the other pipe. Since then, no one has had the right to handle the pipes, and no one knows the right way to handle the pipes.

Father Retzel said that he once saw Joe Ironman walk into the shack behind Happy Doney’s house and take something out of it (the feathered pipe is in this shack). "I was really surprised when I saw him in there. Every home that is vacated here gets vandalized, but no one ever goes near this shack. The people here really respect that place."

January 22nd 

We drove up to Harlem with Evie Werk. As we passed Wild Horse Butte she said, “my grandmother and grandfather (Matilda and Frank Cuts the Rope) told wild stories about the place. There used to be a lot of wild horses up there. There were mustangs and they used to catch them up there. When the horses disappeared into that rock, they couldn’t catch them."

There used to be a lot done with the pipes. Now no one does much with them. The Boy was not really a pipe keeper. He did not have the right, but he was a medicine man. My grandmother (Matilda) still prays with the pipes. If someone is sick and she prays for them, she will put an offering of brightly colored cloth on the pipe bundle (at Jeanette Warrior’s) and then pray for the sick person. There is a lot of respect for the pipes. Some boys broke into the shack where one of the pipes was and they were killed in a car accident afterward. If anyone mishandles or doesn’t show respect for the pipes, something terrible will happen.

January 24th 

During the treaty committee meeting, someone made a joke about one of the pipes.

Beatrice:

They shouldn’t joke about those pipes. They are powerful, and they shouldn’t be joked about. No one has the right to the pipes. When The Boy died, Rufus Warrior (Jeanette Warrior’s husband) took the pipe. She wouldn’t give it up to anyone now. They were going to give the pipe to my father (Andrew Lamebull) but he didn’t take it. Also, my brother said that he didn’t want to take it. Ironman II took the other pipe, and Pauline was going to take it (She’s dead now) or Joe Ironman, but they didn’t. My grandfather (Lamebull) told me never to talk about the pipes because I didn’t know anything about it, so I don’t (emphatic).

She didn’t know who Curly Head was related to.

Lilly Fox dries meat – deer meat. She cuts very thin slices and dries them out in the sun for a few days. Lilly brought some up to the mission. It was plain. Some is mixed with berries (pemmican).

Gordon:

I've heard conflicting stories about the Gros Ventre. Some say that the Gros Ventre were very peaceful people, that were friendly and minded their own business, and did not fight. Others say that the Gros Ventre were great warriors. I knew that the Crows don’t like us because a woman once defeated them, and the Sioux don’t like us because Red Whip defeated them. They don’t like to talk about it because they are proud and they don’t like to talk about a woman or one man defeating them. Red Whip was my great great grandfather and Bull Lodge was my great grandfather. They changed the name to Lodge. We also fought with the Bloods. The Crow and Sioux don’t allow many people to marry in with them. The only Gros Ventre on the Crow is Fred. The Assiniboine are a lot like that too. Thay don’t marry in with the Crows. The Gros Ventre really opened things up. You can see what happened here in Hays. It's over 60% Doney's

Gordon:

There's a stick game over in Lodge Pole on January 29, and we've been asked to sing there. They had a hand game there right after New Years. There's a singing party along with it, and it may be a collection singing party. Everybody watches and if you do anything wrong, they charge you and you have to pay. Like if they say no smoking, and someone would pay $1.50 everyone could smoke. Or you can’t eat unless they tell you, you can eat. Also, someone will pay an amount to dance for bells and will give them to you and you have to dance as long as they play a song. Then you buy the bells so someone else has to do a dance. And it goes all around like that.

What's the difference between a hand game and a stick game? Gordon:

The Stick Game is a gambling game. The teams play, now the men and women are mixed. You won’t see just men on one side and the women on the other side. You bet on one of the teams, say $1 and someone will bet on the other side. If your side wins, you take all the money. It can get into a lot of money at those stick games, and it can go on for many hours. They sit in rows and have a log between them, and they beat on the log with sticks and sing. The song goes as long as the game is played.

The hand game is more ceremonial. There is a lot of prayers in the hand game.

Why doesn’t Hays have a hand game or stick game? Gordon:

You have to have the sticks to play and those sticks are passed down from generation to generation. Ironman II had sticks, and he passed them down to Joe Ironman. He moved to Rocky Boy, and he took the sticks with him. You don’t leave them if you move, you take them with you.

I had sticks at one time that my grandfather gave to me. Fred (Edith’s father) kept on me though because I hardly ever need them, and he said that you have to use them. They can’t stay idle or give them away. I was young then, and didn't know anything, so I gave them away. They're probably in a museum now somewhere.

Ray had sticks for the stick game. He got them from Dick Phort. Ray asked this old man up at the Agency where his grandfather’s sticks were and the man told Ray that when Gros Ventre Johnny died, be put the sticks in his coffin. Then when Ray saw Dick Phort once, he told Ray that he had something that used to belong to his grandfather and told him that it was the sticks. He told Ray that the old man sold them to him. Ray can’t use the sticks until he gets instructions on how to use them. He can’t tell this old man how he got the sticks, since he lied to Ray. So, Ray will have to find some way to get the instruction from him if he’s going to use these sticks.

The purpose of the collection at the singing party is like how it used to be with the chiefs. The chiefs told the people everything about what to do and where to go. You didn’t do anything unless the chief told you to.

Gordon said that when we go to pow wows, we should bring bags and utensils. It used to be that you had to eat everything there. Now you can take some of it home. “Arapahos and Blackfeet really treat us good at their pow wows … like Indians."

Gordon:

Every year on the Crow reservation, they reenact the Custer battle or Battle of the Little Big Horn. They get all these young Crows to play the Indians. We saw it eight years ago. They have a grandstand and people come from all over to see it. All the actors ride by the stands and bow. They have a whole big area with tipis and kids playing and meat drying and women tanning hides, like it used to be. And they have the battle and at the end, the horse, Comanche, the only calvary horse to live, walked up to the grandstands and bows to the crowd. The funny thing is that they have all these Crows playing the Indians and the only Crows in the battle were scouts for the US Calvary. It’s really something to see. We’ll have to try to get to see it this year.

January 28th 

JJ Mount said that there is no medicine man left because it’s more than knowledge. "There was power behind it, but now the instructions haven’t been passed down and it’s lost and can never be picked up again."

Beatrice and Jim will start to talk about the way things used to be, and they get really sad. They sometimes sing together. Jim doesn’t understand a lot of what is going on today; the kids having so little morality. Sometimes when Jim is talking about the past, he starts to cry. And the more you knew Jim – his quiet, honorable stoicism … the sadder this is.

January 30th 

Edith:

My parents and all the kids used to live next to the hill behind Lou Shambo’s. There was a big log house there, and we had 10 acres of land. My father used to write a lot of stories and there are tapes of him singing.

Employment and Economics

January 4th

Mike ordered some walnut for Frank when he was home in Indiana for Christmas. When it was shipped to the mission, Mike cut it into odd shapes and gave it to Frank to do some paintings on. Frank had known about it for a long time, and he was very excited about trying this technique. He came to the mission at least a couple times a week for a month to find out if the wood had arrived yet. Frank did some scenes of animals on the wood and used pastels. After he finished the work, Mike covered the paintings with Build-50 to give it a smooth and shiny finish. Frank showed the work to his brother, Clarence, and he told him that he thought it was really great and that he could get at least $500 for these paintings.

January 13th 

I was speaking with one of my Urban Rural students. She told me that she has two children under the age of 5, so she gets twice the amount of WIC:. 4 dozen eggs, 6 gallons of milk, 2 quarts of chocolate milk, 4 boxes of cereal, and 6 cans of orange juice. She’s had five years of school. One year to be a LPN. She was going to school in Havre, but it was too far to drive, so she quit. She will graduate from Urban Rural in April. 

This was my recreation night at the gym and Fiddles and Bruce Doney came in to visit. Bruce shared some important perspectives about the economics, politics and community on the reservation. Bruce was an amazing entrepreneur and a really good guy. He and Ida raised a wonderful family.

I heard that the tribal council was going to try to stop the hunting on the reservation all year round. They're going to try to start a hunting season just like off the reservation. They say that they want to do it because the deer population has gone down so much here from what it was in the past. But what the council wants to do won't work here in Hays. The people are too used to the hunting the way it is now. And there are too many people who depend on this meat for food. For a lot of families here, hunting is the only source of meat that they have. If they stop the hunting here people will start to kill cattle for meat- and it may not be their own cattle.

When we tried to get the liquor store opened, we had to go around the community and get petitions signed from the people in the community whether they wanted a liquor store here in Hays. We had to do this. Most of the people here signed the petitions, but a few didn't. A lot of people thought that it was a good idea because they thought that it might stop or at least cut down on the accidents from the DY bar. And it has. Since we've opened the store, there's only been one accident. There was a girl in a VW, and it got smashed up. It was late at night, and she came walking down to Hays. She was a white girl alone on the reservation. I would have been real afraid if I were her. Being alone here and not knowing anyone so late at night. She came down to our place and told us what happened. We took her in and she slept at our house for the night, and then we helped her the next day. We just heard from her a little while ago. She sent us a card to thank us. We thought that was real nice of her.

When I started working at the school (he worked there for 19 years) I started at $65 a month. It wasn't much money, but it wasn't too bad in those days. It wasn't so expensive to live then. But we also had more help from the government in those days too, which made it easier to live on this kind of money. They used to give us a lot more food. There was a place in Hays where they used to dispense food. Also, when there were a lot of elk, they used to give elk meat to the Indians. What they would do is the BLM used to kill the elk to thin out the herd and then they would give the elk to the Indians to butcher, and they would let them take the meat. They also used to give buffalo meat to the Indians every once in a while. It was real good (the buffalo meat).

The tribal council doesn't want to spend any money in Hays. We used to have a recreation hall in Hays for the kids, but it’s the senior citizens center now. They can't get people to keep the jobs, and they (tribal council) wonder why. They don't pay people enough money. People around here have families, and they need money, so they quit these jobs, and they look for other work. At Rocky Boy, they give the recreation director a home. They need extra incentives to get people to keep these jobs and especially when the pay is so low.

I put in a swimming hole at our house. It was worth the effort for me. I wanted the kids to have a good time at home. I tried to keep our kids at home. I figured that it would keep them out of trouble and it worked pretty good.

I asked Bruce how business was doing at their liquor store.

It’s doing ok. I think that it helps things around here some. There's a problem with alcohol here, and I think that the store in Hays has helped to keep people off the roads when they've been drinking. It is no good for people to drive when they're drinking. A lot of people have been hurt or killed coming back from the DY. We got a federal stamp to sell beer, wine and liquor at our store. The state license costs $225, and it’s just not worth it for us. We Just get our beer and liquor from another distributor, and we sell it for just about the same amount as everyone else around here. We got tribal and federal approval to open the store and to sell beer, wine and liquor. We didn’t need the approval of the state, just the tribe and federal stamp. I check all the kids ages before I sell anything to them. I know some of these kids better than their own parents do. Some of these kids come into the store to buy beer and they're not drunk. They're on drugs. Once one of these kids came into the store and wanted to buy some beer. I wouldn’t sell it to him until I checked out his age. So the next day I went into the school and I checked out his age. He wasn’t old enough, so I couldn’t sell him anything.

There could be gambling on reservation. We could get a federal stamp for it. I'd like to start small card games, some poker games. Not big ones. Just down at the house. Browning tried to have gambling on their reservation. They had slot machines, but the federal Agents broke it up and took all the stuff away. They didn’t have the federal stamp. If they had one, they could have had gambling on the reservation.

January 19

Irma said that Jimmy Main got a job as a community health representative. "He works with the men and with the senior citizens. He quit school at Urban Rural when he got the job. Diane Longknife quit school there too because she got a job at the Agency working at the tribal office. He's a good worker and I get along with him good."

January 20th 

There are quite a few men who are unemployed this winter and receiving unemployment checks. There are seniors who are receiving social security. Some of the men are cattlemen, i.e., John McMeel, Jay Willie, JJ Mount, and Frank. Women tend to have the more secure jobs and all of the students in the Urban Rural program are being paid. The people who work for the public school and mission can work through the winter months. Also, people who have tribal jobs are working. Most of the unemployment impacts men who have seasonal employment, i.e., the forest and road crews and construction. There are also students going to college off of the reservation who are receiving stipends in addition to their tuition, and room and board.

January 22nd 

Raymond got a job as assistant manager at Buttrey’s in Harlem. That was great that he was going to be living closer to family.

Cyndee got into a vocational school in Missoula for the summer. It is to learn secretarial work, like to become a legal secretary. She was happy about it.

January 24th 

One of the Urban Rural students told me that she didn’t really want to be a teacher. She was just going to school for the money, like everyone else.

I recently found out that the Urban Rural program did not receive funding for next year. The program has been incorporated into the general public-school funding, and the rumors are starting to fly about whether it can survive. As noted, there are a considerable number of people who depend on this funding to supplement their household incomes. In some cases, their stipend represents their entire household income.

January 25th 

I was talking to Jeb Stiffarm today and he said that the forest department here had eight jobs. They were going to hire some new people. It’s a training program and they’re going to hire people who haven’t worked on the forest crews before. Later Lyle came up to visit. He said that he got one of the forest crew jobs. He was really happy about it. It’ll be for six weeks, and he’ll be making $3.85 an hour. They’re taking the CAT up to the mines, clearing out that road, and burning the scrub. They had to wait for the ground to be wet so that a fire didn’t spread. Ruth wants to find a job and work up in Harlem, but Lyle told her that he didn’t want her to work up there. "She’d be spending all her money on gas. So, she’s not going to work."

January 28th 

Don Addy, the reservation extension agent, and two vets offered a beef course at the old mission gym from 8-5. They covered disease, vaccinations, calving, and feeding. About 25 of the cattlemen on reservation attended. Beatrice and Mary provided them lunch.

January 30th 

I asked Ray about firefighting. I was telling him about Gordon encouraging me to join a firefighting crew this summer to make some extra money. Ray had a reputation as one of the best fire crew leaders):

It's as dangerous as you make it. There are a few things to remember: Never work under a burning snag. If it’s dry it may come down on you. A good crew chief would never do it anyway. A green snag won’t usually come down. Also, never go alone anywhere. If someone tells you to go somewhere, never go alone. Either you go with someone, or you go with the whole crew. And you never let the crew chief take you anywhere without communications. Once we were fighting in the big Rockies and there was a Cheyenne crew up a hill from us. The fire started topping. You can hear it, because it is a loud swooshing sound (made sound). We kept screaming up to them but they didn't hear us, because they were working with chain saws. If I had communications, we could have saved them. I'll never forget the screaming. Five of them were killed.

Once we were out for 36 hours without food or water, and a helicopter finally brought it. We were allowed to go home. The younger guys wanted to go home, and that’s because they had money in their pockets. The older men with families wanted to stay out. We came to fight fires and that’s what we're going to do. That's the way it is. These young guys want to make some money and then they want to leave. If the crew stays and you want to leave, you have to find your own transportation home. A lot of guys make it seem more dangerous than it really is, because most people around here don't get away much, and they really don’t do much in their lives. So, they really exaggerate about this firefighting. A good crew chief will really watch the time they are out. I'll get my squad chiefs to keep the time with me. Once we were out and the department head gave us 16 hours less than we were supposed to have. I called my squad chiefs and we straightened him out. Also, a good chief will make sure his men get good hot meals. They deserve it.

Ray told me which crew chiefs not to go out with. Ray always had my back. His memory should be a blessing.

January 30th 

Gordon’s not working. We’re getting by on the money we get. Before he started getting unemployment checks, he was getting General Assistance since he lost his job. The unemployment checks are $73 a week, and he will get these checks through March. They started in November. The $73 is not enough to live on. We still get GA with the unemployment checks. We also get food stamps. Because of Dion we get WIC too. “Just about everyone is unemployed in the wintertime.”

Political Organization and Law and Order

January 4th 

Frank said that there was once a tribal councilman here who really pulled a dirty trick.

He's no longer on the council. He got $10,000 under the table on a lease deal. There were acres of land just north of Three Buttes that was going up for a lease. He made a deal with a farmer off the reservation to lease this land, and he set the price as $1 for the land. The farmer got the land for real cheap. The councilman skimmed $10,000 off on the deal and took it for himself. No one found out about it until he was off the council, and they couldn't do anything about it. He just lost respect on the reservation. He could never get a job with the council.

January 6th 

Frank came storming into the rectory this afternoon and he said he was mad. He kept apologizing to us for being so mad. He said that he had to come up here to make a phone call.

I'm going to call the tribal council secretary, Joe McConnel, up at the Agency. The tribal brand inspectors came out here today! They were in Hays and they picked up about 20 horses that were not on their owner’s land. They were on other people’s land or on tribal land. It'll cost the owners $25 a piece to get them back. But one of the councilman's horses was out and the brand inspectors didn't take them. They cut them out and they left them out in the field. If we're going to enforce this law, and we should, then we have to be fair about it. The law applies to everyone the same way. I'm sure mad about this. I don't care what the council chairman thinks of me, but I have to represent my people. They voted me in. We have to be fair about this law and I'm going to make sure that we are. The brand inspectors take them up to the Agency and they lock them up into the rodeo arena. The cattle and the horses have to be out of the grazing fields during the winter. We have to plan for winter feeding. Everyone who has horses should make some kind of plans for winter feeding. I keep my horses in. If I'm away all day, like at a council meeting or on council business or something, and I don't feed my horses, I worry about it all day. If any horses got out, I'd expect the brand inspectors to pick them up, and I would pay the money. I should. We have to protect everyone's rights. When the horses or cattle get out, it makes trouble for everyone. It’s a nuisance.

There are a few people who have horses out all the time. The stock inspectors will go after them. They're always on other people’s land or on tribal land. It’s a big problem They don't have any of their own land to graze their horses on. Sometimes they’ll steal grain and hay to feed the horses. When they hear that the stock inspectors are out, they round up their horses and put them in their small yard (2 acres) until the inspector leaves. Then they let them out again. But if they're going to go after these guys, then they have to go after everyone. Anyone who has their horses out. It just has to be done fair.

The canyon is tribal land, and the stock inspectors are going after all the horses and cattle that are in the canyon grazing now. The tribal council wants all the horses and cattle off the tribal land during the winter so that the grass has a chance to grow back for the spring and summer grazing period. Individual owners put in their cattle and horses for the winter, like Frank, so that their grass can grow back for grazing. They don't want the land over-grazed, which has been a big and constant problem on the reservation. Some people will lease out their land to an off-reservation cattleman, and the land will be overgrazed. The Indian wants and most often needs the money, and the white rancher doesn't care if the land is overgrazed because it’s not his. He gets the lease for cheap and then overgrazes besides. This is what the tribe is trying to stop also.

January 13th 

Bruce said that there weren’t very many good policemen here on the reservation.

I used to be on the police here. I went to a workshop once when I was on the police, and we learned all about drugs. It was a workshop specifically on drug abuse. We learned how to smell and identify marijuana. I know that we have a problem with marijuana here in Hays and on the whole reservation. I've seen it here, and I've even seen it at the school. They say that they're going to put up a new police station near Hays. It’s going to be in a house out in Old Hays. It won't help things though. When they had the police station right here in Hays it didn't help things. We still have problems; we'll still have a lot of trouble in Hays.

There weren't any drugs on the reservation before. They just came here about 7 or 8 years ago. There were some people who used peyote. They came up here from Oklahoma. There were some Mexicans who came here about 30 or 40 years ago. They used to work as migrant laborers in the beet fields around here. They worked in this area. They used to thin these beet fields by hand, and they also used to top the beets by hand. These were sugar beets. These Mexicans planted marijuana along the Milk River when they were up here then. They did this so that they would have it when they came up here. A few years ago they tried to get rid of it. They sprayed down there but they couldn't get rid of it. It's a weed.

The older councilmen (tribal council) used to really help the people here. They knew the state and local officials and the senators and congressmen, and they knew the politics both on and off the reservation and in Washington DC. And these older men were able to get what they wanted. They got things done for the people. It’s not so much that way today. The councilmen don’t really help their people like the older councilmen used to do.

January 20th Gros Ventre Treaty Committee Meeting (New Mission Gym)

(There was also a bingo at the mission and many people were at the bingo).

Lymon Young called the meeting to order at 8:30 in the evening.

Lymon: We will have to reschedule this meeting because there are only 24 people here. We need more people here to conduct business of the Gros Ventre. We don’t have a quorum. (Gros Ventre treaty committee members at meeting: Ed Filesteel, JJ Mount, Lymon (chairman), Davey, Joe Kirkaldie, (secretary-treasurer) and Bertha.

They (superintendent of BIA on the reservation) kicked back the per capita payment proposal we sent from our last meeting.

He read a letter from the superintendent: Passed a resolution for a per capita payment from the balance of the claims money that was supposed to be spent (entire sum) for reprogramming. I will take no action on this matter until you plan for the reprogramming of this money. Also send me a detailed list of expenditures of the Gros Ventre treaty committee, and the museum project expenses. It was signed by John Shoptese, acting superintendent.

Elmer Main must have misunderstood what went on at the last meeting: he was the BIA representative at the meeting. There was no alternative proposal to the per capita payment. Everyone wanted the per capita payment. He says he didn’t know about this letter. They say that we must reprogram the money and write a proposal for it. There must be a communication problem if Elmer did not know about the letter. Also, we never said anything about an alternative to the per capita payment. We will have to write an agenda and send it out so that everyone can come up with ideas. Elmer has the agendas for the meeting, but he went to California. So we don’t have an agenda, nor the minutes from the last meeting.

Davey Hawley: You all have such good ideas. You should come up with suggestions for how we should spend the money. You can form groups and come up with ideas and present them at a meeting. We should go to the schools and ask the kids how they would like to see the money spent. The kids have good ideas also. We also need cattlemen at these meetings. These college boys are really bright, but they don’t know a damn thing about cows. I want you guys who have cattle and have sweated it out fighting with the whites for grazing land around here for years, to go to the meeting.

Madeline Cauliflower: We need suggestions for the burial and wake fund ($50,000) and for the building for the pipes ($30,000). At the last meeting it was brought up and discussed, but according to our minutes, there was never a vote on the burial fund. (Me: Oh, oh … those were my notes. I hope they were accurate).

Lymon: When should we have the next treaty committee meeting. Should we do Sunday of the Midwinter Fair?

Madeline: We tried that last year and no one wanted to come.

Davey: It's your money and it's up to you on how it’s spent. You have many good ideas. They have flatly refused to allow the per capita payment, so you have to come up with ideas for reprogramming this money.

Ed Filesteel: At the treaty committee meeting in 1972 in the recreation center, the per capita payment was approved. These people don’t understand.

JJ Mount: This per capita payment would have had to been part of the Distribution Bill. The motion or resolution, if it was passed before (at the 1972 meeting) should have been in the Bill. If not, the per capital payment would have to be passed through an act of Congress.

Person: We could use the money for a rest home; maybe buy the hospital.

Bertha: It was condemned as a hospital; maybe we could use the money to fix it up.

Davey: They couldn’t sell the building, because it's too big to move.

Davey: How many Gros Ventre do we need at these meetings to conduct business?

Lymon: There needs to be 12 or more to take care of Gros Ventre business, but we only need 4 for a quorum of the committee.

Madeline: I'll mail out or put in the paper, the agenda for the next meeting for all the enrolled Gros Ventre.

Davey: You can put it in the Camp Crier.

Person: This would give people time for input with their ideas about how the money should be spent.

Rosey Connors: I would like to know if the treaty committee could give the senior citizens $200-300. We need the money for secondhand furniture for the senior citizens building.

Lymon: What do you people think? Should we put some money aside for a fund.

Madeline: I don’t know if we could do it, because the committee is on a tight budget. The budget is held up now because of the audit.

Davey: The treaty committee is under audit. I don’t know why they want to audit us.

Person: Shouldn’t the people vote on the money for the senior citizens furniture?

Ed Filesteel: Yes, it should be the people.

Lymon: We could set aside treaty money for contributions for dances, senior citizens.

Ed Filesteel: Elmer said we have to present a proposal to reprogram all of the money. He is mistaken about that, because at the last meeting we never gave an alternative proposal to the per capita payment.

JJ Mount: The per capita payment was turned down on a lower level (the BIA superintendent on the reservation).

Madeline: We should go around him.

Davey: We could set up a fund for dances, senior citizens, boxing, clubs.

Bertha: What do you people think about all these donations.

Person: A lot of people don’t like it.

Madeline: The Gros Ventre treaty committee gave $175 for the new tv transmitter, and we couldn’t use it, because we live out too far.

Bertha: If it doesn’t benefit one person it’s all right. My opinion is that we don't have the right to give donations.

Person: There is a large amount of the Gros Ventre tribe off the reservation. They have little to say about these donations (there weren’t any off-reservation people at the meeting). Their general consensus has been that they support the per capita payment. They do not want the money spent for something that they can’t use on the reservation.

Bertha: The per capita payment was not in the original Distribution Bill (1972); it would take an act of Congress to change it. They will not let us use the money for a per capita payment. The BIA won’t let us do anything.

Davey: John Shoptese relinquished our plan for an office building. If the Gros Ventre tribe bought and built a building, the BIA said that they would make a commitment to rent the building. They said they would pay us about $5 per square foot. We would have had the building paid off in about five years. But the superintendent then said that he could not give us a commitment (new superintendent) and so we couldn’t do it. The council won’t approve anything. People keep saying that the treaty committee is not doing anything. We keep trying different ideas for how to spend the money, but we also run into a wall. All we can do is wait, and people complain that we are not doing anything.

Lymon: The treaty committee does not have the machinery for these donations. The community council is the place for people to go to for donations not the treaty committee.

Bertha: Revenue Sharing has money for this (senior citizens furniture).

Davey: We (community council) have a meeting tomorrow, so why don’t you write up a request for money (to Rosey Connors) and give it to me tonight. Make it sound like you're really desperate for the money. I'll present it for you tomorrow at the meeting.

Person: Where did Lodge Pole get the money for the furniture for their community hall.

Davey: The money from the submarginal land.

Person: Hays should too.

Davey: The money came to$ 81,000 from the submarginal land. Most of the money was used to pay for old debts from the tribe. There was about $30,000 left. Ask for $500 for the senior citizens, because they’ll Jew you down anyway (damn – there it is again).

Lymon: We're done talking about donations. It's fair that we shouldn't give donations.

Person: Most of the Gros Ventre live off the reservation. If we support them, we could get the per capita payment. John Capture told me that we could get the per capita payment this way.

Madeline: We had 500 signatures of off-reservation Gros Ventre for the per capita payment.

Davey: If we send our proposal for the per capita payment to the area office (BIA Billings); they kick it back to the superintendent, and he kills it. They always do this. He (superintendent) did it this time; if we go above him to the area office, he will get it back again.

Davey: There was no vote on the burial fund, it was not in the minutes. You people should kick some ideas around.

JJ Mount: The burial fund we talked about at the last meeting was a limit of $300 for each person.

Madeline: It was also limited to those people who are Gros Ventre.

Lymon: Before the next meeting we'll get an agenda out in the paper. That way you can give us your ideas about the burial fund and the $30,000 for the pipe buildings at the next meeting.

Madeline: You should come up with the size of the building.

Davey: I don't know what will be done about these pipes. Everyone is afraid of these pipes, except maybe for some of the younger people. Yours truly is not afraid, but I do respect them. Like Elizabeth Doney said, those pipes may not be there. The pipe may not even be in the bundle. Opening them is against the Gros Ventre tradition. We don’t have pipe keepers. We'd have to find a way to check them. I wouldn't go in there to squeeze that bundle, and I might get squeezed back. We've all heard some fierce stories about those pipes (laughs). Jeanette Warrior has one of the pipes, and one of the pipes is in the log house behind Happy Doney's. We need to build a place for the safe keeping of the pipes.

Davey: Geroge Horse Capture had money left from the museum project. We told him to go ahead and make more calendars. He was also working on another Gros Ventre history and those books. He also has a Gros Ventre dictionary.

Madeline: I tried to decipher the dictionary; it’s terrible (trouble with the language).

Lymon: How do you want this audit.

Madeline: We should make copies of it.

Lymon: We can put it in the Camp Crier, or the school newspaper.

Madeline: We hired a secretary. We have an office in the ONAP building in Newtown. The office will be open from 8-5 on Monday-Friday. We worked out our budget and resolution, but they (superintendent) won’t recognize it till the audit comes, and it’s not done yet. George Horse Capture gave us his checkbook and all the stuff he got. They will audit his stuff along with the treaty committee things. He has some material left for a third book, and third edition of the book. The museum thing has been done away with. No one wanted it. He bought materials in the name of the tribe. He still has some from the calendars. We don’t know all of what he purchased. He has $425 left from the calendars. We told him to use this money to start some new calendars.

Bertha: I have in front of me, a list of George Horse Capture's expenditures. We set aside funds and gave them to George. The money for the Museum project was in a Havre Bank. He withdrew $10,000 and deposited it into his museum account. He spent $2.55 to have checks made. He paid $600.00 for a consultant, and $9,300 for the Catholic University books. He paid $20.00 for incorporating papers. Then he withdrew another $11,000. He spent $800.00 on photograph research, $3,920.00 on Gros Ventre treaty committee expenses and $253.00 on legal fees. Then he gave back $7,000 to the treaty committee account. We have thrown away so much money down the drain. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not down on George. I'm just saying that we have gone so far, and then we are dropping it?

Davey: The Gros Ventre books didn't sell like we thought they would. George Horse Capture is sending letters to universities around the country to see if we can sell the rest of the books.

Madeline: He wanted to sell and handle the books from here.

Bertha: I think that it is a shame that we are dropping it after putting so much into it. I didn't want the museum project dropped. There was not enough information put out to the people to have them realize what's behind this. People didn't appreciate what he's been doing. That's why they turned down the museum project. All we (treaty committee) could do is back him up with money. If we don’t use the money for the museum, we should use the money for books for the schools.

Caroline Smith: Other schools have books for the younger children from the other tribes. The Gros Ventre do not. We could use this money to have books printed about the Gros Ventre and then pass these out to the schools (To me after meeting - Flannery was working on a third edition of her book; probably also about life before the buffalo became extinct).

Davey: The museum project was dropped because people wanted the per capita payment. If there is no per capita payment, they may want to go back into the museum idea. We can all go back and collect our goodies and take them to the museum. If we don't have this museum, they may lose their culture. They will lose their culture if they don’t do something soon.

Lymon: If we put the treaty money into education it would be a duplication of the other money. (Federal, BIA). The BIA would pull out their money if we put in our money.

Bertha: We could put the money in the US Treasury and collect the interest.

Ed Filesteel: We could do this till they abolish the BIA and then we can split up all the money.

Davey: We wanted to buy land with the money, but the BIA (Billings) wouldn’t go for it. They said that the Gros Ventre couldn't own land. It would have to be bought in the name of the community, and not the Gros Ventre. It’s good for the BIA, it prolongs their positions. Maybe Carter will do away with the BIA. Everything the Gros Ventre do, they want the Assiniboine to do it also. It was that way with the office building. They wanted us to go half and half on it, but we had the money and the Assiniboine did not have their half. So we couldn’t do that. I told the superintendent, "I don’t care if it was 100 years from now, there will always be two groups here, the Gros Ventre and the Assiniboine.” They will never become one. That's the way it is on all the reservations, we're no different. I don’t know why they keep trying to get us to mix.

The buffalo belong to the Assiniboine (they bought the herd). I guess we'll just have to stand back and watch them eat buffalo. The buffalo are grazing on community land, so it is also our land. I guess we have some interest in it (laughs).

Madeline: February 13 - Sunday will be the next meeting, at senior citizens.

Lymon: Meeting adjourned 09:30 pm.

Davey: I don’t know how many Gros Ventre we need to conduct business. But at the meeting when we decided on the treaty money per capita payment, the first time, there were 156 Gros Ventre who voted (1972) and they voted to accept the per capita payment. There are 13,000 people at Browning and only 87 of them came to vote. They conducted business with 87 people. One of those 87 people were their community representatives. I think that it is 1/3 of those that voted consistently. To vote or pass a motion or to conduct business you need one third of those who come consistently to meetings. If at the most 200-300 people come, it would be 1/3 to conduct business or about 75-100 people. We can’t set a quota, because we would never have it.

There was a feed after the meeting. Madeline hired Beatrice in the afternoon to make sandwiches. They served in the new gym. She was paid $10 and was given a check after the meeting. We joked that this was the only treaty money she would get. She served ham-spread sandwiches, potato chips, cookies, and coffee. Many people took a lot of food home with them.

January 20th 

After the treaty committee meeting, I talked to Davey Hawley. He said that the museum project could work. They talked to the museum people in Germany who have a lot of the buckskin clothes that the Gros Ventre had. "They have much more over there than we have ourselves. When the kids used to come to school the people at the mission took away their clothes and gave them white clothes. Many of the nuns, priests and other people at the mission were from Germany, and they sent these clothes back. They gave us permission to have the clothes back, but we have to buy it back from the museum."

January 23rd 

Jay Willie told me that they have sued the tribe to get some of the per capita payment. He is a 1/8th and is going to try to get this share of the per capita payment. 

Community

January 4th 

On Tuesday afternoons at 1:30, John David Quincy has a radio program out of Havre that lasts from about 15 minutes to a half hour. It’s on KOJM, 6 AM. He’s a graduate of St. Paul's Mission High School and he lives in Havre. The program concerns Indian affairs in Havre and on Ft. Belknap. He reports on the different social events that are taking place on the reservation and in Havre, and he usually has a special guest to talk about different issues concerning the American Indian. He also talks about different people who are in the hospital from the reservation community and people who are traveling around the area to different pow wows.

January 5th 

Susie is giving Darian piano lessons after school. She is a first grader and an excellent student. When they are done, I drive Darian home.

January 13th

Tom is using bed springs for a television antenna on his roof.  Jeb is using a rack from his oven. He spent $95 on a fine tuner that didn’t work.

January 15th 

Betty Jean had a housewarming at her new home in Whitecow canyon. She invited a lot of people from all over Hays. People were in and out of her house all night long.

January 18th 

Riggy and Dale Doney asked Father Retzel to come to their new home in Whitecow Canyon and to hold mass at their house and to also bless their new home. Father went with Jan LaValley, and they left in a bad blizzard.  

January 19th 

Irma said that she was Chippewa-Cree.

I should really say that I'm Chippewa French. I belong to the Little Shell Band of the Chippewa- Cree. My mother was Assiniboine and part white and my father vas part French and part Chippewa Cree. They are two different languages, and ours has a French influence. They can understand each other, but it’s a different accent. I had an aunt in Malta, and I can remember going to visit her when I was a kid. She was always working real hard for the Little Shell Band trying to get money for the landless Indians (treaty per capita payment). The Little Shell Band people are enrolled at Turtle Mountain in North Dakota. I don't know much about that group. There are quite a few French Chippewa Cree families that live here on the reservation, and they are also enrolled at Turtle Mountain: LaRoque, Turcott, Doney, Gardipee.

Irma said that she was looking forward to the CIC. “I’m hoping that it will help to pull the community together. There are so many hurt feelings here in the community. But there are some relationships that I don’t think will ever be mended.”

January 21st 

Gordon said that he and Edith were going to Joplin this afternoon to watch the high school basketball game there that night. He asked if I would go over to their house that night to check in on the kids and make sure that they were ok. I told him I would. I went up to the house at 9:00 that evening. Dory was with the basketball team in Joplin and Venetia was staying at a friend’s house. Junior and Ryan were watching tv and they were taking care of Dion.

January 23rd

Gordon told me that there was a lot of prejudice toward Blacks on the reservation.

We once had a couple of Black Vista workers here. People really made them miserable. If they went out, people would mess up their house (mostly kids) and people would call them all kinds of names. They ran one black out of town. They walked him right down the road. I can’t say much about it. Three of my sisters married black men. I think it’s a lot like the way whites think about the Indian around here. The whites don’t know anything about how we live, and if they knew, they might think differently about us.

January 22nd 

Roseann and Charles had a housewarming in their new home in Whitecow canyon. They invited a lot of people by formal invitation that they had printed at Urban Rural on the mimeograph machine. There were a lot of people at the house, and 40 to 60 people were in and out all night. Roseann had a lot of food out: macaroni salad, chips, beans, cookies, coffee, sandwiches. There was spiked punch and there was also a lot of whiskey and vodka. There were about 15 people there who were very drunk. Happy Doney was playing the fiddle and Jasper and Lindey were playing the guitar. The people who were dancing were doing a combination of the waltz and the jitter bug. Charles was very drunk, and he was dancing with all the women. Every time a new song was started, he asked a different woman to dance. He even danced with Susie. He told me that he was only drunk because he was celebrating moving into their new home. He said that he's quit drinking (and he has - this was the only time that I saw or heard of him getting drunk). We left at about 11:00, but the party went on late into the night. During the party Roseann opened presents that people gave them for their housewarming.

January 24th 

Beverly got a new house in Whitecow Canyon, and she moved in. Matthew moved in with her. The house was given to her and is in her name, and not to him (she is enrolled as a Gros Ventre and Matt is not enrolled here – French Cree). She moved out of her old home (tar paper) that was next to her mother’s near the public school.

Gordon said that there was a difference between the Doney’s.

They’re all related to each other but they’re different. One group of them, like Charles, Matt and Clyde Doney are not like Indians, and they have nothing to do with the Indian things. They don’t go to the pow wows or participate in any of the Indian customs. They are sometimes called the ones who like fiddle music. They have square dances and stuff like that. The other group has more of the Indian ways like Richard and Clifford Doney. They are more like the Indian. I don’t know why this is, but it is.

Like me, Gordon is trying to make sense of all of the Doney’s … or Chippewa-Cree or Metis or French-Chippewa-Cree or French Cree. Even with the background reading that I’ve done, the groups are very confusing. The Rocky Boy Reservation is involved in this confusion and these people are located across all the west, on and off reservations.

This is what a simple google search gets you:

The surname "Doney" has an uncertain origin, potentially stemming from a Cornwall name, a Devon name, or an Americanized form of French Canadian names like Daunais or Donais, and is not directly linked to Native American origins. 

Here's a more detailed explanation:

Possible Origins:

·       Cornwall: The surname Doney might have emerged from an uncertain origin in Cornwall. 

·       Devon: It could also be a variant of the Devon name Downey, with the main vowel shortened and lowered, though evidence for this is lacking. 

·       French Canadian: The surname could be an Americanized form of French-Canadian names like Daunais or Donais. 

Gordon said that there were some really good families in the community.

The change came with alcohol. Alcohol has really changed a lot of good families around here. I think it was in the late 1940s and 1950s that it really happened. People would ride a horse back to Chinook or Landusky and a white would sell them wine. It was $25 for a gallon of wine and whiskey was like gold. You could hardly get it.

January 25th 

An Assiniboine man was killed in Billings. It was on the news from Great Falls. He was stabbed and found in an alley near railroad tracks. The rumor mill in Hays was conjecturing that it had something to do with some Assiniboine-Gros Ventre problems in Billings. 

January 26th 

Ruth and Camie were talking during arts and crafts. Some kids broke into the Senior Citizens Center. They peed under all the tables. They built a fire in the middle of the floor. The women had made a big quilt for the midwinter fair. The kids had poked holes in the quilt and tried to hang it up as a curtain. They really destroyed the place. Ruth said it is so sad. She doesn’t want her little girl to grow up in this atmosphere. Camie said it all stems from the family.

January 29th 

Matt, Tom and Lester were in their truck on the way up to the canyon to get wood for their wood burning stove in their house. Virgil McConnel (Forest Crew) sometimes puts it there for people to take.

January 30th 

Ray said, this place is lawless, but it used to be worse.

It doesn't stop either, because the law does not give harsh penalties to the Indian. They let the Indians kill each other off and don't do anything about it. It would stop if they brought back the death penalty like they've done on the outside. Once this guy had a bull on someone else’s land. It was not supposed to be there. The landowner got mad and put the bull in a shed and did not feed it or let it out for a couple days. The guy who owned the bull heard about it and was really mad. He got his bull out. He told the landowner that he was going to kill him. He went back home to get his 30-30. He rode his horse into town and the landowner was sitting with a friend in a pickup in front of the Trading Post. He got off his horse, took the gun out of his scabbard, and walked up to the truck. He told the landowner to get out, because he was going to kill him. The man thought he really wouldn’t, so he got out. The guy who owned the bull shot him right there. There were brains all over the street in front of the trading post. Father Robinson was in the store and ran out and gave him his last rights. I was at the mission. I was a volunteer coach there, and Father came back with his hands and arms covered with blood. I asked him what happened, and he told me the story.

Another time a man was up at Landusky and this guy, who really mistreated his wife was there. The man kept telling the woman that she was nice and didn't have to put up with this guy. The man told him to stay out of it, because it wasn’t any of his business. The man kept it up and the guy shot him.

This man had a big argument with a guy. He said that he would be back with a gun, and he came back and shot him 5 times and killed him. The man didn't even have a gun to defend himself.

January 30th 

Edith said that they have spooks in the house.

I was once sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee after all the kids left for school. I was alone in the house and was still wearing my bathrobe. Then in the bedroom, first on the right, next to the kitchen, I hear someone knocking on the wall from the inside of the closet. Boy, I was really scared. I didn’t dare go into the room. When I went to the bedroom to change my clothes, I ran all the way down the hall to our bedroom. We also hear walking in the hallway sometimes, and it sounds like there is shuffling feet with someone who is wearing moccasins. My father told us that there are a lot of dead Indians in this valley. She said this as though this was the explanation, the - dead Indians for the "spooks" in all the homes around here in the valley. He told us that the reason there are so many dead Indians in this valley is that in the 1800's there was a smallpox epidemic here. There aren't separate grave sites because so many people died from the smallpox that they had to bury the people together in big holes.

Ryan said the Indians got the smallpox from blankets they wore given by whites. Edith said that there were a lot of spooks in their log house that they lived in when she was a kid.

My father used to write a lot of stories. He had a rock paper weight. This rock was really smooth, and it had 4 stumps on it that looked like legs. The rock looked like an animal. He would keep it on his papers. One night very late when everyone was sleeping, I woke up and was just lying in my bed awake. Then I heard a loud thump when the rock fell to the floor. It was too heavy to fall by itself and it was too far on the desk to fall by itself. When I told my father about it in the morning he just laughed. The spooks in the house scared everyone, but they didn't scare him at all. He laughed about it.

January 30th 

This morning, Matt Jones, Matt Doney, Tom and Froggy went in a pickup to round up the horses in the canyon and to bring them back out. Carletta said that she didn’t understand why they couldn’t leave them up in the canyon, because the horses don’t bother anyone up there. Tom had one of his horses taken up to the Agency by the brand inspector on the reservation. He had to pay the $25 to get it back.

January 31st 

Today In Montana; 9:00 AM. KRTV, Great Falls (MTH- Montana Television Network) and 15-minute segment of the Ft. Belknap Mid-Winter Fair. The backdrop on the stage was a star quilt. She interviewed Don Addy (extension agent). She had a table filled with bead work and dolls. They showed a few pieces on the table. Then had an Indian dancing exhibition: George Shields stood in back wearing a headdress and played a grass dance. He used a hand drum. He was introduced as one of the most respected senior citizens on the reservation. Toni Earthboy danced a grass dance to George’s singing and drumming.

They had 5 of the 8 high school girls who are running for the Miss Ft. Belknap Princess. He asked each of their names, grades and what they wanted to do when they graduated from High school. Then Eddie and Super sang a religious song, "Show Me the Way," which was written by Eddie. They are Lindey’s boys. Then the announcer read the following and George Shields signed this in Indian sign language on the screen: You are invited to come to Ft. Belknap February 5, 6 for the Mid-winter Indian Fair. Thank you.

January 31st 

Frog came over before arts and crafts today. He’s from the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. They lived right next to the Missouri River. He said that a lot of people thought it was strange that he doesn’t swim or know how to ice skate after living next to the river all his life, but he doesn’t.

I love to hunt and fish and ride horses. I'm from the Two Kettle Band of the Sioux. My mother left me that information. I also like to ride bulls and broncos. He came to Ft. Belknap and Hays because he went to boarding school and was a close friend of JJ Mount’s daughter’s boyfriend. I came to Hays and lived with JJ’s family for a while. Then I went into the army, and I was stationed at Camp Pendleton. After the service I came back to Hays and married Betty Jean. I got a job at the head start in Whitecow canyon. I finally got a job that I had gone to school and was trained for. I went to school for two years and took courses and was trained for cooking, baking. I can do banquets, and I can also do meat cutting.

Can you get a job here butchering and cutting meat?

I can’t really get much work here because most people here take their meet to Alan Murphy to get cut up. And not that many people here butcher cows. Betty Jean’s brother's wife's grandfather was the medicine man on the Trail of Tears that marched to Washington DC this summer. Fools Crow. Betty Jean is a Gros Ventre. I would like to send our son to live with my mother and her people and have him learn Sioux. Then have Betty Jean’s people teach him Gros Ventre.

I went to high school at the boarding school- at Haskel in Kansas. This is the first time I've ever done ceramics work or beading or leather work. I really like it. I've made two leather belts. One for myself and one for my son.

Some people don't believe in medicine men, but I've seen it myself, and I believe what they could do. Four boys were out on the Missouri River when I was a kid and one of the boys drowned. The current was real fast under the water, and they couldn’t find the drowned boy. The medicine man there had a sweat lodge and predicted where the boy could be found. The police went with him, and they found the body just where he predicted. It was a long way from where the boy had drowned.

Winter Weather and Driving

We got a lot of snow in January, and it was also very cold. We went through periods when the temperatures were around twenty degrees below zero.

January 8th 

While we were still living next to the canyon, all of our water pipes froze. Lindey drove up to our trailer to try to fix the pipes. As he was pulling up into our yard, he skidded at the post, wrecked his truck and blew a tire. I felt horrible about it. Our trailer was up an incline on a gradual hill. When there was snow on the ground, it became a slick drive up to the trailer. If I didn’t have four wheel drive on the truck, we wouldn’t make it half the time.

January 9th 

Lyle came up to the trailer to visit us this morning during church in his car. He got stuck in our driveway.

January 13th 

Dave Hawley and Jeb Stiffarm are the winter road crew. They maintain the equipment, like the CAT, and operate the snowplow.

January 17th 

Susie and I were driving home from Harlem. It was very slippery out and Susie ran off the road at 4:00 at the Hays turn off. I vividly remember the incident. Susie drove very slowly and carefully all the way down from Harlem. I remember that when she made the turn, her foot was on the gas pedal. We spun directly into the bar pit. If you are high centered, even four wheel drive isn’t going to help. The milkman saw us and stopped to help. Happy and Jasper Doney also stopped. They shoveled out the extra snow and put their chain on the front frame. The milkman pulled us out. The milkman said that he owed us a favor for taking the milk up to the mission during the winter break. Happy said that he was paying us back a favor because once Susie helped him when he was stuck. The roads were really treacherous for everyone.

January 18th 

Jim and Beatrice were driving home from the DY tonight. They went there to get gas. When they came back and down the hill, they ran off the road across from the Hays turnoff. Mike, Bill and I went down there with chains, but we couldn't pull him out. It was too dark, and we couldn't see well enough to hook the chains onto a solid part of his car. We told Jim that we would get him out in the morning, but he didn't want to leave his car out there overnight. He was afraid that it would be vandalized and broken into. After about 10 minutes, we finally convinced him to leave it there overnight.

January 29th 

Ben Jones walked up to the mission early this morning. He ran off the road and into a bank last night and got stuck up there in the canyon near King Spring. He was with Ione Kirkaldie. They spent the whole night in the truck in the canyon. In the morning, Ben walked to the mission and called his father and he and Mike got them out.

January 30th 

Ray told us, they’re really having it tough out east with the weather. “I saw what’s been going on in Ohio. Boy, I really thought about your parents.” He was referring to what became known as the blizzard of 1977.  

January 30th 

Saturday night Bobby drove off the road into a borrow pit. Edith asked me if I could help them get it started. I drove up there with Junior, Ryan, and Edith. I opened the door and the whole engine and battery were packed with snow. I told Edith to forget it for the night. It was 11:30. So she emptied all the clothes out of the car and her boots and put them in the back of my truck. She was worried about their things being stolen. I said at least you’re under the light. Edith said that doesn’t mean anything. They would still break in if they wanted to. Ryan said, yeah, some people can sure be ignorant.

When Dory came into the trailer, he said that Jeb Stiffarm ran off the road. When I was driving down to get Edith’s car, I saw his truck off the road. He ran off just before JJ Mount’s turn off and was in the barrow pit, about 20 feet and then he went into the trees by the swamp. There wasn't anyone in the car and I couldn’t find him near the road, so I drove on.

January 31st 

Jeb came back with another truck to try to get out. He got both of them stuck. He came back the next morning with the CAT and got them both out.

The winters on the reservation were treacherous because of the large amounts of snow. When the wind blew, there was little to stop it, and drifting was serious. The cold temperatures were brutal, often twenty or thirty below or colder. As noted, travel could be a real problem and particularly between Hays and the Agency. If you got stuck or went off the road, you could be out in the elements for a long time before anyone saw you. And yet, the winters in Hays were spectacularly beautiful. Mike, Susie and I took a drive up into Mission Canyon and into the Little Rockies.

Ruth and Lyle’s Wedding

January 9th 

Lyle told us that he met a woman. She’s from Butte and is a little older than him. She has an eight-year-old daughter. They’ve decided to get married. Lyle said that he is going to look for a job in Butte in construction. Irma is happy for them. She would like them to get married in the church, but they have decided to get married by a judge at the Agency. Lyle said that they would have the marriage blessed.

January 19th 

Cyndee said that she got her job back at the café up at the Agency. She’ll be working in the morning on Saturday. If she has to work there on Saturday afternoon, she won’t be able to go to the wedding. Ray won’t be able to go because he’s still in the hospital.

Lyle and Ruth went up to Chinook today and they got their marriage licenses. It cost them $15.25. They got a package at the court building which contained funny things for their wedding night. They were going through this stuff and getting a good laugh out of it. Lyle bought Ruth a wedding ring. He told me that he was starting to get real nervous about the wedding. Cyndee said that she was going to plan a wedding shower for Ruth. Cyndee also said that no one had planned a bachelor party for Lyle. None of his friends or his cousins planned one for him (she seemed very irritated about it). 

January 22nd 

We left at 11:00 and picked up Evie Werk. She and Lyle are good friends. We went up to the Agency and the law and order office (court and police station). We got there at 11:45. We stood in the hallway with most people who had come to attend the wedding. We were next to the police desk and radio. People were smoking and talking. The wedding was supposed to start at 12:00 but they delayed it, because they were waiting for Ruth’s mother to come. She was coming from Butte, and she left at 7:00 this morning. Everyone waited for a half hour and then the judge, Cranston Hawley, decided that she wouldn’t get here until 2:00 so they should get started.

The guests at the wedding were Susie and myself, Nade, Gordon, Edith, Ryan, Jeanne Shambo, Ona Bell, and her kids, Eva Jones, Donovan Archambault, Caroline, and her kids, Joyce, and her kids, Charlette, Evie Werk, Cyndee, Raymond, Linda Gone (Ray’s wife), and Cranston Hawley. People walked into the court room at 12:15 and moved tables and chairs around the walls and sat and stood around the walls.

Ruth asked Gordon to give her away. He asked me what that entailed, and I explained that he just had to stand with her until the judge asked her to come up. He said that he would do that.

The wedding started at 12:35.

People stood behind the desk taking pictures after Irma asked the judge if it was okay for Tennisson to take Polaroid pictures for Ruth. Raymond was the best man. Linda was the maid of honor. All the guests were dressed very casually. Irma wore a suit, (leisure) and Ruth wore a suit. Linda wore a dress and Ruth wore a dress she borrowed from Cyndee.

The ceremony lasted for five minutes. It was a civil ceremony that he read out of a book. At the end of the ceremony, Lyle and Ruth kissed, and all the guests stood and applauded. The people who came with cameras took pictures of Lyle and Ruth and the married couple with Irma and with the judge. The judge then asked around for someone with good handwriting and Caroline volunteered to fill out the wedding certificate. Then everyone went outside and drove to the cafe in the Milk River Shopping Center Ceremony for a reception.

We went to the Food Farm and bought rice. Then we went into the cafe. Everyone was seated at the tables. We were asked to sit with Lyle, Ruth, Irma and Evie. Ronnie Perez, the manager, cleared the cafe of all people just after the wedding guests arrived. One waitress and Cyndee poured coffee and people talked.

Then Ronnie gave Lyle and Ruth a bottle of champagne and passed glasses out to everyone. He asked me to open the bottle and a lot of pictures were taken while I opened the bottle. Irma got up and moved away because she thought that she was going to get hit with the cork.

He also gave them another bottle and 2 glasses to take home. Then people started calling for a toast. Everyone looked around but no one got up. Finally, Raymond turned to me and said, why don’t you do it. So I got up and gave a toast. I have no idea what I said but I am certain that it ended with L' chaim. Everyone drank their champaign.

Irma said that Ronnie was really reasonable about the café. He charged them $20 for the cafe and the coffee. Also, the cake cost $15, and was made by Ruth’s mother, and $5 for the decoration on top, (bride and groom). Ruth paid him another $20 because no one bought food in the cafe. It was a 4 layer white cake with red roses. Lyle and Ruth got up and cut the cake. Then Cyndee came over and said that they would serve it Indian way, give the first pieces to the closest in the family first. Then everyone else was served a piece. While everyone ate cake, Lyle and Ruth opened their presents. Evie wrote down the names and presents on a napkin so they could write thank you cards. They got a crock pot, glasses and tablecloth, casserole dishes, cannisters, and towels. Cyndee and Susie are planning a shower.

Then the guests got ready to leave and Cyndee passed out the rice. A row was formed outside and Lyle and Ruth walked between the rows and everyone threw rice on them. Then Ruth and Lyle, Evie, Cyndee and Irma stayed at the cafe to eat lunch. We carried the gifts out to the car. Lyle told me that he hadn’t been nervous at all, the whole time. Ray was in the hospital in Denver, but they called him when they got home Saturday afternoon. Ruth’s mother and Shannon got there at 2:00. They were disappointed about missing the wedding but they joined them for lunch. They returned to  Butte afterward. 

Irma said she thought it was good that they were waiting to have their marriage blessed because it’s so final. And she felt they should get to know each other better.

Evie told me that Lyle doesn't realize the responsibility yet of marriage, especially with having an eight-year-old daughter. It hasn't hit him yet.

Susie and I felt really honored to sit at the table with Irma, Lyle and Ruth. And while I felt a bit uncomfortable about being asked to make a toast for Ruth and Lyle, they were family. As I've noted many times before ... The Gones were and are family.

January 26th 

Ruth and Lyle have moved in with Ray and Irma. She told Susie that she’s never seen anything like it before. They have just taken her in, with all her faults, and everything and just loved her. As bad as Ray was feeling, they drove to Havre to get them. Irma gave her a coat. Ruth was embarrassed to receive it because it was so nice. She told Irma she was embarrassed. Irma came in and apologized for making her feel uncomfortable.

Medicine and Health

January 22nd 

I was talking to Irma, Gordon and Edith at the basketball game between quarters. Irma said that Ray was sent to the hospital because of a slight stroke. At least the effects were like a stroke. He was sent to a VA hospital in Denver. He had a calcium deposit in his arm that was giving him a lot of pain. They started to give him cortisone shots and the pain has gone away. He couldn’t see out of one of his eyes and now his eye has improved so much that they have to change the prescription on his glasses. He’s coming home on Thursday. Edith said that she lit a candle for him in church and she was praying for him. Gordon said that he prayed for him.

Irma said that Tennison Doney was the director of the community health program- the CHRs Community Health Representatives.

He is my cousin. I'm the assistant director of the program. We wanted to start a planned parenthood program and education about parenthood in the schools. We asked Sister Giswalda about it, but the mission never gave us a response, so we never did it. We did have and still have a dental hygiene and fluoride program in the schools. We taught the kids the right way to brush their teeth, we used a model. And we also gave them a fluoride treatment. The kids used to brush the fluoride on their teeth. That was a mess. Now we use a mouth wash. We give it to the teachers, and they get the kids to wash with it. We also taught first aid in the schools.

January 26th 

John Stiffarm (Jim’s brother) had a heart attack a few days ago. Willie Bradley took him to the medicine man in Rocky Boy (Kenneth Gopher) and then they went to the hospital in Havre. He’s in the intensive care unit at the hospital. Susie and I are very close with John – he is a good friend and we are very concerned.

January 28th 

Mary Gone had a stroke and is in the PHS hospital at the Agency. All the kids are up there with her. She can’t talk and is paralyzed. Gordon said that he had to borrow gas from a few people to get Edith up there. Gordon is home alone with the kids.

January 29th 

Frank told us that he went to visit Mary Gone at the PHS hospital. He thought we were going to tell him that she had died because he didn’t think she was going to make it through the day. She has an oxygen mask on and is gasping for breath and partially paralyzed. Caroline told her it was Frank. She took his hand with one hand and buttoned his coat with the other. Edith and Caroline were there.

Matilda had been close to Mary. She felt bad because just before Mary got sick, she called for Matilda. She feels that Mary wanted to tell her something. Now Mary can’t talk to her.

 January 30th

Ray came home from the hospital late Saturday, because his mother’s condition had become worse. He was in a ward at the VA hospital and told us about all the help that was given him by the nurses and patients in his ward. He didn't have money to get home, and the patients in his ward all offered to give him money to get home. The VA finally bought him a plane ticket, but he told the people that he really appreciated their help and concern. He flew home from Denver into Great Falls. The PHS people drove him to the Agency, and he stayed there at the hospital all Saturday night with Mary and his family. Mary was developing pneumonia on top of her stroke, and they had her on a machine to get the fluid out of her lungs and they also had her on oxygen. She's paralyzed on her whole right side and cannot talk. She can't control her swallowing. She has no will to live, and the family (her children) are going to decide whether or not to take her off all of these machines, and just let her die. Ray said that he was glad that he was able to see his mother, but he felt sad that he might never hear her voice again. Ray said that he was feeling much better; his arm feels good and his right eye is really getting its sight back. “They gave me cortisone shots for my arm and had me in occupational therapy and physical therapy. That was great. They had me move a wet cloth as far as I could move it on the table and had me keep doing it. Then they had me move a bag of shot up a wood ramp. Boy I was really sweating getting that up the ramp about 15 times.”

January 30th 

Edith came over this evening with Ryan and Venetia at 8:30. She had just come back from the PHS hospital. Mary is very sick and is developing pneumonia on top of her stroke. She can’t cough and has fluid in her lungs. “She understands a little when we talk to her. Caroline put a little water on a q tip and told her to suck on it, because her mouth was so dry. I was really tired because I was at the hospital all day and weekend. I wanted to come and check on the kids and make sure they were alright.”

January 31st 

We drove Edith up to the PHS hospital this morning, and we stopped in to see how Mary was doing. Most of the kids were there in the hall visiting across from her room and were smoking and talking. Caroline, Edith, Irma, Fred, Mary Denny, Davey were there, and Bertha had just gone home to get some rest. She had spent the whole night with her. Mary was still in rough shape after her stroke and was developing pneumonia. Ray told us that her right arm was broken, and no one could figure out how it happened. They had a splint on her arm now. The kids were going to have a talk in the afternoon about whether they should have the support machines removed. Ray said that she doesn't have the will to live. Ray was talking to a nurse. He told her about an article he read in one of the nursing journals while he was in the hospital in Denver. The article was about the caring for Indian patients. He gave her the article reference and told her they should read it because it was really good. It was a white nurse.