The Mission, Education and Recreation

December 31 – January 1 Lodge Pole New Year’s Eve

There was a New Year’s Eve pow wow at the Lodge Pole Community Hall. The dance was

sponsored and put on by the Little Rocky Mountain Dance Committee. The dance is a traditional event in Lodge Pole. I asked Ray if it was always held in Lodge Pole and he said it has been here for years, but the Gros Ventre used to have their own pow wow. I also asked Gordon if the Gros Ventre always celebrated the New Years. He answered that they have celebrated New Years when they started following the calendar, when they had calendars.

The host drum at the pow wow was the Lodge Pole singers. The Hays Singers were also invited, and they were there. Bobby and Caroline didn't come, so Gordon sang the lead and one of the Lodge Pole singers sat in as the second. Another Lodge Pole singer sat at their drum, and they went back and forth to both drums. Edith, Cyndee, Jim Snow, and John Stiffarm were also at the drum. The Lodge Pole Community Hall is a round, wooden structure. There is a stage on one side with a picture on the wall of tipis and a camp site and underneath is written, "God Bless America." Opposite the stage is a row of seats. Wood bleachers are around the floor with a basketball court in the center. People were asked to bring their own chairs. The place was not filled. There were between 300-350 people there. Gordon said that people must have been out celebrating at other places or at home. People talked about how the place used to be so full that you could hardly move. Cyndee said that her parents always sat in the one corner where they were sitting.

The flag raising was supposed to be at 7:30, but it didn’t happen until 8:45. Two men from Lodge Pole were asked to raise the flag. Everyone stood and removed their "head gear". They played the flag songs before and after the pow wow. People brought their suitcases with their outfits in them, and they went to the dressing rooms to change. At about 8:00 there were 35-50 dancers.

Gerald was the announcer; he called himself the "MC". He was coaxing people to dance; he kept saying that he wanted to make this a successful dance. Cyndee said that when you were fed, long ago you had to wait until they sang a certain song before you could eat. If you ate before that, they made you sit on the floor and eat, or pay a fine or dance. Ray talked about the Crow Pow Wow that went on all week. He said the Gros Ventre used to do that also, for, Christmas to New Years. They were the Black Lodge and the Mountain Crows; they were different districts. The groups were based on where they lived. The dance was held in a log house. It was round, about six foot walls. There was a hole in the center of the roof and they would have a big bonfire. One group took it for seven nights and the other took it for three. They competed to see who could put together the best dance, including the food. The last night they put their efforts together and they had a big dance. It was really great. The competition was good, healthy, clean competition. His father would get a horse team together and pull them around on the sleigh to the pow wow. It was fun.

Miss. Ft. Belknap was there. She is a 15-year-old. She was called to the podium with the announcer. The dance committee gave her $30. There was an honor song. She led the dance and the Lodge Pole drum did the song. Each drum was given $30 by the dance committee.

There was an honor song for Jenny Gray. George Shields sang the song. He said he sang about an honorable lady, a good woman. She helped in teaching Indian ways, and she still follows the ways. He used her Indian name in the song. She led the dance. She had a hard time walking. She used the chairs to lean on as she went around. Merle Grey took her arm midway through the dance. All her nephews, nieces, relations and friends danced. They gave away blankets, shawls, money, and $5 to each drum for the honor song. After the giveaway, everyone danced who was given something. Even though Ray was not feeling well, he danced around the floor twice.

The feed included soup, crackers, coffee, meat, bread and butter, cookies, and apples.

At midnight, people got up and stood in a circle, the men on the inside, the women on the outside. The men danced clock wise, and the woman went counter clockwise (although they mostly stood still). The Lodge Pole singers sang, everyone danced, they shook hands as they went around, or hugged and kissed. Ray said that each group has a special New Years song. Then the Lodge Pole singers kept singing and everyone stayed on the floor and danced.

John Stiffarm told Susie, "I have seen 70 years. I will see another. How many have you seen? You must be honest to yourself!” He handed Susie the drumstick and she played with the Hays singers. John was very fond of Susie.

People were taping the Hays Singers. Dory was taping for Gordon and Edith.

Jim Crasco from Beaver Creek gave a prayer for veterans who had died in the armed services in 1976. He named those from Ft Belknap. He read the prayer, and people stood and removed their hats. There is great reverence for the community people who serve in our armed forces.

St. Paul’s Mission and School and Hays Lodge Pole School

January 3rd

I was eating lunch at school today with Susie and Sister Giswalda. This was the first day of school after Christmas vacation. Sister Giswalda said that the kids were not very settled down yet after their vacation, so they were going to show a movie in the afternoon.

She said that they were fixing up the House of Loretto, and they had been working on it since June. They're almost done with it. Sister Giswalda said that they were putting up heavy screens over the windows because she was concerned about vandalism, and she thought that this might help keep people out of the house.

I asked Sister Giswalda how she has handled the vandalism here? She said, “I’ll tell you what I did when I first got here. I was a lot younger then.

Someone from the community was stealing the altar wine from the basement of the church, and they were doing it almost every night. So, we decided to try to catch this person. Father had a gun. We borrowed it from him, and we put blanks in it. Then all the sisters went down into the basement, and we sat in the room next to where the altar wine was kept. We sat in the dark room around a stove, and we took shifts walking around the basement and listening to see if the person was down in the basement. We closed the door to the room where the altar wine was, and we made it look like it was locked, but the door was really open. You just had to push on it and it would open up.

It was on my shift to walk around the basement that I heard some tin cans bumped. He was down there, and he must have knocked into the tin cans. I was really scared, but I held out the gun, and I pushed open the door to the room, and I shouted at him, "stick'em up." The man was really scared, and he threw up his arms. The other sisters came running too. I ran up to him and I threw my arms around his legs and sat him down in a chair. There were two younger boys with him, but they escaped through a window, and we never did catch them. This was an older man. We tied him into the chair, and one of the sisters went to get the farmer who used to work here at the mission on our farm here, he was an Indian (the farmer). When he came in I asked him what he thought we should do with this man (who was tied into the chair). He said that we should give him a whipping.

Sister Giswalda said that another time, after they had moved into the new convent, she was sleeping in her room, and she heard scratching on the window in her room. He had torn the screen, and I saw his hand come into the window. I grabbed him around the wrist, and I was calling for help. But he had a shot gun, so I let go of him. He ran away and he was never caught.

January 6th

I was talking to Sister Giswalda at lunch today and I asked her if the public school would also get a vacation and close for Easter. She answered, “I don’t know what their plans are down there, but we’ll close whether they do or not. Those pagans down there may not take off the time. We never know what they’re going to do until they do it.”

Tonight, at bingo in the all-purpose room, Beatrice won the blackout. It was up to $50. Every week when someone doesn't win the blackout, 5 numbers are added and $5 are added to the pot. She was really happy about it because all her kids had come in for Christmas and she really needed the money for presents and food. After someone wins the blackout there’s a lot of teasing, especially if the blackout was a lot of money. People go up to the winner and they ask to borrow money, or they tease the person about what they're going to spend all that money on. There's also a lot of talk about how close other people were to winning the blackout. The person getting teased takes it in good humor.

January 7th

There was a very bad blizzard this morning with high winds, drifting and a lot of snow. At 10:30 in the morning, Sister Giswalda told the Mike and Bill to get the bus ready and she called off school. The public school also closed and their kids went home. Jim also went home, and I followed him in my truck to make sure that he got there ok. There was hardly any traffic in Hays. Most people stayed at home. There was only one car at the store. When I got back to the school, Sister Giswalda said that they have to go until 10:00 before they can consider it a full legal day of school. It’s the same for the public school. Otherwise, we have to make up these days. Last year we had to close the school a few times because of the snow, and we went three Saturdays in a row to make up for the lost days. We held school until 12:00 for those three Saturdays.

January 10th

The Dean at the College of Great Falls contacted me and approved me to teach Physical Anthropology for spring semester. My classes started at Urban Rural and I had ten people in my class.

January 11th

Susie went into the school to tell the Sisters that I was sick and wouldn’t be in today to teach. She saw the 5/6th grade girls in the bathroom. She went in to wish Reva a happy birthday. April was crying and washing her face. All the girls said that Bart had slapped her face and hurt her eye. They said that she has made Sheila cry twice, Noreen once and now April. Reva said, “she'll never make me cry.” They all said that they'll show her. “We’re not going to come back here to the mission school next year.” Susie asked what happened. April was finishing her coloring before religion class. Bart asked her to put it away. She pushed it aside and it fell on the floor. So, Bart came up and slapped her face. They also said that Bart calls their parents in and then she lies to them. She told Sheila’s grandmother that Sheila was dragging her around like a puppy dog, dragging her down into hell.

January 12th

Beatrice was making lunch, and she was cutting up a pressed turkey roll. She was going to make sandwiches out of it. She said that this is the best thing that Uncle Sam sends us. She said that they used to get another roll like this, but it was something in between bologna and roast meat. It was also in a roll. It wasn’t too bad, but we never get it anymore. We used to call this stuff “reservation red.”

Laura kept talking during our social studies class today. I couldn't get her to be quiet and to do her work. I finally yelled at her and told her the next time she talked, I was going to have her sit at the back of the room by herself. She asked me if I was going to be here next year, and I told her I was. She said that she was going to go to the Hays public school then. This is a common response from the kids after they are given any kind of discipline. If they are yelled at or are sent to the back of the room, they threaten to go to the public school the next year. I usually handle the situation by telling them to go ahead to the public school. As usual, Jimmy was talking and laughing and bothering the people around him, marking them up with his felt pen. I yelled at him to start behaving himself. Under his breath but loud enough for me to hear he said, I'll beat you up some day.

And at that moment, I’m wondering whether Franz Boas or Margaret Mead ever had to deal with getting threatened by a 5th grader.

January 13th

I had the recreation night in the gym and Fiddles and Bruce Doney came in separately to talk. Bruce said that he found good water on his land. It was about 45 feet down. The mission had to go down a lot farther than that before they found good water. I think it was almost 200 feet down. The well was dug and the pump house was put up when Father Coleman was here. He was a good mechanic. He did almost everything on his own around the mission. He did all the mechanical work on the cars, trucks and equipment. He's since passed away.

Bruce said that for 19 years he worked in the Hays School.

I was a janitor for 13 years and then for 6 years I handled the maintenance in the school, and then I quit. Then I helped Ray set up the Urban Rural program here in Hays. We wanted to set up a program so that the people here in the community could become teachers in the public grade school. We even put in our proposal that we wanted to have teachers from the community so that the kids here could see their parents and the other adults in the community as something else besides a janitor. This way the kids would have some other goals to strive for, they could see for themselves that there would be a future for them as something else besides a janitor.

We have a lot of problems in our schools. One of the biggest is that we don’t have any discipline in the schools. The Urban Rural program isn’t tough enough either. They don’t teach enough discipline to the students. And when there's no discipline in the classroom, the kids aren't going to learn anything. We got a new administration in the school about 3 or 4 years ago. It hasn’t always been this bad. The discipline problem really started to get bad when this new administration got in. The kids smoke marijuana at lunch, and they run all over the school at all hours of the school day. With the problems they've been having in the school with discipline and bad behavior, they can’t get anything done in the classes. The schools are going to have to discipline the kids, because the parents just aren't going to do it. If the schools don’t do it, there isn’t going to be any discipline at all.

The mission hasn't had this kind of problem either now or in the past. The mission had good discipline. So, the kids learn a lot when they go to the mission school. You have to have it in the classroom if the kids are going to learn anything. I was a wild kid, but those sisters really straightened me out. I got all my values from Sisters Giswalda and Claire. They were the only teachers in the high school when I was going there. They had limited course materials, and they had to double up and even triple up on some of the things that they taught, but you learned a lot from them. They were good teachers. Sister Giswalda has a way of keeping control of a classroom, and she didn't have to hit the kids to get them to behave. She just had a way of keeping control, like the way she can look at you sometimes. She sure knew how to discipline the kids in her class, and she always has. You learn a lot from them.

There used to be Ursuline sisters at the mission. They used to be the teachers at the school before the Franciscan sisters came to the mission. Those Ursulines were sure tough, and they were even cruel sometimes with the kids. They were mostly foreigners, from France and Germany. They had discipline, but they were too cruel with the kids here.

The mission grade school lost their basketball game to Grassrange. Mike and Bill treated the kids to dinner at Bohemian Corners. They did not seem to mind losing. They were more interested in getting away and going out to dinner. That was a really special treat for the kids.

January 18th

I was talking to Sister Giswalda at lunch today. She told me that she had a box of pills in her desk drawer in her room that she takes for her heart condition and for her asthma. Someone from her class stole all the pills and left the bottles while she was out of the room. She was mad that someone would go into her desk drawer, and she was worried that someone was going to get sick from taking the pills or by mixing them together. "I’m not going to say anything about it, though. I don’t want to cause any trouble, and I don’t want to give the kids any ideas about drugs if they don’t have any ideas about it."

During the school day some of the boys broke into the storeroom at the back of the school and stole most of the pop that is used for the bingos at the mission. Most of the teachers spent the morning trying to find out who stole the pop so that we could get it back. Finally, one of the sisters found out and Father Retzel called a meeting of the kids who had taken it. There were 10 boys from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades who had taken the pop, and Father asked them to return it. About 15 minutes later they came back with all the pop, minus what they had consumed. Father thanked them for bringing it back and told them how great it was that they brought back what they had stolen. Mike and I were at the meeting. The kids didn't say anything, but after Father left the room, Mike told them that he had a few things to say:

I'm not going to thank you; what you did today was very wrong. I like you guys a lot but when you do things like this, I don't even want to associate with you. I feel ashamed of you. You know what you did was wrong.

Mike screamed at them and stormed out of the room. The boys like and respect Mike, and they did look ashamed of themselves. They were very quiet the rest of the day.

I was talking to Father Simoneau about the breakfast and hot lunch program in the mission school. He is in charge of both of these program. He said that the government sends a check to the mission for $958.00 for each month of the breakfast and lunch program.

They're usually a few months behind on their checks, so at the beginning of the year we have to use our own money to buy food and pay the cooks before their checks start to come in. We got the November check in January. Also, the checks from the government only pay for part of the program. It’s supposed to pay for the whole thing, but we couldn't possibly feed the kids on what they give us. The rest comes out of the mission money. The cooks are paid out of the money that comes from the government. Someone from the central office comes out every year to observe the program and to check up on us. Our program is different from the public school. The parochial school office is in Denver. We have to keep a daily count of the number of kids we feed each day, and the menu for the day. And then at the end of every month we have to turn in a report with this information and with a lot of other stuff.

January 20th

After mass on Sunday, people go to the basement of the church to buy rummage clothes. They used to hold this in the attic of the old school building that burned down in 1973. So they still call the basement of the church, the attic. The Franciscan Sisters sell the clothes to raise money for the school to buy supplies and books for the mission school. The clothes are donated by friends of the sisters, volunteers, and their families. The basement is open right after church and there are about 10-20 people who go down and look for clothes. There are 2 or 3 sisters who go down to the basement to sell the clothes. The room is filled with clothes on tables and is on racks. Most of the clothes are sold for a very minimal cost. There are a lot of people who complain about buying these clothes. They say that these clothes are donated to the sisters for the people here and they should be given away. But the sisters say that without any government support for the school, they have to make money in whatever way they can to buy things for the school. The pop, popcorn, and candy that are sold after lunch and at the convent door in the evenings is also for this purpose. There are a lot of people who won’t buy these clothes from the sister because they aren't new. They want new clothes that are "in style." The sisters sell all kinds of clothes, shoes, blankets and material, whatever is donated to the mission for this purpose. Large boxes come to the convent from UPS and by the mail filled with these articles.

Father Retzel was talking about the pipe that was given to him, and he compared it to some of the rubrics that he uses during the mass.

A woman gave me this pipe to use during the funeral of one of her relatives. I use this pipe at funerals now, but I always get the permission of the people first to make sure that they don't mind me using it. He is trying to incorporate more of the Indian culture into the different church services. When I pull the stem in and out this means the death but also the rebirth of the individual, their resurrection. I move around in every direction and offer the pipe up, the stem first and I ask Our Father to share the pipe with me. This also means that the Lord is everywhere. I breathe the smoke in which means that the Lord is inside of me.

I was talking to Margaret June and Elizabeth Doney in the mission kitchen this morning. I told Elizabeth that I saw Clifford walking home from school last night after school. She said that he was coming home right after school because he wasn't going to have any basketball practice for a while. Their coach called off the grade school basketball practices for a few days because he was having a lot of discipline problems with the kids. One day at practice, some of the boys knocked him to the ground and they pulled his pants down. And another day the kids started swearing at him. So, the coach decided to call off the practices.

The parents have been real mad because the kids either have to walk home from school after the basketball practices or the parents have to go pick them up from school. The school won't supply the kids with a way home. They won't use the buses.

With a lot of embarrassment, Nade told us the following story: She had the kids for the 7th and 8th grade girl’s PE class and she took them over to the old gym to play volleyball. She went down into the basement to get something and while she was down there, one of the girls locked the door behind her so she couldn’t get out. She heard the girls laughing upstairs but she didn’t want to pound on the door or yell at them, so she just waited. She was locked down there for about five minutes and then Phyllis Smith went down and unlocked the door and let her out. The girls didn’t say anything, and Nade didn’t say anything to them either. She said that she just looked disgustedly at them.

January 22nd

When the girl’s team played Turner grade school up in Turner, they had some trouble up there. The girls went outside and were putting their things away in their cars and some young boys were really heckling them and they started throwing stones and calling the girls, ‘fucking Indians.’

January 23rd

Irma said that Father Fussi was one of the early priests at the mission and he was a real character. One time a man came into the confessional, and during the confession he told Father Fussi that he had killed and butchered a cow that didn’t belong to him. Father asked him what the brand was (Irma laughed) – he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t one of the mission cows. The man answered that he couldn’t tell Father that – it was one of the mission cows.

January 24th

Betty Jean said that Brother Ryan used to be nice. Then he started getting up in the middle of church and screaming about women in pants and short skirts. Betty Jean was helping with Catechism. He told her, “you in the tight green pants, you’re going to burn in hell.” Once she was going to clean her brother’s grave and Brother Ryan wouldn’t let her in until she put a dress on. She said she didn’t want to clean a grave in a dress.

Beatrice:

Father Simoneau is tough about pay. We only get paid when we work. If we’re done early, we don’t get paid. We feel guilty if I work longer, if I make more work. I have to stay a long time to get my 40 hours a week. Father Retzel is a little more lenient. I started cooking in the school in 1968. I started at $1.25 an hour and now I’m up to $2.25 an hour. Jim has worked at the mission all his life. He was working here when I went to school here. He was 15 years old when he started. He makes $2.75 an hour. Father Simoneau used to lay him off in the winter when he really needed the work. So, in the winter he would hitch up the horses to a sleigh and go into the mountains. He would bring down wood and sell the wood. He would work at the mission April to October. Now he works all year. Brian won’t let him do any hard work. He’s 68 years old. He says he needs the hard work. He does at home. He says he’ll work as long as he can walk.

January 26th

Nucky said that Sister Bart is too bossy. “She used to come down to the house and complain about the boys. They were just raising cane like everyone else. Their father would really beat them when she’d come over.” Nucky told her to go tell the other parents too. She didn’t want her kids to be the example for everyone.

January 28th

Gordon asked me to be mc tonight at the Hays Lodge Pole basketball game. Two boys from the Inverness team were killed in a car accident. We are going to have a special ceremony for them at the game. We practiced the ceremony this afternoon. We’re going to have a giveaway, with blankets to all the boys on the team, and the parents of the two boys who were killed. We’re going to have a flag song and honor song, but not before the game. We don’t know how it will affect the boys. We don’t want them to be too upset to play. Maybe we’ll do it at half time or at the end of the game.

The Inverness high school has only 36 students, so their team was not very good. They lost to Hays Lodge Pole. There was only one game because they don’t have a JV team. The Hays Lodge Pole coach added the best of the JV to the varsity for the game. The coach didn’t play the best players. Frank said that it was good of him. Two of the best players on the Inverness team were killed in the car accident.

At the end of the game there was an honor ceremony in memory of the two boys that died. Gordon announced and he was very nervous. Gordon played the flag song. There was a snare drum. The cheerleaders marched out on the floor with the American, Montana and Fort Belknap flags. They stopped at the center of the floor facing the stands. The Inverness cheerleaders were in front of the Hays Lodge Pole cheerleaders. Everyone stood and removed their hats. The other team covered their hearts.

The Inverness team was in a line on the left and the Hays Lodge Pole team was on the right. The coaches were next to the benches behind the teams. The mothers of some of the players stood near the kitchen door. One of the women grabbed Susie and gave her a blanket to hold. Then Irma called up Gerald Stiffarm to talk. He came down from the Agency. Gerald talked for a long time. He said that it was an honor being there and good that young people are participating in a traditional ceremony like this. It creates a good feeling between the teams. He explained to the Inverness team that the ceremony is to help mourners overcome their grief and to know that they will have support of friends, relations and neighbors. Life must go on for the living. There was a time when different ethnic groups could not get together like this, but it is good that people are here to witness this ceremony. It is hoped that it helps to ease the pain of those grieving.

The Hays Lodge Pole coach presented the Inverness coach with a plaque in memory of the two students.

Blankets were piled high on a table. Each Hays Lodge Pole player walked in a line and picked up a blanket and took it to the first boy in the line of the Inverness players and shook all of their hands down the line. Then each of the Hays Lodge Pole cheerleaders gave a pair of porcupine earrings to each of the Inverness cheerleaders and shook each of their hands. Frank had donated the earrings.

Susie was then asked to give one of the blankets to the Hays Lodge Pole coach.

Hazel, Elizabeth Doney, and Margaret June gave blankets to the two mothers of the boys that were killed. The parents were not there, but they were given to parents from the Inverness community. Then Gordon sang an honor song with the hand drum.

When the ceremony was completed, everyone went into the all-purpose room where everyone was fed. The food was prepared by mothers from the Hays-Lodge Pole community. They served hot dogs, baloney sandwiches, beef soup, berry soup, cake, Kool aid, and coffee.

Recreation

January 4th Recreation Meeting Mission Rectory

Gerald Stiffarm is temporary (3 month) Recreation Director on the Reservation. The tribal council will have to advertise the position. Others at the meeting were Fiddles, Brian, Mike, Father Retzel, Charles, Buzzy, John, Bill Chambers, Jay Willie, Snuffy, Susie and me. Gerald did most of the talking at the meeting. He hired 3 people to work in each district, Fiddles in Hays; and one each in Lodge Pole and the Agency. He is seeking an executive board of about five people to help run the program.

Kenny Ryan, head of CAP (Community Action Program) now ONAP set up a $6,000 budget for recreation. Suggestions are needed for how to use it. If one community gets something, all won’t get it. There are different needs in each district. They will also seek money from other sources: tribe, state, federal government, foundations.

Detox and AA have $2000 of arts and crafts supplies, beads, leather, ceramic material. Father Retzel said that these materials can be used in the mission’s arts and crafts program. Gerald started the Ft. Belknap Warriors basketball team. It has been working for five years. People laughed at an adult basketball team, but it has been very successful.

Jay Willie: We want to put on a boxing smoker. We would bring in good fighters and could make some money. Would you help us put this on, and help to buy trophies?

Gerald: Yes, we would help.

Jay Willie: What about the ring?

Gerald: Jack Plumage put the Harlem-Agency boxing club in charge of the ring.

Jay Willie: They lent the ring to the Wolfe Point Boxing Club. When they got it back, parts were missing. They had to pay $150 to replace parts and they now have charge of it. Why not get us a ring and we’ll keep charge of it for the reservation. You should buy one and rent it out to each boxing club. We also need a place to fight and train where we can set up our equipment. We have 12 fighters in our boxing club.

Gerald: Someone wants to set up an exercise training group for all athletes on the reservation and have a universal set up.

Jay Willie: It is bad for good athletes here. We have a lot of very talented athletes but it is a dead end for these kids. We don’t have the financial background to keep these kids going good in their athletic abilities. Buzzy is the AAU heavy weight boxing champ and John is the Montana heavy weight Gold Gloves Champ.

Gerald: We have good things on our reservation. We do well in all of our programs. But Ft. Belknap is also known for its wild people. It is a shame, but we are known as a wild place. There are other people around who are afraid to come to Ft. Belknap for our programs, athletic events, and dances. I want to advertise our programs. A lot of Ft. Belknap people live off of the reservation, but are close enough to come to our programs. So many good and successful people have left the reservation. They should come back to help us. I will put a recreation schedule in the Camp Crier and get John David Quincy to read the highlights on his radio program.

People complain about the dances, dance groups, and pow wows. They say that we use a lot of money and give everything away. We get money from the tribe and give it all away. Complaints come from athletic groups that also get tribal money, but they say they don’t give it all away. These are dangerous ideas about not supporting these pow wows. These are our traditions. The sharing concept at its height. These are important traditions, and we need it. We will and should support Indian dances. Hays had the best singers on reservation. The Hays singers should be active and should be more involved in social events. A lot of people around here still like it. We need to split the money around the districts.

Father Retzel: We have around 100 families in Hays.

Gerald: Hays used to be known for the Hays Fair. People came from all over. It was such a great thing. They would travel a month in a wagon to get here. I don’t know what it is about mankind, but good things don’t seem to last.

The Agency people wanted me to open they gym every day from 4-8. I said no. They should get involved in school activities. Harlem is 81% Indian, and they are getting a lot of federal money (Johnston O’Malley) for programs. I won’t baby sit for their kids. They can’t scapegoat their responsibility as parents. The kids should come home and do homework.

All the athletes should put in a percentage of the gate, basketball, rodeo, and boxing. Then when it is needed, they can use it. Also, the tribal council wants some of its money back from the concessions. We can give out equipment, but groups will have to sign out for it and be responsible for it. The Treaty Committee has given out too much money for equipment and doesn’t know what happened to it. The Milk River Dance is a four-day dance in the summer. Lodge Pole puts on a one night pow wow for New Years Eve and both get $300. That’s not fair. The Treaty Committee will give $2000 to all dance the committees on the reservation and they will have to use it together. Ft. Belknap is known for indoor dances in the winter. These are great dances. But the summer pow wows are a shame. They are not very good. It is embarrassing. There are some on the council that believe that everything should go for the Agency. That all recreation program money should also be used at the Agency. This is pathetic if they don’t consider a recreation facility in Hays. Some believe that Hays had their chance and didn’t take advantage. This is wrong and pathetic. They need recreation in Hays. We won’t spend all at the money at the Agency. We will split up shares between the 3 districts. Some say there is too much vandalism in Hays and Lodge Pole.

Buzzy: Two or three families do all the vandalism here in Hays.

Gerald: The Agency is getting a recreation center with a swimming pool inside this year. Lodge Pole will get it next year. We must be prepared to help with equipment.

Snuffy: The Senior Citizen Center used to be a recreation center. It was vandalized. We gave the pool table and shuffleboard to Lodge Pole. We should see about getting it back. Each district got pool tables and other recreational equipment. When I left the job, the Treaty Committee didn’t replace me. They took my money and gave everyone a raise and took my position off the employment list. The seniors will not let us use the building. They are afraid we will ruin the women’s quilts. They have a Wednesday afternoon lunch for seniors.

Jay Willie: We should categorize the recreation programs’ different expenses. Cultural for pow wows, Social for games, arts and crafts, parties. Athletics: rodeos, boxing, basketball, softball, babe ruth leagues, rodeo school.

Gerald: We have three people working for the recreation program, Hays and LP and Agency. They are paid by Manpower (Ed Azure). Fiddles is working a 30 hour week.

January 6th

There is a fast break basketball league on the reservation that was started by the tribal recreation director. There are at least two teams from all the districts on the reservation, and the games are played both at the Agency gym, and the new gym at the mission. Games are played in the evenings a couple nights a week and there is a small admission charge to the games. Concessions are also run by the different teams to earn money for uniforms and equipment. Most of the men in this league are older teenagers or guys in their 20s. There is also a men’s league for older men and this is called the “old bull's league.” There are fewer teams, but it is also run by the tribal recreation department in the same way. Both leagues will have a tournament in February. Frank and Clarence are sponsoring a team in the fast break league. They call themselves "Western Art." The team is composed almost entirely of their nephews. Clarence only has one son who is very young and Frank isn't married and doesn't have any children. They have older sisters who have older boys, and they are the ones playing on the team.

January 12th

Jay Willie said that the Boxing Club went to Rusty Farmer and asked for a house on 376 by the Lodge Pole turn off. Rusty gave him the OK. He had him write a letter and he will present it for him to the tribal council.

There is a problem with the utilities. The Senior Citizens have their utilities paid so we should get ours paid. The kids should be a priority. The older people have had their time. Now it is the time for the younger people. That’s the way I figure it. If we do a lot for the kids now, they’ll grow up and look back and try to do a lot for their young people. Rusty said to me, "you're trying to help the young kids in the community and that's good. I'll help you out." I want to put a shower in the house. All I need is materials and the utilities paid. I can have it open in four days.

January 13th

It was my recreation night at the gym and Bruce Doney and Fiddles came in to visit. Bruce said that the basketball coach at the high school just wasn’t tough enough with the kids. They need more discipline than he gives them.

I don't think that he cares enough. We have a lot of good talent on our basketball team, but these kids don't get enough training. They smoke cigarettes and they drink too much beer, and then during the games they get tired out too early. Their coach should be a lot tougher with them and give them more training and discipline. I'd like to see somebody else get the job as coach, but he's not going to leave here. He has it too good. All these teachers do. They get a good salary and then besides they have that housing here by the schools and they get meals in the schools during the school week. The coach isn’t going to leave here. My boys are in good shape. They get that way because they train for boxing. There are a lot of men here and even young boys who get fat around the middle. It happens too young to a lot of these guys. They wouldn't get this way if they had some training. Training will really take it off. My kids are in good shape, and they get that way from training for boxing. I encourage them to do it and stay in good shape. They've been working out with the boxing club here in Hays. Jay Willie is doing good for these kids here. He works with all of the boxers here in Hays and be doesn’t even get paid for it. He does a lot of hard work for this boxing club, training the kids and setting up matches and smokers for them.

Fiddles said that he was trying to get the tribe to bring in more recreation into Hays.

We just don't have anything down here for the kids. I want them to put in an ice rink and a playground for the kids in Hays and one in Whitecow Canyon. They could fill in the ditch behind our house and use that for an ice-skating rink. They could get the kids ice skates and since I live right there, I could check them out to the kids during the day and in the evening. I bet the kids would really like that. We could get a recreation hall started again too. We have a pool table and a shuffleboard set. When the Hays recreation hall was closed, the pool table ended up in Lodge Pole. They took it over there to use in their recreation hall because we didn't have a place to use it here, but it belongs to us. If we could find another place to put it, they'd have to give it back to us.

January 20th

Jay Willie did not get the utilities money for the boxing club to use the house. They were never able to use it.

Jay Willie:

The Agency plans to start a recreation complex with two buildings, an indoor swimming pool and a roller-skating rink. The Community Council is meeting on February 7th to decide about these buildings. We are going to try to get one of those buildings down here in Hays. They have enough up at the Agency. There is a swimming pool in Harlem that they use. If people could use it in Hays, they would have to get a bus to run up there. Parents couldn't keep driving their kids up and back every day. We should have one of these buildings down here. I talked to Joe McConnel (the secretary treasurer of the community council) about putting one of the buildings down here. He said the roller-skating rink shouldn't be down in Hays, because the kids don’t know how to roller skate. I want to write a proposal for putting one of those buildings in Hays and putting it into a petition. We can go all over Hays and get everyone to sign it. Then I’ll take it up to the community council meeting. The tribal council paid to send one of their representatives to the presidential Inauguration in Washington DC. If they have enough money for that, they can help us in Hays.

January 23rd

Fiddles opened the new gym at the mission this afternoon for volleyball games. He is the representative for the recreation department from the tribe in Hays. Every Sunday afternoon for the past couple of weeks he has been opening the gym for volleyball. Adults, teenagers and children, both male and female, come to play. They are very informal and everyone has a good time. They play for about three hours. On average, 40-50 people come to play.

January 30th Hays and Old Hays

Matt Jones picked Susie and I up at 1:30 in his four-wheel drive pickup. Tom, Carletta, Shane, Frankie, Mark, Lester, John, Froggy, and Holly were in the back of the truck. We went to Lou Shambo’s and Tom and John went up on the hill behind their house and brought down the hood of a car. They attached it to the truck with a large rope.

I really love this photograph of Martin!

They pulled Tom through town, (and John) through the Lodge Pole short cut past White Cow Canyon and the old fairgrounds and into Matt’s and Carletta old house and land.

Everyone took turns riding the hood, including Frankie and Shane. Susie and Carletta held them, but they fell off.

Behind Matt’s old house there were about four acres of prairie dog mounds. Matt said that he and Carletta came out all the time to shoot them. Also badger mounds. They sometimes kill about 50 a day and leave them for the hawks and coyotes to eat them. They reproduce like crazy. They want to stop them from spreading out. Cows can break their legs in the mounds.

About five dogs ran after the truck. Matt let them run for about two miles, and then put them in the truck. He said that he didn't want them to run themselves out. They were with us the whole time.

Their long and storied history as equestrian buffalo hunters is clearly evidenced from this photograph.

And this one ....

I love this photograph of Carletta with her boys, Frankie and Shane.

When we got to the house, everyone walked in and browsed around. Matt and Carletta, and the gang used to live there before they moved to Hays. It was a 4-room place, 2 bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. It was small, with low ceilings, and wood planks. They lived there about three years ago. They took some things out and they left the door unlocked.