The Northern Plains!
Special signage in one small town!
cowboys play golf, they just get their clubs to the course differently then suburbanites
Sturgis!
A Lady's Attire?
must get a bit warm
should have seen the ears at 50MPH
Next stop was Sturgis for the annual Motorcycle Rally!!!If you like the sound and smell of thousands of bikes, this is the place for you! This event started back in the 30's. A large percentage of the bikers were our age, the Boomers! They were clearly showing signs of lots of years on a motorcycle! It was amusing watching them get off their bikes and limp away. Many were still trying to look like they did 30 years ago and it was actually kind of sad. The big party is supposedly at the Buffalo Chip campground, but we missed that one. Sitting on the street just watching was fulfilling enough for us!
Janet and Lester Karris, W.W.II Veteran!
Janet made friends with a Veteran collecting money for a veteran's home and, of course, she got to know him! She even hollered "get your wallets out" to those passing buy. Her big patriotic smile and flag waving definitely helped with fund raising. I love her for being such a patriot! The veteran had just had ankle surgery and was 84 yrs. old. Lester would come out everyday of Sturgis, seeing everything too, but collecting so much money for the veterans! Both of his ankles were so swollen and he was standing from 8 in the morning until 4 p.m. We helped him with drinks and cookies. Lester wanted to know if we would be there tomorrow to help. He said in 7 years of doing this, he had never had this kind of help. It was so much fun for us, esp. his stories about being a "shuriff" as he would pronounce it! Also shared some W.W.II stories too!You can't beat those veterans or those older folks! We are losing l,000 W.W.II Veterans every day! We were wondering what Lester thought of what he was actually seeing at times with the way people were dressed and tattooed!! Janet told him to bring a chair next year, but I bet he won't!
We parked at Ft. Stevenson, Ft. Clark and Ft. Peck...... all having to do with being camps for the C.C.C to build a dam or a stop on the Lewis and Clark trail. We have seen so many parks, roadways, trails etc. built by the C.C.C. What a program that was! It was the Civilian Conservation Corps which was a public relief program that operated in l933-1942 in the U.S. for the unemployed, unmarried man, from relief families, ages l7-23. It was a part of the New Deal drawn up by President Franklin Roosevelt, for the improvement of conservation and development of natural resources, lands owned by the government. The C.C.C, during this time planted 3 billion trees, 800 parks, upgraded most state parks, upgraded forest fire methods, built a network of service buildings and public roadways in remote areas.I just learned that the C.C.C. was responsible for the first watershed project in Wisconsin. Thanks for all the work C.C.C. and also W.P.A. was another program like it!
Silver reflecting on the day
A real Cowboy!
Got an itch?
Lewis and Clark Don't even think about trying to measure up
Bison robes are heavy!
Teddy Roosevelt National Park is in N.D. and consists of Badlands type terrain, wild grasses, the Little Missouri River and lots of Bison. What a beautiful peaceful place! Teddy was very instrumental in park preservation and came here to mourn alone after losing his wife and mother on the same day.
We came back from our usual evening side trip to a pull out.. where we have supper and wine.... to about 20-30 bison roaming around our campsite eating grass. I guess we were late for supper! They eventually sauntered over to the shower building for a shower ha ha and we pulled in. The wildlife keep getting closer and closer to Silver. This park also contained wild horses and elk.
Another Special Person we were honored to meet:
Karen Kapi: We met Ms. Kapi at the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana. She is from the Salish Tribe and born in Worley, Idaho, attended the Sacred Heart School in DeSmet, Idaho, going on to Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas, where she beaded her first handbag. Since then she has acquired l78 beaded handbags, including more than 40 she has beaded herself. On bag in her collection took more than l00 years to complete, with five generations of women in her family contributing bead work to the piece. Kapi has won numerous awards for her work! This is Karen Kapi'sKapi said she was from the Salish Tribe, but because of the fact that there weren't many of them, she had married a Blackfoot Indian. She further explained that the one factor which brought the Indians closer to the white man was the fact that their religion traditions were similar..... they could relate to them. She said that she was Catholic. We have a beautiful brochure with her works in it and describing them. We were blessed to have met this special spirit!
A quote by Karen Kapi..... "Art offers spiritual practice affording inspiration to create, while preserving cultural values of Native peoples."
I wanted to write about some of the tribes in these areas.
Blackfoot Indian Tribe: Black Foot Confederacy or Niitsitapi; collective name of the three nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana. The Siksika Nation as it was called or Blackfoot Nation called themselves "Plains People". 8,500 now live on the Montana Reservation of l,500,000 acres. In l896, the Blackfoot sold a large portion of their land to the U.S. government, which hoped to find gold or copper deposits. No such minerals were found. In l910, the land was set aside as Glacier National Park. Some Blackfoot people work here and they have occasional ceremonies held there. They operate businesses; such as Blackfoot Writing Company; l974 opened a community college and it is the Tribal Headquarters.
Notable Blackfoot people:
Elouise Cobell led a lawsuit that forced the U.S. government to reform Indian Trusts.
Shorty Medlocke, blues musician (Ricky's Grandfather)
There were several others named also.
The famous tradition held by Blackfoot would be the story of the sun and the moon.
Lakota Tribe: Also known as Teton "prairie dwellers"; Teton Sioux ("snake or enemy") are an indigenous people of the Great Plains. Part of a confederacy of 7 related Sioux tribes, the Oetisakowi or seven council fires and speak Lakota, one of the 3 major dialects of the Sioux language.
Notable persons include: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk, and Spotted Tail.
In l776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne and made the Black Hills their home.
Initial U.S. contacts with the Lakota was during the Lewis and Clark Expedition which was marked by a standoff. The Lakota bands refused to allow the exploration to continue upstream and the expedition prepared for battle which never came. The Cheyenne and Lakota tribes had previously attacked emigrating parties in a competition for resources and also because some settlers had encroached upon their lands granted to them by the U.S. Government. Over the next decade, the U.S. government would not enforce the treaty restrictions, therefore, there were several struggles and one massacre by the U.S. Government. The Lakota since l974 have taken steps to become independent of the U.S., but as of 2008 Russel Means, one of the spokesmen, said, "We have 33 treaties with the U.S. that they have not lived by". Several tribal segments have distanced themselves from this independence declaration, so in 2008 the Lakota Freedom Delegation split into two groups. This is one example of the struggle that the Native Americans have had with the U.S. Government over the many years!
I guess it was progress, but you can't help feeling a deep sorrow for the Native Americans of this country. They were here first!
By Janet: I recently read a biography about Carol Burnett. She had lost a 38 year old daughter to lung cancer in 2001. Her name was Carrie Louise Hamilton. Carrie had been a writer and this is one of her writings which really was special!
Our legacy is really the lives we touch, the inspiration we give, altering some one's plan....if even for a moment....getting them to think, rage, cry, laugh, argue....walk around the block dazed.... More than anything, we are remembered for our smiles; the ones we share with our closest and dearest, and the ones we bestow on a total stranger, who needed it Right Then, and God put you there to deliver."
By Carrie Louise Hamilton
Nice!
Funny Pictures!!!
Sign outside the town of Rudyard Montana "We have 596 very nice people in town and 1 sorehead!!"
Great stories. Welcome back to the Midwest.
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