First thing this morning – sitting in a circle of lawn chairs with cool wind blowing lightly across the grass field and nipping on my ears.  I listen to Mari and Pauline tell stories of Blackfeet traditions and legends.

The sun is starting to warm my back and thaw the grass.  Audra, Melissa, Deb and C are also in this circle.

This whole experience is surreal to me.  It’s magical and very spiritual.  And yet, it is “normal” every day life for us here.  There are too many small wondrous moments to capture in one brief blog, but my overall experience is so full of happy thoughts, warm feelings and absolute awe of the natural beauty and delightfully friendly native American women who have filled our bellies with delicious food, our minds with colourful stories and mountains of knowledge, and most of all, our hearts with love, hope and friendship.

Brandi

This retreat portion of the trip has been incredible.  Despite the bees and freezing sleepless first night, it has been well worth it.  Running Eagle Falls, Two Medicine Lake, a smudging ceremony, the beauty, the love.  It has all been overwhelming.  It has also been incredible to be around such strong, wise, spiritual, giving and educated Blackfeet women and such a privilege.  I am so appreciative of this experience.

Moon Over Running Water (Audra)

Yesterday was by far one of the most spiritual days I’ve experienced.  Being at Running Eagle Falls with our Blackfeet guides and our group of powerful women made me feel incredibly connected to the Earth and the heavens.

We’ve all been cutting and sanding wood together – so while we are sharing the stories that have made us who we are, we are bringing new shapes and colours out of sticks.

We began to give each member a tribal name last night.  It was Deb’s wonderful suggestion.  What an affirming process for each of us!  I was thrilled to receive my name: Horse of the Rising Sun.

Melissa

This retreat part of the journey has been such an emotional, spiritual and incredible experience for me that I don’t think I can possibly find the words to describe it.

We all started carving a piece of wood and some of us, including me have decided to make a walking stick as well.  Mine is very special to me because I chose it and sawed it off myself and every spare moment I have spent sanding it and admiring it.

We also made a parfleche bag and collected a red healing rock to put in it from Running Eagle Falls.  The water there is said to be healing so we all made sure to put some on us even though it was icy cold.  I felt quite emotional being there and then we had an extremely powerful smudging ceremony with our Blackfeet women friends.

It feels so comfortable just sitting here sanding my stick and listening to the stories that these Blackfeet women tell us.  I will never forget this amazing journey!

Cheryl – “Wise Laughing Beaver”

Well we’ve just left the Healing Retreat after two wonderful days, and I left my spirit there as it felt right that a little part of me stays in Montana.  I feel a lot more in touch with the Blackfeet way of life now, and it’s a very spiritual one.

Whittling my diamond willow gave me lots of time to think about my life and connect to all the girls.  It also gave me large blisters on both my thumbs.

It was an awesome experience swimming in the waterfall of Running Eagle Falls, although it was so freezing it took my breath away.  Much to say the entire journey this week has taken my breath away. 

Living in this wilderness under the stars with wild animal has once again been life changing for me.  Now I can’t wait to see my family to share the experience with.  Goodbye Blackfeet.

Donna, Sydney, Australia.

We are back now from our healing retreat with the Blackfeet women.  I feel so lucky that I actually have taken part in such a fabulous experience.  My Indian name was given to me last night – “Dragonfly Over Mountain Waters”.  I love it!!

We’ve been outdoors the past couple of days sleeping in our tipis.  We went to Running Eagle Falls (Healing Waters).  It was such a beautiful place and experience.  It reminds me of a song that I’ve known all my life but I never really paid attention to, by John Denver.  It’s a song called “Rocky Mountain High”.  A line form that song kept running through my head – “Talk to God and listen to his casual reply.”  I get it now.

PS – Megan rocks at finding bathrooms and talking people into giving out freebies!  Just ask her!

Jeanie

Journeying Towards Home

Last night was much milder than the night before – although the extra blankets and sleeping bags certainly helped!  The pace of life here has been slower and more reflective – definitely what was needed after our exertions on the building site earlier this week.

We sat together in groups working on our pieces of wood.  Cheryl, Donna and Megan had graduated from working on the small pieces to finding a larger section to carve as a walking stick.  As we worked our Blackfeet guides continued to tell us stories of their history and culture.  Mari led a discussion on dreams and their interpretation, with members of the group sharing recurring dreams that they had at different times in their life.

Mari told a Blackfeet story about reincarnation – how there had been a great warrior who one on occasion was pursued by his enemy and ran into the woods, and was able to shape shift into a mouse, then a deer and escape.  On another occasion he was cornered, and Blackfeet were renowned for never surrendering or being captured alive.  He quickly buried his belongings under a rock, before he was killed.  Nine months later another boy was born to the tribe, and when he was four his family passed through that area.

He said to his family – I know this place, my stuff is buried here, and he uncovered the belongings he had buried in a past life.  Mari said he had come back for revenge against his enemies, and when he grew up he hunted them down.  The belief is that if you have a strong enough reason, you can come back to complete a task or mission.

Later in the morning Helen, one of our Blackfeet friends, children turned up and joined in carving their own pieces of wood.  The kids lead us in a Blackfeet blessing for our late breakfast.

Another guest speaker arrived in the morning to speak with us – Leanda Fast Buffalo Horse.  Leanda is a Blackfeet woman who grew up in Seattle and had a successful career in corporate America.  After a divorce, she found herself in a place to pursue a different life, and returned to the Reservation to work as an artist.  An accomplished painter, she found there were many good painters already working in the area, so she focused on developing art using two of her other skills – glasswork and traditional porcupine work.

Leanda explained that before beads, decorative work in Indian clothing, jewelry and pipes was done using porcupine quills.  The quills are plucked from dead porcupines, and only the smaller fine ones are used.  Porcupine quill work was done by women in a society, and unless you were initiated and given the right to learn to do it, you would lose your eyesight and get arthritis!

The Society had many rules for doing the work, including not walking in front of someone working.  It takes great patience and concentration.  The quills are placed in your mouth for 30 seconds to soften them, and then they can be bent and worked into position.  The mark of good quill work is how neatly the ends are tucked.  When used on buckskin or material, the quills should only show on the finished surface, not on the back of the material.

Leanda has combined her glass work and porcupine quill work into unique artwork, and also produces a range of stained glass ornaments, artwork and quill work jewelry, some of which we had to buy on the spot!

After lunch, we returned to working on our wood, and Pauline led the group around the circle in sharing who we had thought of while carving our sticks.  We then shared a final smudge before breaking camp to head back to Two Medicine.  Pauline and Mari shared that they and Tammy were so inspired by our group of women and how we were healing each other through our shared experiences, that they had decided to hold their own retreat in September for local Blackfeet women, and Tammy had decided to set up a sweat lodge for them.

Back at Two Medicine we descended on the showers and toilets with enthusiasm, before gathering for our final dinner – a feast of shrimp, salmon and steaks cooked on the barbeque by Brother Paul.  Charlie our builder returned to share dinner with us, and after we ate we made a special presentation to him and to Donna, who had cooked for us all week.

Megan also made a special presentation to Brother Paul for the bunkhouse.  Three months ago, Megan’s younger brother Patrick had unexpectedly and tragically died from a heart attack at the age of 28.  Patrick loved the mountains and was a great supporter of Megan and her work with Amazon Heart, and the group had agreed to dedicate the bunkhouse to his memory.

Megan presented a frame with a picture of Patrick, a dedication, and a picture of our group from our first day on the construction site, to be hung in the completed building.

We then all retired to an open campfire for our final sharing of the evening.  We chose tribal names for the rest of our group, as well as a tribe name:

Cheryl – Wise Laughing Beaver

Audra – Moon over Running Water

C – Diamond Willow by Deep Sparkling Water

Deb – Brave and Gentle Warrior

Melissa – Horse of the Rising Sun

Jeannie – Dragonfly over Mountain Waters

Donna – Sun Shining on Eagle Wings

Chrissy – Young Aspen Standing Strong

Brandi – Fire Dancing with the Wind

Meredith – Two Spirit Riding the Wind

Megan – Rock Dancing in the Swift Current

Our Tribe Name:   Warrior Women of the Big Sky

Finally as we toasted marshmallows, and smores, the group shared one by one what this journey and experience had meant to them.  After a group hug, and a rendition of Gloria Gaynor “I will Survive” we drifted back to our tipis for a last night under the stars before heading home Sunday morning.

It has been an amazing and life changing week, and the generous Blackfeet people and their beautiful country, stories and traditions will stay in our hearts forever.

Honouring Women

Last night we discovered just how cold a tipi can be without a fire inside!  The overnight temperature dipped well below the expected, and most of our group shivered through without a lot of sleep.  As soon as the sun rose in the morning though it warmed up quickly, and those up early were rewarded with sun glinting off frost on the ground, and a group of horses quietly grazing in front of our camp.  Campfire coffee never tasted so good!

Pauline set us our next task this morning – each member of our group was given a length of diamond willow to whittle, carve and sand over the course of our retreat.  The Blackfeet Community College often gives it’s students a task like this to occupy them while they are listening to stories and teachings – it is a great meditative tool and seems to enhance the whole experience.  Pauline asked us to think of our mothers, or a woman or person who had impacted on our lives as we worked with the wood, and to carry it with us throughout the next two days.

The group took to the task with enthusiasm – whittling away the bark, then looking for “diamonds” and patterns in the timber, as Pauline and Mari shared stories of the Blackfeet people.  Meredith took a quick drive back to Two Medicine to pick up more sleeping bags and blankets in case the next night was as cold, then we prepared for our next outing for the day.

During the morning Pauline explained the importance of tobacco in Blackfeet culture.  Tobacco was sacred and used as part of smudging or smoking ceremonies to send their prayers to the creator.  In old times, the tribe had four tobacco men, whose job was to pray over the tobacco and protect it.  They would go up into the mountains to plant tobacco seed, and then it would be left until harvested.  They didn’t need to water or tend to the plants, as that was taken care of by the “little people”.  The Blackfeet believe the little people are still in the forests looking over them to today.

Nowadays there are no more tobacco men in the tribe, so they use other tobaccos they can cultivate or harvest, or buy commercially.  Tobacco is often used as an offering to the creator in prayers on a daily basis.

Several more Blackfeet women joined us in the morning, including Tammy, another pipe holder, and a young woman with great spiritual and healing power.  As a group we loaded up in our cars and drove back into Glacier National Park to Running Eagle Falls.

Running Eagle was a Blackfeet woman who lived in the late 1880’s.  Her parents died when she was twelve, leaving her the head of her family.  Along with her 10 year old brother, she made a pact to keep the family together and support them.  As she grew up, she sought a life of independence, and believed she could not only do anything a man could, but do it better!

She became a famous warrior – in Blackfeet tradition, women could chose to fight alongside men if they wished.  There are many famous stories about Running Eagle, including one where a man wanted to marry her, and she agreed as long as he could take more horses than she could in a raid.  He managed to take thirteen horses, but Running Eagle took fifteen, so she kept her independence!  There is a story that at some point in her life she took a wife, but that it didn’t last.  She is listed in the ration records in the 1880’s as the head of a family of eight.

Running Eagle Falls was a place where she went for vision quests – a retreat to find strength, or seek help for others, or find her direction in life.  The Falls and the waters are known to have great healing power among the Blackfeet and women in particular will travel there to swim in the waters, or to pour the waters over their head and drink it.

We walked along the trails to the falls which were spectacular.  In Spring the entire falls is a torrent of water, but when the flow is slower, you can see how they got their other name – trick falls.  As well as the water which pours over the top, water also runs inside the rock and pours out another opening half way down.

The setting was absolutely beautiful.  When we arrived, Mari gave each of us a small amount of tobacco, and we offered our prayers – starting facing South, then West, then North, then East.  We then put our tobacco into the water, and Mari also suggested putting a little in our hair or on our body.

Megan, Meredith, C and Donna all took the plunge literally – diving into the deep pool below the waterfall.  The water was straight from the glacier and absolutely freezing, but you could also feel the energy flowing through it.  The rest of the group contented themselves with wading in the water or drinking it, and we spent time by the river eating our lunch, reflecting and talking.  Each of us took a pebble from the stream – Mari told us the red ones had the greatest healing powers – for our pouch, and some filled their water bottles from the stream to take home with us.

Tammy then lead us along a dry creek bed for a special prayer and smudging ceremony.  Tammy learnt her traditional Blackfeet prayers from her father, who had passed away from cancer three months ago.  Her grief has been so great, she has been unable to offer prayers on behalf of others in the tribe since that time, and it was a great honour to us that she came out to meet us that day.  She said once she heard about our group and what it represented she really wanted to meet with us, and that was the incentive that had brought her out today.

Tammy explained that when you pray to the Creator, you never pray for something material, or for money, or for something for yourself – you always pray for others, and eventually what you need for yourself will come back to you.  You always go around the group in a clockwise direction as you offer your prayers.

Using a river rock as a base, she set fire to the smudge and we all took turns kneeling before it and wafting the smoke over our heads and around our body.  Then Tammy sang a traditional Blackfeet prayer to the Creator, inviting us to join in.  The power of that ceremony in that place was so strong – in the spot where Running Eagle had camped for her vision quests, our group of women sang traditional Blackfeet prayers as the smoke from the sweet grass, sage and tobacco wafted over us and to the heavens.

We shared an emotional moment afterwards sharing our love and support with Tammy, and then the group waded across the stream holding hands in a human bridge through the waters.  As we  left, Mari reminded us to call to our spirits so they would come with us and not stay behind in that special place.

We noticed Tammy had a group of four scars on each shoulder, and she told us she was a Sun  Dancer – part of a powerful ritual where her skin was pierced with pieces of wood and she was then suspended from poles.  The ritual is an offering on behalf of others to relieve their suffering and she had felt compelled to help them – not always people she had known.  She told us that now she had met us, we would also be included in her prayers in the future.

Afterwards we drove to Two Medicine Lake – the source of the same water we rafted down two days ago, and had camped beside all week, then we made our way back to base camp.  The day was so special that most of us found it impossible to describe or put it into words for today’s blog.

That night we had another guest speaker, Linda Juneau, Pauline’s sister and a Blackfeet historian.  She shared more of the Blackfeet history with us.  Linda talked about the history of the Two Medicine area where we had built the bunkhouse and about the Buffalo Jump we had climbed – how it was a happy place in the old times where the buffalo were hunted, and camp was made for the winter by the river, and singing and dancing took place.  Today walking along the river you can still see old tipi rings from those days.

She talked about how large the Blackfeet territory was, and how they had been restricted in the 1880’s back to such a small area in the Reservation.  In return for their land, the Blackfeet had been promised rations by the government, but for two years, the local Indian agent did not deliver the food, leading to a Starvation Winter where in one year over 500 Blackfeet died.  They are buried along Two Medicine River just a short distance from our work site at a place called Old Agency.  The river had begun to change from a happy place to one of sadness.

Linda talked about the history of the Holy Family Mission at Two Medicine.  Chief White Calf had actually donated the land to the Church to build the mission, and that in the early years the Blackfeet had been happy to send their children to school there, as long as they were promised that they would be well cared for.  Later on however, the government mandated that children had to be sent, and in the Boarding school they were denied their language and culture, and were punished for practicing it.

Linda told us how important our construction project was – that it was taking that sad history and replacing it with a place of happiness and celebration of Blackfeet culture, and how it would help the rebirth of Blackfeet culture among the children.  Along with the other women we met, they told us of the great contribution the De La Salle Blackfeet School was making in the Browning community.

We told Linda how amazed we were that the Blackfeet and their traditions had perservered and survived, given the terrible tragedies they had suffered.  She talked about Running Eagle and how despite losing her parents, and others losing their whole families, they survived – she said that in the Blackfeet language there is no word of phrase for “lets give up”.

Over the week several of our group had asked about how you could “receive” an Indian name.  Linda explained that most of the women had Indian names, as well as western names, and that the Indian name you had could change over time – you might start with a baby name, and then be given an adult name, and also if you performed a great service to the tribe you might receive a special name in recognition.  In return for that special name, however, you would also be expected to make an even greater contribution to the tribe.  Names are conferred in a special Blackfeet ceremony by someone who has the right to give names to you.

Deb suggested to our group decided that although we were not Blackfeet, we were our own tribe, and that we could develop our own naming tradition.  That night Deb led the group in choosing tribal names for half of the group, with the rest to be created on our last night back at Two Medicine along with a tribe name.  It was a beautiful and affirming process for all the women named that night.

Those up late shared a final late night smudge with Mari, to bring them happy dreams and good sleep.

Wednesday was a super-productive construction day.  We all worked well on the mini teams we formed to accomplish all that needed to happen.

Several people worked to make sure the floor joists were in – Deb and I followed behind to put in the smaller joists.  Deb was fearless as she scaled the longer joists and hammered from above – and the crew on the saws was patient with us as we shouted out the precise measurements we needed.  They were awesome working the power saw.

At the end of the day we were ready to lay down the floor boards on Thursday.  Oh – everybody was laughing at the very serious face I apparently make when I hammer!  After construction we met some of the students and recent graduates.  We had fun chatting in the yard and on the bus – I met Amy, Katie, Alex, Juno and Roy on the bus ride to the river.

I had a great time floating down the river on an inner tube with Melissa.  We hit a few rocky patches along the way but we also found a few rapids that were lots of fun.

It was pretty peaceful and we also found a herd of beautiful horses – and even stopped to pet them.  We wished we’d had some apples to feed them.

We made it back to Two Medicine, changed into warm clothes and enjoyed the barbeque.  The turkey burgers were delicious – but I saved room for the smores we made around the campfire later on.  We had lots of laughs about the day when we sat around the campfire.  The stars were great again too.

Oh – Megan also successfully made Jiffy Pop over the campfire.  Looking forward to putting the floorboards on tomorrow.

C

A New Chapter

This morning we continued with our last stage of construction this week – putting the floor in place on the joists and beams and walls we had been building all week.

We spent some time with Charlie getting it all straight and square, and then heaving the heavy structural flooring sheets into place.  Deb enhanced her mountain goat status, balancing and leaping about on joists laying down construction glue, while Melissa and others helped wrestle the boards in place and tacked them down with nails.

Then it was down to a crew of hammerers, nailing the boards finally into position with nails 4 inches apart.  It was a huge job, and by our finish time of 12.30pm we were half way done.  It was hard to drag ourselves away, but by 1.00pm we stopped at the end of a row of boards, took a group photo and had a group hug with Charlie to celebrate our achievement.

Then it was time for a frantic pack, before breaking camp and heading to our mountain retreat.  We drove into Browning and met our guide, Pauline Matt, outside the De La Salle Blackfeet School, then followed her up the road towards the mountains for half an hour.

Our camp site was originally planned to be in the mountains, but the smoke from the fires near St Mary’s was still so strong we moved down to the foothills to stay on the property of a local Blackfeet family.

We arrived to find four lodges (tipis) set up in a beautiful wide field, surrounded by Aspens and Diamond Willows, with the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and wild forests behind us.  We met a few challenges in our first few hours – a hive of wild bees showed great interest in our arrival, although the fly swatters and a tented eating area kept them mostly at bay!  And after the luxury of porta-potty’s at our last camp site, we went even more outdoors – with a pit toilet made up of a hole in the ground and a bench with a toilet seat on it!  At least the view was spectacular!

After settling into camp, Pauline introduced herself and our other leader for the retreat, Mari King. Pauline and Mari are both pipe holders in the Blackfeet tribe, which gives them special responsibilities for caring for others in the tribe who need help.  Pauline has lived a diverse life, raising children, building houses, running a herbal business selling products based on Blackfeet traditional knowledge and running wilderness retreats for women.  She now only runs one retreat a year, and we were honoured that she chose our group for this year.

Mari is a talented painter, and holds many degrees including criminology, counseling and psychology, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Montana.  After introductions on the first evening, we were set our first task – Mari taught us how to make our own parfleche bag.

Parfleche bags are made from rawhide and come in all shapes and sizes to carry your belongings.  We made small ones to wear around our necks, and started by sanding the rawhide to soften it, then folding and painting the bags, before stitching them up and decorating them with beads.  As we worked, Mari told us stories of the Blackfeet and their beliefs. 

For many of us this was the first art project we had attempted since childhood, and we chose from traditional designs for our decorations, or ones that had a more personal meaning for us.

Late that night we retired to our tipis, set to continue our adventure the next day.

Our program up in the mountains for the next two days is as follows:

Our Wilderness retreat will be led by Rising Wolf Wilderness Adventures for Women.

Women of the Earth

Join Blackfeet Indian Guides

Herbalist Pauline Matt

Artist Patty Hall

Blackfeet Historian Linda Juneau

For three days of outdoor fun, spiritual growth and good old fashioned sisterhood!

Our dreams begin by visualizing a traditional Blackfeet camp with many other women just like ourselves, women who have a deep love for the earth and the warm friendship of others.  One of the greatest ways to do this is to join together to share the beauty of our rich heritage and our wonderful homeland.

By nature – Blackfeet women love creativity, laughter and Mother Earth teaches us to treat ourselves with gentle care.  This is the kind of atmosphere we will provide during your stay.

YOUR GUIDES: Who we are

Patty is a traditional self-taught artist who finds her greatest enjoyment in creating traditional Blackfeet designs and artwork.  She will share with you her expertise in designing a painted parfleche.

Linda is a traditional Blackfeet historian.  With her ancient legends and stories she will bring you back in time when our people came to be here and their lifestyles.

Pauline is a traditional plant woman (herbalist).  Our camp is located at the base of the Rocky Mountains where some of the most wonderful plants on earth grow.  She will share with you her knowledge of the medicinal, spiritual and physical healing of local plants.

The Adventure Begins

Thursday, August 3^rd, 2006.

Honoring All Women

Camp arrival: Assigned to your lodge (tipi) and assigned to your animal clan, Deer, Bear, Moose, Skunk etc.

Get settled into your lodge.  Introductions through games and stories.  Afternoon walk and stories and legends of our Mountain surroundings.

6.00 pm Candlelight Dinner prepared for you by Native Cooks.

Evening presentation: The importance of tobacco, smudges and offerings.

8.00 pm  Campfire stories of women yesterday and today.

Friday, August 4^th, 2006.

Honoring our Earth Mother

Today is a day of honoring the Earth and all She provides for us.

6.30 am  Camp Crier.

7.00 am  Sunrise Ceremony

7.30 am  Breakfast (pack lunch for a walk)

9.00 am  We will load up and take a drive to some of the historic areas such as ancient tipi rings, Buffalo jump and other areas of interest.

3.00 pm  Now that everyone is back in camp, relax with snacks, drinks and reflect on our day.

5.00 pm  Supper is served.

6.00 pm  Making your own parfleche bag with Patty.

7.30 pm  Campfire entertainment.

Saturday, August 5^th, 3006

Honoring Our Families

6.30 am  Camp Crier.

7.00 am  Sunrise Ceremony.

7.30 am  Breakfast.

9.00 am  Relaxing morning with new and old friends.  Each clan will entertain each other by putting on a skit.  The theme will be “Honoring the Earth”.  Be creative and most of all have fun!

1.00 pm  Afternoon hike to Running Eagle Falls.  Linda will share with you the great legend of the Powerful Blackfeet Woman by the name of Running Eagle.

4.00 pm Back to camp at Two Medicine

I’m sitting here on the edge of the construction site of the bunkhouse watching the girls all working as a team, laughing, chatting, singing silly songs like – “if I had a hammer” – because there was no chance after our amazing day yesterday as everyone had so much to say, that I could get my hands on this blog book.  We are girls on a mission, we love our hammers, and the circular saw. We are having more fun than all of us could ever have imagined. I can’t believe we are all survivors of breast cancer. I think love has gone into every nail we’ve hammered into this construction.

Yesterday was such a moving day that I’m really starting to understand the Blackfeet people. A tour of the Community College after work yesterday finished with a smudging ceremony in a medicine lodge. Marvin, a Blackfoot, said a prayer for us all in Blackfoot and I said my own mantra. It was a very special ceremony. I felt very moved. Then after that in the early evening I climbed to the top of the Buffalo Jump. I am awestruck at this site, with the wild horses that flirted around us. I climbed a mountain, it was a huge challenge.

Right now, Canadian Geese are flying over us. This is amazing country.

After another delicious Mexican dinner prepared by Donna, Mary and all the volunteers we had a talk from Eloise Cobell on the law suit against the US government for the Blackfeet Trust funds.  It was very moving.  The evening finished with a few of us girls taking a walk through a Blackfeet grave yard.  Some of the graves were from the 1830’s with names like Chief Crow, Tail Feathers.

It’s a beautiful day today and our construction is really taking shape.  I love Land of the Big Sky.  This is an adventure of a lifetime.  There’s some pretty special bonding happening here.

Donna Handley, Sydney

It was a great day on the construction site today.  We have all achieved so much.  I just love the feeling of hammering all those nails in and I even used the circular saw today.  We will be putting the floor on tomorrow morning!

This afternoon we went rafting and floating down Two Medicine River.  I was on an inner tube.  It was good when it was floating but a bit of a challenge when the water was too shallow and we had to walk on slippery rocks.  (I didn’t have any shoes with me.)

Tonight we had a barbeque with a lot of the local people and their children came.  They are just so good to us.  The ladies from the Cancer Support Group here gave all of us a goodie bag with lots of nice things for us to take home. 

This week has been very special.  So many good things have happened and so many great friendships have been formed. 

I’m sending a special hello to MASON, TARYN, CHERIDA, AMITY AND JACK.  I love you!

Cheryl

PS – “Power shopping” is when you only have a short time to do a lot of shopping.

We worked really really hard this morning on the construction – we are ready to do the floor tomorrow – I’m so happy about that!

We had quite the journey yesterday Two Medicine River with the Blackfeet children.  Some of us were in a big raft trying to paddle – problem was, the water was so shallow we had to keep getting out to get it over the rocks.

Yesterday we were all cranky and cold when we go tback, but we got our humour back pretty quickly.

I had bare feet while we were rafting, so I grabbed a pair of flip-flops that were in the raft that belonged to Donna.  Well that lasted about five minutes until I jumped out of the raft to push it and sank into mud about a foot deep!

Needless to say, I got out of the mud, the pink flip flops did not.  The girls say the pink flip flops were our sacrifice to the River God.  Good thing as they were quickly swallowed up!

Afterwards we had a barbeque with the children and the women BC survivors of the tribe.

Special thanks to our hero Austin, who is a young Blackfoot that pushed us out of so many rocks on the river without complaint.

Special love to my boys – Tommy, Jesse and Ryan and my family of Crazies!!

Jeanie

Up a Creek without a Paddle

The bunkhouse continued to take shape today with more sawing and hammering and hauling!

We cut the last of the joists this morning, then it was cutting of blocks to go in between them and make the whole structure solid.  Finally we cut the pieces of timber to go around the outside and formed a hammering production line to connect everything together. 

We are now ready for the plywood flooring to go on tomorrow and the structure is really starting to come together.  It gave us a great sense of achievement to see this first vital part of the bunkhouse almost complete, and to know it was measured, cut, carried and hammered into place by every one of us.

After we finished work, a group of local Blackfeet children came over to visit us and to go rafting down Two Medicine River on inner tubes and a raft.  We traveled by bus a few miles up river from our camp site to Carol Murray’s place to inflate the tubes and rafts and threw them in just below a weir.

Our trip should have been a leisurely float for an hour back to our campsite, but the river level had dropped over the last week and we ended up spending two hours floating a little, walking and dragging a lot, to get to a point where the bus could pick us up.

It was team building to say the least!  We were tired and cold by the time we made it back to camp, but warm showers, good food and the wonderful company of the local Blackfeet people. 

Tonight the local Blackfeet Cancer Support Group put on an barbeque with us.  We would love to have had more time with them, but the extra hours on the river got us back quite late.  The local group has an annual Cowboys for Cancer ride – last year with 250 riders – that starts 10 miles outside of Browning to raise money for cancer support.  Half the money raised goes to an organization in Great Falls, with the rest used locally to support patients who have to travel for treatment.

The group had put together wonderful gift bags for all of us with donations from the local people – an incredibly touching gesture.  We just wished we had more time to spend with them.  Donna gave little koalas, kangaroos and pencils with an aboriginal design on them to all the children which was a great hit.

One of the most special moments of the night came from our friend Mary, a local Blackfeet breast cancer survivor who had visited us on several nights.  At last year’s auction for the Cancer Support Group, she bought a blanket that was made with patches of denim from local cancer survivors on one side, and an Indian blanket design on the other.  When she bought the blanket a year ago she said she would hold on to it until she met the right person to hand it on to.

After talking to Deb earlier in the week, Mary was touched by her personal story and so tonight she presented the blanket to Deb to take home with her and on her future journey into the Grand Canyon.

Patti from the Native American Bank was here again tonight and we talked some more about the fantastic work they are doing.  When the allotment scheme was introduced in the 1880s the intention was for the Blackfeet to become farmers, but with land and no capital to buy equipment or stock or seed, it was impossible.

Today, since that land is still held in individual trusts, they cannot apply for traditional mortgages or loans which in many cases leaves them with land and a basic hut, but no money to build a proper house.  The Native American Bank has gone through the process of negotiating with the government to be able to offer Trust Mortgages, and have helped many Blackfeet now to take out loans and build their own houses, or open businesses.  It is a truly inspiring story.

About half of our group curled up in their tipis for an early night's sleep, while the other half gathered around the campfire. We taught the Australians how to make smores and Jiffy Pop and had a lot of laughs. The stars were again amazing, and sharing the beautiful night around a warm fire with such good friends was yet another incredible experience in this very full day.
 

Tomorrow we will finish our work on the bunkhouse at lunch time, and then leave for our two day retreat in the mountains with local Blackfeet leader, Pauline Matt.  We won’t have internet access in the mountains, so this will be the last Blog update until we return on Saturday night.