It's Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. We've accomplished much this week! The church playground is weeded and the surrounding timbers that were in bad shape have been taken down. The churchyard and cemetery are mown. We had two lawn mowers going to make the work go more quickly - still it took over a day to mow. Much weeding has been done. Two closets are framed in and the sheet rocking is in process. I've learn how to drill in sheet rock screws!
We'd been warned about the wood ticks, but had been oblivious to them until yesterday, when they found us and we found them. They like to crawl on your clothes and under your clothes, on your skin, and under your skin. After fighting them off all day yesterday, I was glad to do inside work today!
Yesterday was a food delivery for the food pantry. Four pick up loads of food suddenly arrived, along with about a dozen workers. We downloaded the food into the food pantry building and the church building. One whole load was boxes of frozen chickens and hamburger. We carted the heavy boxes into the church and stuffed all the meat that was possible into the freezers. There remained over two dozen boxes of frozen meat and other frozen food with no freezer space to put it. The food pantry won't be open for food distribution until next Tuesday, and we couldn't wait that long to get rid of the frozen stuff. Several people took a box or two to use or distribute. One member finally took all the rest and drove off into the evening to find people who needed/wanted it.
It was exhausting hauling heavy boxes all afternoon, after a morning's vigorous work around the church. I think if we kept doing this for awhile we'd really be in shape. My muscles are a little sore today. We'd heard there was a good buffet over at the Spirit Lake Casino, and decided to treat ourselves. We got a steak and shrimp buffet dinner for six dollars a piece. It was a treat!
After dinner we were offered a tour of the "Res" by our white Indian guide, Louis. We drove for miles and miles on the dirt roads, past the different communities, fields, lakes, and wildlife. Unfortunately the buffalo weren't out along the road so we missed them. Louis teaches carpentry at the Community College on the reservation. He showed us the school and his classroom/shop. It is very new with the latest equipment. It hasn't been long that community colleges have been located and available to Indian reservations.
Louis' most thought provoking quote of the evening: "A reservation is really a refugee camp." We never thought about it that way, but see that this is true.
We ended the evening by driving Louis home since his truck was being used to deliver frozen meet, somewhere else. So we got to see the area where many of the church members live, and own much of the land around it. (It's the women in the family that own the property.) He says the house in which he lives is "Hilda's house" even though he paid for it. He calls it "Red Feather Territory," because along that road live most of the members of the Red Feather clan. They all live in small houses by our standards, with several generations in each house. Sharon lives with ten or more grandchildren. Her sister, Hilda is Louis' wife. I asked Louis how many people lived with him. He wasn't sure. He said he thinks about seven right now, but it can be as many as eleven. Louis, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, feels that he has been blessed beyond imagination to have been able to live the life he has.
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