Reznjun

this warm weather and early spring had me wishing for a garden. today i got my wish. the land department came by and tilled up my garden spot. i seen them yesterday when they were going to till up the language house garden. it is in a low spot and was still too wet. i asked if they add me to the list. they said yeah. i told them my garden was on a slight slope, so it had natural drainage. they tilled my garden and it didnt have any mud in it. thats why i placed my garden where it is.

my garden has gotten bigger every year. it is bigger again this year. they tilled up my garden with the tractor i helped score for the tribe. it was a question of carry over money that had to be spent. it wasnt tribal money but federal dollars.  if the money wasnt spent we would lose it. spend money. hell i knew i could do that. i knew what it would take to improve our garden program for years to come. besides the tractor i secured a tiller attachment and a brush hog. i also got a trailer to transport the tractor with, and a large storage building to house the tractor. some pencil pusher was trying to give someone else credit for getting that shed. yeah right. good ol boys didnt want this brown man to get any credit. while spending money i also bought greenhouses, garden hoses, another large electric start tiller, a shed to house it and other tools, composters etc. there were alot of things i knew would help the garden program out.

the irony of the work i was doing is i was kept on part time contract work. before i came along there was a gardener and a coordinator. i did both jobs at 35 hours a week without any benefits. i didnt get any paid days off. i was paid less than my predecessors even though i had more experience. i arranged funds to get a part time helper. the money had to be spent. i didnt get the helper even though i am only a few years away from retireing. in spite of all that i worked to make my program one of the best. there were 17 other tribes in the grant my program was funded from. i felt my program was at the top. i couldnt be nominated for employee of the quarter because i was a contract worker.  so today when they tilled my garden with the equipment i helped get i felt good about it. even a little personal satisfaction.

while they were still tilling my garden i went to town. i bought seed potatoes, onion sets, radish seed, spinach seed and lettuce seed. i will cut the potatoes up and put them in the ground as soon as they are ready to plant. i will plant the onions at the same time. next up is buying strawberry plants. i will put them in the flower bed next to the house. spring is indeed in the air………….

for indians, this is our new year. spring time. when life starts all over again. you can see new life all around us. the trees are budding out. flowers are blooming.  wild onions are ready to be picked. the grass is greening up.

a new life that started for me is my grandson andrew. he came to the rez for a visit this past friday. we watched the k u game together. he was still in the womb when we went to the k u – baylor game. i bet he heard all that and felt it too. the first thing i bought for him was a k u outfit. he wore it a few times. i like watching the game with him around. i have gone down to his place to watch a couple of games. he wont be here to watch the game with me today. i miss the little guy.

the weather has been unbelievable. i thought maybe mushrooms would be out. i know this is way too early but temperatures have been in the eighties. we got alot of moisture last week. it drizzled all day a few times. i thought why not go check. if they are not out then at least i got some exercise by walking in the timber. my dogs konugish, joplin and hendrix came with me. i have another dog that i havent got a name for. they followed me  and stuck with me the whole time.  they enjoy being out in nature as much as i do. my dogs are loyal to me.

my refrigerator shot craps on me. we bought it a few years back. we paid a few bucks for it. i thought it would last. the old commodity one that came in this hud house lasted for 11 years so i figured the bigger, better one would outlast it. they just dont make them like they used to. we ordered another one. they will deliver it this week. i probably have to take out a few hours to be here when they bring it.

gotta get psyched up for the k u game…………..they will win without a doubt.

we are still making ball sticks at the langauge house. it is a cultural activity. it has been going good. last week we had four young men in their twenties over. they finished their sticks. one guy did two. this week we are teaching some younger ones from the boys and girls club. i wondered if they would be able to do it. its not hard work. it is repetitive. you gotta keep whittling away at the hickory until you are done. it takes someone that has already made one anywhere from 5 to 8 hours to get one finished. the younger guys really got alot done in their first day of working on them. they finished up the next day. some already want to make another stick. can’t teach enthusiasm.  so far we taught 11 people how to make a stick. all together they made over 20 sticks. the younger ones wanted to try them out. we told them to go cut a pole. we didnt think much about until they came back with a pole and set it in the ground and started to play with the sticks they made. the older ones drew satisfaction from watching them play with the sticks each made. that was thanks enough.

i think it is a good idea to teach younger people how to do things that our people have done in the past. they wont know if no one teaches them. once they have learned they will be equipped to teach others in the future. thats how our culture is preserved. if no one teaches it then it is lost. we will have one more generation of guys that can make ball sticks.

what i like about making the ball sticks is the physical activity. i try to be active. its what keeps me going. i havent been on the treadmill for the past few weeks, though i did jump on it last night.  if i dont walk my back hurts.  i have been busy so i havent logged many miles. i tend to be more active in the spring. i have all kinds of things that keeps me working. i have a garden to put in sometime soon. i have to put up a new sweat lodge. i gotta be in shape for the altitudes of peru. that is my motivation to keep going.

it has a been a productive week…..

seen a hot car on the way back from oklahoma. bad pun i guess. i heard sirens so i pulled over to the side of the road and let the fire trucks pass me. a little further down the road we came upon this car that was on fire.  it was probably too late for the firemen to do anything but contain it. its one of those situations where you know you shouldnt look but you do. they had a number of vehicles on both sides of the road. i dont know what happpened. didnt look like anyone was in the car. one door is open. they had rescue people on scene.

i drove south for the weekend because it was per cap week end. i wanted to try a few dollars in the casinos they have down there. i needed to try something different. i added a couple of players cards to my collection. i got free play at one place. kinda getting tired of the same casinos here. i didnt win down south but that is alright i guess. i view it as my entertainment. it was just a week end get away. i wanted to see how my rav4 drove on the open road. it did alright coming back. i was speeding a few times because the k u game was going to come on. i didnt want to miss any of the game. i made it home in time to watch k u barely pull this one off.

on the way back i was at a stop light. the light turned green. the old car in front of me barely moved. after it got thru the intersection it pulled over to the right hand lane. so i started to pass it on the left lane. as i was going around it, the other car sped up. it looked like it was trying to drag race me. i looked over at the driver. it was an old indian man. he was laughing. i got a kick out of that. it made me think ‘i hope i am that happy when i get to that age’.  thats the neat thing about oklahoma. you can always see indians there. i talked to a few that i met.

my ncaa tourney bracket is shot. a few upsets happened but that should affect everyones bracket equally. no one would think duke and missouri would be out in the first round. a line of missouri cars were driving home this week end. now they can watch k u.  i put k u all the way in my bracket again. i do that every year. they usually have one of the best teams in the country every year. that is good for our fans. the experts never give k u enough credit. i dont think they know what the hell they talking about half the time.

i guess it is now spring according to the calendar. the trees down south were already blooming. the spring solstice or what ever you call it will be in a few days. that is when the new agers flock to places like machu picchu or chichen itza. they can feel the energy or something at these places. too bad they cant be content where they are at. what i feel is spring……

maybe last night some were checking their banks to see if the checks hit. more than likely some will miss work today. others will be at the casino.  it will be business as usual for me. mine will stay in the bank until i head out for peru next month. maybe i will use some to buy giveaways for dance. i have gotten spoiled by having per cap. it is a nice addition when it comes. i can still remember living here when we didnt have anything. i think older indians deserve something good for all the years they did without.

i wonder why we dont make st patricks day a tribal holiday since there are none in march. we celebrate all kinds of days that have nothing to do with indians. so what do we have against the irish. it would be a free day to go spend per cap.

now its the time they talked about when they said beware the ides of march. i guess it is the middle of the month. that may have come from a shakespearean play. i didnt read it. hell backward rez guys dont do shakespeare.  i am not sure but i think it had to do with when they killed caesar. turned out it was a plot by his close associates,   even his best friend drove a knife into him. so basically it wasnt the time that killed ol caesar. it was his friends. maybe i have the story wrong. so what if i do. it sounds interesting.

march is also the time to fill out ncaa brackets. i usually pick k u. that choice always knocks me out of the running for the pool. it wont be different this year. i will pick them again. i have been a fan for so many years i forgot when i started to follow them. i used to have my own pool but wont have one this year. it usually was just my family members and a few friends. it wasnt a big money pool. just something to make watching the tournament a little more interesting. k u has a good bracket. final four this year.

the temperatures have been in the eighties. some people are having flowers bloom. trees are budding out. wild onions are ready to pick. this is still winter. or maybe we didnt have winter. i still have a pile of wood in the back yard. i may just use it for a sweat. gotta wait for the willows to bend. last year my nephews said they would help me put up a new lodge. they didnt. this spring for sure i will get a new lodge. i dont go long without one. i just cant get over how the weather is. it is hard to be indoors when its this nice………

i finished one ball stick. kinda proud of that accomplishment. i havent made a stick in a few years. my brother mikey wanted to make some sticks. we had a hickory tree all picked out. we said we would to get it later. like them old injuns used to say ‘it aint no good to say pa ma”. we never did go cut that tree. it got too big. mikey has been gone for nine years now. i was thinking about him while making this stick. i always think of my brothers i lost. dont take too much to be reminded of them.

there really isnt anything hard about making a stick. its just repetitive work. gotta keep at it. it took me about 6 hours or so to make this one. i took my time. it does take some skills to make a stick though. if it was easy everyone and their brother would have one. a few older guys thought it was neat that several younger guys were starting to make their own sticks. once they get the technique down they will know how to make sticks from here on. sometimes all it take is for someone to show the younger guys how to do it. cant do what you dont know how to do. i remember what my great uncle said one time ‘the reason you kids dont know anything is that we are stingy with it.’ what he meant was some things are being lost because they arent passed on.  i think it was the same way across indian land.

i have been seeing that eagle that flies around our hayfield alot of times. i seen it three times one day.  it alits in the tree along the driveway. a few times i seen it only about 50 feet away. it was windy a couple of times so i got to watch it hover right over the car. i wanted to get some video footage of it but didnt have my camera with me. you can see the markings on the underwings and the black and white tail. it is nice to be able to watch that bird. i imagine it will become an adult and fly off sooner or later.

we are having a baby shower today for william and robins baby boy andrew. the little guy was named after my brother bubs. we will have a few family and friends over for that.  many of them havent seen the little boy yet. i have driven to lawrence a number of times to hold him. it will be held at the rock house from 1 to 3. i am not a baby shower guy but i will go just to hold andrew. he sure is a good looking boy.

we have been working on making ball sticks. we dropped a hickory tree and took it to the language house. we then split it into quarters. after that we started the process of cutting away everything that wasnt a ball stick. i worked on one for about 6 hours. i took my time as i do with alot of things. i finished mine yesterday but after i put it in boiling water to help bend the basket part of it, it developed a crack. i will probably make another one. or maybe two more depending on how many blanks we split.

we had a few young guys come over yesterday to learn how to make them. i wanted to go watch the k u game with a plate of hot wings. but the young guys needed a bit of guidance on how to get started with their ball sticks. so i stayed and helped them. they are willing to learn, you gotta encourage them. so i missed my team playing. i didnt even get a chance to go home to set the dvr. i didnt think it would be much of a game anyway. the point spread was 14. we covered that. the reason not many know how to make ballsticks is no one has ever showed them. once they learn then they have the ability to make them from here on. the more people that know how to do these things, the better off we are as a people.

a couple of tribal workers were real helpful in helping us get ready for the stick making. they welded some vises onto stands to hold the sticks while they are being carved out. that kinda proves my point that there are still many of our people that are still willing to help out. some fort injuns just refuse to give others a hand. they kinda lost touch with what being a native is about. maybe someday they will wake up. i am glad these guys were willing to help. i went to high school with them. so we go back a few years.

while we were working at the language house larry, one of our teachers stopped by for a visit. he just had heart surgery and is recovering yet. it was good to see him out and about. hope he recovers soon. not many people have any knowledge of the langauge. so we have to treasure the ones that possess language. some of our people just dont get that point.

we had some pieces of hickory that were too small for ball sticks. so i glommed onto a few pieces and made some small drumsticks. i am making these for the hand drums i will make at a later time. seems like people that want a hand drum usually expect a stick to go with it. that is a good point. if they had the skills to make them, they would be wanting to buy a hand drum and or drumstick.

glad the next k u game is tonight. i wont miss this one…

i for one am keeping track. i can’t wait to head out. just hope that i am in shape enough to just breathe at that altitude. i have cheated a few times and enjoyed a fine cigar. i rationalized it by thinking when i go to casinos i get all that secondary smoke. so i figure why not enjoy one that i like. to my credit i gave up the cheap cigars.  it will be at 11,000 feet in a few places. and it will be at 13,000 feet in lake titicaca. i will stay there on an island for one night and will have half a day free time the next day. so i will have to deal with the thin air irregardless–whether i am in shape for it or not.  just hope i am not like some americano turistos wearing hawaiian shirts and bermuda shorts complaining they cant move another step.

about 6 or 7 months ago i wrote to the diplomatic relations department of the american embassy to peru. i told them a group of us north american indians were traveling to peru. at the time there were 10 of us going. we wanted to meet with a indian tribe from there. i asked if they could arrange such a meeting. i thought that was a cool idea. well  i got the typical government response which was no response at all. perhaps if i said i would dress up like an indian and perform maybe i would have gotten a response. or not. it was probably a bit much to think a bureaucrat would actually do something to help someone. at the very least they could have gotten a lower echelon worker and had them sent me a letter that said forget it. other governments couldnt care less about helping their indians either. i still want to meet with some indians from there. i will ask the tour group that made our travel arrangements if they could do that. they should after what i am paying for this dream trip.

i was reading something on the internet. i do that more since i let my newspaper go. i wonder if half the stuff on the net isnt merely sensationalized items based on half truths. well hey just like newspapers. but anyway what i read was simvastatin can cause diabetes. or at the least cause high blood sugar. i take that for my cholesterol. it said it also can cause memory loss…….what was i saying. oh yeah the cure for one thing i have can possibly cause another. that is the nature of medications today. then i read another article that said that drinking coffee can prevent diabetes. so basically what i found out was i dont need meds. i just need to read the internet.

i take another pill for my arthritis. then i have to take two more to offset the side effects of the first pill. sounds crazy but it works. i havent been in pain for a long time. so i put up with taking the 3 pills. i asked the doc if they had any meds for high altitude sickness. he wrote me a script for some. then he said the possible side effects could be the same symptons of altitude sickness. so again you need a cure for the cure. i may just pass on that med and take my chances.

today is suppose to be in the seventies. i may go out to scout for hickory trees. we are going to need some for making ball sticks. the language program will put on a workshop to teach others how to make them. over the years i have heard people say they wished they had a ball stick but didnt know how to make one. it is the same with playing the game. some want to play but dont have a stick. perhaps we can make a difference.

the wild onions that i transplanted to my yard look like they are almost ready to be picked. they are the first plant you can eat in the spring. i cant wait til i have some wild onion gravy. i have picked that every since i was a young lad. i was playing by the creek near our house once. i went home and told my mother it smelled like onions. she told me to go back and dig them up. so i did. she made some gravy out of them. i have picked them since then over the years. thats why i transplanted some to my flower bed. they thrive there. i figure the day will come when i wont be able to go to the timber to pick them. i dont think too many people around here eat them anymore. they dont know what they are missing.

time for march madness. again i will back the jayhawks all the way. rock chalk………..

went on a tator digging expedition yesterday. we went out to dig indian potatoes. it was part of our language program’s cultural activities. our people used to eat wild potatoes before big macs came along. we cant let that go.  we wrote down the sentences of things we would do in english then translated them to potawatomi. in the future they will know how to say these things. we filmed and took still pictures of the outing. we will add the footage to videos we will do later. we will use one of the pictures for our calendar that we put out every year.

i must be getting a little older, though i dont like to admit that. my back got a little sore from digging.  thats why i got out of gardening and into the language program. i do have arthritis in my lower back from all the physical labor i have done over the years. i moved alot of dirt to get to the potatoes that i found. after we dug the potatoes we cleaned them and cooked some. i havent eaten any in awhile.  you have to have a taste for wild potatoes. i sure enjoyed eating the fresh potatoes. we even put some away for later use. we got to be outside and get in some physical activity.

i joined in on a walk the other day. it was sponsored by the diabetes prevention program. i used to work there. they are going out into the community and trying to get people to exercise more.  i support the efforts to get our people more active and eating right. it was a short walk around the senior citizen site and the senior housing. it covered maybe a half mile. i guess the point is to just start.  i havent been on the treadmill in some time. i have been busy helping at a couple of funerals, my grandson was born, we had our language conference, etc. so i was glad to get some walking in.

i am trying to do my small part in saving the planet. i bought a gas saver car. now i am signed up to get my trash picked up by the tribes refuse disposal program. they will do this for a slight fee. i am not one to complain about getting a service provided.  i have to put garbage in one container. then i put any recyclables into another container. so instead of plastics and aluminum cans going into dumps they are reused. way to go tribe. now if only we could get some people from wasting their time.

it must be getting to be spring. skunks are out and i heard someone has already seen a snake. kinda early for these critters to be out so what winter we had must be over. i dont have a fire going half the time. then we have days when it is cool. we have an expression ‘if you dont like the weather in kansas, move to missouri’. perhaps i got that wrong. at any rate the weather is strange. perhaps the mayans are right. maybe we will be sucked into a black hole in the middle of the universe. or whatever gloomy end some people are reading into an end of a calendar cycle.  i doubt it though. hell i bought me a different set of wheels. i intend to log some miles with that vehicle.

i sure hope the world dont end this year. i have a grandson i want to watch grow up. i will go babysit him tonight. that isnt a chore at all. i like holding the little guy. he is a good looking kid.  i want some pictures of him. some old indians dont believe in taking pictures of them when they are young, especially when they dont have a name yet.  but we do it nowadays.

i was talking yesterday with a couple of older guys. a typical old guy conversation. how life is different today than ‘when we grew up’. i joined in at one point. i said ‘you know what, no matter how bad we had it no one grabbed a gun and went off like they are today.’ they agreed. well carrying a piece while bar hopping was a different story. i see today that  was really stupid. at the time though it was the wild west. well maybe things dont change. people tend to paint a rosy picture of the good ol days. one day someone will say that these are the good ol days.

hopefully sometime this year i will get to go pow wowing at least once. i kinda slacked off when gas prices went up a few years ago. then i never really picked it back up. i bought a different vehicle. one that is suppose to get up to 30 miles a gallon. that will come in handy when the gas prices go up again. damn oil companies. i will take one trip somewhere. i have been to most of the big pow wows. there isnt an absolute i gotta make this one for me. i usually only go to half the pow wow anyway. i am not one to sit there from the first song to the last. i go tour what ever place i am at. flea markets, eat places or casinos. there is always something else to do. pow wow is just an excuse to get away for a weekend.

i seen another eagle last weekend. it was several miles from here. it wasnt the one i see in our hayfield all the time. it was a young one too. it was just hovering not far above the ground because it was a windy day. it was maybe 50 feet off the ground so i could see its feathers. it was a nice looking bird. we must be getting them here on the rez. good mojo. we need all the help we can get here.