Category: da rez blog

friday was grandparents day. we love our granddaughters so we went to eat with kinikwe and miamikwe. they go to royal valley.  we walked with kinikwe from her classroom to the dining room. we talked with her while we ate our lunch.

cece’s class ate half an hour later. we waited for her class. we sat with her as she ate. we already ate our lunch. after she was done we walked her back to her classroom. she showed us her desk. she waved at us as we told her good bye.

there were lotsa grandparents at the school.  i seen so many indians i thought i was at walmart. we visited with many of them. we waved at others.

yesterday we went to the KU football game.  the game was a sell out. we left early so we could park close to the stadium. the place we had parked at before was full. we went to another down the street. they said $40 to park. when i hesitated, the lady said it was the going price.

we paid the money and walked the two blocks to the stadium. the neighborhood was full of tailgate parties going on. everyone was up for the game.  we were 80 minutes early. that was alright. we watched the teams practice.

it warmed up as the game got underway. the sun was bearing down on us. a few times, i had to go down below where the stands were. i needed to get out of the sun. i worked in 105 degree heat when i worked on building bridges. now that i am getting older i feel the heat more. the same thing happened last week when i went to andrews football game.

i noticed many other senior citizens were also getting out of the heat. it was too hot for them too. it was mostly older people that got out of the heat but some younger people did too. it actually wasnt that hot but it did get to a few people. one lady had to get medical attention.

after each time i cooled down i would go back and watch the game. it was a good game. the stadium was packed. to paraphrase field of dreams “win some games and they will come”. i liked it when the students on one side hollered “rock chalk”. our half of the stadium would answer “jayhawk”.

the jayhawks played a good game. they should be ranked this week. it’s been years since the last time they were. they can pick up a coupla more victories. the packed house stayed for most of the game. i remember when students would get up at halftime and head to the bars. they didnt this game.

after the game we had to wait to get out of the lot where we parked. they packed cars in tight. we had to wait on the car parked in front of us so we could leave. when i got home i watched the game again since i recorded it.

tomorrow we are going to get my cushaw squash. that will be a day trip.

i do get off the rez now and then. tuesday we went to see the mayan exhibition at union station in kansas city. it was worth the almost 20 bucks admission fee. it took us an hour and a half to get thru the whole tour. we had to do alot of reading. that was okay with me. i get into history.

seeing all the artifacts and pictures reminded me of our 10-day tour of guatemala. we were on our own tour bus that traveled to all the regions of the country. we went to see the ruins at tikal. that was one of the main things i wanted to see.

one of the displays at the exhibition said the mayans worshipped over a thousand gods.  yeah they created a great civilization but were mere pagans eh. most cultures recognized one God.

i seen a tv program about the mayan, aztec and incan pyramids.  it said that the indians couldnt have built the pyramids because they didnt have the technology. the conclusion was it had to be aliens from outer space that actually built them then went home.

on the way to the exhibition a semi-truck kicked up a rock. it made a loud noise as it hit our windshield. i didnt see the ding where it hit. we went to see the mayan exhibit. when we came out i seen that it had a crack about 6 inches long. we stopped for lunch and it grew to about a foot long. we got the windshield replaced yesterday.

i got a call from the amish country store where i shop for supplies. i was told the 10 cushaw crooked neck squash that i ordered are ready to be picked up. i want dry the squash so i have a years supply on hand. i might take a few to our fall dance.

i said i would pick the squash up on friday. i forgot i am scheduled to eat lunch with my granddaughters for grandparents day. then in the afternoon i have to go pick up my grandson in lawrence. i called the country store back and left a message i couldnt pick up the squash until next week. they havent called me back yet. the squash will keep until then. i hope it is alright with them.

i am ready for saturdays football game between KU and duke. i got the tickets in an email. they are loaded on my cell phone. i heard they sold over 40 thousand tickets so far. they want a sell out for the game. that would be 47,000 fans at the stadium. that will be loud. i bet andrew wishes he could go with us but he has games this weekend.

i sorted thru my porcupine hair. i was getting the short hair under 4 inches long together. normally i dont use hair that short. i will make a porcupine rosette. this time for what some call ‘indian sunglasses’. they cover the eyes of dancers. now i will be able to use hair that i put aside.

gotta get to work on that rosette.

we went to andrews football game this past saturday. we wanted him to know we were behind him.  we left early because it was too hot for samuel who was falling asleep in the stands. i felt the heat too.  we were in the direct sun. besides i wanted to get home to watch the jayhawks play.

i made it home in time to watch KU win their third football game in a row. i have been a fan even when our team wasnt very good. i supported the jayhawks when KU was considered one of the worst teams in the country. i went to many KU football games over the years. there were always tickets available.

i am happy we have a team that i can cheer for. i get emails almost daily about KU sports. i have read everything i could find about this team. i figured they would be good. i believed this coaching staff was the one to turn things around.

before the season started odds were that KU’s football team would win 2.5 games. i regret i didnt put down a bet that KU would beat the over. i said they would cover that. three games into the season and they covered that bet. i coulda won some money.

i  bought tickets to the opening game that we won.  then i bought tickets to the Duke game this weekend. i will be sitting in the stands with more fans now. fair weather fans will be climbing on the bandwagon. I am toying with the idea of buying tickets to the iowa state game. i never thought i would have to buy tickets early to get into a KU football game.

i have about 7 pints of hot sauce left from what i made last year. that wont last until next year. i was cruising thru topeekie and seen a sign that said tomatoes for sale. i bought them then i bought some habanero peppers from the farmers market. i made hot sauce with that. it is hot and i dont say that lightly. mary canned 9 pints. that will last me until i can get a crop of my own.

yesterday i went to get a ct scan. it was suggested because i had siblings that had aneurysms. the doctors made the rest of us aware that we should be concerned about that. i wanted to be sure i didnt have any. my results came back and i dont have any now.

the test was just a precaution. i have labs done every three months. i will have any test done on me to catch anything early. i am just being safe. it wouldnt be right to come thru open heart surgery and now finally getting my diabetes under control and let anything else do me in.

today we are going to union station to see the Mayan exhibition. i think it will be time well spent. i like seeing and learning about more history. this will remind me of our 10-day trip to guatamala and belize.

gotta do chores and get ready to head out.

i turned the chicks that i bought this spring in with the rest of the older hens.  i had them fenced off in the chicken house from the older hens. i didnt want them pecked up. they are no longer chicks. they are beginning to lay eggs.  all the chickens will be on the same layer feed.

now i have twenty hens with one rooster. half are production reds except for one light brown hen. the other half are red island reds, my favorite chicken. my misho used to say not to get white chickens because the hawks can spot them easy from way up there. we havent had many white chickens because he said that. he has been gone for over 60 years.

the first eggs the rhode island reds are laying are slightlly smaller than the ones the production reds are laying. that will change. the eggs will get bigger the more they lay. i bet i will get at least a dozen big, brown eggs a day. enough for my family and some left over to sell to buy more feed.

i finished the porcupine hair arm bands i was working on. i was gonna put mirrors on them but they didnt work out. the covers were loosened and i didnt wanna risk the mirrors falling out. i used polished silver conchos instead. i will make more of these for my future pow wow stand.

i am interested in an exhibition at union station in kansas city. it is called “Maya the exhibition. The Great Jaguar rises.” they have 300 artifacts that havent been seen outside of guatemala. mary and i spent 10 days in guatemala. going to this exhibit will be like revisiting that country.

we plan to go check this exhibition out this week. they are charging bout 20 bucks for admission but i really wanna see it. besides its per cap time eh. another exhibit is coming soon. it will be king tuts treasures. i wanna to see that exhibit too.

i got a call about the potawatomi trail of death. they are going to do a retracing of the route from indiana to kansas next fall. once i traveled the whole route with the trail of death association. i got to meet and visit with the people involved. mary and i have met groups at sugar creek that were retracing the route. once we cooked a meal for them.

they are hoping for more involvement from the prairie band. many of those on the original trail of death march ended up on the citizen band potawatomi roll. some married into the prairie band. members of our band have ancestors that were on the trail of death too. i probably will meet the group when they get to sugar creek. i hope others do too.

we had some room in our freezer after de-icing it. we bought a pork bundle to go with the quarter of beef we added to it. we rarely buy meat from grocery stores. most of what we eat comes from meat lockers. it tastes better and has less chemicals in it.

gotta go watch andrew play football today. then rush home to watch the KU football game.

or a rich one. i had cowboy bread and corn soup for supper last night. you gotta either grow corn yourself or pay the big bucks for it that some charge for dried indian corn. i love our dried corn so much that i grow it. i didnt get a crop this year but i have some stored away for the lean years like this one.

we found some deer meat when we thawed out our freezer. mary defrosted it. i asked what she was gonna do with it. she said have it for supper whenever. i said then cook it with our dried corn. so we had corn soup last night. when i was growing up, if you wanted bread you had to make it yourself. my mother made cowboy bread a lot. i still like to eat it.

i still remember my mother making cowboy bread on the wood stove. my brothers and i  had to bring in the wood to get the stove going as one of our chores. my mother also made biscuits in the oven of that wood stove. it musta took some real skill to judge how much heat was needed to bake biscuits as good as they were.

i got my refund from the NIL place. i wasnt ripped off. they didnt give me a reason why i didnt get a shoutout for my grandson. i would have preferred it to getting the money back. guess i am naive to how business works. used to be that when you paid for something, you got it.

today i have to go after more chicken feed. the good news is i no longer have to buy the chick starter that costs more. i can feed all of the chickens the same layer feed. i will turn the chicks out with the older hens. they arent chicks anymore. they are hens that are ready to lay eggs. the rooster will strut around the yard too. i will like hearing him crow like a politician.

today is a tribal holiday of sorts. it is per cap day. most of mine will go toward making two car payments. the rest will go into my bank account. i will transfer some to my savings account for my bucket list trip.  i had friends n relatives say to me ‘it must be nice to be rich’ after i have taken some trips. i am a several tax brackets lower than being rich. i save my money for things i want. they could do the same thing instead of whining.

i finished the two arm bands i was working on. i am starting to make another porcupine hair rosette. it will be for what some call ‘indian sunglasses’. it will go on the headband and cover part of the eyes. you dont see those that often anymore. i will make a few of them to use up the short hair i have left over.

gotta do my chores before heading to town.

i decided to check out how much hair i have sorted. i have more than i realized. i have maybe a pound or two that is sorted. i have another cardboard with half as much as the one shown. it has hair that is a lighter shade of yellow. this hair is a darker orange.

i have been sorting porcupine hair for a few years. whenever i have time i sit down and sort hair.  i buy the hair in big bundles of several ounces and up to a pound of hair. it is usually from a number of porcupines. i have to clean the dirt off of it and comb out the under fur and quills.

i put a rubber band on smaller bunches of hair that are roughly the same size and color. i take out the all blond or all black hair. i remove hair with too much white on the bottoms that wont be covered by the deer tail trim. i also remove hair that has too much color on the tips. i dont want the top color to be staggered.

i leave only the hair that is all black with uniform yellow or orange tips on it. my roaches look better when the hair sorted like this. it is extra work but is worth it.  i put the sorted hair into a wooden wine box to protect it from getting bent.

i have enough hair sorted for at least 10 to 15 roaches. the numbers on the cardboard sides are in inches. the hair slid down an inch below the bottom mark.  i have enough hair for several roaches that will be over 9 inches long. maybe one or two over 10 inches.

all this hair is a result of me patiently sorting it. i couldnt guess how many hours i put into doing that. i binge watch tv or jam out to my music while i am sorting hair. i have pounds of porcupine hair that i bought over the past years. i knew making roaches would be my craft after i retired. i looked at it as an investment in myself.

the reason i  was checking out my sorted hair was because i needed some to finish the armbands i am making. i have more than enough to finish them. next i will make some more woodland style roaches. i want to have a supply of them on hand.

yesterday my granddaughter kinikwe and i went to gather the eggs. we looked at the chicks i bought this spring. we saw an egg in their pen. today i found another one. they are finally ready to start laying eggs. i will get some zip ties to band their feet so i know which chickens i got this spring.

after i band the chickens i will turn them loose with the older hens i have. one of the chicks ended up being a rooster. thats okay i like hearing a rooster crow in the yard. i will have 19 hens that will be laying eggs. i will be getting lotsa eggs every day now. thats okay too. i have steady customers that buy my extra eggs. that money goes toward feed.

gotta get busy on that armband.

we went to samuels soccer game yesterday. sometimes i may be living in the past. last week i was ahead of myself. i thought samuel was gonna play last weekend. he didnt. his game was yesterday.

samuels’ game was held in topeka near the kansas river. it was the first time i have been to that soccer complex. it had nice facilities and plenty of parking. william took andrew to his game in olathe and joined us later. we took samuel to his game in topeka. he had to be there early.

it was raining for awhile. we had to break out the umbrellas. we covered with a blanket because it was kinda cool.  we sat back and cheered samuel on. they dont keep score but parents do. our team got beat. it dont matter we had fun watching samuel play. he knew he had 8 of us supporting him.

i was all excited about devin neal giving andrew a shout out thru the NIL opendorse site. it allows athletes to be paid for their name, image and likeness. the site said i could get a shout out for $13. i could make an offer of what i wanted to pay. i said i would pay $25. i seen the site added on an $8 fee. i paid it. then i got a text message that devin couldnt accept my offer a week later.

i was disappointed and told andrew about the surprise i had planned for him. i told him it wasnt gonna happen. i thought about it and checked my bank account. i noticed that even though andrew wasnt gonna get the shout out they did charge me.

i wrote to them telling them they took my money but i didnt get what i paid for. i applied for a refund.  i thought that the NIL site was on the up and up. or at least they should be. i dont blame devin for what opendorse does. i am waiting to hear from them.

i used to give maple sugar candy to these old men that used to teach me things. they really liked it so i would share with them when i scored some. i havent had any in a few years. different people said they would help me get some. they didnt come thru. i have been missing the taste of the maple candy that my ancestors loved.

this past spring, my nephew got some maple candy while on a trip up north. i rationed it out as long as i could. i just had a piece now and then. after it was gone, my son got some while he was up north recently. i rationed it out too. now i am finally out of my maple candy. like those old men, i really like the taste of it. hopefully i can score some more next year.

yesterday i watched the KU football team win their first league game. i predicted they would win. one of my sons bet on the game and won too. today i will watch the Kansas City Chiefs play.

gotta do my chores first.

for some reason i was thinking back to my hippie days. or as john lennon said ‘my lost weekend’. i bummed around all over the country, probably consuming way too much alcohol and drugs as a rebellion against boarding school days. i criss crossed the country many times. i covered enough states that later in life i decided i had to see the rest of the 50 states.

i got around in a number of ways. sometimes i scored a plane ticket like when i was sent to an all indian job corps in montana. other times i rode a bus like the time i was sent to oakland california on the government relocation program. it seemed every time i got on a bus; all the crazies decided to ride at the same time.

other times i hitch hiked. everything i owned was in my backpack. i had a tent and sleeping bag. it was a good thing i didnt give a damn.  sometimes they would find hitch hikers in the bottoms of canyons or in their sleeping bags with their throats slit. many of them were transients. no one missed them.

i hitch hiked up and down the west coast many times. once i hitch hiked coast to coast in a week to join the first longest walk in d.c.  from there i hitched a ride home. after that i hitched another ride. i covered several thousand miles in a few weeks. i could never top that trip so i quit thumbing after that.

i dont know why i had that wanderlust. maybe because i grew up on the rez and then later went to boarding school. i hadnt seen much of the world. i developed a curiousity about what was on the other side of the hill. it wasnt enough to hear about it. i had to see it myself.

i am glad that i did. once someone asked me why i like to travel so much. i said because maybe someday it will take me all day to walk from the bedroom to the living room. thats why i tried to see as much as i could. when i can no longer travel i will be glad i got to see what i did.

my bucket list is far from complete but i have seen the worlds second largest ball of twine. i never been to heaven but i been to oklahoma. once i sat on a mountain side looking down at machu picchu. not bad for a rez kid who in his youth had to wait for his turn to go to town.

as i got older i became content to live out my life here on the rez. this is my home. it took years of roaming around to realize that. i started out here and ended up back here. i met one of our older ladies at the first longest walk. she told me ‘go on home kid, everything you are looking for is there’. she was right.

i have lived in this government house for 37 years. some indians whine about these houses but it is far better than most places i have lived in over the years. it is also the longest i have lived anywhere. i used to think home is where you hang your hat. now i know it is where you make it.

gotta quit reflecting on the past and get busy eh.

woke up in a fog this morning. no, no i dont smoke it no mo. there was a foggy mist over our hayfield. i took a picture of it but it didnt do justice to how the fog looked.

we went to town after i did my chores. i had to go get fitted for some diabetic shoes. the doctor recommended that i get them because i have a bone spur. she said the shoes would be better for my feet.

they made a mold of my feet so i will get 3 pairs of shoe inserts. i can put them in any shoe. the lady at the shoe place seen i had brooks running shoes on. she said they had brooks shoes in stock. i got fitted for a pair of them. they are black. i said i could live with them. i will be able to pick them up the first part of next week.

i will use my new shoes when i am walking. i havent been walking as much since i found out i had a bone spur. i need to get back into my routine. once i start i can keep it up. trick is to get into the routine.

we never go to town for just one thing. while in town we filled our drinking water jugs. that will last us a while. i also stopped at a migo grocery store. i bought some canned mexican style hominy, tripe and pigs feet. i will make some mishmot tomorrow. i have been hungry for that. i dont cook often but when i do it is usually something i want.

i will have a surprise for andrew. he recently started playing tackle football in lawrence. at the KU game, he was impressed that devin neal of the jayhawks was from lawrence. i checked out Neals page on the NIL site. i seen i can get him to do a video shoutout for a few bucks. so i went for it.

in the shout out Neal will say “hi andrew, this is devin neal. work hard at football and maybe someday you can come play for the Jayhawks”. i dont know when i will get that but i am anxious for andrew to see that. that kid knows that his misho will do anything for him.

i sorted porcupine hair yesterday. i will sort hair again today. that is a never ending chore. i will keep working on roaches and rosettes. i like to keep busy. and i want to build inventory for a future pow wow stand.

i gotta pick up the blankets that covered the sweat lodge. i will take the good ones to the laundromat. we will wash them and use them to cover the lodge before putting the canvas tarp on. hope i got enough blankets to do that.

over the years i have met lotsa people. recently i remembered this dude from el paso, texas. we used to call him the a$$?0!e from el paso. he would always respond. people wondered why we called him that. we said cuz he was.

gotta get busy

friday night mary, andrew and i went to KU’s first football game of the season. i have been waiting for this game since i bought my tickets several weeks ago.  i believe this team will be better than teams of the past.

i told andrew that mary and i were going to the game. he said i wanna go too. he remembered going to the season opener with us and his auntie hattie last year. he had fun because KU came from behind and won that game.

i had to get another ticket for him.  i found one in the row in front of us. mary sat in that seat for a little while. whoever bought the seats next to us didnt show so we did get to sit together.

we werent the only fans. there were almost 35 thousand fans in the stands. the team is buying into the new coach’s approach. the fans need to have faith in the process too.  we better stand behind our team.

i have gone to many KU football games over the years. i seen wilt chamberlain in the audience once. another time i went to a game with my brother gary. i told him look theres gale sayers. i took his program and went to ask for gale’s autograph. he obliged me. i gave gary his autographed program.

we had some down years in the past few years. i back the team anyway. i still say KU is the best school i ever dropped out of. it was my favorite school but i couldnt deal with my alcoholism and school at the same time during my wild youth.

i like to park as close to the stadium as i can get. that means paying someone to park in their yard.  we did last year. we parked in the same yard this game. the guy raised his prices by $10. he only had one spot left so we took it. we were a block and a half away from the stadium.

we brought pillows to sit on. i remember that the stadium seats are too hard to sit on for a whole game. the pillows made it easier to deal with.  i will take a pillow when we go to the duke game.

we had plenty to cheer about this game. KU scored two touch downs on 6 plays to start the game. they dominated the other team for the whole game. KU crowds arent used to that. the place was loud. that had to make our team feel good to see a bigger crowd behind them.

by the third quarter there was little doubt KU would win. they were up bout 40 points. i told mary and andrew we should ease out. we had an hour drive home. i wanted to hit the road before the traffic. we listened to the radio as we drove out of town. KU won handily. now i regret not placing that over bet on them to win more than 2.5 games.

cant wait til next game now.