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Friday, June 10, 2011

Lodge Grass High School Graduation


Hi! Aimee here- one of the first things I got to do after I arrived was attend the Lodge Grass High School Graduation here on the Crow Reservation. I do not know exactly what I was expecting, but I assumed it would be a lot different from my graduation. However, it was relatively similar to my own graduation (except I had about 430 more kids in my class!) except for a few things.
The first thing I noticed was the decoration on the caps and gowns. When I graduated college, some students wrote things on their caps like “Hi Mom!” but the caps at Lodge Grass were decorated in a different sense. Most of the 24 students had decorative beading both on the cap and the gown. One boy even had eagle feathers on the back of his. We found out after the ceremony that this is tradition within the Crow community. Some of the beading was so incredibly intricate that it must have taken days to do.
Another difference I noted was a presentation of gifts throughout the ceremony. Each time someone special was mentioned, like the retiring teachers, they were called to the stage and given a blanket. As it turns out, these Pendleton blankets are very significant. They are given as a symbol of warmth, friendship and respect during important occasions, like a graduation. I was excited when I finally got to hear the Crow language spoken at the end of the ceremony; one prayer was said in the native Crow language. I had never heard this language spoken before and it was really cool to finally hear it! I really enjoyed my time at the graduation ceremony; it was a good look into educational aspects of Crow culture.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Crow Dancers At Sheridan Inn




Sam and Aimee with Traditional Crow Dancers.

Sami here again-
We’ve had a few days of sunshine! I’m so happy to see the nice weather. It makes it a lot easier for us to go out and explore a little. Yesterday, we went down to Sheridan Wyoming, which is south of Garryowen Montana about 65 miles, to watch Crow Tribal Dancers at the Sheridan Inn. The Sheridan Inn itself was a pretty cool thing to see, since it was bought by Buffalo Bill Cody soon after it was built and used for his Wild West Show. It is also in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the structure with the most gables. We were invited down there by a member of the Real Bird family, Pius Real Bird, the second oldest Crow Elder, to watch the dances. Chris said he would man the desk at the museum so we could have the experience and we headed that way around four thirty for the dancing at five thirty.
On our way, of course, we stopped at the state line to take a picture of the Wyoming state welcome sign. Which was neat. That and the red roads. Aimee had driven through Wyoming to come to Garryowen, and Kiley said it was something they quarried, but I think it just makes everything look all picturesque…the red road against the mountains and the sky.
The Inn wasn’t that hard to find, and we managed to get there just before they started dancing. Their outfits were so pretty! I remember the announcer saying things about how many of them were either handed down through the generations, or made by elders in their families… the amount of work that went into them is simply breathtaking. According to Kiley, this would be the closest we could get to the dancers- since at powwow’s they are surrounded by their families, drum circles, and bleachers for extra seating. There was only one drum circle here and they danced around it instead, while the people playing the drum were singing. It was amazing just to hear their voices, and watch the dancers circle them- it’s so different than what I have ever seen before and in a bigger setting it could probably be pretty overwhelming! So I’m glad we got to see it up close, even if in a smaller setting, before going to a powwow. Now we kind of know what’s going on.

Aimee here! I just want to add a few more things on our trip to Sheridan. I really enjoyed watching the Crow Tribal Dancers. The best part to me about the ceremony was the clothing worn by the dancers. The women were wearing traditional Elk Tooth Dresses; this means that the dresses had elk teeth sown onto the fabric. It seems that every part of their clothing at the dance held meaning, like the elk teeth, the intricate beading, the feathers and the bags they carried. The announcer told us that one of the male dancers is actually a champion dancer who participates in various competitions across the country. The fact that we were watching a champion dancer made the experience even better!
One of the dances performed was a “welcoming home” dance. The announcer told the crowd that it was a celebratory dance performed when the Crow warriors arrived home. Everyone was invited to participate and dance with them so Sam and I joined in. Basically, we just walked around the drum circle to the beat. I had never done anything like this before and we had a great time doing it!
After the dance, we took time to explore Sheridan. First of all, the town is adorable. The main street in the town looked exactly like I thought a Western town should (small, cute stores and many places to buy Cowboy boots!). We went to The Mint Bar which had mounted bears, mountain sheep, and other animals lining the wooden walls. We ate dinner at a place called The Pony. The food was good, but the best part about it was that they had the New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox game on the TV. That’s an everyday occurrence back home, but it was comforting to watch it in Wyoming!

Custer Battlefield Museum- Never touched by floodwaters

Hi! Sami writing here- I am from Ironton, Ohio, and I’ve been here for almost a month now. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long at all! I was the first intern to arrive, flying into Billings on May 17th… right before all of the nasty weather hit. Since it was so late out when I touched ground, I didn’t really get to see any sunshine until the next day- and I was blown away at how green everything was. Chris kept pointing out that it’s never usually this green here, but I think it’s lovely even if it isn’t the way things usually look.

Sadly, the sunshine didn’t stay around for too long after I got here. Mind you- I landed in rain, and pretty much didn’t see a break from it until around a week and a half ago. And it flooded. Oh boy did it flood. Since I live on the Ohio River, I never think that much of rain- but when I woke up maybe four days after first getting here, we were in the middle of an emergency flooding situation. Ack! I felt like I might’ve brought the rain with me all the way from Ohio…

Apparently we’d gathered over ten inches of rain in ten days- which is pretty impressive no matter where you are. Water was up over the interstate for days, and they closed a huge majority of the roads around us. They even evacuated Crow Agency, which isn’t that far from us at all. Of course, Garryowen was fine- Sitting Bull picked a very good spot for his camp, during the whole flooding scare, we were not only sitting here safe and dry, but we never even closed down the museum! Given the situation of course, I would’ve thought that getting to a museum would be the last thing on people’s minds, but sure enough, we still had customers! Most of them were international- another thing that has positively boggled my mind since getting here- but they were so excited to see the battlefield they forged through high water and past roadblocks to get here!

It was definitely something else.

Follow the road to glory....

Follow the road to glory....

The View From the Outside Looking In

The View From the Outside Looking In

All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses

The First Visit to LBH NM

The First Visit to  LBH NM

Battle Recreation Table

Battle Recreation Table

Ghost Dance Shirt

Ghost Dance Shirt

LBH Miniatures

LBH Miniatures
a close-up of the battle recreation

Custer's Cravat

Custer's Cravat
Somebody loves the cravat

Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark
A bear, a 400-year-old canoe and a ram head, with one thing in common

Justin and his gun

Justin and his gun
he is waaaay too excited about holding this gun

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