June 13th- The Deboo's Ranch

By Liz

John and Lucia started their day at the Blackfeet Community College (BCC). John met with a dean to discuss how the Blackfeet culture might be integrated into his sociology courses in Pennsylvania. Lucia got survey questionnaires completed by two classes for her college course work. She then did roto-tilling at a home as part of a program with the BCC. Suzanne worked at Medicine Spring BCC library and marked books with red stars to identify Native American writers. She then presented at the library about Judaism and bible studies. She offered a Hebrew healing prayer at the end of her talk. John and Alice organized books and cleaned at Head Start at the Blackfeet Early Childhood Center. Kelsey moved rocks at the Community Development Center and recruited some local kids. Carita started at the Care Center. At lunch time, she read to the kids at the Boys and Girls Club. They were attentive and excited and wanted her to come back. Carita returned to the Care Center for the afternoon.

Will, Andrew, and Liz headed out with Alexander to go back the horticultural project. We helped the third graders plant sunflower plants into cups for them to take home. We weeded at two different sites. We finished weeding the inside of the medicine wheel at the Blackfeet Academy. The boys raked and hoed the inside of the wheel so it was prepared for use. We concluded the day with picture taking and saying good bye to our local friends.

A number of us headed out to the DeBoo ranch near Valair for the evening. John, Alice, Andrew and Will saddled up and took a ride out to some beautiful rock formations with the ranch owner, Chuck, and his son, Chase. The rest of us walked about the ranch, photographing and enjoying the physical beauty of the place. Cary, Chuck’s wife, talked with us about the challenges of ranch life in northern Montana. We marveled at how they accomplish so much: The DeBoo family run a large cow and horse farm, operate a ranch adventure business; Cary works full-time, while Chuck has a growing crafts business. We were all treated to a delicious meal of hamburgers and cake. The burgers were from their farm-raised cows. They were such lovely hosts.