Sunday, July 15, 2012

July 13th- A long bumpy road leads to fun times


Morning Message:  Erik 
If you keep an open mind, the world will open itself to you.

Journal:  Katelyn 
After waking up and drinking my morning coffee- I mean coffees, we had a brief meeting and most were off to Blackfeet duties. Gale, Robin and Barbara went to the library right after the meeting. My aunt, Ally, Eric and I went to both the souvenir shops in town and came home with a postcard and 3 sweet grasses. Afterwards, Eileen headed to her task to help come up with a campaign for financial motivation. Ginny took the rest of us to the supermarket to pick up 21 cases of water. We knew the day would go well when 2 workers put all the cases of water in the back of the van. We then headed to help Candy pass out food at the Tribal Council inauguration. We all watched as the council spoke- some spoke about how they would change the Blackfeet world and others just spoke a lot. It was a very interesting experience for many of us to watch, mostly because it was very different from how our government operates. It was very interesting for me to hear what the council had to say and how they felt about both our government as well as "our people." It was also strange to see all the heckling about the corruption in the council. When the meeting adjourned, we all very quickly set up 2 separate lines for food and each of us took an item and served it in an assembly line. 

It went by very quickly and we were left with much food- although the most valuable item (corn) ran out. We then chomped down on loads of food until Ginny and the others came to pick us up. Barbara, Bonnie, Karen, Gale and Robin went to the Museum and some shops while the rest of us headed back home to camp. A few short hours later, our crew was picked up by Cary Deboo, but Barbara and Bonnie decided to hit the town. 

After a gruesome drive down the miles of driveway (I do not think any of us took Loraine's warning to heart), we arrived and were fitted to the horses by Cary's husband Chuck. I was last to hop on my horse, Jake and found out he was originally named "Jack" then nicknamed "Jackass" then he came around and was renamed Jake. He was an interesting horse- Ginny suggested Chuck had placed the horses by personality and thinking about it, Jake and I were definitely matched well. Ally and Robins horse loved each other’s behinds, mine and Ginny's horse (perfectly named Chief) were attached by the nose to behind, Kate and her horse were very complimentary of each other, Karen was able to find answers to many of her cultural questions, Eileen didn't fall off, Mary made a perfect mount onto her horse and Erik looked like a knight in shining armor whisking away from the group. When we got to the beautiful rocks up on a mountain, Erik and I went rock climbing and were able to get some awesome pictures. All in all, the horseback riding and the landscape at the ranch were spectacular. 

Cary had a wonderful meal with fresh cut hamburgers from their own collection of cattle and delicious dessert. I had my hour limit of playing with children while the rest talked with the family aside a campfire. After a 15 minute, 13 person roller-coaster and an even longer, but smoother drive home we all went to bed.

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