Jim Northrup

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America, from a Native American point of view

Fond du Lac Follies motored to the Swearing In Ceremony for the newly elected RBC members. Of course, I motored there in that beautiful silver Corvette. The doings were held in the crowded Council chambers of the RBC building in Cloquet.

The voters of Fond du Lac threw out three old rascals and threw in three new ones. Pete Defoe became our new Chairman replacing Sonny Peacock, Bouda Smith became the new Brookston representative instead of Koon Shotley, and Gene Reynolds took over from Kiffy Rabideaux as Cloquet's rep.

Fond du Lac Follies will be watching the new leaders.

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My cousin Silvia stopped by for a visit. She is almost 70 years old.
Sylvia has known me all of my life. We had coffee at the kitchen table, the morning sunshine came through the windows as we talked and laughed.

There was a smell of bacon grease in the air because Pat was cooking breakfast.

We talked about our mutual experiences as run-aways from Federal Boarding Schools. In her story she was a little girl running away from Flandreau. She and her chums made their break one night. It was scary walking through the dark. The lead girl walked right into a cow. The girls screamed and scampered back to the school.

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Adrian Louis sent me a copy of his latest collection of poetry. Evil Corn is good reading. As soon as I was done with it I passed it on to
Ray Earley. Any bookstore can order if for you. Read it if you dare.

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Pat and I motored to New York. We went east to visit with some Seneca people at Salamanca, New York. The skins were celebrating their tribal library's 25th anniversary. I was invited to come and say a few words to the celebrants. We took turns driving. The directions were simple…hang a left at Chicago. We motored down the turnpikes and toll ways of America. We were ahead of schedule so Pat and I stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The glassy building sits on the lakeshore.

The cost of the admission ticket was twenty bucks. Hmmm, I thought.
That is 40 spins on a keno machine. Instead we went to the store and looked around. We left Cleveland, passed through a little bit of Pennsylvania, only 45 miles and hardly worth mentioning so I won't. I could see the green Allegheny Mountains. We set up camp in the Holiday Inn Express in Salamanca. Right away we met Cheryl John, librarian of the Seneca Nation. She showed us the town and where the casino was located. We began meeting old friends and making new ones. Colette Lemmon came to the celebration. She brought me to Albany, N.Y., a few years ago for some veteran's doings. It was good to see her again. The high point of the visit was seeing and talking with Warren Skye, Sr. That 80-year old man was moving around like he was 40 years younger. He taught me one Seneca word when I shared a gig with him in Brockport, N.Y., a few years back. The feast with the library celebrants contained the traditional corns, beans, and squash. There were quite a few suit-and-tie Seneca there.

We ate a final breakfast with Colette before we hit the interstate. We motored west on the Interstate and then the Ohio Turnpike. At one of those rest areas we stopped for a break, a stretch, Starbucks coffee, and a smoke. Pat and I were standing on the grass off the sidewalk as Americans walked by in all directions. One American woman looked at us and began walking towards us, as she walked closer she pointed at my chest and asked loudly, "What are those?"

I knew she was pointing at the bear claw necklace I usually wear. I acted like she was talking about my shirt so I said, "This? It is a T-shirt, a lot of people are wearing them nowadays."

She said as she reached into my space to feel the claws, "I'd like to buy them from you?"

I gave her a little smile and told her she couldn't buy them. Later as Pat and I got back on the turnpike we talked about bold Americans. That is when I came up with the answer to the woman's final question about buying my claws. I should have said, "Lady, you don't have enough money to buy these claws."

I was a day late and a retort short.

The keno machines were very good to us as we ran the gauntlet of casinos in Michigan and Wisconsin. It was pleasant in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and that little casino gave us big money in the UP. Mii iw.

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About the author
The views expressed in this column belong to the writer alone. They are not meant to represent this newspaper, this Reservation or my cousin Rathide. Comments and bingo packs can be sent to FdL Follies, PO Box 16, Sawyer, MN 55780-0016. email…northrup@cp.Duluth.mn.us web page…www.hanksville.org/storytellers/northrup/ or www.jimnorthrup.org

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