Sisterhood's Journal

we have no knowledge of Native American culture...Our Grandmother hid her true self....she left us clues as to our true "family"...She said she lived between Hayes and Johnston City.(Montana!)..her true name was Johnson...Though she was born in Ill. Her husband's mother was of the same ancestry only he had an English Father...she had Native Father...and German Mother...I am learning...She told one Grandson whom they raised --- that she was off the Cheyanne Aripaho nations....But would admit it to no one else...She and Grandfather homesteaded on the Cherokee Trace...then moved into the Judith basin in Montana....then to Idaho..They traveled like they were being chased..One daughter was born in Oklahoma, two in Montana..and two in Idaho...I guess she found peace in Idaho where I had a couple Aunties who were Cherokee.....they did not pass their culture on to their children either...I guess we were lucky that Aunt Liz raised our Grandfather and passed on her pride...We know only to greet the Day with prayer....

Aunt Liz did enroll her children...That much I have been able to find...Though the others were not enrolled...The Sir Name came here during and after the civil war...we have been here many generations...We were taught to keep to ourselves...and to lean upon our own in times of need...They cared for those in their family as they did in other days...None in this large group went hungry...they had house raisings...they had barn raisings...as late as the sixties they were still sharing game with those who were less able...gathering wood for those in need and functioning as our Grandmothers taught us...Now we care for our elderly...we tend the young for each other....but with the terrible drug in our family we must guard our children...we must guard the elderly....and we must re learn many of the lessons our Grandmother's taught....And find those they did not teach....we have no trudition...because that was as our Grandmothers wanted it....They raised mayors, teachers, and upstanding citizens of our neighborhood in an era when their lienage would not have been an asset....They were not ashamed...but they were very guarded...The shame was that they were not allowed to be proud!

Hugs

Laurel