Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Summer season is winding down.  I started to take some of my corn stalks out and tilled some of the ground up until it got hotter than a pistola.  The politics is pretty hot around here too, but that is another matter handled by people much smarter than myself. It's a situation where nobody will win, but it is the glass-house of politics.

Usually nothing happens around here. I usually sit on my front porch and wait for a car to go by, so I can wave at them.  Isn't that exciting? But yesterday they were having a cultural retreat at the Rock Building and  I was asked to come talk about the history of our tribe and some culture.  It was for a group of young people.  I try and limit my public appearances anymore. It makes me work much too hard at remembering the facts of history.  I would much sooner work in my yard or hit the garage sale circuit but the heat kinda limits that.  If nothing else, staying home is fine too.

I told the young people how I got involved in writing and sharing the stories of our people.  It started over twenty years ago.  I would interview some of our older people about some of their life experiences.  Some were good and some were bad for them, but at least I got to record it.  I always figure someday somebody will want to know how our life was here on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation.  I never claimed to be a historian or a writer, I just want to tell a story.  I think it was worthwhile to do all that work over the years.  And these young people wanted to hear some of these stories and that was good.  I told them I did quite a few presentations but very rarely was asked to return because people didn't want to hear about some of the terrible things that happened to the Potawatomis over the years, but we were a stubborn people and survived. 

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