Sheridan, Wyoming. Photo by Gail Howard Art
There are Indians everywhere
By Clara Caufield
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nsweekly.com Thank goodness, I made it through “the season” managing a remote guest ranch for the past four and a half months. That doesn’t sound too long, but at twelve hours a day, mostly every day, it can seem much longer. Being remote is an idyllic vacation for a week or so. Actually that is the appeal to most of the guests who welcome being disconnected from the otherwise omnipresent cell phones, emails and other technology which otherwise dominates their lives. But after four or more months with no cell phone service, no T.V. or radio and extremely limited internet from a satellite subscription which quickly runs out every week or so, remote gains new meaning. I largely lost track of what happened in the larger world during that time. Thank goodness for the hard copy of Native Sun News Today which was faithfully mailed each week, through it took an additional two weeks to arrive. The U.S. Postal Service only ventures on the narrow gravel mountain road leading to the ranch once each week making mail day a greatly anticipated event. One benefit was being spared the horrible details of the Presidential campaign, which I am now trying very hard to ignore. If Donald Trump wins, I may move to Canada. But, Yay! I’m done and back. Got my cell phone re-charged and enjoying the company of old friends. The mountains were often a lonely place for me as there were no other Indian people or people of a like-minded heart there. After a seven hour drive I arrived in the wee hours at the home of Tom and Cheryl Phelps in Sheridan, Wyoming, to enjoy a few days of “R & R”. Tom and Cheryl are the type of friends everyone should have. I comfortably entered their home through the front door which is never locked and hopped onto the couch. “Clem!” Cheryl exclaimed the next morning about 6:30 when she ambled into the kitchen to make coffee. “It’s about darn time. So… good to see you!” Tom and Cheryl are not Indians, but they might as well be. Tom was born and raised in Lodge Grass, Montana, smack dab in the middle of the Crow Reservation. He once said “I was about five years old before discovering I was a white guy. One of my Crow friends told me and it was hard to believe.” From that grounding, for all of his life Tom has behaved like an Indian, a tough guy ever quick to jump to the defense of his many Indian friends, including several Cheyenne who are always welcome in his home, ever treated to a meal and honest hospitality. An avid hunter and outdoorsman, Tom has seen the “little people” and knows them to be real. Cheryl, a blonde Sheridan native, has two children from an Oglala man who is originally from Pine Ridge. She teaches them to respect their heritage and has not one discriminatory bone in her body, ever opening her home and heart to those who are temporarily in a tough situation. “Life happens,” she often says “sometimes it’s rough, even for the best people.” Her Sioux ex-brother-in-law, for example has often found refuge with her. “I’ll always love him,” she says. “We will always be family.” So, you see, there are Indians everywhere. At first glance, based on skin color, it may not seem so. However, with a “heart” glance, you can see them.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: There are Indians everywhere (Contact Clara Caufield at acheyennevoice@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
Join the Conversation
