The grass can ‘sing'
By Clara "Clem" CaufieldNative Sun News Today Northern Cheyenne Correspondent
nativesunnews.today As promised in last week's issue, I am going to start writing more positive stories about the Northern Cheyenne. If only to overcome the temptation of the negative stories, which is so easy to do, as there are so many of those. However, there are also many good stories and many good people among us, and we should celebrate that more often. This is going to be the first in a small series because there are many stories to tell about Wesley Whiteman, an uncle to my mother, but as the Cheyenne way goes, he was my "Meh-Meh" -- a Grandpa, that is. I don't know how the family name Little Whiteman got shortened to just Whiteman. Uncle Leroy said that when he enlisted in the Air Force, during the Korean Conflict, his legal, formal name was Leroy Franklin Little Whiteman, too long to fit into the enrollment form boxes, so, as he says, they took a "Little" bit of his name out. Uncle Leroy is a joker too. Grandpa Wesley Whiteman was a life-bachelor, but he loved children, and I was extremely lucky to be one of them, even as a little half-breed. At the time I did not know that he was somewhat famous, a historian from the Smithsonian having spent a few years with him, to capture the essence of a Cheyenne spiritual man, writing a book, titled The Last Contrary.
![](https://www.indianz.com/News/2019/01/24/thelastcontrary.jpg)
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