Clara Caufield: Life in a reservation border town

Tuesday, October 8, 2019  

• #BorderTowns: Part 1 | Part 2

Here we go again – the last comment about Sheridan, Wyoming, a reservation border town.

Border towns attract urban Indians. It’s good to live off the Rez, but still be close enough to visit home. My daughter in-law, for example lives here too, quite easily able to take her children to either Crow or Cheyenne country to visit relatives, especially the Grandmas.

I was recently amazed to read that 70% of enrolled tribal members live in urban environs, rather than the reservations. This trend was originally orchestrated by the Federal government starting in the 1950’s through the Relocation Program, where tribal members were lured from reservations to urban areas, promised vocational training, job placements and becoming part of America.

It worked to a large extent: for example, my own uncle Leroy Whiteman, cousin Roger American Horse and several other relatives moved to California, a popular relocation area. Uncle gained vocational training as a diesel mechanic and Roget became an airplane mechanic, building upon previous military training.

Leroy met and married Auntie Nan Bell, also lured from the North Carolina Choctaw Tribe to become a beautician. They were both quite successful there for years, even buying a house with an outdoor 8’ deep swimming pool – well beyond the financial capacity of most Rez skins where swimming pools are normally small plastic blow-up Walmart kids’ lawn ornaments, about 2’ deep, usually deflated by July 1st, due to enthusiasm.

Yet, after many years, the lure of homeland, horses, kin and the chance to be a bigger fish in a small pond drew Leroy and family back to the Northern Cheyenne reservation. It has a lifelong grip on him, but could not keep Nan or the daughters, who are now are urban Indians, quite successful. The irony being that reservation-based Indians consider themselves to be the "traditional ones."

However, in my opinion, the hallmark of a traditional Cheyenne, Sioux, etc. was independence. Did they not sneer at the government who tried mightily to entrap them on reservations? That did not work for many who resisted. “We will go where we will go and live as we wish. We do not want or require your handouts.”

I think the trend of urban Indians will increase as reservations become more dismal, largely due to the horrible drug problems, related crime, lack of employment etc., now characterizing many reservations in the Great Plains area. Recently, for example, I visited with two here in Sheridan: members of Northern Arapaho and Shoshone Tribes, now living here for a variety of reasons: employment, services, housing opportunity and basic safety from the "meth mess."

And there are many more here, including my good friends Andy and Shawn Two Bulls, Oglalas who would rather live and work in this small white community than face much lack of opportunity back home. Though there is no Indian Center here, somehow, we manage to find each other through well-tuned Indian radar honing devices.

Sheridan is also home to a VA Hospital, specializing in PSTD and other mental disorders, including substance abuse, providing services to vets from across the country, including many Natives. As my good friend Butch Small quipped: “The VA treats you like a war hero while the IHS treats you like a prisoner of war."

Contact Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com p>

Clara Caufield: Life in a reservation border town (October 1, 2019)
Clara Caufield: Life in a reservation border town (September 25, 2019)