{"id":17523,"date":"2021-11-01T12:08:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T16:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=17523"},"modified":"2021-11-01T12:08:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T16:08:37","slug":"tim-giago-bartering-for-butter-at-the-indian-boarding-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/11\/01\/tim-giago-bartering-for-butter-at-the-indian-boarding-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Giago: Bartering for butter at the Indian boarding school"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Holy<\/a>
The Holy Rosary Mission on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo: Raymond Bucko, SJ<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Notes from Indian Country<\/div>\r\n
Bartering for butter<\/div>\r\n
Monday, November 1, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji \u2013 Stands Up For Them)<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs the years pass there are not too many of the boys and girls forced to attend boarding schools still living. As one of the survivors I write these columns to give some of those still alive a chuckle and to educate the younger generation about what their parents or grandparents went through at the boarding schools. Here is another memory story.

<\/p>\r\nAt the old Holy Rosary Mission boarding school we didn\u2019t have a heck of a lot to barter with, but being the industrious Indian boys we were, we found our ways.

<\/p>\r\nIt is in the nature of the Indian boys to be horse traders. It was in our blood. And since we didn\u2019t have money, that is hard cash, we found that one of the most valuable commodities at the school to barter with was the small cubes of butter we got at our meals.

<\/p>\r\nNearly all of the toys we had as boys were the toys we made for ourselves. Wire cowboys, horses and Indians were our favorites. The talented boys would take bailing wire and twist it into the shape of a cowboy or horse and then they would somehow get balls of pretty colored yarn and wind the yarn around the wire cowboys or Indians to fashion clothing. They even made small hats and feathers out of other materials that were quite realistic.

<\/p>\r\n\"Tim<\/a>

Tim Giago. Photo courtesy Native Sun News Today<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nNow suppose I saw one of the wire figures I really fancied, but I didn\u2019t have any money to purchase the toy. I would then barter with the toy maker. \u201cI will give you four butters for that cowboy,\u201d I would say and the boy with the wire cowboy would think it over and if he said yes, I had the wire cowboy and he had my cubes of butter from four meals. He usually collected his butter at meal times.

<\/p>\r\nSome of the boys would be so good at making deals that they would have a glass jar filled with butter they kept in their lockers in the Little Boy\u2019s Gym. The butter went nicely with the choke cherry jelly their mother\u2019s made for them. So why was there such bargaining power in a cube of butter?

<\/p>\r\nEvery afternoon around 3 o\u2019clock Brother Sears would bring a couple of baskets filled with fresh buns to the front of Red Cloud Hall. We would all line up and each of us would get one bun. If there were any extra buns Brother Sears would toss them in the air and we would scramble for them.

<\/p>\r\n\"Pine<\/a>