Page 35 - 1st Anthology 2011
P. 35

So she gave me some beads and thread. I used to bead, I don’t know if I ever finished it or
               anything.

               Whatever she taught me, I spent every little time with her, now today I’m doing it. I’m
               getting orders to make moccasins. I learned from her. The designs that she had, those
               were geometric designs, like for an example, those little pyramids. Those were her
               designs. When she passed away, I just don’t remember which day, she passed away. They
               showed some of her stuff of what she did. I remember that because they had displayed
               the things she was working on.

               She was a person that always smoked a pipe, just an ordinary pipe. She smoked straight
               Irish Twist cut tobacco. The tobacco you cut up. We used to get her that for a Christmas
               gift. The tobacco was hard to find; I don’t think anybody makes it anymore. Whenever we
               had a sinus problem or head cold, she would take the stem of that pipe and blow it right
               in our noses. It cleared your head up pretty good.

               She had medicines for men to clear out your systems. She would make a pot and boil it,
               and give it to the uncles and the men, just to clean out our systems. It we used to do it
               every month, because you’re supposed to keep your body really well.

               She beads whatever she wants and in the evenings she plays cards. Her cards were
               starting to get faded because she played it so much. That’s how much I can remember
               about her.

               Where she stayed was at her little white house, just west of there, there was an old barn.
               In the attic she used to have all her hides in there. You know the stuff she worked on. You
               know I never had the chance to see her work. She worked in the attic. She did do some
               tanning and she did a lot of things for her brother.

                She was a church going women. Every Sunday, a little argument starts up. Did you ever
               watch that movie with that Indian lawyer, with his stick and his salt, moving it up in the
               air? That was her. She had her stick up in the air. What I mean is by getting us into
               trouble. We had the vehicles to pick her up and drive her down. But nope, she would say
               I’ll use my legs. She would go as far down as my other grandmothers. My mom’s mom
               Mable, she meets up with her and then they continue. They walk way down to the
               agency. They would go to church.

               She had a big green shawl with a safety pin. That’s how religious they were, after they
               used to catch a ride or walk up back home. That is how she was, she wasn’t a big person.
               She was a short little old lady. So that’s how much I can remember of her.

               On my mom’s side, my mom’s mothers name was Mable Dodginghorse. Mable was
               married to Anthony Dodginghorse. In that family there was Henry Dodginghorse, my
               mom, and Robert Dodginghorse. Back a little further, Mable Dodginghorse, her dad was

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