Page 80 - 1st Anthology 2011

I told him one day what are you going to do when it has a flat? He didn’t know what to
say. In those days you had to take the tire apart because there was a tube goes in the tire.
You know that old model T wheels. When he had a flat he didn’t know what do, till he
was taught by somebody else.

They use to build a fire under the motor to warm it up. One time it damn near caught on
fire. The oil was dripping. He threw snow on the fire because it was cold. I threw a shovel
of snow on it and went inside. I didn’t say anything and did something else.

My dad came in and said what happened to my fire. I told him do you want your horses
on fire? I was teasing him but he was mad at me. I told him I put it out cause the oil was
dripping and it was going to catch on fire. He said you did the right thing. I was teasing
him. I don’t think you wanted your horses on fire. He didn’t catch on to what I was
saying. It was funny.

I told my mom and my sister but I didn’t tell him. Then he came back inside and said the
fires out. There’s snow all over it. She told him you were too busy doing something else
too busy and not paying attention. Your son put it out. She said if not you wouldn’t have a
vehicle. After awhile we found it funny.

I remember the records. My dad liked this old song “Lonely Bull” Do you remember that
song? He had it on and he fell asleep and it kept going. Finally my sister came down stairs
and it wore the record out. She got mad at our dad and said you broke my record now it’s
stuck on “Lonely Bull”. It was so funny. When I woke up all I heard was Lonely Bull,
Lonely Bull. My mom said you’re the only Lonely Bull here. He didn’t know how to work
it. He just put it on Lonely Bull and he went to bed. He thought it would keep playing.
She threw that record out in the snow.

There were powwows at the Bullhead Hall. We use to go to the Bullhead Hall and they
taught classes about the pow wow. Then they were teaching the rock and roll. Like the
old rock and roll like fiddle dance and stuff like that. Everyone knew everything about
pow wow. There were bingos. My sister won a TV and one time I won a turkey for us. We
were marking with beans and all of a sudden I won. My mom said you sure I got it you
know in our language. She said they are going to call the numbers one by one. Then they
gave us my turkey. My sister won a big black and white TV with a record that’s where the
record player came from.

Long ago the sweats were private. My grandfather used to hold sweats. His name was
Frank Onespot. I went to the sweats. I learned about the sweats at that time. They are
sacred ceremonies, sweats. Our traditional way was only four times a year for the months
like spring, summer, fall and winter. That’s how it used to be, but today they have them
damn near every weekend. It’s no good because you are supposed to keep those
ceremonies sacred.

People do sweats, like to get rid of their pain for like arthritis and stuff like that. A sweat
ceremony is to help heal the body. I believe to help heal your body and to sacrifice things.

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