Living Our Language_ Ojibwe Tales & Oral Histories - Anton Treuer [81]
[12] “Hello,” my grandfather’s voice is heard. Then my uncle says, “Come help me.” My grandpa came over the hill, bringing his cane, and scared [the dogs], frightening them off. After it was all over I heard him tell my grandmother, “You don’t have to worry about her going off in the woods by herself all the time.”
When I Ran Away
[1] One time I ran away from my grandmother. It was stormy: thundering, lightning flashing, and starting to hail. It’s strange to have that kind of weather in the summer. I ate ice. Grandma told me it tasted bad. But I didn’t listen to what she said. I ran away, eating that ice. Then my older [step]brother came outside, getting wet to chase me inside, dragging me inside there.
[2] And one time later on I ran away again, using that rowboat. My grandmother yelled at me, crying for me there on the shore. My grandma walked along the shore, saying, “Come to shore. Come here!” “No,” I said, as I rowed away there at Boy Lake. Often times I misbehaved.
When I Went to School
[1] Those government officials were building houses for us. They always made log houses at that time. We were always speaking Indian when we talked to each other. I knew the Indian language better at that time than I know it now. The white people tried to steal my language when I [was sent] to school. I was sent there, told by those government officials that I was an orphan. I wasn’t an orphan. My grandfather and grandmother didn’t want me to leave. But I was taken away.
[2] We went there to Tomah [Wisconsin] to go to school. It was just like a military academy. At first it was really hard for me to be there. It was important that we march in single file. We were beaten if we made mistakes. All the Indian orphans were sent to school there at Tomah, that is the Winnebago, Ojibwe, and Menomini. I was eight years old at that time.
[3] There were boys dormitories just like in college. The boys dorms were off to the side of the school, and a similar building was there for the girls dormitories. I lived in the orphan hall, in the company of the orphans. I studied there before I was old enough to work. There were matrons and bosses too.
[4] I ran away. I was thirteen at the time we ran away, me and some other girls. My grandmother and grandfather looked after me after I returned home there at Boy River. They forbade me to go back there to Tomah. So, I started going to school there at Boy River, in the little schoolhouse. Those white farmers had a building near Boy River. They fixed it up to function as a school.
[5] That’s what happened when I went to school. We quit if we really wanted to. But I was sent back to Tomah after I quit going to school there at Boy River. So once again I ran away, going there to Mille Lacs. And there I met my husband. We were married. Then I abandoned my house at Boy Lake to live there at Mille Lacs. I gave birth five times, bearing five children. I lost four; only one is left.
My Relatives
[1] Now there’s a cemetery where I used to play when I was small. We were given allotments there, my older sister and I. I had one sister, but she grew up here in Cass Lake, as she was raised with her relative, Emma Bear. My parents were divorced. My father left, abandoning my mother. I didn’t see my father much, and I didn’t have a high opinion of him when I did see him. I told my grandmother, “I don’t like him.” “Why?” my grandmother asked me. “He’s your dad.” I told her, “I don’t like him, definitely not.”
[2] But my grandmother, grandfather, and I really loved each other a lot. Then some of my uncles wanted to raise me. My grandmother spoiled me; at least that’s what my uncles thought. I didn’t belong there, that’s what they thought. But I didn’t want to live where there were a lot of other children. I was happy living over there at