firebreath613

Saturday, LaNada and Emma took Leela, Kallie, me and two of LaNada's grandchildren on a three-hour journey up to the mountains of Salmon, Idaho, which was the Lemhi Shoshones' home before the U.S. forced them to the flatlands of Fort Hall. The tribe was having a weekend celebration honoring their ancestors who were forced out 100 years ago, around 1907. They were the "aqai dika" or "salmon eaters" and they lived on this gorgeous, clear rushing river in the mountains. Lacy disagreed with celebrating the removal. But I think, for those that went, it was more about honoring their ancestors and their homeland.

On the way to Salmon, we passed miles and miles of potato fields, then miles and miles of Angus beef ranches. All the farm fences are made of wood, which I'm not used to – I guess because they're so close to the mountain pines and logging industry? In Oklahoma, they're made of metal and barbed wire. The boys, 7-year-old Stormy and 9-year-old Brian, entertained us by singing. Brian loves heavy metal like AC/DC, Black Sabbath and particularly KISS. In fact, he has a whole KISS room. He sang all the words to "Detroit Rock City" and Sabbath's "Iron Man."

We stopped in a small town called Leadore, which looked like a for real mining town, with its old building practically untouched by modern society. Leela said this is where, coming home from a basketball tournament, she was called a "reservation n****," and "a savage."

Tendoy is a one-store town outside Salmon, former home to the aqai dikas. It's named after Shoshone chief Tendoy, who made peace with the whites in Salmon after they had kidnapped and scalped his son. Emma says he went to them, holding the scalp and said, "Why do you do this to us? We mean you no harm."

Tendoy is at the foot of the Lemhi pass, which is were Sacagawea lead the Lewis & Clark expedition. The story of Sacagawea starts when the Hidatsa Indians raided the Shoshone camp, killing and kidnapping. They captured 10-year-old Sacagawea, took her to North Dakota and then sold her into slavery to an English-speaking Frenchman Toussaint Charbonneau, who married her when she was 13. That's how she came to lead Lewis and Clark through Shoshone territory, translating, brokering peace with the tribes – including her brother, Shoshone chief Cameahwait -- showing them what plants they could eat. All this, while carrying her baby on her back. Clearly, they would have died without her. She died at age 25.

For the celebration, the Shoshones were doing a walk/run up Lemhi Pass, which is where Sacagawea lead Lewis and Clark. We let Brian and Stormy do part of the walk, and we met up with the other Shoshones at a beautiful park in the mountains for a picnic. An elderly woman elder spoke, again, about the importance of connection to the earth she said back in the day, the elders predicted that people would sell water in bottles instead of drinking it from the streams. She said, "Sure enough, they're selling water in bottles."

We went down to pay respects to Chief Tendoy's grave, which says, "Erected by his White Friends" and has a spectacularly peaceful view of the valley. The land around Tendoy's grave has been leased out to ranchers. Emma stopped to show Leela how to find bitterroot, to dig it out of the ground and peel it. There's also a sign honoring all the people were removed.

Down the road is Salmon, ID, a cute little town with a population of 3,000. It has a racist underbelly, though, particular visible on the "Salmon High Savages" sign. That's where Leela's mom Rose Ann and her sister Rozina worked with the city to created the Sacagawea Interpretive Center, which has a statue of Sacagawea, a small museum, and a park with a mountain view. They say the Indians have been shut out of the center, and now the city is threatening to shut it down.

We took the scenic route back, for which I was grateful, because being from wheat-and-dairy-land, I've seen my fill of sprawling fields and grazing cattle. On back highway, the landscape changed every half hour, from a rushing river valley, to rocky cliff-faces, to majestic snow-covered mountain views. We drove through several teeny mountain towns.

Speaking of Indian on Indian violence, the Blackfoot used to sneak up on the Shoshones, moving underwater in the Salmon River, using reeds to breathe through. Leela says other tribes would cut off their heads, put on sticks as trophies. They never destroyed each other the way American society destroyed their culture, and all is forgiven among the tribes now – they all powwow together.

Leela's aunt Rozina is interesting, too. She wrote the first article linked above called about the Indian perspective on Sacagawea, and she works with a Hollywood casting director to find American Indians for movies, like "Apocalypto," "Bury Me at Wounded Knee," and the upcoming Sacagawea movie.

I spent all my nights hang out with the teens. They really have nothing to do. On the first night, we went to the $1 midnight movie. The next night, 30-year-old Lacy had the kids drop us off at the casino, where she showed me all the machines that are easy to win. I knew the money would go to the tribe, but I hate feeling tricked by the machines. I want to beat them. Lacy seemed excited to have someone her age to hang out with. They picked us up in half an hour, then we played hide-n-seek in the dark, then we played cards. I would always go to sleep around 2 or 3, the teens would stay up until sunrise.