.1 fc. K U 11 V t
Alcohol is one of the worlds No. 1
killers.
It has happened around the
Reservation 1 lived on so many years.
M y brother, and one of my cousins and
several others had a keg. Early in the
morning they ran out of booze. They
tried to drive up town real fast, but
instead they missed the curb. The car
went 15 or 18 feet in the air. Robert my
cousin who was sitting on the passenger
side, flew out the window. Floyd who sat
in the middle, went through the wind
shield, face first. M y brother, the driver,
hit the wheel and the windshield. Robert
flew a few feet in the air, knocked his
breath out when he hit ground. They all
were hurried to the hospital.
Robert
died on the way. Floyd died just when
they arrived at the hospital. Randy was
rushed to Bend Hospital. A few days
later he was transferred back home.
When I went to see him , on the right side
of his eye, was a big clod of dried blood,
underneath his skin. It was awful to
see his eye like that. The doctors said he
can get it skingraphed, but at the moment
he couldn’t because the blood would have
to be all cleared up. Later, he had an
operation on his eye. When he sleeps,
one eye is always open. It will be this way
for life. H e was pretty lucky, it was his
third accident so far, and 1 hope the last.
M y stepfather was a policeman in
Nevada; he came to Oregon.
H e did
drink alot. 1 remember his coming on
Easter the year o f *73; he’s been with us
for 7-years now. W e all like him , he is
full of fun, and we don’t want to lose him
either. In 1979, he ended up in the hos
pital.
H e almost died.
I remember
seeing it happen, he just got out of the
hospital, and in the house was hot. He
was telling his aunt in Indian, he feels
dizzy, he is going to go lie down. When
he got to the bedroom door, I saw his
eyes rolling up, then, slowly shaking, he
slid down the wall. H e started spitting
out blood.
W e used about 16 or
17 towels cleaning up the blood, but
more kept coming. The ambulance came.
He was in the hospital a long time.
Finally he got out. H e didn’t need to
turn to alcohol when he got upset, but
he did, and it happened again. Now he
has one more chance. So far he hasn’t
touched alcohol again.
M y sister too, she is now 21.
She
starts hemorrhaging when she drinks.
Everyone wonders why, and she is so
young yet. They-don’t know about when
she was young. 1 was always with her,
she knew if she let me go, I w o u ll tell
lU rtfU H J iu v t - 'U
What am I gonna do when I get out of
school? 1 really don’t know. There are
times when I just sit and think about
what I ’m gonna do.
Is there really a
big world out there? I f there is, I ’m
not ready. There are bills, payments
and ail that to do. How will I get around?
Chemawa is my first and only boarding
school. 1 came in 1979 and was im
pressed on seeing so many tribes here.
First I met a Cheyenne, then a Sko
komish. There are tribes here I ’d never
heard of. The only tribes 1 had known
were Paiutes, W arm Springs, Wasco, and
Skoshoni.
I care a lot about this school. It hurts
me to see some kids disrespecting
and wrecking it.
Here, they have a
place to sleep, eat, and go to school. But
still, some do not respect it. They have
to be accepted.
W here is the
respect
they promised?
Is it some
thing to laugh about and treat as a joke?
W ill someone give them a big gold
medal for such actions?
It is childish and a big disgrace.
This school is a part of our Indian
Heritage. Your elders came here and
took good care of it and were proud.
Don’t put your family to shame.
A.Lewis
I sure hate to lose my mother. W hen
I was young, she taught me how to cook,
make dinners, and she says a clean house
is what she likes. So everytime she goes
to town I dean the kitchen, get a little
carried away, and do the rest o f the
rooms.
But when my brothers come
home, the place is back to the same mess.
So the next tim e, I never cleaned theirs,
which they were upset about.
She
taught me so many things. I have dreams
about her.
For three nights here at
Chemawa I dreamed I was out of school
and at home. I would be the only one
there. I never saw my mother in my
dream, only the boys. 1 would cook for
them. I ’d clean the house, but never
did 1 see my mother in my dream. Then
I got worried that something could be
happening at home, so 1 wrote b rief
letters and everything seemed to be fine.
The last dream I had o f her was on a
Tuesday night; before that, around
7:00 p.m . my sister was telling me that
at nights, if you look in the mirror with
the light off, you can see the devil. Then
that night 1 was dreaming my sister and
brother and I were in the kitchen. Again
our mother was not there. 1 was always
tidying anything messy.
I get to.
work. W e were all talking around, then
I said I ’m gonna go fix up M o m ’s room.
I was in there dustying, straightening
things out.Then I was looking at my
mother’s picture.
It was dark in the
room, evening tim e, and I could feel
something behind me, and that was a
mirror. I looked and 1 saw my mother
smiling at me, then I saw the devil. I
was scared, woke up sweating and ray
heart was pounding.
Seemed funny
I didn’t scream or cry.
1 pray each night hoping to never have
any dreams like that again. Because my
mother is all I got. M y father is gone.
If 1 try I can run my life good. That is
probably one plan I have in mind.
AML
“ It made me gladsome to be getting
some education, it being like a big
window opening.’ ’
-M a r y Webb
my mother, so she kept me hostage for
the night. W e ’d go home around 5 a.m .
Our M om would still be sleep. Beginning
at 14, she drank and kept it up.
In
Highschool, she’d go to school hungover.
She quit school her junior year. She. too,
has one more chance, and I believe to
hurt the fam ily, she’ll keep on going.
M y uncle tried to commit suicide when
he was drunk.
W e were all at the
Carnival, he must of been home by him
self.
W hen we came home late that
night, he was on his bed cutting his wrist
with a razor. M y cousin put sugar on it
to stop the bleeding and we took him to
the hospital. M y M om told me the reason
why he limps is because, when he was
young he drank until he and others got
into a wreck and his leg burned.
It
bothered him , until he got an artificial
leg. That is good, because slowly he gets
around, even to the store where he gets
what he calls his “ medicine’ ’ .
Slowly the Indians on that Reservation
are forgetting what alcohol really does.
Young people these days may think that
it can’t happen to them. Don’t count on
it! Is it funny?
Is alcohol your best friend?
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Indian History and Indian Literature are
two really good classes here. They help
us to study and learn o f the different
tribes all over.