what did you do for the fourth?

What did you do for the Fourth?


Oh, I had to chase my mother home?
She was in Standing Rock when I found her at that casino there.


How far away is it, anyway?


About 14 hours from here.


Just kidding, I just followed her back from there, we visited my
Grandma in Wolfpoint.


When did you get back, last night.


Did you go to the Pow Wow?


Yeah, my wife and son, we all went over there


How was it?


Pretty good, I got a chance to rock and roll there.


What?


Yeah, we went and the dancers were out there so they had an intertribal
and I went for it.


Shawn Thundershield is his name; he’s about 26 I guess now. I met him a
few years ago. He married a girl from this rez and she is usually with
him and his son is about five I guess now is name is Ronnie.


His Mom was raised up around Wolfpoint, since her own Mom and sisters
live there now. They have been down her on the Navajo rez for sometime.
She married a man from here and he adopted all her six kids, Shawn was
one of them.


When he was young he sure was a wild one, liked to hit the Pow Wow
circuit and danced pretty good as a fancy dancer. He has one of those
long bodies made for fancy dancing, that move with ease and flow with
the feathers. Some say he has children on different reservations, and
this is probably true I guess. I didn’t know him during the wild times
he went through, though I had heard about him.


His mother's people come from Standing Rock originally, and she knows
Fort Yates pretty well up there. To look at her she is almost like a
white woman, some say, with light brown hair, but when you talk to her
she sounds and speaks Indian, she talks her own language.


For a lot of years she raised them kids herself, their father left and
went somewhere. He came back long enough to divorce her and leave the
kids with her and went to Wisconsin or some place.


Shawn was the oldest and he tested all the waters like most kids do,
seeing how far he could stretch things. One time he went to Wolf Point
and went out with a bunch of young guys, they partied all night. There
were five of them in the car; they were looking for a good time.


It was a 1970 Challenger convertible, red with a 440 Hemi engine. He
knows a lot about cars and every once in a while I see him crawl under
somebody’s car or get into the engine to fix it. I guess in those early
days, he sowed a lot of wild oats. He was a handful for his mother, and
liked t really party I guess.


He went up north to go to school at St. Gliske College and on the
weekend partied with his new friends. They preferred to drink Coors,
not the hard stuff, but every once in a while would try it. The car was
fast and the BIA cops couldn’t catch them and they knew where to party
so getting caught wasn’t a problem for them.


Her name was Lola, she was pretty one, she looked good and lived a life
fancy and free, not having many cares or worries. She was a party
animal some say, but lately had been spending time with Shawn. He met
her at school and she had a free spirit. She was from Nebraska, she was
maybe an Omaha, and there were a couple of Sioux boys in the back seat,
from around there, one they called Dakota and the other Elvis.


They killed a couple of cases of beer and thought to go back and get
some more before closing time. How fast is this car anyway, Can it
really go. It just looks good, but can it really fly. These are the
things they talked about, they said these things to Shawn and without
talking slid the engine into gear and let the engine do the talking.
They headed back into town toward Wolf Point.. They were missing a few
of the curves but it was ok the car was under control. But then there
was one turn near the dump and the edge of the road caught them, it
made the car shudder, it was like a pole vaulted, the car went up and
over the front left wheel, it somersaulted over and over and Shawn,
Lola, and the Walker boys were thrown around like rag dummies. they
spilled out into the dirt.


His mom got a call and she traveled all night and the next day going to
the hospital. Shawn was in rough shape, he was pretty messed up by that
accident. She didn’t recognize him after the accident since his face
was all covered up.


She wanted to what happened and found Lola and talked with her. Lola
didn’t want to talk about it, she didn’t say much> It’s not my fault,
it just happened. She just said they missed the turn and the car
rolled. She was ok, but since Shawn wasn’t really her boyfriend or
anything she had dropped him and was seeing some guy from Hardin
Montana.


It is a parent’s worse fear to get that call, to wonder how your child
is laying there in a hospital far away. Luckily, Shawn recovered, and
has a couple of long scars on his arm to show for it. It took him a
year in physical therapy and he came home.


Somehow what happened that night changed him and he settled down. He
stayed around the house and worked on some old cars, crawling under
them to fix them and could be seen digging under the hood.


There was this one girl, a quiet shy one, she got to know him over time
and they got together and they hooked up and had a little boy. She is
different that one, she can do just about anything…cook, clean…take
care of her man and boy and keep their place really nice. Shawn
volunteered a lot of his time to work with kids here and there. He was
one of those guys who helps the kids who aren’t so fast, who get chosen
last during baseball games at school


One time he took the scrubs, they were called the ones that were too
short, and maybe a little too heavy and not so agile and put them
together as a basketball team. They went into the city league, they
were just junior kids and he talked to each of them and said, you can
be good, just stick with the basics, and he worked with them so they
could handle the ball. He worked with them, early in the morning,
driving around and gathering them up and taking them to a church gym
before school and had them just work on basic skills.


I caught a game, the final championship game and wouldn’t you know it
the final game was with Shawn’s Indians and the town heroes. One kid
called Shorty played his heart out and with the practices he had he
could shoot the ball when he was set. They played each other them two
teams and the Indians’ won.


There are times in your life when you struggle and may not be very good
at things, and the parent’s of those kids knew that. They were all
there and watched them kids play their hearts out, going up and down
the court. They were man handled, were not so tall, and not so fast but
they had the basic things down, to pass to the open man, to take their
time and to keep their hands up on defense. It came down to one shot
and Shorty; the smallest player took it and made it. They won the city
junior league and it was a good day.


Like I was saying, I saw Shawn after his trip and he told me that they
had gone to the Pow wow. He said the place was crowded and his wife had
no place to sit, so they moved to the opening where the arbors were.
There 24 drum groups playing, they are competing as well for a prize to
see who would be the best drum. There was one group, they were young
guys, and they called themselves the Wonder Boys. What a name for drum
group, they were from Standing Rock, his mother’s people. They had
those kind of voices that were cracking, changing and so some sang
husky and the others could really hit those high notes. Their drum when
they started to sing, made you want to get up and dance.


They sang an intertribal and everybody got out there, not only the
dancers but also the crowd that was watching got into the act
themselves. Shawn’s wife went out their with his son and her sisters,
and Shawn sat there and watched. He found himself moving his head to
the beat and tapping his hands on his legs. It had been a long time
since he stepped into the Pow wow arena. His mother had hoped that he
would be a really good fancy dancer.


He closed his eyes and though he wasn’t dressed in any feathers, had no
leggings or bells, and beadwork; he could see himself, stepping to the
drum. When those high notes hit their mark he was there with them. He
was stepping into the turn, moving his front arm down and beginning to
pivot on his right leg, kicking up his back one and twirled, fancy
dancer style across the arena. He moved his head up and down and his
roach with two feathers rocked back and forth. He could feel the eyes
of the crowd on him and knew he still had the moves, it was easy for
him.


Yes, it feels good, the music, the sound of young voices from home
picked him up and took him away and he was dancing. The arena lights
were bright, the air was crisp, and he could feel the earth move under
him, the sound of the bells around his waist keeping perfect time with
that drum. It felt good, oh so good to dance, to move and there he was…
it was like rock ‘n roll. He thought to himself my son will be a good
dancer, I will teach him, and so he moved across the arena.


As he passed the drum they beat their drum out of sync, hitting it hard
four or five times hard, and the women’s’ high pitched voices joined in
and they took everyone to a higher place. The drums were for him and in
the background there were eagle bone whistles. He had closed his eyes
and just went with the song. When he opened them there was no one
around him, he was there by himself. The crowd, all them there cheered
him on. It was something to see.


I had heard about this from my kids and they told me about it, so when
I saw him the next day we talked for a minute. He looked at me and told
me, I really rock ‘n rolled last night at the Pow Wow. It made me feel
good. He smiled at me and turned his wheel chair down the hall and I
could hear him singing that song….

rustywire