Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Life on the Rez

The politically incorrect (that is, true) story of rez life is well told in Dan Cushman's 1953 book "Stay Away Joe".

IMO, it could have been written in 2015.

Driving through one res in eastern Arizona, a few years ago, I actually see a guy in front of me stop, pick up road kill and throw it in the back of his pickup.

Scarier was the time I'd stayed late at Monument Valley, getting some pretty cool photos of the Mitten Rocks. I grabbed a bite to eat, then hit the road headed east. And almost hit a guy who was walking heel to toe along the white line of the highway (no street lights, and it was pitch black). He was probably drunk, of course, but I'm sure the rez police would have given me a big hassle if I'd hit him.

I've never had a problem on any reservation, myself. Except one time I got caught in a huge blizzard south of Browning and had to pull over and park in a ranch yard.
Family took me in, we had a nice visit for an hour or two until the wind died down enough to see the road. But they were pretty much just like small town people anywhere else, and that's been my impression on every rez I've been to.
There's a big difference between a regular Indian and a "Native American."

Thats priceless!

We used to play them in football.
If you beat them, they throw beer bottles at your bus.
If they beat you, they throw beer bottles at your bus.

Sounds like Green Bay....

You have to expect open range fence or not on the navajo rez.
I have come through there any number of times where there are fences, and the horses are outside the fence to get at the grass. Not uncommon.

Back in the 70's, at the age of 15 I signed up to work my first job with the youth conservation corp in Montana, hoping to wind up in Glacier Park. Instead I ended up in Lame Deer/St Labre Cheyenne/Crow country. Wow what an eye opener. During the 8 weeks I was there, there were three murders, two of the victims were beat to death (alcohol involved). One of the murders was white on white, the other two were native on native. They put some of the local troubled youth on our crews and one of them got beaten black and blue by his buddies ending with a bit of a hospital stay. Made my neighborhood seem like Mayberry. Back then it was "only" alcohol and dope, now with meth, crack etc lord knows what has become of the area.

From what I hear, and saw back a few years ago, the meskins like to move dope there.

Average life span was supposed to be about 35 when I was there, I doubt it's gotten any better. Sadly it's similar on most reservations I suspect.

Pretty regular thing for some convenience stores in a town north of here to sell cigarettes one at a time. A common sale to two "natives" is two cigarettes and a strawberry soda with two straws...

Don't you know it ain't strawberry soda, it's Rett pop! Sold a million gallons of Red Rattler to indians in SW OK growing up, it was the second favorite behind Milwaukee Beast.

That just sounds like rural Montana in general!

Yep.

Many years ago I was headed north at night in southwestern Wyoming on a highway across open range. Was driving only 50, due to knowing it was open, but all of a sudden there was a horse walking across the road. Managed to drive toward the ditch and slow down enough that the horse’s jaw hit the windshield right in front of me, and that was all the damage.

Turned out there was another pickup down the road about 200 yards in the opposite lane, both headlights gone from hitting another horse in the herd. He had a spotlight and we looked at the herd, standing 100 yards off the road, and couldn’t pick out the ones we’d hit. They may have been lying out there in the sage, but who knows?

Which is why I ignore the law when it comes to auxilary headlamps. Candlepower rules -- at least until someone comes up with a FLIR for cars.

It sure is a good thing the crow nation is dry, would not want to know what could happen if they got booze out there. They have a transport bus that drops off a load of homeless Crow at North Park in Billings, they come into town and blow their paychecks on booze and are stacked up on the sidewalks like cordwood, absolutely destroying the efforts to clean up and revitalize the downtown there. It is bad enough that they are traffic hazards anywhere near 6th Ave North and 27th St.

I go out of my way to stay out of the Crow nation.

Our church recently returned from a mission trip to a reservation in Montana. They were well received and did a lot of good while there. They reported a culture that is ripe with drug abuse and child neglect. Very sad.

Welcome to democrat land=Rez.

But they get free food!