A Sunday Hike

Mouse and Danielle

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GREEN HILLS
by Kay Ryan

Their green flanks
and swells are not
flesh in any sense
matching ours,
we tell ourselves.
Nor their green
breast nor their
green shoulder nor
the langour of their
rolling over.

Balee laas-deawilikkuh

(Lord Have Mercy)

The trailer that myself and the other St. Xavier JVs live in is about 50 yards away from Pretty Eagle School.  And in between our house and the school is the St. Xavier chapel.  For the first couple of months that we lived here, we exclusively went to mass in St. Xavier.  It’s an intimate environment.  The priest is elderly and often sits in a folding chair in front of the alter, and his masses are interspersed with stories of the people in the surrounding areas, stories from his life, people who need our prayers.  Mass is set to start at 12:00 but it often gets going closer to 1:00… Indian-time.  Or, in this case, Fr. Charlie time.  I enjoy the masses at St. Xavier in their absurdities.  Bare-foot children running back and forth to bring the gifts, the slow and often muddled pace, the way Father calls out to the 7 people sitting in the chairs (yes, there are no pews) to do the readings.

However, recently, upon the suggestion of some people at St. Labre who were concerned at our community’s extreme isolation (This seems to resound with all who know we live out here.  ”How do you like St. Xavier?” “What do ya’ll DO out there?!”) we started going to the parish 30 miles away in Crow Agency, St. Dennis.  AND, I LOVE IT.  The Church is circular, and modeled after a sweat lodge.  (A ceremony of which I have also been fortunate enough to partake in.  The Crows go in naked and the ceremonies are separated by gender, though some cultures, like the neighboring Cheyenne, are allowed to wear clothes and go in all together.  I will have to recount the full tale of my “sweat” sometime.  It was a night to remember.)  There is a Crow Choir that sings hymns in the Crow language (Absalooke), and we burn and smudge with Cedar as well as bless with holy water (a practice that we use in the church at St. Xavier, in school, and in our home as well).  It is a much more well-attended parish there, so we get to see some kids we know from school (I sat by my clan brother Terrel today), many many members of the reservation community and my friend Franciscan Sister Mary Ann from the Women’s Prayer Lodge in Busby.

However, my very favorite part of the church are the paintings.  They were done by this very cool man, Fr. John Giuliani who has gone and lived with several groups of Native American people and paints them in traditional Catholic iconographic ways.  He says:

My intent, therefore, in depicting Christian saints as Native Americans is to honor them and to acknowledge their original spiritual presence on this land.  It is this original Native American spirituality that I attempt to celebrate in rendering the beauty and excellence of their craft as well as the dignity of their persons.

His original “Crow Series” are all around the outer circular wall of St. Dennis.  They are each 3′ by 6′ and incredibly detailed acrylic.  Here are some of my favorites:

In other news, I am going to meet Margaret Behan of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers next Saturday and help plan their 11th Council Gathering which will take place in July of this year in Lame Deer, Montana!  Peruse their website a bit, they are VERY inspiring.  Janine and I have been sitting on my bed looking and looking at all of it.  We feel so blessed to have been invited!

AHO!

Where have all the flowers* gone?

*and by flowers I mean blogposts.

My dear, sweet internet followers,

I have some very good news.  I am once again the companion of my very own, paint-covered Mac Book Pro!  Which means I can commonly update you via interweb on where I am, what I am doing, and what I am creating!

As most of you know, I am currently living in St. Xavier, Montana on the Crow Indian Reservation spending a year doing service work through the fantastic organization Jesuit Volunteer Corps North West.  I am working at the Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy with 2nd and 3rd graders and somehow ended up following in my mother’s footsteps and coaching Cross Country.  It is beautiful out here.  Remote, wild, surprising, joyful, and at times, muddy.  To say that I have been enjoying myself would be a colossal understatement.

I have been writing letters galore, and receiving a fair share as well.  Thank you for all of the gems of love, hope, humor and art that I get in the mail.  I am the luckiest volunteer in the world.

Unfortunately, due to an accident involving our trailer without stairs, planting trees, little neighbor boys, and the mud and water and clumsiness involved in all of that, my camera is not working as well as it once did.  Also, a fair share of my better photographs are currently trapped on my community member Don’s computer, so until I can skype with Munir in Egypt and he can help me untangle my  technology woes, you will have to make do with these pictures which were taken on my webcam:

We have a lot of fun.

So, due to my 5 month absence in the in the internet world, here are the things that I have done that should have been blogposts.

1. Attended Crow Fair- a giant yearly powwow and teepee camp in Crow Agency, Montana.  It is the “Teepee Capital of the World.”  While I was there, I attended a naming ceremony for “Moonshine Boy,” learned how to set up a teepee, and ate my first Indian Taco.

2. Built a freakin’ awesome compost system in our “yard” in St. Xavier.  Been composting up a storm since.  Many of you received my illustrated blueprints, unfortunately I didn’t keep any for myself.

3. Painted prayer flags with my community- Janine, Don and Matt- and our visiting supervisor-Susan- for a Spirituality Night.  They are now hanging along the ceiling of our JV trailer.

4. Coached the Pretty Eagle Cross Country Team to the Championships!  Which we WON!

5. Was adopted into the Crow Clan System.  I am now a part of the Piegan Clan and a child of Ties the Bundle.

6. Just two days ago…painted prayer rocks for our rock garden which will be next to the garden in which we can use all of our COMPOST.

Obviously, I cannot even begin to sum up the huge experiences I have every day being with the kids and people of St. Xavier.  My community mates and I have been welcomed extremely warmly (as is evident by our adoptions) and have been loving every minute of our time here.  I wrote a couple of articles for the Catholic Messenger back in Davenport (of which there will be more to come) on the reflections of my experience.  Please feel free to hit the following links if you are interested:

What Led me to Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest

‘Holy Insecurity’ Living on the Crow Reservation

In the continuing world outside of Crow, I currently have a painting at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport at the College Invitational Show.  It is one of the body of work that I did for my show last Spring entitled BEWILDER.  If you are in the area, please swing by and check it out.

The works of BEWILDER are also set up to be exhibited at The Meadowlark Gallery in Grant, Nebraska in May.  I will unfortunately not be able to be there, but those of you in Grant should swing on by.

Love, peace and blessings to you all!

Hopefully I’ll be seeing you around here more often!

AHO! (Amen, goodbye, bless you and thank you in Crow)