Ancestral Heritage

Description

Ancestral Heritage

The First People of the Americas made an impact on my life even before I was born.  My Father, grew up on the frontier when the government first opened Northern Montana for homesteading at $1 an acre in the early 20^th Century.  Life was rough for these pioneers before WW1 and harder during the flu epidemic and then the Great Depression followed by WW2.  Accidents were bound to happen with large families in this wilderness.  My father, as an 11-year-old, was accidentally shot through the foot.  Being too far from the nearest town, his brother gathered him up and on horseback they rode to the Blackfoot Reservation adjacent to their acreage.  There they solicited the skill of the ‘medicine man’ to heal his foot.  Fortunately, the bullet went all the way through and with expert knowledge of plants, he applied a poultice and sent home more ingredients with instructions on how to change and care for the wound.  It healed perfectly.  Another time a few years later, my father had his heels (calcaneus) cut off in a threshing machine.  Again, the medicine man was petitioned for assistance and once again, the heels grew back without a stitch.  So well was he healed that he passed the physical exam for men enlisting in WW2 a few years later.  I feel a debt of gratitude to these proud and knowledgeable people who honor families…. whose ancestors existed for generations on this great land and who shared their skill for survival with my people, the relatively new comers, over 100 years ago to create within our family line an American Heritage.