I am in the process of writing a book. The book
is an historical novel about a small area in North Central Montana.
The area is rich in history and the diversity of nationalities of
the people that came to harness the dry land. The name of the novel
is 'Dryland'. A few paragraphs from one of the chapters follow:
As winter turned to spring the bison continued their trek northward
and by March were in what is now Wyoming and by May were on the high
plains of the area that would be known as Montana. To the Plains
Indian this migration was the total influence to a way of life that
had no beginning and no end - it just always was. And to the Plains
Indian who had lived for countless generations in a world where the
only change was the heavens and the seasons no precursor could have
hinted at what was to be when the white man entered his domain. The
Indians understood that the bison was their total sustenance, that
it fed them; it clothed them, and gave them shelter. The bison was
the essence of their being.
There was no way for the Plains Indian to understand, nor was there
purpose in understanding the delicate balance that existed between
the bison and the prairie on which they thrived. And they thrived.
There was a time when the estimate of their population was in the
millions. The rich grasslands sustained the buffalo and the buffalo
renewed the prairie. As the huge animal grazed the sturdy blue bunch
grass flowers rubbed against the underbellies of the bison
dislodging the seed from the flower onto the ground to be driven
into the soil by the hooves of the bison as they grazed. Through
thousands of years of flourishing grasses, blue bunch, blue gama and
blue stem, dying in winter, being renewed in the spring and planted
by the hooves of the bison built a thick sod that cushioned the
hooves of the heavy animals as they foraged.
The Pikuni people had always followed the bison. They were a nomadic
people out of necessity; however they knew no other way of life nor
did they entertain any reason to change. They did not own the land
that they occupied but were simply part of it. In fact, the idea of
land ownership was not just foreign to the Blackfoot but a concept
that did not exist for them. It did not become an item in question
until the white man went to such great trouble to own portions of
it. As itinerant as man was on mother earth the Siksika did not
understand how it could be owned. Mother earth was here to be used
but never owned.
Sans Peur
© Terry Sutherlan
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