Fort Days with Charles Moran

Well when it was the fort days they abolished all ceremonies all similes and even as far as talking to language of course it was because they were trying to assimilate and they were pretty harsh about it the what they might call the superintendent or the commissioner the Indian Commissioner for the reservation he was like all rules and he was getting his rules from Washington so they made it to where that didn’t want him to practice anymore and try to eliminate him to being farmers which wasn’t that bad for us because we were already farmers we didn’t go very far we lived long that Bismarck area here and might up along the river up north up to a Staten area after the Knife River where we’re at today that’s new ground for us pretty close you know so when they put us on the Indian Reservation a Fort Berthold everybody pretty much was right around the area of like a fishhook village and I’m talking about the hit artists and Amanda and Rick Ross the Mandans called him South annuity’ and the Rick Ross called him South Sonic and he dodges that’s what we call ourselves she put us into little districts over there along the river and they were called Elbe woods was kind of like the capital like Bismarck is you know so Alba woods had the day school and the governmental things that were there and then there was different communities like nishu and lucky mom shall Creek independence charging Eagle and those were the different communities that were under reservation demand and kind of stayed more on the west side of the river and the rick ross mostly stayed on the east side of the river and hit odds is were kind of on both sides and there was a group of hit odds us and a few man dads and a few rick rosz dad didn’t like what was being forced on them so they left and they went north along the Missouri River up just past the mouth of the yellowtail River and that’s the river that flows all the way into crow country along Sidney Montana Fairview and down that way to crow Billings area and there was two forts up there by Williston wasn’t there yet there’s two forts over called Buford Fort Buford and Fort Union and the hit ah just kind of camped in between them which was close to the mouth of the Yellowstone and the reason why they elected like I said there was there was a bad they were to abandon all customs and language and traditions and customs and it was about maybe some once maybe 30 years that they were gone and they say that the language changed a little bit the Haddad’s language today we have two dialects because of that so when they left they took with them everything they practiced everything all those years that they were gone and they were strong if they knew they knew what they were supposed to do they knew how to live their lives like I was saying every day living leaf ways that’s how they were from the time they woke up until they laid down they were they did those things that they were accustomed to while back here on Fort Berthold because of the harsh assimilation and the they kept the people at bay you had to ask to be married to the commissioner you had to ask to do a giveaway had to write a list of what you wanted to give away to who you wanted to give it to they weren’t allowed to speak their languages in the schools just a lot of hardship and change that was the biggest thing was changed to the people I know hostess that’s what we are chocolate people our horses they were gone and they lived that lifestyle for that many years and they wanted to start their own reservation over there they wanted to start their own area over there and the government said no that they would have to come home and they tried to negotiate we had Scouts among them that worked for the army they used to run mail all the way to Fort Totten all the way down to afford Stephenson to Fort Berthold he would run mail so we had Scouts and you know we were still some way simulated but they practiced their ways so when they brought him back it was like the Trail of Tears our own Trail of Tears invite him back it was in March of 1896 and there was still ice on the river and a lot of them walked because they didn’t want to come back so they had to bring back they put the horses unroped on road horses in the front to break the trail and then they wagon them the ones that rode wagon and the rest walk back a lot of babies and whoa people left it was pretty hard winter yet and we talked about that earlier today was about historical grief and huh oh it still hurts you know I’m 120 some odd years and it still hurts my grandpa was born when they got home my mom’s dad my children’s relatives you see have a grandpa on that side named Steven bird he live to be about a hundred and six or seven years old and passed away 1983 so stories they’re not that old you know I’m they’re still they’re still real young stories that were told about how they came home and once day you know the ones that lived here on the reservation had to go underground to perform what they had left whether it would be ceremonies namings marriage adoptions into clans healing ceremonies all that had to be done that night or hidden away from them so when the hit odds that came back the horses came back along with the fume and that went with them and if you Rick rod that went with them what they had was strong and they went underground with them to keep that alive to keep that going and it wasn’t until the I don’t remember what name of that act was the Native American Religious Freedom Act of 1976 I believe it was that’s when they came out and you start performing all these things like son dances and I’ll keep us keepers man dad’s kind of their Sundance when I was a boy I don’t remember son dances I was born in 1964 which is not that long ago but I don’t remember seeing Sun dances today there’s LA to Sun dances all summer long I am myself I’m not a Sun dancer I don’t Paolo’s you know power is what he even had to ask to dance you know back then now we just get a committee together and we have a good time of doings and those doings those dances that’s where it’s strong customs that we did practice the namings because we did to exempt public we give names we gave we adopted people into our family and clans somebody did good deeds or came back in the military we honored them you know those kinds of things it wasn’t about prize money or contest money or singing money you know what’s about those kinds of things I told her I remember and I’m I’m a young I do a lot of mounting today of the powers and I kind of say that once in a while I kind of get off on the tangent once in a while and Sunday afternoon it gets hot now Saemaul used to be this way things were done this way that’s just good to hear those things that I learned from old people and I’d like to see continue button changes I was inevitable that’s always gonna be hard but you know it’s it’s changing it’s things they’re done a little bit different today than when I was younger