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|   Get to Know Her Describe what a typical day is like for you. On the hunt a typical day is an adventure. My day starts very early in the morning because the days are long in springtime. I love the freshness of the early morning prairie air. It is especially wonderful to be out on the prairie after the long dark winter. Bannock and left over buffalo stew for breakfast can be a treat when you eat by a campfire after sleeping under the stars. The days when there are no buffalo and everyone waits for the scouts to come back might be boring for the grown-ups but for us children it is great fun. We have friends and relations to play with; people we don't see all the time who have joined the hunt from other settlements. Of course on days when there is a hunt there is great excitement at first. The women worry too that someone will be hurt or killed because riding with the buffalo is very dangerous but everyone tries not to show their fears. Once the hunt is over, there is work for everyone, even the youngest children are sent to gather buffalo chips or tend the smudge fires. At ten I can help Maman cut and hang the meat to dry for pemmican. Everyone works together though so it is not so bad. By night time when there is music and feasting around the campfire everyone is very tired. But not too tired for the dancing. My people love to dance and celebrate. There is much to celebrate: everyone being safe and well; tasty buffalo to eat and meat to be made into pemmican which provides trade goods for supplies. A good hunt in the spring and fall keeps us going through the long winter. Who is the most important person in your life? I couldn't chose between my mother and father. They are both with me every day at home or on the hunt so both of them are very much part of every day. What thing do you love most in the world? The horse Michif and being out on the prairie. Being out on the prairie with Michif is my perfect time. What is your greatest wish? That things don't change too much, that my father will always have safe hunts and that my brother Joseph will not be such a pest when he gets older. What is your greatest fear? That Michif and my father will be hurt in the hunt. What do you do for fun? I love to play out-of-doors with my friends. What aspects of the twenty-first century do you think you would love the most? An easier life for women like my mother. What aspect of the twenty-first century would you dislike the most? Cities where there is no fresh air to breathe. |
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