HAROLD REED & THOMAS WALL

The earliest classes one teaches remain vivid in the mind. At age 72 moments from the early Sixties are easier to remember than classes I taught in the Nineties. I never get used to my students turning up in obituaries. Today there were two: Thomas Wall, 68, and Harold “Big Beaver” Reed, Sr., 66. They were ordinary guys -- albeit a little more handsome than most -- and not the most colorful among their sibs. Francis Wall, for instance, is a noted abstract painter. Thomas liked to tease him about “painting like a kindergarten kid” -- which is a quality that some people value enough to pay for! And I don’t think Harold was the reckless adventure-hound that his brother Volley could be. Harold and Thomas are pretty much of my own generation though I was their English teacher. They were steady, never really in the news for being either very good or very bad.

But these were typical Blackfeet enrolled members. Probably you’d not recognize them as Indians, though Harold’s brother Volley was in the movie version of “Last of the Mohicans.” Thomas Wall, born in 1943, was a wartime baby. Harold Reed, two years younger, must have been a “welcome home” baby. His mother was the enrolled Blackfeet, while his step-father, Bill Reed, was blonde and, if I were to guess, once a sailor. I’d also guess that since Harold’s sister Minnie is in Georgia now, that’s where Bill came from. When Bill was finally ill, getting ready to join his gone-on-ahead wife, I sat on his couch visiting with him for a while, but don’t remember much we said. I think we talked about his kids.

What I remember about both Harold and Thomas was how tall they were, how lean, and how wide their flashing grins. That was the era of ducktail hairdos. They both finished high school, I’m pretty sure, and probably both played sports of some kind. Basketball is King on the rez. I don’t think I ever saw either one on a horse. To the naked eye Harold and Thomas were All-American middle-class, make-the-world-go-round family men. I never knew that Harold’s blood father was a Big Beaver, though Eddie Big Beaver was the model for Bob’s bronze called “No More Buffalo.”

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Harold Big Beaver Francis Reed Sr., 66, passed away Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012.

He was born on Dec. 18, 1945, in Browning to George Big Beaver Sr., and Ruth Walter, and was later adopted by William Paul Reed Sr. He was raised in Browning, served in the Army during the Vietnam War and returned to the Blackfeet Reservation, where he worked as a park ranger, police officer, ranch hand, firefighter, and as a mechanic in numerous service stations, eventually owning Big Sky Standard. He liked to hunt and fish, stock car races and restoring cars.

He was preceded in death by his birth father; his parents; three brothers, William P. Reed, Aaron T. Reed and George Big Beaver Jr.; and a niece, Mandy. He married twice, first to Linda Johnson, and then to Bonnie Bongey.

He had three children, Harold F. and Sherri Reed, Jr., Lynn L. and Jason Stott, and Kaitlin R. Reed. He is also survived by his siblings, Minnie and William Elmore of Georgia, Volley Reed and Opal Boggs of Babb, and Lawrence and Yvette Reed, Nellie Whitford, Llona and Verlin Wippert, and Lillian Reed, all of Browning, and Willow and Richard Ell of Conrad; and five grandchildren, Taylor, Marc, Taryn, Thomas and Madeline; as well as numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

A wake began Saturday in Browning at the Old Eagle Shield Center and moves to the Starr School on Monday, where a rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Funeral Services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Starr School, with burial following in the Willow Creek Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Vietnam Veteran Treatment Facilities in Walla Walla, Wash., or the Wounded Warriors Fund.

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Thomas William Wall, 68, of Browning, a retired barber and meat cutter, died of natural causes Jan. 4 at his home.

Prayer service is 7PM Monday at Glacier Home Center. His funeral is 11 AM Tuesday at Four Winds Assembly of God Church, followed by burial in Whitegrass Cemetery. Pondera Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Survivors include daughters Rose Ann Wall of Ferndale, WA; Virginia Boe Tom of Bellingham, WA; Melissa Wall of Ferndale; and Mary Jo Wall of Browning; sons Clayton Whitegrass of Billings; and Jesse Wall of Bellingham, WA; sisters Irene Old Chief, Angeline Wall; Bernadette Wall; and Roslyn Azure, all of Browning; brother Francis Wall, Jr. of Browning; 17 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Thelma Whitegrass Wall.

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As it happens my card file contains the obituary for Thomas’ mother, Annie Dorothy Mad Plume Wall, so I can add some genealogy for him. Born in 1914, Annie passed away in 2004. When she was a year and a half old, her mother Red Shell Woman (Minnie Mad Plume) died, so she was raised by her mother’s parents, Mary Spotted Bear (Not Real Beaver Woman) and Tim No Runner (Under Mink), and her great-grandmother, Big Mountain Lion Woman. She was given the name Yellow Fox Woman by her grandfather Middle Rider, and passed that name on to her granddaughter Rosalyn LaPier Beck, who is now finishing up her Ph.D. in Missoula. Annie was a fluent Blackfeet speaker and a plantswoman. She married Francis (Aimsback) Wall in 1936 and they remained married until his death in 1973. They were educated at Holy Family Mission and lived on the South Reservation until they bought a house near Willow Creek in Browning.

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It’s hard to grasp that to the school kids on the rez now, Harold and Thomas are old guys, not quite ancestors but the next generation after the last buffalo people, too early to be Headstart Kids. People want to romanticize Blackfeet, not see them as solid citizens like everyone else, but why can’t they be both? Why aren’t they just as much Indian in jeans and ducktails as they might be in buckskin and braids?