Linda Matt, Class of '67
Browning High School
Blackfeet Reservation, Montana
Not much progress is apparent in my box sorting project, partly because I turn up such interesting stuff. For instance the document I’m re-typing and therefore can easily post here. It was originally reproduced with “Ditto” technology, that purple alcohol-based stuff we used to use every morning to create the day’s worksheets. We’d get a little giddy turning the handle and our hand turned purple. Corrections had to be made with a sharp edge, so we had singe-edge razor blades in our desk drawers alongside the erasers. We’d never dare leave razors around today.
Browning was the only high school on the rez in those days. Heart Butte kids had a choice between coming in to Browning or attending in Valier. The distance was about the same, but the roads to Heart Butte were not paved and they were gumbo. In those days it was a very small community, considered old-fashioned, a refuge for those who were reluctant to leave the old Blackfeet culture or in a surprising number of cases, the Metis culture, down from Canada.
I’m only posting the first part of two years of class lists. There were still a lot of white people in the BIA and other federal agencies, and still a lot of white-owned businesses. I see that the first three names on the list were the high school counselor’s son, the daughter of the postmaster, and the daughter of the railroad station agent (a woman) — all white.
Usually it was a valid rule-of-thumb to assume that half the kids who started school together dropped out as soon as they were legally able, age sixteen and/or eighth grade. They tended to be the more full-blood people, not for genetic reasons so much as for cultural reasons, both those that kept them from being from clued-in about town stuff and those that caused townies to consider them backward, pushing them out. This was before television.
These kids were born about 1950, the trailing end of the Baby Boom, an unruly time in rez life with much jurisdictional controversy. The “white” town businesses separated out the town from the reservation as an “island of jurisdiction” accountable to the State of Montana, and the main opponent to that was the BIA police who thought they controlled the Tribal Police, but didn’t. The town had its own police and court (Bob Scriver was the City Magistrate) but had to contract with the tribe for the jail, which was the old bank.
It was a time of high but unruly ideas. This list claims that one-third went on to higher education, which seems to include Haskell (www.Haskell.edu) and Flandreau, (www.flandreauindianeducation.com/) This was before the tribal community colleges began to develop. There was a “free school” for a year that was part of a growing horizontal “Peoples” movement across the United States. The Institute of American Indian Arts (https://iaia.edu) had been founded in 1962 and was still having birth pains.
Some of these students are clear in my mind and have become outstanding players in politics and civic life, including the tribal council and including the councils of other tribes. To read down the list is to send an avalanche of memories through my mind’s eye, most of them good, some of them blurry, and very few regretted. I didn’t teach from 1965 to 1970 because of being married to Bob Scriver, but that meant that the part of the cohort that didn’t graduate or even attend were still known to me because they were our labor force. We worked in the studio together. There is no list of them.
When I get this whole document re-typed, I’ll put it on a pdf and post it or send it to those who are interested. The people are just now retiring, so it ought to make a good study for someone.
I APOLOGIZE FOR FAILING TO GET THIS THING TO STAY FORMATTED.
BROWNING HIGH SCHOOL
BROWNING, MONTANA
FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF SENIORS
1969-1972
GRAD: 1969 STATUS IN 1972
ARMENTROUT, MIKE GRADUATED JR. U OF MONTANA
AUSTIN, VIVIAN GRADUATED MARRIED
BECKER, CINDY GRADUATED ALASKA, GOV. SECRETARY
BOY, EDWARD GRADUATED RESERVATION, UNEMPLOYED
BREMNER, DAWN GRADUATED HASKELL, NURSES TRAINING
BREMNER, MABEL GRADUATED BUS.COLL. GRAD, BLM SECRETARY BROWN, TOM GRADUATED JR. U OF MONTANA, OUT ONE
QUARTER: ULCERS
BUTTERFLY, ROGER GRADUATED US ARMY
CASSIDY, ROBERT GRADUATED US ARMY
COBELL, MURRAY GRADUATED US ARMY
CONNELLY, JOHN GRADUATED BABB. RANCHING
CONNELLY, EDWARD GRADUATED RES, RANCHING
CONWAY, CECIL GRADUATED EASTERN MONTANA COLLEGE
CRAWFORD, RON GRADUATED ALBUQUERQUE ART SCHOOL, ONE
YEAR
US ARMY, 2 YRS, NOW EMPLOYED
MUSEUM OF PLAINS INDIAN
CRAWFORD, MONA GRADUATED HASKELL 1 MR. NOW ON RES,
MARRIED
CROFF, KENNETH GRADUATED
CROWE, JOANN GRADUATED BUS. COLLEGE GRADUATE,MARRIED,
SEC TO RES LAWYER
DESROSIER, ROBERT GRADUATED GONZAGA 1 YR. EMPLOYED ON RES
DOORE, ROBERT GRADUATED MARRIED, EMPLOYED IN CALIFORNIA
DICK, LARRY GRADUATED ARMED SERVICES
DOORE, DARRELL DROPPED
EVANS, JOE GRADUATED BROWNING, EVANS CONSTRUCTION
FISHER, SADIANN GRADUATED GONZAGA 1 YR, BROWNING SECRETARY 1 YR, GONZAGA NOW
NALDRETT, DAN GRADUATED ARMED SERVICE
NALDRETT, HUGH GRADUATED ARMED SERVICE
FOUNDAGUN, CAMILIA GRADUATED FLATHEAD 1 YR. NOW MARRIED
GALLINEAUX, TOM DROPPED
GARROW, SUSAN GRADUATED BUS.COLL. GRAD, SEC. GREAT FALLS
GILHAM, TONI GRADUATED GONZAGA 1 MR. MARRIED, SEC TO BROWNING LAWYER
GLAZE, JAMES GRADUATED HASKELL 1 YR., BIA ROADS DEPT
GRANT, GABRIEL GRADUATED JR., U OF MONTANA
GROUND, VANETTA GRADUATED HASKELL, NURSES TRAINING
GEORGE, IRENE GRADUATED MARRIED, BROWNING WAITRESS
HAGEN, JOEL TRANS., GRAD COLLEGE
HIGGINS, WAYNE GRADUATED SERVICE, MED DISCH, 1 QTR HAVRE,
BROWNING JUVENILE OFFICER
HIRST, CLARENCE GRADUATED LIBBY, CONSTRUCTION
HALL, WAVERLY GRADUATED CARROLL, 2 QTRS, MARRIED,
HELENA
IRWIN, ADA DROPPED
JORDAN, JUDY GRADUATED BEAUTY COLL, 3 MON, MARRIED, BROWNING, BEN FRANKLIN STORE
JUNEAU, SAM GRADUATED US ARMY
KELLER, JOLEEN GRADUATED BEAUTY COLL, GRAD, BRNING OPER
KENNEDY, ALVINA GRADUATED GONZAGA 1 YR, EASTERN MT.
KIPP, CAROL GRADUATED EASTERN MT. COLLEGE
KIPP, PHYLLIS GRADUATED EASTERN 1 YR, BROWNING PENCIL
FACTRY
KITTSON, DONALD GRADUATED MSU
LADD, DUANE GRADUATED US ARMY, GERMANY
LARSON, JOHN GRADUATED US ARMY
LONGTIMESLEEPING, GRADUATED BUS COLL GRAD, FEDERAL SEC, GT
MARY ANN FALLS
MACDONALD, RAY GRADUATED US ARMY, VIETNAM
MAD PLUME,.LORENA GRADUATED BROWNING, HOME, ILL
MANY GUNS, LESLIE GRADUATED BROWNING, UNEMPLOYED
MONROE, JOSEPH GRADUATED BROWNING, MARRIED, PENCIL FACT.
MONROE, SHIRLEY GRADUATED BROWNING, MARRIED
MT. CHIEF, RICHARD GRADUATED HEART BUTTE, EMPLOYED
MARCEAU, CLIFFORD GRADUATED US NAVY, MARRIED
PAMBRUN, JOHN GRADUATED JR. U OF M
PETERSON, WAYNE GRADUATED US ARMY, NOW BROWNING
PEPION, DEBBIE DROPPED MARRIED
RACINE, BARBARA GRADUATED JR. EASTERN MT. COLLEGE,MARRIED
RATTLER, LUCILLE GRADUATED MARRIED
REED, MINNIE GRADUATED BEAUTY COLL, QUIT
SCHILDT, ANDY GRADUATED USMC, RANCHING BABB
SCHILDT, PATRICK GRADUATED COLL OF GF,1 JR,TRANSF TO
HASKELL
SMITH, KEN GRADUATED
ST. GODDARD, IVAN GRADUATED RES, NOW JAIL
VAILE, HAROLD GRADUATED SERVICE, NOW UCLA
VAILE, JAMES GRADUATED RESERVATION
WAGNER, WILLIAM GRADUATED RESERVATION
WELLMAN, DEBBIE GRADUATED MSU
WHITE, KEN GRADUATED U OF M, SERVICE
WHITFORD, WALDEN DROPPED DEAD
WIPPERT, DARRYL GRADUATED CAL VOCAT SCHOOL, NOW RES
WHITEGRASS, TIA GRADUATED DISTRICT TEACHER’S AIDE
SUMMARY
ENROLLED SEPTEMBER, 1968 74
GRADUATED 1969 69
DROPPED SENIOR YEAR 4
TRANSFERRED 1
DROPPED PERCENTAGE SENIOR YEAR 6%
HIGHER EDUCATION PERCENTAGE 51%
No comments:
Post a Comment