LELAND GROUND'S DEATH HITS HARD

This photo of Leland Ground was taken in 1961 behind the original Browning School where there were teacher apartments.  The dog belonged to the Hazeltons and was supposed to be a guard dog.  You can see it is guarding Leland.  

I didn’t know Covid-19 had killed Leland until I finally saw a list of victims in the Glacier Reporter.  He was in my 1961 7th grade English class and talked a lot about candy and Hawaii.  Those were hard times, much more spare than today.  My contract was for $3450.  I had no telephone, no car, and an apartment so small I could sit at the kitchen table and without getting up reach both sink and stove.

When I moved back here in 1999, Leland was one of the first to visit me.  He brought me “deer meat” which is what fancy people call venison.  I kept a box of mint tea, which he preferred rather than coffee.  We’d sit and talk, sometimes frivolously and sometimes very seriously.  

After another murder on the rez he was incredulous that I’d known about what amounted to hundreds, particularly in the Sixies when I was married to Bob Scriver, who was City Magistrate and Justice of the Peace at the time.  Leland had thought the reason no one did anything about it was that no one knew, but everyone did.  He ran his Eagle Calf oxygen supply business out of the house where Bob Scriver grew up, next to where Piegan Institute was built much later.

I blogged about Leland on June 13, 2007.  About this time he had trouble with his leg.  Instead of going to the Indian Health Service, he went to the Veteran’s Administration hospital near Helena.  There he became infected with resistant Mersa bacterium and got worse instead of better.  “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus -- or staph -- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.”

Some docs wanted to amputate his leg but a young VA physician was determined to use every possible approach, some of them very new.  For a time Leland could go home but had to inject himself with antibiotics.  At one point the doc used radioactive tagging to find exactly where the infection was hiding.  After months of painful struggle, Leland was cured.  

Besides me, Leland visited a man in town who lived in a trailer behind the old Texaco station now being cleared out.  The man was a loner who often traveled around town in an old car he inherited from his mother, stopping by pedestrians to start conversations.  He didn’t die of Covid but was found frozen, sitting in his easy chair.  His trailer had run out of heat.  After that Leland didn’t come so often.

At one point the Browning Schools, as the Blackfeet Heritage Program, helped create a series of small books about Piegan individuals.  “Grass Woman Stories” was told by Mary Ground, that vital and vivid ancient matriarch. They were recorded by Cynthia Kipp, her granddaughter, who also just died of Covid-19.  

In this book Mary Ground told a dramatic story from June, 1896, that began at Holy Family Mission School where she was a student and interpreter.  It was about lovers who fled on horseback, taking refuge at Willow Creek School north of Browning.  A pursuit and shoot-out led eventually to death.  Leland either didn’t know about the book or hadn’t read it but was indignant that he didn’t know the story earlier, since he was also a descendent of Mary Ground.  Those books need to be reprinted and publicized. 

Eventually Leland told me about a hit-and-run death in his childhood that killed a sister he was supposed to be watching though he was not much older.  This haunted his life, drove his beliefs.  

I have a copy of a novel he started about a magic healing plant.  I gave him a copy of the pic you see here, and he framed it to hang on the wall at Eagle Calf.

His death was in April in Oklahoma.

https://www.buchananfuneralservice.com/obituary/leland-ground

Leland's hometown was Browning, Montana.  He grew up with his mother and father John and Evelyn Ground. He was the second oldest of four brothers. Rodger, John, Rick and Larry and two sisters   Venetta and Christy.

Leland was an artist when it came to how he viewed life, he always was of the mindset that you have to look for the good in your life.

He displayed this through his love for not only being a visionary when it came to projects that he would undertake, he loved to build anything that he could, he loved to showcase his creative side through his paintings, writings and his endless words of  wisdom.

Leland was a dreamer, he longed to see the success for his family, friends and his people. He graduated from high school in 1967 and then went to Haskell in Lawrence Kansas. There he received a degree in accounting and earned a certificate  in meat cutting.  From there he went on to enlist in the air force in the early 70’s. He was in the air force for 3 years where he studied avionics and repaired aircrafts.  He believes serving taught him a lot of lessons that he adopted as a part of his character, he learned self discipline and consistent hard work will allow you to reap the benefits of whatever you put your mind to.

He was Sergeant from 1969-1972

While he was in active duty he got married to Shirley on December  23, 1970.

When he was honorably discharged from the airforce they moved and lived in LA for 2 and a half  years where he did meat cutting. And they then moved back to Browning and from there they welcomed their daughter Carlin into the world in May 1971 and Tisha joined them in 1981. He went on to not only accomplish many jobs, such as.

 

Full charge Accountant-Blackfeet Nation

Legal Research Analyst-Blackfeet Nation

Oil and Gas Coordinator-Blackfeet

Natural Resources Director-Blackfeet Nation

Tribal councilman-Blackfeet Nation

Tax Administrator-Blackfeet Nation

 

He soon became an entrepreneur and owned his own businesses

One of them involved laying insulation in peoples homes, he had a construction business that he undertook with his brothers. And there was EagleCalf medical.

Where he took care of oxygen patients and set up their medical equipment.

He is the type of person who will ask about “how is the Lord treating you?” first before talking about someone’s daily life or the issues at hand. He had a way of making you take a step back from your problems and look at your situation from a different perspective.

The essence of who the lord was in leland's life, brought him together with his wife Kimberly and her daughter Jessica. He married Kimberly on December 16, 2000. They believed that helping people along their travels was their ministry and for the next 19 years they shared their love for the Lord with everyone.

He loved cooking, fishing, playing stick games , traveling to powwows, traveling to the beach, visiting family and friends all along the way to his various destinations. While leaving them with much laughter and beautiful memories to reflect on.

He is survived by his wife Kimberly Ground, his daughters Carlin, Tisha and Jessica. His sisters Venetta and Christy, his brothers Rodger, John, Rick and Larry. His grandchildren Kenny, Jordan, Aubrey, Lenna, Tahj, Taya and Kyra

God children: Melissa St. Goddard, Tisha Littleplume and Kyle Calflooking

Great grandchildren: Anastasia, Keira, Aurora, Amelia,Amaziah, Jericho, Jazmine and Malachi