An American Indian legend from Montana

Her silver hair

Photos taken 6/27/06.
This video caught my eye was because of the woman's long silver hair. I walked over and took a picture, then I listened to a famous legend about how the bitterroot flower came to be.

Once, while living in what is now known as the Bitterroot Valley, the Flatheads suffered from a great famine. One old woman who had no meat or fish to feed her grandchildren, no longer able to look at their starving faces, went down the bank of the river. There she sat alone, weeping, and began to chant her death song for she believed her grandchildren to be dying of hunger. The Sun, hearing the woman's song, took pity on this good mother. The Sun instructed a Red Bird to fly to the woman and to provide her with food to nourish her starving people and with beauty to nourish their spirits. "Grandmother," announced the Red Bird, "A new plant will be formed from your sorrowful tears which have fallen to the ground. Its flowers will wear the red of my wing feathers and the white of your hair. Your people will eat the roots of this plant. Though it will be bitter from the tears of your sorrow, it will be good for them and nourish them." And so the Sun caused the bitterroot to grow from the seeds of the good grandmother's tears.

After this, I looked for a flower to photograph. It was the right time of year, June, but I found not a one. Then I dreamt I found one. It was a great dream! But then I woke up. Bitterroot is Montana's state flower (photo).

Lewis and Clark and the expedition men were basically starving by the time they made Lolo Pass. The bitterroot tastes, well bitter, and the Indians mixed it with other food to make it edible. It was a staple. Don't quote me, but if I recall correctly it made the all the men in Lewis and Clark's group deathly ill. They ate too much of it on empty stomachs and it was a food their bodies were unaccustomed to.

Exhibit

Lolo Pass was known by the Indians as "Sea of green at the top of the mountains." So poetic. I also love the names of the months that the Native Indians used. There is a list of them here. You need to scroll down a bit. They are beautiful phrases some of them, and descriptive.

Visitor Center at Lolo Summit 

This is where I watched the video and heard the legend of the bitterroot flower.

Lolo Summit in Montana 

Pretty amazing that Lewis and Clark made it to the Pacific and back. The only reason why we know about it today, and in such detail, is because they journaled it. Writing. I say to my son, "See! See how important it is to write things down."

Greycliff Prairie Dog Town

Greycliff Prairie Dog Town 

I sat low in the gravel for half an hour to get a pic. (Not of the sign, but of the PRAIRIE dogs.)

Drove to Big Timber, Montana today

Sunset tonight at Big Timber, Montana

Free Wi-Fi at our campground. How cool is that.

We drove from Great Falls, Montana to Big Timber today. The temperature reached 105! Then we had thunder and lightening and a short rain shower in the evening. Awesome. We don't see this in California.

Paid $2.35 a gallon for fuel (diesel) at Flying J's. Ate breakfast at Elmer's, one of our most favorite restaurants. We used to go the one in Palm Springs.

There are Lewis and Clark interpretive signs all along the highway. I picked up a book about the Lewis and Clark expedition and am reading it aloud while we drive and at bedtime. The chapters are super short and to the point to keep everyone's attention.

I finished reading the book of Esther for family bedtime story last night. The most remarkable thing about the Book of Esther is that God's name is never, not even once, mentioned in this book. The lesson I learned is that despite that fact that God's name is never spoken Esther's story demonstrates how He is always present. His hand is guiding events and shaping lives all the time and even among non-believers He still does his work. I read it from my little boy's Adventure Bible. The text is sooo easy to understand and he learns the stories so well. He memorized "if I perish, I perish" from chapter four which shows Esther's (who was probably only around 14 year of age at the time!) extreme courage in the face of a possible death sentence from King Xerxes of Persia. Now even my husband knows all about Esther!

This month I was totally immersed in books about Alaska and so I picked up several when we were in Juneau such as The Blue Bear (handsigned by the author Lynn Schooler) which was quite good but not the best of the bunch that I read, and Working on the Edge by Spike Walker which took me the longest time to read but was full of scary and heartbreaking true stories about men who catch crab.

On a whim I picked up a quirky little book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which was a fast, easy read and I liked it. It sort of has no ending really but it was worth reading. It's has a unique perspective, that of seeing the world through the eyes of an autistic person. I was surprised to find Amazon has some 900 reviews on it. I had no idea.

The best of the bunch in my opinion were three stories by Jack London (all in one paperback) The Call of the Wild, White Fang, And To Build a Fire. I hated to put it down. I highly recommend these stories.

I received three mosquito bites today, one on my right arm, one on my back, and one on my left arm. The most I've gotten in one day is nine. I'm just glad they're not biting me through my jeans. That's what they did in Alaska. The mosquitoes are large, quite large, in Alaska. Methinks that living in Southern California all my life I am spoiled what with having no mosquitoes to contend with. I don't know how people can survive with mosquitoes. I don't like being bitten. It freaks me out.

Most notable, with the hot weather today I was able to air dry my hair outside. My hair thanks me, I know.

Sunset four minutes later 

Purple skies as evening falls 

Rain and thunder today

Rain and thunder today

I was so pleased this one turned out. It shows the rain falling from the clouds.

Conejo (Spanish for bunny) at our campsite 

Windmill along the way 

Bales of fresh hay

Bales of hay beside the road 

Technically it may be alfalfa. I thought it was a pretty view. I snapped this from my window while we were driving. My Olympus C-720 has a phenomenal stabilizer and 8X optical zoom. I am bouncin' up and down in the truck and it still can take a fabulous picture. It's very good at taking nature and outside photos but its limitation - it takes lousy inside shots.

Big Sky Country

This is Big Sky Country (It's Montana) 

Montana's nickname is Big Sky Country. Quite apropos. Sigh.