To See Them Cry

Si-yo. When I was born my parents named me Di-hi-ka after my grandmother. The missionaries changed it to Katherine when I was a little girl. I am forty years old and have two sons, Jimmy and Charlie, aged fourteen and fifteen years old. I have been married for sixteen years to Samuel Deer, and we lived in the same cabin in the mountains all of those years. We kept two horses, a milk cow, chickens, a mule, and even though we lived on the side of a mountain, we were able to plant corn and potatoes and other vegetables each year. A lot of our family lived nearby including my parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, as well as some of Samuel’s family. On warm days we ate together in a nearby field where the men had built several tables and a cooking pit. We had a good community and helped one another in hard times.

Winters could be harsh, and we relied on food from rhe woods for much of our winter meals—deer, bear, sometimes squirrel and possum, would be a part of our dinners. In the fall, we preserved corn and beans, and from time to time a couple of the men would leave for a few days to return with coffee and sugar from a trading post that was twelve miles away. Since we had relatives all along the way, we didn’t worry unless the men were gone for more than a week. In the spring and summer, we hitched our horse to a small wagon for trips to the trading post. We also left the settlement to go to ceremonies and celebrations in nearby villages.

My family lived on that mountain for hundreds of years. My grandfather learned from his grandfather the ways of the mountains where I grew up. I learned how to cook, sew, garden, and care for my children from my mother and grandmother. We were content and had everything we needed. There was a creek that the children would pond up in the summer months to play in, and there were plenty of spring and summer foods we would gather from the woods—mushrooms, greens, and berries. The women made baskets, preserved foods, and made clothing and shoes. We used skins from the deer and bear for clothing and blankets, and when we had money, we bought cloth and wool from the traders. We kept needles, thread, fishing line, and awls so we could make boots, moccasins, coats, and other items. The work was hard but the people were tough. Jimmy and Charlie could run to the top of the mountain without losing a breath. They cut wood, built sheds, shod horses and plowed the rocky gardens without complaint. It was understood that one day they would go to another village not too far away to find wives. They were old enough to go with the men on hunting trips. Everyone in our settlement had to learn how to use a bow and a blowgun because the rifle and powder we sometimes used on hunting trips were so costly.

Even though my family was healthy, we kept a sweat lodge for community use. My father was a respected man of medicine and kept all types of medicinal plants throughout the year. If someone became sick in the winter, he prepared the sweat lodge and medicines, but it was also to be used for prayers and general cleansing of the spirit. We thanked the Supreme every day for our lives and the blessings of the woods and the protection of the mountains.

In the spring, the garden was prepared, and each family planted seed saved from the previous harvest. At harvest time, we worked together to collect the food—corn, potatoes, peppers, squash, and onions—and preserve enough for the long winter months. During harvest, the men dug a large pit at the corner of the garden where we stored potatoes and hard squash, and during the winter, we dug up only what was needed for a few days at a time. Corn was...