Kinship is Important
And it’s a clear opportunity to assert Indigenous sovereignty and reject the colonial politics of recognition
Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. We are currently living through 90+° heat under unhealthy skies here in the OMD1 on account of wildfire smoke. The nearby Elder Fire, which was burning just over the ridge about five miles from here, is contained, though the fire camp off Mullan Road is still there last I checked. Still, none of this is anything like what our relatives in Spokane are suffering.
In service to relief for that community, they have set up a website for donations if you are in the area. You may also donate money HERE, which I just did. Every little bit helps. In fact, the next however many people to reply to this email with a screenshot of your donation receipt will get a copy of Becoming Little Shell, free of charge, until I run out of copies … and if the donations keep coming, I’ll just get more copies! Kindly include a mailing address with your receipt.
As my neighbor said to me the other morning while I was taking my coffee on the porch and he was out with his dog: “I hate to say it, but I’m fucking ready for winter!” I’m right with you, friend. Let’s do our best to look out for each other, all of us.
A few weeks ago I closed a newsletter by making mention of all the Native-facing stuff going on in Montana in July. WelchFest, Fire in the Mountains, Our Side, and of course IndigiPalooza MT. That continued into August, as I essentially delivered Robin Wall Kimmerer to the airport and headed directly from there to Yellowstone to participate in my part of the weeklong Voices of Yellowstone celebration in Gardiner, MT. My physical and emotional fumes were running on fumes by that point but I still found the energy to enjoy myself, uplifted entirely by everyone else involved. It’s such a great, and ongoing, event, organized by one of the kindest, most people-connecting relatives I’ve ever met: Yellowstone Forever’s Tribal Engagement Manager, and my good friend, Alyssa McGeeley (Muscogee Nation). Alyssa and I cross paths all over Montana at various conferences and such, and she’s always bustling about with a big smile on her face, often saying things like, “Oh, so-and-so is here, you need to meet them!” and then making that happen. I’m grateful to have become friends with her and I look forward to many more opportunities to make stuff happen with her.
While I was in Gardiner last week, I first participated in a cultural tour led by my friend Mike Jetty (Spirit Lake Dakota Nation). Mike is legendary in Montana for his years of dedicated service at the Office of Public Instruction in the IEFA department2. He’s also legendary for his awful jokes, which I was surprised to discover weren’t featured much during the tour he led. We visited Sheepeater Cliff and Obsidian Cliff, sites I’d only ever driven by. At Sheepeater Cliff, we hiked a short path up along the Gardiner River where we stopped at a beautiful meadow just above the trail and sat for a spell. We were a small group and everyone was lovely. While we were sprawled about on the ground Migizi passed by, as did a small, vocal group of sandhill cranes. Mike told us a couple stories and sang a few songs and everything was lovely. I’m inclined to remember that I might have told a story or two as well but I can’t be certain. I just know that for that span I was content and happy. Later we sat beside the river with our bare feet in the water enjoying our lunches. It was a beautiful day with wildfire smoke barely apparent; that would arrive in earnest over the next couple days. I learned a lot from Mike about how to conduct such a trip and I’m very grateful for the opportunity. When we parted ways at the end of the day, which was the most time I think I’ve ever had to spend with Mike, I gave him a braid of sweetgrass and he gifted me with a song to learn on my own hand drum. It was a good day.
I don’t know how my two tours went. I know both groups of people were wonderful, I just don’t know how good of a job I did. They seemed to enjoy the outings though, which is the important part. If the trips went well it’s only because of the combined forces of our spirits wanting them to – not to mention Yellowstone’s, who we made a point to greet and express gratitude to right from the beginnnig – and not because of anything special I did on my part.
Both excursions were out to the Lamar Valley and back, one of my absolute favorite places on the entire planet. I’ve been working with the Yellowstone Forever folks since at least 2022, if not the year before that. I got involved when my friend and Little Shell relative Amanda Hagerty, who is their Chief Program Officer, asked if I’d ever be interested in doing something. I think the phrase in Anishinaabemowin for my response is, “Well, duh!” Since then I’ve lead cultural tours for the last three years, I think, as well as guided a handful of workshops at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch. In fact, I am on the schedule to lead one the last week in January about the Seven Grandfather Teachings. If you’re interested, you may check that out HERE. I’m sure I’ll mention it again but it’s never too early to get on board with such things.
I know I was dragging because I remember details from each trip I just can’t remember entirely which event happened with which group. 😂 Both trips were guided by the delightful Anais Nunez-Perez, who I hadn’t work with previously but would now ride into battle with with absolutely no qualms. I also know that the second outing, on Friday, was more than half-occupied by a rabble of friends from both the Yellowstone Forever crew and park service employees. At our deepest point into the park we spent a number of long minutes sitting roadside on a hill overlooking a herd of buffalo. The rut is just getting started, and the bulls were grunting and growling and wallowing3 and flagging their tongues and even jousting a bit. I could have sat there among them long into darkness. Additionally, both tour groups had lunch at the Top Secret Location on Slough Creek where we found an enormous bear track in the mud right where we sat in the shade. Were the abundant yellow warblers and cedar waxwings trying to warn us? Who can say. I also can’t say for certain which group encountered the track, but I think it was the second one.
After five days I headed back to the OMD. Rather than take the direct route – north out of Gardiner the way I’d come, connecting with I90 at Livingston for the straight shot west toward home – I went back into the park headed south, passing Sheepeater and Obsidian Cliffs again, to Madison Junction, where Hwy 287 takes the weary adventurer back out through West Yellowstone and points west and northward. I wanted to visit Madison Junction because that is where Yellowstone Revealed went down in 2022, one of the most transformative experiences of my life and also the direct ancestor of the ongoing Voices of Yellowstone event. I’m not going to revisit that story here, but there is a great piece about it that Tony Tekaroniake Evans wrote for Atmos; you may dig that HERE. Tony published a book late in 2024 called Believing in Indians: A Mixed-Blood Odyssey that is well worth your time. You may find more about that HERE. Arriving at the junction, I walked down to the river with no one in my immediate vicinity, chatted-up some Canada geese and ducks, said a few words in gratitude to the spirits there, put some tobacco down and left.
“Kinship is important and it’s a clear opportunity to assert Indigenous sovereignty and reject the colonial politics of recognition.”
– Kyle T. Mays
The rest of my trip home was mostly unremarkable except for the horrific wildfire smoke. For those of you familiar with the area, you may recall that there are mountains on both sides of the intrepid traveler as one travels north on Hwy 41 toward Whitehall4, but the smoke was so thick they were entirely invisible. It was like that, to varying degrees, most of the way home and has been largely so all the days I’ve been back. To revisit my neighbor’s pithy remark: “I hate to say it, but I’m fucking ready for winter!”
I’ve grown to love the enormous area of Turtle Island we call the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem5. I love that my life has directed me there so frequently, such that I’m finally beginning to learn a little bit about it. I love how the human relationships I’ve made have provided these wonderful opportunities to form relationships with the older-than-human ones. And I love that I get to make one more long trip there yet this year, when I will be the “Artist in Residence” at the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center at Old Faithful September 21 – 26. If you plan to be in the area, or would like to make a plan to be in the area, please do so and come visit me. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to approach this thing but I’ll figure it out.
Register now for the August Edition of PERCH! It’s going to be a barnburner!
Join me Tuesday, July August 25 at 6 pm Pacific/7 pm Mountain/8 pm Central/9 pm Eastern for a conversation with Kyle T. Mays, author of When We Are Kin: The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity. This is our second PERCH conversation and you may get more information and register HERE.
I encountered Mays for the first time through his magnificent book, An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States and I’m very excited to speak with him. I encourage you to read this interview from Nonprofit Quarterly if you’re interested. Similarly, the following quote I pulled from this interview several years ago; it’s kind of a prequel in ways to the new NPQ interview. Here’s the quote:
Kinship to me is pretty simple. I wish tribal nations had more protocols for including ‘outsiders,’ people who are not necessarily part of your community or nation. How can we include them when they’re living on or near your land? How do you incorporate them? If you don’t have those protocols, create some new ones, because kinship is important and it’s a clear opportunity to assert Indigenous sovereignty and reject the colonial politics of recognition.
– Dr. Kyle T. Mays
Suffice to say I’m a huge fan and I’m stoked Mays agreed to participate.
As I mentioned before, you don’t have to pay to participate in PERCH events. We want you to join us! It’s probably the hugest part of the venn diagram overlap between the Irritable Métis and Chickadee Community Services: the educational opportunity in introducing new Indigenous writers and thinkers to people who may not have opportunity to encounter them otherwise. And I really do love the conversations.
And remember: if you want to attend and don’t want to donate, or are curious and want to attend before making any kind of financial commitment, just respond to this email and I’ll make sure you get the link to attend for free.
I hope some of you decide to sign up.
That’s it for this time, friends. Miigwech for holding out to the bitter end. Miigwech for considering a donation to help relieve our struggling relatives in Spokane. Miigwech for letting me gush unabashedly about my love for Yellowstone. Miigwech for considering a sign-up for this month’s PERCH6. And finally, and most essentially, chi-miigwech for your ongoing and generous support. It means everything to me. There is a lot of work to be done and it’s great to be doing it together.
Old Mill District, for you newcomers, the name I’ve bestowed on the bougie Superfund site where I make my home.
IEFA might look like an initialism but it’s actually an acronym, pronounced “EEfuh”.
So much wallowing! The bulls pee into the wallow and then roll in it, kicking up immense clouds of dust before heaving to their feet, ready for whatever comes next.
Friends, I didn’t make it to Whitehall, as I opted to take the Pipestone Pass route into Butte, which is beautiful and much less traveled than Homestake Pass via I90 is. Highly recommended!
A great way to stay current with everything related to this spectacular region is a subscription to Mountain Journal, who delivers missives to one’s inbox regularly. All the writing is superb but I’m particularly a fan of Susan Marsh.
Which will be one for the ages!
Can never thank you enough for this newsletter. It helps me see things differently every time.
Chris, I'm happy to let you gush unabashedly about your love for Yellowstone anytime, and I can't think of a better place to cross over than the Lamar Valley. I'm glad you had a chance to spend some time there this summer. There are some good-sized grizzlies on Slough Creek. And I love Susan Marsh, too! Miigwech.