After we published a bleak photo essay on life in Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, I received hundreds of angry emails from readers who said I was ignoring the positive side.
The most compelling response came from Northern Arapaho tribeswoman Mary Rose Goggles, who offered to tell me the best parts of reservation life as well as her own story.
Skip to the best parts of Wind River >
Mary Rose takes an optimistic view on her life and her community, though both have seen plenty of misfortune.
A 54-year-old woman who lives just off the reservation in Riverton, Wy., she joined the U.S. Army when she was 21 years old. During her time with the U.S. Signal Corps at Fort Detrick, Maryland, she was exposed to toxic chemicals. She says she still feels the effects of this exposure but takes it in stride:
I have come to terms with my health issues and remember I served for our freedoms...our Freedom of Religion, so as Native People we can worship our Creator through our Ceremonies handed down through generations since the beginning of time, and we can hold on and cherish our Culture...our Identity. And to keep speaking our own language.
Mary Rose cherishes the ideal of freedom, though she recognizes its downside too. She writes:
Sad to say, because we live in a Multicultural World...and each one of us has that ultimate "freedom of choice," a lot of our younger generations experiment with other cultural ways of living, hence alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, corruption, gangs, etc.
Eventually some of our people who made those detours, myself included, we come back full circle to our original teachings and our sacred way of life. After all isn't that what life is about? Live and Learn! I can honestly say I know of two of my great grandparents who did not taste alcohol...
English was their second language, my paternal grandmother Christine Frances Friday Goggles' mother Zoe Friday...and my paternal grandfather Lloyd Paul Goggles, Sr.'s father John Baptiste Goggles, Sr. Now we have the medical field diagnosing a lot of our children as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAE)...yet other cultures used alcohol since when? Roman and Greek days...wine and grapes!
Mary Rose's surname, Goggles, is another mark of her family's encounter with the U.S. government:
Why Goggles....? Well when the government put us on reservations and developed the census for us...they used my Great-Great Grandfather's Indian Name translated into English "Iron Eyes" as our family's surname. Time came along, the government building burned, records were destroyed, and they had to redo their census.
They [whites, Americans, religious leaders, everyone non-tribal] and shortened a lot of names from what they had been. Instead, they gave out a lot of common names such as 'Brown', 'Smith', etc. As a matter of fact, some names they had a hard time translating...anyway our name was shortened to 'Goggles'.
When our ancestors were put into the Catholic or Episcopal Boarding Schools...they had to pick English names....some called them Baptismal names, or the Nuns and/or Priests gave them English first names. Through all that we survived through historically. We still have our Traditional Naming Ceremonies, which are very, very important.
This is where an authorized Elder can pass on previous Indian Names or give out Indian Names. It is our belief that this is how our Creator...God...recognizes us...as Indian....as Northern Arapaho... The English name given to our Tribe... is 'The Blue Sky People' not what we call ourselves, and we do not want the creator to forget who we are..."
When I mentioned to Mary Rose that I was en route to Florida to visit my mother, she wrote back to tell me of the importance of family:
Have a great day also especially with your mother...you are fortunate to have her yet, my mother passed on to the Happy Hunting Grounds last year on August 21, 2012...she was born August 27, 1933...the Doctors couldn't believe she never had any surgeries...lol...she would tell them 'the only thing missing is my teeth'....she had dentures.
I miss her and love her, but I know she is happy where she is and I will see her one of these days...meanwhile I have my children and grandchildren....my brothers...extended relatives who I have to look out for and be here for when they need me.
That warm embrace of family hinted at one of the good thing about life on the rez, at the sense of continuity and community that survives centuries of struggle.
In our last communication, I told Mary Rose that I hoped this piece would bring positive attention to Wind River. She replied:
Well, hopefully some positive changes will evolve from all the controversy your article raised... Maybe it will instill a sense of Pride in our youth and they will seek out their Identity and make the right choices in their journey of life...
Maybe it will awaken the Northern Arapaho Business Council and the Eastern Shoshone Business Council to make our Language and Cultural Programs a priority on their agendas...especially when it comes to Budgets. And most importantly, no matter what, everything you've done is educating all people Nationwide of our existence ... of our SURVIVAL!!
In the meantime, Mary Rose offers the following reasons why she loves life on Wind River.
Wind River's Mary Rose Goggles says "the beauty of the mountains ... Mother Earth" are among the best parts of life on the Wyoming reservation.
"The fresh air we have, the beauty of clear blue skies, free from pollution ..."
"The quality of drinking water we have, water of life ..."
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