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Once again I must apologize for the long time between news.  It’s been a hectic few months.  For those of you familiar with the "institution", we’ve gotten involved with the VA for health benefits for Strong Bull.  That just about says it all.  My honest opinion at this point in time is that he’d be much more able to chase his tail if I fastened one of the fox tails I have to his back belt loop so he could actually see a tail to chase!!  I hope we’ll finally get some genuine answers as to what his health situation is, after many 200-mile trips.  In the meantime, we’re dealing with the aches and pains that come with a lifetime of hard work and self-neglect as to what the human body is supposed to be capable of.  Takes twice as long to do things when you first stop and really consider how best to safely do them instead of barging on ahead with the exuberance of youth!!

To be totally honest about the VA, there are a few people there whose smiles make the visit a little more bearable -- especially the crew in X-Ray.  Blush on, Brent! Brent and Mhari are the watchdogs of that department in Fargo.  Between the two of them, patients visiting their department receive a friendly smile and the best up-front care there is before they hand the visitor off to the technical crew (and sometimes chuckles only "siblings" can provoke, even though they‘re unrelated). So far I don’t think they’ve misplaced a patient. The tech crew we’ve met also try their hardest to meet the needs of their patients, and they always greet us with smiles and often hugs.

The crew in Lab needs to request special bumper stickers:  "VA Vampire on Duty" (but they’ve practiced so long they’re painless vampires). Even people who profess to be afraid of needles manage to leave their department with a relieved smile. The Patient Rep’s office always has an open door and a big smile when we visit.  There are some doctors we’ve met who seem to be earnestly trying to get the job done, as soon as they figure out what the job is.  We do appreciate good "bedside manner" and honesty, good or bad news, when it comes to something so delicate as the question "what’s wrong". 

Now that I’ve given you some clue as to where we’ve been lately, I’ll get on to other things.  

Webpage:  The "Events" page has been updated. We’ll be posting new pictures on the "Photo" page and updating the "Society" pages shortly.  This will be posted to "Newsletter" as soon as it’s sent. My co-editor has taken a job with our new Wal-Mart in Wadena, so she‘s only part-time accessible; and we‘re glad for her good fortune.   (That makes two of our ladies who've landed good jobs there.)

Circle News:  Both Reed City and Kalamazoo faithfully kept their meetings going through the end of the year, in spite of winter weather that was worse than ours in Minnesota (he-he-he).  To clarify that chuckle, we were told we were moving into what’s basically described as the "cold and frozen northland" when we moved here in 2003.  On 2/1, I listened to news that U of GA was closed because of winter storms; Oklahoma was getting socked in by winter storms; and we had sunshine, very little dusting of snow all day (not much all winter).  We’re living in "cold and frozen northland"???  On 2/4, the report was as follows: thanks to sunny sub-zero temps (cloudless nights so it was really cold) and much colder wind chills, we called off February meetings (vehicles reluctant to start when it’s this cold); and much of Michigan has fallen victim to winter’s wrath, so meetings resumed in March. We usually get this kind of weather for about 2 weeks in January, but it waited until February and didn’t last long.

For those of us who plan to try to grow gardens this year, it’s seriously time to think about ordering those standard seeds we need (can’t save seeds from hybrid plants).  My suggestion is to have enough seeds for at least 3 plantings (our garden in Traverse City, MI froze July 4 one year, and I planted it for the third time the week after that). When you save seeds from this year‘s harvest, save enough for 3 plantings with whatever you have left from your order.  This also insures you’ll have seeds to plant if you should have a garden that doesn’t do much one year. 

We’ve managed to cut some of the timbers and lumber we need to start the Council Lodge here in Minnesota.  We ran into a deal on surplus shingles at Habitat for Humanity’s store near us, so we have quite a few shingles for the roof -- they may not all be the same since they‘re odd lots that can‘t be used on houses, but at this point, we won’t be picky.  Hopefully the guys will be able to get onto that project this spring.

I know that weather patterns all over the place are changing almost as rapidly as most of us change socks.  This is all part of most of the prophecies we hear.  At this point, all any of us can do is prepare as best we can for the "usual" weather in our area and any "normal" emergencies that may come with the weather.  Remember, no disaster is a disaster unless we deem it so and treat it as such.  If we learn to deal with whatever comes our way in the best way we know how, survival is not impossible.  We may just need to rethink our priorities.  Remember one of my favorite sayings:  "if God seems far away, it means YOU moved, HE didn’t". 

I’ll hush and get this ready to go out to all of you.  Let’s keep each other in prayer, that Creator gives us what we need for our walk this year and some of what we want.  Safe journeys -- Betty Red Earth Woman Hyatt  

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Editor:  Betty Red Earth Woman Hyatt, polttwil@arvig.net               

Members of Two Worlds Intertribal Lodge 

and People of Lost Tribes Band of the SeCCI