The May Day Celebration Continued

Jerry the Horse

Grandpa had a lazy horse named Jerry. Jerry didn't like to do anything which he considered work. His team mate, King, did all the wagon pulling; if Jerry hadn't been attached to the wagon he would not have done anything. When it was his turn to plow he would walk a few feet and stop. But Grandpa was as stubborn as Jerry and made him plow his share even if it took all day!

One of Jerry's favorite things to do was to escape from the fields and go run with the wild mustangs and pretend he was one of them.  This was a hard thing for him to do since he was a big horse with a regular horse nose and face, and on the chubby side, as well. Nevertheless, someone would report to Grandpa that they had seen Jerry running along the river with the wild horses.

The rodeo started around noon. There were the usual rodeo events such as calf roping,
steer wrestling, bull riding, and bronco riding. The sponsors of the rodeo rounded up wild horses to use in the rodeo for bronco riding event.  Since the round up sometimes included domestic farm horses the rodeo paid five silver dollars for the use of a farmer's horse.  

There had already been two or three events when we entered the rodeo arena. We climbed onto the bleachers with our tortillas in our hands and sat down to watch. 

In a small corral the mustangs were making noise and milling around in circles. And with them was Jerry jumping up and down  and banging on the fence with his hooves all the while making snorting horse sounds. We spotted him at once and yelled, "There's Jerry!" Grandpa had already seen Jerry and Identified him by his brand on Jerry's flank. Now Grandpa was waiting by the chutes waiting for Jerry to be ridden by one of the cowboys. 

The rodeo announcer called the first horse and rider. The horse was a mustang so he just had a number. They put Jerry in the next chute and he was kicking and banging the chute, the whites of his eyes showing. 

Now it was Jerry's turn. The announcer said the cowboy's name and said the horse making all the noise was Grandpa's horse. Everyone clapped and yelled. The cowboy got on Jerry and they opened the chute, Jerry made a giant leap into the air and when he came down he just lay down in the middle of the arena. There was a stunned silence and then everyone started to laugh and laugh. The cowboy was trying to pull his leg out from under Jerry but Jerry didn't move. Grandpa walked out there with his bridle in his hand He put the bridle on Jerry and slapped him on the rump and Jerry got up. The arena officials gave Grandpa one silver dollar for giving everyone a good laugh. Only Grandpa wasn't laughing. We stopped laughing, too.           

Sylvia tells a story about the May Day celebration. 

Shaved Ice
Every spring the Mil-gahn at the Agency put on a big gathering. They called it May Day. It was held close the the highway that led off Highway 87 and went through Sacaton proper. It was very sandy with gravel in places so we had to wear our shoes which no one liked to do. 

For the celebration a rodeo arena was set up. People set up stands and sold different kinds of food. Smelling the cooking beans and tamales made us hungry. Our favorite was the Ice Shave stand. The Mil-gahn man solid ice in a white chest. When you ordered an ice shave he used a metal tool to scrape the block of ice and turn out ice crumbs.  He placed the ice crumbs into a paper cup and poured the syrup color of your choice over the ice: red, green, orange, or purple. Because we did not have the money for each of us to have our own shaved ice (about 40 cents), we had to share, two to a cup. Then we argued about which flavor to buy. Red was strawberry  and purple was grape -- we never chose green or orange. We ate the colored ice until it was melted and then we drank the sweet colored water.       

Sylvia remembers Beginners Class

The first school I attended was San Tan Day School. Flan went to school and I missed her. One day Flan said she thought I could go to school and be in the Beginners Class. Flan told my mother, who wrote a note.  I think I was four. The next day I went with Flan on the school bus and she took me to the Beginners classroom. I liked it until lunch time when they tried to make me eat something I did not want and tried to make me drink milk which had a greenish cast (which I later learned was powdered milk). After lunch they tried to make me take a nap. The other kids went to sleep so I went out to play. After 2 or 3 days of this the School said I wasn't old enough to be there which was a relief to me. 

Sylvia describes a day when the Gila River ran.

When I was a child, the Gila River usually wasn't running. Grandpa use to cross the river bed (Ku lee Ak Mel) to cut wood to sell in town. 

But one day a man rode fast into our yard and told my Uncle David that the river was running.  Uncle David quickly left to go to the River. He returned with some large fish. Everyone was excited. My Aunt Dulcianna started chopping off the fish heads and put their insides into the dogs' pan. It would be a long time before I ate fish again. 

Sylvia describes play time.

We played under the tamarisk trees where the soil was soft. Sometimes we made people and dishes our of the mud we dug from the ditches. My Grandma taught me how to fashion dolls out of scraps of material and sticks. Out tamarisk trees were very old, with very thick limbs. One tree had two swings; this tree's swing limb was so big we could walk on it although we were told not to do that.

When my cousin Carolyn got a red wagon, we pulled each other around in the wagon.

Sylvia's cousin Jennifer and Viola shared that Sylvia would sometimes lead a game where she was a nun and they were her students.  She wore a scarf on her head and had a pretend candle.  When she turned around her sister Ruthie made funny faces and that made the other cousins laug;  Sylvia told them to be quiet and take this seriously.  

Sylvia describes chores on her grandparents farm.

We carried wood to fill the wood box and gathered wood chips in a can for kindling to start the morning fire. We rolled up my Grandma's canvas rugs and carried them to the fence.  My Uncle would hang the rugs on the fence and my Aunt would beat them with a broom.  

During the summer, we gathered watermelon rinds at threw them over the fence where the horses were. Sometimes the horses would be waiting for us.

Sylvia spoke and wrote frequently about life with her grandparents. The following chapters are from her writings.

Part I.

I believe I grew up in a traditional setting.  My grandparents farmed and lived in a three building compound. I lived with my grandparents, my cousin-sister Sandra (Sandy or Flan) in the big adobe house which had a kitchen. My Uncle David and his wife Dulcianna Blackwater Porter and their older children Carolyn, Viola and Jennifer lived in a smaller adobe house in the compound. In the winter, we ate our morning and evening meals in our kitchen and, weather permitting, our noon meal under the vath-ho (or ramada). On Sundays my Grandpa invited people for dinner after church and we ate under the vath-ho with a big table for the grownups and a smaller table for the kids. 

On Sunday mornings, my grandpa and I would walk to the Presbyterian Church where he swept the church and I "dusted" the benches and passed out the hymnals. Uncle David hitched up the wagon so we could ride home from Church. 

My Grandma and Aunt Dulcianna stayed home to cook for the numerous guests my Grandpa would invite, whether Indian or non-Indian. Sometimes it would be a visiting preacher and his wife, or George Walker or Roc Lewis and his three boys, or at times a family going through hard times. It was a lot of fun when a family had children We use to play games - one was Red Rover which I never understood.