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Elder Stories
Carl Braine, From Sitting Bull's Tribe
by Renee Sansom Flood
Carl Braine |
One of the oldest residents living in the Heritage Living Center looks more like the youngest! If he had a dime for every time somebody asked his secret for looking young, he'd be a rich man. Ninety-one year-old Carl Braine has seen a lifetime of changes in Indian country and he expects to see many more.
Hokshila Waste (Good Boy in the Sioux Language) was born in South Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation, once the home of famed Hunkpapa Sioux leader Sitting Bull. In those days woman still carried their babies in shawls on their backs and from that high, snug place Carl watched his Teton Lakota grandmother stir big kettles of corn soup on an outdoor fire. When it rained or the wind blew, Carl's mother covered him completely and he bobbed along against his mother's warm back.
Throughout his childhood Carl lived on his grandparents ranch. "We just tried to survive," Carl remembers of his younger years. "We may not have had much money but we had enough to eat." The land allotment was located in an isolated area many miles from the agency, so far in fact that he doesn't remember ever leaving the ranch.
By 1928, the country boy was tired of horse wrangling and ready for new horizons. He attended Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas and graduated after 2 years. Haskell was a trade school then. Indian students took regular courses half a day and worked half a day. Carl recalls that he had outstanding teachers. "I studied auto mechanics and I tried to stay there for the rest of my life!"
Carl didn't want to leave because he'd fallen in love with classmate Christine Cain, a pretty Assiniboine girl from northern Montana. Carl and Christine, or "Sis" as he called her, got married and struck out on their own. They moved to Lame Deer, Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in 1933. At that time, Lame Deer seemed like "the end of the world" compared to life in Kansas. Nobody in town had electricity or running water. "Before the government assigned allotments, the Cheyennes felt like Indian Prisoners of War," he recalls. It had only been 67 years since the Cheyenne and Sioux victory over Custer and his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Raising children wasn't easy during the Depression because jobs were rare, but Carl found work with the CCC," or Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC crew accomplished many good works for the Cheyenne people. "We built fences, fire towers and we put in the first telephone line to the agency," Carl recalls. When the CCC program ended, Carl graded roads for the Road Department until 1943. Then he moved his growing family (4 boys) to the west coast and later to Idaho, where he helped build the Farragut Naval Station.
When World War II broke out, Carl was drafted. He went into the Army Corps of Engineers and was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington. It wasn't long before his unit shipped out for Ieshima, one of 40 small Pacific Islands across the bay from Okinawa.
Ernie Pyle, "America's most widely read war correspondent" visited Ieshima soon after winning a Pulitzer Prize. Throughout the war, Pyle had covered routine reconnaissance missions and wrote about the struggles and heartbreak of ordinary soldiers. On April 18, 1945, Pyle accompanied troops on his last dangerous mission. "Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gun sniper, Carl remembers. "They buried him on the island." The nation mourned the death of a good man.
Nightly air raids were commonplace but the unit prepared for the invasion of Japan by building a hospital. As luck had it, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a peace treaty with Japan before it was completed. On the night the Japanese surrendered, every ship in the bay (some say thousands) let loose with whatever they had. It sounded like a huge air raid. Carl and his unit were glad to be going home.
Meanwhile, to support the war effort, Sis had been working in the Seattle shipyards. When Carl joined her back to the states, he bought a brand new Army truck. In 1946, they moved home to Lame Deer, where Carl's truck was the only truck on the reservation. He went into the trucking business and eventually bought a semi-truck to haul hay and cattle.
Rough, dirt roads were hard on truck tires. Ten years passed before the Northern Cheyenne got their first paved road in 1956. Area ranchers were Carl's best clients. They rounded up their cattle, herded them into his truck and he hauled them away to market. "In those days a handshake meant something," he says. "We had no problems with prejudice because everybody was struggling to make a living. Color was nothing. There's more prejudice today than there was in those days."
Carl's trucking business lasted 20 years and then he went to work for the Lame Deer School. On one memorable day in 1973, Carl was at work when A.I.M. (The American Indian Movement) came to Lame Deer to recruit members on their way to Washington, DC., where they eventually took over and destroyed a government building. "I was about to put up the American flag outside the school when an A.I.M. guy grabbed the flag out of my hands, Carl remembers. "He wrapped it around himself and walked out." After seeing patriotic men die in war, Carl was not impressed with anyone who man-handled the United States flag.
One of Carl's most exciting experiences was working with a Hollywood movie company as they filmed "Little Big Man" on the reservation. Carl rented the horses used in the film and met famed Indian actor, Chief Dan George, (He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.) and lead actor Dustin Hoffmann. Both men were fun to be around. To get the raspy voice of his 120 year-old film character, Hoffmann sat in his dressing room and screamed at the top of his lungs for an hour.
Carl and Sis retired and left Lame Deer in 1979. They moved to Apache Junction, Arizona. Carl and Sis loved to travel and see the sights. They had many happy adventures together, but life took a sad turn in 1990 when Sis died after 47 years of marriage.
For a long time, Carl's home just wasn't the same without Sis, but today he has reclaimed his life and enjoys each and every moment. "I have about a hundred grandchildren," he quips. "Just kidding! I have 12 grandchildren." Carl doesn't have a recipe for looking 20 years younger than he really is, but he says that he "quit smoking and drinking 30 years ago," and he's sure that helped. The Heritage Living Center is home now. With a twinkle in his eye Carl adds: "I know everybody who works and lives here and I love it!"
