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Elder Stories
Roger Knows His Gun, Country Western Singer
by Renee Sansom Flood
Roger Knows His Gun Roger Knows His Gun, a resident elder, performs at the Heritage Living Center. |
Father Emmett's July 27th birthday party at the Heritage Living Center included entertainment provided by the Walking Horse drum group and a performance by country western singer Roger Knows His Gun, one of the resident elders.
Roger was born June 5, 1937, in a tent on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation at Kirby, Montana. Harsh economic times during the Great Depression had resulted in widespread unemployment and hunger among many Indian families, but Roger's family was luckier than most. His dad, Hector Knows His Gun, was half Crow and his mom, Francis Two Birds, was the daughter of respected Cheyenne rancher Peter Two Birds.
Grandpa Two Birds lived on his allotment in a frame house and presided over a large extended family. Roger remembers a steady stream of neighbors and relatives camping on his grandpa's ranch. The old man never turned anybody away.
"A lot of people came to our place. My grandfather always had something to eat for people who came hungry," Roger explains. As a kid, he helped in his grandfather's big community garden. The rancher irrigated his gardens and all the relatives and neighbors benefited from his hard work and generosity.
"People knew how to do things back in those days," Roger says. "The women dried corn and berries and they went into the hills to dig turnips. The kids climbed ash trees after a rainstorm to pick mushrooms. We gathered plums, grapes and currents, chokecherries and buffalo berries. The women cooked the corn outdoors in a big old caldron." Roger remembers watching as women stood for hours stirring the corn.
Although many people still drank water from Rosebud Creek, Roger's grandpa had a good well. Besides a thin slice of beef once in awhile, favorite foods included deer, prairie dog and porcupine. Roger didn't hunt much but when he was 11-years old he took up riding bulls and bucking horses.
"Those horses were pretty tall for me," he recalls. "Grandpa had on average 20 to 30 horses. My job was to bring the horses in from the hills and open range to the pastures."
Two Birds went out in his wagon and gathered wood, cut logs and stockpiled them for the winter months. By the 1930s, most Cheyenne women didn't carry wood anymore. Sometimes they gathered small sticks but it was up to the men to gather and cut wood in August and September.
"People were slim back then, Roger remembers. "You never saw a man with a pot belly. They had good teeth all their lives. Old man Wolf Road died with all his teeth. White people were amazed. They asked him, 'Do you have false teeth?'"
In pre-reservation days the Cheyennes were much healthier, had strong teeth and lived longer because they ate traditional foods instead of candy and cake. People had never heard of diabetes. They rode horseback or walked wherever they went, rain or shine. After moving to their reservation they were given insufficient amounts of beef and government rations that contained flour and salt. From then on, their health declined.
Roger's maternal grandmother, Nora Arapaho Chief Two Birds, told stories of the days before ration lines and honking cars but one of her most interesting childhood experiences always captured an audience. When the 7th cavalry attacked the Indian camps along the Bighorn River in the summer of 1876, Nora was just 4-years-old. The women fled to high ridges to watch the battle and to keep their children out of harm's way. Fascinated, Nora stood on the ridge and saw Cheyenne warriors defend their women and children. After the first charge, the 7th never had a chance. As Nora watched the battle, "She was like a cheerleader!" Roger says with a twinkle in his eye.
Sixty years later, Roger accompanied his grandmother and parents to Pow Wows and dances. His older brother Gordon was good on the guitar and he sang both cowboy and traditional Cheyenne songs. Roger watched him take part in the Sundance. At home in the evenings Gordon taught Roger to play guitar chords. Tragically, Gordon died of TB at the young age of 19, leaving a gaping hole in his little brother's heart.
After Grandpa Two Birds went blind, the family moved from the ranch allotment to Lame Deer. Roger attended school at Busby in the 1950s. He liked school but they lacked the subjects he wanted to take. He remembers participating in high school rodeos riding broncs and bulls. Then he went to Haskell in Lawrence, Kansas and graduated in 1959. He learned brick-laying and masonry but he wanted to join the army. "My two brothers went into the service, but when I tried to join, they told me I was flat-footed. I never knew I had flat feet!"
For years, Roger worked on area ranches to put up hay and mend fences. Off season he earned money playing the guitar and singing in nightclubs and bars, at weddings, parties and school. He sang country western but he also liked rock and roll. At one time he tried acting in a play called "Big Sky Blues." The troop decided to go on a 17-city tour but Roger was leery about going. He didn't have to worry long because the trip was cancelled.
After the loss of his brother, his military service denied and failed marriages, Roger's life spiraled downward into partying and drinking, but with help from God and a well-known 12-step sobriety program, he reclaimed his life and stopped drinking. He survived the difficult days with the support and encouragement of others battling the same disease.
Roger graduated from the University of Utah to become a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor. After 30 years of work for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Roger had to retire in 1999 after suffering a heart attack and a stroke that weakened his right side. Faced with the possibility of never walking again, he began physical therapy in earnest. "It was hard but I didn't want to be in a wheelchair," Roger remembers. "I did my best to hang in there!"
Today, Roger has recovered and is back singing and playing the guitar. He doesn't need the wheelchair. "I like living at the Heritage Living Center," he says. "It's good to see young tribal people working here. My grandchildren like to visit and play on the grass. They say: "I want to go to grandpa's playground!" For that reason Roger picked a first floor apartment with a view of the pine-covered hills, the park lawns and in the distance, a traditional Northern Cheyenne sweatlodge.
"I give God the credit for my sobriety. Without God I would be nothing. I appreciate each day. I can sit up and walk. I can still sing and play my guitar. I have 23 years of sobriety. That's a lot to be thankful for."
Everyone at the Heritage Living Center benefits from the legacy of an older brother who died too young. Roger remembers his brother every time he picks up his guitar.
