Peter Bigstone
Peter Bigstone
with Brian Bull
Arlie Neskahi:
Assiniboine elder Peter Bigstone has a big heart. It’s swollen with a lasting love for his wife, his late grandfather, and his culture. In today’s Elder Wisdom, Brian Bull tells how Bigstone speaks – even sings – his devotion to family and tribal traditions.
Brian Bull:
Peter Bigstone is a full-blooded Assiniboine from Saskatchewan, who’s settled down in the quiet village of Harlem, Montana. A lumbering, stocky man, Bigstone is a jack of all trades – trained to be a mechanic, welder, carpenter, and drug and alcohol counselor. But hearing him talk, you’d figure that Bigstone’s favorite role has been that of grandson.
Peter Bigstone:
I learned everything from my grandfather. He passed away when he was 99 years old, but a lot of people say that he was maybe 105. He was a well-schooled guy in the old ways, because he was the last one of the last survivors of an Indian war. That’s why he has a Indian name. Kinyan Doba Hoksina. It means Flying Four Boys.
Bull:
Bigstone says from the time he was seven, his grandfather taught him many of the skills he needed to live in the wilderness of Saskatchewan.
Bigstone:
And I started to learn how to ride horseback, look after myself. He taught me how to hunt and he taught me how to make a bow. And he taught me how to shoot a bow and all those things, you know, about animals and their ways, in everyday living, animal kingdom. And I’ve learned a lot of things to live with nature, the medicinal values in plants. I’ve learned lots of that. And I’ve learned how to manage my life in those four ways, you know, spiritually and emotionally and physically.
What my grandpa taught me. He taught me all the songs that it had a meaning in life. So I’ve learned lots of honor songs. I’ve learned lots of Sundance songs. I’ve learned lots of Gasnoha songs, ceremonial songs, you know. I’ve learned how to beat the drum at a certain pace, you know. So those things mean a lot to me, those, that songs. The prayer songs.
A lot of stories that ah, that come to mind is ah, how my grandfather lived in the old ways. He was one of the persons that I looked up to after my mom, my mom and dad ah, they parted ways. And Grandfather used to say, “My grandson, don’t worry. Don’t worry, you know, because they’ll get back together.” But I never thought about it until, until after. My mom and dad, they went their ways for thirty years. They got back together, you know. And that’s true prophecy, to hear that from an old man, an old man that knew it already.
Bull:
Looking at Peter Bigstone’s burly frame, it’s apparent he’s no couch potato. He remembers just what it took to make a living from the available resources he had as a boy in a time and place far from big city conveniences.
Images below are from the National Gallery of Art: www.nga.gov
Click for larger view:
George Catlin American, 1796 - 1872 Buffalo Chase - Bulls Protecting the Calves, 1861/1869 oil on card mounted on paperboard, 47 x 63.6 cm (18 1/2 x 25 1/16 in.) Paul Mellon Collection 1965.16.179
Bigstone:
I grew up chopping wood. And I hunted for my dinner. I snared rabbits. I went fishing. I went and wringed ducks necks, you know, used a little dog to make them go in the weeds. I drowned gophers to eat. I snared partridges. I ate lots of wild turnips. I ate lots of wild onions. I ate a lot of bulrushes in bulrush soup, choke cherries, raspberries.
Bull:
Bigstone says although it’s been almost thirty years since his grandpa, Flying Four Boys, passed on into the Spirit world, his wisdom and guidance lives on.
Bigstone:
I always keep my pipe dear to me because it was given to me when I was nine years old, eh. And I feel I wasn’t worthy of it. When I turned into a man, I couldn’t hang on to it. And I started being wild after my grandfather passed away. Then it took a few years of my life, going to jail and trying to straighten out. And twenty years ago, I started my life back on that same road that I had left before, before I started being drinking. So when I came back to my life, I’ve been on it full force now.
George Catlin American, 1796 - 1872 Antelope Shooting - Assinneboine, 1861/1869 oil on canvas, 45.3 x 63 cm (18 1/8 x 24 7/8 in.) Paul Mellon Collection 1965.16.35
You have to have patience and you have to have wisdom to create your own world in this life. And if you follow the way of that guy upstairs, well then, you’ve got it made. I’ve learned that from Grandpa. He’s the one that I look up to, you know. Even today, to this day, when I ask for Grandfather’s help, he’s there for me. In his own special way, his unique way, because I’ve learned that he had a spirit that I know, I see. And you know, I can’t, or nobody else can see him, you know, but he shows me that he’s there for me.
Music:
Memory of Earth Mother
Andrew Vasquez
Tribal Winds: Music From Native American Flutes
Earthbeat Records
Bull:
Bigstone says living off the land and supporting his wife are all part of being a strong person.
Bigstone:
That’s why I always remember Grandfather real good, because he instilled that in me. He pushed me into my manhood. I don’t take life as for granted because, it’s something that I worked hard to be, eh. Because I always say my grandfather is my lawyer. If I’m going to get to Heaven or you know, if I’m going to go to the Great Hunting Grounds? Well, I’ll tell them I want my grandfather to be my lawyer and tell them I want to be there, you know? (laughs)
Bull:
Today, Bigstone is creating a piece of heaven for himself out on the Montana wilderness. He and his wife are celebrating two years of marriage. Bigstone says since their ceremony was held in a sweat lodge and presided over with a sacred pipe, their relationship isn’t taken lightly.
Bigstone:
There is no way that we can get divorced, because we have to work our problems over, you know, that it will work for us, you know. I never doubt my love for her.
Big Stone sings song
Bull:
Bigstone says his pride in his wife inspired him to compose a song for her.
Bigstone:
Daya waunciunkana wana miye wagninkte Wico’iye ota he Wico’iye koagipa he U hadado he
That means, um, “Sweetheart, we dance real good together. And I really like you, but I’m going to go home now. I’m scared of your cultural ways, because your cultural ways is different from mine, you know.”
Bull:
For Wisdom of the Elders, I’m Brian Bull.
Neskahi:
Brian Bull is assistant news director for Wisconsin Public Radio, and is an enrolled member of the Nez Perce Tribe. He lives with his wife, two kids, and three cats in Madison, Wisconsin.