Today is the tenth of September, five more days until Gogiiya. The sun is rising from the east and it looks like another beautiful day in the Dulce Valley. It should be another warm with afternoon showers. The picture below is from the 1960s era and we're camped out at Gogiiya. The vehicle shown is an old International pickup my parents had way back when. We used to camp on the south side of the Gogiiya grounds by my cousins. We moved from there after my dad passed away in 1972 and have been at our present location since the 1970's. My mom had laundry strung out the sides of the tent. You can see her on the side of the tent doing something or the other. Our family has always had a camp out at Gogiiya and this year is no different, it's a time to visit with friends and eat lots of great food and celebrate another great year here on the beautiful Jicarilla Apache reservation.

It's the ninth of September, six days until our harvest festival titled Gogiiya, gogiiya means knife edge and refers to when our festival was near Abiquii, in the 1800's when the Jicarilla Apache Nation was in transition with the US Government. We were alternately fighting with them and being at peace with them. The Olleros were led by my Great Grandfather Huerito Mundo and their range was primarily in central Colorado around the town of Center, Colorado and westward. At one time the Jicarillas received rations from the government at Abiquii and they carried on their ceremonies. If you drive by Abiquii you will notice a rock that resembles a knife edge, this is probably where the footraces were held.

Since the northern half of our reservation was established in 1886, the races have been held at Stone Lake and will continue to do so as long the Jicarilla Apache Nation exists as an entity. So building campsites and removing dry branches are the main concerns as we head toward the fifteenth. Most older Jicarillas try to make the ceremony and especially my cousins, Veronica Tiller, Roberta and Everett Serafin, Mary Velarde, Alberta Velarde, and Bob Crosby Velarde who rarely miss a Gogiiya ceremony. So come out and enjoy our harvest festival with us.

September 8th, 2013

The Sunday before Gogiiya, most of my friends are in church. Next Sunday we celebrate our harvest festival out at Stone Lake. The ceremony is held every year on the fifteenth of September. The ceremony is marked by a footrace between the clans, Red and White, the white clan is the Olleros and represented by the sun and the red clan is called the Llaneros and is represented by the moon. The Jicarillas believe that which ever side wins determines the weather for that year. The Red side has been winning so we should have had more harsher winters and a lot of animals for food, there have been quite a few deer and elk out in the countryside. so we will see what this ceremony brings. The ceremony is held at the Gogiiya grounds out at Stone Lake, approximately seventeen miles south of the town of Dulce, New Mexico due south. After the race both side throw fruit and vegetables in the air celebrating our good fortune.

The picture shows the white clan runners walking down the track before the race. They walk to the end of the track and back and then two older (Haskiin) runners run the length of the track and when they finish the race begins. The race usually last about thirty minutes but last year it almost lasted an hour due to one side not lapping the other side.

This is a photo of my Uncle Jackson Velarde, right, and from left to right: Leona Garambullo and Rogene Garambullo (Deceased). The camp is located next to Stone Lake. We set up Grandpa's camp yesterday so it is already to go. We need to take out there the red table in the picture. So get ready it will be next Sunday, this years activities will feature a Pony Express race of thirty minutes in and around the Gogiiya grounds.

Wow, I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing. I am trying to build a website through Wix, it's kind of confusing, don't really understand who it all goes together but I'm trying. It's the last weekend of August, 2013, wow, where did the time go, I was editing my writings from last year and it was 2012 and now we are three quarters of th way through 2013. Anyways, it is hot here in Dulce, New Mexico. It rained right around quitting time yesterday. It rained pretty good, the ground was still wet and there were water puddles all over where there are potholes.

This is the west side of the Ishkoten Center, a storm was brewing yesterday afternoon around four, the clouds looked imposing and I was returning from the garage. This is looking east toward Chama, I thought the clouds were awesome. I am a cloud enthusiast and like to photograph imposing cloud shapes. People have been telling me I need to build a website so that's what I'm doing but I don't really know if I'm doing it right, that's okay, I can always edit and change it, I needed to start working on it. I should have started years ago but I was too scared and too lazy so I have to thank those people who encouraged me.

We're getting close to our traditional holiday or the Harvest festival, it's called Gogiiya and happens on September fifteenth of every year. The ceremony is a race between the red and white clan, the White Clan (Ollero) represents the Sun and the Red Side represents the Moon. Whomever wins decides the fate of our nation. If the white side wins then we will have abundant crops and less winter, and if the Red Side wins then we will have more deer and elk and a harsh winter. The race is called the Race around the world. The site of Gogiiya is located seventeen miles south of the town of Dulce and north of Stone Lake. There is another entrance to the west on Highway 537. As you drive from Cuba or Albuquerque you will see a sign that says Stone Lake, you turn right at the sign and continue eastward about ten miles and then you will camps and campfire and then you know you are there. No non-Indians are allowed to photograph the race only tribal members. So come and enjoy our harvest festival, this years Gogiiya will include a thirty miles Pony Express type race after the initial foot race.

The sun is beginning to make its journey from the east. it's quiet outside, not a soul stirring at the moment. it is six fifty eight in the morning. I am about twenty one pages into transcribing my writings onto the computer. I just finished the one where we were at the Longhouse in Saint Ignatius or as the locals call it Mission. I don't know they call it that, back here, Dulce is Dulce. I haven't sold any raffle tickets for the buffalo, been too busy trying to find work and doing other stuff. I can only do about two in the morning realistically, have to do another two in the afternoon, that's the only way I'm going to make any head way in my writings. I should have started this way back. It's not that hard

Oh, well, can't cry over spilled milk, carry on. The above picture was taken at Echo Canyon rest area about eight thirty in the morning. I and my friend Reynard had there for a couple of minutes and I took out my camera and snapped this photo. The mountain pass the red cliffs is called Besh Ligai (White Flint Mountain), it is sacred in our way. I'm not sure about the story I think it has something to do with the Great Flood. Anyways I and my partner Vicki Morigeau and my niece Tammi Lambert and her daughter Imani made the journey up the mountain back in 2004 or 2005. It was great.

Ain't nothing working today

Damm, ain't nothing working anywhere today. It was hot all day, I did see some rain after work but it didn't do nothing. I couldn't get any of the lawnmowers to work so I washed windows at the Ishkoten Center. It was too hot so I only washed four and I didn't think I did a good job, oh well. This is my third day on the job so it was pretty cool, haven't had a job since May. man, that circuit training workout is the bomb, it's hard as heck but if you stick with it, it's definitely worth it. I might have a heart attack but I know the blood will be flowing. I been attending these circuit training sessions and I don't think I'll ever go back to the regular workouts. It feels like you're cheating when you do a regular workout. so I will continue with my routine, it's only three days a week so I can slide on the other workouts.

 

This picture was taken on the west side of the Ishkoten Center, that big building in my photos. I now work there for the next three months. I should be able to fix up my car to drive it to Montana whenever I get ready to head up there. I love the blues in the background of the photo, it makes me glad I'm from New Mexico. Yeah, so todays wasn't an exciting day but it had its moments. I finally got the layout of the whole place, just north of us is the jail. I remarked to a co-worker that I had never been in the jail, just the old one they called the Pizza Hut, I kid you not, they called it that because it looked like a Pizza Hut franchise. When they built the Ishkoten Building they thought it was time to get rid of the building. So they demolished it and hauled away all the concrete used to make the walls.

The old Game and Fish building was torn down last year, when they built the new one, they did the same thing to it, all the old building representing the old Dulce are gone now. That's too bad, they should have saved some of the old building.

Flathead and Glacier Mountains

I see the sun starting to make its daily journey from east to west. today is my second day of work, i'm looking forward to it. At least I have money coming that I didn't have before, it don't pay much but I needed to get back to doing physical labor, I been writing quite a bit so it was a relief to finally burn off calories all day long. I have been going to the fitness center two times a week and participating in their circuit training offered by the fitness center, I love it and want to continue it more in the weeks and months to come.

It looks like it is going to be a sunny day, that's quite fine with me. I think I took this picture back in March when it was still winter in Polson, Montana. There are a number of islands out on the lake, the lake is a huge body of water, it measures eighteen miles by twenty five, it stretches from the town of Polson all the way to Kalispell. The drainage included the surrounding mountains, Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall wilderness, the Mission Mountains and Hungry Horse reservoir. I loved taking pictures of the Mission Mountains, they remind me of the Rocky Mountains to the north of us and the mountains north and west of Chama, New Mexico. I would like someday to take a pack trip back into the Rio Grande Wilderness where the highest peaks are.

When I was returning home after work it was sprinkling a little, we didn't get any major rain but I imagine we will in the coming days and week. It's been a wet summer after the fires were extinguished in the forests around us. The West Fork fire burned more than one hundred thousand acres over past Wolf Creek, I heard it had a lot of Bark Beetle infestation. The forest west of Trujillo Meadows are pretty heavily infested and I would not be surprised if it burned in the future, it is a sad sight to see. Whole mountainsides of brown trees.

Kerr Dam, May 2013

I'm waiting for the director to sign my papers so I can work, he wasn't there earlier so I will check back maybe close to eleven or ten thirty. It's been a process seeking work. I'm glad I'm healthy enough to work. This picture was taken in May I think over by Kerr Dam, we drove on Valley View road to Vicki's dad place in the old agency housing. We walked down to Kerr Dam and visited the site. I was unsure about my physical condition and did not want to over exert myself and trigger another heart attack. I didn't trigger another heart attack and this picture was a testament to it. The mountains in back are the Missions, they are part of a chain of mountains that stretches from Saint Ignatius all the way to Big Fork and beyond. I think the mountains are very picturesque so I don't have a problem photographing them.

As you can see, the grass it quite brown because it hasn't rained in awhile, it rained all winter but it did not freeze, we had two days where it froze or where we had any snow, I was disappointed by their winter. I thought we were in for it. The mountains received a reasonable amount of snow but not in the lowlands around Polson and Pablo, Montana. There were plenty of days when it was overcast and cold, it was cold but not too cold. So it was enlightening living up here for a winter and seeing a different locale than New Mexico. I was homesick but I got over it and enjoyed the winter somewhat. The Morigeau family experienced a horrific winter, their favorite son, Doug Morigeau was brutally murdered in December. His attacker just wanted cigarettes. I can't believe his reasoning, he was murdered for a pack of cigarettes, logic escapes me when I think about it. Doug's murder has yet to be tried and might end up in the mental hospital, we are hoping he gets at least life imprisonment or the death penalty. This country's justice system needs overhauling. Murderers can get out of prison in maybe ten, twelve years while the people they murdered are gone forever. Something is not right with the system.

 

It rained this afternoon.

Okay, can't get it the way I want, dang, it rained this afternoon. I moved the computer downstairs because the bed was causing my back discomfort. Hmm, thought I write another blog post today, I been writing every day for months now but never posted anything, time to change that. This photo was taken over by the BIA dormitories. I was parked by the new medical center on the road in the morning. I liked the shape of the clouds and the light shining off the clouds. It was last month when this picture was taken. I remember Ollie asking for a ride. When I pulled into his place another friend came out with them and another older Jicarilla Apache gentleman. I won't mention his name but from what I gather he was locked out of his house and had no way to get in. I drove him to several places to see if he could find a place for him to stay until his wife returned from wherever she went. Oh, she had locked all the doors and windows so he was locked out period. Eventually we met up with his friend and he borrowed that friend's vehicle and drove off. Damm it looks pretty wet outside. It is seven thirty six but looks later than that.

 

I been taking pictures pretty regularly since I had my heart attack in January, it has been an amazing journey, I been going back and using all the available identification tags like descriptive and geotag to show where the photograph was snapped. It's kind of annoying at this late to do all of them, I don't honestly know how many photographs I have, literally thousands. so it will be a challenge to label all of them, I honestly don't know what to do with all of them. I don't want to just delete, I went through a lot of trouble color correcting them and where ever needed I cropped them. I don't usually like to crop them but if the building in the background is too small, I will crop them and make them stand out more prominently. When I started photographs I never knew it would grow so fast, my collection that is.

 

Wow, look at the color on this photo, when I first returned from Montana, I walked up the hill to the north and west near the water tower to the north. I kept on walking after I reached the top and walked west toward the mesa that frames the town of Dulce. It was in the morning and the sun was at my back. I've learned not to take photos when the sun is directly over head or into the sun, it will show a funky color and sheen so I've tried to avoid those situations. You can see this rock because it is visible from down below.

 

It's been awhile since I posted in this blog, I been back home since June 22, but haven't paid attention to this site. So here I go, this photo was snapped on the way to Santa Fe on August 17th, 2013. It was a beautiful morning and we left Dulce about seven thirty, this was about eight thirty or so. Usually, there has been a gatekeeper at the entrance charging a fee but he was no where in sight this year. I love the blue of the sky, god, it just inspires my sense of wonder. so I was happy we stopped in at this rest stop, the area around here is part of our aboriginal homeland and Abiquii, about eleven miles to the southeast was where they had the first Gogiiya ceremony back in the 1800's. Gogiiya translates as Knife Edge. So after we left this place we headed to Santa Fe, we stopped at Bode's Store in Abiquii and had tamales for a snack. We arrived in Santa Fe about ten in the morning and immediately went to the DeVargas Mall where we had breakfast at Atrisco Bar and Grill inside the mall.

After breakfast my friend Reynard Faber asked one of the people in the restaurant if he could change into his Indian outfit so he went and retrieved his suitcase and dressed in the bathroom. We left and I drove to the north side of the mall where we parked across from Domino's Pizza, we were careful not to park in any of their designated spots so we wouldn't get towed. We boarded the city bus and it was free for Indian Market weekend. We arrived near the plaza and proceeded to Dominic Arquero's booth space where my friend Reynard was asked to take pictures by the tourists from all over the world, he asked for a donation from those wanting to take pictures with him, anywhere from a dollar to five dollars. As the day wore on, we knew we were tired and I wanted to leave before it got dark, I was stopped by a tribal patrol officer and said my license place light was out, so I wanted to get back to Dulce before the sun went down. So we left around five thirty and headed home.

 

We were on the outskirts of Tierra Amarilla when I heard this funny sound, it was a thumping kind of sound and we knew that we were having a flat tire. We made it as far the Chevron station in Tierra Amarilla and proceeded to change the tire. Only thing was that the donut tire was low. I walked over to the trailer next to the station and asked the person if they had a pump. The man I spoke to said he had a cigarette lighter pump and went to get it. We changed the tire and waited for him, he came a few minutes later and we plugged it into the lighter. We thought it would air up fast but it wasn't and my friend notices that there was a tear in the valve stem. So we knew we had to leave it there overnight, we asked the man if he could give us a ride to Chama and Reynard would call his nephew to come pick us up. We told the older Hispanic man we would give him money for taking us. He went next door and soon they returned, I loaded my ruined tire and rim into the back of his suburban and headed for Chama. He waited with us at the Chama Grill while his nephew drove to get us. After his nephew came the elderly gentleman and his wife left us there. We had dinner at the grill and headed to Dulce.

Echo Canyon in the morning on the way to Santa Fe Indian Market.

 

May 17th, 2013

Yesterday we were down in the Moiese Valley on the Flathead River. The whole student body from Two Eagle River School was in attendance along with most of the faculty and the family of Doug Morigeau. We were there to dedicate that fishing area to Doug Morigeau, he was brutally murdered in December 2012 by William Lee Calvert in a home invasion. The family and his friends went to the Salish Kootenai Tribal Council to obtain permission to dedicate that area in his name. Doug Morigeau loved to fish in this spot.  The horses were there because Doug was also a cowboy in his younger days and his father (Sonny Morigeau) and brother (John Morigeau) still keep a few head. They also have hay fields which they used  to feed their cattle and horses.

Cheryl Morigeau, Doug's wife is in the red jacket. The woodburning was done by Shawn Dobey (I'm not sure), the art teacher at Two Eagle River School. The poem in the middle was written by Ashley Lozeau. There were approximately one hundred people in attendance.

From left to right are: Elmer (Sonny) Morigeau, (Doug's father) Jermain Charlo (Granddaughter), Vicki Morigeau (Daughter), Donovan Sorrell Morigeau (Grandson). walking away under an umbrella are Rosalie Sheridan (daughter of Tom Sheridan) and Heather from Browning. We were there to honor his memory. The festivities started with a prayer by a Two Eagle employee and Rudy King from the Northern Cheyenne reservation who prayed in his language. Rudy King is the husband of Clarice King, the recently retired principal of the Two Eagle River School. After the prayers a drum group composed of area family members and members of the Two Eagle River student body sang a memorial song in his honor.

The photo is of Shawn Morigeau leading a black horse away from the gathering and tying it to a tree. Shawn and other family rode from their homesite to the park in his memory. The park is in a very picturesque spot along the Flathead River south of the highway that winds through the Moiese Valley.

From left to right are: Charlotte Morigeau (John Morigeau's wife) Ted Schall (Doug Morigeau's best friend),  Claudette Bird (Rodney Bird's wife) walking away, Judy Gibbs with glasses and Lisa (the librarian) with red hair. We were waiting for the dedication to begin and shooting the breeze with people we knew.

Vicki was taking  photos of the dedication so I took a couple of her.

Today is may 6th, and it's beautiful, spent the weekend out on the flathead rez taking pictures. I took over 190 and there was some beautiful pictures. I always edit them before posting them, it's been my practice for the last four years. I regretted not editing them so I won't post them if they're color corrected.  Some of the people said I should do a coffee table outlay of my pictures but I'm not sure how to do it.

This weekend we attended the Kickinghorse powwow in the afternoon, they weren't that many people in the afternoon but it picked that night. We left so we could go visit Vicki's dad down in the Old Agency. We didn't arrive until after one because we took Valley View road via Kerr Dam road. It was pretty scenic, the brown grass of a couple of weeks ago has been replaced by green, green grass, it makes photography awesome.

This was taken on Friday when we drove down to Buffalo bridge on the west side of the reservation. I wanted to discover a new area of the reservation where we haven't been to. So driving down here was awesome, the Flathead River is beginning to run at high tide and it make the river huge and dangerous, they advise people not to run the river, the river is running fast and very high.