Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  '" I don't like white people much." he said. He was looking straight at me.' This is a quote from a book that I'm reading titled- Neither Wolf Nor Dog, b y author Kent Nerburn. I haven't finished it yet. In fact I'm only about a third of the way through it, but before I forget where certain passages are or the content of a chapter, I wanted to share just a bit. The book is non-fiction and is a startling look inside the mind of a Lakota elder. Nerburn is a white man from Minnesota who had written a book about the natives of that state and it caught the attention of Dan, the Lakota elder who wanted to set the record straight about natives. He invites Nerburn to the reservation to put together a book that white people can understand. I spent over forty years living and working among the Tlingit Indians of Southeast Alaska. I thought I knew them. I worked alongside the elderly native ladies, sliming salmon in wet, cold conditions inside the dark cold sto

 Jan and I made a trip to Great Clips this past Thursday to see about getting a haircut. I kind of wish that I had  a set of clippers so we could cut it at home, but Jan would be the one doing the cutting, and Lord knows what I might end up looking like. As it was, even though we had made an appointment, the anticipated wait time was over an hour. We happened to go right when the lunch hour had started. We cancelled and took our chances again on Saturday morning. It was still a little busy, but we only had to wait about fifteen minutes before we got in. The gal who cut my hair did a fine job, but after we paid, and I was in the car, Jan asked if she trimmed the hair out of my ears or eyebrows. Crap, I gave her a tip and everything, and she didn't do that. I couldn't very well go back in and ask her to finish the job. I just didn't think about it when I was in the chair. Usually they just do it. I had to go home and take care of the issue myself. I'm always a little nerv