Family

It poured rain all night long.  It was a pretty hard rain, but we had no leaks in the RV.  When we woke up, it was a gray, chilly morning.  Got off to a slow start - I hiked the Shoreline Trail.  It was sort of a misty foggy and very very wet morning.  Lots of birds, a few fishermen.  We finally got on the road about 11:30 and headed for the Knife River Indian Villages.

The Knife River Indian Villages are a National Historic Site.  There were three nations that resided on this spot and built earth lodges.  All that remains are these depressions in the ground, each one maybe 40 to 50 feet in diameter.  There happened to be a school group there at the same time on a field trip.  As a consequence, besides being extremely loud (young voices do carry), we learned how to do some native games that they were teaching the kids.  We wandered down to the Knife River, the sun had come out and we sat on the river bank and lounged.

Then we headed over to the Ft Bethold Reservation where my niece Brittany lives with her husband Zach and their two kids Kellen and Takoda.  It was so nice to see Brittany, I really don't get to see her enough.  Zack took us out in his pickup to see the Ranch that his grandfather owns.  It is about 700 acres.  He raises cattle and horses.  They are allowed to free range it.  The north section of the property is totally wild.  Zach drove his pickup like he was four wheeling which I guess he was.  I must admit, I was a little scared when you look out the window and there is nothing there but straight down.  The views were very primal - this is an ancient land here.  Zach talked about his people, where they first settled  on this land.  We then went to Grandpa Titus's house and saw their new llamas and also Britt's horse BlueBell. 

Zach's land where we went up and down these hills:

Kellen and me shooting

Takoda

Twin Buttes is a tiny little town.  What is interesting is that on the short little street that Britt lives, her mother in law lives a couple of houses down, you can see Zach's brother's house out the window.  The kids all run back and forth between the houses, nobody locks their doors.  It is a very close community sort of what I imagine it used to be in the olden days before we all got so urbanized. 

PD: