Rex Back Fat- Hide in the Bus

Ok my name is, my white name is Rex Back Fat but my Blackfoot name is Immitotokis. I am going to tell you about when I was living here at residential. This one incident…We are told the night before who will be going to the dentist, we have to be taken east to Crowfoot School. This friend of mine that I always go with, Ross LaFrance, he died a long time ago, but two of us mostly go the same time. When we get on a different bus to Crowfoot School, we don’t get off the bus. We hide in the bus the back of the bus, under the seats.

When we get to Shouldice [an area of the reserve], the bus driver never found out. Wayne Jones, one of the Jones was the bus driver at that time. We just wait for him to go inside, and it takes a while, and we slowly get off. That time lunches, our school lunches, there’s a box of school lunches, we take lots. Then we start walking to Shouldice, in winter, it was cold. Those times we were lucky it wasn’t that cold but still it was cold. We take a short cut to Shouldice to Many Bear Flats, the late Jasper Many Heads Sr. where he lives.

We go there and that’s where we stopped. Jasper would find out that we snuck away, and he would wait for afternoon when they get off the students, his kids, and he sent us back on the bus, back to Crowfoot School. First, we eat. When done eating, we are taken to the gym where the junior boys are. They put on boxing gloves on us to fight, it takes about a good two hours, I don’t know how many we fight, we take turns. Then maybe, when we get tired, they probably knew when we get tired, they phone Old Sun to come and get us, about 8 o’clock, we get back here.

The one named Mr. Brown, he takes us upstairs on the main floor, that kitchen is still there, right now, they feed us coffee, sandwiches, feed us and when we finish eating, they take us downstairs to the boy side that small room, our supervisor Miss Bolton has the clippers all ready, already hot, she cuts our hair and the clippers would burn our heads. Then they take us back upstairs and they strap us and go to bed.

This other incident the boys are hungry, during winter. Five of us go downstairs but on each floor is a lookout so three of us would grab food to eat, we throw anything into the gunny sack, we bring it back upstairs, we just put the gunny sack in the middle in the dorm and let boys eat. When done eating, then we eat.

Gyun

– Rex Back Fat

Notes:

Oral interview with Rex Back Fat. Conducted, translated, and transcribed by Gwendora Bear Chief. Old Sun Community College, June 24, 2022.