Indian with Marlin lever, old photo.

[rangerider7]

[gamekeeper]

Impressive War Bonnet. If only these old photo's could talk.

[Borregos]

Interesting, keep 'em coming.

[Buck Elliott]

Heap much feathers...

[kimwcook]

Heap much feathers...

Looks awful young to be a chief.

[pokey]

i like the address at the bottom.

[JOHNNY WACKO]

Sweet picture,nice feathers.

[Booger Bill]

All this talk today about indians. I got thinking about a indian friend I had back in wisconsin 46 years ago. Thought I would share the story. Lets call him ben. That wasnt his name. I was a foreman on a very rough job treating old utility poles for groundline decay and traveled all over the states and usualy had a contract that lasted about two months. The job paid minimum for hard dirty bull work for the guys I hired.
I hired ben and three other guys near neenah-menasha. That contract happened to be near my home area. After a day or so one of the boys came up to me and let me know that ben was the meanist guy in the area, and loved fighting cops etc. They were afraid of him. However ben was a good worker and liked me as I guess no one ever gave him a chance before.
One day after work I drove him to his house where he lived with his in laws. We walked in and I seen two older guys at a table playing cards. Bens white wife was standing behind the other guy. When we came in everyone froze and no person said a word. All were scared to death for no reason I could see. Ben looked at his wife and said, do you prefer this to me? Then told me lets go, and walked out. When we got in the truck he started to bawl. Wanted me to drive him to his dads house. I noticed from the truck he appeared to be searching the house from what I could see through the picture window. He was wearing tight jeans and I figured I could make him if he came back armed. I decided if he was armed I would play dumb and just cold cock him first chance. He came back to the truck and admitted he had been searching for a gun, however his wife must have called his dad, and his dad had hauled all the guns off. Then he told me he had to kill her as that was the way of his people!
Now this was 46 years ago and I was 23 years old like ben. I guess I was also still kind of nieve and just didnt take a lot of tough talk seriously, also I was pretty tough back then myself. I figured the way to immediately handle the situation was to get ben howling drunk. We bar hopped. Everybody ben seen he told the listener, I got to kill her, its the way of our people. I heard that line untill I got sick of it! Finaly, some other drunk dogooder set up a meet for ben to talk to his preacher. I drove him over to this big empty church, the door was open but the preacher wasnt their yet. Ben walked up to the alter got on his knees with me watching from a few rows back, he bawled and prayed to jesus to give him strength to kill her!
Finaly the minister showed and I sat in the counseling. The preacher got a promise ben would come to church that sunday, but flat told him also he was going to kill her, because that was the way of his people!
I got him out of there, got him so patheticly drunk he couldnt stand up and left him somewhere. I knew he was so drunk he couldnt do anything for a day or two I figured. That was a friday night. I drove to my folks`s house for the weekend. Sunday I didnt go to church with the folks but sat at the kitchen table getting caught up on company reports.
The phone rang and it was the neena P.D. Do you know a Ben----? We got him here. I said I would be by in a few days or so. I was just finishing up that contract and ready to drive to northern michigan on my next job. I stopped to the jail and asked how much for ben? It was several hundred dollars or more (in todays money that would have been like $1,500 or more). I said look, ya can keep him, but I know he will go with me to michigan, but I wont go over $20 bucks! They got their heads together and told me the fine would be $22 dollars!
Ben was real thankfull and got in the truck. I asked him what he had done and he told me he went to church drunk. They were playing music, he made some remark, hey thats pretty good music, lets have a hoedown! The ushers tried to throw him out and finaly a squad of cops subdued him!
We drove up to sault st. marie on my next contract. I had a small travel trailer and we lived together a few weeks. However he again got the blues saying he had to kill her, "Its the way of my people"! The last time I seen him was when I put him on the road with a bottle of beer in each pocket. I asked him what I should do with a box or two of paperwork and miserable possesions he had. His last direct words to me were, "Throw them in the river. I wont need them where I am going! Of course I called the neenah PD and said ben was comeing back to kill his wife.
About 10 years later my mother sent me a newspaper clipping where he was driveing drunk and killed something like 4 people in a head on, and was in grave condition himself! I really liked ben.