Trout Creek woman recalls life on and off reservation

Trout Creek resident Chilaili Wachiwi is a Native American who has served her country in the U.S. Air Force as well as in the Department of Defense. She is a business person, musician, motivational speaker and teacher.

She recently shared her life's story with Clark Fork Valley Press reporter Monte Turner.

INTRO

1. Family: Parents, brothers and sisters, and other relatives that were a key part of your upbringing.

Most of my family are gone. I have two younger sisters left. My grandpapa was the greatest influence in my life, along with my papa. My papa and grandpapa taught me much about music, dancing, hunting, fishing, woods craft, survival, foundational truths and integrity. 

They stressed education. I remember grandpapa taking me to his favorite fishing and hunting spots every summer. My grandma taught me how to cook and maintain a home.

2. Where did you grow up?

My family moved constantly in search of work. Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana, Missouri and California.

3. Did you witness the dark side of reservation rearing and if so, what stood out the most?

Yes, I suffered some violence at the hands of my paternal grandmother and my mother. Survival mode is an odd dynamic, and depending upon mental and spiritual strength, the resulting human being has a touch of madness. Endemic poverty and lack of direction, is inherent, for every foundation has been wiped out, families, territory, education, language and known systems of communal purpose and work.

I took on a lot of responsibility in taking care of my papa and two sisters and I buried myself in my studies. My mother suffered alcoholism, and by the time I was seven or eight, she was gone away. The struggle to stay out of the troubles is very real. I buried myself in a closet with my books. Papa had found an entire set of old Encyclopedia Britannica in the trash, and I read every single one, from A to Z.

4. Married? Children? The names of the different tribes that you are a member of and how that came to be?

Mother’s side: Niitsiotapi Siksika Blackfoot, Kannadia band, and Papa’s side: Apsaroaka Ashalaho Many Lodges Mountain Crow.

I was named in remembrance of a stolen Crow ancestor, who was given a Lakota name, Chilaili Wachiwi Hin Han Ska—White Bird Dancing Snow Owl. My maternal grandfather gave me a Blackfoot name: Sooleawa Sokanon Kanti—Silver Rain Shining.

5. When did you join the USAF and what was your primary job? Where were you stationed and how long did you serve? What rank were you when you were discharged?

I went into the U.S. Air Force in 1971.  Basic Training in San Antonio, Texas, Specialist Administrative Assistant 7020. I served at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. My last rank was Airman First Class. After my tour, I traveled to California, and served two years in the Army Reserves as a Specialist Four.

6. How did you escape from a life on a reservation and how do you feel about their conditions today?

I left home when I turned 18. I did not return to a reservation. The poor conditions on the reservations have been fostered by U.S. Government design and the ineptitude and greed of its administrators and tribal governments. Due in part, this governing and reservation institution system wasn’t supposed to last for as long as it has. I can’t begin to list all of the things that are wrong on the reservations. Those governments have created enough legalese and red tape to make sure that natives remain confused, dependent, impotent and under complete control.

Bottom Line: Native nations are sovereign nations.

True sovereign nations must operate solely without oversight of the Federal Government, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or encroaching state governments. A nation must have full freedoms to develop their identity and destiny. Indigenous peoples have been poorly treated in their own lands, and all of this has been done to support a settler colonial system of greed. In many respects, the nations are still at war with the United States Government.

7. Tell us about your flutes and music.

I play North American native style pentatonic scale flutes in A through G. Each key suite has 2 to 3 flutes, ranging from soprano to medium to bass tones. Most of my flutes are made by Odell Borg, High Spirit flutes, or Douglas Goldsmith for Thunderhorse Flutes and more recently Tony Twofeathers beautiful flutes.

I also play South American pan and quenas, quenachos, antaras, marimacha, cromaticas, native flutes, guitar, charangos, and toyos bass flutes that are made in the chromatic scales, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. A gran maestro, Martin del Rio Pua in Lima, Peru, makes these for me. I also play drum, 12-string guitar, church organs, harmonium, clay ocarina, various rattles, bells, zithers, and a selection of bird calls to enhance the music with nature’s sounds.

I have a deep and long lasting collaboration and affiliate with music groups from Ecuador and Peru, who have supported and encouraged my music endeavors. These marvelous musicians fostered and helped me to become an accomplished musician. They shared tips, music, expertise and instruments.

The music comes from within, in a blend of North and South traditional, indigenous music. It is music that brings the Creator’s message and the reminders of nature, and to perform it in the ancient sacred ways. If the music doesn’t have the Creator’s heart and spirit, I won’t play it. I know that this is a truth, for many people have relayed the impact and healing they have received from the music. I am currently composing the music for my third CD, Voices in the Winds, hopefully to be out in 2022. I’m having fun with it, for my neighbors in the surrounding valley have contributed some interesting sound clips of everything that they can think of, from coyote pack howls to gunfire.

In 2018, I opened up a small business registered in Montana, White Thunderbird Music LLC. I perform wherever I can: festivals, schools, events, senior citizen centers, and hospitals. I am a member of the Montana Performing Arts Consortium. Amazingly, a vendor kiosk has grown out of the music performance gigs, and I elected to showcase native-made items to promote and support indigenous peoples, mainly elderly and children. It is my way of giving back of the bounty that Creator has given me.

8. What other occupations have you had in your lifetime?

For years, I traveled a revolving circuit to California, New Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, Costa Rica, Mexico and Japan, with a performing dance and music troupe that included dancers and musicians from all over the world. Between my military deployments and employments, I worked in Civil Service for the Air Force and in 1999, I began to work for the Department of State, Washington D.C., in the Foreign Service. 

I have served in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Mongolia, China, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Egypt, at U.S. embassies overseas. I have performed at many events. In Cairo, Egypt, I played with an Egyptian jazz combo at the Marriott Hotel, and for fundraising events, African Hope, and Ethiopian Relief, and Children’s Relief Fund. At the embassies, the Public Affairs and Cultural offices selected me to travel in country to present a Native American familiarization and introduction for schools, colleges and the American Corners programs. I am a motivational speaker and teacher, as my Facebook page attests.

9. What else would you like to share? Some of your life highlights and downsides and how you did not allow yourself to be a victim.

At every point in my life, there was always someone who said, “You can’t do that.” Mainly, it was because of gender, and amazingly, never because of capability. Gender orientation is based on tradition, culture, or government controls and every program makes sure that the indoctrination is enforced. School, work, family life, either promotes or prohibits. I simply refused the boxes. Unabashedly, I had more education than my teachers in school and I was well aware of the designed constructs. When a child knows too much, they become a threat. In the USA, children are “dumbed down” while overseas, particularly in Asian countries, children are much more involved in complex environments and training at earlier ages. In order to succeed, any one of us must look outside the box. But it takes initiative, ambition, and lots of hard work to achieve. Native peoples especially, reside in prisons, either of their own makings or others restrictions, family, tradition, peer pressure, trauma and government controls and employment situations.

Institutions both formal and social, have failed in allowing human thought to evolve and grow.

Greatest highs: Being a superstar performer in Cairo, Egypt. Here I am with expat band members, named the Foreign Exchange. For two years, we performed at diplomatic events and fundraisers. Here we are at Cairo’s famous El Sawy Culture Wheel venue (El Sakia).

I was introduced to the Dokki recording studios, and commenced to create a CD album. Over a four-month time it was one of the most fantastic recording sessions that I ever encountered, and the vision that we musicians had of creating music of the Creator’s voice and heart was born. This collaboration remains today.

I came home to Montana in July 2018 and in 2019, I began a second album, "Fire In My Heart," and with the help of the Recording Studio in Missoula, sent all the digital work to George Yacoub in Egypt, where he mixed and mastered the new CD.

In 2020, I made Best in Show at the Montana Performing Arts Consortium at Fort Benton. Things were looking up and it was a Big Miracle, because I was a very first time Showcase Artist and moved quickly up to Best in Show. It was incredible and a real boost for the vision that I had in my music. Unfortunately, the advent of the pandemic curtailed the upcoming concerts and school outreaches. As a professional musician, this was a blow.

At about the same time, I was nominated a Finalist for the World Native American Flute Style Awards (NAFSA), and had one of my songs presented on the One World Radio Station in the UK in 2020 and in 2021. I also received a Soaring Eagle Award for community service.

For 2021, I’ve been doing some awareness events for MMIW, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, collaborating with Mrs. Montana Petite 202, Jennay Jo. At this year’s 2021 Sanders County Fair Parade for a MMIW entry, I wore my Crow horse regalia, strapping a native bow and quiver of arrows across my back, tomahawk swinging by my side, knife sheath at my belt and a warrior’s buffalo lance in one hand and my horse flute in the other.

Frankly, natives can’t keep complaining and blaming other peoples, without coming to grips in taking accountability and ownership for the things that they, themselves do. It takes each individual to take those steps to make things better, in a concerted effort by all peoples, to actually achieve the better.

My grandfathers and papa instilled in me a strong integrity, desire for justice, and a hard work ethic. The systems and institutions all have flaws, corruption, inequalities, and prejudices. Learning has been the key to my success. That, and having the insides to weather the worst spots in my life.

I’ve endured violence, determining to become a better person myself. I’ve faced incoming rocket fire in Afghanistan for an entire year, and Creator got me home safely. I’ve lost family, and friends. I have made mistakes, for I am not perfect…but I learned what to keep and what to discard. I won’t keep something that will keep me away from the Creator. Life must have a focus. My focus on getting into the Air Force kept me away from alcohol and drugs and into my studies. My focus on integrity kept me on a straight path, and not giving up.

May that sweet, sweet Spirit hold me close. APSAALOOKE!