Indigenous Homeland

East Glacier stands immediately adjacent to the Blackfeet Reservation and within the ancestral homeland of the Blackfeet Nation (Niitsitapi). For countless generations, the Blackfeet lived across the northern Great Plains and the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, following buffalo herds and maintaining extensive trade networks.

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The mountains immediately west of East Glacier are sacred in Blackfeet tradition. They are woven into creation stories, ceremonies, and oral history. The Blackfeet refer to this region as the Backbone of the World, recognizing it as both a physical and spiritual center of their homeland.

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With Steve on his way home via train, today represented the first solo ride for Terry. The cycling trek was another challenging ride due to both traffic and terrain. There were sections of road with no shoulder at all, but most drivers were courteous. Early start at 06:00 allowed for a great view of the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was smokey enough to require a mask for most of the day which is very inconvenient.

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It was a climbing day that included Maria Pass the summit for the continental divide. Sherpa-Di would drive 10-miles ahead and wait with cold water, snacks and sandwiches to keep me fueled. Over the prior two weeks, she had developed the ability to look Steve and I in the eye and say Steve you need to eat protein now. Terry, you need some carbs and water. Endurance sports for me make me NOT hungry while riding, so I have to force food down. I don’t think I am unique with this trait, Steve was the same way, but it is very challenging to gulp down food when there is no sense of hunger. Of course, we both felt better once we ate, but it seems counter intuitive to have to force food to keep functioning.

While riding through a very rough section of construction, I spotted the van, and Diane was hailing me over to stop. I made my way over into the parking lot of a small motel where Diane and a man in a pink tee shirt were conversing. I noticed that he had his cell phone pointed at me and he was recording my arrival and then proceeded to interview me about the ride, ALS and why it is we were doing this. His name was Robert and he knew the ravages of ALS. He said he would contribute on-line and he would send his video to his friend group. Then he said, “wait just a minute, I have something I want to give you.” And disappeared into his room. After several minutes, he returned with a look of disappointment saying that he couldn’t find it. He revealed that he had been a Catholic priest in his past and had been carrying a rosary for years and he wanted us to have it. Diane soothed his disappointment by telling him to pray the rosary for us, that was as good as giving us the rosary. This conversation was a Catholic one that I am not familiar with, but he agreed with her statement and gave us both a hug and we were on our way. Diane was raised Catholic.

We had a lengthy stop at the continental divide monument with food, water and many photos. Then Diane drove down the road 10 more miles. From this point forward, most of the terrain was downhill. While I was gleefully coasting down the long descent with a big smile on my face. I looked to my left side and saw a BNSF train coming up the hill that I was going down. Like a silly kid, I did the sign to encourage the engineer to blast his horn. To my surprise, he hit the horn and gave me a double blast. I felt seen and acknowledged as they passed and I was flying down the hill close to 40mph. It was a little celebration for making it to the top.

We stayed at the historic Glacier Lodge in East Glacier. An impressive structure made with whole trees used as columns three floors high. The interior columns (trees) are complete with bark. Naturally, our room was on the third floor. No elevators at this historic building so lugging everything upstairs was required The doorman helped carry most of it, but the irony of riding and then staying on the third floor was not lost. We arrived earlier than normal check in time. ~1:00pm. Diane did her rapport building and spoke with the front desk about our mission. As it turns out the receptionist is a bio-chem student at University of Montana and is doing research with a company for a cure for ALS. This information was yet another coincidence that seems to be occuring on this ride. She made the first room available to us, so I had access to a shower, but…it was on the third floor. Give and take.

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In the lobby, if you could call this grand hall a lobby, was a Blackfoot man selling traditional "ledger paintings." These became a thing, he told me, after Little Big Horn, when tribes were rounded up, the only paper available to use was from old ledgers and books. The art is painted or drawn on top of whatever else was on the page. He gave me his card, in return I gave him our Blaine to Maine card and we talked about the ride. He looked closely at the logo and said "Is that bear riding the bicycle?" I said "No, it's Sasquatch." By this time Diane had come over and he told us about his grandmothers encounters with bigfoot. "Bigfoot is real" he told us, and then explained his theory about it's origin. A great way to end the day.

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