Rural cemetery tour reflects more than death
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
Call it morbid curiosity. Or reverence for those who have gone before us.
Cemeteries, and the gravestones of strangers, hold a fascination for me.
Driving by I wonder who tends to the grave, who leaves flowers decades after a loved one is gone. Who stops to visit and speak to a loved one?
Donny and Priscilla Giffey of Roseglen helped me fulfill my curiosity on a tour of five cemeteries west of Garrison. As caretakers of their own church’s two cemeteries, they are no stranger to the care and dedication that comes from tending the land that marks final resting places of many current and former area residents.
First stop, Old Scout
Old Scout Cemetery, 25 miles west of Garrison, was our first stop. It neatly rises up with white markers recognizing Sahnish Arikara scouts and Native Americans who served in a variety of military branches in times of war and peace, from the Seventh Cavalry to today.
According to a state timeline in 1950–1953 when the U.S. was involved in the Koren Conflict, 134 tribal members served, three of whom were women. Two tribal members are killed in action and two become prisoners of war for three years.
Many of the tombstones have etched names but no dates, although it is loving cared for by the Old Scouts Society, which was established in 1979.
The cemetery hasn’t always looked this way. Once called Indian Scout Cemetery it was where Lake Sakakawea now lies. It was moved in 1953 and the graves were buried north to south, although it was later learned that this is contrary to Sahnish burial tradition. The graves were reburied east to west in 1995, at the expense of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Signage at this one cemetery tells of at least one tradition, the Arikara Flag Song, which is sung in “Indian Country,” the sign says. The words are: “Our friends, our flag, are now waving over there.”
