January 10, 2019
Lives washed away
The Elders Part V: ‘Nishu Village’
BY HUNTER L. ANDES
Lake Sakakawea may be a summer destination for some, but for others, the water stands as an everlasting symbol — a symbol of life destroyed for those that lived in the Missouri River Valley prior to 1954.
Almit Breuer and Jerry White, two elders around the same age, reside about one mile apart southwest of White Shield. They remember many events during their adolescence as if it were yesterday. They were from the village downstream from Elbowoods called Nishu, a village located on the north side of the Missouri River, between Elbowoods and Like a Fishhook Village.
“I have chosen to live my life different than many of the others have,” Breuer said. “I’ve been asked by several reporters over the years about my past, but I’ve been reluctant to talk about it. I won’t ring my own bell, and I don’t want the stories sugarcoated; what I did in my lifetime is what I did. I am not out to seek glory for it.”
White and Breuer started off by talking about their grade school days.
“When we were probably six years of age we could harness a team of horses, and shoot a shotgun and a .22 rifle as good as anybody,” Breuer said. “That’s how we lived; you learned to ride and you learned to shoot.”
Almit Breuer and Jerry White, two elders around the same age, reside about one mile apart southwest of White Shield. They remember many events during their adolescence as if it were yesterday. They were from the village downstream from Elbowoods called Nishu, a village located on the north side of the Missouri River, between Elbowoods and Like a Fishhook Village.
“I have chosen to live my life different than many of the others have,” Breuer said. “I’ve been asked by several reporters over the years about my past, but I’ve been reluctant to talk about it. I won’t ring my own bell, and I don’t want the stories sugarcoated; what I did in my lifetime is what I did. I am not out to seek glory for it.”
White and Breuer started off by talking about their grade school days.
“When we were probably six years of age we could harness a team of horses, and shoot a shotgun and a .22 rifle as good as anybody,” Breuer said. “That’s how we lived; you learned to ride and you learned to shoot.”
