I just moved off the rez in December. the second casino project started two years early . So a couple families moved off the reservation to make way for new expansion. I have not been back since.

But what I do remember fondly about the rez.... (When i was not in Boarding School)

Archery was done whenever we felt like it in the early early morning before school bus came. It was nice cause we had it in the front yard and no homeowners association to bother us. We can traditionally hunt deer and skunk and squirrel when we wanted.
-- Now we cant go down to the community center for the local Food Bank to give us food.. or Comod's as we saw fit..

I live in a "gated community" now with security guards and everything.. not tribal police like on some rez's but private security paid by homeowners dues. The rez is another kinds of gated community.. gates but no security of course.. drunk ndns or cousins coming over to "borrow money" or drink your alchohol in the house cause we were the only family to not drink.. so alchohol was aplenty at the house..
-= but it was entertaining at times.. sure did like living on the rez for the lack of cable.. cuase if we wanted drama.. it was always available at the door. (without paying for any cable or dish network!!!)
- now in the new neighborhood everyone has wireless networks.. why pay for internet? but i get my drama now on TBC with tv cable.

On the rez we didnt have driver's licenses .. we didnt need em.. kids 15 would be driving around (infact better than adults) we didnt have traffic cops or meter maids.. it was not urban ndn setting.. straight up REZ. Even driving backwards (true story!! -- it happens you cant make material up that good when your transmission is out as well.)
- now in the new neighborhood i drive a Silver Jaguar, its not the hoopie rez Rocket.. I miss that transmission as well.

On the rez everyone knew everyone's business.. i miss that. The sense of community.. but at the time i thought it interesting .. cuase they knew when we would have food and come over which was welcome. --
-- now at the new neighborhood we dont even speak to our neighbors.. and we dont know where to get the best deals with the worst coupons.

On the rez the fondest thing i remember is the elders.. it was nice they can call you out and ask them to get you something at the market..
-- now at the new neighborhood , we dont have elders and i miss everything.

Hello to all on this site!~ Thanks for having me : )

I go home to the rez as often as I can.

What I miss the most is Mom's slow cooked moose and bannik and her molasses donuts..yummy!` I love to drive across the narrows as I approach the main part of the rez and still love that it hasn't changed too much up there...the same bumps in the road and that sharp left by the gas bar that leads you past the bingo hall, which is the central point of all activity on the rez. People living still where they always have and naming them off in my mind as I drive toward the lower end of the reserve...so and so lives there, so and so lives there...oh look Uncle's big lodge is still got lots of people there. When you go visiting, they treat you like you never left...just pick right up where we left off the last time I was home. Everyone know everyone else's business and everyone noticing when you are driving down the main road...new car on the rez. Roaming packs of rez dogs, scavenging for their next meal and kids playing in the streets because they don’t have to worry about speeding traffic. And how about there are no clocks in rez homes…everyone just living life as it comes....all things in their time and nobody got their feathers ruffled because of someone else’s time frame. Just life at it’s simplest, I guess.
But what I love the most and also miss the most is the feeling of being home, having a place where all things remembered are just the way I left them. No matter what reason I came home…I definitely KNOW I’m home…I am loved.

with respect