Missoula Rabble: October 21
Missoula Rabble started as a bet among coworkers about taking a photo a day. It has turned into one of the more entertaining Facebook pages in Montana. It recently put out its first book. The Montana Mint and Missoula Rabble are teaming up to bring the best of this page to a broader Montana audience. Be sure to check out Missoula Rabble’s Facebook page here.
Minnie
Minnie is a survivor. We talked for a while this morning on a bench downtown. She willingly opened up to me about a difficult experience in her life. Minnie is a survivor of rape. “I’ve been pounded to the ground thinking I wasn’t capable or I wasn’t competent or I was not intelligent enough,” Minnie said. “I’ve been there. Losing everything, left and right. And it hurts to the marrow.” I asked Minnie how she overcame this experience. “You never do,” she said. “What’s done is done. I was raised through Native American ceremonies and without prayer I’ve got nothing but a prayer. I’ve come to be who I am and I am a strong woman.”
Redwood
“It’s not really that I like to travel, it’s that I don’t like being stuck,” Redwood said. Redwood has been moving for the past few years. I asked him why he can’t stay in one place. “There’s a lot of freedom in traveling. You just go and do and see,” he said. “If you live every day going to the same job in the same office living in the same house, how much are you really experiencing?” Redwood turned around and pointed at his tattered green backpack with hiking boots attached to it placed on a picnic table. “That’s everything I own right there,” he said. That is everyone in the world that ties me in one place. So many people are caught up on their possessions they don’t see what all of these things they’re so worried about keeping are holding them where they don’t want to be.” I asked Redwood what he needs. “My brain. That’s about it,” he said. Everything else I can just about get if I just use my brain.”
Ray
Ray had some gorgeous locks that seemed to encourage me to stop him. Ray grew up on two different reservations. I asked him to explain the differences in life on a reservation versus life here. “The difference is really big. It’s black and white,” he said. “The lack of opportunity is really what I think shapes the difference between living on the reservation and living here. People just need a job, people need to self-sustain themselves in a place that’s focused on depriving and exploiting the resources we have. It makes it difficult.” I asked Ray what change he thinks needs to happen to have more opportunity on the reservation. “[Change] is happening,” he said. “It just depends on the individuals. A word Indians like to use a lot is sovereignty. Sovereignty starts with yourself and I think a lot of people are recognizing that.”
Lavender Lori
Many people know her as “Lavender Lori”. “I’ve been ‘Lavender Lori’ for twelve years,” she said. “Once you’re a legend, it doesn’t go away. I can’t shake the name. People think my name is Lavender.” Lori invited me to her place in St. Ignatius today. She lives on 20 acres of land in a 77 sq. foot, 7X11 foot cabin. She uses solar powered electricity, makes compost out of her stool, and showers outside with heated well water. She bought the land after her mother died. It was her weekend getaway spot until this past year. She lives here now. “I can live on practically nothing. In fact, I can make shit out of nothing,” she said. “I know how to live this really simple life now. I can live pretty cheaply. I’ve figured it out.” Lori was a gardener turned lavender farmer but her crop was mostly wiped out on 2009. She was going through a divorce at the same time. She wants to continue some lavender farming but she wants to mostly focus on her writing career. “Sometimes you get smacked so hard because you’re stubborn and ignorant and not listening,” she said. “I’m not supposed to be doing lavender anymore, but I will take ‘Lavender Lori’ as far as she can go.” I asked Lori if she grew up living this way. “I did not grow up this way,” she said. “My mom would think this is insanity. That’s my mom’s picture up there. I look at it all the time and say, ‘Everything is going to be fine, Mom. It always has been and it always will be.'” I asked her if living this way has always been the plan. “Not necessarily. It was never my plan to live here,” she said. “It just became this sanctuary for me. With the crop dying the same year I got divorced, this was where I could go and feel while and be totally me and not answer to anybody. I was trying to figure out who the hell I am.”
Shane
Shane is somewhat of a minority. He’s a white man who likes to rap. “I’m from Philly and I was from the ‘hoodburbs’ which is a term I just recently coined,” Shane said. Shane explained to me the area he grew up in was a buffer zone between the suburbs and the hood in Philadelphia. “We shared the same school districts with the rich people that won’t tolerate a poor education,” he said. “I had the benefit of having a tough upbringing with a good vocabulary.” I asked him to tell me more about his rapping career. “Philly, it was the birth place of gangsta rap,” he said. “You had to be equipped with your battle raps at any moment. Just because there’s beautiful mountains out here doesn’t mean you can’t keep it fresh all the time.” I asked him how he keeps it fresh. “You gotta study the universe and know what needs to be dropped at any given time,” he said. “It could mean me doing my freak aerobics which is like Richard Simmons meets George Clinton or it could be dropping a crazy rap opera in the alley.” I asked Shane if he had any final words. “Enjoy every sandwich,” he said. I asked him to explain. “It’s something Warren Zevon said before he died,” he said. “What I took from that is if you really actually enjoy every sandwich that you eat, odds are you’re also going to enjoy every high-five, every handshake, every beautiful person that walks by, every cloud that passes over, every bird poop. Enjoy it. Just enjoy it while you got it.”
“Missoula Rabble is proof that everyone does have a story to tell. I started to profile people on the street and the overwhelming response from the public made me realize this was going to be something special.”
– Ashley McKeee, Creator of Missoula Rabble
All Photo and content credits to Ashley McKee
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