Martha Wolfname, Lloyd Yellowrobe’s mother

She gave me a beautiful Pendleton wool blanket. I made this photograph.

I met her son Lloyd August 15, 1988, my first day at the Lame Deer Clinic on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.  My journalism mentor, Nathaniel Blumberg, had told me that he was confident that I would love working there, and he was right.

Lloyd and I had adventures after work and on weekends.  Did I mention that Lloyd was in charge of the clinic supply department?  I was a pharmacist at the clinic and I commuted from Billings for 17 years until I retired.

Anyway, we went fishing once, but caught nothing.  We looked for a meteor crater over by Ashland.  I don’t think we found one.  We drove to a buffalo jump and then to Wild Hog Butte lookout tower, a metal tower, still standing, that had been manufactured by the Aermotor Machine Company, better known for its water pumping windmills.  When Lloyd was a child his father worked for the forestry department as a fire lookout.

Lloyd is a Vietnam Conflict Veteran of the First Army Division and I could tell he was proud of his service, but had terrible memories of combat.  I didn’t press him.

Lloyd was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.  He gave me a rifle which I passed on to our son Todd.

Martha, a bunch of relatives, and I once held a vigil at the hospital after Lloyd wrecked his truck.  Things looked bad.  Martha handed me a tissue for my tears.  A priest administered last rites.  Then Lloyd got well.  Almost well, that is.  He still has poor use of his arm because he broke his neck.

Martha Wolfname died several years ago.  At her funeral I was proud that her daughter, Lenora, displayed a photograph of her mother that I had made.  I haven’t seen Lloyd since that day, but my friend Walter Blackwolf stays in touch.