Distinctly Montana Magazine

smugly because of the deal they were get- ting. Everybody was happy. We had generous Indian neighbors. The Pelkos lived across the road. The wife was round with layered clothes, moccasins, and a colorful turban around her braided hair. John Pelko was slim as a knife with long braids; he wore Levis and a white shirt. My two brothers and I were friends with them. John would often bring us deer and elk meat, which we received gratefully. They gave us our first horse. It’s been almost 70 years since I first touched that ground. It has changed, of course, and the shabbiness I knew grow- ing up there is more so because of a strug- gling economy. Most people who live in Arlee on farms and ranches now work in Missoula to sustain themselves. Many of the Indians I used to know exist only in books. The valley, though, has the same beautiful serenity, and sometimes when my daughter and I go to Arlee on some matter pertaining to the old homeplace, I ask my daughter to stop the car at Cou- ture Loop on Highway 93. From there I walk around the mountains, until I arrive at the railroad track and the $39.00 shack where I lived. I pass where Chief Grandjo once lived and remember how, when he met with tribal members, I went to sleep to the sound of distant drumming and the mournful wail of coyotes. Like others in the 1970s, I became inter- ested in Eastern philosophy. Many Ameri- cans were finding a spiritual home in various interpretations of Buddhism, and Montana was no exception. Now, Bud- dhist communities can be found all over the state, including a small, dedicated group of Buddhist practitioners in Missou- la with a membership radiating out into the neighboring towns. Their teacher, Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama, was impressed with their dedication and became inspired to find a place where they could meet. He went on a quest with one of his students. They decided it should be on Highway 93, close to Missoula. Driving south from St. Ignatius, just before Arlee, they saw the sign “White Coyote Road,” and Rinpoche, excited, wanted to turn in there. When he saw the “for sale” sign on 60 acres with a small house on a knoll and the soft hills in the background, he knew this was the place, because when he was seven years old, he had had a dream about this very land for a peace garden. The Buddhist community embraced his idea enthusiastically and began the chal- lenging process of fundraising and build- ing Mr. Sang-ngag’s vision of a Garden of a Thousand Buddhas. That was 10 years ago. Now, more and more, as the word travels about the garden, people are mak- ing special journeys to witness this little miracle and offering help. Excitement swelled with the understanding that upon completion the Dalai Lama, a friend of Mr. Sang-ngag’s, will come to Arlee and consecrate the garden. The question comes to mind, why here circumambulate the Great Mother. feel the radiance! Susan Morgan go to arlee. on this small reservation town in Montana? Besides Rinpoche’s vision, there are also some commonalities between the Buddhists and the Native tribes. The Tibetan monks, pursued by the Chinese, were forced to leave their homeland. Rinpoche spent nine years in prison. The American Indian tribes too were forced to leave their home in the Bitterroot Valley. Both peoples have a powerful spiritual connection with the land. They do sacred rites with sage and juniper, as well as drumming. The glacier-edged Mission Mountains are strikingly similar to the Himalayas, both stunning monuments of a transcendent nature. The Garden of a Thousand Buddhas is a place that will attract people of all faiths from all over the world. Because of this garden, my hometown will become a des- tination instead of just a passage to Glacier Park. There will be a new focus on the love- liness of the land, and people will yearn to settle here. The tribes and the Buddhists understand that change will come, but they also want a careful, thoughtful process to manage and guide it. The Indians worry that they may not be able to afford to buy land on their own reservation, and that their great earth will be developed and changed. The Buddhist community is sen- sitive to this problem and seeks to address it with members of the tribe. www.distinctlymontana.com 93

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