MOLLY BULLSHOE
Blackfeet Nation matriarch, teacher, elder
Heart Butte, Montana
This July, I will turn 100 years old. I was born in 1924 in one of the last encampments and raised in Blacktail. When we were young girls, my sister, who was 10 at the time, and I, just 8 years old, attended a mission school for a year and a half. While in school we lived in the dorms, where the boys lived separately from the girls. I remember thinking it was so far from home and my parents, but later realized I wasn’t that far away. We rarely ever returned home, not for even Christmas. I would get very lonesome, but having cousins at school made things a little easier. I also remember my sister got sick. I wasn’t supposed to stay there alone, so we were both sent home.
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This article appeared in the May 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “#IAMTHEWEST.”
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