Bud Cheff, Jr.'s family has been friends with the Conko family of Montana's Mission Valley for over a hundred years. Bud recalls a reunion between his grandmother and Eneas Conko in the front pew of the St. Ignatius Mission church. In OliviaStiffler's poem, "Throwback," a professor scrutinizes a girl while her mother looks on:
"The paleontologist in him cannot resist.
'What tribe do you belong to?' Though
the question rattles her, her expression
remains fixed, spare. She does not see what he sees: the inscrutable
Iroquois eyes, the Oglala Sioux face dark
as a wooden mask, does not recognize
the ancient grandmothers watching her
in every mirror..."
(Broadcast: Reflections West, 9/30/14 & 10/1/14)