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Bud Cheff, Jr. & Olivia Stiffler

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)

Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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