The Gang of Four. Bob Santos
his teeth, and bathed him. She helped prepare the family meals.
In 1940, after ten years of marriage, Mary filed for divorce from Julian. Bernie, at the age of two years old, was too young to understand what was happening.
Judge Brown granted Mary a divorce but made a ruling on custody that made nobody happy. He determined that neither parent could properly afford to care for the three children. Although the judge gave custody of the children to Julian, Luana and Lawney were ordered to attend an off-reservation boarding school.
Young Bernie was sent to live with Mary’s foster parents, Charlie and Eliza Hall. Julian would have custody over Bernie on the weekends when he wasn’t working. Mary did get visitation rights. She wasn’t happy by the decision but didn’t have the money to appeal the custody order.
As the fall of 1940 approached, Lawney and Luana learned that Judge Brown had sent them to attend the Chemawa Indian School near Salem, Oregon. Now, young Bernie had to not only adjust to life without his mother but also had to adjust to life without his siblings.
Life wasn’t so good for young Bernie. During the weekdays, he lived with the Halls. His father was constantly gone, in search of odd jobs here and there. No children lived near them so Bernie had no playmates. He greatly missed his mother, sister, and brother. He did have Brownie, the family dog, for company. Because his son was so lonely, Julian bought a goat to keep Bernie company. Bernie named the goat, “Goat!”
The Halls were elderly and in frail health. Like many families in Inchelium, the Halls were poor. Bernie wore pants with patches covering holes, ragged shirts, and well-worn shoes.
The salmon, which had been a major staple, had stopped running when the Columbia River was dammed. Bernie never had fresh milk and often went without eating. Fresh vegetables were only available during the summer. Friends often helped out, giving Julian beans, cornmeal, and macaroni to help feed his son.
In early 1941, Julian secured a loan from the tribe and with the help of friends, built a new house. He built a two-room house near a running creek, but it had no running water or electricity.
When the summer came, Lawney and Luana finally came home. Bernie spent the entire summer, tagging along after Lawney or having Luana read to him. His playgrounds were the forests, creeks, and rivers where his father worked. He learned about fishing and hunting from his brother and about nature from his sister.
Such was young Bernie’s early life.
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CHAPTER 5: Tents, Chandeliers and “Siwash”
Bernie was becoming curious about the world around him. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. With no playmates of his own age, Bernie spent much time in the company of his father and his father’s friends. As the adults talked about the impending war with Japan, Bernie listened intently. He had never seen a Japanese person. He curiously asked his father who the Japanese were and why they bombed Pearl Harbor.
In 1943, Julian decided to give young Bernie a taste of the big city. The Reyes family took a trip to Spokane. It was a wondrous new world for Bernie. He saw his first street light. He saw the biggest building he had ever seen in his young life, the Montana Hotel, in the poor section of Spokane.
He was introduced to his first indoor toilet and was so fascinated that he flushed it again and again. He saw his first movie, a cartoon with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, and enjoyed his first taste of popcorn. He saw another movie, a Western, where Bernie and Lawney were the only ones in the theater rooting for the Indians.
Later that day, on a visit to the Natorium Park, the biggest amusement park in the Inland Empire, a white man threw Lawney out because he looked like a “Jap.”
Julian told the man, “He’s not a Jap, he’s an Indian.” The man said, “Well, I guess that’s better than being a Jap.”
On the trip home to Inchelium, Bernie and Lawney talked among themselves.
Why, Bernie asked Lawney, did the man think you were Japanese? Lawney, as bewildered as Bernie, didn’t know. All they knew was that America was at war with the Japan and that the Japanese lived very far away, across the Pacific Ocean.
In the fall of 1943, Bernie started school in Inchelium. With his natural curiosity, he was an avid learner. His sister Luana had prepared him for school, reading daily to him.
Bernie found that he liked school and he easily made friends. And finally, he had friends of his own age.
In 1944, the Reyes family was again on the move. Julian had found work as a Spanish interpreter for an apple grower in the Okanogan Valley who had hired two hundred non-English speaking Mexican pickers. The family lived in two cabins, one cabin for sleeping and one cabin for cooking, eating, and studying, with electricity but no running water. There was a large communal building for showering and laundering with toilets and sinks.
The Mexican laborers lived in two large warehouses converted to housing.
One night, with about a week left in the apple harvest season, a fire broke out and consumed one of the warehouses. The Mexican laborers, who had been sleeping, barely got out, many with only the shirts on their backs. They lost everything, including all of the wages they had earned at the orchard.
When Julian, Lawney, and Bernie came upon the scene in the morning, most of the laborers were huddled under blankets, clad only in undershirts, in tears.
The sight of these hardworking men in despair had a profound effect on Bernie. He wanted to do something to ease their pain. He searched the charred remains to look for salvageable items but could not find any. It was a memory and a feeling he wouldn’t forget--when you see others in pain, do something to ease that pain.
The Reyes family worked hard and saved enough money to buy a house and in 1948, they put a down payment on a house,
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Bernie, upper Hall Creek, Inchelium WA
Photo courtesy UIATF
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Bernie and Marilyn Sieber circa 1970s. Photo courtesy UIATF
which cost $750. The house had electricity but no running water. A water pump was located right next to the house. An outhouse stood behind the house. It was small but it was a home they could call their own.
In 1951, Bernie and Lawney decided to go to Tacoma to visit their mother and sister. Their mother had married Harry Wong, their longtime family friend, and had three children of their own. They hitchhiked, taking rides from five different strangers and made it in 11 hours. Bernie met his three step-siblings for the first time--five-year-old Junior (Harry), four-year-old Teresa, and three- year-old Laura. Bernie and Lawney stayed the summer, getting to know their new extended family.
In 1953, sixteen-year-old Bernie had saved enough money to buy his first car, a 1934 Ford Coupe. He had grown to be a gregarious, popular young man. Even though he often was the only Indian in his classes, Bernie was very popular. His easy-going manner, warm personality, and self-deprecating humor attracted people to him. Having a car helped as well, especially in the fifties.
Like many teenagers of the day, Bernie was interested in learning how to dance-- at the Sawdust Maker’s Hall in Omak, the Riverside Hall, Brewster Open Pavilion, Maple Hall, or hanging out at the Daisy Mae Drive In, serving the greatest hamburgers in the Okanogan Valley. And especially, checking out members of the opposite sex.
Almost all of Bernie’s high school friends were white. He made friendships that lasted his entire life. He was treated as one of the crowd. But it was their