Naming the West : Stories Siksika

Siksika Elder Story 2:
Stories

You go home on a Friday at exactly four o’clock. If your parents are waiting for you outside they cannot take you home until it’s four o’clock. They go to the principal, then the principal would write your name down. And then there’s a messenger boy who would run down the playroom and give the note to the supervisor, and the supervisor would go “Alright, you can go home now, it’s after four.” Then you would go upstairs. You cannot go through the back; you have to pass the principal. You checked again what time you left to go home.

The next day, which was Saturday, [the deadline was] four o’clock. If you’re late, if you don’t come in, if you come in at five after four, you’re late. So you got to stand outside and tell your parents you want to go in now, before it’s after four. So only once, once a week. They cannot come on a Saturday and say, “We couldn’t catch our horses or our wagon." They're told “No, yesterday at four o’clock.” You got to stay.