EAGLE MAN AND MORE MISSIONARIES

Father Stan usually met people in more cordial circumstances.  Among those he befriended on the Turtle Mountain Reservation was a ninth-grade lad named Alec.  A skinny boy, Alec had a poor self-image.  “I would see him creeping along as if he was just waiting for the next lash,” the priest recalled.

Alec’s life needed a lift.  One afternoon while the students were waiting for their school buses, Father Stan caught the boy’s attention: “I kind of banged him against the wall.” Would Alec like to go swimming some time?  Startled, but flattered, he readily agreed.  It was up to him to pick a day for their outing.  Alec chose a Sunday in the summertime, a date which could not have been more inconvenient for Father Stan.

At that time in the 1940s a priest could not eat or drink until he had finished celebrating his Masses for the day.  Father Stan’s normal Sunday routine began before 6:30 a. m. and after his last Mass ended about 12:30 p. m. he dropped into the nearest chair in the priests’ house.  At that point all he wanted was a bowl of soup and a nap.

There was no opportunity to rest that Sunday afternoon.  The doorbell rang and when Father Stan looked out the window he saw a Model A Ford car with its motor running and a grinning Alec at the wheel.  “Smile, darn it,” the priest thought to himself.  When the boy asked if his newfound friend was ready to go swimming Father Stan stifled a groan.  “Once in a while I guess you gotta lie, so I said `Yah.’ I no more wanted to go swimming then jump off a skyscraper,” he said.

Off they went, driving through Belcourt and past the high school, Alec waving joyfully to his neighbors.  His whole attitude shouted, “Look at me! See who I brought along!”

But as they reached a crossroad Alec jammed on the brakes.

“Look, Father! The loup gouroo!” the boy cried. (In Indian lore, as Father Stan explained to many audiences, the loup gouroo is the spirit wolf or the helper wolf.) The priest scanned the neighborhood, but saw no wolf.

“We gotta stop,” Alec said.  This time Father Stan looked more carefully and still saw no animal or spirit of any kind.  Perhaps the boy was so excited that his imagination was playing tricks on him.

“Father, we gotta go back,” a determined Alec exclaimed.  Without any idea why they were reversing their course, Father Stan agreed, “You’re driving. Let’s go!”

Alec spun the Ford around and headed for South Belcourt, the poorest section of town.  The boy and his mother lived there in a tiny log cabin with a tin stove pipe sticking up through the tar paper roof.  As Father Stan and his frantic companion pulled to a stop at the entrance to the house, smoke already was curling out between the logs.

Although the building was ablaze they managed to kick open the front door and saw Alec’s mother on the floor.  Reaching in among the ash and flames, the boy grabbed the hem of her dress and dragged her outside.  The woman’s long high-collared dress was scorched, but it may have saved her life.  Prayers and Alec’s kisses revived his mother and she opened her eyes just as the roof caved in.

“Father, didn’t you see the loup gouroo?” Alec asked moments later, somewhat disappointedly.  Did an invisible animal signal Alec to rush home to rescue his mom? Did he really see a wolf? Was some spiritual power at work?  Priests are supposed to have the answers, but Father Stan could not explain that one.  He could only admit that he had not seen the phantom wolf.