Also known as Mne Owicakte.
2 Jasper was born in 1924. He was the son of
John Milk. He was a student after 1932. School: I attended a.c.s. Boarding School from 1932 to 1934. In those days, once you went to school you stayed there until school lets out, no weekends home, nothing. When school let out in May, my parents drove there in a team and wagon and stayed a day or so until school let out. In the winter of 1935, we moved to Wanblee and I started going to the Wanblee Day School.
The most interesting thing that ever happened to me was our going to Europe back in 1929 to 1930. The show, Sarrasan, wanted Indian people to go to Europe as performers. The manager of the show went to Washington, D.C. and made arrangements. The superintendent of the Pine Ridge Reservation approved the list of men who wanted to go. The outfit paid the way and guaranteed safe return. Dad went over first and stayed overseas for two months. (It took thirty days to go over by boat.) The second time he went, they told him he could take his family. Out of the group, there were only three children, my sister, Sophia, John Red Bear and me. We were about six or seven years old.
My mother Hattie, my father John Milk, Sophia and I toured all of Europe; France, Germany, England, and Belgium. Wherever the big top scheduled shows. We did this for six: months.
My dad rode a horse in the show. I recall the tents being crowded and Indians riding in chasing cowboys. Dad always did Indian dancing. I danced, too, as everyone had a part in the show..
1 Jasper Milk died on August 5, 2006 at
Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., MN., USA; WANBLEE - Jasper Milk, "Mne Owicakte," 82, Wanblee, died Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, in Minneapolis. He served in the U.S. Navy. Survivors include his wife, Bernice Milk, Wanblee; six sons, Duane Milk and Curtis Milk Sr., both of Wanblee, Orville Milk, Lawrence, Kan., Joseph Milk and Melvin Milk, both of Hisle, and Louie Richards, Allen; six daughters, Hildreth Milk, Gladys Bettelyoun and Julia Wilcox, all of Wanblee, Almenda Douthit, Hisle, Bertha Conroy, Batesland, and Mary Bad Hand, St. Francis; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A two-night wake will begin at noon Wednesday, Aug. 9, at Crazy Horse School in Wanblee. Services will be at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 11, at the school. Burial will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is in charge of arrangements.
Published in the Rapid City Journal on 8/8/2006.
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