“Who has seen the wind?” asks Canadian writer W.O. Mitchell in his 1947 novel. That was also the question on Cochrane expressive arts therapist Dara Dines’ mind over coffee the other day.
But what does any of this have to do with my attending last Saturday’s outstanding bluegrass performance here in Cochrane, or with why Roland Rollinmud, of Morley, chose to pursue a career in art?
Well, the Dara Dines connection is fairly straight forward. She wanted to depict the invisible reality of wind by means of a visible image. And to do this, she said, she tied ribbons to a tree and took a photo of them blowing in the breeze.
It is perhaps with good reason, then, that the late Stoney Nakoda Chief Frank Kaquitts, of Morley, movie actor and artist, was named “Sitting Wind.” (See my Dec. 18, 2002 column at www.coffeewithwarren.com on how he was the wind beneath the wings of his son Gerald.) Like the breeze animating the ribbons, his no longer visible presence has expressed itself in the lives of many today.
For instance, take Morley artist Roland Rollinmud (see my Feb. 27 column). As a young man, it was Sitting Wind who inspired him to become a serious artist.
But Sitting Wind had a special way with folks outside his community, too. It’s one of his far-away influences that resulted in my attending last Saturday’s bluegrass concert.
The Cochrane Valley Folk Club had brought the amazing sound of the Kruger Brothers to our town. The internationally acclaimed banjo, guitar and bass trio played to a full house at Cochrane Alliance Church, and their toe-tapping renditions of country, folk and classical music really grabbed me.
What alerted me to the Kruger Brothers performance was an email I received from our Boston, Mass., coffee companion, David Lowney.
And that’s where Sitting Wind enters the picture.
David joined our coffee table by Internet just over a year ago after encountering my column on the artist chief. In fact, he even phoned me long distance to tell me his story of meeting Sitting Wind.
It was around 1990 while on a tour of the Canadian Rockies, he said. He was driving west toward Banff one morning when he stopped to pick up an older fellow hitching a ride. That was Frank, and that was the Bostonian’s moment to experience the uplifting influence of Sitting Wind beneath his wings.
He’d already walked six miles toward home after taking his car in for repairs, he told David. “Two thousand cars drove by me this morning, but you picked me up.”
Since the Stoney Elder had nothing else scheduled, the two decided to spend the day together in Banff.
After lunch, Sitting Wind suggested they take the gondola up Sulfur Mountain. Along the way, it became ever clearer to David just what a celebrity his companion was – even special treatment on the mountain for the man who played Sitting Bull opposite Paul Newman in the 1976 movie, Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
Back in the Banff townsite, Sitting Wind’s humble generosity of spirit touched David deeply when he said he had a gift for him. He guided David to a bookstore, took a book from the shelf and inscribed it to him. On its cover was the face of his new-found friend. It was a copy of The Song and the Silence: Sitting Wind, a biography by Peter Jonker.
Their day together soon ended, but not their friendship. One of David’s regrets is that prior commitments prevented him from accepting his companion’s invitation to spend a few days with him in Morley.
But David’s schedule more recently has permitted him to stay in touch with me. In particular, he has been telling me about his passion for bluegrass. For many years he has been associated with the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, this July’s gathering to be held in Oak Hill, NY.
“It’s an event free from fear,” David tells me. “I could even leave my wallet on my car dashboard for days, and no one would touch it.”
Well, it’s his passion for bluegrass that led him to tell me about last Saturday’s Kruger Brothers performance in Cochrane.
So who has seen the wind? Both David and Roland have – Sitting Wind, that is. And like Dara’s ribbons, they’re blowing gratefully in his breeze.
