Lefty Wild Eagle

Hello, this is Nelson Olmstead. Today let's meet Chillikwin-Orrigan's brave with the braided hair. Now a word from Clint Gruber, our spokesman for Pacific Power. Welcome once again to Stories of Pacific Powerland, a presentation of Pacific Power and Light, the company that has been serving the electric needs of the region's homes, farms and industries

through more than half a century of progress and growth. Here's Nelson with another chapter from his storybook. A century or more ago, he might have led a hunting party through the hills of Northern California with a quiver of arrows on his back and the bow on his hand.

But that way of life is gone forever. The grounds where the Caruc Indians stalked their game are now laced with highways dotted with farms and towns. The hunters, the war parties, the root gatherers, the basketweavers, the dentures are dim memories from the past.

But Lefty Wilder, better known by his Indian name of Wild Eagle, is not content to let the past die away. He lives today in Chillikwin, north of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and devotes most of his time and energy to keeping the Indian customs and crafts and traditions alive.

A live, broad-sholded man, wild eagle wears his hair braided Indian style with the long braids tied together on his chest, and his black eyes flash with enthusiasm as he says, Well, sure, the Indian way of life is gone.

We can no longer live the old way, the natural way, but the old people still remember things. How do we have baskets? How do we work with buckskin? How the dances and ceremonies were carried on many years ago?