(00:00:00) With news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Greta Cunningham Northwest Airlines has begun canceling flights as a storm expected to dump heavy snow in parts of the region today moves into the Twin Cities, Minnesota public radio's marks a deck like reports Northwest spokesman Kurt. Even Hawk says the airline is canceling 120 flights in and out of the Minneapolis st. Paul International Airport today and that number could increase depending on the weather even Hawk says in addition to canceling flights Northwest ticket holders can change plans for travel over the next several days without paying additional charges. We do have a special weather waiver in effect for customers would like to postpone their travel. They can postpone their travel from today through Monday, March 18th, and he for travel up through Monday the 18th, and they will not be subject to any administrative fees service charges or penalties people with air travel plans including the Twin Cities today should check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. This is Mark. Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio forecasters say as much as a foot of It was expected in the southwestern corner of the state six about 6:00 this morning nearly three inches of snow have fallen in the southwest snow is expected to continue until late tonight roads are already getting slippery in southwest and South Central Minnesota state highways are in fair to poor driving conditions officials are advising motorists to slow down and turn off their cruise control Minnesota Department of Transportation officials. Say Interstate 494 a Bass Lake Road and Rockford Road in Plymouth is closed in both directions due to an accident officials say that section of 494 should remain closed until at least one o'clock this afternoon. There is a winter storm warning and a winter weather advisory for Southern and East Central Minnesota today and tonight snow could be Heavy at times across the state of Minnesota with highs from 25 to 35. That's a news update. I'm Greta Cunningham. programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by Integra Telecom offering local long distance and internet service supported right here in Minnesota experience the Integra difference online at Integra Telecom.com This hour on. Midday. We're going to hear from an American Indian with a harrowing account of growing up in Minnesota and from a professor who has researched Indians who grew up under extremely difficult circumstances then later in the hour and account of chism's 8 Valentini Brothers the most members of anyone Minnesota family to serve in World War Two. It's all part of our voices of Minnesota interview series. Here's Minnesota public. Radio's Danielson. Tucked away among stacks of documents in the national archives in Washington DC Brenda child found a treasure Trove of human voices. They are letters written by American Indian parents and children about life at boarding schools from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s thousands of American Indian children were forced to attend dozens of federally funded boarding schools all around the country the government created the schools to assimilate Indian children by taking them from their families. Brenda child is a member of the Red Lake nation in northern Minnesota. She's a professor of American studies and American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her grandmother was a student at the flandrau South Dakota boarding school child says her grandmother's experience is one reason. She wrote her book titled boarding school Seasons. The schools were part of a government strategy to pacify Indians and Gain Control. Look more of their land rich with mineral and Timber resources life at many of the boarding institutions was more like a prison than a school nutrition was poor facilities were dilapidated disease was common tuberculosis a constant threat in the general population took a heavy toll at the Indian boarding schools. Brenda child found letters like this one written by a boarding school student pleading for relief from the (00:04:08) disease and this girl was miserable because of the painful lesions on her legs, that would not heal and she complained about the constant Drilling and marching that was so much a part of the boarding school regimen and in this letter Harriet reasons with her superintendent saying how do you expect me to learn and study when I suffer so my parents are going to try and send me to a sanatorium. So I'll get well quicker, but they don't know how I'm going when I'm here. So, I'm going to ask you a question. Would you rather have me go away to a sanatorium and get well and where I Learn and be happy or have me going to school in suffer and the girl closes with a statement. It's about time. I was going to a sanatorium and get cured (00:04:53) how many schools were there and how far away from American Indian families where they (00:04:58) the first of the the schools that that historians generally site is the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania, which was started in 1879 and some of the first children to attend that school were children of prisoners of war the Apaches. You've probably heard of Geronimo and in the resistance movement in the southwest and his people were incarcerated and we're actually prisoners of War of the United States for over 25 years. And so their children were actually some of the first boarding school students because the children of the prisoners of War were taken from them and sent to the Carlyle boarding school. So after Carlile, there were I would say by the turn of the century Tree, you know dozens of similar institutions and there were thousands of Indian children in these schools. So the idea really caught on of course, most of the schools were in the trans-mississippi west closer to the Indian population. But even though the schools were close to where the Indian population resided perhaps in the same state like Oklahoma or South Dakota states with large Indian populations native people were sent generally miles away from home and family to attend the schools. As I said for years of time the average term of study back then was four years before seeing their families and communities (00:06:24) where their home visits could the kids go (00:06:26) home early on for for several decades visiting home was was discouraged and it probably didn't happen with much frequency up until the 1930s when boarding schools were still around but at the same time there was a Administration in Washington under during the years of Roosevelt's Administration and a new group of people in the Indian office in Washington who regarded the boarding schools as medieval institutions. That should be done away with and American Indians should go to public schools. So it's sort of a long time in the history of the US before that argument was made. So Indians were actually segregated into a separate school system for many years in the United States that it wasn't really until the 1930s that they were encouraged very much at all to attend public schools. But what I also like to show with my book and I think by using documents like letters, this is something that's that's a way of getting at the relationships that continued during the boarding school years. What I don't want to sort of end up saying is even though this policy was very harsh. I'll simulation was in fact a very damaging policy for Indian people. I want to also Do not enter underestimate the families themselves because ties were maintained even though children were separated from their families families continued to be involved in the life of their children. (00:07:54) Brenda child says there are several themes in the Indian boarding school letters written by the parents and children Chief among them homesickness. She reads a portion of the letter from a Wisconsin mother written in the 1920s to the superintendent of the flandro school about her daughter Margaret. (00:08:10) This mother had been separated from her daughter for four years and she wrote to the separate superintendent of Flandreau asking that her daughter come home for the summer begging. In fact that her daughter come home. And this is what she wrote. So please be so kind mr. House and let her come home for the summer. The poor girl has not been home for a long time. And I know she will feel more like going to school next fall. Is she see her folks once more I'm willing to let her go as long as she wants. I'm proud of her to learn something. Dear Sir if you please let her come home, I'm begging you mr. House. So I will be looking for her. I will thank you very much. If you do this and also see that she go back to school and she ends by saying hoping you will be kind the next month the same mother wrote. This makes my third letter to you in regard of my daughter Margaret. I don't see why you want to hold her. If you would only know how I feel longing to see her the mother concluded saying please take my word send her home to me for a few weeks. You know, it won't be long school start just to see her before she goes to school again the reply the superintendent sent to Margaret's mother was that quote he could see no reason that would justify me sending her home. There's another just short excerpt from a letter from a mother from Red Lake. She wanted to see her quote terribly homesick daughter Claudia and she expressed the sentiments of many parents when she wrote quote. It seems it would be much easier to get her out of prison than out of your school. (00:09:52) Brenda child says among the saddest letter. She found are those from school officials to parents saying their children were ill or dead unsanitary boarding school conditions created an environment for the spread of otherwise easy to control (00:10:05) diseases. One of the big scourges of the government boarding schools was trachoma. It's a disease that is if you think of the worst case of chronic conjunctivitis, and before the use of sulfa drugs in the late 1930s, there was no cure for this so people suffered. It came to be associated with with boarding schools and public health officials in the United States began to notice that there was a kind of epidemic of trachoma on reservations that if left untreated could result in blindness. So it was a very very serious disease tuberculosis. Yes, right tuberculosis was another but of course, he's worried (00:10:47) chronic across the population. But we see that the American Indian population suffered disproportionately both on reservation. And (00:10:54) in the they did they did and in fact in Minnesota as well, you would see very high rates of tuberculosis in the late 19th and the early 20th century, but in the boarding school context students who suffered from TB even students whose lungs Hemorrhage that they were very obvious signs that they were seriously ill were often kept in the school hospitals. I have came across a number of letters however to where we're superintendents were contacting parents because their children had been had contracted TB at school and the children were being sent to sanitariums (00:11:36) by the time Federal boarding schools had been created American Indian children the country's native population had been decimated American Indians had lost vast stretches of land even so people were still after resources Timber water and minerals on the remaining native land. Brenda child says those forces along with the simulation were part of the reason for creation of boarding (00:11:58) schools. People were thinking that that when native people were being persuaded sometimes forcibly to abandon their communal practices of land ownership. They argued that well a sort of too late for some of the older generation of Indians, but the younger generation can perhaps change their ways of thinking their ways of doing things. But in order to do that, they should be away from the influences of their family their community and their tribe and so this policy then was devised and and was given support and funding by the federal government. So that children would in fact be removed from their homes and their families and communities for extended periods. I've time for the purpose of education, but I do like to always emphasize it's not just about cultural assimilation. It has to do with the direction of federal policy making at the time which was really there were many many people many interests that combined at that time people who wanted to get their land hands on land that tribal people were still in possession of (00:13:03) child says creation of federally run boarding schools was part of a government plan to open more resource rich Indian land for development the plan led to passage of the allotment act in the late 1800s. The allotment act gave Indian families a piece of property. However, child says the net result was another huge loss of land for Indians because of the way the allotment Act was carried out (00:13:25) the allotment act paid very little attention to Residents patterns of Indians, so you could be like my grandfather from Mille Lacs and the Sandy Lake area and be given a lot man on the red light or on the white Earth reservation. And so you so it wasn't so much. It's somewhat misleading sort of to tell people Indians were sort of selling their land. They were not allotted land often in the place where they live do you know and so it it in the case of my grandfather he lost his land through non-payment of taxes. Now in later years, the court cases have said that the it was tribal and it should never have been taxed but he nonetheless lost his allotment tribal people lost a great deal of land after the allotment act white Earth lost. I think they say 92% of their tribal lands. The national average was was something like 85% so at Red Lake, although we'd made a considerable land session just prior to the passage of the national allotment act. We did not lose our land base as so many other tribal communities did (00:14:35) as she read letters written by American Indian parents and their children at boarding schools. And a child says she found some of the young people adjusted to life far from home. However, many resisted children frequently ran away from the schools child says the letters paint a grim picture but also contains some examples of Indian students standing up to their adult overseers (00:14:55) the material that cheered me up the most were the letters about that that indicated resistance on the part of family members or children themselves the students who ran away or who whatever tried to commit arson is rebellion. Yeah, there was there was a full-scale rebellion at one of those schools. I looked at in 1919 where the chip the kids took over the school one evening cut off the electricity to campus and it sort of did some damage around the campus of the school, but it was I don't know things like that. (00:15:27) What's a chicken was attendance compulsory would kids literally be collared (00:15:31) and there were in fact compulsory. There were compulsory attendance laws passed in the 19th century so that by the 1890s There were such laws in existence. So parents and family members had no choice. They had to send their kids to school police. Sometimes rounded up children to go to schools and it was a compulsory thing and one of the stories that I sort of like to tell my students about to when we are in the history of Indian education classes about the resistance on the part of some communities across the country because it's important to remember that it's something that happened in the Great Lakes and it happened Indians in Minnesota, but it is a national. In fact, I think in some ways an international story because Canadian Indians were subject to the same policies and last year. I was on the dissertation Committee of a Maori student from New Zealand who was writing about the Maori boarding schools. I also look at it the experience of Australian Aboriginal people as being quite similar because children were taken away from their families and adopted out and there was this same strategy of separating children from families. That you see operating in the US and Canada (00:16:41) the letters from Indian boarding school students. Brenda child says revealed the strong ties that are a Hallmark of native families. She says her favorite letter is from a teenage boy to his (00:16:51) father. This is a rather long letter from a white Earth student Victor who was born in 1914 and he talked about having a partner named Morris that is another Ojibwe student who was from Hayward Wisconsin. Both of them were teenagers that Flandreau and South Dakota in on February 20th, 1931. Victor's father learned from the white Earth agent that his son had deserted school and often the school superintendents referred to the students runaways as deserters as if they had deserted the military or something that same day a remorseful Victor wrote to his father from Hayward Dear Dad. I suppose you will be surprised to know that I'm here. I know I've made a big mistake and it's hard for me to think of the grief that will cause you Dad Dad. I was discouraged I just went Add I realized what I've done and I'm very sorry. I'll go back next year and like it the main thing is getting out of here and home now. I've had good luck in the bum world, but I don't like it. Somehow we laughed French Flanders Saturday afternoon about four o'clock. We slept in a straw stack Saturday night. Stay Darrell stayed there all day Sunday, 11:30. We cut a passenger out of Pipestone to Wilmer from there. We caught another passenger from Granite City. I think it was we wrote a dead header to Minneapolis. We walked all day and slept in a straw stack in the morning. We finished our journey to Hudson here. We each got an orange 3 graham crackers and for 30 cents. We bought a loaf of bread can of sardines three milky Way's and some chocolate peanuts. We then kind of time Freight from there to Spooner. We rode between the cars from Hudson to New Richmond. Otherwise, we rode the blinds and a deadhead her All The Way We Walk twenty nine miles from Spooner to Hayward and then 10 miles to my partner's home. They are good to me here insisted. I stay till I get rested up I was going But they insisted it is a nice place Dad. I just want to forget the cause of my running away. I have to get home Dad write and tell me what you think. I hate to start bombing for home, but I can't raise any money. I promise. I'll do my best to make up for my mistake your son Victor. (00:19:03) The child is a professor of American studies and American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota. She's a member of the Red Lake Nation. By the way, if you're on the road in the southwestern United States sometime soon, you might wish to drop by the Heard Museum in Phoenix. One of the exhibits is remembering our Indian school days rent a child helped create the exhibit. You're listening to voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson later in the hour. We hear from Frank Valentini one of eight brothers from Chisholm on Minnesota's Iron Range who went off to World War Two all eight returned alive next another account from an American Indian about a childhood of deprivation. Not at a boarding school, but at Minnesota's state run orphanage hundreds of Minnesota children of all Races were sent to the state orphanage in Owatonna in the early 1900's as they became teenagers many including Peter razor went to live with Minnesota farm families where they were used as laborers treatment of the children at the orphanage end on the farms varied widely Peter razor recalls brutal treatment, including verbal abuse and beatings that put him in the hospital. He survived became an electrician served in the Korean War and raised a family when he told his children about his experience at the Owatonna orphanage and Life as a farmhand, they encouraged him to write a book. He titled the Memoir while the Locust slept. It's drawn from State records and his memories razor is a member of the Fond du Lac band of Ojibwe. He says he learned early at the orphanage that being an Indian provoked especially harsh treatment razor talked with Minnesota public radio's Lorna Benson. I was in st. Paul at the Christian Charities boarding home for children and I recall from my information. I got from my various relatives that I contacted after I became an adult. They said that I was thought to become a water head. I just felt so they took my brother and raise him and left me there in st. Paul with my father who subsequently took off for Milwaukee and I was left in the care of the Christian avoiding home for children. And then I was assigned at the age of one year to the state public school in Owatonna. When did you realize that you didn't like it there? I never did realize that because that was the only thing I knew you become a newer day. I think. To your circumstances you either don't have time to think about it or you know, nothing else. So you're stuck with trying to make the best of what you have and not considering whether it's good or bad. But it very it was I realized early on that. It was uncomfortable. That I was unhappy quite a bit. Uncomfortable and painful at times. No doubt. Oh, yes very very much. What were some of the punishments that were meted out to you? Oh that varied with the the matron and the assistants there was radio brushes, which is a long hard wood handles with the brush on the end of the stick in between and clean out the very tears steam radiators and they use them quite frequently on the people. They would hit you with brooms. If it whatever was handy actually in a theory, they look fly into a rage and like when I was 11 years old, I was a matron in cottage 15 broke a run of on me twice when I was scrubbing floors on hands and knees they broke a broom on you. Yeah, they swing it and break. It has hit you so it was the first time it didn't hurt too much. It hit a soft part of my body and and And broke the broom and she and they usually become quite surprised like it though. They didn't realize they hit that hard. Then the second time was quite painful and left me with brooding for a number of weeks. And then they have a paddle where they a few of the employees would agree to provide punishment for the matrons and they would come down on a Saturday or some other pre-arranged a and after breakfast they would line up the boys who had earned punishment through the previous week and they would bend over and touch her foot touch her feet and and the gardener in my case. It was a gardener and he provided the Number of slots at the matron told him to to that I had earned so to speak and this is with a paddle. It was a very sturdy hardwood paddle at Barney's and with a handle on it and very well designed. Weapon how much of this was that corporal punishment was common at the time and how much of it was pretty common even the teachers in the school had a school from kindergarten through 8th grade at the school at the orphanage and even the teachers use corporate funding because it was customary to do that. They used rulers and Their paddles were ping-pong match that they used to paddle with that. They've at least when I got fouled it was used. It didn't really hurt you that bad but it's tongue pretty bad. You wrote about being attacked by a matron with a hammer one time in years. Well, she was in a rage and that wasn't a form of punishment was just one of those like breaking the broom over you in a rage. I had gotten a drink of water. I'd worked in the kitchen till after supper and real hot and I was thirsty and went after I'd gone to bed. I went out in the hall and got a drink of water from the bubbler and that didn't raise her. So Furious so much that she followed me back in the bedroom. And I don't know where she she had to hammer in hand. She started beating me with that put me in the hospital for six weeks those those weren't punishment. Those are rages I'd say (00:25:49) At what point did you realize that you were often times being singled out for punishment? Because of your race (00:25:55) The Gardener was he was one of the few employees that actually mentioned race when he crippled me up in the garden. He called me a nice for dirty engine, but the other ones like when she hit me to hammer, I never heard engine Indian mentioned and when the paddling I'm sure the severe paddling's and those things were as a result her age, but I could they never really said it they kind of were keeping it hidden. They were just doing it but not saying it but did you know it I didn't really know it at the time. My naivete was built into my upbringing because I was there since it's a baby it was I just grew into that system and I was trying to be open-minded enough looking beyond the problems I perceived. And looking for something better and ignoring the reality that I was immersed (00:26:51) in. Who provided comfort for you? (00:26:55) Well, there is none of that there was a group for 15 years and then two years in farming denture with never mean touched except by views it's odd when I think of it. No, but at the time it seemed normal normally time. Yeah, when I went in the Army same I didn't think anything of it. I didn't admit somebody Minneapolis and I went over to Korea during the war. And I didn't think anything of it. I never wrote a letter home to nobody. I didn't and finally the Red Cross that somebody wants to admit somebody in Minneapolis before he had drafted and those people wanted to find me and they contact the Red Cross and who knew phoned me over in Korean said you're supposed to rain later. These people had already been over there almost a year already and I hadn't written a letter to anybody. It didn't think nothing of it. So you grow kind of oddly as I see it. Now, (00:28:01) it sounds like some of your family members had tried to make contact along the way but it just didn't work out. (00:28:08) They wouldn't when I left the orphanage. They one of my cousin's wanted to find me. He was a young man and he tried to find me and the state the wrote a letter and it's in my files. That state said his best. I do not be Wanted it interrupts interfere with my life with a new family. So so that was the even prevented that Peter razor talking with Minnesota public radio's Lorna Benson, you're listening to voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio when Peter razor became a teenager, he was handed over by the Owatonna orphanage officials to a Southeastern Minnesota farm family razor barely survived the experience. Here's more of his conversation with Lorna Benson the new family that you (00:29:02) eventually got was a farm family that came to (00:29:06) pick you out. Why do you think they picked you well for working, you know, there's no other there's no question about it. I was just going to be a worker. And they were supposed to send me the high school, but they soon as I got to the farm. They tried to get me to get me out of high school. I was quite socially retarded I believed at the time because it never really dawned on me. Just what was going on as far as the reality of my circumstances at the time. Were you excited at first when (00:29:35) you found out that you were finally going to go with a family? (00:29:39) Not really? I was I was apprehensive. I was there was a little some hope probably deep down that something would change for the better, but I was quite apprehensive. (00:29:52) Because you suspected (00:29:53) that there were rumors going around that about what was happening on farming denture that people were dying or getting hurt in a lot of ways and to die on the farm. How common was it for Farmers to get their Hired Hands from State orphanage has apparently quite common. I never saw my Farmer to the day coming to get me and never knew anything about it anything real. I just heard that I was going to be indentured but I didn't know any more than that until they come to get me. Do you find it odd that they never asked you anything about? Yeah. Well it no I do but not only odd by I think it's a travesty that they didn't consider the needs and the feeling of the children. (00:30:35) So what was the arrangement in your case or in many cases between the the farm family and the child that was going with them? (00:30:43) Well, I was supposed to become part of their family according to the contract and he was supposed to let me go to high school. I was in the contract and he was supposed to end. Summer wages supposed to get paid for the summer where they were supposed to put a certain portion of my money into a trust fund and then return it to me at age 18, but that never happened. (00:31:05) It sounds like though the the state it at least once came to check on you and you (00:31:09) didn't take the opportunity to tell them. Yeah, I think at the time I think I was quite partially because of the prior treatment at the orphanage and also the subsequent treatment on the farm that I was quite probably emotionally traumatized and I didn't know how to bridge that circumstance to to communicate. Right all the way I remember thinking that I would like to you know, but I didn't know quite how to do it. But this farmer was beating you. Yeah, and I had no idea how to escape that just like I couldn't escape the beating that the state school in a section of his book while the Locust slept Peter razor describes his life with the farm family in an excerpt read by Von arm Seth razor recalls being late for chores one evening and the reaction of John the farmer the sedating Babble Of The Creek soon lured me to sit and listen a squirrel scampered up in nearby Oak when the squirrel disappeared on the Hidden Side of the trunk. I tossed a stick in the squirrel flicked off. Suddenly realizing I had lingered I hurried on to the farm turning into the driveway. I stiffened with fear John stood near the house staring at me with his head cocked. I moved to step around John on my way to the house. But John's arm shot out stopping me. You're late his eyes burned from a Stony face. I tried to move around his arm toward the house. I have to change clothes for chores. He grabbed me by the shoulders spun me violently to face him then pulled me into his chest in a tight bear hug a grunted as John squeezed me nearly breathless. I tried to scream but John squeezed harder when I talks don't to ever turn your backs on me bastard. I managed to bring one arm over John's arm to Shield my face for a frightening moment. He squeezed even harder as though to crush me. (00:33:09) Then the world spun (00:33:10) is John through me like a sack of feed (00:33:13) landing on hands (00:33:14) and knees. Scrunched on my belly the mauling more terrorized and hurt me and though able to move I didn't at first abusive staff at the state school seemed satisfied if I appeared weak or injured after their attacks watching from side Vision. I waited until John shoes backed off scraped on my hands and knees I stood and exaggerated a limp as I shuffled to the house at the door of the house. I was forced to stop but did not look back. You to come right home John yelled in spite of reassurances from smiling social workers. I now knew the truth of farm placement. Social workers apparently felt it unnecessary to tell Farmers how to treat orphans or to tell orphans how to live with guardians. How did you finally (00:34:09) Escape all of this? I imagine, you know, you sort of end the book with finally coming of (00:34:14) age. Well, I came of age and found jobs started my working life till I got drafted and I get course. I got drafted in Korean War and that was a turning point and I started things started to come together pretty fast after that. When did you realize you wanted to write about this experience? Oh my daughter when she graduated from college she tried asking about that others set of grandparents and she had to start talking to the more. I told her which I hadn't told her it anything when she grew up. None of my children knew what happened to to the original story. And so then she thought well, you know, we should it sounds like we've probably got a story. They're mostly out of her the way she prodded me, you know to do that. And then I she married a teacher now. So the two of them proud of me to finish it. (00:35:10) What was it like doing the research particularly when you would find these references to your case? (00:35:16) It was quite emotional. It took a quite a few years because I had to put it down from time to time and do other things (00:35:23) with such a Negative experience growing up and so little positive interaction with other people. Are you surprised that you're able to be A writer. (00:35:36) Yeah it I never realized that you so you go through your life. Let's inferior attitude about life, you know about yourself. Are you okay with the experience that you went through? Well, no, I have no choice. You can understand that intellectually that things could have been different should have been different or it could have been worse or better but it doesn't shift down into the emotional caverns of your thinking, you know, doesn't so it stays there in the intellectual Arena and you don't really you don't do any wishful thinking I guess. No regrets, no regrets. Yeah, I mean you can't have her gadgets just life life is life, you know is life. Whatever. It is Peter razor talking with Minnesota public radio's Lorna Benson after another life-threatening beating at the hands of the farmer the 17 year old razor escaped a local doctor treated his wounds and called a county social worker who placed him with another much Kinder family where razor says he learned at last what it meant to be a boy without fear of abuse the state orphanage in Owatonna was closed in 1945 razor rights in the epilogue to his book. My children have been my joy and they've saved me seeing them grow into happy healthy adults has helped ease the pain of my childhood, but nothing can ever erase the memories. Razors book is titled while the Locust slept. It's published by the Minnesota Historical Society press you're listening to voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Danielson When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, or will give him a hearty welcome. Finally the account of Frank Valentini who with seven of his brothers served in World War Two. Here's Minnesota public radio's Chris julen, the (00:37:43) United States is riding a wave of patriotism and Frank Valentini is happy to see it. Valentini says, he hasn't seen this kind of national Spirit since World War Two he served in that war along with seven of his brothers 8 Valentini Brothers went overseas during World War II and all eight came home Frank valentinian his brothers grew up in Chisholm on Minnesota's Iron Range. He came back to (00:38:04) Chism after the war and became a high school social studies teacher. He looks like a social studies teacher. He's short and sturdy about five foot six (00:38:11) on a recent morning. He was wearing a white mock (00:38:14) turtleneck and blue jeans Frank Valentina. Pass for 65 but he's 82. (00:38:20) Most of his brothers have died only he and fellow are left. It's been 60 years since the United States entered World War Two but Frank Valentini remembers it vividly he says he only has a few mementos from the war. He takes one out of his wallet describe what you're holding there while its size grouping of we brothers who served in World War two together and he were in chronological order pictured in chronological order. Dendi is Frank fellow Bello. Queenie Louis VII and Gusty. So how long have you had this? It's been here a long time. Now my brother gave this guy gave each one of us one. So I just I haven't my wallet. That's why when I'm you know, when I'm bragging about some things I take it out tell me their given names your brother's course don. T know Luigi Agostino kwinto Francisco. Fiorello barbelo Valentino. I just marvel at this one. I don't want my old man was thinking of and Valentina Valentina in something, huh. That's that's is given first that's his name. We call them V then in most of them got anglicize you say. So yeah, these three couldn't be anglicized the rest, you know, like Francesco's Frank Luigi's Louis. Agostino is Gusty. August Queen told me Quentin. They were ten Valentini brothers and Schism. They had one sister one brother was too old to serve in the military. Another was a chemist in a steel plant. He stayed (00:40:03) home. The rest of the brothers went to (00:40:05) war Frank and his brother Bellow tried to enlist the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Bellow got into the air force the Navy rejected Frank because his eyes were bad but Frank got another chance the Army drafted him a few months later. He went to Fort Snelling for his physical a Corporal was giving me the eye test. And I said if I open both eyes, I can see it perfectly so he passed me on now. Let me so I'm going home, but I said I'm not going to be left behind. You know, I want to be a part of this Frank Valentini says he was ready to go even before the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor by 1938-39. We felt that we were preparing for this one that we would become a part of this eventually. I just assumed that I was going to be a part of this when it happened and we didn't expect it to happen as it did but we're all going off we went to when we got drafted. We got drafted some volunteered. There's good waiting for the draft as I said, I was rejected to start with but I said I'm not going to stay home. And that was before all my brothers got in except that the one was in already and I didn't I didn't think that they would be eight of us. I thought these older ones would have to go. In fact preval was just 2 years 3 years older than I I thought he wouldn't have to go because he was a family man. You know, I had this feeling that if you're a family man, you don't have to go but it all changed Valentino. Let's see if he went in in 1944. He didn't have to go he volunteered on his own. He had three children very onions a fella. He saw the rest of his brothers going. So I want to go to he didn't have to go. He must have been about 34 years old when he went in to the service. And best must have been about he was it's less 0:37. I was 22 23. I was trained in the signal Corps. I was as a radio operator So eventually ended up in China and we would call for sarees for bombing all that Saturday. An old friend of Franks drops by with some newspapers Frank spreads went out in the dining room table. It's a reprint of the Chisholm Tribune, press from the 1940s. There's two page spread of pictures of men in uniform. These are the 55 young men from the town of Chisholm who died in World War Two. Yeah, all these people. Here's my closest friend. And is this somebody who grew up with with the school's got here? Yeah was my one of my closest friends Fred Francis. Katie was a navigator on a B-29 missing and never came back. How many friends did you lose in the war? Lots of them? Take a look Alex Dario. I'll ask the fritzi. I alway Frank I lost Tom Right attached Louis large anything a bell is this guy 22 from this family? There are two brothers were killed in the war. This is a joke, honey, and Louis Connie two brothers killed in the war from from Chisholm is another one Goose key ever go ski Peter Gustav. It's gone Goose key. If you anger only lots of friends lots of them. Among you and your brother's how many of you actually were under (00:43:32) Fire and in (00:43:35) risked dying during World War 2 all except this this guy. Tell me what you have. This is the metal. This is the bronze star and I don't know it's not as highly rated as The Silver Star or the purple heart or that this or that the purple and you have to be hit but this is for outstanding and I think somewhere on the back. I think it says here I don't you can see I can read it to rollick or (00:44:04) meritorious (00:44:05) achievement. What did you do to receive that? Off the record. I retreated fast. No, I don't know. No, I was a radio operator and Under Fire under you know, when I say Under Fire I was exposed to Artillery fire. I know hand-to-hand combat for me. I had the ringside seat in other words of observation post. We saw what was going on and we the officer I was with steered the bomber that we call for into the target. And my job was to get them there and my officer was tearing the Target and there we were ringside seat. We were strafed at times. We were bombed at times and artillery I'm trying to imagine what it's like for your parents. My mom wasn't living. My mom had died the year before exactly there before Pearl Harbor and December 29th of 1940. I don't know what would have happened if if she had lived during that War. I she couldn't stop us from going but the point is I don't know if that probably there probably would have killed her Frank's wife. Patricia has been listening to the conversation Patricia sits forward in her chair when Frank mentioned his mother probably killed her all eat over boys going into into the service. She was a diabetic. But anyway. It happened so that she didn't have to suffer with that. My father. Well, he was a Man compared to my mother being a mother. My father was a father but he was a man he accepted it and my father Italian immigrant teacher family had stars are portraying the number of people at that serving like two or three whomever. My father said he was running out of Windows. He had he didn't have enough windows for the Stars honoring his sons. I was told secondhand the story and he got half in the bag one time and only the Italian and he drinks wine with his meals and he got half in the bag one time and he was 7 years old in his in his late 60s. Well, anyway, he went to volunteer but to him through the motions. He was about 7 years old. You took all my son's he says why not take me or something rather. But and then he was an Italian an Italian immigrant all this time. He actually came over to Chism from Italy. Oh, yeah, he came here and he came to each other in 1911 in 1911 and became an underground Miner. And very little education very little knowledge of the language and that was quite common really because I lived with individuals who were parented by immigrants. We a lot of immigrants here. They were underground miners of slovaks the Italians the fins the mining captains were English or some of them Scandinavians who were better educated and then we were but the fins and the Italians in the slovaks were the strong back in supposedly weak mind, but which wasn't true. They just weren't educated. Frank Valentini says most of the men who went to World War II from the town of Chisholm were the sons of immigrants. Some of them were immigrants themselves when guy couldn't speak English and he had been in a Serbian Army in World War one I saw him after the war. He got a discharge eventually got a discharge. He got a I met him after World War Two I said Nick, how you doing? Hey boy, I go. How are you? How are you? How are you be? That's why he spoke to me. I had two breast Serbian bro. This lallybroch. How are you being? He's all UBC I get discharged. I have trouble total eggs had supposed varicose veins. He was in World War one and he said II got trouble with the latest. They sent me home. They give me money I get money now every month I get money. That's we talked. It's 45 years old. He got drafted. Yeah another guy in its way of telling a co-worker, you know, you come with me I go Harvey I go harder me. There was surfing in Makati. I said sir funeral is over. Or they make me cook. I cook. My sergeant I sides. Are you Sergeant? You can speaking I know spear I speak like this Frank Valentini left for the war in the summer of 1942, and I never got home. Unfurl 01 time I served 39 months everyone that these other guys got home to God, there's pictures at with their wives or their with her at home and I became a pessimist. I've been too pessimistic ever since here. I'm in the China Burma India theater and the rule was when you complete the twenty fourth month in China. You can go home. I'll send you home and reassign you what happens. This friend of mine 21 months for my outfit my 21 months. He's got 24. I'll see you Val. Another one might 26. I'll see you Val and I'm getting close to 24. And I said geez am I going to get home? Am I going to get home my 24th month three of us were selected. I'm waiting waiting for my orders. All furloughs everything is canceled. No more. Nobody goes home. Why the war in Europe ends May 8th VE Day. Nobody goes home. They're not going to send me home when they're sending troops from Europe the European theater to the Pacific what's going to happen? If anyone ever tells you that the dropping of the bomb was inhuman don't listen to them recently in that Duluth paper every other article letters to the editor four or five people would write about the inhumanity of the atomic bomb never should have done it. That's not true. That's not true. I don't think so. If they didn't do that. I don't know where I would be. Maybe I'm selfish, but I like me. And they drop the bomb hole and they're forgot that I'm a radio operator. I tell these other three guys I said, hey things look good. I got home by as of October 28th 1945. Now you've seen a lot of (00:50:39) places but this (00:50:42) is a pretty close to where you started life. Hey, I'm using story. I was telling my wife started hearing it when we had one of our class reunions, somebody suggested that each class being get up and tell how far they got in the world and a friend classmate San Francisco. Another one another close friend Dallas my turn. Okay, my turn I said two blocks on the same side of the street and I was born two blocks down and same size. In fact All My Life as a teacher or as a student. I never had to drive to school. How far are you from the school here right across the street and across the street. I thought school here. Let's see four years in the river six years in Tower at 10:29 years in Chisholm. I replaced my 1936 social studies teacher when I came here in 1959 and I taught here for 29 years until I got fired. No, I was 69 years old. And I gave up my job because they are cutting back because of declining enrollment and they were going to let the young guy go and I said I better go. Then that's why you decided to retire and then the young guy was a thing going to seniority basis and I sigh he had already received this unrequested leave letter and I said, I'll go. my superintendent Came to see me three days before school was out and said why don't you stay as I can't when we write so I left. Yeah, I enjoy it. I enjoy teaching Franklin teeny taught High (00:52:36) School social studies for 39 years. He spent 29 of those years at Chisholm high school. (00:52:41) He lives in Chism with his wife Patricia. They've been married for 54 years Frank Valentini served overseas in World War II along with seven of his brothers. All eight of the Valentini Brothers came home at the end of the war. This is crystalline, Minnesota Public Radio. Get ready for the Jubilee. Leave he'll get three cheers from you and me Uncle Sam will prove. He's still the champ will close up shop and break up camp and we all feel gay (00:53:21) When Johnny Comes Marching Home When Johnny Comes Marching Home, you've been listening to our voices of Minnesota interview series produced by Minnesota public radio's Dan Olson to learn more about the Valentini brothers. Who Chris Doolin was just talking about you can find a crystalline story about them at our website www.misnylaw.com public radio dot org (00:53:47) programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by Northern Brewer home brewing supplies on Grand Avenue offering products for beer and wine makers including starter kits for beginners online at (00:53:58) northernbrewer.com. And that'll just about do it for midday today tune in tomorrow at 11:00 for a talk about Transportation issues in the state of Minnesota will be seeing where the various bills are at the legislature Transportation commissioner L1 tinkling Berg will join us and we know Dean Johnson the Senate Transportation committee chair will be with us as well. That's tomorrow at 11 o'clock here on midday. Well, there is quite a storm blowing through the state of Minnesota right now winter storm warnings out for portions of Southern and Central Minnesota this afternoon and tonight winter weather advisory is out for parts of Central and Southeastern Minnesota this afternoon and tonight snow sometimes heavy should fall today in Southern and Central Minnesota brisk winds as well. And there will be a mix of precipitation in the far south. We should have highs about 30 degrees. Then tonight the snow will continue heavy at times during the evening eventually decreasing late in the night. Just a chance of snow in northern Minnesota lows from the Teens to the middle 20s. So if you are going to be doing some traveling today look out for the weather. It's going to be bad in southern and Central, Minnesota. (00:55:11) I'm Lorna Benson Congress wants to fix Farmers Problems by offering controversial (00:55:15) subsidies will have that story on the next All Things Considered weekdays at 3:00 on Minnesota Public Radio. KN o WF M 91.1 You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. It's 29 degrees snowing at KN o WF M 91.1 Minneapolis-Saint Paul Twin Cities weather and winter storm warning in effect for this afternoon through tonight. We could have five to seven inches by evening highs in the lower 30s snow heavy tonight at times total accumulation of 8 to 14 inches.