Apache Indian Reserve Visit

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Win Hilling. Stories for my Grandchildren

Apache Indian Reserve Visit

November1969

Ginger and Charlie lived on an Apache Indian Reserve in Arizona where Charlie was working as Postmaster. When we landed at Phoenix I stepped out of the plane and a woman rushed up to me hugging and kissing me. In those days Phoenix Airport was very small. At first I was startled but realised she must be Ginger as her hair was auburn. Charlie was waiting for us in the passenger lounge. What a welcome! I asked how she knew I was the person she had come to meet and she said, “Oh that was easy, Alf is wearing a homberg hat and that’s very English. Our men seldom wear them.”

They were lovely warm welcoming people. Ginger said her daughter and son-in-law lived here in Phoenix but were working and she was keen for us to see their new house. It was a very nice house and Ginger showed us the guest room which had two double beds and just enough space to walk between them. She said if we liked we could stay overnight and share the room with Charlie and herself. I guess those sleeping arrangements were quite usual there.

However we decided that rather than unpack for one night we would prefer to drive to Ginger and Charlie’s home that was some distance away.

The Apache Indian Reserve was huge and set well inside the reserve was a fenced in area which held a bank, post office, chemist and dairy and the white people working there were expected to keep to their own territory and not use any other part of the reserve.

We were very comfortable there and we did have our own bedroom. Ginger and Charlie were so happy to have us there and Ginger said that if for any reason we woke in the night and fancied an ice cream we must wake them and they would drive us to a super Ice Cream Parlour where we would have a choice of thirty flavours. She added that they did this quite often. When one day we did visit this parlour we were surprised to see that it was more than twenty minutes drive from their home.

The Apache Indians that we saw were very sombre and never smiled. Ginger was the only person allowed inside their homes and that was because she liked to visit the sick and many of them had cancer. They were a very reserved race.

One day we were taken to see a new aquarium in Arizona. The land both sides of the road was parched and sandy with gigantic cacti growing.

On our way back we were taken to see a Western style film set with old houses and a saloon and a dentist shop with all its old style terrifying dentistry tools set in glass fronted cupboards. There was a gun shop, bakery, a store, a printing shop and many more.

Suddenly without warning, gunshots could be heard and when we all went outside we could see men on the roofs shooting at men in the street. They were all dressed in old time costumes and looked very real, playing out a story which was interesting. We sat on a bench and had a drink and Ginger disappeared. After a while she came back with a newspaper in her hand and in large black print on the front page we read, “New Zealanders Win and Alf Hilling held by Police!” I still have the newspaper. Ginger loved to have fun.

Our next stop was to visit Ginger’s friends who lived in a caravan park. Actually there were very few caravans, most were large wooden homes with beautiful little gardens. These homes are easy to move as they were made so that when empty two halves of the building concertined into each other. We were made most welcome and shown around the house that was very substantially built and quite beautiful and comfortable to live in.

Ginger loved to show us off to her friends and when we went to a restaurant she would look around and bring anyone she knew to meet us, her N.Z. friends. She was so warm and friendly and very good company.

When we left we really expected that they would come and visit us in N.Z. when our trip finished, but unfortunately they have had a great deal of sickness and have been unable to come.

Alf and I really enjoyed our visit and they seemed genuinely sorry to see us leave.