The Flag

Flag bundle succession, at the present time the flag's is in the possession of the Gopher family, seven children who are the offspring of Dorothy Gopher. They are Glen Gopher, Thane Gopher (now deceased), Mike Gopher, Blair Gopher, Miranda Gopher, Melinda Gopher and Mary Gopher, listed from eldest to youngest. Dorothy Gopher owned the flag since the death of her husband, Robert Gopher on October 30, 1998.

Dorothy died intestate on October 2, 2008. Robert Gopher had kept the flag, as it was gifted to him by his mother, Mary Chippewa Gopher, or Iron Bear Claw Woman, who was the wife of Jim Loud Thunder Gopher. Prior to his death, he instructed his wife, “you will have to decide among your children, who is the most fit to keep this flag, you will know what one to give it to.” The family is Ojibwe, in Canada the tribe is referred to as Saulteaux, it means the same thing.

Iron Claw Bear Woman fulfilled her husband's request and selected Robert Gopher as the son most capable of possessing the flag.  In 1950 she began preparing Robert Gopher to own the flag.  She as giftor; purchased a heavy duty safe to keep the flag bundle safe in Robert Gopher's residence, where she lived until her death.   There, at the Hill 57 residence, the flag bundle was stored throughout mid 1950s to her death in 1965.  This gifting of the flag was conducted as a living gift.  Five years after her death; Robert Gopher wrote a will dated April 22, 1970 gifting the flag to his wife Dorothy Gopher upon his death.  The state of Montana intestate succession statutes distribute Dorothy Gopher's estate to her seven surviving children.

Jim Gopher was given the the flag by his uncle(patrimonial) Frenchman, or Way-mi-ti-goshe, who brought the flag to the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation and transferred the flag to Jim Gopher in 1933. Way-mi-ti-goshe stated the flag was received by his grandfather. The research is scant as to who this may have been. The identity of Frenchman's father is yet to be confirmed; the family is in midst of verifying family lineage conclusively. This is complicated as early births and deaths were not recorded, in addition, there was use of tribal spiritual names, as opposed to the English names.

Frenchman may have given the flag to Jim Loud Thunder Gopher for two reasons; as a resident of Beardy's Okemasis, he saw the need for Jim Gopher's family to seek restoration of treaty rights in the United States, where the flag originated. Second, Jim Gopher played a heroic role in the Manitou Lake tragedy during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Jim Gopher cared for the camp, as the flu decimated the camp, leaving almost one hundred people dead during a one month period in the fall of 1918.

Copyright. 2012.  Listening Thunder Band of Ojibway.  All Rights Reserved.