Ernest Michael Holds The Enemy, Jr.

Ernest Michael Holds the Enemy Jr.

Born February 13, 1957, in Crow Agency Montana to Ernest Sr. and Theresa Reed Holds the Enemy. He was a member of the Big Lodge Clan and a child of Bad War Deeds and was even adopted into the Tobacco Society by Henry and Stella Old Coyote at 9 years old. Being a Crow/Shoshone and Sioux Sundancer, including a member of the Native American Church, he had a strong and respectful belief in Crow Traditional ways.

He was given the name Baatawáa Xiassaash “Outstanding Hot Dancer” by Hugh Little Owl after birth. Since before he started school, he was riding horses and chose to live his life the way he was raised, as a cowboy. He often told stories about his first pony that his brother John Holds Jr. gave him. A mouse color Shetland named Chalky, he said “that was the oneriest Shetland ever put on this earth. He would come to a complete stop in a full run, and I’d fly over its head! Then I would have to chase that darn Chalky down, it was a good time then.” At only 6 or 7 he recalls dancing in a few bars after rodeos while traveling with his dad who would dress him up in full regalia and put him on the bar and start singing. He said “I would dance up and down the bar and people would place coins and paper money into my dancing purse. I always had a full purse; too bad my purse wasn’t bigger!” His youth was filled with adventures, he said he'd get up in the morning, get his horse ready and ride toward Crow, and by the time he got to Crow there would be a whole group headed to Crow from Garryowen. They would stop by relative’s homes and have lunch, help with chores, then start riding again. We were lucky we had many relatives and always had a place to eat.

Most hot summer days they would end up at the swimming hole in Garryowen he claimed was the best place to stop for a cool dip. He would often tell a story of a mean guy in their group who was older and would always pick on all the boys. “One day we all decided, well fix this guy, so we all sat down in a couple feet of water pretending it was deep. The mean guy ran and dived into the not so deep water hitting headfirst and started screaming. His mom came after us with a broom, so we took off on our horses and didn’t go to that swimming hole that whole summer. The mean kid was ok, but he was just mad at us for a long while!” At the Garryowen store and Post Office, they would pick up pop bottles to trade, or do odd jobs, to get a cool drink or popsicle. He said that was one of his good memories growing up in Garryowen living with his cousins Kenneth, Howard, Sandra, Gladys, Doris, Joanie, Johnny Boy, Dennis, his best friend Edward and his auntie Dorothy and uncle David Jefferson, auntie Agnes and Uncle John Holds.

Ernie started grade school in Busby where Auntie Dorothy and her husband David worked and continued at Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota. He never forgot his days in Flandreau always telling a story or remembering the “good times” he had there, and all the lifelong friends he made. He kept in contact with a few over the years. His mom and dad adopted his lifelong friend, Billy “Musky” Hale Jr. who became his brother. They went through high school and then into the military together. They had so many stories about their high school days.

Ernie had a trunk full of memorabilia from his “high school days” that he took everywhere keeping it safe. It held his high school letter men jacket, photo albums, posters, t-shirts, and trophies. It would later hold his Rodeo memorabilia, jackets, rodeo announcements, buckles, belts, western Horseman, and pro rodeo sports news. Over the years, one trunk turnedinto several trunks to hold all his additional memorabilia, such as his children’s and his grandchildren’s awards and artwork. Occasionally, he would pull out his “Who’s Who Among American High School Students” book and tell of how he was nominated by one of his teachers. He was very proud of that achievement.

During high school, he participated in wrestling and was a South Dakota state qualifier in his senior year. He also played football and stated, for his size, he was an exceptional player #53. He won a trophy for best disco dancer at one of the high school dances and had a photo to prove it. Holding that trophy, Mr. Disco wore tan bell bottom polyester pants, a brown silk shirt with large flowers, long sleeves rolled up a little, a few of his front buttons undone, platform shoes, and even had shoulder length hair to boot. After showing the photo he would say “good times, good times”.

After high school Billy and Ernie enlisted in the United States Army, he said “That’s the time I played Soldier for Uncle Sam.” While enlisted, they were detailed to Germany and one Friday night they were in the barracks talking and listening to radio, when they heard drums. “We turned the radio down and we weren’t just hearing things, there was a pow wow going on in town! So we got dressed, had a few drinks, then headed toward the sound of the drums. We walked into the building and these Germans were all dressed in Native regalia dancing and singing! He said we had a few so we were both feeling good, so we went in and sat down. People noticed us and asked if we were Native. Yes, we are Natives! A man asked if we knew any songs and Billy said yep, we do. We flipped a trash can upside down for our drum and Billy started singing a 49 song. We sang the same song over and over in a different order and even threw in some Crow words and Hidatsa in there. We figured those Germans didn’t know the difference anyway so we kept singing! They sure got a kick out of listening to real Natives singing real powwow songs, they kept dancing to our one and only 49 song!”

He made a name for himself as a Team Roper winning jackpots throughout Crow country and beyond. He got his membership for Rocky Mountain Region and had fun traveling doing what he liked best, roping. While traveling to Albuquerque NM, he qualified for Indian National Finals twice. He was a hardcore roper, one time he made it to the finals in the fall of 83. The regional finals were in Rapid City and during the final round he caught his thumb in the dally and almost lost his thumb. He still had to rope one more time to qualify and he was hurting bad, but he whipped out his silver tape, wrapped up his thumb tight, put a glove on it and roped. Ernie and Lloyd Pickett qualified for National Finals that year. After he loaded up to leave, he took off his tape and saw it was black, blue and red. We headed to the nearest clinic in the middle the night to find he broke that thumb in 13 places. All they could do was wrap it up and send us on our way.

Heading home in a blizzard, the main roads were black ice and was shut down. We had to work the next day, so we drove all night through Ashland which was the only route still open. While driving 10-20 miles an hour, the horse trailer would almost jack knife then straighten out, I was nervous, but he was given pain killers, so he didn’t have a care in the world, happy as heck going to the National finals! We finally made it home to a black out and no heat, so of course work was canceled anyways. He always remembered that qualifying run, I always remembered driving on black ice pulling a two-horse trailer with our newborn son, Ely.

He was known for his roping ability and winning in Jackpot roping’s. During his Rodeo days he didn’t have to enter jackpot roping’s, someone always signed him up so they could geta chance to rope with him. He’d say, “so you want to win some money huh!” During his rodeo days his passion was to ride, rope, win, and take care of his horses his beloved Jet Dial, and Gray. His other favorite thing to do was to go out and search for the perfect sweat wood. He was very proud of his sweat always keeping it neat. He meticulously picked out dead trees to gather and haul home inspecting each branch or log he picked up. He stayed outside for hours cutting the sweat wood to the perfect size. Then he’d stack them in perfect order making a huge wall against the outside wall of sweat. He made sure he had plenty of wood for a hot sweat. He would travel to Bozeman and Pryor mountains in search of the perfect sweat rocks.

Ernie married Danetta Jane Half in 1977 and made their home in Crow Agency Montana, and later moved to St Xavier. He moved his little family to Billings in 1978 to attend Vo-Tech now called Billings City College, where he received his certification in arc welding. Later, he worked at LC gas station in Crow on highway 313. Back then he would pump the customers gas, washed windshields and checked tires. He said it wasn’t much pay, but was happy with what he was doing and it paid the bills. When his dad found out he worked at LC’s he would bring mom and they would get ice cream sandwiches, drinks, and chips, then the old man would put a dime on the counter and say make it enough, then left smiling. For the next 7 years he worked at Ford Motor company detailing cars. He enjoyed working there, he said he had his own stall, own equipment, and received big tips for his work, and even sold a few cars too.

Ernie was hired as a construction road crew with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Roads department. He helped build the road from St Xavier to Pryor for 8 years. He was trained by his dad, a veteran construction worker driving trucks hauling gravel and dirt. He said on the first day, “they put me in a semi with dad who had to train me. Dad sat by me and instructed me where to go and how to drive on the dirt road. He said I was driving good, then we came to a steep downhill dirt road. Dad told me to slow down but the air brakes were out! I remember driving downhill on that dirt road doing 20 miles an hour hitting all the bumps. I looked over to dad who was bouncing around in the cab holding the ceiling, yelling at the top of his voice slow down! Every chance he had he swung at me, so I was ducking and diving all the way down that hill trying to steer that big rig while trying to figure out how the heck am I going to stop this truck! We finally stopped and dad got off and cussed at me and told foreman, “train your own damn drivers!”, everyone was laughing, we made it down that hill in one piece, but dad was still mad and said you switch to a different equipment KID, I am not driving with you ever again! So, that day I started my scrapper career!”

Within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Irrigation department, he worked as the ditch rider for the St X area. He received several service awards while working in that department. He worked at Sarpy coal mine where he retired in 2017, at the time of his retirement he worked as a scraper operator.

Everywhere Ernie worked or traveled he had or made friends. People always remembered him, and he had a certain look that no one forgot. While travelling to Missouri to see his Auntie Rose, we stopped at a Native owned gas station on a reservation in the middle of nowhere. While Ernie was putting in fuel, someone from across that whole sea of gas pumps, yelled, “Hey, Ernie Boy!!” The kids were laughed and said “see, I told you dad has friends EVERYWHERE,” even in the middle of nowhere they knew Ernie Boy.

Ernie was elected the Rodeo Manager for the 1986 Crow Fair Rodeo. He went to work right away after Crow Fair, the kids and Jane cleaned and washed the grandstand then he started scheduling jackpot rodeos starting in the Fall of 1985. He had jackpots throughout the fall, then started back up in the spring. During this time the kids and Jane had plate and bake sales to raise money for prize money for the rodeos, while Ernie solicited through the winter. Together they raised enough to purchase saddles, buckles, and other prizes. After Crow Fair, the Tribe was surprised that Ernie turned a profited of which $5000.00 dollars he turned into tribe.

Once moved to their “St. X house,” he bought himself a shed and finally had a place to store all his memorabilia. He would be in that shed for hours listening to the 70’s, so the family called it his “bar” . They humored him and started furnishing it with a huge tool chest for his tool collection, a work bench and a bar stool, and even a small fridge to store his Coors Light! His daughter Verleen bought him a bright neon bar sign that switched between “Bar Open” and “Bar Closed” and had a palm tree on it! Ernie would go to his shed and open the doors, then he switched on his Neon sign to “Bar open” and had a cold one in his very own slice of heaven.

Ernie and Jane’s children: Jeromy, Verleen, Ely, Michael & Alyssia and Holly Holds the Enemy Grandchildren: Kayden & Grace, Tanner & Keianna, Maren & Trey White Fox, Darian Holds the Enemy, Jeromy Yellowtail, Sylas, Dawson and Grace Holds the Enemy Great grandson: Jaxon Holds the Enemy

Ernie’s brothers and sisters: Richard and Henry Little Light, Aloysius Holds the Enemy, Shirley Bad Bear, Rosella Shane, Una Little Light, Lori Old Bear, Vina White, Vicky Holds.

Ernie is preceded in death by his parents and his siblings; Joan Big Medicine, Peggy Big Man, Vincent Little Light, Berdelle and Artie Holds the Enemy, and Margaret Pee wee Medicine Horse.

Ernie often said when he was young, “I was lucky I had the biggest family on the reservation, and I was proud of it!”

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