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Wood Mountain

Biographies

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Itonka Ska (Leonard Lethbridge)

1931 -

    I was raised on the Wood Mountain Indian Reserve at Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan in Canada. The members of the band are all descendatns of Sitting Bull's band, which is Teton Sioux.
  My father was Pete Lethbridge and my mother was Dorothy Ogle. They separated shortly after I was born. My grandmother, Wanbli Sunpagewin, raised me until I was sent to a Catholic residential school at Lebret.
    My teeen-age years were labour intensive with work for various farmer, ranchers and the CPR at Killdeer, Saskatchewan.

Itonka Ska
 Photo by Morgan Baillargeon CMC

     In 1950 I was employed by the Great Northern Railroad in Montana.
    Four years later I went to work for Weyerhauser (Potlach Forests in Lewiston, Idaho.) That same year I married my wife, Mary Ann.
    In 1957 I was adventurous and went to Los Angeles and took a job as a glass cutter and purchasing agent for a door and window factory. After passing a written exam I was hired by the United States Postal Service in 1964. I worked for the Postal Service as postman, mail carrier supervisor, station manager and postmaster. The Sand Fernando Valley was my home in California before I was transferred to New Mexico, North Dakota and Souith Dakota.
    In 1993 I retired and returned to my place of birth on the Wood Mountain First Nations reserve. My wife and I have been blessed with four sons and one daughter.
(Leonard Lethbridge represented the band on the Lakota Project which prepared an exhibit for inclusion in "Legends of Our Times.")


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