CROW AGENCY — When floodwaters forced evacuations on the Crow Reservation, Jane Holds The Enemy planned to volunteer filling sandbags.
But Holds The Enemy had more valuable skills.
She was immediately put in charge of feeding flood victims, relief workers and volunteers at Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency.
Last Sunday morning, Holds The Enemy opened the little café that she manages in the college's student union building. She put away the cash register at the end of the cafeteria counter and started serving pancakes and bacon to a few hungry people. Her daughter, Holly, and granddaughter, Maren, pitched in to help.
Word spread quickly.
"I was even on Facebook. We had to laugh," Holds The Enemy said.
For a week since then, she has put in 15-hour days, serving three home-cooked meals a day to 300 or more people who have either helped in the relief effort or been flood victims. Through the week, friends and relatives joined the effort.
Her nephew, Joseph Vallie, who has a culinary arts degree, volunteered as a cook. Her son Ely, who is also a cook, and Waylon Bighead, a waiter, both took days off from work to help out. While community members brought pots of soup, food came by the caseload from various agencies and fast-food restaurants
On Monday, they had just finished cleaning up after dinner when a bus dropped off 18 people, soaked from the waist down by floodwaters. Rescue workers had used boats to reach them.
One night, Holds The Enemy and volunteers served 640 pieces of chicken. When the chicken ran out, Holds The Enemy switched to serving nachos.
Normally, Holds The Enemy and one part-time helper handle about 150 customers a day at the Internet café.
During another meal, Holds The Enemy made goulash using hamburger supplied by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, noodles donated by a woman who works for the college and store-bought sauce. Another night, they made a traditional meal of stew, fry bread and Indian pudding.
She is an experienced cook and a restaurant manager, but, for 14 years, she worked as a computer technician at the college. A year ago, she took over management of the school's café.
Holds The Enemy has great organizational skills in a crisis, said her sister, Theresa Sends Part Home.
"She's like the Energizer bunny," Sends Part Home said. "She doesn't buckle. She doesn't freak out. She just says, 'Do this, and do that.' She tells us what to do, and we do it."
Sends Part Home has put in long volunteer shifts at the café along with her oldest sister, Latonna Old Elk.
Holds The Enemy takes after their mother, Verlie Half, who was a tireless worker, Sends Part Home said.
Feeding so many people at the café would be challenging even without the boil water recommendation in place at Crow Agency earlier in the week.
A stew made on Wednesday night took about 20 gallons of water. For Thursday morning's coffee, they relied on a 12-cup coffeemaker to fill a large dispenser because the commercial coffee machine is hooked to the water line.
Holds The Enemy's husband, Ernest, who does road maintenance work, has also put in long hours since the flood. He teased her about being famous after hearing a workman on his radio scanner advise co-workers to "Get to Jane's. She's serving chicken."
Wednesday, when the roads around Crow Agency opened, the lines at the café slowed considerably.
For Thursday's breakfast, the café dished out eggs, three cases of bacon, three cases of hash browns and four cases of bread. Workers wearing the bright orange of road crews, tromped through the line in muck boots, adding their names to sign-in sheets in lieu of payment.
"During breakfast, we start cooking lunch, and, during lunch, we start cooking dinner," Holds The Enemy said.
The mud on people's boots has made cleanup a constant chore.
At lunch Thursday, Clyde Red Woman picked up a to-go box. Red Woman, who normally works for the Abandoned Mine Land reclamation program, was diverted to filling sandbags.
"We've been making them, and pretty much taking them everywhere," Red Woman said.
Ron Gramling, a maintenance worker at the college, sat down for lunch. Gramling lives between the Bighorn River and Rotten Grass Creek at St. Xavier, but he had been unable to get home for five days because the lane leading to his house was torn up by the flood.
On Friday, the free meals were restricted to workers and volunteers. Holds The Enemy expects to keep making meals for them until at least June 8.
Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_9a71cff3-f61d-59c8-b64f-9b247963d69b.html#ixzz1d9qOF3Mh