Footprints 2004:
Phone: (780) 455-2700Fax
(780) 455-7639
Email: edwind@ammsa.com
Phone: (780) 455-2700
Fax
(780) 455-7639Email: edwind@ammsa.com
[Footprints] Joe P. Cardinal: He will be missed
Windspeaker Staff
Joseph Patchakes Cardinal, known as "Joe P" to his
relatives and friends, passed away Dec. 12 at the age of 82.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jennie Cardinal, as well
as seven children, a sister Catherine Cardinal, and a large extended
family.
Born to Patchakes and Honoreen
Cardinal at Birch Mountain in northern Alberta on Nov. 19, 1921,
Joe's early life was spent on the trapline along with five sisters
and one brother. When the family wasn't trapping, they farmed.
They never went hungry while Joe's father was alive.
When Joe, the youngest son, was just six years old, his father
passed away.
In 1929, Joe's family moved to Saddle Lake, where he attended
the first Blue Quills Indian Residential School to Grade 6. Joe's
recollection was that he had learned a smattering of English
and mathematics, but he got a lot of experience working on the
residential school's farm.
At 19, Joe joined an armored division of the Canadian Army and
survived Germany, Italy and the beaches of Normandy. Following
the Second World War, Joe met Jennie Caroline, whom he married
in 1947, and with whom he had eight children: Ernie, Theresa,
the late Eugene, Anne, Emile, Elaine, Ricky and Mona.
The couple became foster parents to numerous children and they
adopted several: Ruth Morin, Wilton Goodstriker and Charlie Monckman
of Edmonton; Francis Whiskeyjack of Saddle Lake; Ross Hoffman
of Smithers, B.C.; Earl Henderson of Prince George, B.C.; and
Butch Campbell of Tennessee, U.S.A.
The family in time expanded to include 22 grandchildren (two
predeceased Joe) and 15 great-grandchildren.
With a large family to care for, it was only natural that Joe
also cared passionately about their community. In the 1950s and
1960s, he took on leadership roles in Saddle Lake culminating
in his becoming chief for two consecutive terms.
Joe's devotion to community service continued throughout his
life and he contributed to many organizations, such as Native
Counselling Services of Alberta (27 years) and the Aboriginal
Multi-Media Society (AMMSA), publisher of Windspeaker (15 years).
For many years and until his death he also had an active role
on the Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference's board.
It is only five years since Joe and four other Elders guided
the formation of Amiskwaciy Academy in Edmonton in order to bring
a culturally based curriculum to Aboriginal high school students.
In the eulogy that Nechi Training, Research & Health Promotions
Institute's CEO Ruth Morin prepared with the help of the Cardinal
family, she wrote, "Joe gave the school its name, as well
as provided direction for the education of the young. Today the
school has been recognized nationally and internationally by
receiving many visitors ... Joe believed and advocated the importance
of education for the young."
Ruth Suvee, chair of the mental health diploma program at Grant
MacEwan College in Edmonton, said she has known Joe and his family
since the 1970s and she praised Joe's commitment to children,
education, social and correctional services and other endeavors.
She made special mention of his cross-cultural work, noting that
although some Elders are opposed to teaching Indigenous culture
in an institution, Joe saw the need to meet people where he found
them and to pass the teachings along.
She said he recognized that many Elders have departed without
their knowledge being shared, and he was aware of the large urban
Indian population that may never get the opportunity to learn
in a traditional setting.
Joe did considerable cross-cultural work for the staff at Grant
MacEwan, she said, and when the mental health program ran a retreat,
he said it was "very important to integrate the cultural
teachings of the 16 Elders at the gathering," so that those
who would work with Aboriginal people would understand them.
"Joe endorsed it. Joe was a very traditional man, but he
was also very involved in church. He believed in sharing traditional
beliefs and practices."
Suvee attributed his generous spirit and lack of prejudice to
the fact that he had traveled extensively and had "a bigger
world view.
"He walked his talk. He touched a lot of people."
He was an Elder Advisor for the K Division of the RCMP, worked
for the Aboriginal Wellness Program, and he helped establish
the Nechi Institute and the Capital Health Region in Edmonton.
Additionally, Joe served as an Elder on the National Parole Board,
where he addressed about 2,800 inmates during his tenure, a responsibility
he accepted with humility and respect, said Suvee.
In all these roles, those who knew him say that he was masterful
at accommodating and blending traditional and contemporary practices
and beliefs.
In the early 1990s, Joe was one of the Elders who went to Davis
Inlet, Labrador to help a troubled community there.
Lynda Ferguson a Métis from northern Alberta who works
in the Aboriginal Education Centre at Grant MacEwan, said that
while she was not a close friend of Joe's, she knew him as an
Elder.
"He was an absolutely amazing man."
Ferguson heard Joe speak at Amiskwaciy Academy many times and
said "His guidance as far as culture and tradition has made
that school what it is.
"Whenever I heard him speak, I found him to be very inspiring,
motivating, and I think he is going to be missed by hundreds
and hundreds of people."
Particularly youth, she said.
"That's one thing Joe P. did, was he was able to captivate
the young people."
The last time Ferguson saw Joe was around the end of October
when he was "very involved at that time with our Dreamcatcher's
conference."
Noel McNaughton, president of AMMSA's board of directors, knew
Joe since 1969.
"He was a friend. He has always been a leader and a man
with humility, which is what a leader needs. He tells the truth
as he sees it, and he doesn't insist that everybody see his point
of view.
"Some of the things that shaped him I think ... there were
some Elders around that helped guide him.
"One of the things that was very important in his life and
I think taught him a lot about what he was-he was in the Second
World War... And Joe discovered through that that these guys
were the same as him, and it had a profound effect on him. I
think that kind of guided him through the years with people of
all races and nationalities.... There was no racism in him. He
related to you by who you were, rather than where you came from
or what your race was.
"One of the other things I heard him say a few times was
'The role of a warrior is to face his own worst enemy, which
is him... The task of the warrior is to overcome the fear of
death and face who you really are and overcome your ego.' Protecting
his community is the other part of the warrior's job, McNaughton
said he learned.
"Really, the warrior's task is to battle himself and to
overcome all his fears and his faults ... and that was something
I think Joe also lived by."
Rosemarie Willier, vice-president of AMMSA's board of directors,
is another who knew Joe P. Cardinal as an extraordinary person.
"I have never, never heard Joe say anything bad about anyone.
Whenever he said something, it was always something good, and
he showed a lot of respect, particularly to women. Joe "was
such a gentleman and we'll definitely miss him.
"The first time I met Joe was at Nechi when he was helping
as an Elder.... One of the things that I noticed about him too
was that he touched so many lives because he was so involved,
and I used to wonder, 'My goodness, where does this man get all
the energy?'"
Willier said she was happy when Joe joined AMMSA's board, because
she recognized how much help he would be.
"He is the type of person that you know immediately he is
an honest person and that the decisions he helped to make would
be something that I would respect.
"He was a no nonsense person," Willier said.
AMMSA board treasurer Chester Cunningham also observed Joe in
numerous roles over the years.
Of his board contribution, Cunningham said, "his presence
kind of stabilizes, gives people a comfort zone" in which
others felt free to express themselves and know their opinions
would be received with respect.
Joe was "a real good pipeline into the community, and an
observant person. And he shared his ideas. He never kept them
to himself," said Cunningham.
They met in the mid-60s when Joe was with Alberta Community Development,
building Aboriginal capacity to run their own organizations and
improve access to employment and training opportunities. "Bringing
them into the new world, I guess," explained Cunningham.
"Because they were holding workshops and trying to develop
some of the organizations into taking over some of the stuff
that belonged to them."
Cunningham remembers that Joe worked on recruitment workshops
at Syncrude in an effort to bring in more Aboriginal employees.
"When I went to set up Native Counselling (Services of Alberta),
I wanted Joe on the board, but Joe was the chief of Saddle Lake"
by then, said Cunningham.
Around 1974 or 1975, Joe did join Native Counselling Services'
board, and when the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) started
requesting Elders to work in institutions, Cunningham said he
recommended Joe for that role.
"Joe was really a good Elder.... He explained culture to
me. That culture wasn't like the light bulb. You didn't turn
it on. You lived it. And he said, 'Culture is your living. You
bring your background, but the first thing you have to recognize
is you're a person first.'... Too many of them try to say that
they're an Aboriginal first and then go to the person, but it's
the other way around."
While serving on the parole board, Joe's participation "helped
change the whole format of the parole hearings. They weren't
as structured. They got into a circle and everybody talked."
That change "really worked out with Native people,"
and Joe's influence led to formation of an all-Native parole
board, Cunningham said.
The CSC offered Joe a job in Ottawa, but not only did he not
want to relocate, he also did not like the idea that the system
aimed to "categorize" Elders and put them under the
auspices of prison chaplains.
Corrections wanted him, in effect, to create job descriptions
for Elders working within the correctional system, who would
then be mired "in a bunch of paperwork," according
to Cunningham.
Joe told them, "No. Our culture is not paperwork."
He also made it clear that Elders would be independent of the
chaplains, Cunningham stated.
Joe "was a good representative" for Aboriginal people
at home and on the international stage, Cunningham recalled.
"He told it as it was, and I never heard him raise his voice.
He was always interested in the family."
Ruth Morin said Joe will be missed. "However, his teachings
of love, camaraderie, commitment, and the vision of helping the
young people are left with us. His work is complete. Our job
is to honor and continue his vision."