Peerless buries its dead

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PEERLESS LAKE - On the hill above the burial site for the five youths who died after drinking methyl hydrate in this northern community are a row of "spirit houses" - low wooden structures which are meant to house the spirits of the dead for a time.

Some of the spirit houses are older and reflect generations of tradition, while others are painted light violet and covered with plastic flowers and crosses.

The spirit houses also reflect the community in a number of ways; they are a carryover - beautiful and quiet reminders of the traditional northern Indian culture which has been assimilated into the westerly religion of this predominantly Roman Catholic hamlet.

Peerless Lake has buried its dead; now while the community mourns, its leaders are trying to find out why the deaths occurred and how they can be turned into progressive changes of a "forgotten people."

"If we don't then these six people will have died for nothing," says community association board member and Alberta Manpower employee John Piche, "and I'd hate to think that would be true."

An immediate response has been to deal with the confused and worried emotions of the children in Peerless Lake School, some of whom were friends of the dead.

"Definitely, they've had discussions with their classes regarding this incident," says Piche. "The kids right now are feeling very down and they're feeling confused about everything that's happened. I think its a matter of right now the kids are really talking about it; talking about the dangers, which is really encouraging. Once they can talk about it, maybe they can understand.

"I think now that all of Canada - all of Alberta, anyway - is aware that this thing happened to us. The media has certainly helped with that. The thing is now we've got to take it from here. We've got to prevent more deaths from happening. We've got to start doing things in this community that'll prevent so much spare time on people's hands." Spare times seems to be a major problem, in Piche's eyes. The community, he says, is not a drinking community; this is not the major difficulty.

"The majority of people here are very religious," says Piche. "They have very deep religious backgrounds. The only people who have this problem are the disenchanted young who don't have any jobs and don't have any social or recreational programs. It's very evident. The age group among the deceased were all the disenchanted young people."

Unfortunately, not much has been happening in Peerless Lake to keep the young people active. Traditional work like hunting and trapping is out. Wildlife in the rolling, wooded parkland surrounding the community once generated $27,000 annually for a local trapper. Now that same trapper can't even make enough to cover his expenses, says Piche.

The reason for this change is the oil companies, agree Piche and community spokesperson David Starr. When they move through the bush, they cut great swaths to form roads, even if several roads already exist, say the two, and this activity scares off the quiet timid animals in the area.

Despite the great number of trout in the surrounding lakes, attempts to set up a fishing lodge have failed so far because of a lack of funding.

And training in the traditional ways of sundances, sweat lodges and powwows is unavailable. Students in Peerless Lake expressed great interest in their heritage during a recent "culture day" at the school. But the Elders in the community are very strongly Christian, and few remember the old ways of living.

What other options exist? Schooling is often a way out of isolated communities. Yet the new school here only goes up to Grade 9. Students may remain in school for that long, but most are reluctant to leave Peerless Lake to attend high school in Slave Lake, some 250 kilometres distant. Those who do attend are boarded with residents who often don't seem to care for the young Native children, says Starr.

"In the towns (like Slave Lake or High Prairie) thee are couples that are willing to take Native students to live with them," Starr explained. "They're given the room and board for the student. The students gets a small allowance."

"It's just a racket. As long as they get their money, then they don't look after the young ones. They (the students) feed themselves; there's no meals. As long as that cheque comes in. Most (students just stay for a few weeks. They never try again." Those who don't try the boarding route often wait for a year and then take trades training at the local Community Vocational Centre in Peerless Lake. Unfortunately, this doesn't lead very far. Native students, says Starr, are very mechanically inclined. "What would benefit this place is to have a trade school here rather than a CVC school."

The employment ratio is not good either. Piche estimate 90 to 95% of the young people are unemployed. In the summer, some of them are hired to work in the firefighting program. Others are hired on a temporary basis under PEP or STEP, programs which Piche and Starr agree don't go very far.

The oil companies appear to be hesitant to hire Natives for work other than slashing or cutting trails through the bush. "It's very unskilled labor; cutting lines, slashing. That's about the only oil-related job opportunity that has been made available," Piche says.

The complaints that some companies have made about Natives being unreliable workers are simply not true, say Piche and Starr.

"I know a lot of Native contractors who are very strict with their people and have very good work records," says Piche. "Of course, the people who get disgruntled are the Native people who work for white companies and get a hard time from those people. They get disgruntled and quit. Maybe that's giving us a bad name."

The picture that emerges of Peerless Lake is one in which little of the government assistance expected by Treaty Indians is found; in which unemployment is high; no recreation or sports programs exist; hunting and fihing are no longer worthwhile; and few developmental opportunities are available. Yet, as in many other isolated communities, people stay. What do they do so?

There is a feeling of security in Peerless Lake; people know the countryside and the people of the community. As well, after staying in the community for so long, the people become more and more afraid of having to start up again in a larger community full of unknowns. Parents often don't want to leave, and if they won't, it's hard for the teenagers and young people to break free as well, says Starr.

So, people will stay, and for them there must be life after tragedy. They must find some way to survive and to grow.

"I don't know where we were before. The thing is, where do we have to go from here," Piche says. "I don't think we were anywhere. I think that just within the past month the community association has really picked itself up and started planning for getting things going. While this was happening, the tragedy occurred, so it's sort of a setback. But in no way does it mean that everybody's going to die out here because of tragedy. It's going to make us try that much harder."

Piche and Starr talk in terms of solutions coming form within the community. Yet they want the original financial and employment resources to come from the outside.

Starr feels that the oil companies can help by hiring people in the area they're working. "There should be an agreement that the local people should have been approached before they started drilling. People should be sent into the communities to recruit crews, which has never been done," he says.

"That would ease it. I'm not saying that's a solution. It's something to get them going."

Piche wants to see less short-term jobs and job creation programs. Instead, he proposes a more long-term approach.

"If we could have a five-year program or something we could develop over the next five years, I think a lot more would respond," he says.

As well, he would like to se that youths working on houses and other buildings in the community could have that work recognized towards a journeyman's ticket. As it stands, young men are getting discouraged and dropping out of the work, rather than taking the risk of going to a community where their work will be recognized. Again, the closeness with Peerless Lake is a factor.

A third area of development is within the schools. Piche has been working to get AADAC and Nechi to have workshops in Peerless Lake. Unfortunately, up to now many workshops have been called off at the last minute due to accidents. Nechi had been scheduled to have a trainer speak in the community just before the recent tragedy when a man died in nearby Trout Lake. He died of an alcohol problem.

"With these people, these resources, we should be able to get someplace," says Piche. "We should be able to establish where we want to go; what kind of services we want."