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Published
September 18, 2000
Aboriginal classic car club holds first show
Duane Fisher proudly poses with his 1963 Ford Fairlane
500 at Show and Shine 2000 Family Fun Day, the first event where
the Aboriginal Classic Car Association joined forces with other
classic car enthusiasts for a day of activities at Regina's Landmark
Inn.
Photo Credit: Linda Ungar
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Photo Credit: Linda Ungar |
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Band angry, disappointed with ICC decision
by Trina GobértSIFC student lands CBC-TV job in Halifax
by Stephen LaRoseFirst Nations museum has high ambitions
by Stephen LaRoseSaskatchewan veterans air national concerns on provincial tour
by Pamela SexsmithCorruption hurts us all in many ways
by Ryan Atimoyoo
Sage Youth WriterScience funding increased
by Trina GobértHere is a full list of additional stories featured in the September, 2000 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Saskatchewan Sage, then you have missed all this information.
Band
angry, disappointed with ICC decision
By Trina Gobért
Sage Writer
CARRY THE KETTLE FIRST NATION
The Indian Claims Commission (ICC) is now partially responsible
for the heartbreak of the Elders of Carry The Kettle First Nation.
Since 1997, the First Nation has been working closely with the
ICC, researching the bands claim that the Cypress Hills area
was the selected land that the First Nation and the Crown agreed
upon in the signing of Treaty 4 in 1877.
"Within the community, our Elders, they are the ones who
are heartbroken," said Carry The Kettle First Nation Chief
Kurt Adams. "That is the way they feel because as far as
we're concerned we are trying to get justice done here. We're
reaching out for justice but nothing was done."
When the Assiniboine people agreed to sign the treaty, they were
given the chance to select the land on which to reside. They
selected their traditional land of the Cypress Hills. The Crown
was in agreement with the selection and a "meeting of the
minds" between the two parties was, in the Assinboine people's
viewpoint, established.
"The land was surveyed as the agreed selection. A farm instructor
was sent to teach the Assiniboine people agriculture, and they
were given treaty payment as residing in that selected area,"
said Elsie Koochicum, treaty land settlement/specific claims
co-ordinator of the First Nation.
In 1880, the government forcibly relocated the Assiniboine by
cutting their food rations. They feared the people would join
the Louis Riel rebellion that was going on nearby at the time.
"Big Bear and Sitting Bull were in the area as well. There
were around 6,000 Indian people," said Koochicum. "So
the government figured that there would be a major rebellion
starting up and I believe they had only 55 mounted police in
the area."
Although the Assiniboine made efforts between 1881 and 1882 to
return to their traditional homeland where they faced starvation,
they eventually had no choice but to relocate to the area in
which the First Nation is located today.
"The big question mark is that this reserve that we are
situated on was not what we requested," said Koochicum.
"This reserve, Carry The Kettle, that we are on today was
surveyed by the federal government and they physically put us
here. This reserve never had a meeting of the minds, the only
meeting of the minds that Carry The Kettle ancestors had was
in the Cypress Hills."
The ICC concluded their inquiry by stating that the band does
not have a reserve in the Cypress Hills and that under Canadian
law a reserve is not a reserve unless both the First Nation and
the government recognize it as such.
"That is the thing we can't understand because as far as
the stories passed down by our Elders, there was a meeting of
the minds right throughout the whole process," said Adams.
"When we signed adhesion to Treaty 4 it said in there that
as a band you could pick what you wanted as a reserve and we
had selected the Cypress Hills area so there was a meeting of
the minds there."
The ICC visited the community throughout their inquiry but at
the end of the investigation did not respect the Elders who invested
so much into the process, said Koochikum.
"We asked them to hold off on their report and not to send
it, but to come and explain their decision to the community in
person," said Koochikum. "It becomes frustrating because
our Elders partook in the inquiry for the last three years and
for them at the end just to walk away and not even see them,
I don't think that is very respectful."
The band has approached the grand chief of the Assembly of First
Nations, Matthew Coon Come, in the hopes that he will take their
case to the international forum of the United Nations.
"One of the things when we put out our response (to the
ICC) is we said that we won't quit by direction of our Elders,"
said Adams. "We won't stop here. We will continue to lobby
the federal and provincial governments in regards to the claims
commission."
The ICC was unavailable for comment in regard to its report.
SIFC student lands CBC-TV job in Halifax
By Stephen LaRose
Sage Writer
OKANESE FIRST NATION
If this keeps up, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
newest television personality could have an identity crisis.
As the tape of the previous day's CBC Saskatchewan newscast played
on the screen Sept. 8, about 30 people in the Okanese First Nation
band hall erupted with laughter as the on-air host introduced
the new on-air personality of the TV show "Street Cents"
as "Connie Watson." Nobody on Okanese knows her as
Connie Watson. They know her better as Connie Walker, a 21-year-old
Saskatchewan Indian Federated College student and, starting Oct.
15 at 5:30 p.m., one of the highest profile First Nations journalists
on national television.
That Friday's surprise party marked one of Walker's last days
on the reserve before leaving for Halifax, N.S., and a job as
an on-air personality and reporter on the consumer affairs show
designed for teens.
Walker, a student at the SIFC's Indian Communications (INCA)
program, will spend the next 19 weeks in front of the camera
filming Street Cents.
It may not have been the favorite show for Okanese residents
in the decade Street Cents has been broadcast on the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation - but the show's going to be very popular
on the reserve now.
"It wasn't watched by the older people, but my brothers
and sisters and little cousins have seen it. They know what the
show is about," she said. "But everyone knows what
the show is about now, and I'm sure that everyone will be watching."
Walker says she's nervous, but she's also ready, for the job
at hand.
"I'm really excited about the job. It's a great opportunity,"
Walker said. "But I'm also a little nervous about being
away from home for so long. I'm very close to my family and I
know I'm going to miss them a lot."
But she will be taking a part of Okanese with her to Halifax.
At Friday's surprise party, Walker was showered with best wishes
from friends, family and band council members. She was also presented
with a star blanket quilt.
With the appointment, the 21-year-old Balcarres High grad has
made a lot of "cents" in her choice of education and
her career. That was noted by her cousin, Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde, in his letter of
congratulations to Walker.
She was hired for the job while interning this summer at CBC
Halifax. Walker was one of eight young journalists from across
Canada to receive the Joan Davidson Newsworld Scholarship earlier
this year.
Over the summer, Walker got a crash course in the fast-paced
world of television news - researching, chase production, script
handling, and working in a television control room. All eight
winners - one each from Canada's eight university level journalism
programs - were determined on their merits of their resumes,
academic records, an essay and an interview.
While doing her internship at CBC Halifax, Walker was encouraged
to work with Street Cents crews to create a promotional tape
and apply for the position. The next day after she submitted
her tape and her application, she was offered the position.
Filming of a new season of Street Cents began in Halifax on Monday.
The first new Street Cents episodes, where Walker will be one
of three on-camera hosts, will air Oct. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Walker says she hopes to return to her university classes in
Regina next year.
Despite the hoopla, the CBC made a few un-journalistic mistakes
when introducing Saskatchewan's newest television celebrity.
In addition to the "Watson" blooper, a headline announcing
her appointment on CBC Saskatchewan's Internet website mistakenly
claimed she was from Saskatoon.
First Nations museum has high ambitions
By Stephen LaRose
Sage Writer
FORT QU'APPELLE
When Lorne Carrier used to work the front desk at the Wanuskewin
Centre in Saskatoon a few years ago, people would come in and
ask him why he wasn't wearing his headdress.
Even at an archeological and historical site maintained by First
Nations people, the Piapot First Nation man says some people
still think of the Hollywood stereotype when they think of Indian
people.
Carrier now has the opportunity to change that public assumption.
He's the curator of the Treaty 4 Keeping House, which will eventually
house artifacts, goods and documents of many of the 35 First
Nations which signed or agreed to adhere to Treaty 4, and it
will be part of the Treaty 4 Governance Centre.
"We are now getting our own museums, such as the Treaty
4 Keeping House. We get to tell our story from our perspective,"
he said. "We get to interpret the things that are put on
display and in the future, there will be more input and involvement
from First Nations people. We'll help mold a new image of First
Nations' people in this country."
As well as the Treaty 4 Keeping House, Carrier has been a member
of the Museums Association of Saskatchewan's First Peoples committee
for the past three years.
"We're looking at the concerns of First Nations' people
within the museum community. We're also coming up with standards
of care for collections of sacred objects . . . we're trying
to identify what's out there."
For dozens of years and in places ranging from Regina to London,
First Nation's material - from headdresses to clothing, from
stone tools to religious goods - have been put on display in
museums. In many cases - such as an expedition to the File Hills
area by archeologists from the London-based British Museum during
the mid 1920s - many of those goods were taken with little or
no effort made by archeologists to consult the communities.
It was because, at the time, archeologists and museum curators
regarded First Nations culture as something in the past, not
as a living culture, said Carrier.
"Ours is a living, changing culture," he said. "In
the past, our cultures were portrayed as something from the past
and not changing. That's a perception that the average citizen
going into a museum would get."
However, those attitudes are now changing, he added.
"In the five or six years I've been involved with the cultural
and heritage community, I see that situation improving a lot,"
he said. "The bigger institutions such as the Royal Saskatchewan
Museum and the Glenbow in Calgary have been a lot of help. And
Alberta's recent repatriation legislation is very good. Even
the smaller museums . . . when I look at the Museums Association
of Saskatchewan newsletter, I see First Nations participation
within that museum - in their programming and identifying objects,
and also on their boards.
"They're getting input on how things are displayed, which
we haven't had in previous years."
A 1988 study by the Canadian Museums Association and the Assembly
of First Nations proved to be a watershed. Titled "Turning
the Page," the report laid the groundwork for better communications
between the two groups when it came to the display and storage
of sacred and important First Nations material in museums, he
said. "That was one of the first papers that drew attention
to the fact that First Nations people weren't involved in the
heritage community," said Carrier, even though many of their
important and sacred objects were on display at those facilities.
The Treaty 4 Keeping House will seek to tell the story of how
the first peoples of southern Saskatchewan lived, worked and
worshipped before, during and after the time of the signing of
Treaty 4 between chiefs and Canadian government officials in
Fort Qu'Appelle on Sept. 15, 1874.
Some of the material will include papers concerning the Treaty
Land Entitlement (TLE) process. In the long term, Carrier hopes
that the Keeping House could contain the original Treaty 4 documents,
"so people can go there and research thing relating to Treaty
4," he said.
In addition, Carrier hopes the facility will also display the
original treaty medals given to chiefs who signed Treaty 4 in
1874, parchments of the treaty given to the chiefs at the time
of the signing,suits of clothes given to chiefs as part of the
treaty honoring system, and flags given to chiefs who signed.
"Some are in the First Nations community. Some are in Europe
and the United States or eastern Canada," he said. "It's
going to take some time to track these things down."
When the Keeping House does open to the public, may of its displays
concerning Treaty 4 will be borrowed from other museums, Carrier
added.
The Treaty 4 Governance Centre is to open during the Treaty 4
commemorations in mid-September. However the Keeping House will
probably not be open to the public at that time.
"We want the process of providing artifacts from our people
to be much more fair than how the artifacts were originally collected
from our people two and three generations ago," said Ron
Crowe, co-chairman of the Treaty 4 Tribal Council. "We want
to get it right, and that will mean we will take our time."