Out of more than 1,500 nominations in the seventh annual YTV Achievement Awards, two boys from Peerless Lake took the national prize for bravery. In February, 1995, now-nine-year-old Earl Okemow and also-now-nine Stanley Houle were playing street hockey when the flames from Earl's family home stopped their game short. They rushed to the house but were prevented from entering due to the extreme heat. Both boys saw Earl's five-year-old brother Bradley and 11-month-old sister Serena standing on the coffee table with the fire on its way to enveloping them. Quick thinking propelled the boys to cover their jackets with snow, enter the house and carry Bradley and Serena to safety. The two spent a week in Toronto, leading up to the awards ceremony on April 28, which was televised live on YTV. Earl and Stanley were also honored by the community of Peerless Lake with certificates of bravery and were nominated for the Canadian Medal of Bravery by Red Earth RCMP. On their trip to east, they were also invited to have lunch with Governor General Roméo LeBlanc.
Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Ron Irwin and federal Natural Resources Minister Anne McLellan announced a new program last month to promote the active involvement of First Nations in forestry called the Indian Forestry Program. The objectives of the program are to create jobs, to encourage financially viable forestry operations and to enhance First Nations forest management skills. The development of technical forestry and business skills through on-site work opportunities and other mechanisms will be used to achieve these goals. The program, which will be jointly funded by DIAND and the federal Department of Natural Resources, will cost $5.9 million in the first year. A government announcement said that, "at the end of five years, First Nations that attach priority to forests should be in a position to carry on their forest activities."
Syncrude Canada Ltd. is doing its part to ensure the safety and well being of the surrounding Aboriginal communities. The huge company donated a surplus light rescue truck to the Fort McKay Fire Department on March 20, with John Binns of Syncrude's emergency response division handing the keys over to Fort McKay's fire chief Stan Laurent at the Syncrude fire hall. Members of the Fort McKay Fire Department already have a close relationship with Syncrude, as they did their emergency medical responder training at the company's fire training school alongside Syncrude's crack emergency response teams. The donation will pay dividends to Syncrude, as well, as it will be available to them when responding to off-site mutual aid emergencies. As soon as the truck is stocked up in Fort McKay, it will be ready to go, carrying Scott air packs, the jaws of life, lighting, clothing, a small generator and general safety tools.
The Buffalo Nations Cultural Society of Banff announced the line-up for its annual Tribal Days, to be held at the Rafter Six Ranch Resort, 75 km west of Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway, on Aug. 24 and 25. Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Jackson headline a list of performers who will take to the Windspeaker Sound Stage over the two days. Also appearing will be the Calgarian Native Dance Troupe, Red Thunder and Laura Vinson and Free Spirit. There will also be a parade, an artists' marketplace presented by the Alberta Treasury Branches and an interpretive tipi village presented by Canadian Pacific, which will promote historical and cultural organizations including Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, the Oldman River Cultural Centre and the Luxton Museum of the Plains Indian. Also on at Tribal Days 1996 will be trail rides, sun dance site tours, heli-tours, horseback riding and white-water rafting.
TANSI! How are ya all, anyhow?
Me? I'm just fine, except what the hey ever became of that great weather
we were having, you know - the 16 to 18 above stuff?
As we speak, Native friendship centres all over Alberta are gearing up for
summer programs, much of it aimed at our precious youth.
To the sunny south, Lethbridge Sik-Ooh-Kotoki Friendship Society has not
been idle. The executive director (permanent since Feb.), Mary Ann Crow-Healey,
is raving about a super summer designed to help youth programs that'll stir
up them little critters and saddle them with some skills and experiences
that can do nothing but good. They aim to get the staple sports of ball,
soccer and track for the summer, and summer camps that will be operated
by Tobias Provost, a second year University student who used to do youth
programs at Peigan. Sounds good to me!
Crow-Healey also informs us they're sitting on pins and needles to hear
from the National Association of Friendship Centres on their request for
summer staff. Apparently, there are supposed to be enough to give all centres
two each, although Lethbridge hopes to get three. Hey, it can't hurt to
try.
By the way, the centre's hosting a May 31 to June 2 open slow-pitch tourney,
and a three-on-three basketball tourney June 8 for Grades 7 to 12.
And, how about that Red Deer centre! Their director, Bridgette Fagan, says
they're going through a growth pattern like never before. Not only have
they boosted membership to about 400, they have a raft of wonderful events
ahead.
They are justly proud of their family care unit in that city. They have
a social worker with a 60 client maximum, which is great! The structure
is an older reconditioned, two-storey house with a fully built-in basement.
It's a drop-in centre with a soup kitchen and all that functions 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The centre is getting a pre-natal dietitian
towards the end of this month, as well as a nurse in the near future who'll
even do home visits. Employment usually takes a back seat at centres, but
that's not the case in Red Deer. Fagan states they have a staff member to
assist clients job searching, résumé writing, help in finding
money, etc.
Then, there's the youth programs with gym and movie night, times when Elders
share with kids, and an approaching healing workshop June 14 to 16 that
is being geared primarily for their clients, but also allowing for social
workers and care givers.
Speaking of youth, the centre has also acquired volunteer youth peer counselors.
Way to go guys and gals!
Movin' on to Bonnyville, they have just hired on Vern John as the activity
coordinator, taking over where August Collins left off. Dorothy Scanie is
the director there and the centre is mounting a Texas Scramble golf tournament
on May 25 which is limited to 72 entries, with both "A" and "B"
sides.
Say, don't forget Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton May 21 to 24,
and the entertainment portion May 25 to 26. Call 439-3456.
Back south to the University of Calgary, the Native Student Club is begging
past graduates to contact them so they can include you in their invitations
to next year's huge 25th anniversary bash!
Skirting Calgary, Tsuu T'ina First Nation is constructing a 27-hole golf
green. The reserve's Bullhead Hall burned down last month, and plans for
a new one are not a new topic.
Moving north, the Woodland Cree at Cadotte Lake are negotiating to get gas
service, at least to their main buildings. They have two slow-pitch teams
joining the Peace River league soon. And, they are now working on improving
Secondary Road 986 through the reserve so it'll be gravel. There's 16 km
of 100 already done.
STAND OFF - Traci Lynn Creighton, a 21-year-old member of the Blood Tribe
and a first-year member of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association,
hit the pay window for the first time on the pro circuit as she took second-place
money of $1,062.00 with a smooth run of 14.04 seconds at Medicine Hat early
in March. And what better place to do it than Medicine Hat, where she is
a first-year pre-veterinary student at the Medicine Hat College.
Coming from a traditional rodeo family - her dad Eugene still competes in
the timed events as well as brother Slim - she and sister Lisa compete in
the barrel racing while their mom Dolly is their number one fan.
While competing on the Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit, Slim, Lisa
and Traci all have their pro cards hoping to make it to the Canadian Finals
Rodeo come November.
Traci came up through the ranks of the Blood Reserve Rodeo Club, which runs
an annual winter series.
"My family grew up in rodeo," said Traci. Like most people in
Stand Off, we ranched and we were around horses and cattle all the time.
When we were young, there were Blood Reserve and IRCA rodeos, and everybody
went.
"I really love rodeo," she continued. "Probably by the time
I was seven or eight, watching my mother and dad compete, I really had my
heart set on rodeoing."
Graduating from the reserve rodeo club, Traci advanced to the Alberta High
School Rodeo Association, competing in the pole bending, goat tying, team
roping and barrel racing.
From there, it was to the pro Indian circuits, mainly the IRCA, where she
won her first trophy saddle in the senior barrels in 1995 and made it to
the Indian National Finals in Rapid City, S.D. She won another barrel-racing
saddle at the Cecil Nepoose Memorial Rodeo in Hobbema in December of 1995.
Traci and her horse C.C., a 12-year-old bay, have been together for three
years now.
"In order to be competitive, you have to really get to know each other
and really be in sync," she said. "We are really getting it together
now and she is really running well."
With her studies at Medicine Hat over for her first semester, she will have
more time to hit the rodeo trail in the CPRA and pro Indian circuits.
"I would just love to make it to Calgary for the $50,000 jackpot,"
she said. This year, for the first time, the barrel racing will have the
added jackpot bonus along with the other major events.
"I'm also aiming for the CFR in Edmonton come November," she said.
"I'm currently in about 10th hole and, with a whole summer of rodeos
to come, I'm confident I'll make the top 10."
The family travels together to rodeos along with Robert Bruised Head, who
also has his pro card in the CPRA and competes in the timed events.
Traci, Lisa, Slim and Robert all made it to the INFR at Rapid City last
year, and they hope to be heading there again in October.
"I want to thank my family for all the support they've given me,"
Traci added. "Slim and Lisa have kept my horse in great shape while
I was going to college and that's what rodeo is all about - supporting and
helping each other."
She was a beautiful Indian woman with high cheekbones, a firm, shapely
body and shoulder-length jet black hair. She was also a movie actress, my
roommate's best friend and had recently appeared in a big production in
the states. We drank herbal tea in the dining room one evening and talked
of matters spiritual. Culture, mostly.
Yet, despite her starlet-like beauty and eloquence in speech, somehow I
just couldn't agree with her when it came to certain subjects. Like race.
The conversation had come to a point where she said that, in order to help
preserve Native culture, she was going to encourage her teenage son to marry
another First Nations woman when he grew older. Never mind who he happened
to fall in love with, I guess. Her opinion was that, if she allowed her
son to marry someone possessing other than Indian lineage, his children's
culture and sense of identity would be forfeited. She also said that other
First Nations people should try to do the same. This would save the Indian
race from waning out in face of global intermarrying and mixing.
That really got me thinking. She had a point.
Marry outside your own culture, for instance, and changes are bound to occur
in the short or long run. Up against English or any other worldwide language,
a Native tongue would most likely be first to go. So would many songs, traditional
ceremonies and teachings, and so on. Kids would grow up in a sort of globally
"generic" environment where values, morals and ideas would stem
from the electronic tube and internet instead of via pipe smoke and dreams.
Young lives spent wandering the urban jungle rather than the tranquillities
of the country or "out bush."
In short, this beauty's rather radical but sensible opinions hit hard, and
to the core.
But . . .
For some reason, images of bubbles kept popping into my mind.
In all my time spent on the water, canoeing or fishing, I'd seen many bubbles.
Usually, where there was a disturbance of some sort - like rapids or a set
of waterfalls. I saw big bubbles and small bubbles.
So, in the still bitterly remembered instance of first contact with the
Europeans upon this glorious continent, I suppose our people had to adjust
to the wake of disturbance created in our lives and create many "bubbles"
of reality and perception in order to survive as Indigenous nations. These
bubbles, unfortunately, still exist today.
Many Native youths, here and abroad, who show heritage more from the inside
than on the outside or through language are sometimes cut deep when they
visit and socialize with those they consider to be their own people. They
often hear remarks such as "wannabes," "apples" or "coconuts"
(this last one's a commonly heard term in Aboriginal Australia and New Zealand)
being applied to them - either behind their backs or right up front. I can
personally attest to several instances when I've overheard such dramas unfold
and then, not long after, seen the victims alone in a corner somewhere with
tear-stained eyes and choked-up voices. Half-caste in their culture, and
feeling half cast out from it.
The pain of being "different" is present in all circles my friends.
It is present.
And so, here we stand in 1996. Indigenous People mere footsteps away from
entering what western culture considers a brand new millennium. Bloodlines
are mixed to the point where it becomes questionable as to who really is
100 per cent, full-blooded "anything" any more. Languages in several
temperate regions are taught in schools and universities rather than in
the home. Television and the internet compete for time with the Elders.
Graffiti stains our buildings. Beer cans litter the streets of many of our
"dry" remote communities and pristine natural environments dwell
more in the mind than reality.
Looks like a mess, doesn't it? Yes, perhaps it does at first. We're in our
"rapids" right now, and everything seems unstable and chaotic.
There are calmer waters to come, though. We just have to face our "bubbles"
and learn how to shed them in order to grow.
Certainly, the bubbles we face are many. They include ideas about race,
religion, science, language and culture, love and sexuality, and so on.
And know that soon, these bubbles will be poked and popped.
Our choice in the matter should be directed towards whether they are going
to be popped by ourselves through our own spiritual awakening, or by outside
events. For example, what constitutes an Indigenous person? Is it purely
language? Knowledge of culture? Skin color? How can one worship the Creator?
How important is money and could society replace it with something spiritual
instead of impersonal "smart cards?" What is an "acceptable"
marriage arrangement? What about sexual preference? How should education
be taught, and where? These are all questions that we face and must answer
- individually.
And so, my mind wanders back to that night in Edmonton and the beautiful
young woman across the dining room table. I listened to her words with an
open mind and spirit, but their effect was somehow lost. Another image popped
into my mind as we spoke, and it was of a certain man in Germany who'd led
nearly an entire country into believing that a master race could be created
by repressing the beautiful gift of inter-cultural sharing and marrying.
The true master race of humanity is made of unity - and inter-connection.
Whether it's through mass genocide or mere parental urgings, segregation
of races has but one effect.
Spiritual and evolutionary stagnation.
A final thought-provoking statement: If being an Indigenous person depends
on blood lines or government paper, we're already well on our way to becoming
extinct.
FORT MACLEOD - For more than 5,700 years, uncounted Aboriginal people
came to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump to hunt bison. But since 1981, when
the site was opened as a provincial government interpretive centre, more
than a million visitors have come, hunting information about the area's
earliest residents.
Head-Smashed-In is one of many buffalo jump sites in North America, but
is one of the largest, longest-used and best-preserved of those we know
about. Located on steep cliffs along the eastern edge of the Porcupine Mountains
near Fort Macleod, it provided an ideal hunting ground for early Native
people. Here, instead of killing individual animals, small herds of buffalo
were stampeded to their death, providing food and materials that helped
the Plains Indians to survive.
The jump honors the tribes, mostly Blackfoot, who used the site. Though
concerned mostly with the history of the jump itself and the early Plains
people who used it, the interpretive centre also gives information on Native
life today.
Staffed mostly by members of the Peigan and Blood First Nations, Head-Smashed-In
is one of the most heavily visited of Alberta's interpretive centres. In
addition to its regular displays, a number of special events are held throughout
the year to attract new and repeat visitors.
Probably the highlight of the special programs is the annual Buffalo Days
Powwow, scheduled this year for July 19 to 21. About 300 competitors will
be there to display their dancing and drumming abilities, and to win some
of the over $20,000 in prize money. Visitors are welcomed to the dances
and to visit the tipi village, set up below the centre itself.
According to centre director Ken Carson, casual visitors will also be able
to spend a night in a tipi this summer. As a new venture, Head-Smashed-In
will be offering sleeping space in a tipi.
"We've had a lot of inquiries from the public, so we're trying it out
this summer," he said. "We're also going to have more extended
programs for small groups, using the tipis as sleeping quarters."
Carson says they'll be offering guided tours into the drive lanes, with
hikes, evening interpretive programs and meals included. The programs will
be guided by local Native people and will attempt to recreate an authentic
experience for the visitors.
Though professional Native guides are usually available to help visitors
interpret Head-Smashed-In, this year the centre will also offer a new interpretive
service using FM radio transmitters. A 35-minute narrative, written by the
centre's education coordinator Shirley Scott-Bruised Head, will be available
for rental.
Scott-Bruised Head, who is also a well-known poet and short-story writer,
has been busy over the winter, organizing special events at the centre.
Last month, a traveling show on medicinal plants, sponsored by the Science
Alberta Foundation, was exhibited at Head-Smashed-In. Called "Jungle
Fever," the exhibit explained how Indigenous peoples used local plants
to prevent and cure illness, and how modern medicines continue to use many
of these same plants today.
"The foundation consulted with Walter Crowshoe and myself when they
were working on the Plains Indian component of the show," Scott-Bruised
Head said. "Walter, one of our interpreters, even made a pouch for
them, for the kinnickinnick."
Scott-Bruised Head said she hopes to organize a natural medicine workshop
in the fall, emphasizing healing plants used by the Blackfoot.
The centre will definitely be organizing its regular drumming and dancing
demonstrations starting Aug. 7 and running every Wednesday afternoon till
Sept. 4. On Sept. 7 and 8, the annual stones and bones event will be held,
where visitors can bring their arrowheads, old buffalo bones and other artifacts,
and have them identified by expert archeologists. Special displays and guest
speakers are part of the event.
On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, the centre's arts and crafts show and sale takes
place, offering hand-made gift items, along with demonstrations, drumming
and dancing.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is open year-round. Admission is charge, although
Native people are admitted free.
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