Top News - August - 2004 Published August 22, 2004 Perfect Storm wows Folk Fest audience History is just kicking around in the dirt Past wrong at Enoch put right for $52 million This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the August 2004 issue of Alberta Sweetgrass. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sweetgrass, then you have missed out on a lot. Click here for Alberta Sweetgrass subscription information. Perfect Storm wows Folk Fest audience Denise Miller, Sweetgrass Writer, Edmonton Gallagher Hill in Edmonton, traditional Papaschase territory, was the site of the 25th annual Edmonton International Folk Music Festival Aug. 5 to 8, and for the first time in 25 years, a drum group-Perfect Storm from Hobbema-was in the line-up. In Perfect Storm's first appearance outside of Indian Country, the group joined folksinger Farron and Spirit of the West on stage Aug. 8 for a Folk Fest workshop, a chance for artists to jam. Walter Lightning is a senior member of Perfect Storm. He's a doctoral candidate in First Nations Education at the University of Alberta and has been singing and dancing in powwows for as long as he can remember. "When you go to a powwow you are on the edge of a big circle and everyone takes turns singing. We've never been on stage . . . we are all excited about it," he said before the group's performance. Perfect Storm has about a dozen participants, including some who live in the United States. Members of the group weren't sure what kind of reception they would receive. Lightning said they would simply share the spirit and meaning of their music in the hope that it pleased the crowds. "We don't know how it will come off," he said. "We're just going to try to make it as entertaining as possible." Each group took its turn and the evening turned to magic when Farron began the signature rhythm of her 1990 tune "Indian Dream." Back when she wrote the song Farron was aware of her Indian heritage, but had no details. She has recently discovered that her grandmother was Cree. Her excitement was contagious when Perfect Storm picked up the beat with their hand drums. "Oh my God, I'm having a dream come true" she shouted to the crowd. "This is the first time I've got to play with my brothers." Later in the song the singers began to join in and Farron was so overcome with emotion that all she could do was close her eyes and strum her guitar, keeping the beat while the drummers and singers took it and the audience away. Later, in an interview, John Mann from Spirit of the West, said that at that point "It was spectacular...It was so moving...We were all choking up. It was a fabulous moment. That is what festivals should be like all the time. You have those times when people get together and they become more than just individual entities." Each time that Perfect Storm raised their voices above the music, the crowd went wild, screaming and applauding. To end the song all the other musicians pulled back and Perfect Storm rode the wave of the audience's approval to the final beats of the song. When the fans finally settled down after the workshop, Perfect Storm brought out the powwow drum and began to show the crowd what it's all about. Walter Lightning drew on his experience as an educator and informed the audience about different dances and regalia as they were demonstrated by men's traditional dancer, Carl Johnson, women's traditional dancer, Kelsey Lightning, and Koren Lightning who danced fancy shawl. Walter Lightning spotted National Aboriginal Achievement Award winner Dr. Carl Urion, professor emeritus in the University of Alberta's department of anthropology, in the crowd and asked him to clear an opening to get a round dance going. That was such a success that some of the drummers joined the dancers and gave an impromptu smoke dance lesson. In traditional powwow songs, "there are no words, no lyrics, but the song has meaning-not in the sense that lyrics speak to you, but that a song has sound that speaks to your soul and your heart," Lightning told the crowd. The university's Folkways Alive! research program helped arrange Perfect Storm's folk fest performance, sponsoring the stage on which the group performed to overwhelming crowd approval. Top

History is just kicking around in the dirt Carl Carter, Sweetgrass Writer, Fort McLeod Ever wonder if that old bone your dog dug up from your back yard might be a fossil of a prehistoric animal? Well, the staff of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre invites you down to the museum to have arrowhead, fossil or rock dated and analyzed at their prehistoric version of Antiques Roadshow. Archaeologists and other specialists will be on hand at the museum on Sept. 4 for Stones and Bones. They will be taking a look at any artifact brought in to them to attempt to determine its identity and the time period from whence it came. "Visitors and everyone is invited to bring their artifacts on this day to have them identified and sometimes possibly dated. Some people have collections of arrowheads and stone tools and things like that and the archaeologists are there to answer questions and help you identify your artifact," said Travis Plaitedhair, special events co-ordinator. "It's an information session where they can identify what it is you have and what origin it is. We'll also have individuals who are familiar with the Native culture in this area." Doctor Bob Dawe is an assistant archaeologist with the Provincial Museum of Alberta. Dawe said the event is a win-win situation: people get a chance to find out exactly what they have and archaeologists get the chance to see what kind of artifacts people are finding. "There's been people living in Alberta for at least 11,000 years. There's a very rich history that has been left behind in the form of artifacts and material culture," said Dawe. "A lot of people find things in farmers' fields, for example, or eroding on a river bank. There are a lot of significant artifacts out there and people don't understand the significance of them. Some of the most significant artifacts in the province we know of have come out at events such as Stones and Bones." Dawe said that some people are afraid to bring their artifacts to events such as this out of fear that the government will take the artifacts away. But Dawe said that if that happened, even once, people would never bring them anything again. He just hopes people will have a fun time at the event, just like he does. "What we like to do is help educate the public and make them appreciate the value of the historic resources in the province and care for them perhaps better than they may have otherwise." Dawe said that people in the area must have a lot of artifacts that they don't even know they have just because of the rich history of the area that Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is in. Over the course of Dawe's involvement with Stones and Bones, many people have brought him some interesting things from the area. "A lady brought us a mammoth bone that was found in the Old Man River right near Fort Macleod. A lady brought in a spearhead that her father had found up near Grand Prairie that turned out to be in the order of 10,500 years old and was one of the best examples of its kind known." But Dawe has also seen his share of artifacts that turned out to be things less interesting in nature. "We had one poor lady who brought in what she thought was a hammerhead. But it weighed about 20 kilograms or more and when I explained that there were probably not too many Native people that would want to wield a hammerhead that weighed that much, she realized it was probably just a natural rock, a boulder, which is what it was," said Dawe. "We're still using it today at Head-Smashed-In to hold open one of the doors in one of the back rooms. It's quite a bit of fun for everyone involved." Top Past wrong at Enoch put right for $52 million Debora Steel, Sweetgrass Writer, Enoch Cree Nation The leadership of the Enoch Cree Nation took advantage of a gathering of community members and visitors to the territory to put pen to paper to right an historic wrong. Chief Ron Morin, along with past chiefs and current councillors, Elders and dignitaries delayed the Sunday grand entry of the community's annual powwow held Aug. 6 to 8 to formally sign the settlement of a land claim begun in the 1970s, registered in the courts as Cardinal versus the Crown. The settlement is worth $54 million, compensation paid for oil and gas revenues lost by Enoch from 10 sq. miles of land surrendered under duress in 1908. Morin said it was the longest standing claim unresolved in the courts. Former chief Clark Peacock said an over-zealous Indian agent encouraged the community to sell off that part of the reserve during a time of starvation and struggle. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada was represented at the signing ceremony by Regional Director General Roy Bird, who said that, in the past, government's role was "to lay obstacles in front of you. We are pretty good at that. Now government's role is to clear the way for you to move forward." A source in the department said the federal government worked with Enoch to settle the grievance rather than "to continue expending resources on litigating the matter in court and to avoid the possibility of a court decision that may not be favorable to Canada." Enoch Cree Nation members ratified the settlement in a referendum held Jan. 29 and 30, but before that vote, when the claim was resolved and Canada and Enoch shook hands on the agreement, Morin said he stood back, overwhelmed with emotion that, after all the many years, they had brought resolution. He thanked the senior members of the community, some who had passed on, who had the vision to put the claim forward and suffer the hardships for doing so. "Young people need to understand the sacrifices many of the old people endured to keep the issue alive," said councillor Jerome Ward. Morin said the settlement money will be used for economic development initiatives being planned for the community. Enoch has provincial government approval to build a resort-style casino on their land, located on the western edge of Edmonton. "When that casino opens, I want to be the first to drop my toonie in there," said Elder Louis Rain, joking with the crowd. To conclude the ceremony, Morin, Bird and Chief Eddie Makokis of Saddle Lake First Nation led the people who worked on the claim, as well as members of their families, in a dance around the powwow arbor. Top