Top Stories - July - 2001 Published July 3, 2001 Edmonton Mayor Bill Smith dances a jig on the city hall steps after receiving a Métis sash during Aboriginal Week celebrations. Photo by Brad Crowfoot Educational model sought at Calgary symposium Red Deer athletes head to Canada Games Elders' stories heard on National Aboriginal Day This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the July 2001 issue of Alberta Sweetgrass. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sweetgrass, then you have missed out on a lot. Educational model sought at Calgary symposium By Bruce Weir Sweetgrass Writer CALGARY First Nations' control over education was the subject at a two-day symposium in Calgary at the end of May. Co-sponsored by the Assembly of First Nations and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the symposium featured think-tank discussions with more than 150 delegates from across the country. In the process, the delegates turned the co-sponsors into students eager to learn from people with first-hand experience. "It's the regional activity that stimulates the process-executive directors, education directors and so forth-they're the front-line workers, they know how it feels," said Wilson Bearhead, AFN vice chief for Alberta. "They bring forward concerns and recommendations, and some are included in the [symposium's] final report." That report will be studied by the AFN executive, chiefs' committees and the assembly before a decision is made about how to move forward. The Calgary symposium was the last in a series of regional meetings that began in January and that stemmed from a conference held in Vancouver in May 2000. For the AFN, the symposium was also an important show of strength in negotiating with the federal government. "We've collected data; from that data we have principles; and from those principles we'll engage in negotiations," Bearhead said. "I guess what these conferences are all about is increasing leverage for us." Gilles Rochon, director general of community development at DIAND, said "A one-size-fits-all approach will simply not work. It is clear that educational jurisdiction is a complex issue, not just in scope, but also because there are a variety of related issues including governance and resources." According to Bearhead, the issue of resources, or funding, is crucial because of experiences in the 1980s when government downloaded responsibilities to bands without the necessary funds to handle them efficiently. In addition, a panel of Elders at the symposium's first day brought up issues from more distant times. Frank Weaselhead, a Kainai Elder, said "We had a fine education system that taught traditional values. I lost those values when I went to school. I'm one of those who lost his identity." Weaselhead dropped out of school in Grade 11 but his education continued when he returned home. "Since 1961 when I cared for my first medicine pipe bundle, all my education came from Elders." Weaselhead's stress on traditional values and spirituality was echoed by other Elders and by Bearhead, who said these concerns are at the heart of the AFN's discussions of educational jurisdiction. "We need to design it where people can purify themselves at the school level, and pray and understand, because academics is one thing but spirituality is another. I think if you use them both well they can go hand-in-hand and give you internal strength." The goal of First Nations' educational reform goes beyond blending traditional and modern teachings, however. AFN Vice Chief for Saskatchewan, Perry Bellegarde, said the aim is also to contribute to the curriculum of non-Aboriginal schools. "Peaceful coexistence and mutual respect start in school. Our treaties need to be taught not only to Indian kids, but to our non-Native brothers and sisters. That's how to breed peaceful coexistence." Bellegarde illustrated his point with the story of his eight-year-old son's recent experience in his Grade 2 class. For Show and Tell, the boy brought sweetgrass into the classroom and Bellegarde was relieved to find the teacher was accepting of Aboriginal culture. "Our way of teaching our kids is just as good, and our children need to know that." Bearhead concluded, "We need to develop structures that will help us and that we are a part of, something we can call our own. It's been a long time since we've called something our own. I think that starting point alone kind of sets the vision for the future." Top

Red Deer athletes head to Canada Games By Joan Taillon Sweetgrass Writer RED DEER Two brothers are giving the Keeshig-Soonias family of Red Deer a reason to be proud as the Canada Summer Games approaches. Dallas Soonias, 17 will be a competitor in volleyball and Sarain Soonias, who turned 19 on June 19, is travelling as an alternate for the basketball team. Dallas said that strikes him as "pretty cool." The young men are the only athletes in the family; their two sisters are in their 30s with families and don't play competitive sports at all. Sarain and Dallas and their mother Beverley Keeshig-Soonias are Oji-Cree and are members of the Chippewas of Nawash reserve in Ontario. Their father was born at the Red Pheasant reserve in Saskatchewan. On June 18, Dallas talked about the route they have travelled to get this far. He plays club volleyball and accepted the challenge of an invitational tryout for the Canada Games teams. That took four months, he said, and took his team all over Alberta. "The first tryout was in December in Sherwood Park. They made the final selection at the Junior Nationals in Saskatoon at the end of May," he said. "We start July 1 and practise more or less every day through 'til the Canada Games, which is in late August. So we'll be travelling all over Canada to train and play." The games will be held in London, Ont. In addition, Dallas said the Alberta Canada Games team to which he belongs will be coaching a volleyball camp in Jasper this summer. As Sarain was not available, Dallas described his brother's role on the basketball team. It was clear he admires Sarain's accomplishments. "Say they take 15 people; 12 of them are players and are on the team, three of them are alternates." He said the alternates will be at the Canada Games too in case someone is hurt or there is some other misadventure that requires a team member to be replaced. Sarain has a sports scholarship to attend college in Medicine Hat in the fall. His brother said he is unsure of the course Sarain will take, but "one thing I do know is he is not taking really easy classes like most of the athletes do." He will play basketball with the Medicine Hat Rattlers at college. Dallas has one year left at Hunting Hills High School, where he will play volleyball on his school team. He will attend university after that he said. He is "still debating whether, if I can get a scholarship to the States, to go down south or to stay in Canada." He said if he gets a scholarship it will be for his prowess in sports; "definitely not an academic one." He explained that the reason he started playing volleyball was because "Sarain was already known, where we're from, at being awesome at basketball." A while back "everybody knew he was just amazing at basketball and I was just the little brother." Sarain has played basketball since he was "really little." Dallas added he has only been playing his own game seriously for two or three years. Their parents were athletic too when they were younger, said Dallas, so he feels they came by their talent naturally. "Actually, one thing I know my dad did is he played football in high school and his team won the provincial championships, and that's awesome. He impressed everyone." Both parents encouraged them in sports, he said. "They signed us up for things when we were young," he said, such as youth basketball. While Dallas was on the phone with Sweetgrass, he received a letter from the head coach of the volleyball team at the University of Calgary, wishing him good luck this season. "I have heard and seen great things and am tracking your progress," the letter said. Sarain and Dallas have lived in Red Deer all their lives. Dallas said they are "urban Indians" and only visit the reserve during the summer holidays. In the last year, though, Dallas said he has been thinking more about his heritage. "I'm trying to represent the Indian nation the best I can. Not just put it out in the open and make sure everybody knows, but just portray Indians in a positive way. "There really isn't a lot of Indian volleyball players," Dallas concluded. Top Elders' stories heard on National Aboriginal Day By Inna Dansereau Sweetgrass Writer EDMONTON Not many people know that they can adopt a person they like to make up for the loss of a loved one, said Elder Christine (Whiskeyjack) Daniels at the National Aboriginal Day celebration at NorQuest College June 20. "In Indian tradition, when someone reminds you of a loved one that had passed away, then you adopt that person to replace the one who had been lost," said Daniels. "I just did that myself about two weeks ago." Daniels lost her daughter more than a month ago and adopted a woman from British Columbia. "When I was living in B.C., she really acted like she was my daughter-as a matter of fact, better than my daughter." Daniels met her again during a ceremony where the woman received an Indian name-Moonlight Rainbow. The next day, Daniels told her she wanted to adopt her to replace her daughter, to fill the void in her life. Daniels said the woman was very grateful and happy for this relationship. A similar story is described in Daniels' book, White Man's Laws, published in 1975. It's fiction based on Daniels' past. "This book is just the matter of explaining the differences between reserve life and city life," said Daniels. Alvena Strasbourg, who just celebrated her 80th birthday, shared her life story also. She was born in Lac La Biche and raised in Fort McMurray. Alvena went to school where "there were mostly all Aboriginals on the first day of school, and none of us could speak English. All of us spoke only Cree," she said. She got married at the age of 16 and raised four children. In 1957, after her marriage fell apart, she came to Edmonton with three of her children and found a job as a dry cleaner for 65 cents an hour. Strasbourg started working with the Métis Association in 1973. "When the welfare system started, the Aboriginal people started leaving their communities on reserves and moving into the city. But they were not ready for city life-they had no education, they had no training for work," she said. "I was one of the first counsellors . . . we worked hard to try and get these people jobs, get them educated." Strasbourg founded the Native women's career preparation program at NorQuest College. Strasbourg has described Aboriginal peoples' struggles in Memories of a Métis Woman: Fort McMurray Yesterday and Today, published in 1998. The National Aboriginal Day celebration also included a barbecue, displays about Aboriginal programs, and a video. For the prayer, James Large, a student in the family intervention program, lit the smudge of sweetgrass and buffalo sage. Top