Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1998 Windspeaker August Headlines
 |
West Coast pride! The third annual National Aboriginal Day (June 21) was celebrated
in Vancouver a day early with a parade through the downtown.
The ladies waving were waiting at the CBC buidling on Hamilton
Street for the parade to begin. Photo Credit: Debora Lockyer |
Who is Leonard Peltier and what was he fighting for?
The world calls for Peltier's release
Residential school compensation: Who do I turn to? What do I do?
Is there really strength in numbers?
There is danger in using people's pain.Windspeaker tops among publications
Shift in collecting tobacco tax will be foughtManitoba reserve gets tough on drug users
Which Canada is the real Canada?- Editorial
Collective resolve is what is needed- Guest Column
The above is only a partial list of all the stories featured in the August, 1998 issue of Windspeaker. If you are not receiving your own copy of Windspeaker, then you have missed out on a great deal of news, information and humour.
Click here for Windspeaker subscription information.
Who is Leonard
Peltier and what was he fighting for?
By Donna Rae Paquette
Windspeaker Contributor
Twenty-three years, that's a lot of time. In the past 23 years, nations rose and fell, mankind extended his limits to limitless space, peace has come to countries that have been at war for centuries, and war has come to shatter the peace and calm in a variety of communities around the globe.
And, during the last 23 years,
men and women, countless, faceless, forgotten human beings, have
served time in federal, provincial and state prisons, most for
crimes they did commit. But for a few and one in particular, they
are serving time for something they did not do. Justice gone awry.
It happens.
It happened to Leonard Peltier, an Ojibway-Lakota who has languished in American federal prisons for more than two decades, a political prisoner in North America who has yet to see freedom and to be exonerated for the crime his own accusers say they can't prove he is guilty of committing.
Peltier's been told his release date is 2035. He'll be 90 years old by the time the prison doors swing open for him. Far too late to start the buffalo ranch he dreams of or to enjoy his family, all of whom will likely be dead by then, even if Peltier himself lives that long.
Peltier was born and raised in South Dakota in a location that is the geographical centre of North America. It's one of thousands of Aboriginal communities that sit on a vast belt of mineral wealth.
The land where Leonard grew up has always been held in high regard by the Native people of the area. Just outside his home are the Black Hills, Paha Sapa to the Lakota. They are a special place, a holy place, because Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery, the One Above Who Oversees All, lives there. It is the place Wakan Tanka chose to make his name and his ways known to the children who He chose to be the keepers of the Earth - the red man.
The whole area belonged to the Lakota people, known as the Sioux. It had been secured to them as their own in perpetuity by the United States government when the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in 1868. The legislation stated that the Lakota were recognized as inhabitants of the area since time immemorial and the land was recognized as part of their vast territorial holdings.
The treaty gave the Lakota nothing they didn't already have, but was at least a pledge of peace to allow safe passage through Sioux territory for the settlers enroute to the West and to pioneer settlements in the vast lands of the Blackfeet.
Undertaken as a means to safeguard the territorial rights of the Lakota and still allow settlement west of the Missouri River, the treaty was an ironclad nation-to-nation agreement on land use and prohibitions. The gist of the treaty allowed settlers and other travellers to safely cross through Lakota land and, in turn, no settlement could take place on the land. The first thing the U.S. Cavalry did was to construct forts along what was known as the Bozeman Trail, an east-west route established as the main entryway into the western frontier. The Sioux were pacified with gifts and allowed the forts as peacekeeping units, but the people called the trail the "Thieves Road", and the white people were given the designation "wasichu," translated as "he who takes the fat" or "the greedy ones."
The day came when wasichu found the Black Hills valuable. They wearied their nights plotting how to steal the Black Hills and the yellow gold located there. For years, all was quiet as the Western frontier was slowly settled by a trickle of pioneers. Then the trickle became a headlong rush of fortune-seekers when gold was discovered by two treaty-violating prospectors who were found murdered in the Black Hills, their deaths evidently caused by Lakota warriors who happened upon the trespassers.
When the hapless miners' bodies were found, a note written by one of the men stating "there's gold in them thar hills" was recovered. By the next day, the stampede was on.
The Lakota were unprepared for the onslaught and after several unsuccessful attempts to curb the invaders, a delegation travelled to Washington with an appeal that the army to uphold the Fort Laramie Treaty. Washington declined and offered to buy the Black Hills for $5 million. The Lakota declined, and Washington decided to take the hills anyway.
The government withheld rations and restricted the people from off-reservation hunting, slowly starving the people into submission. Anyone resisting the sale was labeled a "hostile" and subject to arrest or death. Sitting Bull, Gall and Crazy Horse were among the hostiles. Eight years after the Indians were promised the Black Hills in perpetuity, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and other chiefs were forced to sign a document abrogating the Fort Laramie Treaty.
In a pen stroke, the Lakota lost the Black Hills, plus 22.8 million surrounding acres, in exchange for subsistence rations. The U.S. Congressional Record quotes an unnamed speaker as saying "an idle and thriftless race of savages cannot be permitted to stand guard at the treasure vaults of the nation which hold our gold and silver. The prospector and miner may enter and, by enriching himself, enrich the nation and bless the world by the results of his toil."
To this day, the Lakota have never been able to regain their sacred Paha Sapa. They live in destitution while the land yields billions of dollars annually to the people who took it away.
Leonard Peltier is one of many who sought to fight for this land and suffers the consequences for his political position.
Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner who was wrongly extradited from Canada to the United States in 1976 and has spent the last 23 years imprisoned for a crime the United States government today openly admits it cannot prove he actually committed.
On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents were killed in a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the troubles had begun long before that day.
Tensions on the reservation had been running high. For the past three years, a war had been waged between two distinct groups on the reserve - the traditionalists and the mixed bloods, led by tribal chairman Dick Wilson and his private army, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (or GOONs, as they were more commonly known).
The traditionalists fought Wilson in his attempt to sell off portions of the Lakota land to outside industrial interests. Wilson fought back by burning traditionalists' houses to the ground. Their vehicles were rammed, people brutalized and killed. Gunfire was a familiar sound on the reservation.
The traditionalists asked the American Indian Movement, of whom Peltier was a head member, for help in dealing with Wilson's reign of terror. Tensions increased dramatically when AIM supporters took over the hamlet of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973 and declared their independence from the United States. The U.S. army was brought in, along with armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers, fighter jets, helicopters and ground personnel. It was the largest fighting force assembled by the United States to fight Native Americans in this century.
During the 71-day occupation, two Native Americans were killed. The occupation fizzled to an end, but AIM continued to live and work with the traditionalists to fight Wilson.
By 1976, the traditionalists were living in fear. On June 26, 1976, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, entered the reservation. While there are many differing versions of what happened next, what is known is that a shoot-out occurred, leaving the two FBI agents dead.
FBI reinforcements and Wilson's GOONs quickly arrived on the scene, and the firefight was on. Pine Ridge resident Joe Killsright was also killed.
AIM members involved in the firefight realized the only way out was to flee into the mountains. All 15 escaped, helped by friends and relatives in Pine Ridge.
Peltier was among them. He escaped to Canada and was hidden at Smallboy's Camp near Robb, Alta.
Four people - Jimmy Eagle, Darrell "Dino" Butler, Steve Robideau and Leonard Peltier - were later charged for the killing of the FBI agents. Eagle's charges were dropped. Butler and Robideau, who went to trial while Peltier was fighting extradition from Canada, were acquitted on the grounds of self-defense by an all-white jury.
Peltier stayed in Alberta for several months until he was arrested in 1976. But, to get Peltier back to the United States, Canada had to be convinced to give him up. The FBI bullied a young Indian woman with mental problems, Myrtle Poor Bear, who has since recanted her testimony, until she provided a statement to the FBI that she saw her "boyfriend," Leonard Peltier, kill the FBI agents. She gave three such affidavits, each giving more details about the shoot-out. Poor Bear later said she had never met Peltier and had seen him for the first time at his trial in Fargo, North Dakota.
But the false affidavits were enough for the Canadian government to be duped into extraditing Peltier. A controversial trial followed, and Peltier was convicted, not of aiding and abetting as one might think, but of the actual murder of the agents.
Since his imprisonment, a worldwide effort has been made to secure an investigation by the United States and Canadian governments into Peltier's illegal extradition, his trial and subsequent imprisonment.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has chapters across the U.S. and a head office in Toronto where Anne and Frank Dreaver have worked for 16 years on the case.
So far, the Canadian government has shown little desire to take on the U.S. government, although individual government officials have inquired into the issue at various times during the past two decades.
Amnesty International has made strong recommendations to the United States that they establish a commission of inquiry into the FBI's activities. Amnesty International also releases bulletins around the world that recommend Peltier receive a new trial.
In 1984, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an evidentiary hearing concerning newly discovered evidence previously withheld. Included in that evidence would be admissions of FBI perjury, planted ballistics evidence, and prosecutor Lynn Crook's statement that it remains unproven who actually shot the FBI agents. The request for a new trial, however, was denied.
In 1987, a Private Members' Motion (M-28) was debated in Canada's House of Commons. The motion, introduced by MP Jim Fulton, called for Peltier's return to Canada and the annulment of the original extradition proceedings. The motion was not brought to a vote.
By Debora Lockyer
Windspeaker Staff Writer
TEMPE, Arizona
The staff and contributors of Windspeaker, Canada's National Aboriginal Newspaper, have something to celebrate this month. Windspeaker has won first place for General Excellence in the monthly publications category at this year's Native American Journalists Association's annual assembly. The Circle, last year's winner, and Arizona Native Scene, won honorable mentions.
The NAJA awards were presented June 19 in Tempe, Arizona. NAJA is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its primary goal is to improve communications among Native people and between Native North Americans and the general public. Member newspapers are located across North America.
The General Excellence award was won for Windspeaker's work from April 1997 to March 1998. The newspapers were judged on the consistent quality of the newspaper in that time frame.
"Receiving recognition from other Aboriginal journalists confirms to us that we are on the right path," said Bert Crowfoot, Windspeaker publisher. "Windspeaker is the culmination of all the energy and ideas of many talented people."
This win comes as Windspeaker, and its parent organization, the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, celebrates 15 years in the publishing and communications industry. The AMMSA family includes four newspapers, Windspeaker, Alberta Sweetgrass, Saskatchewan Sage, and Raven's Eye, the newspaper of British Columbia and Yukon, plus the radio station, CFWE, The Native Perspective, serving the Aboriginal peoples of Alberta.
Windspeaker's pursuit of excellence, objectivity and independence have shaped it into an acknowledged and respected authority on the news and issues that impact the lives of the people and communities throughout Indian Country.
"We have high standards and that's another reason we've been successful," Crowfoot said.
Residential school compensation: Who do I turn to? What do I do?
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWA
Some residential school survivors say Canada's apology for physical and sexual abuse, supposedly a gesture of reconciliation to Indigenous people, has made their lives even harder.
For many, the dizzying landscape of complex choices surrounding the entire compensation issue - to sue or not to sue, negotiation and mediation versus litigation, class actions versus individual lawsuits, healing issues confused with civil law issues confused with criminal matters - is just too much to deal with.
When Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart told the many victims of the Indian residential school system on Jan. 7 that Canada was "deeply sorry" for its past actions, it seemed like a breakthrough for the federal Liberal government.
After a federal cabinet member publicly admitted that Native people had been wronged by the government, the victims hoped and expected the apology would mean that Ottawa would be more willing to negotiate just settlements.
"We watched and waited for four to six months after the apology. We were hoping, after the announcement, for some kind of move toward mediation," said Ed Metatawabin, a member of Peetateck Keway Keykaywin (St. Anne's Residential School Survivors group) and the former chief of the northern Ontario Fort Albany First Nation.
"We've been trying since 1992 to sit down with the feds, Ontario and the Catholic church, and it was always the feds that refused, even after the apology. We are interested in mediation over litigation, but nothing has happened. Whatever the minister says is just words. The bureaucrats who work under her haven't changed a bit."
Metatawabin said his group believes the bureaucracy is more reluctant to consider negotiations regarding compensation because of the legal implications of the apology.
"It's even worse now," he said.
Last Jan. 16, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine told Windspeaker he was involved in a series of meetings with the minister and her staff. Those meetings were aimed at finding an alternative for victims to seek compensation from the government, a way that would avoid the lengthy delays and the high cost of civil litigation. AFN officials confirmed this month that those negotiations are still going on. Sources in Ottawa say the national chief is pushing the government hard to decide in an alternative dispute mechanism. But, after at least six months of talks, neither side is prepared to say when, or if, a resolution will be announced.
Many victims suspect the government's strategy is to delay until a significant number of people with legitimate legal claims either run out of money for legal expenses or die. They say their government, which is supposed to serve them, has instead made them the enemy.
Jeremy Beatty, chairman of the Hepatitis C Society of Canada, said the complaints of residential school survivors sound familiar. The former vice-president of Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd., forced by failing health to give up his job three years ago after being infected by tainted blood he received during a surgical blood transfusion in 1977, has led the fight for compensation for tainted blood victims. The Canadian Red Cross Society is facing $5 billion worth of civil lawsuits in relation to the blood scandal. The federal government, which is ultimately responsible for monitoring the blood supply, has offered $1.1 billion.
"There's no compassion in government," Beatty said. "Getting elected is not a compassionate process. I've learned that governments, and individuals within the government, lie. They don't tell you the truth. They never tell you everything they're thinking. They never tell you everything they're doing. They withhold information and make you use the Freedom of Information Act. Their value system is out of touch with regular Canadians who believe that if someone is harmed through no fault of their own, they should be helped. And Canadians don't care if it was an honest or a dishonest mistake. They just think, 'It could have been me.' This government is trying to steal $3.9 billion by using an out-of-court settlement to give us 20 cents on the dollar. They know the courts would find them guilty, so they've decided they'd be better off to settle for far less."
Minister Stewart told Windspeaker in late January that the federal government was already settling cases out of court before the apology, but the apology appears to have made plaintiffs more willing to hold out for larger settlements. That appears to mean the government will be more likely to end up in court if a compensation plan that is satisfactory to the victims isn't devised.
Is there really strength in numbers?
There are now well over 1,000 civil lawsuits that relate to the residential school system pending against the federal government.
Class action legislation, a relatively new type of law in Canada, seems to be tailor-made to help those who believe they've been harmed by the school system.
Only three provinces in Canada have class action legislation in place. Ontario's Class Proceedings Act became law in 1993. British Columbia and Quebec have since followed with their own versions. Class action, or mass tort, law is designed to provide access to justice for individuals who might not otherwise be able to afford legal representation. Charles Wright, a lawyer with the London, Ont. law firm Siskind, Cromarty, Ivey & Dowler, a leader in class action cases, explained the law.
"The legislation has three objectives. It provides access to justice for those who can't afford to pursue their own lawsuits by allowing them to join a group. It also provides for judicial economy by allowing the court to decide the matter with one case instead of many similar cases. It also promotes corporate responsibility, the idea being that if a company hurts lots of people a little bit it wouldn't be worth it for, say, one million people to sue for $50 each. So the company could theoretically get away with a $50 million mistake or misdeed," he said.
One aspect of class action law that is especially important to residential school survivors is that, unlike in other types of cases in Canada, in class actions lawyers are allowed to accept their fees after the case is completed. "Class actions are an exception," Wright said. "Contingency fees are specifically allowed."
People who reside in provinces that have no class action legislation can join lawsuits that are filed in provinces that do. But ethical restraints placed on lawyers about soliciting business make it difficult for potential plaintiffs to find a lawyer to help them. Wright said his firm was not involved in a residential school case, and he didn't know of a firm that was. But several law firms are rumored to be signing up members for class actions. Those contacted by this newspaper for confirmation were reluctant to comment.
There is danger in using people's pain.
Some Indigenous leaders are worried about the prospect of lawyers encouraging survivors to take the government to court.
Viola Thomas, president of the
United Native Nations of British Columbia, a group which represents
the off-reserve residents in the province, cautions that lawyers
who are only interested in winning the cases and benefitting from
the cash awards that come with them can do a lot of harm.
"We're dealing with people who are already marginalized," Thomas said. "And in some cases they're being encouraged to get rich off their pain. The only reason these individuals should move ahead with these cases is to proceed with their healing. When lawyers are forcing these people to re-live their trauma, they'd better have the proper support mechanisms in place."
Several cases have been documented where school survivors who relived their school experiences committed suicide shortly afterwards. Thomas wants to make sure that doesn't happen to other survivors as they go through the civil litigation process.
Thomas also worries about the lack of coordination of cases. She fears many cases in front of many judges with many lawyers may lead to mistakes which could create case law that would hurt all the other cases. She advocates a national class action representing all survivors and criticizes the national Native organizations for not working to take the confusion out of the situation.
"We're living in very scary times," she said. "Everywhere you look there are assaults against our rights. Where are these political leaders? What are they doing?"
National organizations consistently say they don't have budgets to deal with problems of this magnitude
Raymond Paskimin, a former member of the Thunderchild First Nation band council in Saskatchewan, is waging a one-man campaign to get people in touch with lawyers and ready to sue for compensation. He's been travelling throughout western Canada in a motor home, visiting Aboriginal communities and talking to people about their options.
"There is a service here that needs to be done," he said. "Of the 10 people in my family who attended residential school, there are three left alive. The system was very devastating to my family. I have an interest in justice being done."
Paskimin said he had launched his own legal action relating to alleged sexual abuse he endured during his 10-year stay in the Onion Lake Indian Residential School. He began his 10,000 km. odyssey to communities in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia shortly before the Indian Affairs minister made her apology last January. He said the apology just added more incentive for him to continue.
"I blew a fuse when I heard they were going to provide $350 million for counselling money," he said. "What the hell good is counselling money? Part of the healing is standing up and fighting back. Going for counselling is more like acting like a victim. Fighting for justice is the best therapy. It gives credibility to a person's existence."
Ed Metatawabin agrees. He won't join a class action suit because he wants to take the government on face-to-face.
"Part of the healing is to emerge from the effects of residential schools as individuals," he said. "I don't expect an organization to do this for me. I have to do it as part of the healing."
Like many Indigenous people, Ed Metatawabin recalled the apology to Japanese-Canadians who were placed in internment camps during the Second World War. He believes the Japanese-Canadians received an apology from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in the House of Commons and a compensation package because Japan had become such a major player in the world economy. Metatawabin sees the Jan. 7 apology to his people as a weak and insulting response when compared with the apology to Japanese-Canadians.
"We get different treatment," he said. "We're inmates in this jail system they call the Indian Act."
He said the Japanese-Canadians were treated properly and didn't need to take the government to court but, even with the apology and Statement of Reconciliation, his people have not been treated properly.
"It's all about money," Metatawabin said. "If we don't have the money there is no justice. Litigation is the only option for us."
Information provided by a spokesman for the Association of Japanese Canadians strengthens Metatawabin's argument. The association employee, who preferred not to be named, said there is no apology in the official document which spells out what compensation the government would make to the internees. Each individual who was impacted by the internment camps received about $21,000. The Japanese-Canadian community received an additional $12 million for cultural activities. The government also established the Canadian Race Relations Foundation as part of the deal. Japanese-Canadians did not ask for an apology. They demanded compensation and an admission that the camps were wrong. The apology by then Prime Minister Mulroney was a surprise.
"In the initial demand for redress, there was no interest in receiving an official apology," the source said, "and it's not in the formal document. The prime minister's statement was almost a personal apology."
Aboriginal leaders point out there have been no similar surprises for Native people from the government. It took intense negotiations, application of political pressure and the wide-ranging studies conducted by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to persuade the government to apologize to them.
Victims need advice and legal help, and they need to know where to get it. One woman who attended the infamous Port Alberni school said the scope of what is recognized as damage also needs to be widened. Deborah Hayward, a Kitimat, B.C. resident, said the three years she spent in residential school from 1968 to 1971 have left her disconnected from her people and her culture. She didn't ask for that, she said, and she wonders how the government that forced her to leave home against her will at age 13 can undo that harm.
"I still feel like a visitor in my own community," she said. "Being away for those three years took away the normal bonding with my uncles and aunties and cousins. I feel like there's nowhere to go for help. I slip in and out of depression. A feeling of despair and anger at times engulfs me, and I feel like I am in the middle of an ocean without a life jacket."
Hayward said she was not sexually or physically abused, so the minister's apology doesn't really apply to her. She feels mentally abused, a victim of an attempt to strip her of her culture and identity. She called it mental abuse when she attempted to file criminal charges against the government and the United Church of Canada a few months ago.
The RCMP in Port Alberni told her the well-documented attempts to make Native children feel contempt for their own traditions and culture and the stern measures used by the school authorities were not criminal acts.
"I have lost my childhood, my people, my culture, my heritage,
my spirituality, my pride in myself, and these cannot easily be
fixed," she wrote several months ago in letters - so far
unanswered - to Minister Stewart, Justice Minister Anne McLellan
and Chief Fontaine.
Shift in collecting tobacco tax will be fought
By Sabrina Whyatt
Windspeaker Staff Writer
QUEBEC CITY
First Nations people in Quebec refuse to accept the Quebec government's guarantee that a recent change on how tobacco taxes are collected in the province will not infringe on their rights.
Andre Corivelau, spokesperson for the Quebec minister of Finance, insists the change in the administration of the province's tobacco tax law is merely a way of ending tax evasion associated with the illegal trade in tobacco products. She said it will not interfere with the tax-exemption right of Aboriginal people stated in Section 87 of the federal Indian Act.
Chief Phillip Jacobs of the Kahnawake Mohawk Council is completely opposed to the change. He fears it's just another tactic the provincial government is using to limit the rights of Aboriginal people.
On June 23, the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) was combined with the product tax on all tobacco sales. For Aboriginal retailers, this means a requirement to pre-pay taxes on tobacco followed by reimbursement.
Prior to the change, there were two provincial taxes on tobacco. The tobacco product tax was collected in advance by manufacturers and wholesalers on all sales in Quebec. On reserves, this tax ensured payment to the government for cigerette sales to non-Aboriginal people, while enabling Aboriginal people to claim the exemption from this tax for their personal cigerette consumption.
Secondly, there was the QST. Aboriginal retailers were not required to pay this tax when they purchased tobacco products from wholesalers and manufacturers.
Analysts from the Department of Finance in Quebec say some Aboriginal retailers were selling QST-free tobacco to non-Aboriginal retailers. The non-Aboriginal retailers would sell to customers for full price, pocketing the profit and failing to report the earnings on income tax claims. There was more tobacco being shipped onto reserves than the population could account for.
Jacobs said Aboriginal people are paying the price for a scheme some non-Aboriginal people are involved in to make more money.
"They tell us this change is to stop non-Aboriginal people from buying tax-free products, but they are really targeting the Native people," he said.
Jacobs is one of many First Nations people to oppose the change. He fears this is only the beginning of an intrusion on the Native communities, but is optimistic the change can be reversed.
"It can be changed. We already made a declaration against it and we intend to continue to defend our rights."
Corivelau said the tax on tobacco products has been shifted to one area to ensure tax will be collected in advance. Retailers will be reimbursed for the money after submitting proof the tobacco was sold to Aboriginal people on reserves.
"The Native people buying cigarettes on reserves will be required to show identification to the retailer. They show a badge with a number given to them by Indian Affairs to prove they are Native. The retailer submits the numbers every month or so to account for the tobacco sold to Aboriginal people, and they will get cheques back," she said.
If the amount of tobacco shipped to a reserve isn't realistic compared to the population, the request for reimbursement of the tax can be denied.
"Having to prove we are Native is crazy. We are fighting to maintain who we are, not prove who we are," said Jacobs. "If we can't cut this one off, we're going to have problems to deal with. It's just the beginning of intrusion on our domain."
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
Opaskwayak, Man.
Manitoba's Opaskwayak Cree Nation is getting tough with a new drug awareness program. Community members and band leaders are going beyond the common "Just Say No" campaign and telling drug users to "Just Get Out."
Getting caught with drugs once nets a warning and a lot of community support to get cleaned-up. Getting caught again could result in being tossed off the reserve, said Chief William G. Lathlin.
"There's a warning given and at the same time we draw up a contract for them. There are steps they have to show that they are changing their ways," he said about the first time someone is caught.
If it happens again and the contract is broken . . . "You are no longer welcome in," he said flatly.
Several years ago, the 3,800 member band near The Pas, Man. drafted a declaration to fight the growing rate of drug use in the community.
It has always been the intent to do something about the problem, said Lathlin, but it is only now that the whole community is getting behind the campaign.
He said there are services available within the community and surrounding area where people who want to quit drugs can get help. The whole community is trying to help.
"It's no use saying, 'Just quit this,' if you are not providing the services," said Lathlin. "We want to help the people who are trying to make changes in their lives."
For people coming to the reserve who are not members and who are caught with drugs, the action is swift, said the chief.
"Those people have no business being in the community at all. They are trespassing and we'll throw them out," he said.
Regional Indian Affairs spokesman Wayne Hannah said that under the Indian Act, the band can eject people who are not members, but to kick out band members is not so easy.
He said in order for the band to do that, a bylaw must be made which then must be accepted by the minister. The bylaw must not restrict any human rights or infringe on the Charter or Rights and Freedoms.
"We've checked on [Opaskwayak] and we have no bylaws registered to exercise this kind of power," said Hannah.
The community can, however, make life a little difficult for someone who doesn't want to abide by the new drug campaign.
Making access to housing priority lists more difficult or excluding from band operated functions may be equally effective in getting the zero tolerance message out.
Lathlin said a real urgency to take a stance on the war on drugs occured because the problem has reached the children. He said there have been reports of children using drugs in schools and of parents getting their children to sell drugs. Something had to be done and done fast, he said.
Complaints from the community about suspicious traffic in certain areas have decreased, and a number of people have even contacted the band office looking for substance abuse help.
"There have been a number of people come forward and express a desire to not use that stuff anymore," said Lathlin.
So far, after a month of enforcement, the new program seems to be working.
"To me, it's working. It's small, but it's noticable," he said.
The Kawechetonanow Centre, the local counselling and referral service at Opaskwayak, is doing its part to support the community drug campaign.
The centre submits articles to the local newspaper every Thursday about drugs, addiction and recovery.
"Everybody is doing their part to help, and we are doing ours," said Gina Laroque, a spokesperson for the centre.
The community plans to keep going with the program until drug use is wiped out of the area.
"It has to be on a day-to-day basis, and it has to come from the whole community," said Chief Lathlin.
Stance brings McLain home
By Terry Lusty
Windspeaker Contributor
EDMONTON
Whatever became of Kim McLain? Remember him? Between the mid-80s and early 90s, this gifted artist worked in production at Windspeaker. At the time, he not only created newscopy, he also drew cartoons, did photography, wrote feature stories and more.
He went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alberta, graduating in 1996, then spent one summer at Yale University before moving south to the University of Albuquerque where he is working on his master's degree.
To support his education, the Cold Lake band helped out, as did the Canadian Native Arts Foundation, the University of New Mexico, and his own three-credit course on drawing (painting, pencil, charcoal, etc.).
A July exhibit of work by nine of his students, whose photo art constitutes the mural project entitled Stance now showing at the Edmonton Art Gallery, is a special project that saw McLain return to his home province . Stance is a journey of self-discovery and artistic expression created by inner city youth through Aboriginal traditions and led by McLain.
"The Edmonton Art Gallery wanted a project with inner city youth," he explained. The gallery wanted an Aboriginal instructor and tracked down McLain after his name had been recommended.
Once selected to lead the project, he started work with 10 students and wound up with nine. Their exhibit, and another featuring several mixed media pieces by McLain (on loan from Kmet-Bugera Gallery), are on display.
McLain's collaborator from the gallery was Heidi Alther, the galley's complementary programs manager, who he says "was great at getting community support," in terms of equipment, mural space, and so forth.
In fact, the computer print out for the 10 by 24 foot mural at the Coffee Ground Cafe is a new process that is making its debut.
So, why photo-art?
"I often had a photographic element to my art," McLain insists. There are many contemporary artists who do. Now, he continued, it has just as much prominence in his art as in his paintings he does.
This was one of the reasons he elected to do his master's at Albuquerque.
"They have a Native American Art History program and are one of the top photographic schools in North America."
McLain also wanted to be in an environment where he'd feel comfortable. Although there are no Native profs there, he knew he'd likely be rubbing shoulders with other Native people in class.
His home territory is one of the things he misses the most.
"Being with family, being part of the community, having a definite role in the community . . . I miss the land, the weather, vegetation," he said.
McLain looks healthy and feels healthy despite doing battle with a tumor before he headed south. He also felt the need for a change.
"Sometimes you have to disconnect yourself and do your own thing. I did the best thing possible, took myself out of the loop. I think my art has benefited tremendously. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, I feel better."
Nonetheless, he can't wait to complete his degree and return to Alberta where he hopes to do a solo exhibit.
"It'll be fresh," and, "have stuff for an Aboriginal audience." This is important to McLain because "it's a way to make the connection" with his people, his culture.
On July 6, McLain headed back south for a couple of years, this time to Los Angeles where his significant other is working on her graduate degree. During this time, McLain plans to complete his degree.
Regarding his mural project, "It was great and I want to do more of it. Just because you're a painter, you don't have to restrict yourself to painting. You have other tools, use them."
McLain's art in the here and now demonstrates "recurring messages" which is why it's "improved," he states.
"It has themes like family trauma, memory, dislocation," he says. His latest work is that of a boxer, a ring announcer and a pictograph. In it, he uses his past, his personal story as "a reflection of our [Native] community to mainstream society.
"When I photographed myself as a boxer, it's when my father had control and forced me into boxing" even though he didn't care for the sport.
"It's like Indian people [today] being forced into violent or bad situations," he explains.
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