Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1998 Windspeaker June Headlines
 |
Taking to the woods...
New Brunswick's Aboriginal loggers rallied in mid-May to show
the provincial government they won't come out of the woods. Leaders
of the five political organizations in the province are trying
to work out a deal with the province that will allow their people
to continue sharing in the resource wealth of the Crown forests.
In the meantime, the loggers are defiantly refusing to give up
their new-found businesses. Photo Credit: Noel Chenier |
in the news:
Larry Sault
John Kim Bell
August Collin
Wilson NepooseLetters to the Editor
Grassy Narrows takes 'last stand' on nuclear waste
Impasse continues in New Brunswick
Late bloomer captures titleDo as I say - Not as I do Editorial
Honored or exploited: Entertainer concerned
When nothing's said- Guest Column
Still searching for peace - Ken Ward
Don't forget Guide to Indian Country
Here is a full list of the stories featured in the June, 1998 issue of Windspeaker. If you are not receiving your own copy of Windspeaker, then you have missed many of these exciting stories.
Click here for Windspeaker subscription information.
Thanks for speaking out
Dear Editor:I would like to write in response to Buffy Sainte-Marie's letter in your May 1998 edition. I am a young Aboriginal male who is currently pursuing a career in the arts and communication's field. I want to praise Ms. Sainte-Marie for speaking out the way she did. It was difficult for me to understand that the display at the achievement awards was that of celebrating the successes of Aboriginal people. Instead. . . well. . . you be the judge.
As a young Aboriginal, there are struggles endured in today's society by myself and others like me. We look to our role models in the Aboriginal community for their guidance, support and understanding. Sometimes they do not see the influence they have on us. I see how those who have done well for themselves forget the young and upcoming.
Don't get me wrong, there are those who do support (and they know who they are) today's young people, but they seem far and few between. In a day where those who have succeeded in arts and communications (actors, singers, journalists, performers, etc.) it's very encouraging that there are those who have not succumbed to the ego and self-centered attitudes in this field. They are still speaking from the heart and not relying on their reputations and image.
So to you, Buffy Sainte-Marie and those few, thank you. As your words and wisdom have given me a sense of pride and drive to be successful.
Karl Melting Tallow
Entertainer misunderstood show
Dear Editor:In response to the letter submitted last month to Windspeaker by Buffy Sainte-Marie regarding her objection to devils portrayed in the opening number of the 1998 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, I should like to take this opportunity to state that Ms. Sainte-Marie has misinterpreted the devil-like characters. Her assumption that these characters represented the sacred holy people of Hopi and other Aboriginal cultures is inaccurate and untrue.
Each year, we present many pop singers from our community to pay homage to the recipients of the awards, and also try to provide an opportunity for artists who practice other forms of cultural and artistic expression to have an opportunity to perform as well.
This year, our plan was to present the talents of a young opera singer, Marion Newman, and a number of classically trained dancers to perform with traditional Aboriginal dancers in the opening presentation of the show. Since we were not relying upon the accessible lyrics of popular tunes to convey the message of the piece, it was presented in an operatic fashion, using imagery to convey the message.
The theme was designed to be universal and simple to speak to the largest possible audience, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. The vices of humankind, such as greed, avarice, envy and hatred, were symbolized by the devil-like creatures in question. Mother Earth eventually appeared dressed in white to overcome and chase the devils away. Stemming from her own goodness, Mother Earth then created the Aboriginal people who emerged on stage to populate and care for the Earth.
This scene and all characters stemmed from my imagination, and in no way represented any reference to any specific Aboriginal culture or religious figure or person in any way whatsoever.
Most people interpreted the piece in the way that I intended and enjoyed the rich imagery.
The foundation is sorry that Ms. Sainte-Marie misinterpreted these devils as being related to holy people. We carefully consider everything that we present and regularly consult with Elders and artists to seek approval on every costume and image presented. Constructive criticism is always helpful but Ms. Sainte-Marie's remarks that I should enlist in a Native 101 course was malicious and invective. The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards is a very important instrument for the Aboriginal community and it is undertaken with every good intent. The mistaken identity of the these devils is akin to the opera singer who sings 1,000 musical notes in tune and then misses the pitch on one single note. Nobody talks about the accomplishment of the singer or the quality of the voice, rather they remember and discuss the one note missed.
The first chapter of the Native 101 course is on "Respect" and perhaps Ms. Sainte-Marie herself could take a refresher course to review this particular chapter.
Sincerely,
John Kim Bell
Founder and President
National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation
NAAF founder told to get with the programDear Editor:
In regards to your guest column by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, and the letter from Buffy Sainte-Marie, I agree with Buffy wholeheartedly.
Mr. [John Kim] Bell owes an apology to those Aboriginal cultures he has commercialized for the sake of entertainment. If Mr. Bell has the power he does, I suggest he use it and respect the cultures he presents in the shows.
Mr. Bell's support of Aboriginal people must be respected just as much as that from the sponsors. If we're the people, then treat us and our cultures with just as much respect as you do the sponsors.
I am shocked that Mr. [Tom] Jackson and Mr. [Graham] Greene participated in this show to the extent they did. Wake up! We, the everyday Aboriginal people, have to live with explaining this show, more than you do!
As for Windspeaker. Don't give in to the pressure the NAAF is asserting in its letter concerning the 'paid insert.' Journalism and opinions must not be affected by big money!
Where is the line drawn on giving sponsors what they want to see? The reality of Aboriginal people can not be colored over by fancy sets from the "imagination" of Mr. Bell. The reality of our cultures, beliefs, values and ceremonies are not for sale, Mr. Bell.
No one gave you the authority to dehumanize our neighboring First Naitons to the south and to speak as you did.
I work with our Aboriginal youth where they live. I, too, don't get paid for work and have to put up with the criticism.
Many of these youth are dealing with a reality, Mr. Bell, that you and I have never seen, and would not want to. It's a reality that must be dealt with before they can even concentrate on or in school.
I wouldn't use my power to disrespect them and their cultures. They get that enough as it is from the dominant society.
Mr. Bell, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Greene, apologize. Learn a lesson. Do it right the next time. Be real role models for our Aboriginal youth.
Karen Pelletier
Burns Lake, B.C.
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
FREDERICTON
The law, as it stands right now, says they have to come out of the woods, but Aboriginal loggers in New Brunswick have refused.
The Micmac and Maliseet loggers who seized an opportunity to make a decent living in the unemployment-ravaged region after a provincial court judge ruled that Aboriginal people had the first right to log on Crown lands, say a subsequent court ruling which reversed that decision isn't enough to make them give up their businesses. They continue in defiance of the courts and the provincial government, and observers are predicting trouble, sooner or later.
Published reports say suicides are down and the standard of living is up in at least one Aboriginal community in New Brunswick and people are looking ahead with optimism. No one disagrees that the logging has given Aboriginal people a much-needed economic opportunity.
Logging started after the court ruling last fall and the positive effects in the communities are easy to see. But when a Court of Appeals decision on April 22 dismissed the lower court ruling as badly flawed and reversed its findings, out-going Premier Ray Frennette had the power to order an end to Aboriginal logging. Frennette's initial comments that the loggers had "days not weeks" to get out of the woods were met with promises of resistance from the loggers. An impasse ensued. Chiefs in the province are willing to negotiate a deal with the government. The new premier, Camille Thériault, is willing to make a deal that will see some benefits for Aboriginal people. But the loggers say, "No thanks."
Some observers say the New Brunswick logging in defiance of the law is similar to the tobacco boom on Mohawk territories in Ontario and Quebec in the early 1990s.
Chief Robert Levy of the Big Cove First Nation is a central figure in the logging talks. He has been involved in the discussions between First Nations and the province and in discussions with the five Aboriginal political groups which represent the 15 reserve communities in the province. He suggested the comparison between logging and cigarette sales isn't exactly accurate, although there are businessmen reaping large individual profits by virtue of their people's collective rights.
"It's almost like that. Not quite," he said. "Because we do also have a lot of our grassroots, ordinary people that are finally in our rights. We've known all along that we've never given up title to the land. And when it was recognized, it was such a. . . a celebration, I guess. It took a while for them to understand the full impact, and so some of them jumped on right away and went into the woods right away. But it took a month or two before the others realized the potential, and, sure enough, they went in the woods after. As we stated then, it's going to be impossible to get the Natives out of the woods now because they've had, finally, a taste of what it means to be able to go out and contribute to your community, your family."
Chief Levy said he believes the province knows it's only a matter of time until the courts rule that his people have the right to log.
"We know the government knows we're right, and that's why they're scrambling all over trying to give us some kind of a deal," he said. "They've already made us an offer."
The chiefs told the province the first offer was insulting. The 15 First Nations plus the Aboriginal Peoples Council (which represents off-reserve residents in the province) were offered a total of 125,000 cords per year.
"We told them that offer was an insult. That's only 7,600 cords per community, and we look at some non-Native communities, families, for example. We know of one sub-licensee, a family, that gets 50,000 cords."
Levy and the other chiefs have formed a coalition that will submit a counter-proposal. Levy said the economic activity that was born as a result of the first court decision has had incredibly positive results.
"You wouldn't think that such a, I can't say a simple thing, but such an event could make such a drastic turnaround. But in my community, anyway, and I can only speak for Big Cove, it did. My God, we were going through such a really bad time here for a few years. A while back, my people were just killing themselves left and right, for no reason. But when this happened, when they started to realize that they could go out and work and not just sit around and do nothing and get despaired, they were able to contribute and that made a big difference. It certainly changed the morale and changed the whole atmosphere in my community and in the time since last November, well, we did have one suicide, but what is most important is the attempts are down, drastically down."
After a weekend meeting in mid-May, Levy is confident that all Aboriginal political groups in the province will support the coalition that plans to negotiate with the province. The chief knows he'll have to deal with the loggers even if he can get an acceptable deal with the province.
"We do have a few ambitious businessmen," he said.
Grassy Narrows takes 'last stand' on nuclear waste
By Bryan Phelan
Windspeaker Contributor
GRASSY NARROWS, Ont.
An Earth Day week environmental gathering and powwow provided the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation with the opportunity to celebrate their role in stalling a proposal to bury nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario.
The gathering was funded by money raised from an annual Honor the Earth tour of musicians headlined by Indigo girls, a Grammy-winning folk rock duo. The primary focus of the 1997 North American tour was on the issue of nuclear waste storage on Native lands.
"Seventeen of 21 nuclear dump sites have been slated for Indian land," said Priscelle Setee of tour sponsor Indigenous Women's Network. She was drawn to Grassy Narrows by an article written in 1996 by local resident Judy DaSilva in which she expressed concern about an Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. proposal to bury nuclear waste in the Canadian Shield.
"To myself, I feel like this is the last fight," DaSilva wrote in a follow-up article. "We need to take action now, even though they are not burying the waste on our lands yet.
"At the moment, we can still drink water from the lake, but perhaps in a few years. . . the radiation will be all around us and our people will be dying from all kinds of cancers.
"Either we keep moving towards being docile, timid beings where everyone steps on us or we start pushing ourselves out of the semi-sleep we have been in the last 50 years."
DaSilva and others opposed to the burying of waste in the Canadian Shield have already gained one victory. On March 13, a Canadian Enviromental Assessment Agency panel recommended that a search for a specific disposal site should not proceed until a suitable Aboriginal participation process was established.
As of late April, the federal government had not responded to that recommendation.
Former Grassy Narrows band councilor Mary Nelson was credited by Dan Berman of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition in Ottawa for influencing the committee's decision with an eloquent presentation last November.
"I'm confident they will never get permission from the Native people of this country to bury nuclear waste," Berman added.
There are other concerns more immediate for the more than 700 residents of Grassy. The 80-kilometre drive northeast to the First Nation from Kenora takes you past a proposed sight for a new municipal dump, near pristine Silver Lake. Previously, in the 1970s, the First Nation's water system was polluted by mercury from Dryden's pulp and paper mill.
Former Treaty #3 grand chief and Grassy Narrow resident Steve Fobister said he was once even contacted by a Toronto mayor about having the city's garbage shipped to this religion via a railway built specifically for that purpose.
And gathering organizers Yolanda Fobister and Roberta Keesick noted that they have come across logging clear-cut areas that resemble deserts while berry picking along area back roads.
"Before any more devastation happens, we want to gather to educate ourselves and others of the effects," they said.
Most of the close to 100 people who came to learn on the gathering's first day were students. In one workshop, participants heard from Edivio Battistelli, former president of national Indian Affairs in Brazil.
"Land's the most important element for the physical and cultural survival of the Ojibway people here," he said. "I don't believe Native people can live the way it is right now."
He suggested that the people of Grassy Narrows lobby for a bigger reserve land base which would also move potential environment danger further away from the community.
"There's so much land in this country, I don't understand why companies have to clear-cut so close to the community," he said.
"One of our wrongdoings in Brazil was to put 7,000 people in an area the size of Grassy. How could they live off the land? With no land, they couldn't be Native people and they didn't want to be white, so what do you do?"
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
BRANDON, Man.
Rick Gauthier, a 35-year-old Métis man from Winnipeg, captured his first provincial championship in Brandon on May 3, winning the men's "B" class racquetball tourney.
That championship was achieved while he was also entered in another tournament. Gauthier also won the bronze medal in the senior men's "A" division that weekend.
The Winnipeg Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development employee defeated the top two 18 year olds in the province to win his title. He beat Thompson's Chris Webster, 15 to 7 and 15 to 4 in the semi-finals and then battled Winnipeg's Jonathan Oteyza, winning 15 to 11, 4 to 15 and 11 to 6 in a marathon tie-breaker in the finals.
"This was clearly my best tournament ever," he said. "Next to the gold medal, my most enjoyable win was the Senior "A" bronze medal match against Thompson's Stu Jobe. Stu hits the ball much harder than I do, but I just outhustled him on the court."
Gauthier was scheduled to compete in the Canadian Racquetball Championships from May 19 to 23 in Burnaby, British Columbia (after publication deadline). He hoped to win his first "D" class national championship there. It would be a big step towards becoming the top player in Canada.
"Anything less than first in Burnaby will be a disappointment," he said.
All this success is quite impressive, especially when you consider this is only his third season of playing racquetball.
"Even though I started playing later in life than most competitors - most players start when they're teenagers - my goal is to capture the provincial men's "A" crown next year," he said. "After that, who knows."
He is hoping to compete in the World Senior Racquetball Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on the Labor Day weekend.
"We'll see how well I do in Burnaby first and whether or not I can afford the cost of going," he added.
Gauthier plays and trains out of the Supreme Racquet Club in Winnipeg.
"I train about six days a week, alternating between playing racquetball and squash, as well as weight training three to four days per week. Additionally, I in-line skate to work every day. That really helps with strengthening my legs as well as my cardiovascular conditioning," he said.
When he is not playing racquetball, he coaches young players in a program he started last fall called the Inner City Racquetball Club. The program is a partnership involving Urban Sports Camps and Racquetball Manitoba. Gauthier said the Winnipeg Native Alliance has also been instrumental in the success of the program.
The rising racquetball star said he started the program "because I noticed there weren't a lot of Aboriginal people playing racquetball and it's a fantastic game to teach discipline. It is a great game for those who like individual sports. Besides, compared to a lot of sports it actually isn't overly expensive to play.
He invited any Aboriginal person in Winnipeg who would like to learn the game to give him a call at work.
"I promise I'll take it easy on them." he said.
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWA
There was a little flurry of concern in the first week of May when reports in mainstream newspapers suggested the Minister of Indian Affairs was thinking of creating a mass compensation package for victims of residential schools.
Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart, the reports said, was ready to put together a deal similar to the $1.1 billion package that has been offered to tainted blood victims, infected with the Hepatitis C virus, because the federal government has been hit with nearly 1,000 lawsuits related to residential schools.
Minister Stewart's staff fired off a denial of those reports the next day. A department communications official confirmed that the government was worried that any hint that residential school compensation would follow the same politically-disastrous route as the Hepatitis C compensation package would cause an uproar in Aboriginal communities.
Toni Timmermans, Indian Affairs' communications manager for British Columbia, sent out a hastily-typed note to the press which did not go through the usual approval procedures reserved for press releases. The note said the mainstream stories were "not true."
Timmermans told Windspeaker that Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, Indian Affairs officials and Justice department officials are looking at alternative dispute measures that are intended to make it easier for Aboriginal victims to go through the compensation process.
Timmermans made available a word-for-word transcript of what the Indian Affairs minister said, to dispel the un-truths previously reported.
"The discussions we've been having are looking at alternative dispute mechanisms and trying to understand if there are modern ways of dealing with these issues," Stewart is quoted as saying. "Those, as I say, are continuing. They are being held in partnerships as is our approach. If there are some positive resolutions, that will be good. But, having said that, I think it's important to have something available that's on the ground and that's what we've done with the $350 million healing strategy."
The healing fund is intended to help communities and individuals deal with the traumatic effects of the residential school system. It is not meant to be an alternative to legal action.
Aboriginal people across the country, who have been waiting for several months to hear how the fund will be used, got some answers on May 4.
On that day, it was announced that a federally-incorporated, non-profit foundation had been launched.
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation, with veteran Dene politician Georges Erasmus as its chairman, signed a funding agreement with the federal government and was incorporated on April 1. The foundation carries a nine-member interim board that will expand to 17 members over the next few months. The interim board will become permanent when the other eight members are added.
The manner in which the membership will expand was explained in an internal AFN memo obtained by Windspeaker
"The permanent Aboriginal Healing Foundation will consist of 17 members. The original nine positions that have been identified as the interim board will make up the core of the new board. Each interim board member must go back to its nominating organization for confirmation to the permanent board within 90 days of the incorporation. If a member is not confirmed, the organization will replace the member with another name. This means the names for all nine positions must be confirmed by the end of June, 1998," stated the memo.
The members of the interim board are: Erasmus, Janet Brewster-Montague, Jerome Berthelette, Indian Affairs bureaucrat Wendy Grant-John, Gene Rhéaume, Paul Chartrand, Maggie Hodgson, Debbie Reid and Teressa Nahanee.
As the board is now constructed, representatives of the federal government and the AFN - the two groups which worked together to hammer out the terms of the federal government's Statement of Reconciliation, which was announced in conjunction with the healing fund, constitute a majority.
Indian Affairs and Health Canada each have one member. The AFN has three members. The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Inuit Tapirisat each have one member. The chairman appears to be an AFN appointee, although repeated calls to the interim manager of the foundation, Health Canada employee Paul Kyba, for confirmation of this fact, met with no response.
An AFN appointee in charge of what is supposed to be a totally independent body raises a number of political concerns.
There has been debate across the country in the past several months about whether or not the national chief of the AFN has gotten too close to the Liberal government. Those watching the evolution of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation are wondering if the foundation will truly be "a separate, independent organization," as its chairman maintains. Others wonder about the government's motivation for creating the healing fund in the first place.
Persistent national mainstream news coverage of a similar story, the compensation of Hepatitis C victims, has exposed the inner workings of the Liberal cabinet to a great deal of scrutiny. Editorial comments (and remarks made by indignant victims) have labelled the federal government's attempts to limit Hepatitis C compensation as a heartless, immoral attempt to limit compensation versus morality and compassion.
The Reform Party didn't miss the chance to put the Liberal government in a tight spot on the issue. It made a motion about Hepatitis C compensation in the House of Commons that forced Prime Minister Jean Chretien to order his backbenchers to vote with the government or face party discipline.
"We are cynical enough now to believe there are forces at work and decisions taken by the government that go beyond moral principles and a sense of right and wrong, that are meant to limit legal liability," said Reform Party Indian Affairs critic, Mike Scott.
More recently, the Chretien government has ordered police investigations into bureaucratic leaks to the media. This has earned the prime minister the wrath of editorial writers for being too secretive and heavy-handed in his management of information.
Some Native leaders say it's interesting that the government and the mainstream press have devoted so much attention to Hepatitis C compensation and so little to reparations for the more intentional harm done by the residential school system.
Federal New Democratic Party Indian Affairs critic Gordon Earle said the key to fairness - even if the government decides it must limit the amount of money it pays out to victims of residential schools - must conduct its business in the open and include Aboriginal people in all parts of its decision-making process.
British Columbia's Sto:lo Nation Chief Stephen Point issued a press release in mid-May and said what many Aboriginal leaders are thinking. He suggested that the compensation bill in British Columbia, where almost half of the residential schools were located, could total $8 billion. Point estimates there are 15,000 victims in his province alone.
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