Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1998 Windspeaker October Headlines
|
|
|
A group of teens and Elders from Black Lake, Sask. located 100 km from the Northwest Territories and 180 km from the nearest highway to the south, recently completed a 10-day canoe trip. The jaunt was an attempt to help preserve the Dene culture, under attack with construction of a seasonal road to the community, and to stress the importance of that culture to the youth. See story. Photo Credit: Paul Sinkewicz |
Publisher leads attack on Nisga'a agreement
Delgamuukw: Nobody seems to get it
Federal Court of Appeal hears Mitchell caseInvestigation demanded in northern shooting
Inuit ancestry lost with the stroke of a pen
Shop around for best journalism school
Publisher betrays public trust- EditorialA hero's fall from grace- Guest Column
The above is only a partial list of all the stories featured in the October, 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.
Publisher leads attack on Nisga'a agreement
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
VANCOUVER
The Assembly of First Nations wants British Columbia publishing magnate David Black to make some room on his mantel for an annual journalistic "booby prize."
Black, who owns three companies that control 60 newspapers in British Columbia and one Alberta newspaper, has told his editors that any editorials and opinions in their papers on the Nisga'a Final Agreement can only contain anti-treaty sentiment.
Canada, British Columbia and the Nisga'a Tribal Council initialed the final agreement earlier this summer. Nisga'a people are expected to vote on it in early November. The deal has been heralded as the first modern-day treaty in the province. Nisga'a people will receive a land claim settlement worth close to $200 million and the agreement provides for the other parties to recognize a form of Nisga'a self government. In exchange for that, the people must relinquish their Indian Act rights to be tax-exempt.
Black, who is no relation to the international newspaper owner Conrad Black, has also contracted book author Mel Smith to write eight columns detailing the background of the Nisga'a treaty process. Smith's articles will appear in all 60 newspapers, even those not writing editorials on the Nisga'a agreement.
Morris Switzer, spokesman for the Assembly of First Nations, said Black has his vote for the Native American Journalists Association's annual award for the silliest action taken by a non-Native person on a Native issue.
"NAJA has the Columbus award," Switzer said. "Well, we don't have anything like that up here, but I think we have - in fact, I'm sure we have - a winner."
The AFN communications boss said he was serious. He said he planned to organize a special ceremony to present the award to Black.
But not all of the assembly's remarks on the issue were based in humor.
National Chief Phil Fontaine held little back in his scathing response to the Black's initiative.
"We've been criticized for saying Indians are still targets of racism," said Fontaine, "but in recent months we've heard politicians deny our treaty rights, and media commentators contest our inherent right to self government. Now they're trying to deprive us of our right to free speech. If this isn't racism, I don't know what else to call it."
Black knew he was going to stir up a hornet's nest with his edict. He isn't, however, prepared to be called racist.
"I'm not against the Nisga'a people and I'm sure as hell not racist," he told Windspeaker. Black just wants people to realize that 90 days isn't enough time to decide on an agreement that will change Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal lives forever.
Members of B.C.'s First Nations Summit feel that Black is abusing his right as a newspaper owner. An abuse that is being carried out at the expense of the Nisga'a people and everyone else who believes in free speech.
"It's as if we were back in the Wild West all over again," said Grand Chief Edward John, First Nations Summit Task Group member. "It is very troubling to think that many communities in B.C. which rely on these newspapers for objective journalism are being provided anything but when it comes to reporting on First Nations issues."
Black said the decision to insist that his own opinion be put into all the newspapers was a tough thing to do. He said he knows what the dangers of forcing an opinion on people can be. But in his mind, the Nisga'a agreement is not the best deal for the Nisga'a people or the province right now.
"It was tough. It's the first time in 23 years [in the newspaper industry] that I've done this," he said "The treaty as proposed now is not acceptable."
Black said the provincial government is pushing the agreement onto the Nisga'a people without the majority of the people knowing what the deal means. The non-Native people in the province haven't been educated enough on the deal or the background either, he said.
"The government is trying to force-feed it. They are selling it to the people with half truths, as opposed to educating the people about what's in it," he said.
A primary vehicle for the government's campaign to promote the Nisga'a agreement is with paid advertisements in the majority of Black's newspapers. Papers under his control have also printed opinion pieces in favor of the agreement from government sources.
Black said his actions are just a way to present the other side to the public.
"Let's get an educated public here. This is too complex and there's too many issues," he said.
Although he is against the current agreement, Black said he would like to see an agreement negotiated with the Nisga'a. He would like to see the negotiations on a new agreement start up soon after the current agreement is voted down.
"I'm not saying let's turn the clock back," he said. "We need to get this done as rapidly as possible and then get on with things."
If the Nisga'a agreement is voted down by the Nisga'a people, Black's 60 newspapers will again form a united front and lobby for those new negotiations, he said.
"It should be resolved and my papers will be at the forefront saying that this has to be resolved," he said.
The Canadian Association of Journalists has come down hard on Black, calling his actions an attempt to "censure open debate on the B.C. treaty-making process."
Black said he hasn't restricted news coverage of the agreement, just the opinion expressed on the editorial page.
Trudi Beutel, secretary for the Canadian Association of Journalists, said Black has gone too far in trying to influence an issue.
"Black is saying the public has the right to know only what he wants them to know," she said.
Beutel said Black's intention to only influence the editorial page of the newspapers and continue to write fair and unbiased news stories on the treaty process is walking a thin line.
"The opinion/editorial are his words. . . but what's the bigger picture," she asked. "How will Black's mandate affect letters to the editor? How will it affect how the reporters write their news stories. It's a trickle-down effect."
Boni Fox, a board of directors member of the Canadian Association of Journalists also said the "trickle-down effect" could taint the objectivity of the paper.
"It can't help but be a suppression of fair and balanced coverage on this issue," said Fox, a television reporter who has worked in Edmonton and is now a freelance reporter working with CBC in Vancouver.
Even if the papers can continue to write fair and objective articles on the treaty process, Fox said, the public may question their objectivity. She said Black's mandate could not only give those B.C. newspapers questionable credibility with the public, but could also give the whole journalism industry a black eye.
As one of the editors of a paper owned by Black said, "They'll be talking about this in journalism schools for years to come."
"I think it is not helping the industry any," said Fox, adding that many people already feel there is a bias in the media. "Something like this can't be helping our cause at all."
Despite the concerns, Fox said Black's initiative may result in an ironic twist. She said that despite his insistence to express only anti-Nisga'a sentiment on his newspapers' editorial pages, his actions have focused a lot of attention on the Nisga'a Final Agreement across the country and in particular in British Columbia.
That attention to the issue is just what Black wants.
His own opinion that the reserve system isn't working and hasn't for a hundred years is a part of his desire to turf the Nisga'a agreement.
He said the agreement is just a continuation of the reserve system. It will lead to more problems and more barriers between Native and non-Native people.
"You can't separate people based on their race or religion and give them a separate piece of geography," said Black, a firm believer in equality for all.
He said it will produce more ill-will between the two groups of people.
"It will feed racism for a long time," he said.
Although proponents of the agreement say it will break the reserve system, Black believes the treaty process will instead create "a society of 50 or 60 homelands in B.C," further increasing the diversity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures.
Attempts to reach Nisga'a Tribal Council President Joe Gosnell
for comment on the issue were unsuccessful.
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C.
Governments are resisting the new reality of Aboriginal title and they're getting away with it because Aboriginal people aren't being aggressive enough, a British Columbia chief says.
Chief Ray Hance, a Tsilhot'in National Government co-ordinator, believes it's make-it-or-break-it time for First Nations. His tribal group of six British Columbia Interior First Nation communities, with offices in Williams Lake, B.C., is making plans to turn up the heat on the provincial and federal governments.
"All
my life, I've been fighting for the recognition of Aboriginal
title," said Hance. "Now, I don't have to. Now, I have
to fight for proper implementation of Aboriginal title."
It's a fight that has been waged in a fragmented, disorganized way all over the country in recent months. Confrontations between First Nations and resource sector companies have become a regular occurrence in various parts of the country despite the fact that most companies have made great efforts to avoid costly mill closures, roadblocks, demonstrations or court fights. All summer long, newspaper headlines reported disputes in New Brunswick, then Quebec, then British Columbia. Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta, as well as the northern territories, all have situations that could easily boil over.
Aboriginal leaders say these confrontations can be traced back to one thing: Governments are unwilling to face limits on their control of the land within their jurisdiction, even when the highest court in the land has ruled the law says they must.
On the surface, it appears that the companies are the problem, Hance said, because every confrontation pits a company against at least one First Nation. Hance said you have to look more closely to see what's really going on.
"That's the way governments do it. They shove somebody between themselves and the problem," Hance said. "It's a classic, classic war tactic that's been used for thousands of years - divide and conquer. Well, we're prepared to reverse that divide and conquer. Instead of the government pitting the companies against the Indians, we're going to pit the companies against the government."
The Tsilhot'in tribal chief said his organization is working as part of the recently established Interior Nations Alliance. The 83 communities represented by the alliance are formulating a strategy they think will force the government to pay more attention to the Supreme Court of Canada ruling. Hance would not disclose the details of that strategy, but he provided a hint with his later remarks.
"We've told the government they've got to get serious about jurisdiction or everything's going to stop in our territory," he said. "We've told the companies that regardless of what permits they receive from the provincial government, if they don't make agreements with us directly, they're not going to work in our territory."
He said Aboriginal people haven't
yet fully grasped the extent of their rights under Delgamuukw
and it will be an important part of the leadership's job to make
the people more aware.
"It's a really frustrating time, but a really exciting time," he said. "At one time with Aboriginal title, you could just barely see the sails over the horizon. Now it's at the dock. Now we got to make something of it. And we've got to inform, teach, convince people that what we're doing is right."
Others have made a similar observation. Chris McCormick, an anti-tax specialist with Ontario's Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, told Windspeaker of a situation that occurred during a border crossing at Sault Ste. Marie in early September.
An Aboriginal man who crossed into Michigan from Ontario and then purchased a set of tires before joining the procession back into Canada, a demonstration against Canada's failure to recognize the Jay Treaty, asked McCormick if he should throw a tarp over the tires so the Customs officers wouldn't ask him to declare them.
"I told him, 'No!' That's the whole point of us doing this," he said, laughing.
Convincing Aboriginal people that they have these legal rights and convincing them to be aggressive about enjoying and utilizing their rights isn't going to come easy, Hance and McCormick said, but it needs to be done.
Hance said he and his fellow chiefs will take on the government but they need the help of all First Nations chiefs and grassroots members to make any progress.
"People who are willing to co-operate are treated differently," he said, adding that he believes the public governments use preferential treatment to divide the Aboriginal community and the only smart move is to reject such offers.
In order to force the province to recognize how much the court decision has changed the rules or convince the federal government to honor the spirit and intent of treaties, Aboriginal people need a united front, Hance said.
"Even though Delgamuukw told the province it doesn't have the constitutional authority to limit Aboriginal title, the province is still doing it through their agency staff," he said. "I believe they're coaching the line agency staff to freeze out Aboriginal people."
By sticking together and stubbornly insisting that governments honor their legal obligations, Hance believes victory is possible.
"I've been chief since 1973," he said. "The government used to refuse to even consider Aboriginal title. They said they did everything out of the goodness of their heart. Now we know we have Aboriginal title and we have to implement it to its fullest capacity."
Federal Court of Appeal hears Mitchell case
By Paul Barnsley
Windpseaker Staff Writer
OTTAWA
The Federal Court of Appeal spent five days in mid-September listening to arguments from federal government lawyers who urged the court to set aside the Federal Court decision handed down in June 1997. The decision stated that the Mohawks of Akwesasne have the Aboriginal right to carry non-commercial goods across the border without paying duty.
Last Sept. 25, three months after
losing the Mitchell case, lawyers working for the Ministry of
National Revenue filed a notice of appeal of Judge William P.
McKeown's 105-page decision in favor of Akwesasne Grand Chief
Mike Mitchell. The judge ruled on June 27, 1997 that Mitchell
did not have to pay the $361.64 in duties that Customs officials
had billed him after he carried a load of goods across the border
into Canada from the United States. McKeown ruled that the Mohawks
had a constitutionally-protected Aboriginal right to freely cross
a border that was drawn through their traditional territory by
the colonial powers.
Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell
The judge's decision limited the constitutional protection for the duty-free importation of goods to those goods used for personal and community use.
Mitchell consulted with chiefs and Elders in his community before deciding on which types of goods he would use to test Section 135 of the Customs Act. No goods that could be considered harmful to the community (such as alcohol, drugs or firearms) were included.
The Ministry of National Revenue has spent at least $293, 991 so far trying to collect that $361.94 bill from Mitchell. The larger figure represents the legal costs the judge ordered Canada to pay after he rendered his decision. Legal costs have increased as federal government lawyers spend time developing arguments that will be aimed at trying to overturn the decision.
Ontario lawyer Paul Williams, a treaty and land claim specialist, is a member of the Mitchell legal team. He told Windspeaker the three judges who heard the case spent a lot of time quizzing the government lawyers about their arguments, but he isn't prepared to speculate on the outcome of the court's deliberations.
"The court is going to think about it for awhile," he said when asked if a decision was expected soon. "I really don't know when we'll hear."
The Crown's argument centred on four main points:
the government objects to what it maintains is a global approach to border crossing rights taken by the trial judge, that is, that rights specifically belonging to the Mohawks of Akwesasne have been extended to all First Nations;
that Canada's sovereignty is threatened by the decision;
that the trial judge overlooked certain evidence;
that the border crossing right was extinguished by the Customs Act.
Sources in Ottawa who followed the trial expect a compromise decision will be handed down by the court, but no one knows exactly what to expect.
Williams, after listening to the government's case, believes it was mostly about limiting the damage done to the government's ideal position by the original decision.
"I see it as an attempt to limit the impact of the judgement," he said.
The judges' questions to both sides explored in-depth the limits of non-commercial trade, which suggests that is an issue the court will focus on.
"The court wanted to know if non-commercial trade means Mike Mitchell can sell cars in the Yukon, or is it limited to trading baskets with other Mohawks," Williams said.
Williams, who lives near Six Nations and has worked as an unofficial legal advisor to chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy council, admits he's not sure what the government's political motivation for pursuing the appeal may be. He and his colleagues on the Mitchell legal team believe the issue should be negotiated, not litigated.
"Why spend millions on a case involving customs and duties when NAFTA will eliminate all customs and duties within a few years?" he asked. "It doesn't make sense. This is a case crying out for negotiation."
He pointed out that Mitchell went out of his way to be reasonable in what he brought across the border to test the Customs Act, and added that the Akwesasne council is more than willing to negotiate a deal that would respect Canada's needs for a secure border. Williams said the government's insistence in pursuing this matter in court is actually making the border less secure.
"Canada doesn't seem to recognize that as long as it refuses to keep the Crown's promises regarding the Jay Treaty and the Treaty of Ghent, the people running cigarettes and things across the border can continue to pretend to be heroes," he said. "Legitimate Indigenous governments can't do anything as long as Canada's not keeping its promises."
A call to the Justice ministry, for the government's point of view of the appeal led to a return call from a senior Department of National Revenue spokesman. Michel Cleroux said the government viewed the Mitchell case as a test case and was only appealing the decision to get it clarified.
"The original case requires clarification," he said. "A lot of questions aren't answered. The appeal is consistent with a test case. Canada's Aboriginal people and all Canadians deserve a certain amount of certainty in this area."
Since the government claims to be using the case to clarify the law for the public good, Cleroux said, the government will pay a portion of Chief Mitchell's legal costs.
"The government has agreed to pay all reasonable legal costs he will incur as a result of the appeal," the Revenue official said.
Cleroux could not say if the legal fees for the original trial
would be included in that announcement, suggesting that the government
only adopted the test case approach after losing at trial.
Investigation demanded in northern shooting
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
WHITEHORSE
Native leaders in the Yukon want answers after an Aboriginal man was shot and killed by Whitehorse RCMP on Sept. 8.
According to RCMP, the officer had to use lethal force on 22-year-old Harley Clayton Johnnie, who was also known as Harley Timmers, after the two got into a scuffle and Timmers was choking the officer.
The RCMP report that in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, the officer, Cst. Wayne Foster, was in pursuit of a vehicle that had been reported stolen. During a high-speed pursuit, the suspect vehicle crashed off the road. The driver ran into a neighboring housing development that was under construction.
The lone officer chased the suspect. RCMP report the suspect eventually turned to face the officer and raised a bottle as a weapon. The two scuffled, falling to the ground, and the officer was overpowered by the suspect who began choking him from behind.
The RCMP report that Cst. Foster, nearing the point of unconsciousness, drew his gun and fired toward his attacker. Two shots hit his attacker, but did not stop the assault. Foster fired once more. This shot, according to the RCMP report, "glanced off the top of the driver's head at which point he released his hold on the police officer."
The suspect was flown to a Vancouver hospital where he died a short time later.
Three RCMP officers from Vancouver's serious crimes squad were dispatched to Whitehorse to assist in the police investigation of the shooting. The use of outside assistance is to ensure the investigation is fair an unbiased.
But it doesn't sit well with Grand Chief Shirley Adamson of the Council of Yukon First Nations. Since the shooting, she and other Aboriginal leaders have been trying to get their own answers into what happened.
"A number of questions have been raised," said Adamson.
Some of those questions include why a lone police officer would pursue a suspect in the dark, take part in a high speed chase through residential areas, and why the victim wasn't identified before he was shot.
"All of the questions are plaguing the family and the community," said Adamson.
A week and a half after Timmers was shot, Native leaders and police began negotiations about an independent investigation. Adamson said it took a long time to come to an agreement. She said the family and Aboriginal community deserve answers and those answers need to come from people they trust.
"They are not believing that it [the truth] is going to come from an RCMP process," she said. "It was two people in the dark. That's all we know. Somebody has to tell Harley's side of the story."
Assisting the northern Native leaders are representatives from the Assembly of First Nations. Assembly Grand Chief Phil Fontaine pulled no punches in his reaction to the news of the shooting. He questioned the race relations between Aboriginal people and police agencies and recommended better cultural sensitivity training for police.
"We are not questioning whether the law should be upheld and enforced. What disturbs us is the callous, unreasonable and reckless use of force that we are experiencing, seemingly on the basis of race," said Fontaine.
Morris Switzer, a spokesman for the assembly, said his organization is watching this case very closely as it is similar to the March shooting death of two Tsuu T'ina First Nation residents in Alberta by an RCMP officer.
"Our role is to defend the interests of First Nation people in all parts of the country," said Switzer. He said many Aboriginal people are marginalized, living in poverty, and this has been true since European settlers first came to Canada. Frustration and oppression can lead people into some very unfortunate situations, he said.
"When any segment of a society has been marginalized, sometimes the consequences of that marginalization are tragic," he said, adding that these types of incidents won't go away until everyone recognizes the troubles Aboriginal people face.
"There never will be a happy ending if society continues to tolerate poverty and marginal-ization of some of its citizens."
He said the incidents of clashes between Aboriginal people and police forces are growing.
"Our information is that the relationship is very strained in many communities across Canada," he said.
Switzer said he hopes that the Whitehorse RCMP will be willing to provide an independent investigation team with all the records of the incident.
Neither the Assembly of First Nations or the Council of Yukon First Nations could present a timeline for an independent investigation. Adamson said she wanted it completed "as soon as humanly possible."
The Whitehorse RCMP said there were no timelines for when their investigation would conclude, but said information would be released once it had wrapped up.
In Alberta, the investigation into the shooting death of Connie Jacobs and her son, Ty, on the Tsuu T'ina First Nation is being reviewed by the Criminal Justice Branch of the Attorney General's office in British Columbia.
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
NAIN, Labrador
As many as 900 people who thought of themselves as Inuit may now be wondering where their Aboriginal ancestry has gone.
Since 1992, the Labrador Inuit Association has been slimming its 5,000 name membership list to suit new eligibility criteria determined during land claim discussions with the province of Newfoundland and the federal government.
With a decision made by the association's board of directors, letters were sent to some of it's members, informing them that their memberships had been revoked.
Lisa White, a married mother of three now living in Edmonton and going to the University of Alberta, is one of those members.
The letter to White told her that under the "Connection to a Community" section of the membership criteria, she was no longer a member of the Labrador Inuit Association. Since she is no longer a member, her uninsured health benefits from Health Canada and her post-secondary education funding from Indian Affairs had also been revoked.
She wonders if that means she is still Inuit.
According to the new criteria, a membership can be revoked if a person has no direct Inuit blood and if they or their parents were not born in the Labrador land claim area. If there is Inuit blood, it has to be at least one-quarter in order to maintain membership.
White is sure she has one-quarter Inuit blood. Her father's mother was 100 per cent Inuit.
To prove that, however, White must appeal to the Labrador Inuit Association - a process she fears could take several years.
Much like the Aboriginal women who had to meticulously show blood line ancestry when applying for Bill C-31 status since 1985, White can no longer just say she is Inuit - which she has believed herself to be since birth.
She can't understand how she used to be an Inuit member, eligible for uninsured health benefits from Health Canada and education funding through Indian Affairs, and now has to prove that she is still Inuit. While the funding and health care was nice to have, White said she can do without it. She is more concerned about her loss of Inuit ancestry.
"I still consider myself to be Inuit," she said. "I don't agree with it at all. They can't take the blood out of my veins."
Now she is looking for a way to get her status back. She has turned to Indian Affairs, but was told the department can't help.
Unlike Treaty Indians who are registered directly with Indian Affairs, Inuit people do not have such a registry. Indian Affairs relies on numbers sent to them by the Inuit association.
Indian Affairs spokesperson Lynn Boyer told Windspeaker that the Labrador Inuit Association is in charge of its own membership. Despite the fiduciary responsibility of Canada to all Aboriginal people, including the Inuit, the federal government has left it up to the association to tell them who is and who is not Inuit.
Boyer said there is no act to legislate matters regarding the Inuit. There is only the Indian Act. For the Inuit of Labrador, that responsibility lies with the Labrador Inuit Association.
"The position of the federal government is that it is their right to define who their membership is," said Boyer. "We go on the information they provide."
And according to that information, there were 834 people in the middle of September who were no longer recognized by Indian Affairs, Health Canada or the Labrador Inuit Association as Inuit.
An employee with the Labrador Inuit Association who didn't want her name used said the association was reducing its membership to only the purest forms of Inuit people before the Labrador land claim settlement is made.
"We settle the land claim, we don't want anyone there that shouldn't be there," she said. "We want to clear up our membership."
Joe Dicker, the former vice-president of the Labrador Inuit Association and the man whose signature is at the bottom of many of the revoked membership letters, said that when the association began in 1973, the membership application process was very lax.
"In the beginning, when the direction was on to recruit, the eligibility of enrolments wasn't very clearly defined," he said. "There were a lot of people not supposed to be members who got in."
It wasn't until the late 1980s and the early 1990s that the association, along with the province of Newfoundland and the federal government, began to look at the criteria as part of land claim negotiations.
At an open meeting in 1990, the new criteria were announced, voted on and accepted by majority. Dicker said those people who were living away from the community were able to send a vote by proxy.
At that point, the association began to streamline its membership.
Dickers said the process has been fair and, while there were a few complaints at the beginning, the majority of the people in the dozen communities served by the association have accepted it.
Dickers said the people removed from the band list haven't necessarily lost their Inuit ancestry, just their association membership.
For Lisa White, there is no difference between the two. She is baffled.
"I don't know what I am," she said. "It's like we suited their policy once, but now we are no longer up to par."
All that is left for White is to take legal action. According to Indian Affairs, the Labrador Inuit Association can determine its own membership as long as they don't contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
White is going to see if she can challenge the association and also the federal government for giving up on her. She wants to tackle the decision to dump her from the membership list as a human rights violation.
"I'm not going to let them get away with that," she said.
According to the Labrador Inuit Association, there are still
more people on the current membership list who will receive notice
that they will be removed.
By Paul Sinkewicz
Sage Writer
PRINCE ALBERT
A group of teenagers and elders from Black Lake have triumphantly completed a 10-day canoe trip through the wilderness of northern Saskatchewan that was designed to help them preserve their Dene culture.
The trip was planned by band councillor Freddie Throassie as a response to the threat posed by the new Athabasca seasonal road, which is currently under construction.
According to Dan Robillard, band personnel director, the road is seen by many in his home town, only 100 kilometers from the Northwest Territories and 180 kilometers from the nearest highway to the south, as the possible death knell for the way of life his people know and cherish.
"A lot of things will change the elders are saying. The drugs and booze will come in. It'll change the people," said Robillard. "Everything will change when the road comes in. There'll be more people, more tourists."
Robillard said his people also fear trap lines will be disturbed and outside hunters and fishers will come in when the road is completed, further changing the community.
Despite the worries more than 90 per cent of the band voted for construction of the road in a plebiscite two years ago in the belief that the road will bring more good than bad.
But one thing Robillard and Throassie don't want to give up in the exchange is the culture of the band's youth.
"This younger generation, it's right next door to them but they
really haven't learned how to skin [the caribou] or hunt them," Robillard said.
Despite the difficulties of living in the isolated community of
1,500, Robillard said life has improved since his days as a youth to the point where the children of Black Lake are no longer in contact with the land and how to survive on it as their forefathers did. Throassie agrees. "Today's kids have only been taught to watch T.V.," he said.
Throassie's own upbringing taught him how to live off the land in harmony with nature, as was the practice of his forefathers.
"Myself, I've been taught to do that," he said. "When I'm in the bush I have my sense of direction. All the elders believe that. These kids nowadays don't have that anymore."
To help teach the children of the community about their cultural heritage, 10 canoes were purchased in Prince Albert.
At Points North, a group of 12 boys and eight elders began a journey of several hundred kilometres by river, lake and portage to their home community of Black Lake.
Throassie said only three days supply of food was taken with the intention that along the way the elders could teach the youths, aged 15 to 18, about the traditional ways of the Dene people - hunting, fishing and skinning to name a few.
The trip proved to be both challenging and exciting right from the start. After spending the first few days learning how to handle the canoes, the flotilla of paddlers came to their first two sets of rapids.
The second set got the better of one of the canoes and group spent several anxious minutes waiting for one of the boys and one elder to surface and make it to shore.
There they dried off and set about to use their fishing net to replenish their dwindling food supply.
An elder showed the boys how to make floats out of willow trees and weights out of stones. The nets were then set for the night.
Throassie said it was about midnight when a roaring noise could be heard in the camp. He investigated at a hilltop and saw the unmistakable and frightening red glow of a forest fire on the horizon. He says he then saw a rolling ball of fire narrowly avoid the camp by only a few kilometres and be pushed off into another direction by the wind.
A watch was kept for several hours to make sure the fire didn't double back on the camp.
By morning only four fish were netted, and only two were big enough to eat. Throassie cooked the meagre breakfast up for the boys.
It was then that the Creator stepped in, said Throassie.
A two-year old black bear was attracted to the smell of the fish and came to the river bank where the canoes were stored.
"It was a really good bear. A fat bear," he said. "When a bear gives himself up to you it's a good sign."
The bear was shot and the group gave thanks to both the Creator and the spirit of the bear for giving itself up for the group.
The Elders taught the boys how to singe the hide and how to make dried meat from the bear.
"This bear that we killed opened everything up for us," Throassie said. "So that supplied us for a couple of days," Throassie said.
By the seventh day the group was ready to hunt again and Throassie took them to an area he knew to be popular with moose.
"Sure enough there was a moose there. So we shot it and the kids were so happy," Throassie said. "By the time I got there everyone was there and they had the cook pot out."
The Elders showed them how to gut the carcass and prepare the hide with a traditional tool fashioned from a hind leg bone.
"So the kids experienced everything first hand out there."
Throassie now chuckles at the memory of how the boys acted as individuals at the start of the adventure. They had brought their own food and tobacco and would dip into their bags for themselves during the first few days.
But he said at the end of the trip everyone was opening their bags to the group and sharing what they had.
Now that the band has the canoes, Throassie would like to make the trip an annual event.
Throassie said the trip was everything he had hoped it would be for the boys.
"Doing something for yourself makes one feel proud," he said.
"These kids, it shows on their face that they enjoyed themselves. They experienced first hand what our ancestors experienced travelling these routes."
Shop around for best journalism school
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
EDMONTON
The president and general manager of a private Winnipeg-based vocational school has a plan that may open up the door to success in the media world for many young Aboriginal people.
Or it may turn out to be a colossal waste of time and money - eleven months and $15,000 per student, to be exact.
Robbie Robertson (not the well-known
musician) operates Media Arts and Education, The Communications
College. He's one of the driving forces behind INN - the Indigenous
News Network. He admits, right now at the very beginning of his
plan, that there are some bugs to be worked out, but he believes
you have to start somewhere.
Robbie Robertson, Media Arts and Education.
"This is a bullet version of a journalism course, yes," he said, during a promotional stop in Edmonton in early September. "There are better, longer-term courses out there. But the goal of any journalism course and the most important thing for any journalism student is to get published, to get on the air. We're aiming to establish an effective network across the country with 40 really good reporters and that's better than what's happening now."
If all goes according to plan, by Sept. 28, as many as 120 students will have arrived in Southport (one-half hour south of Winnipeg) to start a 12-week journalism course. At the end of those 12 weeks, the survivors will head out into the world to complete an additional 34-week field placement. Most will return to their home communities and file news reports to newly-licensed Winnipeg radio station CJAE, Arts and Education Radio on 92.9 FM. By placing these freshly-trained correspondents in as many First Nation communities as possible, Robertson hopes his network will grow to become the country's leading voice for grassroots First Nations radio news. Robertson wants to market daily Aboriginal news packages to radio stations across the country. For now, he'll start with reports on the lone Winnipeg station.
But, while the idea of finding a way to fast-track Aboriginal hopefuls into jobs in broadcast journalism might seem to be a great idea with exciting possibilities, there are those who say you'd better take a very close look at the course before signing up.
Shannon Avison, director of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College's school of communications, which offers university-recognized journalism courses available in a two-year program, advises students to do a little comparison shopping when selecting a school.
"INN sounds too good to be true," Avison said. "I'm not trying to shoot it down. I hope it works. But it's a new program and it's coming out of the chute at 100 miles per hour."
The entrance requirements for INN are practically non-existent. A salesperson who answered the school's 800 phone line told a Windspeaker staff member who expressed interest in enrolling in the course that an aptitude test contained in the school's promotional package would only be used if there were too many applicants from a given community. It would then be used to decide which applicants would be chosen to represent that community. That salesperson also said that as of Sept. 18 (10 days prior to the first day of class) only 40 students were committed. He also provided the caller with a list of funding agencies to approach and said the school does not arrange funding.
Most educators say a 12-week course without any academic pre-requisites is not going to produce a graduate who is ready for the workplace.
"You need basic skills for post-secondary education," Avison said. "If you're not screening out those who don't have those basic skills, you'll end up pushing someone into a position where they're considered trained people but they're not ready to do the job. That can be very hard on the individual."
Another important aspect that those who are considering INN must be aware of, educators say, is portability. If you finish near the bottom of the INN class and don't get a full-time job with Robertson's network, you really have nothing to show for your time at the school, because it isn't recognized by other schools or by the industry. At SIFC, for example, courses completed in the communications program are credits towards a degree. And employers have dealt with previous graduates of the school and have an idea what to expect when they see it listed on a resumé.
Comparative cost should also be considered, Avison said. For $15,000 a student could pay for both years' tuition at an accredited college (averaging $3,500 per year) and have money left for housing, books and other living expenses.
Perhaps the most important consideration for the Aboriginal students who have been targeted as possible INN enrollees is the scarcity of post-secondary funding.
"There is a treaty right to education, but it's a very limited pie," Avison said. "Before you spend $15,000, look very carefully at what you're getting. If you're lucky enough to get a chunk of money, be very careful how you spend it because you're going to the very bottom of a long list. The second chunk doesn't come as fast as the first, even for people in graduate programs."
Students have to be careful because, with the cost of post-secondary funding, they may not get another chance, Avison said. A businessman with a new idea, like Robertson, doesn't have as much at stake, she believes.
"They take the risks, knowing full well what they are," she added. "But the students aren't always so discerning and post-secondary education is a major opportunity that they can't afford to risk."
Robertson acknowledged his idea is going to take time to perfect.
"Are any of these reasons for not going ahead?" he asked. "I believe the thing that pushes a good idea is the thing itself. We've got Tom Jackson as our spokesperson. We've got 37 billboards around Winnipeg introducing our new radio station which goes on the air Oct. 12. We're only going to recover our investment over the long term. Our goal is to establish a nation-wide network where Aboriginal people get the last word. That isn't happening now. It's an exciting time and we're going to do the best we possibly can to make it work."
[ Windspeaker Home Page | Top
of This Page | AMMSA Home Page
]
[ CFWE-FM | Alberta
Sweetgrass | Saskatchewan Sage
| Raven's Eye | Aboriginal
Media Services ]
[ Mission & History | AMMSA Marketing | Advertising
| Merchandise | Subscriptions
| Contest ]
Comments: e-mail: edwind@ammsa.com
