Trust. Integrity. Reputation. Top News - December - 2002 Toeing the line! Austin Franson, 8, of Edmonton takes part in the children's bowling party organized by the Metis Nation of Alberta, Zone 4 as part of Metis Week 2002 celebrations. Photo by: Yvonne Irene Gladue Tax-free status travels with new COO Aboriginal women at risk: Disinterested authorities big part of problem Comedian battles past abuse with laughter Canadian actor Adam Beach stars in mystery thriller All this time, and this is the answer? - Editorial The boys are back in town - Guest Column Check out Ontario Birchbark THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF WINDSPEAKER'S DECEMBER ISSUE ARE ONLINE IN THE ARCHIVES - ACCESS IS RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION INFO. Tax-free status travels with new COO Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa A special arrangement between the Assembly of First Nations and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network will see the network's recently hired chief operating officer receive a tax-free salary. As reported in Windspeaker's November 2002 edition, Jean LaRose, long-time director of communications for the AFN, will succeed Clayton Gordon as the chief operating officer of APTN. The appointment was made official Nov. 4. LaRose signed a three-year contract. Well-placed sources say his salary is in a range between $130,000 and $160,000 annually. As part of an interchange with the AFN-an organization that is recognized by the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA, formerly Revenue Canada) to be a tax-exempt First Nation political organization-LaRose's salary will not be subject to taxation. LaRose told Windspeaker his salary at the AFN for the last eight years had been tax-exempt, something he believes is a treaty right of all First Nations people. The one-year interchange will allow him time to approach CCRA as COO of APTN and try to work out a tax-exempt arrangement that would be available to all APTN First Nations employees, he said. Some observers are concerned that LaRose will in some way be influenced by this tie to his former employer. He strongly denied that would happen. "That's the discussion I had with the national chief and a couple of the vice-chiefs," he said. "I'm coming here with a clean slate. I'm not bringing the AFN with me. The chief knows that and the vice-chiefs know that." CCRA spokesman Colette Gentes-Hawn said she could not provide specific details of the interchange agreement because of privacy concerns. But she explained how they work. "When you talk about interchange agreements, those are agreements that Treasury Board has with many different areas. For instance, someone might work for General Motors and come and work for the government for two or three years. He remains an employee of General Motors. General Motors continues to pay his salary and the government reimburses General Motors," she said. "It could work for someone who's an employee of the AFN, for instance, who can be lent out to do a particular job at a particular time and still remain an employee of the [AFN]. That would be an interchange where a salary would still be tax-exempt under the Indian Act." She said CCRA wouldn't know how many interchanges the AFN was involved in, adding that such agreements would only come to light if an organization was audited. Organizations can request a ruling before the fact from CCRA to see if an agreement they plan to implement falls within the rules. She could not comment on whether the AFN had requested any rulings, saying the information was private. AFN sources confirmed the agreement but said such interchanges are entered into very rarely. Clayton Gordon, LaRose's predecessor, took a leave of absence from his position as chairman of the APTN board to fill in as COO after the board chose not to renew the contract of Ron Nadeau, a Thompson, Man. lawyer who held the job for two years. Gordon, along with two other finalists, competed against LaRose for the position. Since LaRose was chosen over Gordon, who will return to be chairman of the board, the new COO will find himself in an awkward position, working under a person he edged out in a competition for his job. LaRose, 48, is a fluently bilingual Abenaki Nation member from the Odanak First Nation (near Sorel, Que.). He has experience in the federal government and the private sector as well as eight years with the AFN. He took over the top management position at the world's only national Aboriginal television network on Nov. 18 with an appearance at the network's Winnipeg headquarters. He starts the job full-time in December. LaRose will spend two to three weeks a month in Winnipeg and the rest of the time in Ottawa. When in the nation's capital, his office will be in the network's bureau in the national press centre, located across Wellington St. from the Parliament Buildings. The new COO has had a connection to the network since the earliest days. "I've been involved with APTN since before it was APTN. I was part of the advisory committee that met for just over a year to lay the groundwork for the network. I was on there with Vice-Chief [Ghislain] Picard from Quebec and we went through defining a mandate, the initial programming grid, working on the license application to the CRTC. I've always thought that APTN was something in which I had some part to play," he said. "When I was first approached to consider the position, I wasn't quite sure I was ready to make the move. I was interested in trying out for it and the process just evolved." An Aboriginal recruiting firm, Higgins International, conducted the search for candidates for APTN. Some critics were surprised by the decision to hire a man with no network television experience. LaRose believes he can handle the job. "Well, I guess time will tell if the choice was a good choice. I happen to think it was for obvious reasons. I think a lot of what APTN is looking for can find some basis in communications and integration and working with various elements of various groups across the country and trying to get those elements to get together to come to an understanding to work together," he said. "And that's what AFN is all about. AFN always tries to play referee to a certain extent, trying to bridge the differences between regions, different perspectives and trying to get people to come to a consensus to work together towards a common goal. I think my sense from the board of directors when I met with them was that after three years, APTN's done a lot since its creation and they want to make sure that everybody still is brought together to move it to the next step. From my perspective, the things they're looking for are work experiences I've had in the past when I worked for the federal government, worked on my own or worked here at AFN. I've done different types of work. I've done managerial. I've done business. I think they felt I had the mix suited to the challenges facing APTN as they move forward. They have to go before the CRTC in a couple of years for a license renewal. They have to fight to try to get better channel placement." He sees APTN as important national institution for all Aboriginal people. "My long-term vision for APTN is for it to really be the forum, the meeting place, one of the key institutions on which Aboriginal people in Canada will start to build their institutions. One of the key things we have to do right now is talk amongst each other, share our stories and share our experiences. I think APTN is the institution that's best suited to do that. It reaches, potentially, to every one of our communities. It reaches into the urban market. It reaches into the homes of First Nations, Métis, Inuit. It is the institution now that goes out everywhere," he said. He acknowledged he will have a number of challenges in the new position. "At this point, if we can get Canadians to recognize that, yes, we exist. We are on the dial somewhere past the snow and past the test screen patterns, there is APTN. There's a thirst out there, from my experience here at AFN, on the part of mainstream Canada to try to understand a bit better who we are," he said. "To them Aboriginal peoples are a mystery and TV is the media that has been reaching into people's lives to present a visual of life in other areas and it has to be the same for us." The network has been questioned about its commitment to news in the past, especially when news took a five-month hiatus over the summer. LaRose said he sees news as very important. "As someone who's been involved in media relations for the past eight years, news to me is a very important element, if not one of the . . . I hesitate to use the word 'key' elements. But I'd say it's a very high priority element for me," he said. "I think news needs to be given a high priority. I've watched their expanded newscast. I must say, at this point, I'm pleasantly impressed with the direction they're taking." He said he plans to meet with every employee and get up to speed with what everyone is doing and then assess whether all the steps that need to be taken are being taken. One area where the network has been criticized is seen as a priority for the new COO. "APTN has to live up to its commitments to French-speaking communities. Up to now, I'm not sure that what's been done has been favorably received. At least from what I've heard in my role here as AFN communications director. I think there may need to be some work done in that area," he said. Catherine Martin, acting chairman of the APTN board, will soon step down and return to being the board's secretary. She said LaRose was the candidate who most impressed the board during the interview process. "Jean LaRose just came across as a person who has some really strong abilities and skills in management and team leadership, in communications, and a real connection, an ear to the ground on what's going on in the country. I think what probably sold us was not just his experience and ability to lead a team but his understanding of where APTN was and where it's trying to go. His vision for APTN was right on," she said. "Maybe in some areas he doesn't have all of what some people would expect. For us, I don't think there was a real question on that because we were looking for a manager. You know, someone who can manage a national corporation. We have a lot of trained staff now and a leader, which is what [LaRose] is, can do a lot with a team like that." She was asked if the new COO was given specific instructions on where to take the operation. "Yes. Part of our understanding and our negotiations was that we identified four major areas that are key to the next few years, one being fulfilling the CRTC commitments that we've made under our license and to prepare for renewal of our application for our license,' she replied. The commitment to French and Aboriginal language programming was an area of concern. LaRose is widely recognized as being responsible for allowing French-speaking chiefs to participate more fully in the AFN. He's expected to do the same for French-speaking Aboriginal people at APTN. Martin conceded that the network has some work to do over the next several years. Former board members have suggested the network needs to start generating more revenue and start relying less on the $20 million it receives in subscriber fees as a result of its must-carry status with cable suppliers. "Irregardless of our subscribers' fee and the funding that we're getting, we really are interested in working towards self-sufficiency," she said. Many people in the industry wonder just how many people actually watch APTN. Martin admitted the ratings numbers were low, but she added that the traditional methods of measuring viewership weren't doing APTN justice. "As with a lot of First Nation statistics, I don't think the ratings companies can actually get an accurate assessment of who's watching APTN, just because of the nature of how they do their ratings. Native households are not a major part of those ratings. As a result, some of the key areas are probably not getting measured as accurately as they could. It's fair and true to say the ratings that we're receiving are probably not as accurate as they could be," she said. Martin said confidentiality concerns prevented her from confirming that Gordon applied for the position, although several well-placed sources have confirmed that he did. "I can't comment on who applied for the position. But I can tell you that the reason I'm acting chair is that on May 6, when our agreement with Mr. Nadeau was terminated, the board appointed Mr. Gordon, who is our chair, to be our acting COO. By doing that we needed to put in an acting chair. Who was our acting chair? Our vice-chair Diane Smith. Because of the amount of work, she had to step down and I was the secretary on the executive and I was appointed acting chair. That's why Mr. Gordon was not the chair but the acting COO. He will go back to the chair once Jean LaRose comes in," Cathernine Martin said. An election for the chair of the board position will be held during APTN's annual general meeting in Winnipeg starting Dec. 2. The member Aboriginal communications societies will decide if Gordon will get a new two-year term. The rest of the board's executive-secretary, treasurer and vice-chair-will be voted on in February. The directors sit on the board for two years, but the chair and the executive change each year. Martin declined to comment on the interchange agreement. "I can't comment on anything that's contractual or anything that's confidential," she said. Top Aboriginal women at risk: Disinterested authorities big part of problem Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer Native women are being left exposed to a class of predators whose tactics in some ways resemble those of the pedophiles who staffed the residential schools. So say experts from many different disciplines. Much as pedophiles discovered, and then passed the word, that residential schools were places where they could prey on Native children without worry of punishment, many observers agree that another breed of sexual predator has discovered that Native women, impoverished, marginalized, are fair game for abuse with little risk attached. Dr. Kim Rossmo is a former Vancouver beat cop who went on to become a world famous expert on serial killers. He recently played a role in tracking the Beltway Sniper who terrorized Washington, D.C. for weeks. Rossmo, the first police officer in Canada to earn a PhD, invented a geographic profiling system that enables police to dramatically reduce the number of possible suspects in a serial murder case. He was one of the first to realize that a serial killer was at work in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. Port Coquitlam pig farm owner Robert William Pickton is charged with the murder of 15 women, and is suspect in the disappearance of 50 others from the streets of Vancouver. "I'll say on the record as someone with a PhD in criminology who studies serial murderers that it's well known that some predators have a preference for marginalized groups," Rossmo told Windspeaker during a phone interview on Nov. 18. "And in Canada, one of the marginalized groups are First Nations individuals, especially in Skid Row areas. In the United States it can be inner city blacks or Skid Row men, sometimes people in the gay community, especially if the gay communities are not as well established as they are, say, in Vancouver or San Francisco. You know that happened with Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee." The numbers of dead Native women-or missing and feared dead-have reached frightening totals. One estimate exceeds 500 over the last 15 years. A number that large would merit the term epidemic, but many activists say that since it's Native women, no one in authority is sufficiently concerned at this point. The most high profile example of this phenomenon is the Pickton case in which half of his alleged victims are Aboriginal. But in the north of British Columbia there is another example going largely unnoticed. The entire community of Prince George-especially the women-is on edge, wondering what happened to six women who disappeared along Highway 16, now dubbed the "Highway of Tears." All but one of the victims are Aboriginal. Interestingly, the only case that prompted an enthusiastic police investigation, assisted by significant media coverage, was the disappearance of Nicole Hoare, a non-Native woman. It's been over a year since she disappeared and posters bearing her likeness can still be seen at every highway on-ramp and at other locations around town. Native people in the area believe the same kind of efforts should be directed at finding the other victims. Cities throughout Western Canada have similar situations. Author Warren Goulding believes there are several hundred Native women who are unaccounted for across the country. He said police sources quibble over the actual number, but all that shows is that nobody has bothered to find out for sure. "The thing that was disturbing is that if it was 600, or if it was 300, nobody bothered to say 'Who are these people?' I don't think anybody really knows the number. Nobody's done much of a job of making an effort to find out just how serious the problem is. That's the big issue. There's still a great deal of indifference to missing Aboriginal women," he said. Goulding's book Just Another Indian-A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference follows convicted murderer John Crawford as he stalks the streets of Saskatoon. The author believes the numbers add up to an epidemic of violence against Native women that is encouraged by social attitudes. "When I first started looking at it, I thought there was something going on in Saskatchewan. But it seems to be a national problem," he said. In Calgary, police refused to act when a Web site depicting nude photos of only Native women, degrading and racists to even the most jaded observer, was reported. Local sources recognized the women to be frequenters of the sleazy bars, called "hug and slugs" by their patrons, in the downtown core. Every kind of illicit good or service is available in or near these establishments, from illegal drugs of all sorts to the sex trade. A lot of prostitution and drug use occurs on or near the grounds of the world famous Calgary Stampede. The Web site, entitled The Girls of Calgary in what appears to be a sarcastic reference to Playboy photo features with similar names, shows women on which life on the streets and serious addictions problems have taken their toll. Windspeaker, using an untraceable e-mail account, attempted to engage the Web site operator in an electronic conversation over a period of two weeks. He did not respond. When a concerned Native person in Calgary complained to the police, that person was told that it was not a criminal matter. Detective Brad Martin of the Calgary police service's technological crimes unit responded to questions about that decision. "For him to take a picture of an adult or near adult woman and post it on the Internet does not fall under the Criminal Code as an offense," he said. "When we deal with matters that are criminal in nature and we want to get something before the courts, what the Crowns all across the country would say to any officer is 'What's the likelihood of a conviction on this charge?' If there's no likelihood of conviction, then don't lay the charge because you're wasting time and money for things that are important where you may get a conviction. In fact, the only situations where the Crown will OK a charge is one where you have explicit sex with violence. It seems that people are still opposed to that. They're not opposed to explicit sex. They're not opposed to violence. But they're still opposed to explicit sex with violence and that's where Section 163 is used still." Legal sources told this publication that the officers could launch an investigation based on Section 163 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Martin said that section is usually employed only in certain cases. "Section 163 of the code is very broad and does cover things like corrupting the morals of a minor, which can be and still does get laid. Section 163.1 also deals with the child porn and child abuse laws which are still very much in use," he said. "Part of what we wrestle with every day is that social morés and what's acceptable today was not necessarily acceptable in times past. But we are not able to pursue it in criminal courts because we do not get convictions anymore for things that would have been convictions, say, 30 years ago. We wrestle with that all the time and a lot of people have a problem with that. For example when I say a child of 14 years old can consent to have sex with a 35-year-old man, most right thinking people's response to that is: 'What! That's wrong.' And I agree. But it's law." Asked if he thought the system needed to be adjusted to protect marginalized people, he responded in a way that many police endorse but many activists say is just not good enough. "Because of the way our criminal laws are enacted or empowered, people who make some decisions fall through the cracks and they can't be saved from themselves, so to speak," he said. "The hard-ass attitude is 'You took your clothes off, lady, for this guy for whatever reason.' If I go and take my clothes off for a guy and he takes pictures of me then I've got to be thinking somewhere down the road he may use them to suit his purposes and why did I allow him to do that? I'm the one that allowed him to do that. We've come across those situations lots where people are playing as men and women do and then the relationship breaks up and now those pictures are on the net. We can't help them. Unfortunately, it doesn't fall within the police mandate. It's a civil matter." Asked if he was at all worried that the Web site operator might be a sexual predator just starting to test the waters to see what he can get away with, the detective said it was possible but not necessarily probable. "That's an unfortunate spin-off from some of those things. But on the other hand, I can put you in touch with people who have all sorts of strange philias that you would not believe that go their lifetime and would never go any further than that," he said. Cherry Kingsley is a former sex trade worker in Vancouver who has escaped from the life to become an advocate for the women and especially children still caught up in that dangerous world. She is a powerful public speaker who attacks judgmental attitudes directed towards people she sees as victims. "Many famous serial murderers started 'practicing' on people in the sex trade. Clifford Olsen had kidnapped and raped a young woman in the sex trade who later identified him to police, but they did nothing. The same thing was true for Jeffery Dahmer...These men had been identified to police as violent sex offenders, but police did nothing until their crimes were so horrific the public would not allow them to ignore it anymore. There are many stories like that," she said. Kingsley and Senator Landon Pearson, Personal Representative of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to the Special Session on Children of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2001, have worked together to try and change attitudes towards prostitution. "Even to use the word 'child prostitute' is stereotyping. Stereotyping is an important part of this problem. You see someone on the street and the stereotype prevents you from seeing them as an exploited person," the Senator said. She sees police indifference to be a big part of the problem. "I would not be able to accuse any one particular person but you just have to let the facts stand for themselves. I mean, why did it take so long for this large number of young women, the fact that they'd gone missing [from Vancouver], to be taken seriously?" Pearson asked. Racism also is part of the equation. "For anyone who's experienced in these issues, Aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable for a variety of reason but there's no question that there's some racism involved," she added. Kingsley believes Goulding has underestimated the number of missing women. "That number seems low. If you look at how many women are murdered, commit suicide, die from drug overdoses, die from disease, and go 'missing,' what you would have is a rate of death that would challenge almost any other circumstance in the world, including war. If you sent 100 soldiers to war, and 100 children to the sex trade, more soldiers would and do come back alive than children. The point is, not many escape the sex trade. Life is hard and they usually die in terrible ways," she said. Rossmo believes that racial attitudes contribute to the high numbers of minorities who fall victim to violence. "I was just in Chicago and there were two or three serial killers operating in the [mostly black populated] South Side at the same time and there just wasn't the same recognition," he said. But the man the media calls a modern-day Sherlock Holmes agreed that poor people are more vulnerable to attack. "Prostitutes generally are seen as a marginalized group. Many of these predators will attack prostitutes. But in Vancouver, it was interesting; we don't find a lot of these attacks in the upper tracks, the expensive prostitutes. The victims create some of their own vulnerability through alcohol, drugs and an unwillingness to talk to the police, and the offenders know this," he said. "These areas are different from middle class neighborhoods and sometimes it's hard for police to understand that, especially if the police come from middle class neighborhoods." He agreed that attitudes have to change. "Assuming once again that Pickton is guilty, he'll be locked up and that'll be the end of him. But that doesn't change the larger picture," Rossmo said. Ernie Crey, a Cheam First Nation member, believes his younger sister Dawn was one of the victims who died at the Port Coquitlam pig farm. "After the disappearances began way back in the 1980s, I was concerned about my younger sister Dawn. We're almost 10 years apart in age. I'm 53. She vanished off the streets around Nov. 1, 2000. Some of the women Mr. Pickton is facing charges of murder disappeared in '99 and late 2000. So she went missing during the time that some of the women that Pickton is alleged to have murdered disappeared," he said. "There are families out here of missing women who say they went to the police, and I don't have any reason to doubt them, as early as 1998 to warn them. When you do the count of how many women went missing from 1998 to last year, you have to wonder what the police were doing." The Pickton farm is about 35 km east of the downtown eastside. Another property owned by the Pickton family was the site of an unlicensed after-hours bar or "booze can" called the Piggy Palace , located about half a kilometre from the farm down Dominion Rd. Ernie Crey said he has been told by police that DNA evidence has allegedly been found on both properties and that the amount of evidence is so great it could swamp every forensics lab in Canada if it was sent out for analysis all at once. That means he and other families will have to wait months for confirmation about the fate of the their missing relatives. Although he applauds the progress made by police recently, especially after the RCMP joined the investigation in 2000, he wants a public inquiry into the way the investigation was handled in its early days. "If the Vancouver police really believe their entire approach to this was above reproach then they have no reason to fear an inquiry," he said, adding Vancouver's new mayor, Larry Campbell, has told him he supports the notion of a public inquiry. Crey thinks Native leaders should apply political pressure and demand action to change the approach to a situation that is costing so many Native lives. "This is something I've been trying to fathom. I've avoided saying anything because I didn't want the leaders of our communities to feel offended. But I'm surprised that First Nations chiefs and provincial leaders of Aboriginal organizations from coast to coast are not up in arms over this. Maybe it's difficult for them to wrestle with this one. There are other priorities. But I just don't know why people aren't speaking out," he said. "I don't want to leave you with the impression I'm trying to tear a piece of skin off the Aboriginal leaders. I'm not. But it would really be great if they spoke out on this. It would encourage the families for one thing. The Aboriginal communities all across Canada, whether they're urban or reserves, are waiting for the leaders to stand up and speak out on this issue." Goulding believes Canadian society has to grow up and put away the outdated attitudes towards sex that allow decent people to turn a blind eye to the carnage in their communities. "This isn't about sex. It's about exploitation. The thing we have to demand too is that the police just simply do their job and don't try to analyze it and don't decide that the women are there because they're junkies and somehow disposable. None of that matters," he said. "When they say they do look at them equally, I don't think they do. And I think we've got lots of evidence that the police departments in Western Canada don't look at it the same way. Vancouver's the most vivid example but, very anecdotally, I've had women in Saskatoon tell me the police just say 'Sorry, we can't help you' or 'What were you doing out on the street anyway?' I don't believe there are any women working the streets who want to be there. This is not a choice thing." One moment in his investigation into the actions of serial killer John Crawford resonates in the author's memory. "Crawford was charged with solicitation of a white undercover officer," he said. "He stated at that point that 'I won't make that mistake again.' John Crawford was out there doing what he did, but there were certainly other men who were selecting Aboriginal women who were either prostitutes or women they'd met in bars or whatever. The men seemed to know that this was an area that they could exploit. They knew perhaps that complaints from these women weren't taken seriously. I'm not really sure what went on, but there's an element out there that feeds on vulnerable women." Top Comedian battles past abuse with laughter Yvonne Irene Gladue, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Vancouver Kathleen McGuire grew up in an orphanage and several foster homes and says the experience hindered her ability to be a child. So now she's making up for lost time with an alter-ego she's developed called Smokey Hontus. Smokey is an 89-year-old First Nation woman who tells it like it is and makes everybody laugh at life's little truths. McGuire is Ojibway, Cree and Irish, born in Beardmore, Ont. and now resides in British Columbia. She is well-known in that province for her comedy, and is often asked to perform at conferences, workshops and community gatherings. Smokey was born out of a comment that a co-worker made over a cup of coffee in Vancouver. "I remember her telling me 'Kathleen you are so funny' and she started telling me a story that she played a trick on someone as a little old lady and she called herself Pokey Hontas and she asked if I would like to be Smokey Hontas. I said 'Oh gosh no. I'm not an actress,' but she said, 'All you have to be is yourself,' and I said that I did not know how to act and she says, 'I will teach you.' So she did and for a while we were Pokey Hontus and Smokey Hontus until she decided to move on in 1995," she said. While growing up, McGuire, who is the mother of one daughter and a grandmother to a grandson, believed that everyone was angry. She blames that on the abuse she suffered in her childhood, and also credits it for eventually providing her a purpose in her life. She says that people often forget how to laugh when they are hurting. "I was never angry with the Creator. I just could not understand why he allowed these people to hurt me. A lot of people get so wrapped up in all the past pain, like residential school abuses, sexual abuse, loss of family, deaths, foster home traumas, alcohol and drug abuse. We often feel like we are hurting for 24 hours a day. But a person should only hurt for one or two hours a day, then they should get on with their day," she said. | McGuire claims she was so introverted that it took her five-and-a-half years of therapy to start her talking. "It just amazes me to this day because I'm basically a very shy person, yet I enjoy people so much. It brings me out when I do this and in bringing me out it brings them out. I find that Smokey brings my inner child out to play," she said. Most of McGuire's friends are Elders. "Elders to me are very, very special people. They are there for me when I need direction and help. They just love this little old lady. A lot of them do not know my real name, or they've heard it but everybody just calls me Smokey. When I'm out of character they are always joking with me and they come and tell me stories and jokes. They call me their crazy friend," she said. "I admire our people because no matter what we've gone through we still stand strong like the mountains. I believe that we will all come together one day and if we made it through this far we are going to make it all the way. I look beyond what is in front of me, and I take a person at face value. Who they are and not what they used to be like or what they are going to be like. It is who they are right now that matters and I work with that and it does not matter what color skin they have either," she said. Smokey's agent Ada Bell said her client has a refreshing approach to comedy. "I think that is why people love her for it. She makes a difference in their lives. She gets everyone involved in the audience and by doing that she brings them out of what they are feeling bad about." McGuire's love for her show keeps her going. At one of her shows she chose the song 'Bad to the Bone' to dance to. When asked why she did this, she said there was a story behind it. "I love that it touches the people's spirits and it heals them of their hurts and anger and I've been told that it is a gift. It gives me something that I missed in my childhood, the acceptance, the approval and the encouragement that I in turn give to the people, which in turn comes back to me. I love our people and I love myself today. When I was a little girl they used to tell me that I was bad. They used to tell me that I was ugly and stupid and that I couldn't do anything right. I never did anything wrong, but I always got heck. But today I now know who I am, so I can now laugh at what they said about me." Top Canadian actor Adam Beach stars in mystery thriller Heather Andrews Miller Windspeaker Contributor LOS ANGELES, Calif. American book author Tony Hillerman has another literary hit on his hands and it's got a Canadian connection. Hillerman, who grew up in rural Oklahoma among Pottawatomie Indians, has written Skinwalkers, a mystery novel recently premiered on PBS Television. Canadian Adam Beach plays one of the main characters, Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. Beach is well-known to viewing audiences, having starred in recent top box-office attractions such as Windtalkers and Smoke Signals, as well as in the television programs Lonesome Dove and North of 60. Beach says he knew even in high school in Winnipeg that he wanted to pursue acting as a career.   Wes Studi and Adam Beach in Skinwalkers. Photo by: Larry Gus "My friends and I figured that drama was the only class where we could team up and be creative. It was expressive, it was inspiring and it was not locked into a regime," said the 30-year-old, speaking from a Los Angeles photo studio where a photographer was taking publicity shots. Beach now lives in Ottawa on the rare occasions his filming schedule allows him time off. Beach described his character, Jim Chee, as a young man who is a distinguished police officer but also a medicine man in training. "That combination makes it difficult for him, because he doesn't know how to make the transition from an authority figure to a soft-spoken medicine man," he explained. Chee is chosen to pursue a mystery killer whose method of disposing of his victims is reminiscent of a skinwalker, a Navajo with supernatural powers to change from human to animal, move with lightning speed, and to kill with unseen powers and curses. Beach says the writers have left the significance of Aboriginal culture intact. "Hollywood and its writers have realized that leaving the storyline as natural as possible and true to the original beliefs is the way to go," he said. "And of course Canada is way ahead of everyone else right now with giving the best point of view possible." Beach is hoping that the increased awareness of First Nations culture, and seeing more Aboriginal actors in cultural settings will give the viewing world a broader perspective and they will begin to understand and respect Indigenous North Americans as a people. "Over the years, Hollywood depicted us as the bad guys, or as outcasts with huge political and social problems, but that has disappeared now," he said. Beach is teamed with Wes Studi, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, who plays the role of a seasoned older cop named Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. Studi is known for roles in the Last of The Mohicans and Dances with Wolves, and played the title character in Geronimo: An American Legend. The characters played by Beach and Studi are portrayed as having uniquely complementary skills as they chase their perpetrator across the desert of the American Southwest. Leaphorn has become assimilated to the urban ways of Phoenix, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, while Chee is a graduate of the FBI Academy with a sideline as a traditional Navajo healer. It's a useful skill, since the murderer has a hostility towards medicine men, including Chee. Beach needed to speak Navajo in Skinwalkers and worked diligently with a linguist to perfect the part. "There is absolutely no similarity to Saulteax." [Beach's ancestry]. "I had to learn the speaking parts from scratch," he said, pausing in mid-conversation to ask if his home-town Winnipeg Blue Bomber football team had made it into the final game of the year, the Grey Cup. "Down here we don't hear much Canadian news," he said. Beach believes that the potential for Aboriginal talent, both behind and in front of the cameras, is great. "There are so few of us right now, and producers often hire a non-Native to fill a role because there isn't a large enough pool of authentic actors. We also need more Native writers," he said. "But it's hard to get excited about an acting career when it's so demanding. You have to be practising every day and it takes you away from your families and from the everyday activities of life at home, which Aboriginal people put a lot of value on," he said. "A lot of people back home are rooting for me. That's not just for me personally, but as a member of the Aboriginal community, because I represent all of us. My success is our success," he said. Beach hopes to initiate some projects himself, hopefully back in Canada as often as possible. "We are starting production shortly in Winnipeg on a film about J. J. Harper which will be released in December," he said. Harper died from a gunshot wound fired by a Winnipeg police officer in 1988, and his death lead to an inquiry into how Manitoba's Aboriginal peoples were being treated by the justice system. Skinwalkers was funded by PBS and Carlton International and shot on location near Phoenix, Arizona. It was presented by WGBH in Boston, whose primetime line-up is one-third educational. Skinwalkers premiered on local PBS channels on Nov. 24, but is to be rerun. Keep an eye on local listings for dates and times. Top