Forgotten Natives need support, not imprisonment

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When the great Mackenzie Highway was laid more than 40 years ago, linking Alberta's far northwest regions with the rest of the world, Native people found themselves at a crossroads of cultural change.

Traditional Native lifestyle was a mystery to trapper, hunters and pioneers out to play their part in their newly-adopted society. And by the end of the Second World War, the small 70-member settlement of Canadian frontiersmen, grew into what is now known as High Level, Alberta's most northerly town.

By the early 1960s, the resource-rich area made a name for itself in the forestry and oil sectors.

For the surrounding Native communities, the opportunities and benefits offered by society appeared endless.

But today, the spiritual pride that had lasted for generations, has degenerated into severe alcoholism and low self-esteem.

A government-sponsored task force into why there are so many Native in Alberta jails was told by local Native groups recently that society's neglect was to blame for the high rate of crimes committed by Natives.

During a week-long tour of Native communities near High Level, the seven-member panel heard emotional appeals from Native groups that more needs to be done by the government to keep Natives from getting into trouble with the law.

RCMP Sgt. Brian Kakoske told the panel alcohol is the primary factor in most crimes committed by Native people in the area.

Last year High Level RCMP officers jailed 2,590 people - most of them for alcohol-related offenses.

Lakoske said there are often so many calls about alcohol-related complaints coming in to the High Level RCMP station that the police staff there aren't able to answer them all.

He was also concerned over the lack of manpower to handle the cases the RCMP does cover.

Gloria Letendre, Dene Tha' counseling program coordinator, said Natives need support, not imprisonment.

She called for more paid counselors and facilities to combat alcoholism on the Assumption reserve, 110 km west of High Level.

She said her three-year-old counseling program has already made significant headway in 1,000 members with higher self-esteem and a new awareness they need to stop drinking. But she said the need is greater than the program's resources.

"Alcohol is the issue," she said. "We need money to help ourselves,"

Letendre has two full-time alcohol and drug abuse councilors and one trainee who got home visitations in nearby Habay, Zama Lake and Meander River.

Their office is based inside the Assumption reserve medical center.

Letendre points to unemployment and the feelings of hopelessness and cultural inequality as the reasons so many of the bands's members turn to heavy drinking to escape their problems.

She said it is up to the government and the private sector, which benefits from all the natural resources in and around the Indian reserves, to provide Native people with economic and social opportunities.

There are now more than 3,000 people living in High Level - a town whose major enterprises consist of oil services, sawmills, auto dealers and bars.

But what's missing, insisted Dene Tha' band manager Nelson Barranda, is Native business opportunities.

When society decided to develop the area, they forgot to include Natives in their plan, he said.

Although some of the forestry companies near Dene Tha' reserve in Assumption offer menial labor intensive jobs to band members, Barranda said it's not enough for the Natives to maintain a sense of self-worth.

He said the government should provide training programs that would enable potential Native entrepreneurs to start up small businesses in town.

Barranda also said there is an interest among the Dene Tha' to become professionals in the teaching, social service and medical fields.

Without incentives northern Alberta Natives will fall deeper into their rut, he said.

"All they have to do is mill around and then go on a drinking rampage as an expression of boredom," he said.

"Society has done thesepeople a disservice."