Knowing relations is knowing oneself

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How do we know who we are? For years we have lived under a White Euro-Canadian system that erased our history; disconnected us from our families, communities and nation; and defined us according to their laws and ideology. Personally, I spent years struggling to understand the way that the "live birth of an Indian" (stamped on my birth certificate) confused my sense of self.

I grew up nurtured by both the Metis and Saulteaux cultures; my communities - situated in Saskatchewan's beautiful Crooked Lake area - were both the Marival Metis community and the Sakimay Indian Reserve.

Before settling at Marival, my mother's family came from the Red River area. Great-grandfather Jimmy (Jacques) Desjarlais - known to me as Mooshum Jimmy - was born to Bernard Desjarlais and Marie Morin in 1879 at Red River in the St. Eustache Parish. When he came West, daughter of Philomene Pittwawedanepitt (Cree) and Dosithe Pelletier (Red River Metis). Mooshum Jimmy was a hunter and trapped and my Down-Koochum Marie Theresa a midwife with a phenomenal understanding of plants and medicinal herb.

Their daughter, my maternal grandmother, Marie Philomene Desjarlais, married Fidele Beaudin, a young French orphan raised by the priests at the Lebret Boarding School. Although Fidele was born to culturally French parents, he assimilated to the

ways of the Metis and thus when married, Fidele and Marie settled at Marival. My mother, Harriet (Beaudin) Acoose, who still proudly speaks Michief, grew up with 10 other siblings.

My deceased father, Fred Acoose, grew out of a very prominent and distinguished Saulteaux family known for their superhuman running abilities. Prior to the Treaties, my Great-Great Grandfather Quewich (or rolling Thunder) travelled freely with Waywayseecapo's Band around the Great Lakes and through the Dakotas. According to oral history, both Quewich and his son Ekos (Flying Bird) were "empowered by the Creator with special powers to run."

Edo's son, my Mooshum Paul Acoose, was a world-champion runner who defeated Tom Longboat in the 1910 Redskin Running Championship of the World. Paul married Madeline O'Soup, a red-haired Irish orphan who was adopted by Chief O'Soup of the O'Soup Reserve (now known as the Cowesis.)

When my parents married at Crooked Lake in 1947, they brought with them the strengths, beliefs, values and traditions of both their cultures. As is our right as human beings, my five brothers and five sisters inherited both those cultures.

I know who I am because I know my relations. Having had my life enriched by both Metis and Saulteaux relatives, I will not allow my connection to them to be broken by a White Euro-Canadian system. Understanding how my personal strength comes from being rooted to the earth through my ancestors. I have to honor all my relations.