Pleasant memories of the good old days

Page 6

I was born when everything seemed so natural. People loved nature and spoke to it as though it had a soul. I was once surrounded by the laughter and smiling faces of these beautiful people; their singing and storytelling lifted my spirits and was good for my health.

I loved nature so much my grandfather named me KOOM-NUCK. It's a sacred name and even to this day I do not know what it means. My father began taking me out hunting when I was quite young. He had to constantly quiet me down because I talked so much or made so much noise playing with my sling shot. I saw my first moose when I was nine. I thought it was a horse or a mule, but when my dad started to shoot, I joined in with my sling shot.

There is a tradition with my people that makes the story of a moose kill very interesting. After the kill, the successful hunter gets to sleep naked with a woman under the SAG-IME-WAYAN which means " under the mosquito net." "It's a reward, a cultural thing" my grandfather used to say. Of course, I was too young to understand what this was all about. The cultural thing didn't mean a thing to me and besides I'd probably get eaten alive by mosquitoes or frozen to death sleeping all alone naked.

At an early age I learned to put my shoes on properly, because my grandma would say, "Ka-Na-Kawow-Muskwa" You will end up meeting a bear! So I made sure my shoes were put on right!

In the evenings the Kis-Kan-ak (light) would come on. The lamp was made of lard and cloth and as it burned I would watch the sparks fly into the air. I still remember stomping my feet to the beat of grandfather's drum as he hummed out a tune by George Jones. Grandma would be sitting by the light mending my moccasins.

I had lots of fun back in those days. My friends and I would race on dog sleigh. Perching my cap on backwards I pretended I was racing a Formula One stock car as we flew across the countryside.

We played hockey too. We used cans to make the nets and frozen horse manure was the puck! I was Guy LaFleur ALWAYS or else I would not play. The goalie had a tough time handling my vicious slapshots, because the manure puck would break into a dozen pieces!

We relied upon traditional medicines when someone got sick, and it worked when the gifted people used them right. But people still died. Mostly the older ones passed on and we clearly understood that we would see them in the next world.

Although I would never want to change my Indian-ness, I do see myself in two different worlds. The main focus of the old way was to survive. Today it seems the only way to live is to race for riches. While I have learned to adapt to the new way of living, I still miss the old way.