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The following article is excerpted from A Sharing With Those Who Know, a book being written by former Windspeaker editor Dianne Meili to commemorate elders from the 10 different nations in Alberta. The collection of interviews and poetry, accompanied by color photographs will serve as a lasting record of the lives and wisdom of our beloved old ones, who embody the best of what it means to be an aboriginal person. Meili is the great-granddaughter of Victoria Callihoo, a well-known Cree elder born in 1860 in the Edmonton area. Her book will be published in 1991.
At 100 years of age, Tipemsoo (Jimmy Meneen) is alert and smiling. When I offer him tobacco, his face brightens as he gratefully accepts it. Soon smoke swirling around his white head. Settling down into his chair, he energetically begins telling stories, often setting down his coffee cup to make pictures in the air with his gnarled fingers as he emphasizes a point.
His Cree name translates to mean something like "boss of himself". He is well-named. He has taken challenges upon himself and had lived a straight, clean life. He lives in a house of his own across the road from his son's trailer and maintains his independence. He's proud that he's never been in trouble with the law.
His memories are crystal-clear and he's eager to tell about the early days of his life. But before we begin the interview, I ask Roy Meneen, who is acting as interpreter, to see if his father knows about the Mohawk roadblocks near Oka, Quebec. Roy describes the situation to his father and then asks what Tipemsoo thinks about the confrontation. Without stopping to think, Tipemsoo answers that "there shouldn't be any violence used to get things. I think people on the reserves are doing pretty good now, but I'm scared for the rest of the country after this Oka thing. I'm scared it's stirring up some very bad feelings. The government is neglecting the original people of this land."
With that one, very timely question answered, Tipemsoo begins recalling the many episodes of his long life. Here is part of his story.
"I was born at Trout Lake. There were four of us children in my family baptized in 1896 and I think I was about six years old then. So, I think I turned 100 last month.
"Our last name is not really Meneen. It's Letendre and our family comes from around Loon Lake.
"I remember a time when there was only the bow and arrow. I remember the first two types of guns that came into this part of the country. One of the types, the musket I guess, was the first and it sure took a lot of time to go off. It went 'ssssss' after you loaded it ad by the time it went off your moose would already be gone."
"But those guns were something new to us. Really powerful because all we knew was the bow and arrow. In those day, times were hard and we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw the first guns."
"We ate off the land and we ate anything except mink and fox. The merchants at the trading posts depended on Indian hunting for their food. About 63 years ago I went to trap and hunt with Dene people. I spent nine years with the Slavery Indians. People all over the north had hardship.
"In my childhood days I can remember my people would be walking and crying, moving from shelter to shelter. To keep from freezing we had rabbit skin wrapped around us. When the men would see a good camping place, with lots of good wood, they'd hang their packsacks on a tree and then the women would catch up and make camp.
"One time, my great-grandmother's mother-in-law was going to have a baby. We plowed the know for her and she had it. They rested for one hour and then everybody started walking again.
"We used to use spruce boughs for our tips. We must have been crazy but we didn't use hides for our shelter until later. When my grandfather's mother caught o to making a tipi from hides she made it from the skins of nine moose. It had to be carried in two sections and it was very heavy.
"I remember moving from he South Tall Cree reserve to Fort Vermillion. We had one horse and on it were all our belongings. On top of all that were three children riding. On that old trail we used there was only room for one horse, it was so narrow. It took them one year to build it wide enough for wagons. I always traveled that road and wherever there was a soft spot it used to take us about four hours to pull the wagon out.
"Traveling north from Trout Lake, when w got to Jackpine Creek (about 60 km east of the Peace River, on the same latitude as Manning) we could hear the steamboat blowing its horn. It took a crew of eight to keep feeding the stoves of the D.A. Thomas. Along with that, there was four teams of horses that were used to carry things from one boat to the other. One boat came from Peace River and the other from Fort Vermillion and they met in the middle.
"One time, for the challenge of it, I left Fort Vermillion at sunrise and walked to the South Tall Cree reserve by night. That's almost 100 km on a very crooked road."
"Not until I was 20 years old did I see the first building built here on the North Tall Cree reserve. I remember there used to be a big lake right here. This was Beaver territory and there were trails all around the lake.
"We always had dog teams but the horse didn't come around for quite a while. Then, one person brought a stud and mare to Trout Lake. My grandmother couldn't believe this animal. It was so big! When it snorted she got scared and ran away.
"I remember we all used to get together on a yearly basis to have lodge and gave offerings to the Creator. A lot of people were specially gifted but the church destroyed that. Still, a lot of these powers are coming back. The powers were never meant to be used for bad purposes but now they are. A long time ago medicine men fought with each other. It's best to keep quiet about your power..."
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