Posts By: First Nations Drum

By Lloyd Dolha

Despite the findings of a study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University condemning the growth of parasitic sea-lice from open-pen fish farms, Pat Bell, minister of Agriculture and Lands, said BC salmon farmers are doing a good job meeting the “standards of the day” for controlling sea lice infestations and protecting the environment.

On December 14, 2007, one of the world’s foremost scientific journals, the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, published a study that concluded sea lice from salmon farms have been driving a rapid decline in wild pink salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago off Vancouver Island.

The study, based on 36 years of fish survival data collected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, concludes that 99 per cent of the wild pink salmon population will be gone in fours years, or two generations, if sea lice infestations continue.

Conducted by a team of six biologists, fisheries scientists and mathematicians, from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie, the study was based on the number of pink salmon returning to some 71 rivers on the central coast of British Columbia from 1970 to 2006.

The researchers then organized the data into four groups according to whether or not the populations were exposed to salmon farms before and during the sea lice infestations, and calculated population growth rates for each group. It is the first study of its kind to demonstrate the impact of sea lice infestations on wild salmon populations and reveal their pending extinction.

“In light of these results, it is clear that governments must take immediate precautionary action to stop open net-cage salmon farming from harming wild salmon,” said Jay Ritchin, a marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation. “The evidence continues to be published in the most respected scientific journals and the B.C. legislature’s own Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture has called for a transition to closed systems.”

Minister Bell said the B.C. aquaculture industry, with nearly 3,000 direct and indirect jobs and annual sales of $300 million, is subject to “the toughest standards in the world.”

“There is no industry that is more publicly reported that the aquaculture industry,” said Bell.

Bell made those comments on Tuesday, January 8th, when he released a pair of 2006 reports on fish farm inspections and the health of farmed salmon through inspections of 60 to 80 active salmon farms . The reports showed fish farms generally complying with provincial regulations, and demonstrated sea lice numbers below the accepted level in most areas that year.

Now, with the fish farm industry coming under increasing scrutiny, Minister Bell acknowledged that those standards can evolve in months to a higher level of protection for wild stocks.

“We really are confident that the industry is meeting the standards of the day,” he said. “Those standards can, of course, change over time.”

Bell said the B.C. government continues to work with First Nations, fish farmers and environmental organizations to develop a provincial aquaculture plan. The plan, which was due to be released last fall, is now expected at the end of March and will stress the protection of wild salmon stocks.

“What the standards will be in the new aquaculture plan, I am not going presume,” said the minister.

Sea lice are natural parasites that feed on salmon skin, muscle and blood. In high numbers, they cause viral or bacterial infection leading to stress or osmotic failure or disturbed water balance, and ultimately death. Numerous studies have shown that where there are no fish farms, wild salmon have almost no lice. Fish farms, however, amplify the parasite on wild salmon migration routes. In the Broughton Archipelago, the wild juvenile must run an 80 kilometre gauntlet of over 60 fish farms before they make it to the open ocean. Critics scoffed at the report, saying the encouraging report card is a “red herring.

The article’s authors said sea lice infestation rates are 70 times higher among juvenile pink salmon from seven rivers in the vicinity of central coast fish farms, compared with fish whose natal streams are more remote, and the mortality rate among infected fish is “commonly over 80 percent.”

The report also notes that the impact of fish farms is far higher than that caused by commercial fisheries. Not only are the salmon and the ecosystem at risk, so too are the economies and cultures that depend on wild salmon.

“The region needs to have the source of the sea lice infestations removed,” said Ritchin. “We must get the open-net cage salmon farms out of the way of the juvenile salmon and ultimately into closed tanks.”

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – An Aboriginal leader in Edmonton has added a new dimension to the residential school debate. “Hastily buried bodies” at residential schools has been alleged by Dean Brown, executive director of the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association.

“Everybody I know who went to residential schools knows about those hushed-up deaths,” Brown told the daily Edmonton Sun

“You hear stories, oh my God, like babies being born and disposed of just because they were the result of sexual abuse,” Brown told the Sun’s Daniel MacIsaac.

MacIsaac writes in the Sun that Bob Watts, interim executive director of the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is preparing to launch hearings this year.

Watts has been reported as saying former students will testify about alleged “criminal deaths” at residential schools and that the RCMP should be ready to investigate.

Brown’s allegations have been refuted by Christian Selin, a spokesperson for the federal department of Residential Schools Resolution.

She says “there is no specific evidence of criminal deaths in Indian residential schools. “Any criminal investigations will be carried out by the police.”

Brown told the Sun a residential school led to the death of his own mother, Rita Cardinal, in Grouard, 366 km northwest of Edmonton, and argues that money is only part of the healing process.

“The amounts are ridiculous,” he says of the settlements, “:–$13,000 for being robbed of your family and culture. “That’s a drop in the bucket for the pain and abuse that goes through your whole life.”

MacIsaac quotes two other residential school survivors in support of Brown’s allegations. He writes that Ray Harris and George Muldoe were both taken from Hazelton, BC, to attend the Edmonton Residential School, and tell of their own traumatic experiences in the 1950s and 1960s.

As adolescents, they said, staff directed them to bury Aboriginals who had died of tuberculosis and other diseases at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton in unmarked graves on school grounds. According to the MacIsaac article in the Sun, Harris said, “I had no feeling after my first year there, so when I was asked to dig a grave I was actually glad because I knew the older boys got paid to do it.

“But one that was really, really disgusting to me when I finally got my senses back was a baby—because I dug a grave for a baby.

“I was the one who carried the baby from the car in a small coffin, and we buried it right behind the principal’s office with no markings whatsoever.

MacIsaac says that’s why Muldoe wants the hearings process to continue and the bodies to be exhumed, even if it is too late for most school or government officials to be held criminally responsible.

Muldoe says the families of those in unmarked graves, today’s Aboriginal youth and Canadians should know.

“Why should we do this?” he asked.

“To find out the truth, I guess—exactly what happened.”

Tribute and Photos by Danny Beaton

He painted human beings in their journey as a colourful family united with creation and the Spirit World with all the powers of the life forces. Morrisseau brought Native American culture, our way of life back in all its purity, onto paper and canvas in a way sacred art could be given life with Mother Earth and her children with the hands of it’s Ojibwa son, a Shaman, Copper Thunderbird.

Canada has lost its own son of Woodland native art, the chief and spirit of North American Native art is Norval Morrisseau. Master, legend and voice of colour, shape, image, even sound came from Norval Morrisseau’s work of cultural respect for the natural world and spirit world. An Ojibway from Ontario’s own Woodland, Norval experienced the devastation of his culture first hand, the dominating forces that had eradicated a big part of Ojibway ceremonial life. This generation of native peoples have experienced the culture shock especially for the past fifty years, because of this scenario, spirit brought an intense struggle back to the people in order to survive the phenomena of culture shock and environmental degradation. No one knew better of resources being extracted from Northern Ontario’s forests, hills, rivers, streams, even animals, fish, birds and human beings. Norval was a communicator for the natural world and spirit world, he was a messenger for Native ancestors, he carried his peoples intense pain and intense joy in a way that was unique. Norval painted our culture and world with awe, splendor, grace, power and beauty. He put the mystery of creation on canvass for the world to experience with their own eyes, he brought us the spirit of the bear in ways only a child, boy, man and elder sees with their inner world and maturity. That inner world of creativity, vision, hope, reality, wisdom, compassion, respect and understanding which only great leaders, teachers, healers and shamans possess.

Over the years, legends have developed around Mr. Morrisseau. According to one story, he became perilously ill at the age of 19. A visit to the doctor did nothing and a Medicine woman was summoned. A renaming ceremony was performed (Anishanaabe tradition holds that a giving powerful name to someone near death can rally strength and save a life). He was renamed Copper Thunderbird, and recovered. Later, he would use it to sign his paintings.

Master of Woodland Native American art has died leaving a legacy no other artist has left since Pablo Picasso. His ability to bring spirit to canvass obliterated art dealers around the world. His way of orchestrating flowers, birds, animals, fish, insects and reptiles with thin and thick black lines was pioneered by Norval and his Ancestors. His style is unsurpassed and his life if studied was a journey through colonization in which he witnessed corruption, intense pain, sorrow, loss, greed, lies and the degradation of our Sacred Mother Earth. Norval countered the obvious of his people and home land with a pencil and paintbrush. His art reflected his country and people in their magnificence, he demonstrated a world of healing with nature, and healing with the spirit world, and life of his people, his people being the Ojibway, Algonquin, Huron, Cree, even Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga and Hopi. Norvals work captured the life not only his own tribe but native American spirituality with the natural world. He brought life to the spirit world which Picasso could not match.

The genius of Morrisseau was displayed in the stories told by his paintings of Thunder Birds, the Sacred leader of the Winged ones, the Eagle, the Protector of the Ojibway Nation, the Bear, etc. etc., Morrisseau used colour in a way that brought life, awe, mystery and majesticity to our eyes and mind. Norval painted beauty and harmony within the one-ness of Native Culture and Mother Earth.

Norval witnessed the rivers, lakes and bush of Thunder Bay Ontario Canada long enough to be influenced for life to move through his veins, psyche, spirit, mind and completeness. He maintained his duty as a messenger, runner and worker for Native America for seventy years. Because Native American culture is based on ceremony Norval was also a historian in the way he captured our world, he also inspired a world of Native artists now many who are successful thanks to the work he layed down for others to learn from. One of Norval’s greatest achievements was to quit alcohol for many years. He had suffered alcoholism for many years as many of our people had. He was an example of purification and change. He struggled to be clean which we should honour him for.

America has a legend, Native people have a true artist, a Human Being, an artist of the Ojibwa Nation who will never and should never be forgotten, we should burn tobacco for his spirit as his love for his people and culture has influenced non-native people for ever of Native Spirituality and power with creation. Norval has helped bring respect to Indian people. Norval painted unity with the environment, Mother Earth, Human Beings and all the Earths creatures. He painted honour, strength and respect to Mother Earth, with all her creation.

On behalf of all Native Peoples, Elders, Chiefs, Clan Mothers, Medicine people, singers, healers and artists we say, “See you in the spirit world brother”. We ask the spirit helpers to take away your pain, we ask the four protectors to protect you on your Sacred Journey, we ask our great Creator to have pity on us.

Norval Morrisseau Speaks Out

I’ve been looking for books all my life – books about American Indians. Anything that I could find that was civil and worthwhile besides what my Grandfather was telling me about the Iroquois and others. There isn’t very much written about Natives in the art and history books we read today. The only thing that was written was about the Iroquois slaughtering the Jesuits somewhere and Sitting Bull and his followers being chased out of Canada. I guess I was increasingly seeking the art form and culture I was being taught, but there was none out there. My Grandfather told me once that nobody, no matter how hard they tried, could remember all of the legends, otherwise, the whole of North Western Ontario would be covered in Pictographs.

I started to do some painting. I guess I saw some art literature from Arizona or the South West somewhere, but I was hungry to learn more. I wanted to paint my house and paint the walls in traditional pictographs like the ones I saw from the rock paintings and birch bark scrolls our people used to make. I was told by some relatives not to do this- that I should not be tampering with these forms, because the Indians will ostracize you. Or the elders would not care for it, just like the Jesuits. Nevertheless, I was determined to do it, for it was my destiny. I would like to say that I am an artist so that I can beautify the world and battle the conditioned consciousness with the same tools used to condition it. My culture is my world.

Thank you for listening.

All my relations.

Danny Beaton
www.dannybeaton.ca

By Rick Littlechild

Andrea Menard was born in Flin Flon Manitoba, attended the University of Saskatchewan majoring in dramatic arts. Her goal was to be a teacher but before she graduated, Andrea had decided acting was her career of choice. It would prove to be a wise decision, her first role was in SACRED PLACES, staged in Saskatoon.The play was a success and she was praised for her performance. Andrea had a choice she could have moved to Toronto for the acting opportunities, but instead she remained in Saskatoon to stage ‘The Velvet Devil’ a play she had scripted and co-wrote all of the music.

The play was based on Metis woman from Batoche, Velvet Laurent who moves to Toronto, circa 1940 to pursue her career as a jazz singer. Velvet returns twelve years later to attend her mother’s funeral and tries to reconnect with her community.

The Velvet Devil was a huge success, it made it to television a few years later and was nominated for a Gemini award. The sound track was released on C.D. to national acclaim and Andrea Menard’s star was on the rise. Director Ruth Smillie described her acting in glowing terms, ‘’ She’s an astonishing performer, you can’t take your eyes of her when she’s on stage. Watching her makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.’’

A gifted singer who is comfortable in a variety of music styles, she followed her debut jazz influenced C.D with ‘Simple Steps’ a folk with country influences project. The C.D. produced by co-writer Robert Walsh her musical partner has accumulated several awards since it’s release. ‘Outstanding Aboriginal Recording’, ‘Best Folk album’, 100 Years won for ‘Best Single’. These are the kind of accolades that would send most singing careers in flight, for Andrea it was an endorsement she never expected, music showcased her depth of talent but her first love will always be acting.

‘’Singing helped develop my confidence on stage, but it’s something I do for fun when I’m washing dishes. Acting is really what I want to do. My whole reason for being in theatre is to touch people’s lives and possibly make them look at themselves in a different way.’’

The Velvet Touch served as a springboard for her career, her next role was in the groundbreaking series MOCASSIN FLATS, her role as detective Amanda Strongeagle garnished a Gemini nomination for best actress and lasted for three years setting the stage for her new television series RABBIT FALL.

Andrea’s character Tara Wheaton a policewoman who is banished to the small town of Rabbit Fall because of a professional indiscretion. In the opening scene of the first episode she stops by the roadside to take a picture of herself in front of the Welcome to Rabbit Fall sign. When she checks her digital camera to check out the picture, she notices a dark figure in the background watching her.

Unaware of what kind of trouble she’s getting into, she goes looking in the woods for him, she doesn’t find him but when she returns to the roadside her SUV has been stolen.

Tara is given a ride into town by constable Bob; a rather shadowy policeman whose wry wit serves as a mask that will come off before the series ends. When Tara arrives in town, she finds her SUV parked in front of the police station, her first omen that something strange is going on in Rabbit Fall. She is given her first case, a missing local girl with a distraught brother who is constantly reminding the police of their failure in finding his sister. Her second case is a house party that ends in murder. The investigation leads Tara into the forest where she makes a disturbing discovery, one that links both cases and ties Tara directly to them.

RABBIT FALL promises to be the frontrunner for APTN ‘s new season and it is the first time Andrea Menard has the lead role.

‘’Over the years I’ve had a lot of experience which has made me ready to take on the lead role.’’ Said Andrea and judging by the first episode, Rabbit Fall may take Andrea Menard’s career to the next level and consolidate APTN as the avatar for developing Native and Metis talent.

By Lloyd Dolha

The Carrier-Sekani Family Services has announced that it is in the final negotiations with the region’s Ministry of Childen and Family Development for exclusive jurisdiction over a significant portion of the region’s aboriginal children in care.

“We have to look at the broader scope [for aboriginal children] of being part of a nation to empower our families and communities to take care of their children,” said Mary Teegee, director of Carrier-Sekani Family Services (CSFS).

Teegee said her organization is close to the final stages of negotiations for that exclusive jurisdiction with the ministry that have been ongoing for the past two years.

Teegee said the CSFS wants to move away from the ministry’s long-standing practice of intervention after-the-fact to a more pro-active approach utilizing the cultural strengths of the Carrier-Sekani clan system to help rebuild northern aboriginal families shaken in the aftermath of the residential school experience.

“We’re saying we have to look outside of the box [of ministerial practice] to a more prevention-based approach in the best interests of the child,” she said.

The announcement comes on the heels of the coroner’s jury recommendations from the two-week inquest into the death of three-year old Savannah Hall.

Savannah Hall was found unconscious in her foster-care home in Prince George on January 24, 2001. When she was taken to hospital by her foster parents, she was in a coma with massive brain-swelling, hypothermia and multiple bruises. She died tow days later in B.C. Children’s hospital.

The coroner’s inquest found that Savannah Hall died of suffocation while in care, which the five-member jury concluded was a homicide.

At a press conference in Prince George on November 5th, CSFS executive director Warner Adam said the jury’s recommendations of the inquest demonstrates the entire provincial child protection system requires a major overhaul.

“The child protection system is riddled with holes that too often places children in danger,” Adam told reporters.

Adam said the CSFS will work with the ministry to ensure that the 26 recommendations from the jury are fully implemented. Seventeen of the 26 recommendations were specifically directed at the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Some of those recommendations included:

Teegee said of the 1,019 children in care in northern B.C., 772 of 75.8 per cent are of aboriginal decent.

Adam said that greater efforts should be made to ensure that aboriginal children taken into care are placed with aboriginal families.

Both Adam and Teegee called for additional resources to ensure that northern aboriginal children are immersed in the cultural strengths of the Carrier-Sekani clan system.

The Lake Babine Nation, Savannah’s home community, has put forward a proposal to the ministry for a clan house, which would allow the aboriginal community to open family group homes based on the clan structure. This would allow a troubled young mother and her child to be brought into care together in supportive surroundings.

Nevertheless, the recommendations of the Savannah Hall inquiry will aid in the further devolution of complete jurisdiction over aboriginal children in care to the province’s 23 aboriginal family services organization.

“We’re going to implement those recommendations as soon as possible and ensure that we have adequate resources to go beyond those recommendations,” said Teegee.

Teegee stressed that the Hall inquiry should not reflect negatively on all foster parents.

“We have wonderful, strong foster parents and we support our foster parents,” she said.

The First Nations Leadership Summit, comprised of the political executives of the First Nations Summit, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the BC Assembly of First Nations, urged the government to move swiftly to address the serious systemic gaps within the ministry identified in the coroner’s report which continue to put First Nations children at risk.

“We hope the coroner’s inquest will finally provide closure to the family of Savannah Hall by providing them with answers that they Have been seeking for six years, “ said Phillip Stewart, Grand Chief of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “However, the findings contained within the coroner’s inquest are clearly indicative that massive funding cutbacks of the past have jeopardized and compromised the safety and well-being of aboriginal children in care.”

The New Testament is now available in the Naskapi language, the fruit of 25 years of translation work by Silas Nabinicaboo, a lay reader of the aboriginal church in Kawawachikamach, diocese of Quebec, and Bill Jancewicz, an American translator associated with the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Every household in the community, located near the mining town of Schefferville, Que., received a copy of the Naskapi New Testament at a public dedication ceremony held Sept. 16; elders received large print editions.

“It’s a wonderful achievement,” said Archbishop Bruce Stavert, who attended the ceremony, along with representatives of the Canadian Bible Society. The Naskapi Nation Development Corporation helped fund the project.

Archbishop Stavert said the project involved “an elaborate process where they (translators) consulted with elders” to ensure the accuracy of the translation.

In the works is a translation of the Old Testament. “For the last 15 years or so, they (translators) have produced a translation of the Sunday readings on the three-year Sunday lectionary that we use, and produce them in syllabics and English,” he said. “They’ve done that with Old Testament readings, so they have a considerable portion of that done.” The Naskapi language is similar to Northern East Cree and is almost always written in syllabics.

“Since early contact with the Hudson Bay Company and the clergy that accompanied them, the Naskapi have embraced the Christian faith. But the only Scriptures available to them for over a century were translated into dialects of Cree from near James Bay,” the Naskapi Nation Development Corporation said on its Web site.

By Lloyd Dolha

A full-scale public inquiry into the death of a 47 year-old Mikmaq man nine years ago at the hands of the Vancouver Police Department began on November 13th in Vancouver.
Frank Paul, of Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick, was picked up by Vancouver Police on the night of December 5, 1998 for being drunk in a public place. A police surveillance video showed him crawling on his hands and knees, unable to walk. He was later removed from his cell and dumped in an east end alley behind a detox centre where he died from hypothermia due to exposure.

Headed by former B.C Supreme Court justice William Davies, the inquiry will examine the roles of the Vancouver Police and all government agencies involved in the case over the years following his needless death.

Mr. Davies said the inquiry will examine the roles of the VDP, the B.C. Ambulance Service, the B.C. Coroner’s Service, the B.C. Police Complaints Commission and the Criminal Justice branch of the Attorney general’s office. The aim of the inquiry is not to find fault, but to make recommendations on changes in police policies and practices.

The Paul family had originally been informed that Mr. Paul died as the result of a hit and run. Two years later, a phone call from the former counsel to the B.C. Complaints Commission, Dana Urban, alerted the family to what really happened. Two Vancouver police officers were disciplined internally, receiving one and two day suspensions, and the police department considered the matter closed.

But a corrections officer who was working the night Paul died, claimed the internal police investigation was a sham and took it to the police complaints commission in 2003. Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld recommended a public inquiry into the case at the time, but his recommendation was rejected by the provincial government.

Crown lawyers reviewed the case in June 2004 and determined that charges were not warranted.

Aboriginal leaders say the results of the inquiry will have profound implications for aboriginals across the country who suffer racism in their dealings with police and government agencies.

“This inquiry has been a long-time coming,” said B.C. Assembly of First Nations regional chief, Shawn Atleo. “It’s important that this inquiry provides an accurate account of the night Frank Paul died, so that recommendations can be made to change the polices and practices of justice systems so that this doesn’t happen in the future.”

The inquiry, which is expected to last up to six months, will take place in four stages. The first will look the hours leading up to Paul’s death on December 5, 1998.

Stage two will look at the response by Vancouver police, the B.C. Ambulance Service, the Coroner’s Service and Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General.

The third will look at what drug and alcohol services were available to officials the night Paul died while a fourth stage will examine policies and procedures.

Paul’s cousin, Peggy Clement told the inquiry Mr. Urban said Paul had been dumped in the alley “like garbage being put out for the night.”

George Macintosh, counsel for the VDP, said police had Paul in custody so often, including some 160 times between 1990 and 1998, they knew him by his first name.

Paul was taken into custody twice the night he died. The first time police gave dry clothes, sent him to the drunk tank to sleep it off, then gave him a cup of coffee before releasing him.

But a few hours later he was back, after police found him collapsed from consuming a bottle of cheap rice wine. This time, unable to stand, and a provincial corrections officer was told to drag him into a waiting police wagon, which was to drive him home.

Instead, Paul was left in the alley. Macintosh admitted “the department is regrettably aware of its failure” to safeguard him the night he died. For Paul’s family, the inquiry represents a chance to bring some much-needed closure to a sad chapter in their lives.

“What happened to my cousin was a grave injustice,” said Peggy Clement.” “We will never see Frank again, but through this inquiry, he may finally get the justice he deserves.”

But First Nations leaders were not so forgiving.

“It was systemic, institutionalized racism that led to Frank Paul’s death,” said Chief Phillip Stewart, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. This inquiry is about exposing the investigation, or rather, lack of investigation into Frank Paul’s death.”

Photographs and article by Danny Beaton

My kids are saying what are you going to talk about Ma, I was thinking what always is important to me is our children, and I thought what’s important to our children’s future is so inter-connected. If we don’t do something for the environment what are we leaving for our children. If we don’t do something for the children in our family, then nothing is important, our children are the most important thing, if our children are important then everything is important. Our children are definitely the most important thing for us.

I got my first foster license when I was eighteen years old. My sister did foster care before that, you know Indian families, they always have some children around. There is an inter connectedness of those people who are having these meetings to figure out what’s the answer, what are we going to do for these kids. I go to these different meetings, I’m really blessed because my life crosses a lot at these different places. I work with these kids, a lot of people are kind of patient with my goofyness, they let me in. So I go to these meetings and they are always talking about what’s the answer, what’s the answer. It is that all these issues are so connected and we attack one peace, and it’s a little of the answer, but society as a whole is probably the issue, and that we don’t take care of our kids, we are not taking care of all these things that make the world right for our kids.

Look at these older women who are still with us, and they’re at our circles and they’re relaxed and they’re laughing, talking. When you think of everything they had to go through, to get to that day. I mean by God could we do that today, survive, what they survived. I know a lot of really strong people in this world, and especially a lot of strong women. So I think we could do that again, but I know my ma had to work really hard and my dad had to work really hard especially with those disabilities to get to that point where our family was intact in spite of all the issues and problems for some of my siblings, who did really fine with their lives.

Our kids today are suffering terribly and half the time we don’t even know it. We don’t know how much they’re suffering. I know ever morning during the school year I got to get those babies up and get them ready and send them out to that school. I feel like I am sending them off to war, because what they have to face. Each generation has its struggle, each generation has its struggle for survival and we want to think its getting better. I never have fancy clothes or make-up and all of that stuff. Because I think if don’t get all those fancy things, then I can use that money to get my children’s life further. Like my mother sacrificed, so my life could go further than hers. If I sacrifice, my children’s life will go farther than my own. I look at my kids and I say holy shit they’re still struggling. I realize every generation is going to have a struggle, but what is the struggle for, to try and keep our kids out of the gangs, still fighting the whole issue of a toxic population, still fighting the whole issue of genocide, still fighting racism. I almost liked it better when I was younger and they just hit us with sticks and put us in jail or whatever.

I think this institutionalized racism is harder to fight, because people who might be our allies its harder for them to see institutionalized racism. Last year we had a fight to keep my granddaughter out of group home, they wanted us to put her into group home because she had troubles. They thought the best idea was a group home. If she gets into a group home, they’re going to medicate her, and you’ll never know who she is. So we had to fight for her, because she was a kid. A lot of the people who helped win that fight and we did win, a lot of the people who helped us win were white people. Non native lawyers. Just because the mother was toxic didn’t mean she was a bad mother, don’t get me wrong. There’s toxic women out there who can’t raise their children right now, but they love their babies. This girls mother loved her, she loves her children but she just can’t raise them right now. Just because she has addiction issues doesn’t mean that her and I are not allies. It’s the system that wants to set this up that her and I are antagonistic. The system does not want me and that birth mother to be allies.

We’re looking at third and fourth generations, so we need to be protecting those children. My grand daughter’s generation and at the same time I don’t think we should be throwing my mother’s generation away. There’s too much to throw away.

Indian Identity

How does the government figure out who is Indian. In the USA part of the genocide practice is that people are brainwashed into thinking that blood degree is an enrollment safe enough. Part of the genocide practice was to say when you cannot document one quarter blood, then one quarter blood in any tribe, then you’re not Indian any more.

Full bloods could not sell their land just a couple of generations ago, so they invented a scratch test where they scratch your arm and count how many seconds for it to disappear and then they decide you’re not full blood. You can sell your land for a nickel, they stole our land. You have kids walking around, they might be from ten different tribes all together yet they might be full blood kids. You saw my kids Danny, do any of them look none native, not one of my kids have enough documented Indian blood to be enrolled and recognized by the government as Indian children. As far as the government of the United States is concerned all those dark little babies I have, they’re all white therefore are not protected by Indian child welfare laws. As far as the government is concerned those are white children. This is genocide, its institutionalized genocide. There’s a man here who calls it disenfranchised. When you’re dealing with that traditional world, never at ceremonies has anybody said “Let me see that enrollment card, let me see your Indian card, what is your blood degree, want is your blood quantum”. You go to ceremonies and people just want to see that you’re sincere. I love the way I’m treated by traditional Indian people when they are living their culture and they know their traditional values. Whenever I go to ceremonies people ask you what help do you need, people want to reach out their hand to you, that’s the way we were in the old days, that’s our way of life. This whole process of blood degree and enrollment which loses those children if you’re not enrolled you cannot have that trust land, you lose your identity, you lose your land, you lose your education rights, you lose your health rights, all of the treaty rights, you lose. You could be a full blood Indian and not be recognized as an Indian, unfortunately a large number of our people have fallen to that same trap that thinking “Oh that’s right, they’re not Indian because they’re not enrolled”, enrollment is not a process that our people came up with, it was a government process. A colonization activity. Here we are brainwashed because we’re educated by their system.

I get up in the morning and I want coffee, I’m just an Indian woman doing what needs to be done, but I want my coffee. This is our dichotomy we’re walking these two paths. It can be from people like me who walks both paths, like being a bridge, because I have to be able to work with this white system and communicate with them on their level, I have to know what they’re saying so I know when they are lying and when they’re coming to hurt the kids. I have to understand them to some degree to protect our kids but I can’t understand them so well that I become one of them. I have to understand this traditional world well enough also because if I’m not bringing those children back to who they’re supposed to be, I’m not doing my job either. (DB- “you’re a beautiful woman for saying the things you just said”).

It’s a crazy life! Twenty years ago I went to Janet McCloud and she is one strong woman and a warrior. And I talked to Betty Laverdure I said “Can I quit now because I have worked with a lot of kids, I felt like I had done a pretty good job.” She just laughed. The last time we were in Montana I said to Betty and I reminded her what she had said “Keep doing this work with our children” and I said Betty I’m fifty years old now, can I quit now? This time she really had a good laugh and she said you are doing a great job.

These old people are not going to give me permission to quit, the children don’t give me permission to quit, because its work that has to be done. These kids that come to live with me are really high level kids that probably came out of an institution or group home, mental institution or health hospital, they came out of them institutions to live in my home, or they got here and they would have been placed in an institution. Every one of them kids would have been medicated and not one of them kids is medicated now, now there has been a few over the years, I know some kids needed medication, but nine times out of ten it’s a process of detoxifying them kids from the medication that makes it easy for adults to work with them. And we wonder why we are living in a toxic society, we are teaching these children as very young children, to be drug addicted. We don’t like the way they behave so instead of working really hard and concentrating our efforts on changing that behavior, we just medicate them for an easy way to take care of them.

At the Sundance that’s an individual experience, but it takes everybody involved to make the arbour, get that tree up, take care of those songs, the prayer is my prayer, but it takes a lot of people. It’s back to that interconnectedness, the answer for those children is an interconnected answer, there isn’t a single answer. There’s places in Manitoba that we go Sundance, when I pull into that Sundance camp, all those people come over to help me. A lot of people think being a single woman must be hard to have all these kids. But I have a community, this is tribal thinking, we have to go back to that. Not just native people, not just indigenous people, but every peoples as a whole, all cultures, all societies need to go back to that tribal thinking. Because when you have tribal thinking you see yourself as a small part of a whole and all of a sudden you become responsible for that whole picture, we are destroying our Mother Earth therefore we are hurting our children. If we are not taking care of our families we are not taking care of Mother Earth. I don’t have any problem driving two thousand miles to go to Sundance with a pile of fetal alcohol children. ‘Cause I know when I get to that camp all those people are going to help me, they’re going to make sure we get our tent up, they’re going to make sure we got what we need, they’re going to make sure if I’m down there at the arbor, someone is watching out for our kids. No one has ever said your kids are too damaged to come to our ceremonies, no one has ever said your kids are too wild. Our elders say bring your kids we understand these issues. The elders understand through our ceremonies our children will find healing and if it takes some extra effort and extra energy to have these damaged kids at the ceremonies. The people who are running them ceremonies know it will take extra energy to run them ceremonies for those children, it will take extra effort for those kids. The community that supports that ceremony, yes, they have to put in more time because we have fetal alcohol children, we have drug affected children, we have a variety of handicapped children coming to ceremonies here in the bush, that takes extra effort and extra energy on everybody’s time. I have no problem going to Sundance because everybody helps me.

Story by Lloyd Dolha

A new report by the National Council of Welfare (NCW), released September 18th, concludes that bolder, more innovative government action is required to give aboriginal children a decent, better chance in life.

The report, First Nations, Metis and Inuit Children and Youth: Time to Act, was prepared by the federal advisory body, draws attention not only to the discrimination and poverty faced by many aboriginal children and youth, but also to the many success stories led by First Nations themselves.

It combines statistical evidence with interviews with aboriginal women and men who work with children and youth.

The report calls on governments to act now and in new ways to genuinely work with aboriginal people and support them fully in their own decisions about what is needed to help their youth.
The NCW report urges government action in a number of areas of concern that specifically includes: the adoption of a comprehensive national anti-poverty strategy with specific vision and accountability to aboriginal peoples; immediate investment in basic needs for today’s aboriginal children and youth in programs and policies that are making a difference, and; greater effort to build fair, sustainable governance frameworks in the interests of a better quality of life for all aboriginal women, men, children and youth.

“The national council is agreeing with what we’ve been saying for years,” said AFN national chief Phil Fontaine. “Immediate investment is needed for successful programs designed by First Nations, and a real commitment to building fair, sustainable First Nations governance frameworks.”

In the council’s report, a two-fold picture of aboriginal children and youth emerges. One is a portrait of aboriginal children and youth often still caught in the legacy of colonialism, racism and exclusion. Their developmental years are often fraught with high rates of poverty and its related causes and consequences in health problems, poor housing and educational difficulties to astounding numbers of aboriginal children and youth taken into government care and youth in trouble with the law or victims of violent crime.

The other side of the portrait shows progress, even in the face of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Aboriginal organizations and communities are finding solutions, developing successful programs and providing the means to restore hope for future generations.

Despite some limitations, the report highlights distinction between First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples. It further addresses differences between women and men and the diversity across urban and remote rural reserve locations.

Chapter 1 reveals the a rapidly growing population of aboriginal children and youth in much greater proportions that the non-aboriginal population that bears the stamp of historical disadvantage of past forced assimilation attempts.

Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the economic context of aboriginal children and youth’s lives in modern society. Aboriginal incomes are improving but the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal incomes continues to widen, even under strong economic conditions.

Aboriginal people consistently earn less than non-aboriginal people. The income gap widened over the 20 years between 1980 and 2000, demonstrating how historical disadvantage has ongoing impacts on aboriginal income.

The 2001 census revealed very high poverty levels as a result of the growing income gaps. In the western provinces, a large proportion of aboriginal children aged 0-14 yr.s lived in impoverished families: 51% in Manitoba compared to 22% for non-aboriginal and 52% in Saskatchewan compared to 21 % for non-aboriginal children. In Alberta, 37% of aboriginal children lived in poverty compared to 16% of non-aboriginal children. For registered Indian children, the cross-Canada figure is 52% living in poverty.

In 2001, the unemployment rate for aboriginal people 15 years and older was 19.9% compared to non-aboriginal Canadians at 7.1%.

On-reserve, the unemployment rate situation for First Nations is far worse. In 2001, the unemployment rate for First Nations people living on-reserve was 27.8% compared to 16.5% for the non-reserve aboriginal population. However, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada observed that the unemployment rate on some reserves still reaches as high a s 70%.

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, unemployment rates were three times as high for aboriginal people compared to non-aboriginal people. Relative rates are little better in the provinces and territories, but still range from 1.5 to 2.9 times as high.

The situation for young aboriginal women is the worse, given not only high rates of single parenthood in the aboriginal community, but also high rates of teenage parenthood.

Chapters 5 and 6 demonstrate how aboriginal children and youth are at higher risk across all indicators of wellness and their health cannot be disassociated from that of their families, communities and living conditions. Aboriginal housing on=reserve and elsewhere, whether in urban areas or the north, is substandard and inadequate.

Chapters 7 and 8 look at the consequences of forced assimilation and systemic exclusion. Incredible numbers of aboriginal children are still being taken into care by child welfare authorities. Many aboriginal children in care “graduate” to the justice system where aboriginal youth are overrepresented in conflict with the law and, ultimately prison, and young aboriginal women are too often the victims of violent crime.
Between 1995 and 2001, the number of registered Indian children entering the care of child welfare agencies rose 71% nationally.

Provincial data, where available, shows that the percentage of aboriginal children in care is increasing.

In British Columbia, aboriginal children made up 37% of children in care in 2000/01, compared to 50% in 2005/06. In 1997 in Manitoba, about 70% of children in care were aboriginal, compared to 85% in March 2006.

The “60’s scoop” is a term coined to describe an era in Canadian history between 1960 and the mid-1980’s when the highest number of adoptions of aboriginal children took place. Over 11,000 status Indian children, plus many other aboriginal children, were placed for adoption between 1960 and 1990.
Given this most recent data, many First Nations would argue that the 60’s scoop never ended, it just increased with intensity, each year, each decade.

According to AFN national chief Phil Fontaine, “The situation facing First Nations children and families today has never been worse. There are more than 27,000 First Nations children in care today. This represents three times the number of children who were in residential schools at the height of their operations.”
The failure of provincial/territorial child welfare agencies to make a meaningful difference in the health and well being of aboriginal children supports the need for aboriginal controlled, culturally-based models.

In the area of justice and aboriginal youth, in its 2005-06 annual report, the Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada condemned ongoing discrimination against aboriginal people in the justice system.

Despite some positive steps, the overall situation of aboriginal offenders has not measurably improved in recent years. Aboriginals account for a disproportionate share of the prison population. They represent 18% of the federal prison population although they account for just 3% of the general Canadian population.

In 2000, 41.3 % of all federally incarcerated aboriginal offenders were 25 years of age or younger. In the four western provinces, the numbers reach astronomic proportions. For example, in Manitoba, 77% of youth in secure custody are aboriginal, in Saskatchewan aboriginal youth are 75%, in Alberta37% and 32% in British Columbia. Given that aboriginal youth form 19% of the population in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 8% in Alberta and 7% in B.C., the percentages in secure custody are far out of balance with population numbers.

As victims, aboriginal people are three times more likely than non-aboriginal people to experience a violent victimization.. Younger aboriginal people aged 15-24 years were 2.5 times more likely to be victims of violent crime as those who were 35 years and older.

Aboriginal young women are disproportionately victimized in domestic violence, the sex trade and gang violence. Young aboriginal women are subject to gendered racism and violence targeted at aboriginal women in general, and more particularly, as sex trade workers.

Initiatives such as Sisters in Spirit, provide a promising example of collaborative efforts. In this initiative, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is working in collaboration with aboriginal youth, other aboriginal women’s organizations and the federal government to address the high rates of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. As noted by NWAC, “this type of violence typically occurs in the public where societal indifference often leaves aboriginal women at greater risk.”

Accordingly, this five-year research, education and policy initiative is designed to increase public understanding and knowledge of the impact of racialized and sexualized violence against aboriginal women often leading to their disappearance and death.

Aboriginal youth face race and gender discrimination often compounded by inequity due to poverty, ill health, lack of education and employment opportunities and other factors.
Aboriginal people need access to culturally appropriate life skills programs and community re-integration supports. Traditional aboriginal justice initiatives may also deliver more meaningful justice to aboriginal youth and communities while providing greater potential for rehabilitation.

While alternative approaches to a criminal justice system that is clearly not working for aboriginal people are to be lauded, truly addressing aboriginal over-representation requires a holistic approach.

According to Justice Sinclair, “The overall solution, I think, is going to be a long-term approach and it has to begin with early childhood development issues. There, I think, we need to assist, particularly given the higher birth rates and the number of young aboriginal girls who are getting pregnant and having babies before the age of 20. We have to assist them in developing their parenting skills and their own personal skills and their own personal levels of achievement so that they themselves can be good role models for their children as they are growing up , as well as good contributing members of society, be that an aboriginal community or the overall community.”

“We need to provide a healthy environment for First Nations children and youth if they are going to succeed in school and in life. They need to be well fed, have clean water to drink, and access to safe housing,” said AFN national chief Fontaine. We know that when our youth do complete high school, they do just as well, in terms of health and employment, as other Canadians. It’s during the teenage years we’re losing them.”

Story by Lloyd Dolha

In an unprecedented move applauded by First Nations and environmentalists alike, a joint federal/provincial environmental review panel has rejected a mining company’s plan to essentially kill off a freshwater lake in north western B.C. as part of its expansion plans.

“The Tse Key Nay [First Nation] congratulates the panel members on their brave recommendations and calls on both governments to follow the panel’s lead and protect Amazay Lake,” said Grand Chief Gordon Pierre, who represents a coalition of First Nations opposed to the tailings proposal plan.

“This is not just about protecting this lake for First Nations people, this is about protecting all lakes for Canadians,” added Pierre.”There are 20 lakes in Canada facing similar mining proposals. We are happy that a precedent has been set in the TseKeh Nay territory: Killing lakes is unacceptable.”

Pierre went on to note that the Tse Keh Nay are not opposed to development in their territories.

“However, we are against development such as Northgate’s proposal to kill a lake and the source of our communities drinking water.”

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council commended the perseverance of the Tse Keh Nay who have fought for four years against the development.

“Our Tse Keh Nay neigbours have endured a lot of stress and pressure from government, industry and other stakeholders to give up their fight,” said CSTC tribal chief David Luggi. “It is because of their determination that Amazay Lake will be saved from destruction, and industry will understand that this type of destructive development is not welcome on our lands.”

Northgate Minerals planned to dig a second pit north of its existing Kemess South mine located about 430 kilometres northwest of Prince George. The company said the expansion would have secured the 475 jobs of workers at the Kemess South mine by providing two years of construction and another 11 years of mining employment at the site. Northgate has determined the Kemess North mine could contain more than four million ounces of gold and copper worth about $8 billion.
But the company proposed disposing of an estimated 414 tons of waste rock and tailings into nearby Amazay (also known as Duncan) Lake.

In the September 17 release of the final report, the panel determined:

“In the panel’s view, the economic and social benefits provided by the project, on balance, are outweighed by the risks of significant adverse environmental, social and cultural effects, some of which may not emerge until many years after mining operations cease,” states the final report of the review panel.

“The panel recommends to the federal and provincial ministers of the environment that the project not be approved as proposed.”

The panel report further noted that the project’s benefits would accrue only a relatively short period of time (two years construction and 11 years of mining production) while, “Key adverse effects include the loss of a natural lake with important spiritual values for aboriginal people, and the creation of a long-tern legacy of environmental management obligations at the mine site to protect downstream water quality and public safety. These obligations may continue for several thousand years …”

At the same time, the panel recognized that governments in Ottawa and Victoria could choose to ignore its 300 pages of findings. The report offers another 33 detailed recommendations intended to mitigate adverse effects in the event the Harper and Campbell governments decide to approve the Kemess North mine project.

“Over the next several days, Northgate will be reviewing the details of the report and speaking with the federal and provincial authorities,” stated a company release within hours of the review panel’s report release.

Kemess South, the publically traded company’s only active mine, is scheduled to wind down operations beginning in 2009.
“Ministers could disagree with the panel’s advice and approve the project,” stresses the Northgate release, which also noted that the panel shared its conclusion that “Duncan (Amazay)lake is the only waste disposal alternative which is environmentally effective, and technically and economically feasible.”

Northgate Minerals CEO Ken Stowe angered BC First Nations when he suggested that the Tse Keh Nay and Gitxan leadership are unrepresentative of community views on the project at a mining conference in Denver on September 25th.

“The people that are most impacted probably have had the least to say,” said Stowe, in reference to local First Nations community members. “You’ve heard the least from them.”
“You’ve heard more from the political arms of First Nations, who are very outspoken,” said Stowe.

The First Nations Summit, which speaks for First Nations on treaty negotiations in the province, strongly rejects those assertions.

“In this case, it is nonsense for Mr. Stowe to suggest that the First Nations leadership have not properly represented the views of their communities,” said Grand Chief Ed John, a member of the First Nations Summit political executive.

“He’s done himself and the mining industry disfavour by insulting the local First Nation leadership by suggesting they do not represent their communities on this particular matter,” added John.

Among other comments Stowe made was a sarcastic observation that “First Nations were quoted by the joint review panel that they speak to bears, so it’s pretty hard to talk science.”

“Mr. Stowe has known for years the feelings of the communities regarding the destruction of Amazay Lake,” concluded John.
“And so now the panel’s report has been received favourably by the communities.”