Posts By: First Nations Drum

By CLINT BUEHLER

EDMONTON – The Royal Alberta Museum’s (RAM)has finally given the public access the bulk of a collection of rare First Nations and Metis artifacts gathered by an eccentric Scottish earl, the 9th Earl of Southesk.
An exhibition of the artifacts was opened to the public earlier this month.

The RAM’s curatorial staff’s successfully rescued the collection last year with the solid support and fast action of Aboriginal leaders, other Canadian museums and federal and provincial funding agencies.

Rather than going to private collectors where it was feared they would be scattered to different destinations and inaccessible, most of those artifacts will now b e available for viewing and research at the museum.

Metis and First Nations leaders and Canadian museums staff were aghast at the potential loss of access to the rare collection if it went to private collectors.

The RAM first became aware that Sotheby’s was selling the collection about two weeks prior to the auction, says RAM Curator Susan Berry. RAM staff immediately sprang into action.
They contacted other museums to ensure they wouldn’t compete in the bidding, and for letters of support to funders. They contacted Aboriginal leaders for letters of support. They contacted funding agencies to secure funding in time for the auction. All responded immediately and positively.
At stake was a distinctive collection of rare artifacts from the mid-19th century, an era which was not represented in the RAM collection. Sotheby’s, which conducted the May 8 sale in New York, called the collection “the most historically significant group of American Indian artifacts ever to be offered at auction.”
The artifacts had been gathered by James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk on a tour of western Canada, beginning in 1859. The journey is chronicled in his book, “Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains.”

Only 32 when he made the journey, and in ill heath from mourning the loss of his young wife, he made the trip, as he wrote later, to “travel in some part of the world where good sport could be met with among the larger animals and where, at the same time, I might recruit my health by an active open-air life in a healthy climate.”

His choice was what was the Rupert’s Land and traveled through southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, spent a week at Fort Edmonton, then headed up the Athabasca River and down to the Kootney Plains and the Bow River near what is now Calgary and Banff.

Dubbed by some as the “first tourist” to visit Western Canada, not being an explorer, trader or surveyor like those who had come before him.

He didn’t exactly rough it. Although he dressed like a frontiersman in buckskin, his entourage included a gamekeeper from his Scottish estate and an Iroquois cook, as well as guides and porters. He even traveled with a rubber bathtub.
The earl didn’t always see the Indians in so positive a light, dismissing some as “bloated, disgusting savages” while praising the Metis as “tall, straight and well proportioned.”

The earl, like other tourists, gathered souvenirs as he travelled, purchasing or commissioning dozens of pieces from Metis, Cree, Nakoda. Blood and Blackfoot artists and craftspeople, including shirta, dresses, moccasin, mittes, purses, pipes, knives, sheaths, and saddle pads. In some instances he had items such as slippers made specifically for his four young children at home.

The collection had been languishing in the ancestral castle in Scotland for the past 150 years, many in pristine condition, with intricate beadwork fully intact, porcupine quill work that has retained its brilliant colours and silk ribbons that remain unfrayed.

The collection was not unknown here, according to Berry.
Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette of the University of Saskatchewan had seen and studied the collection in Scotland, as has Dr. Pat McCormack of the University of Alberta’s School of Native Studies and researchers from the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Now, says Berry, some of the pieces in the collection will be available because the RAM successfully bid for them against other bidders in the United States and elsewhere, possibly making them unavailable for viewing and research in Alberta, and maybe anywhere else.

The RAM’s success in acquiring the items has a double benefit, says Berry, rescuing First Nations and Metis artifacts of great cultural and historical significance, and a big step for the RAM to become one of Canada’s great museums.

“If people are coming to the Royal Alberta Museum from around the world,” says RAM director Bruce McGillivray, “this is the kind of collection they expect to see.”

The RAM was unable to bid successfully for every item in the collection, but did acquire 29 of the 39 pieces being offered for a little less than $1.1 million Canadian, thanks to a cultural properties grant from the Canadian Heritage Emergency Program, and grants from the Alberta Heritage Research Foundation and Alberta Aboriginal Affairs.

Unfortunately, Berry says, Sotheby’s would not reveal the identity of the private collectors who purchased the other 10 items, including the item that went for the highest price. That was an elaborately beaded Blackfoot man’s shirt that sold to a private collector for $800,000 U.S.

The RAM scored its own coup, however, successfully bidding $497,600 U.S. for a Kainai (Blood) dress which the earl described in his journal as “a beautiful specimen of a Blood Indian women’s dress, made from prepared skins of the mountain sheep and richly embroidered with blue and white beads. Such dresses are now seldom to be seen.”

Before this purchase the RAM had no artifacts from the 1850s in its collection, with most remaining in European collections.
Berry says the time from when the availability of the collection was discovered until the auction was over was extremely stressful for everyone involved.

By B.H. Bates

There’s an old Native legend that goes something like this: Many, many, many moons ago, when animals could talk, a frog was hopping toward the water – when out of the sky came a mighty Eagle and gobbled down the poor frog. But the frog was smart and he held his breath. He slowly made his way to the back of the Eagle. He popped his head out of the Eagle, and looked way, way down at the ground below. He turned to the Eagle, and said: “How high are we?” The Eagle looked back at the frog hanging out of his ass, and replied: “About a mile!” The frog said, “Wow! Really? You wouldn’t shit a guy, would ya?”
The reason I’m writing about humour and the Native, is because I’ve noticed a lot of people walking around with their brows furrowed and a frown stretched across their mugs … “What’s wrong?”

I’ve often bragged to non-natives that we non-whites love a good laugh. If, for instance, we were to see Chief Sitting Bull, slip in some buffalo shit – the whole tribe wouldn’t stop laughing until the snows came again. Have Natives lost their legendary: Ha, Ha, He, He, Ho, Ho?

Let’s start in the beginning: when our four fathers and one mother first arrived in North America. Natives had very little to survive on; primitive weapons, large packs of hungry animals and if that wasn’t bad enough – toilet paper hadn’t been invented yet! Could you survive under those conditions? What would you do? What could you do? Have you ever heard of the old saying: “Just laugh it off”?

When things are out of your control, and you couldn’t do anything about it, even if you wanted to, it’s like seeing Chief Sitting Bull, laying on the ground, moaning and groaning – all you can do is laugh at him every time he wipes more buffalo pie off of his butt. Well, my Bros and Sis’ – that laugh, it’s a coping mechanism. Laughing relieves stress and allows the mind (if only for a short period of time) to accept the moment and to move on.

If we go back even further in time … when the first Native monkeys climbed out of the trees. There was a great deal of stress involved in leafing the safety of the branches. Can you imagine having all the ‘wood’ you wanted, and then nothing at all? Wouldn’t you, too, be stressed? If you couldn’t laugh at it, all that’s left … is to beat yourself!

Be truthful, have you ever beat yourself up over something … or someone? Be truthful, did you get the joke in the last paragraph? The innuendo? The suggestion of a sexual nature? The references to; wood, you, beat, yourself?

Now! After reading that last sentence – If it didn’t even invoke, at the very least, a ‘Mini Haha,’ you’re not only a sad Indian, you’re a dead Indian! Humour, is one of humanities greatest attributes: appropriately positioned right between her two brothers, love and hate! I love to laugh, and I hate to think of humour’s enemy: Mr. Sad. Which brings us right back to all those unhappy faces I’ve been seeing. What’s wrong? Do you feel; different, separated, unwanted and unappreciated? What are ya goin’ to do about it; Beat yourself up over it? Laugh it off? Or are you just going to be, like, Sad?

I once heard a Native comedian making fun of Natives – it was so funny it would’ve made you pee in your pants. And I’ve also been deeply touched by Natives who made jokes about where they’d get their next meal. I know as Natives, we have some unique problems – but everyone has problems, no matter what colour your skin may be.
I’ve bragged to people: “Natives have a great sense of humour!” I want you to prove me right. I want you to create a punch line to this joke: A Native and his friend Chang, walk into a bar and setting at the bar is a hot blonde being served by a black bartender … etc, etc! Come on, my Brothers and sisters, get your wits together and email me your twisted Native thoughts. Come on … give me your best ‘punch!’
Whatever we do, we shouldn’t let the ‘politically correct’ half-wits stifle our ability to laugh at ourselves; it’s either that or people will be laughing at us and not with us! There are many things in life that we must take seriously, but to let them encroach into the rest of our lives is not funny: at all!

HE, HE, HA, HA, HO, HO!

THE END

Dear reader: Please feel free to contact, B. H. Bates at: beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca

By Danny Beaton

Ultimately we want to leave a legacy for our future generations by thinking ahead. Its all about our future generations, the unborn, our family, showing them that we made a commitment to the environment, to the land. We fought for it. That’s how we got here in the first place. That’s why we’ve been here- camped along the Grand River for the last 200 years. This has affected every human being on the planet. If we don’t harmonize ourselves, living in peace, all the principals that the Iroquois Confederacy stand for, all the laws we stand for is about keeping the great peace.

That’s why when we talk about the environment we are talking about everybody’s rights. The vast majority of people, including non-native people support what we are doing, they understand the struggle has always been going since day one. The media are selling newspapers because of the violence, the confrontation. I think people aren’t stupid because they realize how important it is to protect the environment, our Sacred Mother Earth. Its not just the Grand River, its everywhere, there’s a problem of land theft all over the world.

That roadblock in Caledonia represents justice for the whole world. We are saying no more development, we are saying no more polluting our rivers, we are saying no more giving us poison. Enough is enough, that was enough. Its been a topic of conversation around our dinner table since I was a little kid Danny. We are living our prophecies now really, because all of this was prophecised by the elders ages ago. That this world would come to this and how things would come to be. We are living the future of our elders. The writing was always on the wall, everybody knew it was always there.

The newspapers are anti-supportive, its anti- natives, it’s a group of protestors, its all one sided, it’s a group of aboriginals, finally after one year they are calling us Six Nations. Saying we are a small group of protesters. Its probably what the OPP thought when they came April 20, 2006 for the raid, they thought we were a handful of protester but they didn’t realize the Six Nations were backing us. The people who were arrested at the beginning were Palestinians, Cree, Mohawk, and non-native supporters. The answer for this problem is by the government to honour our treaties, honour our commitment to the environment, honour our elders, honour our Chiefs, and most of all honour our Clan Mothers.

We have a government, we have treaties in place for Douglas Creek. The government hasn’t honoured any of those treaties. We are the Iroquois Confederacy government, we have treaties with Canada’s government. We have all our Wampums where our treaties are written, that’s where they are remembered. We have showed the government our Wampums and explained our Wampums, how our government works. And explained how our true government of democracy works with consensus. Where everyone has their say. Its not a popularity contest, like the democratic system they have now in Ottawa. The government can’t resolve it because it would cost them too much. You are looking at millions of dollars a year in revenue alone in taxes along the Haldimond Track. What we are talking about is the Haldimond Track. The Iroquois have agreements that predate the Haldimond Track. What I am saying if they honour the Haldimond Track Treaty it’s going to cause a domino effect. This would involve all the cities and towns along the Grand River including the whole city of Caledonia, the whole town of Brantford, Kitchener it goes along the whole river, its quite big area. Its massive, its huge and that’s what the Haldimond Deed covers. Like I said we have agreements that pre-date the Haldimond Deed. The 1701 agreement, that’s all of Ontario plus New York State and parts of Pennsylvania as well Danny, I don’t think the government is going to honour that. If it was anything west of Ottawa that’s what the 1701 agreement covered. All we are trying to do is make politicians come clean now. This is our responsibility, to look after the land. This is Mother Earth, this is where we all come from, this is our culture, guardians of the land. Honouring Mother Earth, honouring the Native People and honouring Native struggles, our commitment to Mother Earth.

They can’t break that bond that we have, its something that we’re tied to. There’s nothing they can force upon us. The Canadian government can’t impose laws and regulations and impose violence on us. They beat us up and it didn’t change things. We’re still here and we are more determined to protect our children’s future. We’re still fighting, we’re not done and we might never be done as long as there is Mother Earth. My dream is world peace, people living in harmony with natural justice. People doing what’s right, living by what’s right. People living with the truth. There’s justice and karma out there that’s natural, that snap back and bite you in the butt.

That’s what’s happening now, Mother Earth is wounded, she can’t do what she used to. All we have to do is watch the weather, the universe is speaking on behalf of Indigenous Peoples. If we don’t change our ways and stop polluting the planet, its going to destroy Mother Earth, Mother Earth is suffering, there’s too many people taking from her. We can only take so much before nature suffers. Millions of people are immigrating out this way, immigrating to the green lands, we’re losing the agricultural base here. New subdivisions are piling up, people are piling up, on top of each other, beside each other isn’t a harmonious way to live in the country. Its adding to the pollution of the air, everything is getting polluted by overpopulation. Over population is polluting Mother Earth. To us the fight isn’t with ourselves, it’s the powers to be to understand that you can’t eat money, money isn’t everything, you have to look at our lifestyle. You have to look at the way of life for all humans, in Canada the people can be the catalyst for the environment, but its not happening. Because they are not listening to the Aboriginal People here, the Native people here. We are the heart beat of the environment.

My family have been here in Six Nations, seven generations along this Grand River. Everybody has seen the development, we’ve been pushed and pushed and pushed. Now we’re on a little patch of territory. We’ve been pushed back to a tiny patch. We can no longer hunt and do what we need to along this river which was our sustenance. The river is heavily polluted, with all the cities dumping their sewage into the river, tire plants, all the development is dumping raw sewage into the river. You can’t eat any of the fish anymore.

After all the years of pollution along the Grand the fish are heavily contaminated. It all goes back to the Great Lakes, the contamination is basically affecting everyone, not just Native people. Everyone should be speaking out. What happens to Six Nations People happens to everyone.

One day there will be no land here, there will be no water, only sand, it will be made into a desert, barren, no trees, no nothing. We have been ignored, our pleas have been ignored, we have been asking the government to be accountable to the people and to the environment, to Mother Earth. But we’ve been ignored. That’s why there is an explosion of all these forces, its died down this winter but spring is back and were organizing. We want to be heard, we have been sleeping outside on the roadblock for 1 year. Real issues are affecting all of our children’s future, hopefully more people will understand our plight and be enlightened.

Thank you for listening

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – When Willie Littlechild receives an honorary doctorate at the University of Alberta’s Spring Convocation it will be only the latest of many honours he has received acknowledging his many achievements.
And those achievements are wide ranging, including athletics, politics, law and public service—locally, provincially, nationally and internationally.

If you’re looking for a poster boy to serve as a role model for Aboriginal achievement, you need look no further than Jacob Wilton Littlechild, O.C., Q.C., I.P.C.

His inspiring story begins on his home Ermineskin First Nation at Hobbema, Alberta and his elementary and secondary schooling at Ermineskin School and St. Anthony’s College.
A gifted athlete, Willie would go on to win more than 45 university, national and international competitions, including stellar performances as a member of the U of A hockey and diving teams, plus serving as general manager of the university’s football team. He ultimately earned Bachelor and Masters degrees in Physical Education.

His accomplishments in sports and health earned him both the Alberta Award for Excellence in Athletics and induction into the University of Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. He would later also be inducted into the Saskatchewan First Nations Sports Hall of Fame and the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.

A passionate advocate for Aboriginal participation in sport, Willie began organizing an international sporting event for the indigenous peoples of North America, and in 1990 the first North American Indigenous Games was held in Edmonton, with games later taking place in various locations in Canada and the United States in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2002.

For his contributions to this initiative, he was awarded the International Gold “Medaille d’Excellence” as Lauriette for Sports 1999/2000 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Willie was pursuing his interest in law, becoming the first Treaty Indian from Alberta to earn a law degree when he graduated in 1976 from the University of Alberta.

That was when—after 24 years spent gaining his education—the Elders called him into a teepee and told him that would be the first day of his “Indian Law School.” The Elders were concerned about violation of their treaties and, because the Ermineskin Treaty (Treaty 6) had been signed by Queen Victoria, they had decided that those violations needed to be dealt with in the international arena.

Littlechild, who had thought he would never have any use for knowing international law, would go from representing his own nation in international legal proceeding to the broader international jurisdiction of the United Nations and its affiliated organizations, with ever increasing responsibilities and influence.
In 1980 and 1981, he was a member of the legal team sent to the British High Courts in London, England as part of a lawsuit to block patriation of the Canadian Constitution until Aboriginal and Treaty rights were protected and included in the Constitution.

He would also successfully venture into partisan publics, elected in his home riding of Wetaskiwin in 1988 and serving five years in Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government where he made a number of significant contributions.

(While some unofficial biographies credit Willie with being the first First Nations person elected to the Canadian Parliament, that achievement goes to Len Marchand of the Okanagan Band, who served as parliamentary secretary to Jean Chretien when he was Indian Affairs minister, and as Minister of State for Small Business, and who was later appointed to the Senate by Chretien. He is credited with significantly advancing the Aboriginal cause during his more than three decades in public life)

As a Member of Parliament he served on several senior committees, including the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution, and as a parliamentary delegate to the United Nations. Working at the international level, Willie organized a coalition of indigenous nations that pursued and gained consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations which led to him being appointed to the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples by the ECOSOC President.

He was the key player in securing a voting seat for Canada’s Aboriginal peoples at the International Labour Organization, and was a founder of the International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development, and a founding member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace. He is currently one of 16 members on the United Nation’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

He is also the current Alberta regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

For those and many other achievements, Willie Littlechild’s contributions have been acknowledged in many different ways.
He is acknowledged by the law profession as Queen’s Counsel and Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel, and is a member of the Order of Canada.

Reflecting on the motivation for his activism, he has written: “Our ancestors in some areas have secured our traditional ways and food systems in Treaties. These international agreements were signed ‘for so long as the grass grows, the rivers flow and the sun shines.’ For sharing our lands, we were to maintain our ‘vocations of hunting, fishing, trapping’ and gathering through certain tracts. We were to be able to do these for food at all seasons of the year. In others, we were to be assisted by Treaty ‘to be engaged in cultivating the soil’ as a right to development. There are other principles in international covenants which state that ‘Peoples’ may not be denied ‘their own means of subsistence.’”

By Caroline Lauder

Up Close and Personal with Lucie Idlout and Tamara Podemski was an intimate concert sponsored by “Native Women in the Arts” at the infamous Bar Italia in downtown Toronto on March 31, 2007.

The night kicked off with Tamara Podemski’s wonderful eclectic mix of gentle and traditional folk sounds that captivated the audience right from the beginning. Her highly-trained and unique style is at times reminiscent of an Alanis Morrisette sound yet manages to stay very original. Tamara uses her spirituality and political views as the forefront for her lyrics in songs to captivate her audience with well-known songs such as; So Damn Beautiful” “She Knows Better” “Ignore” “ “Meegwetch” “Standing Strong” and “All My Relations”. Her enthusiasm spread and engaged the audience throughout the entire performance, which explains why she was nominated for 4 Aboriginal Music Awards: Best Female Artist, Best Songwriter, Best Song/Single (Meegwetch), Best Music Video.

There were give-aways to encourage people to feel even better before the beautiful and talented Lucie Idlout was to perform.
Once the prizes were all given away, Lucie Idlout hit the stage with her intense, alternative; rock n’ roll style belting out one heart felt song after the other. Hailing from all the way from the Territory of Nunavut, her uniqueness of character will grab you even though you may find similarities to that of Shirley Manson of Garbage and Annie Di Franco. If you like those singers then these particular songs will completely grab you: Whiskey Breath”, “Berlin” and “Sorry”. Her no-nonsense, tell it like it is way of getting her message in your face is one you will clearly enjoy. Lucie Idlout maybe a full-out rocker from beginning to end but her vocal style and lyrical messages are so damn unique that is at times a bit haunting. She manages to inject dark, bluesy style that also manages to be highly feminine at the same time as it can be heard in the song “E5-770: My Mothers Name”. If you don’t know the situation behind this then you should as the title refers to the government’s registration of the Inuit by number rather than Inuktitut names, which explains Lucy’s pain and rage in her music. Lucie Idlout is one powerful songwriter/singer who can wake you up, and make you pay attention. Lucie Idlout has the kind of power to knock you off your seat and then hand you a drink to quench your musical thirst. She is definitely an experience you will not want to miss.

Although both acts were very different in style, the performances were all well-received by full house of grateful well-rounded music lovers. If it did anything, it definitely left you wanting more. I would have to thank “Native women in the Arts” for putting on such a wonderful evening and allowing music lovers such diversity and talent.

“Native Women in the Arts” is a non-for-profit organization for First Nations, Inuit and Métis women of diverse artistic disciplines who share a common interest in culture, art, community and the advancement of Indigenous people. They are just all-round wonderful people too.

By Trevor Greyeyes

With the opening of their new industrial training center, Neeginan Institute of Applied Technology (NIAT) is serving notice to businesses in Winnipeg that they’re open for business.
Recent graduates from the aboriginal technical program were rubbing shoulders with government bureaucrats, aboriginal programmers and the media at the newly opened Neeginan Technical Centre. It’s located beside the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg.

The new technical centre allows NIAT to have their students train in a number of situations with standard industry equipment.
For Kelly Spence, 35, participating in the NIAT has been nothing more than a miraculous transformation of her life. The single mother of a 16-year-old girl now finds herself employed at a career she loves.

“Applying has been a life altering decision,” said Spence. “It was the best career choice I ever made.”

She now works for Standard Aero where her career began as an aircraft mechanic. After working in that position for a year, she is now training for a new position as a Details Inspector. Spence said it involves looking at engine parts and deciding if they’re good or bad and if the parts are good enough to be used in an aircraft engine.

While she was being trained by NIAT, it became necessary for the college to book space at other facilities that had the equipment they needed to be trained on.

Spence said the addition of the new building and the equipment will really help out the next batch of students ready to enter their training programs.

For Rhonda McCorriston, NAIT director, it’s about bringing real jobs to honest hard working people.

“The jobs we train people for aren’t simple labour jobs,” said McCorriston. “Our training needs to reflect where they’re working.”

And for her that not only means training her students on the proper equipment but also training them, for example, in the afternoon if they are going to be hired working the afternoon shift.

As well, NIAT only trains people for jobs that their industry partners have already identified as an area where they need people.

NIAT current industry partners include: Avion Services Corporation, Boeing Canada Technology, Border Glass and Aluminum, Carlson Engineering Composites Ltd., Custom Steel Manufacturing Limited, Manitoba Aerospace Human Resources Coordination Committee, Manitoba Hydro and Standard Aerospace Ltd.

McCorriston said, “More of our graduates would’ve been here but unfortunately they’re all working. And those here are attending because their employers have let them off early to be here.”

Ricky Lawrence, Standard Aerospace Director of Training and Development, said the partnership has served everyone involved really well.

“This is good for us,” said Lawrence. “Lucky enough, we know the people in the training process.”

So far, they’ve hired all the graduates from earlier programs with NIAT.

Garry Swampy, 21, from Sagkeeng First Nation located 100 km northwest of Winnipeg, is a young man who feels it’s a great opportunity to start his career working at Boeing Canada. Though he’s not married yet, he does have a girlfriend; he said it would give him a chance to really provide for a family when he starts one. Although, he is in no hurry to start a family right now.
“The pay is great,” said a beaming Swampy. “Once you’re in the company, you can go anywhere. In terms of, you know, if you want to keep on working in production or go into management.”
Herman Hansen, Boeing’s Manager of Training and Development in Winnipeg, said with part of the 707 contract (a
government contract to buy planes) coming to the city that there is a need for skilled workers at the Boeing plant.

Hansen said, “Our staffing requirements have increased significantly. We’re trying to hire as many qualified people as we can and this program is consistent with Boeing’s diversity growth.”

Boeing has been working with NIAT for the last six months and has had 10 Aboriginal students to date.

“Rhonda McCorriston is focused on providing us with the best possible candidates. We’re really looking forward to the partnership,” said Hansen.

Roy Mahon has been with NIAT for the last six months as the manager of Technological and Industrial Partnerships and is responsible for retrofitting the building that became the technical centre and working with the trades programs.

“We bought the best equipment and materials to get the best jobs,” said Mahon of his work with NIAT.

The building was purchased from an autobody shop that had been located next to the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg since it first opened its doors. Mahon described looking at the building and wondering if the project could be done but he had faith.
With about $600,000 (most of that federal money), he fixed the roof, cleaned up the interior, painted the walls and bought the equipment for training.

The technical centre will offer aboriginal adults the chance to learn skills like welding, aircraft maintenance and bench work.
As invited guests moved through the sparkling recently retrofitted building, they looked at stations that had welding machines, drill presses of all kinds, steel lathes and a few curious onlookers wondering what certain large machines actually did.
Harvey Bostrum, Manitoba deputy minister of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs said the technical centre is part of a longer term process that has seen a group of aboriginal organizations come together to buy the former CP Station in Winnipeg and transform it into the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg in the early 90’s.
Now, the Aboriginal Centre houses programs that run the gamut from early childhood to post-secondary education.

Bostrum said, “When these people came forward and bought the building many thought it would be a white elephant.”

For training and education, the Aboriginal Centre has become a one-stop service centre with many of the organizations complementing each other.

The Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD) is the organization responsible for starting and administering NIAT. CAHRD has served the aboriginal community for the last 35 years. Combined with NIAT and its other programs, CAHRD has been training about 400 to 500 people a year and finding jobs for 1200.

For instance, McCorriston pointed out that a person coming into the building goes to CAHRD to find a job. There are a number of programs that is offered including job search skills, resume workshops and career counseling. An individual can also be tested to determine their skill and education level.

If it’s below a certain point, there is the literacy program that can give students the skills to take high school courses, also offered at the Aboriginal Centre through the Aboriginal Community Campus. After finishing their high school training, the student can then be streamed into one of the post-secondary courses offered through Neeginan Institute of Applied Technology.

Courses are offered as demands in different skilled areas change. Currently, NIAT offers courses in carpentry, aerospace technology, nursing and welding.

For students with children, there is a daycare. For health needs, there is the Aboriginal Health and Wellness organization that can offer anything from elder counseling to doctor check-ups.
Now, the various aboriginal groups at the Aboriginal Centre own property that stretches over several acres in the heart of Winnipeg stretching from Main and Higgins to the former site of Manitoba Cold Storage several city blocks south of the main building.

McCorriston said they are planning to build housing for aboriginal students attending school. It should be completed by Dec. 31, 2007.

“We are all about trying to get people jobs and breaking the cycle of poverty,” said McCorriston.

By Lloyd Dolha

The largest First Nations community at the centre of the booming oil sands development in the Fort McMurray area has withdrawn from the organization set up to protect the environment from too much development.

Government and industry are not taking the protection of the environment seriously, said Sherwin Sheh, spokesperson for the Mikisew Cree of Fort Chipewyan.

The provincial and federal governments created the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) to watch over oil sands development and determine how many mines and upgrading plants can be allowed before the environment is permanently affected.

CEMA was supposed to have answered that question two years ago, but despite seven years of meetings and studies, it still hasn’t made that determination.

There is no point in sitting around talking about big environmental issues while oil sands projects are constantly approved by the Alberta Energy and utilities Board, Sheh said.

“CEMA is a parking lot where everything, all the major issues, are placed there,” said Sheh. “Meanwhile, approvals are given.”
Sheh said staying at the table gives CEMA legitimacy as an organization actually doing something to protect the environment.

He hopes withdrawing from the association will force governments to consult directly with First Nations on environmental issues.

The First Nation is the scond to pull out of CEMA, following the lead of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), of Fort McMurray.

Elders from the ACFN, the Mikisew Cree and the Pembina Institute, have already declared Alberta’s approach to water management of the Athabasca River a failure. The Water Management Framework, released March 1st, allows the oil sands industry to withdraw water from the Athabasca River, one of North America’s longest undamned rivers, even when its at risk of significant ecological impacts due to low water flows.

“We’re talking about the survival of the Athabasca River, but more than this is the survival of our people,” said Pat Marcel, chair of the ACFN Denesuline Traditional Environmental Knowledge Elders Committee. “The governments of Alberta and Canada are failing us and need to be held accountable.”
During the winter months, the Athabasca River’s flows are naturally lower, but oil sands water withdrawals push down flows to levels that severely impact the river’s fish populations.
First Nations groups continue to use the Athabasca river’s fishery for both subsistence and commercial fishing, and are demanding that the fishery be protected.

The Alberta government’s framework uses a graduated approach to managing water withdrawals based on flows in the river. Of most importance is the “red zone,” in which river flows are at their lowest and industry withdrawals threaten the ecological sustainability of the river. The framework still allows industry to collectively withdraw between 8 and 15 cubic metres of water per second.

The use of water by the oil sand developments already accounts for 65 per cent of withdrawals from the river and are licensed to withdraw about 349 million cubic metres of water per year, more than twice the volume required from the Bow River for the city of Calgary’s domestic use.

“The government’s framework misleads Albertans and Canadians because it does not require industry to turn off its pumps when the river hits the red zone,” says Dan Woynillowicz, of the Pembina Institute.

The framework pledges to continue to conduct scientific research and monitoring and a review of its findings by September 2010. It identifies CEMA as the likely organization to undertake this work, despite widespread acknowledgment that CEMA is a largely ineffective organization that has continually failed to meet its deadlines.

“The Mikisew Cree First Nation rejects the new framework because it follows the exact same management approach we rejected in July 2006,” said Melody Lepine, director of the Mikisew Cree First Nation/Industry Relations Corporation. “We expressed our concerns on the framework in three major Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB), hearings last year, and still the government has failed to meet our expectations for protecting the Athabasca River. Our First Nation has left CEMA because it is so dysfunctional. We don’t see how the government can rely on CEMA to get the job done given its poor track record.”
All three groups are calling on the Alberta government to immediately establish a limit that forces the industry to stop withdrawing water when the river is threatened, and are exploring legal and other actions.

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – Four Aboriginal recipients were among 14 selected to receive 2007 Alberta Business Awards of Distinction from the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.

The awards were presented here recently at a gala featuring a champagne reception and gourmet dinner attended by more than 600 guests, including Premier Ed Stelmach. The master of ceremonies was George Arcand Jr., regional director general for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Alberta Region.
brendaThe Aboriginal Woman Entrepreneur Award of Distinction, sponsored by Alberta International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations, was presented to Brenda Holder, president of Mahikan Trails Inc. of Canmore.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement by an Aboriginal woman entrepreneur who exemplifies effective leadership, innovation, and a commitment to enhancing the wellbeing of the larger Aboriginal community.

Mahikan Trails, with seven employees, is an Aboriginal guiding company offering “soft adventure” and cultural activities. Soft adventure activities include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice treks, hiking, dog sledding and caving. Cultural activities include survival skills, bushcraft and team building programs based around the fur trade era, along with fun programs like Nature CSI.

The Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneur Award of Distinction, sponsored by Syncrude Canada Inc., was presented to Scott Ward of Scott Ward Inc. of Edmonton.

It is awarded to a young Aboriginal entrepreneur who best exemplifies the qualiies of effective leadership, innovatively applied know-how, and excellent potential for growth, and who shows a level of social, cultural and environmental awareness.
Ward, a stage hypnotist and motivational speaker, appears at more than 50 events a year. With a bachelor of education degree in drama and Native American education, and certification as a hypnotist, he is committed to assisting communities and conferences with educational and entertainment needs.
Known throughout Canada as the “Aboriginal Hypnotist,” and throughout the United States as the “Native Hypnotist,” Ward specializes in doing comedy hypnosis shows and speaking engagements full time.

He is primarily booked by Aboriginal organizations looking for unique, uplifting and hilarious entertainment, as well as workshops geared mainly to Aboriginal youth, and is quickly becoming one of Canada’s busiest stage hypnotists.
In 2005 he was the recipient of an Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award for his history of volunteer service to this community.

The Eagle Feather Business Award of Distinction, sponsored for the seventh year by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, was presented to Bigstone Ventures Ltd. of Wabasca, co-owned by the Bigstone Cree Nation and Petrocare Services Ltd.
This award goes to a First Nation-owned business that demonstrates outstanding achievement in business and has incorporated entrepreneurial and cultural concepts into its operation for long term success.

Bigstone Ventures has become the largest supplier of oil and gas operators, and maintenance and construction crews in the Wabasca region. Over the past three years, annual sales have increased an average of 34 per cent. Fully 88 percent of the company’s more than 130 employees are Bigstone Cree Nation members.

The Aboriginal Relations – Best Practice Award of Distinction, also sponsored by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for the seventh year, was presented to EnCana Corporation of Calgary, which has 3,200 employees.

The award is presented to a non-Aboriginal business that demonstrates outstanding achievement in Aboriginal relations, including economic development, employment and training, and Aboriginal community support.

Since 1973, EnCana’s approach has been to increase the level of Aboriginal participation in its activities b creating opportunities in business and economic development, providing employment and training, as well as reducing environmental and social concerns and impacts. EnCana constantly strives to improve its own guidelines and programs through training and communications to ensure all staff are aware of Aboriginal issues.

By Morgan O’Neal

The woman known as the poet laureate of the Mi’kmaq nation died on Teusday, March 20. Rita’s work as a poet and spokesperson for First Nations peoples has been recognized by her appointment to the Order of Canada in 1990, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University in 1993. Over the years, she published seven books, including five poetry anthologies and an autobiography, The Song of Rita Joe. The author of numerous articles, and an active speaker in schools, on university campuses, and in government forums, Rita remained active to the end of her life despite the increasing debilitation brought on by Parkinson’s disease. Her poetry and activism made her a symbol of native pride.

Rita Joe was born in 1932, in Wycocomagh (a reserve on Cape Breton Island) living in foster homes after her mother’s death in 1937, when she was sent to the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, which she attended until the eighth grade. Of her experience in this infamous system, she stated bluntly: “I was brainwashed. ‘You’re no good,’ I was told every day at Shubie.” She married Frank Joe in 1954 and they had eight children and adopted two more. She did not begin to write poetry until the late 1960’s; her first book was not published until 1978, but her poems immediately struck a chord, as she gently presented Aboriginal experience within Canada, and advocated love and understanding between peoples. Rita wrote one of many popular poems, “Five Hundred Years” in 1993, the International Year of Aboriginal Peoples. Her many books include The Poems of Rita Joe, Songs of Eskasoni: More Poems of Rita Joe, Lnu and Indians We’re Called and The Mi’kmaq Anthology (1997) co-written with Lesley Choyce.

A long-time activist who wrote numerous articles about native issues, Joe also served on the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, one of the few non-politicians ever to do so. She was given the Order of Canada in 1990 and also won the Nova Scotia Writers Federation Prize. She naturally gravitated to acting as an ambassador for native arts and culture throughout Canada.. This always proud but humble woman told CBC in a recent interview that she was quite amazed by all the accolades she had received. “I accepted on behalf of my people every time I was given an award,” she said. “They helped, everybody helped in their own way.”

“I told the audience that no matter from what circumstances you come from, and no matter from what culture, or how poor you are, everybody can do this,” she said after receiving an Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1997. “If you write in a positive way, or think in a positive way about your culture,” she told CBC Radio in February, “… it will come back positive.” The Aboriginal Achievement Foundation emphasized, in granting her award, that Joe had worked throughout her life to counter native stereotypes, and her poems and songs reflected both pain and hope.

Her energetic productive life can best be summed up in her words. “I am,” she said, “a daughter or grandmother to everyone in Eskasoni. Who can ask for more? I want to be an exceptional writer, a memory I want to leave behind, an orphan child, picking herself off the misery of being a nobody, moving little grains of sand about the nation of the land…. Representing my people gives me a good feeling, a natural high, just reading from the book or singing an Indian song with a drum. I wish more of my people would write beautiful stories I hear them tell. The Micmac are good storytellers.” (Joe 1993).

Her recently published Usmiani, included her now well-known “Oka Song,” written following the 1990 Oka crisis in Quebec. When the poem was first heard it led to an association among Rita Joe and two academics, Kevin Alstrup and Gordon Smith. Field research conducted in the summer of 1992 in Eskasoni on the Bras d’Or Lakes near Sydney on Cape Breton Island, resulted in a musical transcription of the “Oka Song.” This ground-breaking transcription was published in the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1995).

In describing collaborating on the “Oka Song,,” Rita Joe stated with characteristic humility, “I was a songwriter before I became a poet. From the time I was a little girl I was what you would call a hummer. Melodies would roll around in my head… not knowing if I picked them up as hymn songs, the roll of an incoming wave, or wind sounds. I am a shy native so the songs were put away and I sang only when I was speaking at a school or a gathering. . . ..The Oka song became a popular, often-requested melody, so I thought I had better find someone who would transcribe it: “I asked Elizabeth Cremo, the daughter of the famous fiddle champ, Lee Cremo, from Eskasoni. She told Professor Gordon Smith of Queen’s University. . . . He took my song on a cassette tape and the typed words, and returned in a day or so with the transcribed song sheets.”

Gordon Smith transcribed the Oka Song. “first in a literal, note-for-note, word-for-word fashion. The text was especially moving, given the recent events at Oka it described, as well as the theme of gentle protest that is present in much of Rita’s poetry. The text was ominous for [Smith , a non-native, and the experience of participating in this work took on an extraordinary kind of honour”

The two academics summed up their appreciation of Rita Joe’s work in the following words: “After discussions with Rita about presenting and publishing the songs, it became clear that her intention is educational: she wants the songs to be sung by children and adults from any ethnic background who are interested in First Nations culture. Rita’s goal, and subsequently ours, is to make the songs accessible to a broad, inclusive audience.”

The three worked closely together to satisfying what Rita Joe, the creator, had wanted most passionately:definitive versions of the songs that would be accessible to as many people as possible, or in her plain, poetic terms, “nothing fancy.” The Academics had “to maintain a respect for the words, since [they] knew that Rita’s message (educational intent) would be conveyed inevitably through the song texts. Smith discovered Rita Joe’s innate sense of rhythm, phrase, and melodic shape. “Often, I saw the intimate connection of the rhythmic values to her poetic text metre. From a variety of musical influences she ha[d] learned certain melodic styles, melodic chordal structures, and cadential formulas.. Some songs maintained a distinct country-and-western feel. . . . Others derive[d] from the Roman Catholic chant and hymn-singing tradition, which is often changed and, indeed, enriched, with the addition of the Micmac language”

During their stay in Eskasoni, the songs were often performed. Normally, the poetry was accompanied by traditional Micmac drumming and dancing, Cape Breton fiddling, and step dancing. One such performance was in Halifax for the Society for Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry (SCANA), and another took place in the Provincial Legislature at a televised ceremony marking Treaty Day. The performers gathered on the floor of the legislature with the Micmac Grand Council behind them, and some three hundred people in the audience witnessing the historic meeting.

At every performance of this sublim mixture of indigenous creation and rigorous scholarship the material us positively received, often overwhelming the audience. Rita Joe nearly always ended her speaking engagements with a song, usually accompanying herself on a hand drum, and each event was an important and generous extension of the ancient Micmac tradition of storytelling.

The now famous “Oka Song,” for example, has since been translated into Mohawk and sung in Quebec communities on several occasions. Other poems, such as the Christmas song, “And Then We Heard a Baby Cry,” have been performed at Midnight Massess in the church at Eskasoni, and performed in arrangement by the Cape Breton Chorale at its Annual Christmas Concert in Sydney. The “community” in this context therefore extends well beyond the Micmac reserve to other First Nations groups, and to people from other ethnic backgrounds living in Cape Breton and elsewhere.

Rita Joe’s death at the age of 75, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, deprives this nation and indeed the North American continent of one of those rare individuals who seem naturally to do good in the world, and to work tirelessly and selflessly toward enhancing communication between the peoples of the earth and building a genuinely better more loving, peaceful and prosperous world in which all human beings may aspire to their best. Her simple effective philosophy had been to search out and to discover the beauty in every place or circumstance and to communicate that beauty to others so as to enhance their experience of life. As Rita Joe expressed it, “You just have to put your effort into it and be positive. Don’t try to work on the negative stuff.” A one eulogy on an an Internet website dedicated to expressions of sadness and respect. One typical short not, by Jason Murphy from Toronto, read as follows: “An inspiring and unique Canadian voice has been lost.”

By B.H. Bates

He, his wife and mistress all live in the lap of luxury, they fly around in private jets, own several mansions, drive the newest bullet-proof cars and eat the finest foods that their chefs can create. And what about the little old lady who has sent him her last few dollars? I’d like you to imagine her sitting patiently, waiting for him to deliver the miracle that she has prayed and paid for. Unfortunately, there she’ll sit, in her hot little mobile home, until death mercifully brings her relief.

Ask yourself this: Does he even know or care about her? You know the deplorable answer to this question: don’t you? This so called, righteous communicator (who supposedly talks to the lord almighty), himself, couldn’t possibly believe in a heavenly afterlife. If he did, and if there really was such an all powerful and vengeful god – the preacher would know that this unscrupulous behavior would condemn his unrepentant soul to an eternity of fire and brimstone.

If you, personally, want proof of this misleading minister; tune in next Sunday, send him a hundred bucks and ask him to ask the lord for something silly: like a donkey. Then set your ass down by the phone and wait.

The surprise is – I guarantee you’ll get a phone call! It’ll go something like this: “Hello, my dear friend … this a pre-recorded message from the man in white. He wants you to know that you are now being blessed, even as you listen. And because he truly loves you, he wants you to know; He’s got Jesus for sale – $19.95 on CD, $29.99 for DVD. And for a limited time, if you act now, you’ll receive an autographed T-shirt that reads: “Go to hell! I’m going to heaven!”

Speaking of: Where in the hell is heaven? For that matter, where in the name of heaven is hell? Up? Down? In? Out? You tell me, or better yet – let me tell you. As an uninformed youth I watched in horror as NASA shot their rockets through the clouds. “Holy smokes!” I was worried, that they might hit god by mistake! A dumb and foolish kid? No, dumb adults, who teach their children that heaven is in a cloud. (Scientific fact: clouds are suspended water molecules. Which can weigh thousands of tons!)

Hell, as everyone knows is: When you find yourself sitting on a toilet, staring at an empty toilet paper roll, while you’re a guest in someone’s house and bathroom smells like a shit bomb has just gone off! That’s ‘hell!’ It’s either that or war.
And just who do you think has started most of the wars? Dictators? Not really, they live and die like flies. If you guessed ‘religion,’ give yourself a gold star. Yes, the very ones who exult peace and purity are the first ones who’ll throw you to your knees and cut off your heretic head, then bless the remaining body parts! It’s no wonder that a lot of Natives, these days, are re-exploring their heritage and rediscovering their own Great Spirit.

Finally, the final solution, to all those idiots who want to rule the World through the fear of damnation. The solution to brain pollution is a simple thing: just unburden your minds by using them. Use your god given (just kidding) common sense! The theologians have been in charge for far too long.

They’ve repressed some of World’s greatest thinkers and branded them as heretics or worse. In some cases, the so called moral majority, has even put people to death for expressing their thoughts and theories. For example; The Earth is round and not flat. Women are equals and the big one … “God, is nothing more than a bogeyman, who’s used to scare the feeble-minded into submission!”

Science will one day be proven to be the actual savior of mankind. Take for instance stem-cell research. The road map to our genetic codes is right at our finger tips, but, the church is holding the scientists back. Cures for a multitude of illness’ and deformities is just over the horizon, yet scientists aren’t allowed to go there, because the prevailing theologians theorize that they’ll sail right off the edge!

If you think it’s just a matter of time before people come to the realization: “Hey, wait a minute, I can think for myself.” If you believe that the ‘dark ages’ are nearly over – you’re the one who’s in the dark. Never underestimate the power of stupid. The German people, who are World renowned engineers, are so clever they could make a watch out of gum wrappers and a compass. Yet, Hitler, turned them into blood thirsty savages with only a few promises of glory.

“The future is written in sand, easily changed by the winds and whims of man.” Let me look into the mystical flames of a campfire, like my native ancestors once did, and I’ll see if I too can predict the future!

I Foresee: The land will heal itself, if left alone. The Spirit of the North American Native will once again return. Somewhere, in some little corner of the World, a group of godless heathens will use their scientific knowledge to discover vital medicines (I can only hope they’ll be benevolent enough to share them). And religions will one day give up the ghost. These predictions are closer to a wish list, a dream and an educated guess, than they are a profound prophecy.

I know that most of you bible thumpers and Islam-ohlics out there will disagree with my hopes and dreams of peaceful Earth, but, please just realize that all I’m doing is warning you of the inevitable. So please don’t condemn these few paragraphs as ‘satanic verses’ and put a price on my head! You know god damned well, if you do, it’ll only make the people want to read them all the more. And that will only bring me more fame and more money …. hmm!

My name is B.H. Bates, you, you …. divinely dim-witted dodos!

THE END

Dear reader: Please feel free to contact, B. H. Bates at: beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca