Topic: Danny Beaton

Our Healing Ways

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. -- Danny Beaton, EDITORIAL

www.dannybeaton.ca

In memory of Alicja Rozanska, Josephine Mandamin and Dave Vasey

My brother Stephen Ogden spent about twenty five years trying to protect the Allison Aquifer in Tiny Township that runs through his farm – above ground and below – nurturing everything in the surrounding area, from Georgian Bay all the way down to the St Lawrence river according to Mohawk Scientist Henry Lickers Akwesasne. I remember waking up as a child and going down to the river to swim with my dad around 6am in the early morning. We grew up in Ottawa, and the Rideau River that ran just behind our house was so clean, fresh and peaceful back then that the pike would be laying by the shore in the weeds sleeping. It was a time in my life that I will never forget. Everyone has memories of beauty and peace from their youth.

Things change every day. Now people come and go, opportunities happen and there is a lot of panic from the world as things fall apart and issues arise from injustice, locally and around the world. People in Ontario are voicing their concern over farmland being turned into urban sprawl, aquifers being exploited by foreign companies, wetlands being destroyed for subdivisions and shopping malls, and even old growth forests are cut down for profit seekers, and hate is growing from groups like the white supremacy. Man I would not want to be a teenager today with all this mismanagement and dysfunction. Everywhere you look there is madness..

Every day the memories return to us when we are on the red road, our good times and hard times growing up, the strength and freedom that many of us had even though our parents were fighting and drinking. Many of us were not looked after or given enough food to feel good at school, while others had so much energy, yet we survived our youth, but broken, from family violence. Its funny when I was working in the prison system when someone wanted to join our class and ceremonies I would always ask the new residents, ‘did your parents drink when you were young or did you see your parents drinking alcohol when you were young and did you ever see them fighting about things and did you ever see them hit each other’? Then I would ask ‘did they ever hit you when you were young?’

I ran ceremonies in the prison system full time at one point, but I always have been going into the prison system to help our native brotherhood and all incarcerated men locked up. Now when I think of it, working inside the prison system helped me heal almost better than anything I ever had in my whole life except the fourteen years I spent with my partner/wife. Prison work comes second to my life with my wife Alicja who passed away 5 years ago. One thing I learned about violence is that a lot of times it happens when we were young, and we copy our parents and then we become parents. But with the transitions we all go through in our lifetime, on this sacred journey, our Great Creator has given us overwhelming gifts, not one person on this Sacred Mother Earth has no gifts. We all do have gifts from the Great Creator from the time we are born till our last breath when we cross onto the other side. But then again, there are many brothers and sisters who suffer from childhood abuse and never can get out of the trauma that keeps them broken all their lives; trauma which became addictions, and violence which eats so many native communities and cities, men and women, families and children, broken from childhood trauma, some homeless, some with mental illness which can be treated by healers, caregivers and native culture.

We are living in a social crisis and environmental disaster that unfolds on television, media and newspapers daily. The once clean, pure rivers, lakes and oceans are in need of healing just as the people who are lost and suffering from fantasy and pain. We need leaders who care for the people, leaders who are unselfish and who have compassion and will protect Mother Earth – the words from Chief Oren Lyons Onondaga Wolf Clan and Faithkeeper. Everything that is happening today does not need to be so negative, with so much life, energy and the freedom to be creative. Indigenous people have always been positive, creative, thoughtful and aware of natural life, natural laws and common sense to know what is right and wrong and what will support life seven generations ahead. For all the humans that are healed and walking on this sacred red road or spiritual path, we need to keep the great mystery alive, we need to keep feeding the ones who are in need of truth and guidance. All the medicine is in our native culture, all the healing can come from the Red Road, The Good Path, The Sacred Journey – this is not fantasy, this is what our ancestors gave us, left us and fought for.

Thinking back to our ceremonies brings back the joy of watching our elders assembling around our sacred fire in the early mornings. Someone would walk around the camp at sunrise beating a sacred drum and singing to wake us up gently – this is our healing ways. It was a time of healing because we were all filling ourselves up with these sacred ceremonies on indigenous territory with indigenous values, and with traditional native culture being lived again through our elders and traditional native leaders. When I think back it was like a beautiful dream watching our elders in a giant circle with only earth and cedar arbor smoke and sacred fire – in their midst everyone was focused on prayer and thanksgiving to the gentle morning around us all, the feeling of oneness, the feeling of peace around us all in that sacred circle of life, and the true love of the universe and our Great Creator.

Our elders had so much kindness and love they filled our whole camp with harmony, respect, peace and healing. These ceremonies made us strong, and like Tom Porter would say, ‘our ceremonies energize us’. Every man is a brother on this Mother Earth and every woman is a sister on Turtle Island, the first law of this land is respect for everything that moves. Uncle Robertjohn and Joe Medicine Crow would say when we go into our Sacred Sweat Lodge we are one with the forces that give us life, earth, air, fire and water. In the lodge we are all one, so we heal and purify ourselves in this way. All these memories that our old elders gave us, and being on our indigenous territories with our indigenous values filled us all with the healing and oneness that created real humanness amongst each other to know how important it was to speak out for justice and Mother Earth, and to give Thanksgiving. Our traditional gatherings showed us how important it was for us to be together in harmony on the land with a sacred fire burning day and night. These memories help us to help others and to see what is right for our friends and families.

Mac McCloud says his mom and dad knew what was happening to Mother Earth, and that is why they never stopped fighting for native justice and our native rights; and Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando supported the struggle of the indigenous movement back in the sixties when The American Indian Movement started to speak out for North America Native Culture. Native elders always spoke out about the genocide that was happening on Turtle Island and the hardest part was the residential school era. The memories that native people have are not all the best, nothing came easy for us. Ann Jock would tell me so many environmental stories of how clean it used to be on Akwasasnee. Now the Saint Lawrence is so dirty that you cannot eat the fish and the animals are contaminated too.

This article is dedicated to Josephine Mandamin, Sacred Water Walker, and my good friend David Vasey — both were peacekeepers and Mother Earth Protectors — and Alicja, my partner/wife who crossed over June 29, 2014.

On Our Sacred Journey

Posted by First Nations Drum on Monday, October 29, 2018. -- Danny Beaton

Robertjohn Knapp and Danny at Parliament of Worlds Religions Salt Lake City Utah Photo by Oren Lyons 2015

In memory of Alicja Rozanska

When we give thanksgiving we honor the plant life first in our way of life, then we go to our Sacred Mother Earths blood, rivers, oceans and ponds the sacred drink that our mother give all Creation. After the plant life and rivers its our relations who we thank and honor four-legged, winged ones, fish life and insects these are the ones who share this sacred mother earth with Humans On Our Sacred Journey. When we all start our day this way, how can we go wrong, how can we we ever feel alone when this respect we have for life grows every day, when we connect our self to life, life can connect itself to the Humans. Our old ones teach us Indian people that all Creation can hear and feel our love when we speak to them, our trees, our plant life, the sky,Grandmother Moon, Brother Sun every insect can hear and feel our love ,respect and thanksgiving for sharing this sacred journey with us Humans, as we share this Sacred Mother Earth in that sacred oneness with the Great Mystery our Great Creator the Universe the Cosmos the life-giving forces Earth Air Fire and Water we are all one in the eyes of the Universe/Creator.

Blackcloud on Sacred Drum at Parliament of Worlds Religions Salt Lake City Utah photo by Danny Beaton

Indigenous people have showed Western ideologists and early explorers the oneness of living in harmony with Mother Earth from first contact 500 years ago and were called inferior beings, how can humans become so confused over the years about the Sacredness in life, how can the natural life become so meaningless to humans and become a commodity, a resource to extract and profit from for short-term profit and destroy our relations, fish, animals, birds and insects who need plants, forests, mountains, gardens, swamp, wetlands to live in as humans do, our relations need rivers, lakes and oceans to thrive, multiply and survive. Our oceans were once full of life species, sharks, whales, tuna, cod, shrimp, octopus endless fish life nurturing breeding endlessly with algae, plankton, seaweed, Our oceans are a source of air supply possibly 75 percent of our fresh air supply comes from the oceans biodiversity and web of life support. Yet the governments of the world in charge have left the oceans to factory fishing to destroy and rape as does the mining industry /corporations pillage and rape Mother Earth for minerals, gold, diamonds, ore, nickel zinc and taking the organs out of Mother Earth then sucking the oil from her body till there is nothing but huge gaping wounds on her body. Chernobyl and Fukushima power plants have created higher cancer rates and leukemia since having uranium, plutonium extracted from Mother Earths body to support nuclear energy. Mismanagement after mismanagement of the world’s resources are killing all life on our Sacred planet.

The Sacredness of Life must be taught to those who have fallen asleep spiritually, the children of the world are now suffering and this suffering is growing everywhere as our hospital are filling up with cancer, diabetes, heart diseases depression are rampant. Every major river in the world is polluted. All of this was foretold to us in our Sacred Circles and Sacred Councils by our old elders 25 years ago in my lifetime, yet it was all prophesied by most cultures hundreds of years ago. Our work/jobs are to help those who are asleep spiritually each and every one of us people can do something positive to help Mother Earth or support justice and peace somewhere as the negativity is growing and the Fire Keepers of the world the Medicine People need to speak up of respect, equality, unity, peace and righteousness. Our Old Elders would say we need The Good Mind it is our way of life and we need to put our Minds together to solve these problems of the world, As One Minded People!

Twenty-five years ago I remember waking up to the sound of the Sacred Drum and the songs of the morning, the Dawn Song to honour all life coming alive from a good night’s rest. We were gathered up by The American Indian Institute the united nations of native tribes based in Bozeman Montana, the elders and youth who were carrying traditional indigenous culture or better known as The Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth the wisdom keepers of North America. We gathered up to maintain our sacred culture and way of life to honour the Great Mystery our Great Creator Wakan Tanka, Mother Earth, all our Relations the Great Spirit and life-giving forces. We became Creators extended family and like Chief Tom Porter would say every man is a brother on this continent and every woman is a sister in this country that is the law of the land. Every person is indigenous every person has a homeland and territory we are the indigenous people of this continent.

The first year I attended sacred ceremonies was suggested by Chief Oren Lyons in 1990, Oren was one of the greatest environmentalists I ever met or have known in my life a Wolf Clan adopted into the Turtle Clan a spokesperson for the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth and Indigenous Working Group On Climate Change with the United Nations. The peace and respect on the Onondaga Reserve was overwhelming in Syracuse New York the community was the strongest place I had ever seen or been to in my life full of calmness, intelligence and respect and traditional Iroquois culture, Onondaga may be one of the only places that is free from the US government control and still organized by traditional Iroquois people. My first year attending sacred ceremonies was an experience that helped create the person I am now, I had already been attending sacred sweat lodge ceremonies in Guelph with elder Vern Harper but with the grassroots spiritual leaders of North America was a whole new awakening, It seemed like there were at least a hundred old elders with us that year in Onondaga with all the family’s there it was the largest spiritual gathering I had ever been to. Once the Sacred Fire was started by our Fire Keeper the Fire Keepers kept the fire going for 4 days and three nights. The day would start at sun rise and then Sacred Sunrise Ceremony with blessings from elders of the Four Directions. Then the prayers would continue from all the elders, clan mothers, chiefs, medicine people and runners who had gathered there at ceremony to give thanks to Great Creator/Wakan Tanka Creation the Universe/Cosmos and Mother Earth for the gifts we as Humans Beings were blessed with and our Relatives and Ancestors. We honoured the Spirit World we honoured the Four Directions we honoured Natural Life Natural Laws Earth, Air, Fire Water the Life Giving Forces from everything that moved or lived on Mother Earth to everything in the Sky world to everything invisible our old elders taught us we were at one with throughout Our Sacred Journey on this Sacred Mother Earth. That we as humans had a duty and responsibility to give Thanksgiving for All Creation. Uncle Robertjohn always told me that everything in the Spirit World can hear us Human Beings we were given the Sacred Tobacco to communicate with Great Creator with our Sacred Pipes and that our Songs were the highest form of prayer we could give each and every day.

When we as Indians or non-Indians spend time with our old wisdom keepers/elders the ones who still laugh and joke the ones who still pray and understand the life around us and traditional culture we are being taught our relation to all life around us! When we spend time talking, eating, sleeping, praying, singing, drumming and being with elders who are peaceful healthy, we have a chance to learn stories and teachings of the way life was and should be. When we attended our Sacred Circles in our old days we was loved and nurtured by our elders because that is the way of life that they were taught and it is passed on to us then we pass that Healing and Wisdom on to those who are On Our Sacred Journey.

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Native Heroes Defend Mother Earth

Posted by First Nations Drum on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. -- Danny Beaton, Environment

In Memory of Alicja Rozanska

One of the most magnificent creations of Mother Earth, the Endangered California Condor, soarsabove great gorges like the Grand Canyon. Its survival in part is because of the dedicated, spiritually based activism of a powerful Seneca elder, Robertjohn.

Knapp has been involved in sacred ceremonies that honour creation. These have been performed at release sites for the return of the world’s champion glider, the California Condor. Following Robertjohn’s prayers and sacred songs the Condors are released from cages to soar over spectacular great canyons and mesas.

The California Condor’s ability to survive has emerged as one of the most remarkable tests of the purity of the environment. It cannot persist in a landscape that has become a dump.

The leading source of Condor mortality is the tragedy of parents feeding trash to their young while still in their nests. The state of California recently took a major step forward for survival of this relic of the vanished Pleistocene epoch, by banning lead bullets.

Robertjohn took action to have poisons such as antifreeze removed from the Condor’s sacred habitats. His concern for natural purity alerted Danny Beaton, a Mohawk of the Turtle Clan, to team up with him at a period of crisis.

The great crisis faced by Beaton was in Simcoe County, posed by a proposed waste area, Dump Site 41. Beaton secured Robertjohn’s participation in a press Conference at Queen’s Park when this dump proposal threatened the world’s purest water.

The world’s purest water resides in rocks deep in the earth in a formation known as the Alliston Aquifer. Robertjohn took Beaton’s call to speak to power to alert the Ontario media to threats to the world’s purest water.

Before Robertjohn spoke the threat to the Alliston Aquifer was a cause that would not catch on. It obscurity endured despite all Beaton’s determined efforts to bring it to the public’s attention.

Before Robertjohn spoke Beaton and his partner Alicja Rozanska had organized a week long march from the Dump 41 site to Queen’s Park. He had only succeeded in getting publicity on the evening news of the CBC Ontario French language station.

Danny Beaton’s media work on the line against the would be dump builders had been effective. Public opinion became outraged when the police breakup of the blockade and subsequent excavation caused sediment to appear in what had been the world’s purest water. When the contamination was exposed councillors became deluged by outraged phone calls. Immediately what cynics had excused as a “done deal” soon fell apart.

Beaton’s work with protecting the Alliston Aquifer with Robertjohn roughly paralleled his achievements in safeguarding the Niagara Escarpment. Again here he worked with native elders having a deep spiritual bond with Mother Earth. Here Beaton was helped by a collaboration with an Onondaga Chief, Arnie General, a sacred healer with the False Face Society. General and other Confederacy elders such as Lehman Gibson and Harvey Longboat, connected Beaton to the earth respecting values of his own culture, expressed in the ways of the Longhouse faith.

The Niagara Escarpment was Threatened by two expressways termed the NGTA East and West corridors. They would have cut across its old growth forests and caves which provide habitat for Endangered species, such as bats. At very sacred location Mount Nemo migrating birds gather to benefit from the great thermals that assist their glides across Lake Ontario. Here soar spectacular flocks of Turkey Vultures, Canada’s smaller version of the mighty Condor.

Business lobbyists for the expressway lobbies were having a major influenced in the Ontario government to justify the slashing of the Escarpment. Their message was arrogantly announced in the Onondaga Longhouse the capital for the world’s longest function government, the Iroquois Confederacy. This was that they were the official representatives of the Ministry of Transportation, whose acronym was MTO.

Hearing the words MTO, General saw a great opportunity to knock out environmental destruction with well aimed ridicule. He said that in reality the representatives of the colonial government were not concerned with mere transportation. What the acronym represented in reality was a “Major Take Over.” The Confederacy broke up in laughter, the expressways were cancelled, and the Niagara Escarpment saved.

Another amazing achievement of Beaton was to publicize the work of the remarkable Haida spiritual leader, Guugaaw. Beaton brought Gugaw to Toronto for a great gathering the Project Indigenous Restoration. It was held at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall.

Guujaaw at Project Indigenous connected what means to be a Haida to the wonders of the earth where the nation lives, Haida Gwaii. (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands). He has said that if its wonders of nature cease, such as the magnificence of towering old growth forests, the Haida nation would be no more. This has become recognized in the Haida’s national vision. It states that maintaining the “environmental integrity” of Hadia Gwai is essential to the Haida’s “cultural survival.”

Critical to the cultural survival of the Haida under Guujaaw’s leadership has been the protection of its remarkable stands of cedar, hemlock and Sitka spruce. The first step in this strategy of protection of the land and Haida identity was securing the southern third of the nation’s traditional territory in Gwaii Hannas National Park. Here Haida are permitted to gather medicinal plants and harvest trees for ceremonial purposes, such as the construction of sacred Longhouses and totem poles. The Haida manage the Gwaii Hannas National Park through the remarkable network of Haida Watchmen. They protect the park from illegal plunder and waste dumping, They also tell the great story of Haida culture to visitors.

Under Guujaaw’s leadership the Haida have also been stopped clear cut pillaging in logging operations. Logging now takes place with the consultation of the Haida nation. The lower volume of logging now seeks to be geared to higher value products such as musical instruments. The Haida have also increased protection for wildlife, most notably eliminating all bear hunting in their traditional territories. The Haida have also protected their ocean waters from nonrenewable resource extraction, most notably oil drilling.

Beaton also worked successfully to share the message of Sarah James a representative of the Alaskan Gwich’in people who has struggled successfully to prevent oil exploration on the ecologically sensitve calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. The nation has been able to keep industrial extraction out of the herd’s 250,000 square kilometre habitat in Alaska and the Yukon. Their voice in bi-national co-management efforts has strictly limited hunting to four per cent of the herd. Consequently the herd has been able to maintain a stable size of around 200,000 animals. This success is in vivid contrast to most caribou herds on Turtle Island. In most of our continent petroleum extraction, hydro development and logging has caused caribou numbers to crash by ninety per cent.

The earth revering wisdom of Sarah James is in vivid contrast to the manipulative cunning of two native politicians whom Beaton worked with in the past before they betrayed his earth protecting message. One of the areas where caribou numbers have crashed is the vast Ungava peninsula. It is divided between Quebec and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Ungava is the traditional territory of the Cree and Innu people. In Ungava caribou numbers have been devastated by roads, hydro dams, clear cutting and open pit mines.

In the past Beaton worked closely with Cree leaders Matthew Coon Come and Innu Chief Peter Penashue to protect the wilds of Ungava. He later split with them when they embraced logging, mining and hydro development projects. Penashue later served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which introduced changes to the Indian Act (still in effect), which made it easier to cede band lands.

Beaton played an important role in the defeat of Coon Come from his previous position as Assembly of First Nations.(AFN), Grand Chief. This followed Coon Come’s “Peace of the Braves”. In this cowardly pact Coon Come endorsed hydro dams along the Rupert River, and stopped litigation against clear cutting. At the very meeting that Coon Come was seeking reelection as AFN Chief, First Nations Drum circulated an article Beaton and I wrote exposing Coon Come’s embrace of the pillage of resource extraction and dams.

It is revealing of what Iroquois elders tell about The Good Mind that Beaton has upheld the values of the ancient league of peace. His work with native elders who champion the protection of Mother Earth in the content of nature respecting traditional wisdom gives hope. Often the defence of traditional earth respecting cultures as a strategy for eco-justice is ignored. Many are lulled into ignoring reality, or are trapped in sensationalist, ultimately nihilistic tactics of rock throwing.

Beaton’s work with elders who guard ancient traditions was well summed up by his friend Arnie General in a revealing tribute to his colleague the Cayuga earth protector Norm Jacobs. He said that Norm will be “mourned by many, but not by all.” The many are those who appreciate the wonders of the natural world around us. The minority are the tiny one per cent who profit and gloat over their destruction. Beaton’s life shows how with native elders who seek to protect the ecological integrity of their nations ancient territories provides an opportunity to stop their schemes of destruction.

The Last Prayer

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Thursday, March 1, 2018. -- Danny Beaton, NEWS

Wendy and Alicja with the Beaton Family Nanaimo BC photo by Pat Beaton

In Memory of Alicja Rozanska

Woke up at midnight last month after sleeping four hours and was not sure if I had a vision or if I was thinking in my sleep or what, but I was having all these thoughts about my elders and who was praying with them and if they had said their last prayer.

We all need to share, communicate, work, create and heal to survive; if we find love we are lucky and if we learn to pray, then we can give thanks like all the old cultures did in the old days. Of course we are an extension of our ancestors, we are an extension of our elders and loved ones. We are the past, present and future generations; we are the light, darkness, the sun, earth, air and water. My old uncle Robertjohn says it is the old elders who have taught us as children how to give thanksgiving, how to honor life and Mother Earth; our elders teach us everything has a spirit. Robertjohn says everything is alive; if you are sitting on the moon looking down at Mother Earth, he says “alive or dead”.

When our old elders gathered up and we all stood in a circle around the sacred fire every year, our prayers got stronger and our love got stronger, but our people were getting weak from the negativity around us and we tried to keep our way of life alive, but everything was out of balance in the world, from losing our natural diets to forgetting to maintain physical, mental, spiritual indigenous lifestyle.

Robertjohn said the highest form of prayer is song. In the song is the melody, the harmony and the thought, the prayer. All the songs in the world have given so much love, joy, peace to the peoples of the world and their very spirit. Some songs are so healing we need to hear them over and over and over again. Some songs are sung every day, they are sung by the entire community, entire families, entire nations for respect, for peace, for harmony, maybe even for healing. Some songs are so powerful they are used for birth and crossing over. Some songs can be used for purification, cleaning of the mind, body and spirit. Some songs are for making happy, in giving thanks to Creation and Life and Life-giving forces. Rabbit Dance Song, Eagle Song, Fish Dance Song, songs that honor fish, birds, insects and animals bring us closer to our relations and our relatives. The songs are old, the songs are new, but they are songs that bring harmony, peace, humility, justice and unity. The song is a form of prayer, a form of respect, a form of healing. A song is from the heart, the song is from the spirit, the song can be with tears and laughter, peace and pain. Some of the most beautiful songs come from birds, animals, fish and insects, we just cannot hear some. The universe can be a place of prayer and song at times in Tibet, Mongolia, China, Africa, Greece, Turkey, Australia, Poland, Russia, America and the world. The world can be a breeding ground for peace, harmony, prayer, song and dance.

When I woke from my dream, I thought who was praying with our elders. I thought of Leon Shenandoah, one of our most gentle Onondaga chiefs, who was chief of the chiefs, Tadodaho, a leader of his people and culture, someone raised in peace, power, righteousness, respect and harmony. Then I thought who was praying with Austin and Hilba Two Moons when they were dissidence of his grandfather who fought in Little Big Horn and Austin always treated me like a son, the way most of our elders treated us when we attended sacred gatherings and councils. Every year our Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth/American Indian Institute would sponsor and organize our sacred councils somewhere in Canada or US, where a native community was in need of traditional native elders to help bring back their native ways and ceremonies with our help. Then I started thinking who is praying for my mom and is her apartment getting smudged and purified. I know Marcus and Priscilla Vigel had a strong community of Pueblo Culture and that their ceremonial life was strong among the families and people of New Mexico. They had two daughters, Margret and Vicky, who were like clan mothers keeping the family and community positive with prayers and good energy. Also I knew Tom Porter, our spiritual leader of the Mohawk people, was being looked after because he was always out in the community boosting people’s spirit with his wisdom and teachings of The Good Mind, of the respect needed for any family or community to find tranquility, harmony, equality, justice and peace. When I think of the love and gentleness from Ann Jock for all Indian people and all people of the world and her own family with her husband Corn Planter, I realize there is hope in the world if such love can exist on the planet! Who taught us how to pray, who taught us how to give thanksgiving, who taught us how to purify ourselves. Priscilla used to say to me, Danny you pray for me and I will pray for you in the most beautiful way. It was like a blessing just to be talked to in that gentleness and peaceful manner.

Our circle is still going, but it is not what it used to be. Our elders are being replaced by their children and it’s a new generation and not that it’s not a strong generation, but the ones who carried their fathers’ and grandfathers’ Sacred Pipes are a different breed, because you had to see the open space, freedom and cleanness of Mother Earth to know that power and quietness of 100 years ago, even the stories that were told two hundred years ago by their elders. I remember teachings twenty-five years ago: our elders said prepare yourself for what’s coming because everything is falling apart. Even when my partner/wife was diagnosed with cancer and I tried to save her, I learned that the trees were a nation to themselves and that the plants were a nation too a part of Mother Earth and I prayed to them to help Alicja and I prayed to the Grandmother Moon to help Alicja, but then in the end I learned I had to give thanksgiving for all the years we had together and not ask for more.

All of this stuff happening tells me how Sacred Life is, how beautiful life is all around us. Sure we can see destruction and the rape of Mother Earth by negative people and corporations, but there is natural beauty all around us, even gardens, forests, mountains and lakes to heal in and energize ourselves. Like Janice Longboat says, our teachers are all around us ready to teach, but we as people have to want to see, hear and feel the gifts that the Universe, our Great Creator has blessed us all with. Like Mac McCloud says, what Mac says has to be said, what Mac says is the truth. The way I see things is we need to give Thanksgiving ourselves, we need to be mindful of Creation and be thanksgiving people.

Danny and Alicja in Nanaimo BC photo by Pat Beaton

When I was coming home from work the other day, I thought what if all the electricity shut down, what if all the hot water stopped getting hot, where would our energy come from, what’s going to power the cities if things collapse. What happens if the oil and gas run out. This world or society is built on security and refreshments and we are forgetting the Sacredness of it all. Even though my wife is gone and even though my mom is so far away, I love them more than anything I know or can see or feel; only the moon and my grandchildren can take their place now. We are living in a fragile time with our oceans being destroyed so fast; with machinery nothing seems to be sacred any more in this world, but it all is. I am honored to be sitting here at my computer with all these memories and thoughts and I pray that we all find time to bring back the Sacred and Respect for Mother Earth and Creation and we give thanks for all those who have forgotten to be thankful.

One of my best friends and elders crossed over not long ago: Wilmer Nadjiwon was 97 years old, a chief of his people for fourteen years. When we spent time together it was like hearing the legends of the past. Wilmer was a hunter and fisherman, he could feed his family and people and he did. Wilmer went to war for Canada like many other native people when we were at war. Our ancestors are as noble as the old days but wounded and broken from residential school like my uncle Wilmer. As long as I live I will smoke my pipe for Wilmer and my wife because we were happy all together, we did ceremony together, we worked for Mother Earth together and we ate together. We were the truest extended family. Wilmer was an Ojibway hero and leader. We cannot forget our elders! Wilmer was angry but he was gentle like many native people, he was gifted and blessed to be a Sacred Artist carving, writing and painting.

Chief Oren Lyons said our Sacred Pipes belong to the Creator. We pray for all people and give thanks to Creator and Mother Earth for all the gifts from The Great Mystery.

Spiritual Journey: New Year Coming

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Tuesday, April 5, 2016. -- Danny Beaton, NEWS

To feel the warmth of the earth and life around us is a blessing from the universe and powers that the Great Spirit has given Human Beings. Our women and children are the biggest gift Creator has given to man to protect, honor, and celebrate creation with. So much abundance of life in so many forms, species, and the ecosystems, the circle of life and creation in all their forms. Our elders say our ancestors are waiting for us on the other side, the Buddhists say we are reincarnated, and Christians say we go to heaven.

The Navajo teach their children that there is beauty below us and beauty above us and beauty all around us, and that all Creation can hear us. When we talk to them, the plant life, rivers, lakes, mountains, stones, flowers, insects, animals, fish, birds, air, fire, and water are powers that can hear us too when we give thanks by prayer.

Uncle Robert John says that the Milky Way is a home for the Spirit World when we cross to the other side. He says our job is to help our loved ones to cross over so they can have a good journey. Carlos Santana says it is our responsibility to bury our relatives. Tom Porter said our Great Creator is The Great Mystery and The Great Spirit; many elders say Tom always has a different story to tell to inspire, to empower his Mohawk People of the Pines, the People of the Longhouse, the People of the Flint.

Ceremonies with Elders and Youth. Photo Credit: Danny Beaton 2015

When we gathered in Utah this September for the Religious Parliament, the Mayan shaman said our bones are in the same structure as the constellations and the cosmos. They also said the fire in our hearts is connected to the fire in the sun and all the planets in the universe. Then the Mayan couple, husband and wife, lead our elders through a sacred ceremony to honor and give thanks to Mother Earth and the universe.

We like to say we have a Way of Life, and it is not a religion. Natives believe we are on a spiritual journey with the natural world. But many of our people are becoming unnatural as the people of the world are falling asleep spiritually; many people of the world have become spiritually bankrupt. Father Thomas Berry the eco-Christian theologian said Human Beings have drifted into the fantasy world and the real world is being lost to the fast pace of society.

There is a divorce taking place with the natural world. This fantasy has not been positive; it is killing all the life force and species. So when Dr. Reed Noss, Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Florida, spoke at the University of Toronto in June this year, he spoke of the life species being destroyed in Florida all the way to Georgian Bay and being invaded by urban sprawl. This gift, our Mother Earth that the universe has trusted us humans with to honor and respect, is connected to us Human Beings physically, psychically and spiritually—why are we killing ourselves? We need to prepare ourselves and our families for the New Year coming and the generations that are unborn.

When my partner/wife and I returned from Walk for Water in Atlanta, Georgia, Alicja said to me we should have a walk to Stop Dump Site 41, and we did. The Walk for Water was a huge success and Steve Ogden was never happier once it went on Dale Gold Hawk with hundreds of thousands of listeners tuning in. After Alicja’s walk to Stop Site 41, Maude Barlow had another walk that started in Springwater and ended at Art Parnel’s clover field where we were camped out already for 3 months.

What I want to say now is the people who showed up were the most peaceful and loving protesters I had seen in a long time. The spirit that day was so gentle and loving; it was a beautiful summer day. My wife and I had sat on the wagon, and the Ojibway drummers were being led by John Hawk, the camp’s Fire Keeper. These memories will last forever if we let them: the sun shining, the wind blowing, and all of us saying to ourselves, “This is an awesome day to be helping Mother Earth.”

We need to fill ourselves up with this kind of energy and activity that is positive and creative! We need to keep Simcoe County and Ontario clean and our sacred waters clean so that we and creation can live a good life! When Alicja and I used to drive from Toronto every chance we could to be in our home in Simcoe forest, we never stopped thinking of all the negative development and urban sprawl taking over the farmland and forests. Of course we have the Green Belt and the Green Party, but will this stop the fast pace of lawyers and money changing hands? We know the French Hill is being chopped up, and it is a huge hardwood forest in Waverly, Ontario. We need you to cry again. We need to organize ourselves for life and the future. We need to honor our relatives in the Spirit World and never forget them.

In Memory of Alicja Rozanska

Photography and Story by Danny Beaton, Turtle Clan, Mohawk

www.dannybeaton.ca

Protecting Our Children: Kenn Richard Speaks Out

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Monday, February 29, 2016. -- Danny Beaton, NEWS

After we become human beings again, then we see how creation, Mother Earth, the universe, the cosmos, and our children carry the purity of life around us. The sacred teachings of our ancestors are peace, justice, unity, righteousness, respect, and harmony. Our grandmas and grandpas passed on everything they could after colonization, and the ones who were not touched by colonization know the law of the natural world. Many of the indigenous peoples of the world are carrying the spiritual teachings of their ancestors, the Good Mind, the Good Hearted People.

Our children must be protected, defended, and loved by these sacred teachings and the way of life that nourished our ancestors when Mother Earth was once clean, fresh, full of fertility and power—when our plant life, rivers, lakes, oceans, and all creation was pure and clean! The four-legged, the fish life, the insects and winged ones are still our relatives. This way of life is for our children to know and experience.

My brother Kenn Richard is a founder of the organization Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. This article is about how Native Child and Family Services began with the wisdom and spirit of our people, who knew things had to change for our children and our people in order for us to survive in a better way. This story is dedicated to the staff and parents who seek healing and protecting for Native children and life!

KENN RICHARD SPEAKS OUT

Kenn Richard, Founder of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto

My name is Kenneth Denis Leo Fidel Richard. I guess I got saints in there, and my grandfather’s name was Fidel. My first name Kenneth is not a French or Métis name, it’s Scottish. That kind of tells you that I am from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was born in St. Boniface hospital, pretty much at the forks of the Red and Assinaboine rivers in St. Boniface. My father is a Richard, my mother a Morrissette, both big names up and down those rivers from the days of the Pembina Territory. My father was born in the house of Cuthbert Grant, the famous Métis “Warden of Plains” responsible for what they called the Seven Oaks Massacre, so this Manitoba history is infused in my blood. All this I became aware of later in life, as we never grew up talking about the history or our place in it.

My mom was a housekeeper at the Fort Garry hotel. My dad was a construction worker all his life. It was a good life but a rough one back in that day. Five people in a one bedroom “wartime” house. I guess I owe the Jesuits for my education. For about ten seconds I thought of becoming a priest, but snapped out of that at puberty. Not only am I the first generation to live in the city, I am also among the first to graduate from university.

I lived in days before Indigenous issues were talked about. For the first twenty years of my life, I was relatively unconscious, just enjoying the sixties, playing drums in a band called the Sugar and Spice. Then I got a social work degree, and that changed everything. I eventually became a child protection worker, although I never had any inkling to do so.

I worked for the Children’s Aid Society of Winnipeg, one of the most oppressive of all children’s aid societies. It was an apprehension machine, and there I am, a young guy trying to understand what’s happening. I carry a caseload of Native families and kids who by the standard of the day were at risk, terrible poverty with inadequate everything, and addictions blowing it all up. While the conditions of the families were dire, I rarely saw the benefit of apprehending the kids. I worked my ass off to keep the families together, which I mostly did.

In that process, I appreciated that it was really complicated, Child Welfare and the Sixties Scoop. Kids were in distress back then, and their parents were not only poor, they were carrying a lot of trauma as well. It was not talked about in those days; the residential school stuff came out in addictions and bad behaviours.

The services provided were not effective. Truly, they did not resonate with the people they were serving. It was mostly children’s aid workers apprehending kids, probation officers keeping kids restrained, that kind of social control stuff. My consciousness grew, and I wanted change for a multitude of reasons, mostly because I could see myself in these children. I could feel a resonance there, though my life was not so bad. I formed myself in the sixties. I was a musician, and it was a gift to have that lifestyle because it helped deliver me to the place where I am now. From there, working in child welfare in the bad days set me on a path of working as a children’s advocate, a path that I travel today.

I did some work in Winnipeg, but it really came to fruition when I joined my girlfriend in Toronto. In the early stages of my life in Toronto, I worked for the Children’s Aid Society but eventually met a guy name Gus Ashawasege. Gus is passed now. He was a residential survivor. He was one of those guys that was everywhere, doing everything. When you look back at Anishnawbe Health Toronto, Aboriginal Legal Services, Native Child and Family Services, guess what? Gus was the president of all those boards in the early stages, and he became a real mentor. When I got to know him, he asked me to join a group that was looking at child welfare issues. They needed someone who had experience. I joined the committee, and that was the beginning of the development of this Native Child and Family Services here in Toronto in the mid ’80s.

A bunch of community members concerned about kids, getting together and saying what are we going to do? It’s corny to hear that phrase “let’s get together,” but this was that in action! There was Priscilla Hughit, Gus Ashawasega, Maryanne Kelly, Reva Jewel, Emma King, Nelly Ashawasega, Wilson Ashkwe, people from the old Indian community of Toronto some would call them. They were the first to kick off this kind of development, and I wanted to help. Not only because I wanted to help—this is what I started in Manitoba. Gus’s offer was a gift to me because this was all about the social justice I wanted to address since having those experiences in child welfare back home.

We had an elder on this board named Wilson Ashkwe. Wilson was very gifted. His day job was a bureaucrat for the Feds, otherwise he was an herbalist; he could doctor, and he knew his stuff. We all went to Stony Lake with Jim Dumont for a visioning event. Wilson checked that lake all day, waiting. I asked about that, and he said he was expecting a certain root to pop up that he needed. Soon he was dragging what looked like a tree behind him saying he could eat now, and that’s what we did. He knew things that I didn’t know, that’s for sure! He was on our hiring committee. We went through lots of resumes for people applying for the first executive director’s position, and we were disappointed. Wilson said, “Why don’t we just hire this guy in the cowboy boots,” referring to and pointing at me. That was, for me, a magical intervention. In that moment, Wilson charted my whole life. I owe both Gus and Wilson, old time residential school survivors, both traumatized I am sure, but both having sufficient strength and resilience of spirit to do the work that they did. They basically gifted me with this position and I have been here since 1988.

Six Nations Artist Shares Insights About Language

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Wednesday, September 9, 2015. -- ARTS, Danny Beaton

At the center of Indian Country on Six Nations-Grand River Territory in the middle of the Iroquois Village Plaza is Everything Cornhusk, where we are greeted by a display of traditional cornhusk dolls and acrylic-on-canvas paintings. Six Nations’ multimedia artist Elizabeth Doxtater shares her insights through her art regarding many historic and current issues that affect our people.

Elizabeth Doxtater works on a cornhusk doll.

From her unpublished book Art of Peace Elizabeth writes:

“After Indigenous people become strong, have clear understanding of traditional values, and the ways and means to express such within the modern world, no longer living in fear of outdated genocidal policies and legislation, we will then start the process of ‘Psychological Revillagization.’ The people will have the frame of mind as our ancestors did while they were living in villages. Peace, power, righteousness will be an expectation of each member of this group. This will counter the current oppressed peoples survival tactics associated with lateral violence.”

Elizabeth Doxtater, Six Nations Artist.

There is an ongoing struggle that many of us who have lost our language experience. I saw this television show called That’s Incredible back in the 1970s showing new scientific discoveries. One episode showed if you got bite from a venomous snake scientists could take that same venomous poison and turn it into a cure for that snake bite. I understood from that how the English language that was often violently forced on our people could aid as part of the cure.

We’re kind of like the lost generation. Now we can take some of those words that they have labeled us with, because some words they use are very negative and victimizing. We can turn those words around; we can create a language within a language to survive.

One word which is like anti venom would be “coloniocide.” This would mean putting an end to colonization. This new word is more accurate than decolonize. Decolonize means when a colony is granted sovereignty, but because we never surrendered our sovereignty, that doesn’t really fit. We can’t be granted sovereignty by a group of people for whom we’ve never been subjects. We’ve been “allies with” but not “subjects of.”

Another word that isn’t used very often is “dissimilation.” It can displace “assimilation.” It means individuals from our communities will be able to maintain our identities despite colonialism. We can still continue to participate in mainstream society, but we understand that we are distinct. We know that we are different from non-Natives.

We have a habit of repeating what non-Natives say, so if they put a label on something like Indian Residential Schools then we call it “Indian Residential Schools,” but the reality is they weren’t “ours.” They weren’t “homes,” and they really were not “schools.” So by repeating the name that they gave their institutions, we perpetuate their myth. The Truth and Reconciliation report says the schools were set up as a catalyst to take title of our homelands (Davin Report 1879), and in the White Paper Act of 1969 they say you don’t have your language anymore so now you’re going to be a Canadian. That was and is a form of genocide. Instead of calling them Indian Residential Schools, I suggest we call them “Canadian Genocidal Encampments.”

Another common phrase is “intergenerational trauma.” When we talk about intergenerational trauma we are focusing on the negative, when the reality is we’re still here! We still know who we are! If I saw you on the street, we’d nod even if I didn’t know you; we still knowledge each other, so we’re still distinct.

Instead of talking about intergenerational trauma (which is still here and we’re still dealing with and healing from), we can now talk about intergenerational survival and intergenerational healing. Those phrases can displace intergenerational trauma because “intergenerational survival” and “intergenerational healing” gives our young people the opportunity to celebrate the same resilience of our ancestors and become empowered as a result.

by Elizabeth Doxtater

People’s individual experiences are unique, and I think we’re at a time in history where we’re just starting to more openly talk about how all those negative things impact our people. To a certain extent, we’re becoming more forgiving of ourselves and of each other. We understand people who are struggling to find their way back to the important teachings that were kept safe for us.

Formerly, there was an understanding that if you were raised in the city or if you were raised on the reserve there were two different world views, but I’m not sure it’s like that anymore. I think you will find that for a lot of people it’s like feeling like you’re the only one that’s raised in the city, so you don’t know anything about living in your home community or you’re the only one living on the reserve whose understanding about traditions is limited, or whichever way you understand your reality.

One of the things that gets lost is we repeat the statistics and the trauma that occurs, and we mistake that for our identity. We have to remember that we come from the Indigenous Nations of North America. We come from a history that was powerful, and it was beautiful. Our traditions were based on our people appreciating and giving thanksgiving to the wonder and beauty of everything in Creation.

In those teachings, we continue to have a responsibility to give thanks for those gifts from Creator. We understood we had a responsibility to take care of Mother Earth for our future generations. We are forgetting that because we are so focused on the trauma that happened to our people—we have to acknowledge that trauma and work through it. Now it is time to remind ourselves that we come from a rich culture.

Elizabeth Doxtater, Six Nations Artist.

We were all given our own mind. Our minds are precious and should be protected. We decide what we will allow in. We also learn what we should be protected from. Our mind is a gift from Shonkwaya’tihsonh. It is a sacred place. It is the first thing that is mentioned in the Great Law. A healthy mind is part of the “Great Peace.”

We can wear the peace like armour. It can protect us like it protected our ancestors. After all of the effort to commit any and every form of genocide against our ancestors, we are the evidence of the strength, endurance, and resilience of our people, protected by peace. We just need to remember: we are the real people of this land. Our breath comes from Shonkwaya’tihsonh; our bodies come from Mother Earth. We are still here, and we are gifts! We need to wear that knowledge as armour, not to boast, but to dismiss anything that has been an imposed, oppressive mind set. The lateral violence that can be epidemic in many of our communities can be dismissed using the power of peace, power, righteousness, love, unity, good-mindedness, and compassion. This isn’t a list of words that we memorize and just recite. We are actively supposed to—by law—practice these values through our actions.

(Art of Peace, Elizabeth Doxtater, 2014)

Defending Mother Earth: A Blue Print For All Life Species in North America

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. -- Danny Beaton, NEWS

by Dr. John Bacher and Danny Beaton, Turtle Clan Mohawk [www.dannybeaton.ca]

On June 17th, 2015 Dr. Reed Noss, Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Florida, the author of seven books and 304 articles, gave an impassioned talk in the Debates Room of the University of Toronto’s Hart House. Noss spoke on the need to rescue and connect natural habitats before they are chopped up by urban sprawl. Isolated habitat islands are becoming “biological sinks”: leading to species extirpation and extinction.

Reed Noss Environmentalist and Danny Beaton Mohawk Clan. Photo by Andrew McCammon.

Noss was introduced by Shelly Petrie, Program Director of the Greenbelt Foundation. She stressed his rescue of the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Niagara Escarpment from development cuts.

Noss exploded debate through maps. These indicate areas that should be “re-wilded”, (meaning restored to natural habitat). During the late 1980s his dissertation supervisor, told him, “Don’t publish these maps.” Noss gleefully recalled how, “I did publish the maps, and they soon dominated the front pages of Florida’s newspapers. “

Noss finds that, “There are a minority of around twenty-five per cent of the population who disagree with the natural areas networks the maps propose. They attempt to use the maps to organize opposition to conservation. They do not however, succeed in changing public opinion. Most people are inspired by maps that show more wild lands”.

Noss recalled how, “For twenty-five years Florida funded land acquisition based on the corridor concept at a guaranteed level of $350 million annually. This continued until the last six years. It only ended because of the domination of state politics in Florida by the factional group known as the Tea Party. The majority of the population however, do not support the Tea Party’s antics. This was shown by a successful referendum for an amendment to the Florida state constitution to restore funding for the acquisition of natural areas. “

Although retarded by the Tea Party, Noss’ efforts during the quarter-century that they were funded in Florida have had a major impact on rescuing critical threatened species, notably the Cougar and the Black Bear. Before the program began to have an impact in the 1990s the Florida Panther, ( a popular name for the American Cougar in Florida), was on the verge of extirpation. Since they were trapped in a few protected areas such as Everglades National Park, the Cougars were suffering from genetic uniformity, causing a high rate of mortality from heart disease.

In response to the Cougars’ plight Noss soon showed the importance of the new scientific discipline he leads so ably, Conservation Biology. Cougars from Texas were brought in to increase genetic diversity in the population. This was combined over the a quarter century with an aggressive program of purchase of habitat including linkages that allow the Cougars to expand their range northwards. Noss told the wowed audience, “We are seeing increasingly the success of the network of corridors stretching northwards from the Everglades. Cougars are expanding .their range to where they were displaced in the past. We are increasingly seeing Cougars from the Everglades roaming north to Georgia.”

While Noss told the Hart House assembly that the Ontario Greenbelt’s connected corridors of natural habitats resembles the system built up in Florida over the past thirty years, the province has not adopted Florida’s efforts to build wildlife crossings to reduce road mortality. Some of the most significant photographs he displayed were of underpasses in Florida to encourage Cougars and Black Bears to move safely under highways. These he stressed have been monitored and are being used successfully. Another contrast to Ontario came out in his description of the community where he lives, which is organized to help wildlife move through it. Unlike Newmarket where bears are shot, it is honoured to have a few passing through annually.

Georgian Bay, Ontario. Photo by Danny Beaton.

Noss is pessimistic about improving wildlife habitat west of the Niagara Escarpment. “I have been to Rondeau and Pelee parks, but I don’t see great opportunities for linking and expanding habitats there.” While in the rest of southern Ontario he uses larger species such as Moose and Deer to expand ranges through corridors and bigger habitat tracts, here he see micro scale strategies for limited ranges species such as Blanding’s Turtle.

Noss’ pessimism about the corn belt illustrates the limitations of efforts to improve the environment which do not attempt to mobilize native communities and their treaty rights. This situation is most evident in the part of Ontario with the least natural habitat, Chatham-Kent. (former Kent County) It has only 4.5 per cent of its landscape in forest cover. This is rapidly shrinking as corn prices soar and trees are razed.

Much of the tiny area remaining in forest cover in Chatham-Kent is found on the predominately forested 13 square kilometre reserve of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation. The community’s leader, Chief Greg Peters has termed the situation an affront to their “aboriginal right to hunt and fish”, since wildlife cannot survive where there are no forests. He has also attributed deforestation to the siltation of the Thames River, which kills fish.

It is to be hoped that Noss’ ideas will be strengthened by work with native communities, using treaty rights to restore a degraded landscape. In such a situation moose might again swim in the Thames River. It flows through a landscape which ecologist Thomas Beaton, has found contributes to “the highest rates of hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” in Ontario.

Danny Beaton says, “When we destroy Mother Earth we destroy ourselves. We humans have the Sacred Duty to be a voice for all life Species, so that means we are the voice for the Cougar, we are the voice for the Bear, the Turtle, moose, deer and everything that moves on this Sacred Mother Earth. We are the voice for plant life, the rivers, lakes and great oceans.”

Native Rights And Forests Chewed Into Dust

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Tuesday, June 23, 2015. -- Danny Beaton, NEWS

I was moved to hear in the longhouse of the Six Nations Confederacy an effort by the revered Cayuga environmentalist, the late Norm Jacobs, to have the courts defend treaties and the land. He explained that if treaties that protect the land are not enforced, Native rights will simply be ground into the dust by those who seek to exploit our traditional territories for profit.

During the last days of the deep cold winter of 2015, one of the worst examples I have seen of Jacobs’ warnings took place. Fifty acres of forest were ground into sawdust in defiance of our treaties that seek to defend the land. A great refuge for deer and their natural predators, the coyote, in the heart of the built up area of greater Toronto was chewed into a mess by chipping machines. Trees that were donated by Ontario government nurseries for reforestation became sawdust for the schemes of a development company: Corsica Developments.

Author Danny Beaton (second from left) protesting the desecration of the Dunlap Forest.

What makes the devastation so insulting to the good mind of traditional people is that the fifty acre forest to be razed (about half of a larger woodland slightly over one hundred acres, which may be later cut up for turf playgrounds) was created in order to compensate for some of the damage done by “pioneer” invaders of the land. Their greed saw the forest burned down to clear farms and to obtain quick cash for potash used to manufacture soap. The Oak Ridges Moraine just north of this forest was turned into a desert wasteland, and blowing sands threatened to bury Toronto. At the same time, the rivers that flowed into Toronto (notably the Don, which has its headwaters close to these lands) experienced massive floods. This led to 88 deaths in November, 1954 from Hurricane Hazel. For this reason, under the leadership of visionary astronomers such as Clarence Chant who used the restored forest as a barrier from light pollution from the newly built David Dunlap Observatory (where black holes were discovered), the site was gradually reforested from 1939 to 1980.

An environmental protection group, the Richmond Hill Naturalists, whose existence is now threatened by demands for an award of costs by the developer, went through three hearings to defend the land. This lead to a bill for expert witnesses fees and lawyers in excess of $500,000. At the most significant of these hearings, one by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) on zoning, the Native band that considers these lands part of their traditional territory attempted to become a party to the hearing.

On July 21, 2013, Karlene J. Hussey (a Vice Chair of the OMB) issued a ruling that assaulted Native rights and ultimately doomed the land. In her decision, which put a residential official plan designation on close to fifty acres of forest, Hussey denied a request by Carol King, the authorized representative of the Mississaugas of the New Credit. King’s request sought an adjournment of the hearing on an “urgent basis,” so that the band would have time to develop a case to defend the threatened forest.

Hussey rejected the Mississaugas’ plea for the earth on the basis that it was “prejudicial” to the interests of Corsica. She also told the band to involve itself in the later “proper process associated with the zoning amendment necessary to implement this development.”

How Hussey cunningly misdirected the Ojibway nation to a dead end is seen by the subsequent decision regarding the zoning amendment. This was issued by OMB hearing officer J. E. Snienek on December 11, 2014, shortly after a protest walk around the perimeter of the threatened forest by the Toronto Field Naturalists.

In his decision, Snienek argued that no matter how compelling the testimony was from the various expert witnesses he heard who argued that more forest should be saved, it was all worthless. He ruled that the issue of forest protection had been decided by Hussey’s hearing and that further efforts to save it constituted inappropriate “re-litigation.” It is on this basis that the zoning hearings were irrelevant, and Corsica is attempting to recover $200,000 in legal costs from the Richmond Hill Naturalists. If even a small portion of these costs were awarded by the OMB, the organization that was worked for a half a century to protect the environment in Richmond Hill would be forced to disband.

In Hussey’s hearing, the naturalists hired an archeological expert to present testimony about traditional Native use of the land. This report was never defended by the expert witness, on the basis of the decision of the Naturalists’ legal counsel. Also barred from the OMB was a lengthy report by historian Dr. John Bacher, PhD. He is the author of the history of reforestation in Ontario: Two Billion Trees and Counting: the Legacy of Edmund Zavitz.

In his barred report, Bacher wrote that the David Dunlap Forest was one “of the most successful examples of an ecologically restored landscape” north of Toronto and south of the Oak Ridges Moraine. He explained, “Today, it is very important that historically, as well as functionally, this site remains as a legacy to the past and a reminder to our future of the importance to protect watersheds and give us all the benefits that trees bring to our communities.” To prepare his anticipated testimony, Bacher visited Boston to view the Arnold Arboretum, a forested park that provided the model for the creation of the David Dunlap Forest. He found it was part of a “chain of parks whose principal goal was pollution control through a network of settling ponds and constructed wetlands similar to innovative conservationist thinking today.”

Shortly after the barring of Bacher’s testimony, a massive flood of the Don River hit Toronto. Although past reforestation such as that of the Dunlap Forest helped to diminish floods by increasing forest cover, this wise legacy of the past is being undermined by spectacles such as the Richmond Hill chipper massacre. With the disruptions caused by climate change, the earth is posed to take a horrible flooding revenge for the destruction of one of Canada’s biggest urban forests.

~ Danny Beaton, Turtle Clan Mohawk [www.dannybeaton.ca]

Alicja Rozanska: Lost Partner, Protector, and Healer

Posted by Danny Beaton (Mohawk) on Thursday, April 9, 2015. -- ARTS, Danny Beaton

The very first time I saw this very tall noble woman walking around our neighbourhood marketplace, I knew she was someone special. Later when I got to know her and spoke to her co-workers, they said when you meet Alicja you are getting the real deal, you will be talking to someone who is real, and she has a sense of humour.

Alicja and our grandson Justice on Gladstone Ave. in Toronto around 2005. Photo by Danny Beaton.

When I first did meet Alicja at Taste of Nature, the local health store in our neighbourhood, I felt she was totally magnificent, delicate, and original. I was taken aback by her demeanour. Then it was weeks later I got a call around midnight one night, and Alicja said she had just come back from Moose Factory, James Bay area where she had taken the long train ride to go camping alone. She told me a lone wolf, who was very friendly, had stayed close to her camp and had followed her around all the time she was up there hiking and exploring. Alicja said she had seen plenty of wildlife, bears, moose and smaller animals. She said she knew Canada was stolen land and felt guilty being here. Alicja said she had seen me around our neighbourhood for many years, but we had not met. I asked her to come on over to my place and stay the night with me, and when she arrived we were together for almost fourteen years till the very morning she died in my arms. My life has never been the same, from the enormous loss and amount of love and beauty that we shared with each other. Alicja gave and shared love with everyone we became friends with and worked with.

We had been using natural herbs like dandelion root, red clove, milk thistle, and burdock root most of the summer of 2013 and fall. By October, Alicja had an appointment with Dr. Gabor Kandel in the Dept. of Gastroenterology at St. Michael’s Hospital, and we thought all of this must be an infection, but we were told Alicja had stage four cancer; it was in her lungs, liver and colon. The next day, I began phoning all my professional friends and asking them if they knew anyone who had beaten stage 4 cancer. It turned out my best friend told me a friend of his, who was an environmentalist/farmer, his wife had beat stage 4 cancer 20 years ago and was still living. This gave me and Alicja great hope because we had positive news so fast. But it turned out the doctor, Dr. Rudy Falk, had died himself ten years ago. I learned Dr Falk had an office on College Street here in Toronto. Dr. Rudy Falk was a surgeon and was treating his patients in his office on College Street with alternative protocols such as high doses of intravenous vitamins C, D, B and mistletoe, poly-MV, etc. Dr Falk had also administered hypothermia and was doing his own x-ray tests in his office to locate tumours.

Alicja took me to many places. From the first time we met, we were going to Simcoe County and Georgian Bay. We were swimming and hiking and berry picking. Once she started to swim so fast and so far, I couldn’t see her almost. She stopped and waved to me from the middle of the lake. I was calling to her, “Come back! Come back!” She was a strong swimmer. She took me hiking in Iceland, New Mexico, British Columbia, and New York, and all over Ontario, Canada, up mountains. She really loved to hike and swim, so she planned all of our trips.

L to R: Alice Gibson, Mohawk; Audrey Shenandoah, Onandaga; Jeannie Shenandoah, Onandaga; Alicja Rozanska, Kaszebe/Polish at the Gibson Farm, Six Nations Territory. Photo by Danny Beaton.

The first time I spoke to her was in Taste of Nature, a health food store where she worked at the time. She used to work in a macrobiotic restaurant in the Annex around 2001, but she first lived in Chicago. She came to Toronto twenty-three years ago. She told me that there was no work for her in Poland, but she said she was here now for her son, Rigel, named after the brightest star in the constellation Orion. She was also working as a bookkeeper for my friend at one time; she had taken some courses at University of Toronto and received very good marks she really understood mathematics. Later she found a job with the Canada Revenue Agency. After a couple of years she became a team leader, managing and overseeing 16 people on her team. At the same time, she volunteered to organize some social programs for her staff and her department. Alicja initiated environmental and energy conservation projects and Native cultural exhibits. What we had in common was that we believed in healing, laughter, having fun, and holistic health and organic food just to name a few of the things that we shared. To put it mildly, she was a nature-oriented person, but her biggest interests were her son, traveling, and being in a forest or water.

We picked berries every year. Strawberries first, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. She loved mushroom picking and fresh water from the Alliston Aquifer in Georgian Bay area. There are places where the water shoots out from the ground, the surface springs. This is what we protected and we were fighting for in Simcoe County when we got involved in stopping dump site 41. We were involved for several years in a protest in Simcoe County, being arrested when we set up blockades with Ojibwa women of that area to stop the machines from raping the farmland and taking water away. Later we fought for Dufferin County to stop the Mega Quarry from raping farmland and water. Alicja received an award from the citizens of Simcoe County, a plaque that says: “Protect Our Water Stop Dump Site 41 Alicja Rozanska Site 41 Hero.”

L to R: Chief Oren Lyons, Danny Beaton, Alicja Rozanska, John Mohawk, and Rigel Rozanska in front. Photo by Brian Daniels around 2001.

She died on June 29, 2014 in my arms. We thought that she had an infection, but we were devastated when (in November 2013) she was diagnosed with fourth stage cancer. She was weak and bleeding. Her cancer had spread to her liver and lungs and colon. During Chernobyl, when Alicja was a teenager, she went on a school field trip into the mountains. Nobody had told people that there is radiation in the air. She felt that she was contaminated with radiation while she was on that school trip in the mountains during the Chernobyl catastrophe.

She was with me for fourteen years. We traveled with (Native) activists and elders, because I was a Native filmmaker first on Alice Gibson farm, so Alicja met the Elders before and after filming. The Elders treated her with respect because they liked her. Alicja brought positive and peaceful energy wherever we went. Around the same time, we were traveling to Georgian Bay and Simcoe County. We visited several Native camps, and we almost always left Toronto every Saturday just to get into the bush and water. Wherever we went, Alicja always helped with the cooking and cleaning. All of these trips that we took only happened on the weekends or when she had holidays. Up in Simcoe County, we attended many Native ceremonies and feasts in order to help the environmental struggles that we were involved in. She loved Native food and tried buffalo, deer, beaver, muskrat, fish and especially loved to make fish soup. My people believe in laughter, and she loved to joke with everyone. We were staying with the people of Simcoe County as often as we could. Oh yes, she loved drumming and the stars…

After she passed away, somebody from her work answered the phone when I called and said they knew her well, so I tried to get her to talk about her relationship with people at work. That woman said, “When you are talking to Alicja, you are talking to the real thing and so when you are talking to Alicja you are getting the real deal.” The second woman that I talked to from her team agreed with me that Alicja was one of the most amazing people that she had ever met because she cared so much about her team and all the life struggles that were happening in the world. She said that Alicja was involved with all the personal problems at work because that was her job, and she cared about everybody.

Alicja became a foster parent for Native kids through Native Child and Family Services. I was told that I was the first foster parent for this system in Toronto. We went to a Christmas party one year and Landy Anderson suggested that I should be a foster parent, so I asked Alicja. We completed the program and learned how to be foster parents through the Native Child and Family Services policy. We had a few kids in our home. Some were needy kids, some were well organized, and we took care of these kids, and Alicja loved those kids like they were her own.

Janet Nadjiron, Alicja, Rigel, Wilmer Nadjiron Camp, Owen Sound. Photo by Danny Beaton around 2003.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, she knew she would be treating it in a natural way. Alicja had spent most of her life as an alternative holistic thinker and natural holistic human being. We were using organic herbs that were passed on to us from Natives and Alicja had been studying healing all the years I knew her, so we even had some herbs in our garden. We spent a lot of time using medicines that were being used to fight cancer but were non toxic, and they did not kill immune system that protects the body. Alicja did not want to use chemotherapy or radiation or surgery. She felt she could cure herself, and she wanted to take control over her own body. This was an important rule she thought, but she took my advice to seek out the ones who followed Dr. Rudy Falk’s work. Most of the contacts I made came from Googling over the internet.

During the 14 years I lived with Alicja, she never even took aspirin. The first clinic we found that was using some of Dr. Falk’s work was the Nasari clinic. Alicja began treatments at Nasari clinic including roughly 20 treatments of high doses of intravenous vitamin C, D, and mistletoe, Poly MV, and other non-toxic medicines. At home, Alicja was using protocols off the internet such as the Budwig diet, drinking organic vegetable juices 3 times a day, taking baking soda baths, using the Tesla Proton IIX Sound Machine, and using infrared lights to kill cancer cells. Later, Alicja began using Essiac Tea and essential oils. We traveled to our house in Simcoe county on April 15th, and I began to tap birch trees so she could drink the birch water. Alicja was also a patient at Grand River Regional Cancer Center; her doctor there was Dr. Knight. Alicja began protocols at Marsden Centre with many treatments of hyperthermia and chemotherapy; however, the cancer had spread, and we were too late in using any kind of medicine.

Alicja loved Dr. Eric Marsden and Dr. Ashley Chauvin and all their nurses because she told me they talked to her and really cared for her healing. This journey in Canada for Alicja was healing and later shattering for her and me, but Alicja never steered away from her spiritual or intellectual thoughts or values. Alicja said to me “you cannot change my destiny” and after we lost our baby years before Alicja said to me “I have no future now.” These things she said to me echo in my mind just like the way we began to study the stars at night when we would sit outside in the bush or when we camped out.

Alicja hiking in the Adirondack Mountains around 2011.

The universe was alive for Alicja. Of all the people and elders I have known in my lifetime, Alicja was the purist loving human being I have ever seen or known. I photographed her for fourteen years, swimming, hiking, or smiling; she was an incredible swimmer, dancer, and hiker! If I could say anything to the Polish people it would be that you lost and gained a female hero and spiritual leader who was almost not noticed by many. Only photographs can show the strength and calmness of Alicja or anyone else who was able to remember or capture her incredible beauty and love that she carried and shared. My words do not do her life justice. The reason why I am writing about the non-toxic protocols Alicja was using is because Alicja would want society and people to know about non-toxic medicines available to stop cancer!

We are no longer publishing. This is being retained for reference. | May 1, 2024