James isbister - This land that stands here right now is where we were born.
This land that stands here right now is where we were born, where my older brother lives at the present time, this is where me and my older brother were raised. We used to walk to school from there. I remember I started going to school at 6 years old. We used to cross a bridge between the bay, it used to be flooded a lot and the Elders built a bridge for people to cross the flood towards the old church. That is where we used to walk up on the hill where the old Church used to be, that is where I used to go to school. Towards the bottom of the hill where the Cree Nations building is right now, was another school and a teacher by the name of Mrs. Craft was the teacher there.
I remember we were happy because everything was there, we needed to live by. I don’t really remember how we used to be taught or the content being taught. I remember sometimes we used to be afraid, of the teachers. The discipline we used to get, at times we think that we deserved it because we were bad or we didn’t mean to do it.
Now as I was getting older, I used to get the stove going and make porridge for my siblings. The reason why I made the porridge for them, which was my sister and brother were in high school at the time. Wally and Sheila are their names. When we run out of groceries. I used to take something from my house and go trade from the store like milk or sugar and whatever leftover we have I go trade for other groceries.
As I was getting older. About grade 5. I remember. What the strap is now. The principal’s name was Mr. Hancock. And he was my teacher. I remember he was mean. I remember when. You do something bad; he will give you the strap. I was the fortunate ones. I was at that school for a month before I went to residential school in Grade 5. It was very different. I remember everything at residential school had a routine. And we’ve had to follow it. Otherwise, we will get disciplined. There were a lot of boundaries at the residential school that we had to follow. For example, I had a brother, younger brother and a sister in the Residential school and I couldn’t go visit them. They had these imaginary boundaries, if we crossed them, we get in trouble. Today, I still have difficulties with these boundaries. Still affects me today. I still have difficulties with boundaries today and I’m working on letting that go.
I went to resident school for another three years and this is when my parents moved to Town of Big River, this is where I went to school. I finished up to grade 7 to 12 at the town of Big River. Then my family moved back to the reserve.
Now we’re talking about Kinship, Family history. Our family history was very difficult for us. Our father’s name is Tommy Isbister, he was white man. He was married twice. His first wife had passed away. Jacob Masuskapoe was his father-in-law and he was a spiritual leader at the church. Woman back then lose their treaty rights when they are married to a white man. This is when Chief Ahtahkakoop and the band members have to agree to disfranchise. Jacob Masuskapoe had also lost a son at the World War his name was Charles Masuskapoe, and he would have lost his daughter to the system because she would have had to get enfranchise. So Chief Ahtahkakoop got his band council together and got a referendum they have to be 100%. And the referendum said that Tommy Isbister can become treaty and he would have got treaty number 151 but he had got number 200 What does that mean? I don’t know. He got the treaty number 200 and that’s how I got my treaty number 200 when I was young. But I eventually got my own treaty number. I will never forget; well, the people never allowed us to forget. You guys are “half-breeds” that’s all I heard all my life. That’s how I am, the way I am today. I like to thank the people for the person I am today. Because I didn’t give up, no matter what I am. Half or Indian? I am native first. So, after that, that is where Tommy Isbister met my mother. And my mother’s name is Rachel Masuskapoe. Now there are five families that come from the Masuskapoes. Two of them I know of that is Peekeekoot and Williams. And how I know is we call each other like Gordon Williams. (My cousins) Because his father and my mother were first cousins. And same thing with Tommy Masuskapoe, David Masuskapoe’s dad, and my mother were cousins. So, this is how I understand how relationships (kinship) work. Growing up I began to understand. The difference between who was white and who was Native. Because of this example. But my first instinct is to be native. Then I’ll be Native for the rest of my life. No matter what people say, I know who I am because of my language, and I didn’t know my culture then. I learned my culture from the elders, the elders talk to me, and encouraging me.
When we lived in Big River. My mother ran a boarding house, this is where Elders from Whitefish would come stay at our place. This is where I met a lot of Whitefish Elders, last names like Whitefish, Netmakers, and Lewis’. I got to know all the old people from Whitefish here and this is where I got my knowledge from. And they always used to pick on me. And I didn’t know why. Now I know why today. They used to talk to me, my grandson, come here. I want to tell you something and they will tell me how it used to be in whitefish and how it used to be with other people. This is where I got all my information from, I’m at lost when I get asked about my own reserve because I didn’t have the same opportunity with the Elders there as I did with the Whitefish elders, Because of the residential school being away from the reserve and living in the town of Big River, then coming back to the reserve again. I learned from the outside so that I can strengthen my people in the inside that are still stuck in the reserve.
There is this other story I’d like to share and this is about the church. It was 3 times they went on the Sunday. In a morning when they got there. Most of the people got there in about 9 or 10 and once in the afternoon. In the afternoon they go to the sports grounds to go play soccer. Simon Williams used to be the referee. Half way of the game, he would take off. At about 6:30 in the evening, you could hear the first bell. He was getting ready for church service. Everybody in the soccer field heard the bell, we will move to the church for the evening service.
My older brother Wally told me a story one time, he said. We used to play over there by the treatment centre. There used to be a field over there. The young kids used to play there. And over here by the church is where the women used to cook. Over here by the pine trees, where the horses used to be, the old men used to sit there and talk and share stories. About what happened during the week or stories that were told to them. He said one time he went to sit there and listen to his elders. And when he sat there, he had to behave himself. He had to sit still and listen. He was listening to the old men talking Cree language. There were old women in the other group. And this old woman came over to the group where the old men were sitting and sat down. Suddenly the old men went quiet until the woman spoke. See today now we lost that. That respect for the woman. That connection that women had, the power of a woman. Anything, that woman shared. They had to share to the men too.
Another story was. They used to have a Stampede ground by the old hall. My brother used to tell me a lot of things. A lot of young men used to go to riding the bucking Broncos, cows or bulls. To see who gets bucked off first. That’s another activity they would go do too.
Back to respect of the woman?
Women were very respected back in the day. As soon as the old women stand up the talk. The kids would stop talking, playing and quiet down. Women were very hard workers.
I heard the story of the 3 bells… first bell was the warning; the 3rd bell you have to be there?
There was a lot of activities. Picture shows at the old hall, the old principal, Sidney Cuthand would bring a movie and we would have movie nights every Friday. The old hall used to have a camera for the picture show. We had a generator. We were lucky to have a generator down in the basement.
Those two last names, how did that come to be? Peekeekoot and Williams?
They were actually Masuskapoes? There was a conflict with the James Masuskapoe, one had changed his last name to Peekeekoot?
My grand father, his grandfathers’ name was James. And I became James from my grandfather’s side James Peekeekoot. There was only two that were Masuskapoes and that was Roy Masuskapoe and my mother the rest were Peekeekoots. Like Frank, Edmond, Billy were Peekeekoots. My mother had Masuskapoe as her last name but in parenthesis was Peekeekoot on her marriage certificate.
Other names? Adoption system, there are other stories?
Like the Vandals, Littles, etc. But we don’t know the story.
As a child growing up. Maybe talk about your work as a child?
Might work was cutting wood and hauling water from the lake, and this was before we had wells. We have to chop wood. Also, if there was no food, nobody cooking. If the mom or a sister is not cooking. You got to cook for yourself or for your siblings. I got four older and four younger siblings. Being in the middle. Because all the older ones are older than me. I had to do the cooking for my younger siblings. I had to help chores with my older siblings. We have to haul hay in Butcher Lake I used to go with my brother to haul hay. And my job is to take care of the horses. We haul the hay about 7 miles away.
The other part too trains from the bridal and stuff. Team back to where the businessmen were standing. He had another person called the team of horses one of the businessmen summoned him as is to look after my siblings. I used to babysit a lot. My mother had a lot of respect. She still always go visit other elders. And I’d be at home babysitting. And at those times, it wasn’t hard to babysit. Because everybody back then had other jobs. This is where I learned how to be responsible today. And also, not to be too lazy to always help out wherever you can. When an elder came to visit, we had to behave ourselves. And always ask permission before we did things. That’s how much respect we were taught, especially towards older people and other parents. We were taught to not be disruptive. Once we’re outside, we couldn’t come inside. Because of the older people talking. And the other thing we were taught was to always close the windows at night and do not play outside at night. And the go inside. Because there’s a safe place. There was a safety there because everybody had a lot of love and that is protected. After that, alcohol was introduced. And everything changed. This is another story.
My mother was the one that was very responsible. My father worked outside the reserve. He worked at a ranch where there are horses. People talked about that a lot. My mom was the one that raised us. But my dad used to bring us groceries. It was a joyful time. He also bought us things to wear and gifts.
When alcohol came? Permit system?
My brother told me this one story about my dad getting sick. And he was sick about two weeks. Then he went to farm instructor who lived by the treatment centre. He went and got a permit to go to the hospital. At the mean time, he started getting sicker. Two older women came by and helped my dad, one was Sugil Sasakamoose and Kapaypahpo (Laughing from far woman). They gave him medicine, and healed him. And the permit came about a month later, after he recovered.
I think we were fortunate ones because I think having a white dad helped us get things outside of the reserve. People understood that he was white and that really helped our family because we always had things, He knew people outside the reserve like Montnebo and Shell Lake. Just thinking about it now, that might have been the reason why my dad was the way he was after. He couldn’t get a job around, he moved to Big River worked at the saw mill for 10 years. He retired at 70 years old. That is hard work because the thing is, after he stopped working, they had their hire three guys. But that’s what he taught us and he taught us to always work hard.
Family: the youngest Marge, Gerald, Jackie and Janice. That is the one that is married to Alex Sasakamoose. And then there was Sheila, Walter. No Melvin, Sheila, Walter and Lester. That’s the one that’s married to Louisa. And then there is Gerald.
Going back to when alcohol came?
My recollection on that. The time alcohol arrived at my reserve. Something had happened before we moved to where my brother lives. Where the Littles live, were Blanche Little lives now. That’s where my parents used to live. And Edward and Lillian lived where Melvin lives today. But because of that problem, alcoholism after it came. And after they were allowed to go into the bar, my uncle became an alcoholic and he was losing everything. So, then my dad because that was his brother-in-law, he traded. So that’s why the Littles lived where they do, and that’s why my brother lives where he lives now. They trade it. Because it is part of the isolation. So, my uncle being at the isolated area, he stopped drinking. He didn’t drink very much. It was at the Polworth area. My uncle, Edward Little. And my dad, he didn’t drink very much. Well, he can handle his drinking.
Edward Little is my uncle through my auntie, my mom’s sister. Edward’s children were Brian, Colin, deceased Edgar, Vernon, and Bernice and Blanche. Helen Little came from Williams, Verna, Evangeline, and Helen. There dad was William and Clifford was the only brother they had, he passed away, that’s why there’s a connection there.
Tell me about Dances? Were you ever involved in Dances back then?
I was too young to remember. Once alcohol entered the reserve, we had to end the activities and dances. The hall activity stopped after I became a teenager. Because of the alcoholism, there are no more dances.
My ministry came in a vision, in a native ceremony. It was a chicken dance at the north end of Sandy Lake made by Barry Ahenakew when he was Chief at the time. He got this Jim Kanapototoe to come do a chicken dance, there was difficulties happening at that time. And I had a lot of difficulties myself too I was working at the Residential School in Prince Albert, I was a child care worker for about 5 years, I was getting attacked there, it happened for 3 days. It was a really scary feeling. Feeling attacked everyday for 3 days. So, on the third day my brother Gerald came to see me he knew there was something wrong, I told him about the attacks. Then he told me there is a Native ceremony happening at the north end, take some tobacco and a print. I knew a little bit about native ceremonies back then, so I offered tobacco and a gift. And I told an Elder about what’s been happening, my problem. At the time there an offering of an animal that time. Then this Elder said to me, “my grandson, that was only God, pray the way that you are used to, tell God your problem and he will listen, see that piece of animal, take a piece and hand it over to God and tell him what you want”. So, I took a piece of the meat, and I offered it and all of the sudden there was a voice, “This is my body given to you, this is my blood shed for you”, all of a sudden, I seen a Priest standing there, it was me.
And because I guess I have a fast mind in a sense, I knew that this was a calling and had to do something. It’s not a combination of both, it is an understanding of both cultures, like Christians they read a bible and our culture is through our oral stories. Through those examples of our people. That’s why I can talk to people. My niece’s kids call me “mosom church”. They all used to come to church here until I moved to Prince Albert. I was ministering at Holy Eternity there and then moved to BC, I got remarried, lived there for 2 years. And I came back, moved to Whitefish.
So, then I thought why did I get that message from God, then I thought to myself, well that was the Holy communion, then the sacrifice, then I understood what sacrifice meant, when Jesus sacrificed his life. Same thing as animals gives their life so we can live. I began to understand the sweat lodges, that’s when I was able to combine the two understanding. Get a message out of how to do it, today I recognized myself today as Native, Christian and Anglican. The first two are the most important things, being Native and Anglican. As my niece said, I bring the messages in two forms when I minister.
I retired when I was 60 years old. I combined the Cree language with the message from God. And the Cree means a lot, it’s so significant. I always talk the Cree language first before I minister, or at a funeral. From it that’s where we get the message, it enhances the message.
I think the organized churches I think misunderstood what was supposed to happen. It’s like they are supposed to bring us Jesus but brought us the building of the church instead. It’s like they want us to turn our ways, like they expected us to respect something that we didn’t really understand and to honour something that was not who we are. They should have had kept our native understanding and culture but bring us a message. But they didn’t do that.
It’s like what I tell the young people, learn to love yourselves, and the only way to love is to learn to forgive. That’s what I had to do when I was being mistreated at Residential school by my own people. I had to learn to love myself first then to others. I began talking to those people who were being mean to me in a good way.
The message to the young people, is to learn to love yourself as a Native person. But also, to understand yourself as a native person and be proud of who you are. There is a lot of gifts that we lost. Like the love from our families, brothers, sisters, and cousins.
One term that is never used, “To earn it”. Like if you are elected as Chief, you haven’t earned it, it was earned by your people, to earn it is by visiting them and talking to them but we don’t do that anymore. So, the young people, learn to visit each other, and talk to each other. Take away all the things you did wrong, alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs and all these things, these that all went wrong. And we as parents, have lost our way and grandparents. We need to rebuild. That’s the only way is to encourage our young people. Because our children are at the point now to make their own choices. The only choice they can make is to choose the right path.
There are Native Ten commandments:
Earth- is your mother, honor her. When we start to honor what’s out there then we begin to honor what’s around us. Our parents, like for myself, my mother used to be strict, sometimes too strict and began to be abusive, she would strap me and punish me. But I still loved her no matter what, I knew she must of went through a lot herself in her past. I knew it wasn’t her. I loved her even though she did this. She’s the one that gave birth to me, I am very grateful for that, the time being spend with when she was starting to lose it, she was still my parent. And for young people need to start forgiving and respecting their parent, to love them no matter what. This is where you will get your strength back, and we got to go back and relearn on who we are as Native people, it’s a powerful culture but it was misunderstood. That is the misunderstanding we have to take care of today.
A story:
Happened in Whitefish, also in Sandy Lake. There was four people who had passed in Whitefish, an accident. Yvoone’s son, and other people. I was having my service here as well. And late Felix Morin called me, to come over to Wf, because it was going crazy he said. Here they were having a gospel service, with music, a guitar and everything. So I went over there to Wf, when I got there they were bringing the bodies into the old hall. One side was Anglican and the other was Pentecostal services. I went to talk to David Masuskapoe, Sam B, William, and two other Turners. I asked on what are we going to do here. I was there for the people, Davis spoke up and said you can talk to the people. The two bodies were there, one side of the old hall. I said “let us not use religion, let us not fight about what we should do but let’s do it together.” then I went to sat down with other spiritual people. There were native elders there, church priests (Anglican), Catholics and Christian. After that they were saying, “amen, praise the Lord, halleluiah” up there. But that didn’t bother me. I was praying where I was sitting so everything will go right. After his praying and talking, Clifford Rabbitskin, one of the elders, was done they all started following each other in unison. I was so surprised to see that, thinking how wonderful prayers can be. I was thinking this is so powerful and everyone shook hands. That’s the part of our own way, is who we are.
I had to come back to Sandy Lake for the wake service here too, but before I came to Sandy Lake, I asked the people of Whitefish, so what are we going to do at the burial site. They said to me, you can have the funeral any way you want it done. We will leave it you. To do both funerals. To me that’s the power of God. When you humble yourself. I didn’t go there to challenge them; I went there to do a service. And I ended up doing everything. It was such a wonderful day. So peaceful. Everyone was getting along. This made me proud. All I could say, God was at work not us. We are just instruments. Our prayers are together.
His Wife:
I think that it’s really important to love yourself and also to think to one heart and one mind in spirit to strive to not be better than anyone else. We have to learn our language and culture.
I remember we were happy because everything was there, we needed to live by. I don’t really remember how we used to be taught or the content being taught. I remember sometimes we used to be afraid, of the teachers. The discipline we used to get, at times we think that we deserved it because we were bad or we didn’t mean to do it.
Now as I was getting older, I used to get the stove going and make porridge for my siblings. The reason why I made the porridge for them, which was my sister and brother were in high school at the time. Wally and Sheila are their names. When we run out of groceries. I used to take something from my house and go trade from the store like milk or sugar and whatever leftover we have I go trade for other groceries.
As I was getting older. About grade 5. I remember. What the strap is now. The principal’s name was Mr. Hancock. And he was my teacher. I remember he was mean. I remember when. You do something bad; he will give you the strap. I was the fortunate ones. I was at that school for a month before I went to residential school in Grade 5. It was very different. I remember everything at residential school had a routine. And we’ve had to follow it. Otherwise, we will get disciplined. There were a lot of boundaries at the residential school that we had to follow. For example, I had a brother, younger brother and a sister in the Residential school and I couldn’t go visit them. They had these imaginary boundaries, if we crossed them, we get in trouble. Today, I still have difficulties with these boundaries. Still affects me today. I still have difficulties with boundaries today and I’m working on letting that go.
I went to resident school for another three years and this is when my parents moved to Town of Big River, this is where I went to school. I finished up to grade 7 to 12 at the town of Big River. Then my family moved back to the reserve.
Now we’re talking about Kinship, Family history. Our family history was very difficult for us. Our father’s name is Tommy Isbister, he was white man. He was married twice. His first wife had passed away. Jacob Masuskapoe was his father-in-law and he was a spiritual leader at the church. Woman back then lose their treaty rights when they are married to a white man. This is when Chief Ahtahkakoop and the band members have to agree to disfranchise. Jacob Masuskapoe had also lost a son at the World War his name was Charles Masuskapoe, and he would have lost his daughter to the system because she would have had to get enfranchise. So Chief Ahtahkakoop got his band council together and got a referendum they have to be 100%. And the referendum said that Tommy Isbister can become treaty and he would have got treaty number 151 but he had got number 200 What does that mean? I don’t know. He got the treaty number 200 and that’s how I got my treaty number 200 when I was young. But I eventually got my own treaty number. I will never forget; well, the people never allowed us to forget. You guys are “half-breeds” that’s all I heard all my life. That’s how I am, the way I am today. I like to thank the people for the person I am today. Because I didn’t give up, no matter what I am. Half or Indian? I am native first. So, after that, that is where Tommy Isbister met my mother. And my mother’s name is Rachel Masuskapoe. Now there are five families that come from the Masuskapoes. Two of them I know of that is Peekeekoot and Williams. And how I know is we call each other like Gordon Williams. (My cousins) Because his father and my mother were first cousins. And same thing with Tommy Masuskapoe, David Masuskapoe’s dad, and my mother were cousins. So, this is how I understand how relationships (kinship) work. Growing up I began to understand. The difference between who was white and who was Native. Because of this example. But my first instinct is to be native. Then I’ll be Native for the rest of my life. No matter what people say, I know who I am because of my language, and I didn’t know my culture then. I learned my culture from the elders, the elders talk to me, and encouraging me.
When we lived in Big River. My mother ran a boarding house, this is where Elders from Whitefish would come stay at our place. This is where I met a lot of Whitefish Elders, last names like Whitefish, Netmakers, and Lewis’. I got to know all the old people from Whitefish here and this is where I got my knowledge from. And they always used to pick on me. And I didn’t know why. Now I know why today. They used to talk to me, my grandson, come here. I want to tell you something and they will tell me how it used to be in whitefish and how it used to be with other people. This is where I got all my information from, I’m at lost when I get asked about my own reserve because I didn’t have the same opportunity with the Elders there as I did with the Whitefish elders, Because of the residential school being away from the reserve and living in the town of Big River, then coming back to the reserve again. I learned from the outside so that I can strengthen my people in the inside that are still stuck in the reserve.
There is this other story I’d like to share and this is about the church. It was 3 times they went on the Sunday. In a morning when they got there. Most of the people got there in about 9 or 10 and once in the afternoon. In the afternoon they go to the sports grounds to go play soccer. Simon Williams used to be the referee. Half way of the game, he would take off. At about 6:30 in the evening, you could hear the first bell. He was getting ready for church service. Everybody in the soccer field heard the bell, we will move to the church for the evening service.
My older brother Wally told me a story one time, he said. We used to play over there by the treatment centre. There used to be a field over there. The young kids used to play there. And over here by the church is where the women used to cook. Over here by the pine trees, where the horses used to be, the old men used to sit there and talk and share stories. About what happened during the week or stories that were told to them. He said one time he went to sit there and listen to his elders. And when he sat there, he had to behave himself. He had to sit still and listen. He was listening to the old men talking Cree language. There were old women in the other group. And this old woman came over to the group where the old men were sitting and sat down. Suddenly the old men went quiet until the woman spoke. See today now we lost that. That respect for the woman. That connection that women had, the power of a woman. Anything, that woman shared. They had to share to the men too.
Another story was. They used to have a Stampede ground by the old hall. My brother used to tell me a lot of things. A lot of young men used to go to riding the bucking Broncos, cows or bulls. To see who gets bucked off first. That’s another activity they would go do too.
Back to respect of the woman?
Women were very respected back in the day. As soon as the old women stand up the talk. The kids would stop talking, playing and quiet down. Women were very hard workers.
I heard the story of the 3 bells… first bell was the warning; the 3rd bell you have to be there?
There was a lot of activities. Picture shows at the old hall, the old principal, Sidney Cuthand would bring a movie and we would have movie nights every Friday. The old hall used to have a camera for the picture show. We had a generator. We were lucky to have a generator down in the basement.
Those two last names, how did that come to be? Peekeekoot and Williams?
They were actually Masuskapoes? There was a conflict with the James Masuskapoe, one had changed his last name to Peekeekoot?
My grand father, his grandfathers’ name was James. And I became James from my grandfather’s side James Peekeekoot. There was only two that were Masuskapoes and that was Roy Masuskapoe and my mother the rest were Peekeekoots. Like Frank, Edmond, Billy were Peekeekoots. My mother had Masuskapoe as her last name but in parenthesis was Peekeekoot on her marriage certificate.
Other names? Adoption system, there are other stories?
Like the Vandals, Littles, etc. But we don’t know the story.
As a child growing up. Maybe talk about your work as a child?
Might work was cutting wood and hauling water from the lake, and this was before we had wells. We have to chop wood. Also, if there was no food, nobody cooking. If the mom or a sister is not cooking. You got to cook for yourself or for your siblings. I got four older and four younger siblings. Being in the middle. Because all the older ones are older than me. I had to do the cooking for my younger siblings. I had to help chores with my older siblings. We have to haul hay in Butcher Lake I used to go with my brother to haul hay. And my job is to take care of the horses. We haul the hay about 7 miles away.
The other part too trains from the bridal and stuff. Team back to where the businessmen were standing. He had another person called the team of horses one of the businessmen summoned him as is to look after my siblings. I used to babysit a lot. My mother had a lot of respect. She still always go visit other elders. And I’d be at home babysitting. And at those times, it wasn’t hard to babysit. Because everybody back then had other jobs. This is where I learned how to be responsible today. And also, not to be too lazy to always help out wherever you can. When an elder came to visit, we had to behave ourselves. And always ask permission before we did things. That’s how much respect we were taught, especially towards older people and other parents. We were taught to not be disruptive. Once we’re outside, we couldn’t come inside. Because of the older people talking. And the other thing we were taught was to always close the windows at night and do not play outside at night. And the go inside. Because there’s a safe place. There was a safety there because everybody had a lot of love and that is protected. After that, alcohol was introduced. And everything changed. This is another story.
My mother was the one that was very responsible. My father worked outside the reserve. He worked at a ranch where there are horses. People talked about that a lot. My mom was the one that raised us. But my dad used to bring us groceries. It was a joyful time. He also bought us things to wear and gifts.
When alcohol came? Permit system?
My brother told me this one story about my dad getting sick. And he was sick about two weeks. Then he went to farm instructor who lived by the treatment centre. He went and got a permit to go to the hospital. At the mean time, he started getting sicker. Two older women came by and helped my dad, one was Sugil Sasakamoose and Kapaypahpo (Laughing from far woman). They gave him medicine, and healed him. And the permit came about a month later, after he recovered.
I think we were fortunate ones because I think having a white dad helped us get things outside of the reserve. People understood that he was white and that really helped our family because we always had things, He knew people outside the reserve like Montnebo and Shell Lake. Just thinking about it now, that might have been the reason why my dad was the way he was after. He couldn’t get a job around, he moved to Big River worked at the saw mill for 10 years. He retired at 70 years old. That is hard work because the thing is, after he stopped working, they had their hire three guys. But that’s what he taught us and he taught us to always work hard.
Family: the youngest Marge, Gerald, Jackie and Janice. That is the one that is married to Alex Sasakamoose. And then there was Sheila, Walter. No Melvin, Sheila, Walter and Lester. That’s the one that’s married to Louisa. And then there is Gerald.
Going back to when alcohol came?
My recollection on that. The time alcohol arrived at my reserve. Something had happened before we moved to where my brother lives. Where the Littles live, were Blanche Little lives now. That’s where my parents used to live. And Edward and Lillian lived where Melvin lives today. But because of that problem, alcoholism after it came. And after they were allowed to go into the bar, my uncle became an alcoholic and he was losing everything. So, then my dad because that was his brother-in-law, he traded. So that’s why the Littles lived where they do, and that’s why my brother lives where he lives now. They trade it. Because it is part of the isolation. So, my uncle being at the isolated area, he stopped drinking. He didn’t drink very much. It was at the Polworth area. My uncle, Edward Little. And my dad, he didn’t drink very much. Well, he can handle his drinking.
Edward Little is my uncle through my auntie, my mom’s sister. Edward’s children were Brian, Colin, deceased Edgar, Vernon, and Bernice and Blanche. Helen Little came from Williams, Verna, Evangeline, and Helen. There dad was William and Clifford was the only brother they had, he passed away, that’s why there’s a connection there.
Tell me about Dances? Were you ever involved in Dances back then?
I was too young to remember. Once alcohol entered the reserve, we had to end the activities and dances. The hall activity stopped after I became a teenager. Because of the alcoholism, there are no more dances.
My ministry came in a vision, in a native ceremony. It was a chicken dance at the north end of Sandy Lake made by Barry Ahenakew when he was Chief at the time. He got this Jim Kanapototoe to come do a chicken dance, there was difficulties happening at that time. And I had a lot of difficulties myself too I was working at the Residential School in Prince Albert, I was a child care worker for about 5 years, I was getting attacked there, it happened for 3 days. It was a really scary feeling. Feeling attacked everyday for 3 days. So, on the third day my brother Gerald came to see me he knew there was something wrong, I told him about the attacks. Then he told me there is a Native ceremony happening at the north end, take some tobacco and a print. I knew a little bit about native ceremonies back then, so I offered tobacco and a gift. And I told an Elder about what’s been happening, my problem. At the time there an offering of an animal that time. Then this Elder said to me, “my grandson, that was only God, pray the way that you are used to, tell God your problem and he will listen, see that piece of animal, take a piece and hand it over to God and tell him what you want”. So, I took a piece of the meat, and I offered it and all of the sudden there was a voice, “This is my body given to you, this is my blood shed for you”, all of a sudden, I seen a Priest standing there, it was me.
And because I guess I have a fast mind in a sense, I knew that this was a calling and had to do something. It’s not a combination of both, it is an understanding of both cultures, like Christians they read a bible and our culture is through our oral stories. Through those examples of our people. That’s why I can talk to people. My niece’s kids call me “mosom church”. They all used to come to church here until I moved to Prince Albert. I was ministering at Holy Eternity there and then moved to BC, I got remarried, lived there for 2 years. And I came back, moved to Whitefish.
So, then I thought why did I get that message from God, then I thought to myself, well that was the Holy communion, then the sacrifice, then I understood what sacrifice meant, when Jesus sacrificed his life. Same thing as animals gives their life so we can live. I began to understand the sweat lodges, that’s when I was able to combine the two understanding. Get a message out of how to do it, today I recognized myself today as Native, Christian and Anglican. The first two are the most important things, being Native and Anglican. As my niece said, I bring the messages in two forms when I minister.
I retired when I was 60 years old. I combined the Cree language with the message from God. And the Cree means a lot, it’s so significant. I always talk the Cree language first before I minister, or at a funeral. From it that’s where we get the message, it enhances the message.
I think the organized churches I think misunderstood what was supposed to happen. It’s like they are supposed to bring us Jesus but brought us the building of the church instead. It’s like they want us to turn our ways, like they expected us to respect something that we didn’t really understand and to honour something that was not who we are. They should have had kept our native understanding and culture but bring us a message. But they didn’t do that.
It’s like what I tell the young people, learn to love yourselves, and the only way to love is to learn to forgive. That’s what I had to do when I was being mistreated at Residential school by my own people. I had to learn to love myself first then to others. I began talking to those people who were being mean to me in a good way.
The message to the young people, is to learn to love yourself as a Native person. But also, to understand yourself as a native person and be proud of who you are. There is a lot of gifts that we lost. Like the love from our families, brothers, sisters, and cousins.
One term that is never used, “To earn it”. Like if you are elected as Chief, you haven’t earned it, it was earned by your people, to earn it is by visiting them and talking to them but we don’t do that anymore. So, the young people, learn to visit each other, and talk to each other. Take away all the things you did wrong, alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs and all these things, these that all went wrong. And we as parents, have lost our way and grandparents. We need to rebuild. That’s the only way is to encourage our young people. Because our children are at the point now to make their own choices. The only choice they can make is to choose the right path.
There are Native Ten commandments:
Earth- is your mother, honor her. When we start to honor what’s out there then we begin to honor what’s around us. Our parents, like for myself, my mother used to be strict, sometimes too strict and began to be abusive, she would strap me and punish me. But I still loved her no matter what, I knew she must of went through a lot herself in her past. I knew it wasn’t her. I loved her even though she did this. She’s the one that gave birth to me, I am very grateful for that, the time being spend with when she was starting to lose it, she was still my parent. And for young people need to start forgiving and respecting their parent, to love them no matter what. This is where you will get your strength back, and we got to go back and relearn on who we are as Native people, it’s a powerful culture but it was misunderstood. That is the misunderstanding we have to take care of today.
A story:
Happened in Whitefish, also in Sandy Lake. There was four people who had passed in Whitefish, an accident. Yvoone’s son, and other people. I was having my service here as well. And late Felix Morin called me, to come over to Wf, because it was going crazy he said. Here they were having a gospel service, with music, a guitar and everything. So I went over there to Wf, when I got there they were bringing the bodies into the old hall. One side was Anglican and the other was Pentecostal services. I went to talk to David Masuskapoe, Sam B, William, and two other Turners. I asked on what are we going to do here. I was there for the people, Davis spoke up and said you can talk to the people. The two bodies were there, one side of the old hall. I said “let us not use religion, let us not fight about what we should do but let’s do it together.” then I went to sat down with other spiritual people. There were native elders there, church priests (Anglican), Catholics and Christian. After that they were saying, “amen, praise the Lord, halleluiah” up there. But that didn’t bother me. I was praying where I was sitting so everything will go right. After his praying and talking, Clifford Rabbitskin, one of the elders, was done they all started following each other in unison. I was so surprised to see that, thinking how wonderful prayers can be. I was thinking this is so powerful and everyone shook hands. That’s the part of our own way, is who we are.
I had to come back to Sandy Lake for the wake service here too, but before I came to Sandy Lake, I asked the people of Whitefish, so what are we going to do at the burial site. They said to me, you can have the funeral any way you want it done. We will leave it you. To do both funerals. To me that’s the power of God. When you humble yourself. I didn’t go there to challenge them; I went there to do a service. And I ended up doing everything. It was such a wonderful day. So peaceful. Everyone was getting along. This made me proud. All I could say, God was at work not us. We are just instruments. Our prayers are together.
His Wife:
I think that it’s really important to love yourself and also to think to one heart and one mind in spirit to strive to not be better than anyone else. We have to learn our language and culture.