Year in Review

Page 4

People and Places

Oki. Did you miss me? I missed me. Just kidding.

The last month of 1997 was not a very good one for me. I mean, everything seemed to happen to me. I think it was El Nino's fault.

Anyway, I want to share something that happened just before Christmas. It kind of shows you how my December went.

I went to an Edmonton Oilers hockey game. You know, go cheer on my favorite team. People there thought I was cheering too loud, I guess.

My friends and I were escorted out of the game, because they said we made too much noise. I lost it, I was very furious because they could have at least given us a warning or something of that nature.

You can only imagine how much that episode did for me to make the end of the year match up to what had actually been not a bad year.

The year of 1997 has come and gone quickly. I will give a run down on the year of 1997 through my eyes.

This year was very fast with no stopping for a breather or maybe it was the way I lived this year. I will start with the best joke I heard this year. It was the one I wrote for the August issue. If you don't remember I will tell you again.

There was this woman walking down the street and she heard a voice say, "You'll live to be 105."

She thought she was hearing things, so she kept walking. Then, she heard it again. This time she looked around to see if anyone was saying this to her, but there was no one. She heard it the third time. That convinced her, God was telling her this. She thought to herself, "If I'm going to live to be 105, I might as well get my looks fixed up."

She went to a plastic surgeon and received the whole works. Six months later, she was stepping off a curb and she was hit by a car and killed instantly.

She reached the gates of heaven and she asked God, "How come six months ago, you told me I was going to live to 105 and now I'm here?"

God replied," I didn't recognize you."

Tee Hee!! I still get a big kick of it.

?The best time was in May when I attended the Dreamspeakers Gala here in Edmonton. Meeting all these Native actors and entertainers was a thrill. Being a part of that made me realize they are just as human as we are, only they are seen in movies or heard on the radio.

The best powwow I attended was Kamloops Indian Days at Kamloops, B.C. I danced all weekend, met many new people and the hosts were great!!

?For the conclusion to my mini-year-in-review, I will end with the special memories of people who have passed away who made a difference in Indian Country. Dr. Anne Anderson passed at the age of 91. She was and will continue to be remembered as an advocate for Metis people. She was a writer of many books about the Metis heritage. Another was Jim Goodstriker from the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta. Jim loved sports, especially rodeo and was a master of photography.

Senator Walter Twinn of the Sawridge Band in Northern Alberta was another person in Indian Country who will be sadly missed for the work he did in promoting Aboriginal ways.

There was two other people who touched everyone in the world. They tried to make a difference in people's lives whether they be poor or sick. They both died within a couple of weeks of each other. Princess Diana of Wales or as they say, "The Queen of Hearts," gave so much of herself to charity. Her sudden death was a shock to the world. Then, Mother Theresa, who touched everyone in the long and charitable life she lived, was also lost to us. We shall miss them all as we will remember 1997.