"Cowboys and Indians"

Page 5

In my community, there is a group of people who have organized themselves into a "cowboy society." A few weeks ago they hosted a round dance, and this got me to thinking about what exactly it is they do.

This group has as its goal helping other people, especially the youth. It started a long time before the First World War, as I am told.

This is not just a Thunderchild activity. There are cowboy societies at Onion Lake, Poundmaker, Little Pine, Sweetgrass, and probably other First Nations too. The members of this society also help out with ceremonies in the community.

In our community, the responsibility for this society has been passed over the generations from person to person. It is just the men who are directly involved in the society. There are about 40 members in Thunderchild and I am not sure how many members there are across the province. But I am assuming there are quite a few. I support their efforts because it demonstrates our ability as Cree people to be self-governing. Self-government isn't just the big "political" activities in our communities. More importantly, its the things we do every day to teach, to care and to be responsible.

The society members work with community committees to organize trail rides, rodeos, horse races, chuck wagon races, flat races and other events in the community. This year, on July 14 and 15, the Thunderchild society will hold chuck wagon races. (Mark that on your calendar please.) Last year a little guy, Jamie Ochipwao, won a saddle and a buckle at different rodeo events. This is quite an accomplishment for a young man who is only 12. When our boys have come home from these events they have been excited. It's a good experience for the youth.

My boys have been involved in some of these events. Having horses has helped to teach our boys responsibility. Sure they complain all the time about having to go out and feed the horses (especially on those really cold winter days), but that's the point of teaching discipline. Both of our oldest boys have broken their own horses. This is part of the training they have received with those horses.

We hear talk all the time about the "youth problem" in our communities. Our youth are struggling, there's no question about that. But I don't really believe that it is really the youth that are the problem. As communities, we need to be providing positive alternatives for our children. If we leave them unsupervised and bored, they are going to look for adventure. As adults, we often don't like the adventures they create.

Every community has good role models amongst our youth, like the little rodeo cowboy who I mentioned earlier. If you build activities for these kids, the others will often follow along behind these young leaders.

Creating change in our communities is not really a hard thing to do.