We must move forward together

Page 5

I grew up in several different foster homes. One of these times, I was put in a foster home that was a farm. Before that, I did not know anything about farming. But in this foster home, I was put to work on the farm. If I remember right, I was about nine years old.

I started learning about cows, milking cows, separating the calves from the moms, cleaning stalls - all the things farm life is about. We built fences and mended fences. I picked so many rocks and roots out of the fields. We cleared land. It was hard work.

I never thought much about this until we moved back to the community and now we have a few horses for the kids. Having those horses around made me remember the time that I spent on the farm. Although, I don't think about everything I learned in the foster care system (or everything I lost like being able to speak the language well), I guess I have to admit that I did learn some things that are important to how my life is today.

As Indian communities in Saskatchewan are realizing the goals of the Treaty Land Entitlement process through the purchase of additional lands for community use, I think it is very important that as a community we consider the skills we have and the skills we don't. One of the things that has happened to us, is that we have learned dependency. There's always a line-up of people at the band office waiting for a hand out. I do not mean this to sound harsh. We just have to acknowledge the facts about what is going on in our community. As our political leaders chase dreams of economic self-sufficiency, it's very important that we put this dream on the ground.

We are acquiring lots of land. At Thunderchild, many people used to be very successful farmers. At least, this is what my dad told me. Before our community was relocated, many of the Thunderchild farmers were more successful than their non-Indian neighbors. From how I heard this story this caused lots of resentment. It's part of the reason why Thunderchild was moved north. We now have a specific claim about the land we lost near Delmas. It's been filed for a long time now but I don't think that it is anywhere close to being settled. My concern about this land claim is that the people be put back in the position they were in before they were moved. It's not just about the loss of land but it's also about the loss of knowledge and skills. It's about the loss of confidence to be successful. And then we learned dependency.

I learned some good things from this one foster dad. This is the kind of cooperation between Indian and non-Indian people that needs to be re-built in this territory. As we aspire to being economically self-sufficient we need to make sure that we are bringing all the people along with us. That economic opportunity means economic opportunity for everyone. If you can't feed your own children from your own resources, then you can't talk to me about self-government.