The Elders Speak: Samson's long life shows him changes in Cree culture over the years

Before Johnny Samson, of Hobbema's Samson band was born, his grandfather told his mother her child would be a boy.

"He told her 'you have two choices to name him-Standing Eagle or Eagle Stem.' My mother chose Standing Eagle and it means my trail has no endI will have a long life," says Samson.

The name has so far proven true. At 76, Samson is still going strong. Though he auctioned all his farming equipment off four years ago, he still keeps busy helping his wife, Nancy, make hide clothing to sell, and he heads up Elder's conferences in the Treaty 8 area.

Samson says he was blessed to have such a wise grandfather to follow and adds he was particularly close to his grandmother, Sophie, who died two years ago at 99.

"She had a lot of good medicines. She knew a lot of herbs. White people used to come to herToday, I'm sorry I never wrote them down about any of those medicines," says the former Samson chief who now places more emphasis on his culture than ever before.

He worries the language and culture of his Cree people is being lost. "I encourage our young people or any Indian not to lose our identity. Native customs have to be saved. We've lost too much already."

Then, the crinkles around his eyes grow deeper as he jokes, "There's not even any more tipi creeping."

One of Samson's prescriptions for helping young people to become strong again and get rid of social problems is "good hard work." He'd like to see them doing hard manual labor like farming because "it makes you live long" and it's the best life you could make."

He also encourages women to start tanning hides, an activity he says has almost disappeared on some reserves. "They should tan skins by hand-there's a good demand for them. Besides, some people go hunting and leave the hides. They throw them awaythat's no good."

As a farmer, Samson also worries about the availability of land for crop growing on his reserve. He fears, as the band grows larger, overcrowding will decrease open field areas as the reserve fills up with houses.

"I don't know what kind of living they (future generations) will have," Samson says, recalling earlier times not so bleak.

"People were happy in those years way backbefore we had TV's. Nowadays, we don't even visit each other. Bingo halls are spoiling the activities on the reserve. I'd like to ask the government to stop these bingo halls. They just give us more problems."

He agrees "us older people will have to teach the younger ones about culture. It's good to see a lot of young people powwowing now, but what about the ceremonies? We've already lost so much."

He'd especially like to see his people name their children in the traditional way. He's proud of his Cree name Standing Eagle and the fact he is a direct descendent of the first chief of the Samson band.

As though to illustrate his knowledge, and respect for traditional name, Samson relates a story about the first Samson band chief's name, Kanatakasu.

"It means east. When the white man came out west here, they always went back east to get their supplies. The missionaries gave him that name because he always went east with them and became their good friend."