Grande Cache Natives in 'crisis', says counsellor

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Social problems of Natives in the Grande Cache area will get worse before they get better, says a Native Counselling Services worker.

Loretta Belcourt, Native courtworker with the Grande Cache organization, said area Natives have been in a crisis situation for 15 years and a joint co-operative effort between government and Native leaders is needed to address their problems.

Only two Native people in the Grande Cache area in the last 10 years died of natural causes, she said.

Most of the other deaths were alcohol related and the problem is going to get worse before it gets better, said Belcourt.

"This town is only 20 years old. The people are integrating into another world," she said. "What's happening in this town is really, really sad."

Belcourt, a Metis woman who has worked with Native Counselling Services for seven years, is pressing for provincial aid in having Grande Cache Native social service agencies located in one building so organizations could work together on

common problems such as wife battering, sexual abuse and alcoholism.

The recommendation was made to Provincial Court Judge Michael Porter at the Oct. 5 inquiry into the suicide of Wayne Moberly.

Alcoholism was apparently a factor in the breakup of Wayne's family, which led Alberta Social Services to intervene and take custody of him when he was nine-years-old.

"It's time for a facility to be placed in the Grande Cache area so people could get special care for any problem area that is affecting them. We have to deal with the problems. Alcohol is only a crutch," said Belcourt at the inquiry.

"This would be, in my opinion, the key to holistic healing -- spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally," said Belcourt.

The idea is being discussed with social services, she said.

It would give something back to the Native community, which was sent reeling 20 years ago when resource development companies arrived like the coal mine and Grande Cache Forest Products, said Belcourt.

The two industries scared away game and led to a loss of the Natives' food source and disruption of their way of life, she said.

It's like the mother robin, which abandons its young if the nest is breathed upon by humans, she said.

"This town has breathed on the Native people's nest and so they abandon their families. They just give up. They turn to alcohol," she said.

"There's no more freedom to roam around, the traplines are gone, the hunting rights were taken away in 1985. The children are now starting to be taken away through suicide, through alcoholism. To me that's really sad," said Belcourt.

When there are problems in the home, she told Porter, parents should be sent to facilities for healing, while the children are left in their homes in the care of a homemaker.

"The children would be able to visit the parents while getting treatment. This is very important so the children do not miss that bonding with the parents. If the children do not have that nourishing bond they become highly suicidal," she said.

Meanwhile, Belcourt said she believes Wayne could have been helped if he had gone to the right person for counselling.

She said she has counselled a number of suicidal people and is aware of a number of people in the community, who are now thinking about taking their lives.

Asked if the inquiry into Moberly's death would accomplish anything, Belcourt said: "I know social services is looking at (helping) the Grande Cache area now."