Instilling success speaker's goal

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Indian children should stand tall, be proud and go after their heart's desires.

That's Howard Rainier's message, and the 60-or-so young people at the

recent Ermineskin Youth Conference were listening.

Forget all the negative stereotypes about Indians, he told the students gathered at the gym at the Ermineskin Junior High School. He listed them on the portable backboard: silent, drunk, diry, poor bingo adilcts.

"No more this, no more that, but onward and forward with faith and power and love," the students chanted as he led them through a series of physical movements.

"This is magic," said Rainier, a motivational speaker, as he watched the movements of the young people get progressively strongetr and the chants louder and more assertive as they came to believe in what they were saying.

"Fortget shyness," Rainier told the group, most aged 133 to 19 years old. "Say 'Choose me'.

"You don't have to take a lot of garbage. Start speaking up. If you start seeing your friends destroying themselves, speak up. No more self-pity - stop feeling sorry for yourselves."

He urged his audience to be supportive of each other and proud of what they were good at, whatever that was. Tabout about it, tell other people about it. And those listening shouldn't laugh at the dreams and aspirations of their peers.

"That's why you don't see a lot of Natives doing a lot of powerful things. We keep each other down," he said.

Over lunch, Rainier, a Taos Pueblo Indian from New Mexico, said it isn't enough to occasionnally have someone like him come in and buidl the kis up and get them enthuastic and excited. They should have regular gatherins and do things that will build confience and develop talents.

"With their talent development will come their self-discovery: 'Who am I, really? What can I do? If I can do this, I can do that'.

"These kids have an undance of talent, but nobody every sayds, "Hey, what can you do or how do you do it?' So, every three months, you have something so the kids can count on that. Then you start challenging them."

It's not enough just tio excite the kids, he added. The adults should attend motivational workshops, too.

"A lot of people aren't sold on the idea that their kids have a fighting chance in life, period."

All through the morning session, he had told the kids repeatedly there were smart, good-looking and Native.

"That's all you need in life. Stop and think about it. It's simple, but if you think you're worthy, you live up to that worthiness. If ou think your're not, you live up to that."

Rainier doesn't approve of the Hobbema bands' practice of giving their young preople a large chunk of money from oil royalties when they turn 18.

"I would say no money 'til you graduate from high school and $25,000 when you graduate from college."

Some of the teachers have asked band administrators if the monmey could be withheld if kids don't attend schol, as an incentive to keep them there.

"Thre're looking ahead and they're saying 'Why should I?" What I would say is they have to have a year of community service, they have to finish high school, maintain a certain grade point average, and they have to finish college. Now that's expecting something out of their lives."