A simple act of protest [editorial]

“I was nervous and I was scared because I’m actually going to follow through with something. It was like a choiceless choice in that moment. It was something that needed to be done. It was like my heart’s calling. It was saying ‘this is the opportunity to do it. You’ve been waiting for the opportunity. Do it.’ And there is no arguing against it. I couldn’t argue against it. And I did it.”

That was flag carrier Colby Tootoosis of Poundmaker First Nation (Treaty Six) describing what he was thinking and feeling on Aug. 20 as he made the decision to turn the Canadian flag upside down to bring it into the circle at grand entry for the Manito Ahbee 2013 powwow in Winnipeg.

The comments were made during a Red Man Laughing podcast with interviewer Ryan McMahon. It is an excellent, though at times apologist, interview that tells Tootoosis’ side of what has become quite a controversy.

The “unfortunate incident,” as the Manito Ahbee Committee describes the act of protest, has people talking, and it’s not all bouquets being thrown at the dancer’s feet for making such a statement, breaching protocol (or dogma, as McMahon also likes to describe the principles of powwow), though Tootoosis does have his supporters.

He has been described as courageous, determined, “our Rosa Parks.” But, he has wounded some people at their core, an unintended consequence of the passion Tootoosis has for making things different—better—for our children and those children yet unborn in a country that has disrespected First Nations people, the treaties and the land.

At first many passed off the incident as a mere mistake, but Tootoosis cleared up that misconception in a blog he published Aug. 21 on the Web site Last Real Indians.

“This is the most annoying flag a guy can dance in,” Tootoosis wrote about learning he was carrying in Canada’s flag, “but I’ll dance it in since your (sic) giving me tobacco.”

“In my heart and mind I thought about all the Indigenous people across the land living in struggle. I thought about the missing and murdered Indigenous women, and those who have been brutalized by the RCMP.”

He didn’t do it to get attention, Tootoosis wrote. Nor did he mean to offend. “It was simply listening to my heart and (it) felt like the proper appropriate action in that moment… We need to think critically about our circumstances as Indigenous people.”

There is no doubt that Tootoosis is well-meaning, but, according to the Manito Ahbee Committee, “his actions could not have been more misguided,” reads a statement prepared by Lisa Meeches.

Shortly after the incident, she met with veterans who “felt devalued by this desecration of our flag.” Some of them wept, Meeches wrote.

“I’m not gonna shake your hand—you hurt a lot of people,” was the first comment Tootoosis was greeted with about what he had done, according to his Facebook page on Aug. 24. The flags that come into the circle as honoured guests of the Eagle Staff do not represent the individual country, but those warriors who had fallen, wrote one veteran who responded to the post. The flags “represent millions of warriors determined to carry on spirituality of which we live and carry today.” Turning the flag upside down did not hurt Canada, but the many women and men who sacrificed on the field of battle, the veteran said.

Meeches described Tootoosis’ decision as irrational, and said the resulting discussion about the incident was giving too much credence to the “unclear, contradictory, and obtuse political rambling proffered by this individual for online consumption.”

That statement is uncharitable, we believe, but charity was probably not in her heart at the time of the writing.

“A special pipe ceremony is conducted each day of our festival,” she wrote. “On this morning the Treaty One pipe (the oldest pipe in our province), was lifted on behalf of the people. Special blessings are bestowed so that things are done in a good way. The MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg becomes our lodge.”

And this following statement is exactly what caused us to pause and think critically about Mr. Tootoosis’ actions.

“Protocol was followed in offering this individual tobacco to carry in the Canadian flag. He accepted and thereby undertook the responsibility to act in a good way,” Meeches wrote.

She would go on to write that Tootoosis breached this protocol and thereby violated the sanctity of the lodge.

During the McMahon interview, much was made of the origins of grand entry. “While a lot of people want to talk about (grand entry’s) sacredness and all of that,” said McMahon, “you need to know where grand entry came from. It came from a travelling slave show and Buffalo Bill Cody;” a statement made, we presume, to mitigate the criticism leveled at Tootoosis. But little is actually said in the interview about the obligations invoked by accepting tobacco to perform a duty.

“‘OK, I’ll take (Canada’s flag) in’ I said, ‘because you’ve given me tobacco;’ that doesn’t mean how I was going to take it in,’” said Tootoosis, his only real comment on what we think is a critical consideration of his actions that day, and a position that we have trouble reconciling.

The Elders and veterans consulted by Meeches asked that no ill will be taken toward Tootoosis and that the community pray for him, and let that be so. When all is said and done, his actions have provided us with some powerful lessons, not the least of which is how†a simple act of protest by one man can reverberate across the land. And that is a very important lesson indeed.
Windspeaker