Voices from the past

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As far back as our Elders can remember there have always been Indian prophets who have foretold the future. These prophets were respected and honored by the people. Through dreams and visions they predicted events before they actually happened.

The coming of the whiteman was predicted before he ever set foot on this continent and the prophets foretold of the changes that would take place among the iNdian people here in North America.

An Elder named Andrew Ahenakew from the Sandy Lake reserve said, "Five hundred years ago, our Elders had clear minds and were able to see (predict) things from far away. They were given the power to do this"

Another Elder named Frizzly Bear who was born in 1889 spoke about some of the Indian prophecies. " When I was a young man I first followed my father when we went to meetings of the Elders. One time my father said, 'stay there' and he went in. As I was standing there I heard a lot of them speaking.

One old man called Coming Morning spoke up and said, 'Somebody is standing out there; can someone bring him in?' 'Guess he wanted to speak too,' another said. Then somebody came out of the teepee. The only person he could see was me. 'Come in,' he said and I followed him.

"There was a big crowd inside and I went in to where my father was sitting and sat down behind him. I was scared of them. That was the first time I heard these people speak, many years ago. From then on, I attended four other meetings. Now I can see the meaning of what they said.

"They took up sweetgrass and the Sacred Pipe. They used a rattle and a drum and they sang. Whenever they asked a person to speak on a matter they said, 'Tell it, the way you see it.'

"These Elders told of everything. All of them that spoke had some kind of markings to signify them, connected with some special meaning to do with Indian culture.

"They said your children will be asked to attend such a place, which will be called a school.

"The government thinks, 'I will teach the Indian.' The whiteman thought they had hold of the Indian and what he had, in the palm of their hands. Whenever the government says anything to you, your answer in 'yes', and of course, the government will think they got the best of you.

"be careful when he asks you for your children to be taught. In time your children will have no respect for you. This will happen to everybody, they said will signify that real hard times are coming ahead. And they added, if you ask your own children for food, you will pay them for what you eat.

"you will think that a whiteman can't seed in the muskeg but the time will come when he will seed in the muskeg and this is what he wants, to try and get all the land he can. These are the things the Elders said.

"And further, you won't be able to stop anywhere on your journeys because there will be steel rope everywhere. The only place you can stop is on the highway but if you use horses there is no place for them to eat.

"the whiteman won't let you stop anywhere. See, that's one of the things the Elders foretold. The steel rope they called it, I think what they mean is the wire they use for fencing. You can't pass anywhere."

William Paddy, an Elder from the Thunderchild Reserve spoke about the prophecies of television and tape recorders long before these things were invented by humans.

He said, "Long ago, when Elders spoke, they had knives on the ground: 'Use this if I get you mad.' That's what the young people listened to before the coming of the whiteman. They didn't read from a paper or a book like you see today, they told all this.

'You'll hear yourself in a box (tape recorder). 'you'll be talking in there,' they said, 'and you'll see a big box, you'll see people there talking, even playing game (television). And the fire, the Thunderbird fire, you'll see all over (electric power lines). All this I heard from the Elders and I am holding to it. I believe in the Indian ways. When I have some worries, I ask God for help. God gae the Elders this. These Elders were never sick. God gave the Elders the knowledge to pray."

In 1976, an Elder named George Albert from the Sandy Lake Reserve spoke of his grandfather's prophetic power.

"I think of our Heavenly Father every morning and thank Him what He gave our great grandfathers: this big continent, our Indian traditions. I ask Him to help us all on this continent. The people are all in favor of returning to our Indian culture.

"I want to talk about my grandfather OmoKoMaNiWew. I stayed with him when I was young. When we went hunting, he took his Sacred Pipe (a stone pipe) along. He had it attached to his belt. He told me, 'We'll go to the lake and paddle around.' He had no rifle or shells. When we got to the lake, there was a birchbark canoe laying upside down. With his bow and arrows, he used to kill many muskrats.

"When we got home he would take out his sacred pipe and pray. At times he told me to sit down: 'I am going to talk to you. I am going to tell you what's going to happen in the future.' I often used to wonder: 'How does he know what's going to happen?' Long ago, I heard the old people tell what was going to become of our cultureI am an old grey hair and a grey mustache. I am 71 years old and I am just starting to realize the truth in what my grandfather told me. He used to say, 'You'll become almost like the whiteman'. The Indian people are like this now but in the future our cultural ways will return. Today, I see our Indian traditions are coming back."