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First Nations are often forgotten in history books. Many of us did not learn about the Indigenous culture, innovations, world view, value systems, spirituality and connection to the land. Growing up on the reserve I was unaware that I was raised by the Poundmaker Cree community of leaders, visionaries, cultural knowledge keepers, ceremonialists, farmers, hunters, land protectors and political activists. Chief Big Bear, in treaty negotiations, had recommended that the Chiefs not trust the white man. He lobbied the Chiefs to form one big Cree reserve versus the small reserves offered by the Crown. Chief Big Bear would not sign the treaty for several years with hopes of a better treaty but ended up signing under dire circumstances. The Indian Act was not what the Chiefs had in mind when negotiating in 1876. The Act has been one of the tools used by the state to rip apart the culture. The reserve system and the Indian Residential School further decimated First Nation families and communities.
Poundmaker was post-humously exonerated in 2019 after the Cree Nation proved that he was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. Co-operation and the model of ‘mamawicihitowin’ so deeply imbedded in First Nations culture for millennia kept the communities together. Sure they had the odd tribal wars too but that spirit of cooperation existed for more than eight thousand (8,000) years before The Indian Act, Indian Residential Schools, the numbered treaties were introduced.
It’s time to listen to the First Nations traditional knowledge keepers..(CASC & ANSER), Simultaneous interpretation.