 Let's begin. So glad to be here today. My name is Bri. I'm the chair of the coordinating committee. It's not that I'm just I'm just I'm just learning I'm not I don't know what I'm doing, but it's cool. So really glad for you all to be here today It's nice to see so many familiar faces And really nice. Yeah, it's a nice little community. We built up So I'm really grateful for everyone is here and especially for our speaker and especially for those from Thunder Bay and Elsewhere. It's really exciting. So thanks so much Always important to start with with a land acknowledgement and so many of us here are gathered on Treaties one and also treaty two The ancestral lands of the Dakota, Nakota, Anishinaabe, Salto, Ojibwe and Cree nations and the homeland of the Métis nation We know there are others too from other treaty areas and We're glad Frodo went to join us Also, we acknowledge that our energy comes from treaties three and treaties five So always important to To start with that We are going to switch things up a little bit today because our elder is our speaker is our elder and we're so glad to have our elder Marge here So where I think Yvonne is still actually driving in in Thunder Bay trying to get settled So we'll call them them for introductions once they get settled and they have their meal Hi, I'm Debbie Dandy a member of the coordinating committee And I too would like to welcome our elder Marge Raselli Who has been our honorary elder for all of our sessions and we've appreciated her Insights and and teachings as we've gone along I have I would like to present Marge with tobacco tonight The traditional gift to offer her and thanks for her teaching With us and Through all four of our sessions we thank you for that She'll Marge typically gives a blessing and says a few words before we start tonight She's going to do that and then just proceed with their presentation So we'll turn it over to you Marge Thank you very much I'm going to do a smudge for Before I speak before the prayers and it's a smudge of sage so That we can be rid of any negative thoughts or any negative feelings or bad feelings. I know that the subject I'm gonna speak about is is hard and I've Come through that journey In my own personal life and through the lives of many of my community members So I'm going to start out with a prayer in my own language a blessing In the Dakota way our words are sacred and Whenever we meet we get together meetings, whatever we do everything with prayer We ask for the blessing of Creator God Wakantaka and Even so far as to give me the words to speak That people will understand Because Dakota is my first language. I didn't learn English till I was about eight years old when I first started school and so I Want to have my words blessed And my words given to me that I'm going to present tonight, and I pray for peace and good thoughts for everybody God tell Contaka. I'm gonna take down a kitchen. I'm a cat. I hate you. I'm a chinch. I'll show you Oh, hey, look at it. Oh Oh So, I ask for the blessing and the understanding of those who are going to hear my presentation. And, I want to start with a bit of history for my people, the Dakota, Dakota Sioux they're called. So, we call ourselves the Quota, the friend. We've traveled a long journey, we are in our traditional homelands here in the treaty made with the U.S. and the Dakota Sioux, called the Great Sioux Nation of 1851 identifies Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, southern part of Manitoba, southern eastern part of Alberta, southern part of Saskatchewan, and south western part of Ontario as being a part of the Great Sioux Nation. And so, sometimes people say, you know, you've sought refuge in Canada and the government refused to acknowledge us as being here and they called us refugees and we've been labelled with that by federal government, they said they were granted land by the grace of her Majesty the Queen and we are certain that this is our traditional homelands that we reside in. So, it's been a constant battle for recognition, you know, we've been hunted from the start of the battle of 1862 in Minnesota when our people were being intentionally starved by withholding of food supplies that were promised if weapons and horses were given up at that time and the government did not release the food on a timely basis and our people had to fight for food and that's how the battle started. In article, the language, it's called the Battle of the Stomping of the Eggs because warriors went into the barns to catch chickens and they stepped on eggs while they were trying to get food for their families and that's where my history starts. My great-great-grandfather Bovala was a part of that and he was a part of the battle of little bighorn and he rode with a sitting bull when he came into Canada. So I know my history orally that far back my dad told me I've not written it down but we've come through many many hardships to get to here now and then of course we all know about the Sixty Scoop and the residential school system where our people have been targeted and decimated and been the subject of genocide and we are still here, we're still resilient, we still know our language, we know our ceremonies that we carried on underground and Indian agents lived on the reserves and forbid all kinds of ceremonial practices now we see a lot of other tribes have adopted our ceremonies. We've remained strong and we're still here but that's where our hardship started is with those kinds of things that happen in our lives. I come from three generations, my grandparents, my parents, myself, we were all in residential school and it was a hard time because boys and girls were separated, there was no affection, our parents knew very little about having a nuclear family and caring for that family, showing love and affection was hard because they didn't receive that residential school or even in my day when I went to residential school I just took away from showing any signs of affection for other children and there was always predators around you know and a lot of our people suffered so it's called carried within our hearts and our minds the things that happened and some have been able to heal like myself through ceremony going back to the land going back to our traditional way of life and doing ceremony and being able to overcome those hardships and to make good lives and on. One thing that was instilled in our parents was the work ethic. My parents were very good workers and they you know our people had big gardens, fed their families, took care of them but it was the affection and the love that was not shown even though it was there as they were stifled in their growth being in a residential school so those are the things that have brought us to where we are and then having our children taken away by the 60s school and the documents it shows that children were taken away due to poverty well not for any other reason than for living in poor conditions but you know we all grew up like that. I was born in a time where we didn't have no hydro and I always remind people look I didn't have TV when I was small we didn't know what cell phones were young we didn't have electricity so it's hard trying to learn that technology now we've survived and a lot of our people have lived really good lives but there are some still who have not been able to move beyond the hardships that they've endured historically and I think that's what really really affects our young people during hard times like this pandemic we've come through being separated from family from friends we gather we feast together we have you know family celebrations we have ceremonies we do when somebody dies and we have a funeral for a wake we get together we eat together we also have memorials a year later after somebody dies we get together we have a feast we give gifts to honor our departed loved ones and we give gifts to honor those who are attending all of those came to a halt a year ago the pandemic and and it was a hard year because we had so many deaths this past year a lot of it was you know natural deaths we had about 60 in one year 60 deaths of our community our size that's huge some in many cases we had two deaths in one day we had an elder a brother and a sister passed on the same day we had a mother and a father and a daughter passed within a week and that particular young man his niece died on the same day as him so we had a number of those where our community was really hit hard by all these deaths and we could not get together to show our support and sharing our grief with each other it was nothing we could do a lot of cases you have to go straight from the funeral home to cemetery and have a burial and everybody has to stand apart you know there's no hugging no shaking hands because of the pandemic and and limited us in sharing our grief and a lot of young people i think went underground with their drug use maybe they couldn't get their drugs i don't know but we're also hit with so many suicides of young people the youngest one being 15 years old that'd be a year ago this month it's the first one that happened many many attempts that have been made after that it just took a huge toll on the number of people dying and the majority of those deaths were not older people that you'd think would be dying but it was middle-aged people maybe in their 40s early 40s mid 40s it was devastating time for everybody and so if there's a bit of alcohol or drugs involved then i guess it seems like life is hopeless maybe for them it seems there's nowhere nowhere else to go nothing else to do but accept take their lives not realizing the devastation it brings upon their families their friends not being able to get together to share that grief it's been extremely hard so there were two state of emergencies called within my community this past year one was when the pandemic started on March 16th closed the offices down except for essential services i retired as the health director at the end of February so i went through we had to go through our list and establish who was essential who had to go home due to age or medical conditions we had to cut our staff down and just get right down to the bare minimum of staff make many adjustments so that people didn't have to go into town to get medical care we still continue to have the doctors come nurse practitioner come to the health office for appointments to see our people had to cut down the transportation we had to install safety shields in our transportation vehicles and many many adjustments so that was the first state of emergency and then the second was called in October of 2020 to the suicides and the number of deaths within the community attempts that were made chief and council issued a man council resolutions clearing the state of emergency and sent that into federal government and also notified the mko the northern regional tribal organizations so that they could mobilize their emergency response team and they were very good at answering the call and they've been sending workers in every week to help us deal with that because there was only one mental health worker two addiction teams and two addiction staff that were able to deal with the tragic events that were happening and I always went with them to talk to the people who were experiencing the tragedy and and comfort and offer and support but we also had to do it from a distance talking to them with our pp on and being at the front lines we have an emergency response or a crisis phone line that's been an operation for or since the 90s when we also experienced a huge number of suicide and attempts in the mid 90s to late 90s there was a phone line established for help for anybody in the community so we had a team there about a dozen people that we would call upon when something happened together and we would talk to the families and friends so we're able to mobilize that within our community but we were also very thankful that mko sent two workers down every week we also received help from federal government to send the a therapist and who comes in two three times a week to assist and she's always put solid mind you that didn't really put a stop to things we still have oh lots of contacts follow up to relatives that were affected to the friends that were affected that go out and offer support and try and set them up for counseling and dealing with their problems dealing with the situation that they've gone through trying to help alleviate their sorrow and comfort them and encourage them somehow we did that every week and through huge list of people we all were working in a coordinated effort to assist the community members in any way that we could and necessary would send them out to to treatment centers or wherever they could get additional help and counseling so that was a huge task while also dealing with the pandemic we had the first case in January 11th they'd gotten through uh since the previous march with no cases I mean part of ensuring that the you know we're not contracting the virus in the community or bringing it into the community that isolated people who had to go out of province maybe for medical care or even into Winnipeg we had the first case in January 11th and then there was three three clusters that we had to deal with but within one month February 11th we'd completely gotten rid of the virus within the community mind you had rooms rooms set up in Brandon we contracted with the hotel in Brandon to people you know safely into isolation there made arrangements for support services and also for meals to be delivered three times a day and if they were positive then we sent them into alternative isolation units in Winnipeg and so we worked really hard dealing with both of those state of emergencies within community and utilizing whatever support whatever staff whatever volunteer people that we could use and it was a hard time but it was also you know a learning experience how we can work together and offer hope to each other and provide that needed support from one another and to work at rebuilding our community ensuring that everybody is safe so we still we had to set up check stops and coming into our community and going up to community but just now you know cutting down on those checkpoints within the community mind you we know that there's been no cases and the province has been going low figures in the virus but still we maintain our vigilance and trying to ensure that nobody else gets infected with these new variants coming in but I had a wonderful staff of nursing worked really hard and I think there was the three of us worked non-stop for 21 days even on weekends after hours and it was heart full but we were able to make it and I really commend the staff for that the nursing staff I know that even though I'm not there at the helm anymore that they are continuing on with their work and keeping the community safe I know the mental health team are also there crisis workers are there carrying on working with the community and the other thing that I worked with in in my time there was a establishment of a healing lodge as hathor Nicholson, Jerry and Kennedy presented last week on the gravesites at former Brandon residential school site I have been a part of that and I was actually the one that used to set up the gathering every year and Kevin Miller knows that he was there to present also and gather a lot of information from the survivors the question them about what they wanted to do because this healing lodge was formally a proposal that was done I believe it was in the 90s by the former health director who used to be a chief for a long time his name was Robert Bone the late Robert Bone he was also my older brother and he started this treatment center effort and he worked with the southwestern First Nations in Manitoba and he had band council resolutions from a number of the southwestern First Nations in support of having a treatment center because there's nothing located in this area and he also had a letter of support from BCR from southern chiefs organization so there was a lot of support for that and it's been a hard venture to deal with because it's very hard to get funding I think now a feasibility study proposal has been sent in lately to try and bring into reality the healing lodge that we have been vision for the former Brandon residential school site is the vision there is that we have been blessing that land praying and smudging and you know had gatherings there with good thoughts and good intentions and prayers that the former site where there was so much sorrow and so much sadness and death for our students would be turned into a place of healing and hope for our people when it eventually becomes a healing lodge so we've been working very hard at that even though we have not been really really successful we you know when we find some funding we go ahead and take a step and you know getting plans drawn up and ought to develop the land into a place of serenity peace you know maybe a fountain there or something so people can go there and collect and sit there's a lot of work going on that will need to be brought into reality eventually but the the thoughts and the vision are there we're still working at it the real work that has to be done is what the Catherine Nichols is doing but there are a lot of anomalies in the land from former residential school students who recall babies being buried behind the old residential school building and along where the treedines are but the land has changed since then the treedines have changed and it took a while for them to try and locate where though those sites were at one of our gatherings met some of the older women there who took Catherine out I believe and showed her the spots where they thought we saw somebody child being buried or baby because a lot of our students suffered sexual abuse and some of them had children right in the residential school that were buried there or they were burned in the furnaces and they were witness to that so that's a part of our historical trauma that we've gone through is to have our witness those things and it wasn't just our people because we had lots of other First Nations that attended school there even from Saskatchewan I remember my late mother had a correspondence with a woman from northern Saskatchewan that she went to residential school within Brandon they used to write to each other until the lady passed away 1994 I think I drove her up there you know so there were lifelong friendships that were developed and you know both my older brother and my older sister went to residential school and and Brandon and they themselves witnessed things saw a boy being killed and lots of lots of trauma that they've had to bear and they've talked about it and I think it's been recorded but those are the kinds of things that our people have gone through so now we want to keep on working to bring that healing lodge there so that it can have a different ending to what started there you know our would be able to prove their of healing ceremonies have counseling on the help that they need to deal with that historical trauma we need to exactly find out find out where those great sites are and have Catherine work on them and we've asked that our gatherings what other First Nations think we should do whether we identify the spots and just make a little park around on a little gate or fence around it and plant flowers there to commemorate it and some people don't believe in moving exhuming bodies and burying them elsewhere but with thought maybe they could be exhumed and buried up at the existing cemetery but that also has to be completed there the work that started identifying the additional sites around the fenced in area at the existing cemetery on the north where it's hillside so those are work that needs to be completed before we can actually do any landscaping or excavating or trying to build on that site so there's still a quite a bit of work that needs to happen there and we're very hopeful that this time goes on but it will eventually become a reality I know the pandemic has put a lot of restrictions on what could be done and how the work can proceed but I'm hopeful that eventually that the work will be completed for that site first and then of course there's a site down at the former current park I think it's called Turtle Crossing now again that other site is that needs to be determined on what's going to become of that area and I remember we had a meeting with City Council at one time and the owner of the park was there and we had asked if you know the trailer and the sheds that were situated on that grave site would be moved but I don't know if anything has been done since then at first there was no agreeing with us that some children were buried there but eventually I think we came around to seeing that yes this is a possibility looking at the diagrams of old maps of that area but there was a grave site there many graves that's actually not just one so those are the things that we've had to deal with and you know we don't know who these children are oh this has happened said how do we go about determining what first nation they came from there's been a lot of speculation on what could possibly be done no pragmatic plan has been developed about what we're going to do I think we need to have another gathering or talk to elders and we'll determine what to do give a get clear direction on what should be done with those grave sites and then proceed from there but I'm not a member of the committee that works on that like I said I just retired and I used to be an active part of the work that was going on but I have since retired so I'm still hopeful that I'm able to contribute in some way and help with what they're doing and you know use the information that I have gathered in my lifetime because I've worked in health many years it was the tribal council health director for Dakota Ojibwe tribal council with eight communities for Ojibwe and for Dakota communities and then from there I went to the southern chiefs organization where I was a health advocate for 34 thousand first nations and then I was asked by the chiefs then to return and manage the 26 bed personal care home here in Sioux Valley so I left my job but southern chiefs organization I came home and worked my community as the manager for the personal care home and then I uh stepped back from working for about oh maybe four years and then I was asked to go and be an interim health director while they were looking for a health director here in Sioux Valley so I was in 2014 and now 2021 I'm finally retired in end of March but I have worked in Sioux Valley from the outside in their health objectives and plans that they had so I knew of the work that was undertaken for the development of the treatment center in the early days when the work first began and that support is still there I know because we've met with the council chief and council from the various first nations in the southwestern toba area and they very much support the idea of having a uh Dakota uh theme uh healing lodge where they can go to get relative to Colorado is he going to go sleep pretty soon so I believe the work will continue am I putting somebody to sleep but uh yeah so I am there to uh support and work with whoever is willing to have me you know provide some input on whatever it is they want to do for uh the future development of the healing lodge it's still ongoing and I'm always willing to listen to to people and help them as an elder here in the community so I know I'll never truly leave my position because people phone me and text me and just the last few things and I'm only happy to uh help provide whatever I can to assist them so it's been a hard uh a hard journey for my community uh we have about uh maybe close to 3000 but we have about maybe 1200-1300 who live on reserve and so losing 60 people in one year was a tremendous loss for us this past year compounded by the pandemic and then further uh further uh with the problem with the suicides it's been it's been extremely hard in our community and we've just now started having small gatherings there's an elder's meeting no too long ago at the end of uh February and I know they're getting together um for different things but still maintaining social distancing and wearing masks and you know we still have to maintain the guidelines for uh keeping the virus at bay so hopefully things will pick up as the weather warms up and our numbers stay low in the province we'd be able to do more work outside and maybe Catherine will be able to come back and work at the former residential school site you know it's uh the hope that I will be able to see the healing lodge come into reality in the future I'm 70 years old and I believe I still have a few years not lots of years to to work alongside anybody because my people are my first concern my first priority and I want to help them maintain wellness you know I want them to be well body mind and spirit and we can achieve that by working together at the goals that are you know good for us in our community not only for me but I surrounded communities and the healing lodges I see is a very important objective that we need to work on continually until we see an actual building we see we have plans we have blueprints that have been developed by our community members and we worked out the budgets you know the staffing that would be required we just need to get together some funding and start building soon I don't know but the feasibility study that's going to be undertaken soon I hope will be able to identify what is needed for the site and what is required to start building eventually and the work may be slow but you know you do Rome wasn't built in a day so I know it's taken us a while but I'm very hopeful that the building will get underway so I don't know what else I can say if there are any questions or there's there aren't any questions yet but feel free to put them in if you have them I have I have one son I have 10 grandchildren and I hope that I have been able to be a good influence to them that they don't know about the residential school they don't know about the 60s scoop I've had many relatives who have been through the 60s scoop and they've all been given money I went to residential school but I was at Dolphin and because I didn't spend a night in the dormitory I was put out into a private home where a lot of us were placed with Ukrainian families we didn't understand their language but you know I didn't I wasn't given a funding for being in a residential school because I didn't spend one night in the dormitory but when I look at all the money that's been paid out to people it didn't bring them happiness it didn't bring them healing now we have the 60s scoop we're getting what 21 000 I think each it's not going to bring happiness it doesn't bring you know healing I think we need to go beyond that when we talk about reconciliation that's what we need we need healing lodges we need treatment centers whatever they want to call them something that will help us throughout our lives that giving of money is just for a good party for some and it creates more trouble and it creates death for some and to me that is not the answer why didn't they build a swimming pool a hockey ring or you know something that we can use something that would help us develop our lives more give us something to do our young people what do they have there's nothing on a reserve you know I marvel at the little towns when I drive through you see towns that are under a thousand people and they have a store they have a gas station they have a movie theater maybe a skating rink they have and I think to myself why don't we have those in our communities those would help our people and give them something to do you know they have a covered uh an indoor skating rink I see kids out here who build an outdoor rink they're out there at night skating even if it's cold gives them something to do for a short period of time why can't we have a bowling alley you know why can't we have a swimming pool we used to swim in a cinnabar and river a long time ago when I was a child now it's so polluted nobody wants to set foot in it why can't we you know have a skate park skateboard park or whatever we see some of our children going down the paved highway highway 21 right runs right through my reserve they're going down the hill on on the skateboards they don't have anywhere else because the roads are dirt roads and that's just like an accident waiting to happen if us speeding simmy comes barreling down the hill but we need facilities recreation facilities we need to build up our communities for the youth and especially in this healing lodge would be such a wonderful you know place if they could go there they could take part in ceremony in a safe environment a peaceful environment you have a swimming pool there maybe go swimming have a sweat lodge there they take part in a ceremony all the things that we could do to bring healing we don't have and I think I can speak for all first nations when I say this is what we need this is what reconciliation should be because injecting money into somebody's life most of them don't have a better life out of it maybe some of the mobile vehicle they get stopped because they don't have a driver's license it's impounded they can't get it out they lose it yeah so it's been it's been a long journey and I think about how our people can benefit how we can go forward to a better life or and I mentioned my grandchildren 10 grandchildren one is 30 and the youngest one is one so what what is good for them is an education to some extent it is but having a a healthy well-rounded life you know healthy emotionally mentally physically is what I want for my grandchildren right now we have you know diabetes so prevalent in all first nations we made a a little detour in our traditional healthy lifestyle because we were raised on buffalo which we know is the healthiest meat we made use of the whole buffalo to eating junk food now trying to you know help our young people you know eating pizzas unhealthy foods things we didn't have getting them games what do they call those those ps3s or whatever those kinds of things and they sit inside and they play their games all night long sleep all day so their lives are turned around and it's not healthy for them we know that but what else is there for them on a reserve there's nothing else and if we don't have what we need you know we we try and fill it with possessions instead of what we really should be giving like that's thank you marge thank you marge so much for sharing so far there's a number of questions that have come in and I can relay those to you if that was a good time sure and whenever you're ready and yeah and there's also someone waiting that will like to share a comment as well but I'll start with these a couple questions that came in around what the healing lodge could look like one of the masks what programs service programs and services do you hope the healing center might offer and will the healing lodge provide mental health services to these youth or is it inpatient services what do you think that what do you hope that will look like well the vision is that we would provide a full spectrum of services from mental health to whatever is needed counseling in home care to stay there as a residential you know place residential treatment center but also as a day treatment center if that's what they prefer and mental health counseling would be a first priority addictions counseling so those the full spectrum thank you um kind of similar vein what does what do you expect or what do you think will address the suicide rates of youth do you have thoughts of what can be done I think it was what I was just talking about if we could provide them provide them what they need in the community to occupy them and certainly it's the outdoor physical recreation sports yep and I'm building on that is there is there federal funding or local funding to help build these amenities at all um like a swimming pool or hockey rink that improve the quality of life on the reserve where is the funding where could the funding come from you know well if we were able to access that kind of funding I'm pretty sure we would have had all those now because you know it has to be negotiated if it's not really needed well I've never heard of federal government funding a swimming pool or any other physical fitness buildings or facilities or anything like that thanks that's why I said right reconciliation should include those kinds of things yeah feel pragmatic things that we can use in our communities yeah so when you put words to action you know action to concrete things like facilities that's reconciliation working at its best thanks I noted that fey you had your hand up did you want to share anything hi and make rich elder march for for sharing your wisdom with us and identifying these problems um if my question was sort of around the funding and I think you've identified uh you know what it would look like but have you know is there any way that uh I don't know what kind of funding you'd be looking at to to be able to build what you're looking at have you got any idea of what that would cost uh that's the first part of the question and the second part of the question is if uh people did fundraising for you uh where would that money where could that money be sent and would you would that be a help or would that not be a help and that's it well if we did a fundraising it would have to be for a specific thing like the healing lodge and that's where it would go specifically for that account has to be set up and if we were able to access any type of funding from federal government through a proposal we would have done so already you know while I was health director we were able to access additional funding for the pandemic by submitting proposals so I think we were able to access about a million dollars you know for food hampers and for isolation sites and for setting up a quarantine site if it ever came to that so we did proposals for those and we were able to access funding for those I think you're talking long term though not just short term correct am I correct in that that you're talking you're talking about something that would be there for 20 years not something that's going to come along right now okay all right thank you welcome I guess I guess maybe if I could just one more and I'm sorry I'm probably monopolizing time here but but what is it that we like I live in Winnipeg what is it that I could do to help you guys to help there as one person or is a person with contacts and a group of people or whatever is there something I can do to help in this process well you certainly can you can advocate for us if you know people on how we can go about accessing funding you can always contact me or you can contact the chief your name is Jennifer bone thank you there was a another question that came in related to um uh uh related to Catherine and um it was said who I think was on the call I don't know if she still is but uh is Catherine working with the committee now just curious who would who would be still working on identifying the children or working on getting the campground and Brandon to respect the cemetery Catherine is still working with Sue Valley and she has a committee that she works with okay so we've been very thankful for her help that she's provided so far and we also have Craig Miller who's been a good advocate for us and working with us also I noted that Craig has this hand up I'll go ahead and call on him we also there's also another uh Tommy also wanted to make a comment but since Craig was you just mentioned go ahead Craig if you wanted to make a comment thank you um and Marge it's it's good to be with you even in this virtual space so I'm just curious um when I attended the government roundtable with you in Winnipeg I believe that was January of 2017 the federal negotiator said at the time that he thought the government was going to put forward a proposal in fact he told me he was fairly certain that the government was going to put forward a proposal to make that happen I take it from what you're saying tonight that like has there been no movement on that no additional indication no no sense that support is coming no I have not heard anything at all and I don't know who is pursuing that now I guess it would have to be the chief maybe you could call her up and remind her Craig I think it would be helpful well it's just disheartening to hear you're following that meeting and I know following the roundtables that you were doing on a month a monthly basis correct that that hasn't you know that there hasn't been at least some additional communication or some type of of support from the from the federal government well yes it's it's unfortunate I think I was uh that was when the old council left we had a new council come in so sometimes priorities change or you know some things inadvertently or prioritized over other things so I think we need to keep this on the chief's table I would suggest that maybe we could give her a call sometime and speak to her okay thank you March I look forward to seeing you soon mm-hmm I do too there's a number of comments asking about about some of the same kinds of things about how do we can we support and whether or not um lobby on behalf of Sioux Valley to the federal government would be helpful at all um so something that perhaps we can continue to explore maybe you have more additional comments on that and elder Tommy I think is stepped out he wanted to make a comment as well but I think he might be out yeah I think a lot of lobbying is required by people who know people sometimes you know you you'll get the best contacts and information informally you know with people you know people who know people yeah I'd appreciate any kind of assistance for this is very important when we move ahead on this project yeah my people's lives depend on it not only my community but other you know first nation communities the longer we wait I mean things aren't going to get any better there's a similar question about um kind of stepping back just a little bit about uh you mentioned earlier on that your community has worked really hard over the years on recognition for Sioux Valley and your people given that the Dakota were not original signers to the numbered trees has the Dakota's journey towards self-determination been different than other people groups here yeah I think so we I always say we still own the land because we didn't sign any treaty and when that treaty in 1851 with the Great Sioux Nation in the United States we left that area also so you know they may include us but I don't know if our chiefs from that era signed anything so tongue in cheek that's what I always say we still own the land but yeah I think it was uh oh what would I say a way of federal government to kind of recognize us I guess with the self-government or trying to set us off on our own path with the agreement for self-governance you know it's a tripartite agreement with Manitoba and Canada so essentially it left us in a in a more serious or difficult situation financially I believe because the indexes were not adjusted according to current inflation our population and at times the province or yeah the Manitoba First Nations would get funding increases and we would not get it because we already had our five-year agreement set up and so we need to continually advocate and lobby and and ask for you know additional funding that others have received so it kind of locked us into the agreement that we have which to me is not wasn't the best for Sioux Valley and I know because when self-government was originally started in the late 80s my late brother was the chief and when he started the process I was working with him then in the south original self-government framework agreement that was signed in 1991 until I worked in self-government until 95 when I went to Winnipeg the work as a health director for the Dakota Ojibwe travel council so I still remember the contents of our original agreement that we had proposed them so it's far different than what was agreed to and signed by the three parties it's more limiting interesting thank you another question that had come back and I'm just relaying the questions going back a bit to the Healing Lodge question do any other Manitoba First Nations communities that you know of already have a Healing Lodge or something similar that you might be building on well they do have one at the oh what is that they have a couple of them and I think into I don't know our way house maybe and north of Winnipeg one of the communities there they have a Healing Lodge maybe others than the Colno I know Manitoba has a couple of them but across Canada there are a lot of First Nations that have treatment centers you see we went to BC to you know find out how they got funding for theirs and how they established their their treatment center and there's also one in Alberta, Kainai, that we took a look at to see how they managed to build their treatment center yeah thank you elder Tommy as I think it might be back is are you able to unmute anyone there you go Tommy's here can you hear us yes hello I was really interested in that the colder lady when she was talking I imagined she's is pretty well how would I say exposed to the what we are now experiencing exposed to the white society and she's able to talk pretty good English and I believe I'm about the same age as her and I have problems talking because I'm not fully exposed to the white society as we are hello but anyways you said something about reconciliation that struck me right away too because I was trying to understand what reconciliation meant and I've listened to a lot of young people you know like my age and their age is quite a bit quite a bit of difference and there's a lot of changes within that thing that happens and I felt what everybody was trying to say in reconciliation is trying to get back what they have already lost even before the what you call there's a word for it too before the doctrine of discovery you know we had a lot of things going for us we had our own doctors we had our own teachers we had our own scientists if you if you have to say it but scientists wasn't the word at those times and our people I say this with honesty we're able to bring back the dead within the 24 hours speed now we can't do that and that's one of the things I believe we will never be able to get back to reconciliation but a lot of times that you had mentioned I believe it can happen it really can happen and once that happens I think we can we can begin to feel the way we were say eons ago and one of these things is it would be pretty hard for me at my age to try and say how we can begin a process to try and bring back a lot of things not just one area where we can say let's bring back what we've already lost and that's true residential school and that's true uh laws that there's not ours like we were able to get food if we wanted to we went and either hunt for it or set traps not drops that would kill in a through fashion but we didn't believe in killing and stuff like that we made real kills like death bottles and stuff like that I mean I don't even want to talk about those things because I see it in my own way in my own way that we are killing ourselves and you mentioned a few of them that's addiction you know our people are lost with those things and before when we talk about before the doctrine of discovery there's no such thing as addiction drinking wine whiskey beer now you've got all kinds of liquor I noticed and that's these are called coolers and these is what our children are you know they they find it very easy to get it even though they're not old enough even if they're not having a piece of paper saying that they're old enough to get it because they they look more sophisticated than we did a long time ago so these are the things that we have to try and find a way we can help one another we call that we soak again in my language it's a jibway and I believe you have the same thing in your language the code where we don't just listen to one another we look how we can be able to help and this is what I think you are doing which is good the other thing my friend here Kathy mentioned to me that the meeting is going to be about huge suicide I see with my own eyes I come from a small community called grass and arrows I didn't know I belonged there until my uncle told me let's go to your reserve we're going to get some money today well the door time it was a brown check with a black black stripe in the back five dollars but at those times it was quite a bit of money to be able to buy flour sugar lard you know things that we need for our food meat sources stuff like that what I see there is that you know the children really loved their parents their grandparents their big brother their big sister the smaller you are you dependent on them more than you depend on anybody else today like you you don't really depend on it in a place because they fund you only if you do the things that they wish you to do what I'm saying is that I see this with my own eyes when I went back to my reserve I see children as young as eight years old committing suicide and the reason for that is because they have just heard what they heard about their dad their mother what happened to them when the residence was cool and that was you know getting hit with a with a knife or a hat or a spear or something and you know they they just couldn't understand why why these things are happening and I've seen this already I've seen this with my own eyes because I was chief too in my reserve 1974 to 1980 and we tried to make a voice for our children and we still need a voice for our children regardless of now because they are much more capable than people my age now when I hear them speak boy you know they they're really good English talkers because they talk far too quick for me they sound like an auctioneer like I I can't understand but you know you can tell how educated they become and these are the people that I believe we must take a real good hard look at it to see how we can provide them with the necessary tools to be our spokespersons because one of these days I think this is what we're going to see we're going to see more female chiefs than indeed male chiefs and I say this not because you know I'm against my male brothers but you know we tend not to say the things that we're supposed to I've seen that also I witnessed that also because in my time I was younger when I was a chief at the time and I spoke what what what was happening to our people and what was happening when we spoke about it it was more being sweep under the rug than any trying to try to have the society help you with with what you are having trouble with so these are the things is good that I heard you saying that the Helinod is one of the best ways to do it and we need to get all the elders from different sections of the land that we know that we're now not in control of our of our needs and we need to prepare something that this is how we will be able to help ourselves our children to get back what we've lost without our consensus I believe if I can use those words and I would like to answer questions too if somebody would would ask me because I believe I I went beyond the scope of being a chief I ended up with a good friend of mine Louis Cameron Rodney Seymour and Joe Bird we were all young we are occupied what is known now as an it's now the part and today I keep hearing the same thing if we were to listen to the young people and those two years and it's now the part wouldn't have happened Oka wouldn't have happened only me wouldn't have it but we got one good group that came out and they're all a female group and they call themselves I'll know more and I appreciate it but where are they now I don't think we're we're in a supporting need and I think that's gotta continue be wet thank you appreciate the words I think the elder is quite bright and saying that we need to keep our our minds on how the youth will go forward and helping them because in our language you always say the youth the children are our future and so it's their well-being that everything we do now for seven generation affect them that it'd be done in a positive manner so that they can live good healthy lives instead of the way they're going now and that also includes including the land because we are a part of the land as First Nations people whatever happens to land happens to us and I've always worked at trying to conserve and protect of Jima Khan mother earth and I was down at Standing Rock in 2016 and I was there when all those thousands of veterans came in to show support for our people in their stance against the government in the building of that pipeline and so everything we do like I said we think about the seven generations ahead to come and so this work that we're doing now you know it will help those youth those that are not yet born nor is that are coming if we do the work that we set out to do and it's very important to me as a mother and a grandmother and whatever effort we make we make it for the young so I want to thank all the people who have listened and been a part of this so if you have any more questions of the elder that just spoke or myself we happy to answer if I can you are so true what you're saying and I believe that what needs to happen next is to see whether we can keep contact the more people that are able to speak the stronger and bigger we will become so we need a voice not just for one nation but the whole nation and I think Chief Sittin Bull was one of the chiefs that that did that he did nationwide and a few other chiefs Saga Jere was my chief that was my great-grandfather and he said that the treaties were not right for us and I believe that a lot of words have been changed so this is the thing what I'm saying that we need you said it we need to take a stronger grip on our younger people because they are a lot smarter than I believe we were anyways in terms of English language and stuff like that like I mentioned I went to universities to speak to students and they the questions that they asked me I couldn't answer because they're too fluent in English you know I say I thank you for your questions but you sound like a noxious to me I don't understand what you say unless you say the real slow so I can understand and it works but like I'm like I hear it keep hearing too time is what is essential they need all more time we need more time because we are still in in an unknown world because we live in two different worlds our world is different from the dominant society I guess the society that that rejects the word Indian that's what I I kept saying one person please ask me what does the word Indian mean to me that they come to my mind right away the word Indian is a rejection from society and that's why we we got together at one time but now that's over 40 years ago I'm 76 now and I feel that I gotta keep going in order to show that you cannot give up what you're doing you gotta keep going till you see some kind of a stirring the clock thank you I think that maybe next the next webinar series we can also maybe look into a treaty three area and and have some more conversation over there I think that would be really important if there are any other questions feel free to to still put them in the chat or let me know or raise your hand there was a couple people going back just briefly to the healing lodge mentioned that in both in the Nelson house and I think Vince Solomon mentioned the Sageen First Nation also also had healing lodges there as well and then Mavis also asked are the terms of the healing lodge treatment center are the interchangeable with the proposal that would be create that would be created at former brand the Brandon residential school site are they linked at all or would that be a separate do you know well I use them interchangeably basically to me it's the same thing but when I say the healing lodge it has more of a cultural component to it so that we would use our you know traditional cultural practices of healing in the spectrum of services that would be provided for each individual whatever they would feel safe and comfortable in an undertaking for their own healing journey in terms of the funding that wouldn't be any different there those would be separate though I think that was part of the question what they call the NAIDA funded treatment centers by Health Canada First Nation and Health Services those are deemed to be treatment centers yeah yeah okay Elder Kathy also had a comment she wanted to share I think she's gonna mute uh bojo everybody uh March uh uh uh like Tommy said that um uh you spoke some very strong words and a strong message in regards to uh your community and um in regards to um just the history of your community up to the present and some of the positive things that are going on in your community but also some of the uh the sad and maybe really um really harsh truths about our community some of our communities that are when they're when they are going through uh hard times um uh grief uh losing loved ones uh and and this is what we are here for is to share what we know or how we feel or have questions about youth suicide um your story uh speaks on behalf of so many First Nation peoples in their communities north south east and west it does and I believe that there are probably uh few maybe uh First Nation communities that are successful that have been that are successful and uh I'm not sure how they how they were successful one of the communities that comes to mind for myself is uh so again in Manitoba one of the things that they've been able to do is is uh um they have a grocery store I believe and a gas station you know that's something that's really really positive and it involves uh so many of their band members you know that they that um they're sharing they're sharing that success another First Nation community here is in Ontario that comes to mind and is um Eagle Lake First Nation who are very successful uh in in very similar ways so um I guess I know that we want so much to happen um to be uh healthier to have healthier communities to have more positive communities and my my concern here is for some of our for some First Nations communities that are going through some really tragic uh sad times um I guess emotional times you know uh speaking of mind body spirit you know it's uh I'm not saying that the entire community is ill but they are going through some really harsh times when it goes when it comes to youth suicide one of the things that was discussed several years ago in in regards to one of our communities and they're trying to come to some understanding and trying to come to some answers to to to help the youth you know because it seemed like they were they were saying or they were sharing that was more like a trend uh that uh in in regards to suicide for some reason I and and they don't know that maybe it was the power of the dark side if that makes any sense you know that uh or maybe uh alcohol or um uh drugs and god knows what else you know it's or a combination of all those things and the community is suffering you know they don't they don't have the answers they want the answers and so like I said because maybe maybe with with the First Nations communities that are successful maybe there's maybe we can come to maybe we can get together with them and ask them how did they do it how do you do it you know how do you how are you able to to come together and be a happier and healthier community you know because I'm not saying that they were like that all the time but they fought for it you know they did whatever they could like maybe coming back to the traditional ways the ceremonies the language I don't know but that was that is what I wanted to uh to share and also uh I think one more thing the ripple effect when it comes to um our old ones maybe who have gone through a rough time uh who may not understand what they were going through in regards to residential school for instance you know and uh it became has almost become a norm of life so what they learn what they've gone through carries on into the next generation and so on and so on and so on so that's that to me has there's just so much um I don't know going back to the beginning how do we go back to the beginning to be able to and do that healing to be able to to to see more healthier communities you know what I mean that's what I wanted to share make much thank you very much we have to stop that repeating of itself of what happened through prayer ceremony counseling whatever help we can access so that we don't keep repeating those learned behaviors where the abnormal becomes the normal in our lives and that's you know something we have to undertake daily and as a grandma and a mother I always take it as my duty to pray for my community and my family every day that we will reach that point of being well body mind and spirit I'm a strong believer in the power of prayer thank you so much marge um and for those words um I know that uh changing those cycles and transforming is so important otherwise they just like you say keep getting transferred and um so thank you for those words and thank you we're coming to the end of our time here now but um really appreciate um elders in Kanora there who are sharing elder Tommy and elder Kathy also many others who have joined us tonight and other nights I noted that elder mime harder has also been joining us and then Solomon has been a part of us and I really appreciate their presence tonight and all of you that have shared your comments maybe there's others as well that I don't know and so thank you so much for joining us and for a challenging but very important conversation I'll turn it over to Brie and then maybe she can turn it back to Kathy for closing yeah I I don't know what to say that Kerry already hasn't articulated so well we're so very grateful um uh for you elder marge and for the elders uh in Thunder Bay and um yeah so grateful for that and uh and for this the series that and for the efforts of uh everyone who was uh who spoke and who put it together and did all that all that work and effort and for everyone who came and um yeah I'm just really grateful and thank you and yeah thank you for all everyone's work uh this is the last session in this series um yeah grateful for folks attendance there is a survey that Kerry sends out uh just so we can make better plans moving ahead and see what what really resonated with with people um so that's it yeah I'd like to invite yeah invite um uh the elder to close uh is that sorry I thought it was elder marge but uh Kerry said elder Catherine so I'm not quite sure who's closed yeah no elder marge is great thank you hello I want to acknowledge the comments made by the elders from them from the east I thank you and I hope we meet again I believe I know Yvonne Bairbow if she's the one from bird tail if you ever want to get ahold of me my cell phone is still the same so I would want to close by uh lighting the sage for a blessing for everyone everyone providing their comments is surely appreciative so I want to say a prayer of thanksgiving I acknowledge the creator and I'm going to send a sing you a thank you song after my prayer wash out my bow okay now come wash out my now we'll get it she's here to look at the car I thought we were going to kick it out because we are bowing you can't do how I want to I don't know you can't be okay if you're gonna won't give up can't be to a jeep you can't be there and we chose and he took it I was your car up there but she was just I don't know he washed it but you got to get it oh she did you each have up there and uh well enough and uh look they can uh you wash the head you so I've asked the creator to go forward with us in making this vision a reality that it will help the future generations of children that are going to come forward in the future that the vision would become reality and we thank everyone who listened everyone who has uh asked to help and contribute in some way I don't know how we can uh connect but uh Debbie knows my cell phone number and if anybody wants to get a hold of me you can do through Debbie but I want to thank you and I'm going to sing a thank you song for you in Dakota you Thank you, everybody.