8/14/2019 Canadian Indians' Dichotomy of Cultural Preservation and Substance Abuse Issues

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CanadianIndiansDichotomyofCultural

Preservation,andSubstanceAbuseIssues

ByRexA.Crouch

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Before a recent road trip across Canada with a prolonged stay in the Yukon I had a preconceivednotion of the Canadian First Nations. First Nations is a Canadian politically correct term

developed in the 1980s to mean Indian Bands, and does not include the Inuit, nor Mtis as they

are different in culture, region, and linguistics. Another variation between the Indians of theUnited States, and Canada is that First Nations are formed in clans whereas in the United StatesIndians are formed in tribes. This preconceived notion I had of the First Nations was one of a

noble and proud people still practicing their ancient cultures and possibly melding their cultureswith those of the 21st century. Traveling traditional tourist routes in Canada may not expose you

to the ancient cultural practices of the First Nations, nor the endemic social, and substance abuseissues they endureleaving the beaten the path is a requirement.

Finding Indians publically inebriated, open meth addicts, users of other hard drugs, and Indiansparticipating in street gangs was the last thing I expected to find from the First Nations. While

older Indians seemed predisposed to using alcohol, younger Indians were found using narcotics

as well as alcohol. The village of Ross River, Yukon was a tiny forgotten town, nearly a half daydrive from anywhere. Ross River began as a trading post, and with the completion of thehighway being a gravel road most people left, and the remaining population was predominately

Indian. The village now consists of some small houses, trailers, a convenience store, gas station,and a restaurant/hotel with supplies trucked in daily. Other than nebulous mining opportunities,

there was little work to be found in the general area. Looking around the town I found that manypeople had a bottle in hand. I pondered how a group of people with no apparent income could

afford to stay drunk, and queried where they bought their booze as there wasnt a liquor storearound. This wasnt the right question to ask, and garnered hateful stares. I later learned that their

alcohol was a black market product, and there were no legal sales in town. In Dawson City I meta lady who was the first public school teacher in Ross River. She speculated that most children

she taught were now dead. She further explained that drunken knife fights are common, but notas common as a person passing out from excessive drinking in the cold. In a land where the

winter temperatures dip down to -40 degrees Celsius, passing out drunk results in death. Shefurther explained that illiteracy was common when she first arrived in Ross River, and without a

teacher it was most likely that the vast majority was still illiterate. Farther south in Whitehorse Ifound a drunk Indian man in the Canadian Super Store taking a nap on one of the patio furniture

displays. A short while later I saw a Canadian Mounted Police officer taking the Indian out of thestore. Leaving the store I found some First Nations gangbangers in the parking lot selling drugs.

One young girl with them, maybe 17 or 18 years old was complaining bitterly that her motherhad tossed her in the drunk tank for two whole days. I couldnt remember when I last heard the

term drunk tank and it wasnt said by a little girl.

I really wondered where my preconceived notions came from, and why the First Nations that Ihad been presented thus far had degenerated into what I was observing.

Leaving this area I went to Carcross, Yukon, and began camping. A short while later I wasgreeted by an angry Indian who brought his Director of Cultural Heritage with him. As it turns

out I was camping on ancient healing grounds, and the land where I was camping was in theprocess of being turned over to the Carcross Clan who had demonstrated the land to have ancient

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cultural artifacts. The Director of Cultural Heritage is a person, typically a white person, hired bythe clan to represent the clan to the local government, and write grants for the clan. After I made

it clear that no disrespect was intended, that I was leaving, but didnt understand why theirapproach was so aggressive and hostile, some dialog began. I learned of racial tensions between

First Nations, and white people in the area. As it was explained to me, a lot goes back to early

mining and lumber industries, and how white people once treated Indians. This Indians namewas Willy. He now understood that I brought a certain level of respect for the First Nations, andbecame more open in his dialog, and the Director of Cultural Heritage departed the area. Willy

provided a tour and showed me where sweat huts had once been built for healing rituals. Heexplained how pains are removed during the ceremony, and are bound to a tree in the middle of

the sweat hut and how the circle is closed with willows. After seeing a healing circle I could seethem everywherethey are obvious when you know what you are looking at. After spending a

couple of hours with Willy I felt comfortable enough to explain to him that what he was showingme, was what I had expected to find in the First Nations, and asked him about the alcohol and

drug abuse I had been observing. He explained to me that members of the First Nations receivecompensations, and grants from the Canadian government, and that some use the money like

him, to protect culturally important land, and others have turned to drugs. He blamed the use ofdrugs on white people, and specifically mining companies for bringing the diversity, as well as

the drugs and alcohol with them making the abuse possible. In vacillation to some extent, Ibelieve that people are responsible for their own actions, and doubt that white people or mining

companies forced any Indian to use drugs. As he was taking the time to share a side of the story Ihad not been exposed to yet, I diligently kept my opinions to myself. Not all Indians had

succumb to alcohol or drug abuse; there were still many who believed in their traditional ways oflife, and they were still farther from the beaten path than most travelers see. Although he had a

reason why Indians had become substance abusers he did not have any clear idea of how toresolve the problem, and thought of it as embarrassing as a whole for the First Nations. He

explained that most of his friends are illiterate, but he had shown then how to establish hardrockmining claims on their land which helped them protect their land from development. This

required a yearly renewal, but they merely had to copy the documents from the previous year,and this provided protection under the Canadian legal system. While I had suspected that the

cultures had blended, I was impressed with how they were using of the Canadian mining laws toprotect lands they found important. He showed me where a white person had came-in once and

began chopping down trees for a lumber company until they had him stopped. In anotherlocation adjacent to the First Nations properties he showed me where whites wanted to build a

fence that would cut through animal paths used by caribou and bears, and further explained howthis fence would disrupt a wildlife corridor. In yet another location a miner tore through healing

circles with a bulldozer. For those Indians concerned for the land, and its cultural meanings, itwas easy to see how there could be contempt for white people. Learning a lot this day, I left the

Carcross Clan land as promised, and moved about 40 miles west into an ancient volcanic calderaadjacent to a mining camp where I met other Indians; not only indigenous to the immediate area

but as from as far away as the Swampy Cree Clan from Saskatchewan.

Some there believed that drug and alcohol use was brought by the white men, others believed in personal responsibility, all concurred that the compensation and grant payments from the

government facilitated the abuse. There were mixed emotions on protecting culturally sacredplaces because, as it was explained to me, given the wording of the laws, with little effort, but

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enough time, an Indian can claim almost anything as sacred, and could get it designated assuchWilly had explained the same thing to me but from his perspective.

I returned to Whitehorse and asked real estate agents to government officials from various

offices about this social undercurrent I was experiencing between whites and Indians. When

asked, there was always a troubled look on their faces, as if they are groping for a correctanswer. This seemed to be a taboo subject for them, and the best of answers was- Well, the FirstNations have different opinions.

If drug and alcohol abuse is tied to compensations wherein there is no requirement to work, a lot

of idol time, and money to spend, then where is the compensation coming from. The more Iheard about the compensations, the more I thought that Canada must have a Ministry of Were

Sorry.

In Canada, treaty negotiations with Indians began in the 1870s. The first treaties were intended to

eliminate the Indians rights to land, and provide them compensation. Compensation will become

factor in most treaties thereafter. Initially, Indians were passive in the treaties being produced,and the idea of one person owning the land was as foreign a concept to them as nobody owningland today. As Indians learned that the treaties were not benevolent, causing them to move, and

become segregated, Indians began playing an active role in treaty negotiations. Indians beganpushing for subjects to be addressed that the government was not prepared to discuss, but the

Indians were attempting to protect the lands they used, and their culture.

Treaties are not perfect. Unscrupulous people on both sides were possibly involved at variouslevels, but despite their flaws, treaties were better than nothing. Throughout history societies

were conquered, and there was no room for cultural preservation, or thought of human rights asRoman soldiers or Conquistadors took what they wanted, and razed the rest. The attempts to

employ treaties have been an effort to humanely integrate cultures, but the compensation in thetreaties is possibly being abused.

As an example, the Lac Seul First Nation has recently been offered 11 million dollars from the

Canadian federal government for having flooded their land 75 years ago. Another 12.6 milliondollar is offered to them from Ontario Power Generation with an additional 1 million dollars

over 10 years for scholarships. This compensation of 24.6 million dollars is offered to a Clan of2,710 people, most of which were born after the flood not knowing they were victims, yet they

claim this amount is not enough. How much is enough? Can compensation ever undo what thewhite settlers did to the Indians? The answer is emphatically no but at some point we all have

to move on and use the mistakes of our forefathers to become better people today. The FirstNations who are receiving compensations and/or grants should reconsider their operations, stop

the handouts, and develop a hands-up method of ensuring Indians have an education, andemployment opportunities while working on cultural preservation, and possibly use ancienthealing grounds for alcohol and drug rehabilitation. To see these ancient healing grounds used to

benefit and educate todays society Indians would make the preservation efforts worthwhile.