AUTOBIOGRAPHY
My life has been a journey with events leading from trapline living, getting an education, and recovering from a disability. I have been a resident of Pukatawagan all my life. I was born 1965, in The Pas, Manitoba, which was about the time "the eagle has landed" on the moon. This saying came from an astronaut when he made a perfect landing on the moon. The saying became popular for natives because a medicine man had a vision where he sees an eagle landing on the moon. During my child hood years, I spent most of my time in the trap line with Oliver Grieves and his family. His trap line is about 45 miles north of Pukatawagan where you can get there by snow machine or a comfortable ride by train for transportation through wild country.
My education started with nuns from kindergarten to grade 4 when
they were still active in Pukatawagan up to grade 4 of my education.
When I reached grade six, local control was starting within the government
system as the nuns were fast phasing out. I had to relocate to Winnipeg
because Pukatawagan did not have the resources for grades 11 and 12.
Upon graduation in 1986, I moved back to Pukatawagan where I had a number
of part time jobs until I maintained a steady income with the Northern
stores. One of my hobbies in 1998 was canoeing where the local paddlers
and I went for an expedition to Nelson House. I enjoyed competing
with the other paddlers in competitions. During the two years I competed
in paddling, I placed first in Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, The Pas and Thompson.
I moved to British Columbia where I enrolled into a training program
that was open to any first nation who was willing to further their education.
This was the best year of my life. The travels I did with my supervisor
as I accompanied him as he visited a number of karate schools he owned
along the coast of British Columbia. I saw both the Atlantic and
the Pacific Ocean while I was travelling with my supervisor. With
so much to do and so little time, I always remember the travelling, the
experiences, and the knowledge my master (also my boss) had shared with
me.
In 1993, The local hockey team known as "Puk United," received an invitation to enter a tournament in Nelson House. As we were traveling by vehicle to Nelson house, we got into an accident along the Sheridan Highway. A logging truck and our vehicle collided due to the sharp curves with no warning signs. I spent the first two months recovering in the hospital. I was on crutches for the next three years and used a cane for another two years till I was able to walk around without any help.
When I convinced myself that I wasn't going to have the same mobility I had, I decided to start training dogs so they will do the running for me. In my first entry on the local dog derby, I won the local category with a purse of $1000.00. Another reason why I started running dogs is that I enjoy going out into the lake where there is only you out there. Yes, you will meet runners that are training for the up coming winter games. I re-broke the tibia on my left leg in 1998 and during that recovery, I learned how to play the fiddle.
There are times when nothing seems to go right for me where I tell myself that it is a part of life and I will prevail!
A MEMORABLE EVENT
CARIBOU
THE BEGINNING OF DEVELOPMENT
As the equipment arrived, men worked from dawn till dusk selecting
the finest trees in the surrounding area as logs were being towed in by
canoe. While the children were playing along the shoreline, women
helped by cooking for the workers in the site while others helped by hauling
the logs up to the mill for processing because it took eight people to
keep the momentum. The logs were sometimes thirty feet long and weighing
as much as pulling a semi-truck up a hill. When the lumber was ready for
use, the people of Pukatawagan started building different levels of development
(two-storey houses, sheds, R.C. church, etc. etc.) as the lumber was purchased
at the local mill at a price of ten cents each. Fifty years has gone by
when the people of Pukatawagan used physical power for the development
of the community; with today's technology, punch in a code and technology
will do the work for you.
TREATY #6
I always wanted to know why Pukatawagan is the only settlement in
Manitoba that is under treaty 6.
My understanding is that the people of Pukatawagan had always lived
along the Churchill River system where the flow begins from Alberta and
ends at the tip of northeast Manitoba. Our ancestors had always traveled
along the river making their way up to the Rocky Mountains. Arriving
there, the people would camp along the shoreline for a couple of seasons
where some chose this side of the river as their home.The rest of the Missinippi
people would stay with the clan as they made their way back toward the
Hudson Bay.
It would take a lifetime to reach the end of the river where some families will settle with other families or through marriage where only a few will choose to keep going. It was not a matter of making it to the end of the river; this was their way of life. The people of Pukatawagan obtained their treaty from a James Roberts band in Alberta. Peter Ballantyne of Saskatchewan requested to have a reserve in their territory where it was granted along with the Pukatawagan people.
The original people of Pukatawagan requested to have a settlement in their territory because of the same reasons Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan had regarding the travels they did to acknowledge their treaty. Pukatawagan people have a dialect that is different from all of the natives in Manitoba and I believe they are the only tribe in Manitoba that is under treaty #6. Due to a government belief that boundary lines exist and the power they have, I wonder if they would allow Pukatawagan to govern their own territory.
HOW TO SNARE A RABBIT
LICHEN
