. . . And They Told Us Their Stories

Funk, Jack and Lobe, Gordon. “. . . And They Told Us Their Stories”. Saskatoon: Saskatoon District Tribal Council, 1991. (Reprint of 2008)

“Slowly the Indian people began to realize the life that they had known as mighty warriors and great hunters was at an end. Gradually they began to change. Grudgingly, they began to accept the Whiteman's food, their tools, their clothes, their government, their Christian god and from necessity, they learned their language. Soon the Whiteman's institutions of justice, learning, politics and social security dominated the Indian people. The Department of Indian Affairs and the Indian Act was now their way of life ( p. xi).”

How often have you and I wished we had asked for and written down the stories of our parents and grandparents after the time to do so had passed? We seem always to leave it too long. In . . . And They Told Us Their Stories, we have a collection of reminiscences by various Aboriginal people of the way it used to be, a collection that is invaluable because the editors--Jack Funk and Gordon Lobe--and contributors Shirley Bear, George Sutherland, Carol Lafond, Florence Machiskinic, Marina Smokeday, Christine Baldhead, Peter PeeAce, Gordon Royal and Leona Daniels did not “leave it too late.” Such collections are to be treasured.

The bulk of the stories are collected from the Mistawasis and Muskeg Reserves near Leask, Saskatchewan, with some additional stories from other reserves. What they have in common is their homespun style, a style that does, in writing, what it can to convey the orally delivered memory.

What the reader is likely to take away from . . . And They Told Us Their Stories is a sense that settlement of Saskatchewan was achieved by the creation of pseudo “refugee camps in perpetuity,” that those who gave up freedom of movement, culture, language, food and religion were shamelessly shortchanged by the treaty bargain. As Indians resigned themselves to a sedentary, agricultural life (at which many of them did very well, thank you), the noose around them was drawn ever tighter. Signed passes in order to leave the reserve; permits in order to sell wood, cattle or grain; limits on trade and so on enforced, partly (or mainly) to suppress competition with settlers. Urged to make their way by agricultural enterprise, their best efforts were repeatedly stymied by restrictions that made success almost impossible.

Informants for this book shared memories of the residential school system. For some, the experience was positive: they learned to play hockey, girls learned domestic skills, boys learned to make things with wood and some of the residential school students recall teachers that were kind, generous and whom they recall with fondness to this day. Others weren’t so lucky. Beatings and humiliation as discipline ran rampant for some, running away in an attempt to escape the abuse resulted in boys being beaten in front of peers and girls having their heads shaved (p. 59). All agree that it was a paternalistic system that sought to separate them from their families, their language, their culture and their spiritual roots.  

“. . . we stood at attention beside our desks and sang O Canada. The first class was religion. In this class, we were told that the Indians were savages, that our parents were smart because they had sent us to this school and that we owed our good fortune to God and country (p.65, Harold Greyeyes as told to Jack Funk regarding Duck Lake Residential School).”

Arthur Dreaver of Muskeg Lake Reserve witnesses to another galling injustice. After serving in the Canadian military after WW 1, he expected that the veterans’ land grant would apply to him as to other returning veterans. “I wanted some land from the VLA like the white veterans got. We sure got ripped off in that deal. We were given land on our own reserve, I mean land that was already ours,” Dreaver says in an interview with Shirley Bear. (p.118)

There is no new information in . . . And They Told Us Their Stories; the residential school experience has been aired in excruciating and personal detail through the ongoing Truth and Reconciliation process. Chapter 7 of Roger Epp’s We Are All Treaty People, Vine Deloria, Jr.’s Red Earth, White Lies or Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian (see http://readwit.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-inconvenient-indian-thomas-king.html) are among many sources that can give the reader a firmer grasp of land/entitlement/surrender issues. What . . . And They Told Us Their Stories adds to the library, however, are the voices of those who recall and speak—without academic or literary pretentions—what they lived and saw.

The Book contains a foreword by Chief Harry Lafond, whom you will hear (among others) speaking about the basics of  treaty in Saskatchewan by clicking here and scrolling down to the video (13 minutes) called We are all Treaty People. Exploring the website generally of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner will also be enlightening and a good backdrop to the reading of . . . And They Told Us Their Stories. You can also find the book for purchase at this last website.