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 I
Never Felt Poor
Emma Jane
Crate is a citizen of Pimicikamak Cree Nation at Cross Lake
and the daughter of Silas Ross and Marie Louise Ross. Her
Cree names are Kapapuk Iskwew (Butterfly Woman), Wapikwanee
Iskwew (Flower Woman), Neepinochikwesew Iskwew (Summer Old
Lady) and Weetikookan (Contraire). At age 54 she is still
learning what all of those names mean for her life. Like a
butterfly she has pollinated many minds over her 33 years
as a teacher and education administrator. Air is her element
and because she's a Contraire it comes from the North and
she never knows where it will take her. Emma Jane was named
an elder many years ago yet she still has to work to earn
respect in that position. Emma Jane has two daughters and
five grandchildren.
I have
a perfect story for you. One time at church this old lady
got up - Evelyn. She's gone now. And she said, "You know,
in my younger days when I was raising my family - my husband
and I - when my cupboards were starting to get empty all I
would say to my husband is, 'Look the cupboards are starting
to get empty.' And off he'd go to the trap-line or hunting.
I never felt poor in those days. My husband would go
hunting and my cupboards would be full again. My children
would be happy. They'd grow up strong because they had real
food that was not contaminated by the flooding."
Evelyn said, "I
never felt poor. It's only when I started living on welfare
and collecting old age pension, that's when I felt poor.
Because of the money." You see, you didn't really need
that much money to go out hunting and provide food for your
family. But now you need money to provide food for
your family. And with the lack of jobs, limited welfare,
limited old age pensions…that's when she felt poor.
It was to me amazing. It really touched my heart when I
heard her say that. I thought to myself, you're absolutely
right.
 Before
the white man came, our people bartered. They didn't use
money. They exchanged. For example corn for moose meat.
Our people used to go down south to get corn to make flour
out of maize. And they would take their furs to trade. A
long time ago our people were all over the north here.
This is our territory. Today we're not getting the benefit
of our territory even though it's rich.
It started in the
1930s that the province was planning to build dams. In 1976
they built the Jenpeg dam, just 15 miles from us. They never
consulted us. The dam destroyed our elders. It broke their
hearts to see the land that they used to love destroyed
like that. Seeing their sons not being able to make a decent
living off the land. And their grandchildren suffering,
having to eat canned foods. The way our land used to be
a long time ago, it was rich. For example I learned to
count up to a thousand when I was a little girl because
my dad killed a thousand rats [muskrats.] I remember beaver
pelts stacked up higher than me, that's how good the trapping
economy was here a long time ago. But that's destroyed now.
That's why my parents insisted that we all go to school.
My dad sat me on his lap when I was getting ready to go
to residential school and said to me in Cree, "You've
got to go out and learn all that the white man knows and
where he came from and why he's here so you can defeat him
at his own game." My mom was beside us agreeing while
she packed my suitcase.
Manitoba Hydro,
Canada, and the province of Manitoba destroyed our economy.
One of our elders who was also a veteran gave an example.
He was good at giving real concrete examples of how our
life was being destroyed. Sandy Beardy said: "It
was just like they came to my table that was full of wild
food and fish from Mother Nature. It's just like they came
into my house and they saw this beautiful spread of food,
my children sitting around and my wife having cooked it.
It's as if they came in there with a big slop pail and just
dumped it on the table and ruined the food. No wonder
our people are sick now."
My elders taught
me about the woman's role as keepers of water. Life is water;
water is life. When a woman is pregnant, the baby is in
water. And that's why women sit in the west in the four
directions, because water is represented by the west. The
thunder, the rain, comes from the west, to clean up Mother
Earth and refresh our lakes and everything. Our land, the
plants, everything. Women have that sacred responsibility
as keepers of the water. And that's why the women are
much more powerful because they're responsible for the water.
And water takes care of everything.
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Today
the water's dirty. When we drink tea or a baby drinks
milk mixed with water, it's contaminated water. It damages
the health of the people and therefore the chance of
making a real strong life for yourself. It impacts everything,
you know. Everything. Even the children when they want
to go swimming in the summer time. It's dirty water.
They come out of there with scabs because of the contaminated
water. Our fish are polluted with mercury because of
the land being destroyed and the trees falling into
the lake and so it's not able to hold back the mercury
that's naturally there. I even lost my own brother because
of him and his friends hitting a submerged log that
fell in the lake because of the eroding shoreline caused
by the dam. |
As long as I live
I'm not going to forget that our rights have not been
recognized. I'm teaching my grandchildren their rights
too and my daughters. When we sit around the table with
our low-quality food, we still talk. Because they have to
carry on the work. I'm so tired but it's something that
is in your head and in your heart all the time because you
see the suffering of my people.
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