Page 41 - 1st Anthology 2011

Nobody ever considered him important, like he was just another man. That’s how the
white people used to think. We had our own way of government, but the people never
knew. I don’t really know that they knew how the structure worked. There was such a
thing as a structure that worked long ago.

Some of the children say there must be more land some place that is allocated to the
Tsuut’ina people that’s in the treaty, but we don’t see it. Well there is Moose Mountain.
Further than that there must be some more land. I’m not saying there is, and it would be
good to fall back on the treaty if there is more land. There would be very good decision
that Bullhead made. There was flat land, bush land and timberland, you know there’s
those three things. You can’t make too much living on the prairies. You just got that one,
maybe you have mining or something but that’s about it. Out here you have ranching,
mining, timber, and logging, all these different things we have. I’ve been in all categories
of that so I should know what I’m talking about.

We used to do a lot of logging around Bragg Creek too. Last time I went out was five or
six years ago. So many logs we cut down, and it was a messy thing, you know when it
comes down to it. If snow is covering them it’s hard to see. Some of the boys left logs out
there, and they didn’t skid out to the mill. There were nice big logs. I remember those
days. When you think of that I just feel a skip and a holler. You wish you were back in
those days. Our job was trimming and stuff like that. We would get about a good eighty
bucks, but it was a hard job. You get eighty dollars every week and you think you’re a rich
person but today you try and do that and there’s no way. Money went further long ago.

Stories about the migration from the north is basic knowledge, and my mom didn’t tell
me. I heard of it and it wasn’t one major migration. It was about three or four. I think the
reason on what really happened was because of the mountain area. The story of what I’ve
been told and what I heard is that we started from up north. At the time we came to this
big lake. It must have been early spring. They had a choice, either to go around that lake
or go right straight across the lake. So the choice was made to go across the lake. So they
went just to cut some miles. What time of the day they crossed. It must have been early in
the morning, towards noon they started. They started moving, but what happened, as
they started moving, the more people started getting on the lake, the more wear and tear
the ice started taking.

It came to a point where this woman had a child. I don’t know whether it was a boy or
girl; I don’t it wasn’t mentioned. The child was tied up to the woman on her back. She
started going out across the lake. The child, I don’t know if it was half ways or just about
to the other side. The story it doesn’t tell you exactly where. As the story goes, they said it
was a horn. What kind of horn I don’t know, either it was an elk or a deer. Whatever it
was I don’t know. The horn was sticking out of the ice, and that child was determined to
get that horn regardless if they would make it to the other side. So the woman decided to
do what the child wanted.

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