Page 63 - 1st Anthology 2011

know anyone personally. I don’t know maybe the Chief and Council but me as a person I
wasn’t close. I don’t think they knew about us, we didn’t know much about them.

Spiritual leaders, there was hardly any at that time. Katie told me way back, Freddie’s
grandfather was a medicine man. When the missionaries came nobody went to him.
People went to church. So he put all his stuff away. They say he burnt it and that he went
to church. So for the longest time there was nobody. Now all of a sudden there’s a lot.
That’s not right Katie said, granny you can ask her. She doesn’t remember too much now,
but that’s what she told me, there’s too many now. That’s not right. It’s not right and
they’re not doing it right either.

Where I came from there was two, I remember there was two, that’s all. Here I gathered
seventy two pipe holders which is not right. I think there were seven that claimed to be
medicine men. So that is not right. I don’t know how they got the idea to have so many in
a tribe and granny Katie said that’s not right. She tells me to say these things at the
meetings. They might throw me out. She tells me to stand up for what is right not
everywhere. Sometimes I don’t have the courage.

We used to get rations too, there was no welfare until 1960’s. There was no welfare
Canada. Before that the Indian Agent used to live down there, they used to give out
rations every month. Food rations, I remember at home we used to get rations too.

They gave out rations there. A lot of staples, you know canned stuff and bacon and beef
chunks. I remember my favorite was Roger’s Syrup. I remember up there in Duffield. I
wasn’t here at the time when they use to give out rations. It’s the same in every reserve
they gave out rations. My favorite was Roger’s Syrup my granny use to make bannock

outside and cook bacon. Bacon grease and Roger’s Syrup. Oh that was good. I’ll never
forget that. It just stands out in my mind.

It must have been once a month here too. It stopped when I came here. That’s Katie’s
story, but I know from my reserve I experienced the rations. We use to go for rations. In
those days people didn’t have cars. They brought their wagons to get their rations. The
Indian Agent down there, remember I said the Indian Agent lived down by the mission
house. The first one to have a vehicle here was David Crowchild, mostly everyone was

travelling on wagons and on horseback.

There was no big wide road like there is today. They were mostly narrow roads, wagon
trails. Everyone travelled in wagons. The time I came here it was just a few that had
vehicles.

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