Page 69 - 1st Anthology 2011

I told Marvin and them, next time you see Mike you call him uncle. We are related to
him, but regardless an elder person you can say grandma, auntie.

You should take biographies of elders too. I’m real proud to say I’m Treaty 6 and make
people know that too. I think it would be nice. I’m going to do that on my own. For my
kids’ sake, because Duane and Randy told me to do that. I mean they asked me to do that,
a family tree.

Another thing I noticed when I came here was most everyone had guardians. Now you
don’t see anything, maybe one or two now. Most everyone had guardians, I know at

home. I’m always referring to home. We used to have wild meat, pemmican, wild berries
and dry fish.

Our reserve wasn’t close to a city. We hardly ever went to the store. So I think a lot has to
do with your diet. Indians are getting diabetes. Not just Indians those dark people,
Philippines and all those other people are more prone to diabetes than the white people.

They say studies have shown that diabetes has a lot to do with your diet. I don’t have
diabetes I don’t have anything wrong with me. Just my kidney, I got hurt years ago. That’s
how come I’m taking dialysis treatment. I think diet is a big difference; even those Navajo
Indian reservations know that and now they’re just trying to promote traditional diet to
their families. It’s hard because everyone likes MacDonald’s, Barney’s Chicken.

I think you really have to care for your health, and your children you don’t want them to
get sicknesses. So I think that’s very important like I said Canada is looking at a national
policy for children anyway. If you do it for children why not the parents. The parents have
to know. They cook for their children at home.

There was a lot of canning long ago like canning berries. Katie did that a lot and Louisa
Starlight because I used to see them canning doing that when I came here. So now I don’t
think anyone does that, because of the freezer. You put everything in the freezer. What I

miss is pemmican, dry meat and all that. Deanna was talking to the groups of children she
teaches how to do hides. We knew at home we didn’t have to go to a group to learn that
and we just learned from our mothers and grandmother. They taught us, and we’d help
do it. So now I know the process; you know the steps on how to do it. Nobody does that
anymore, it’s a lot of hard work.

My father was a hunter not just him but more of them from the reserve. When you kill an
animal, a wild animal you have to be really careful with the blood. You don’t just drip the

blood in the pathway of a woman. She may walk over the blood. If a woman walks over
the blood during menstruation, the Stoney say the meat will become contaminated. So

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