Page 7 - 1st Anthology 2011

Violet Crowchild

My name is Violet Crowchild, I come from the Tsuut’ina reserve. I was born 1918. I’ll be 91
years old in November. I grew up on the Tsuut’ina reserve my whole life. I was born in
Tsuut’ina, my mother had to go to a mid wife. They had no doctors or nurses in those
days. It was in 1918 just when the war was over. That’s when that disease went through
every tribe. I think it’s called the Spanish flu.

My mother told me stories about the Spanish flu, and by that time we had a doctor. I
forgot who was the doctor for the nation at that time. Anyway the doctor told my mom to

be very careful so you and your daughter don’t catch the influenza. The Spanish flu killed
a lot of the people.

My mother said the government did most of the damage. The disease was among the
army people. When the war was over the army gave the Indians grey blankets that the
soldiers used. The blankets were all contaminated with the flu. They didn’t even clean
them or wash them. They just gave them out to the people. That’s how the tribe got really
sick. That’s when we were wiped out. The influenza affected our people. They called it the

disease that wiped out our people.

I had a letter, I can’t find it. There was an army guy that wrote to the Indian Agent, and
the Indian Agent said you can just send them blankets I can use as much as I can. He said
well they are contaminated with the flu. Well that’s all right he said; the more blankets
you send, the more, the better. He wrote that letter, and I had it somewhere. When I was
working for the school board I lost that letter because I had three offices to go to. There
are some white children that stole from me too. So I don’t know where it went.

That’s what I was talking about in that letter, what the Indian agent wrote. It said keep
bringing the blankets. It also said we are going to get rid of the Indians. I’m so sorry I
never found it again. It must have been burned in the city garbage. In those days they
used to burn garbage around the city, but the mayor of the city put a stop to it. The
people complained about the smoke, and they don’t know what kind of chemicals are in
that smoke. They really took care of each other in the city. They never took care of the
Tsuut’ina people. Even though we are neighbors. They don’t take care of us.

They never separated until that time when they crossed that lake. A lot of them stayed on
the south and north of the border. I don’t know too much of the story. I know this, that
this woman, she had a baby on her back. That’s how they traveled them days. I traveled
like that on my mom’s back. Anyway the baby was on her back and they were crossing the
icy lake. That baby said to his mom, “mom I want that horn”. There was a horn sticking
out of the frozen lake. The baby kept bugging his mom to go down and grab that horn for

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